Posts
Following on from my previous post re "shit happens ...", owing to the money collected from the benefit, and a top up from my studio partner we have another VS1880 (which saves having to learn new stuff), and I'm getting a second hand laptop soon, so we're back at the Barleycorn as well as being able to record bands live again.
Almost up to speed re the gear stolen (also bought a car) fortunately it's a buyers market ATM, but altogether a hefty dent to the finances.
Anyways ... life goes on ... and it's not looking too bad :)
I'll try to start putting music up here again soon ... 'till then.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Shit happens but life goes on.
Yep, again there's a long pause between blogs, I guess that's just the way it is.
Anyways, this isn't really a musical entry, just a note to myself and any who read this that a few weeks ago I was robbed at gunpoint of my car, recording gear (Roland VS1880 / IBM T43 Laptop) plus mics, leads etc. wallet (R120.00) and cellphone (contacts backed up to laptop :( ), but I didn't get a scratch other than going through the emotions, so as the title says - Shit happens but life goes on.
This happened on my way to recording the Barleycorn Sessions a folksy kinda get together every Monday evening round the corner from where I live.
These guys are amazing, they really appreciated what we were doing (recording the seperate tracks for a remix if wanted and a live mp3 for the artists) so they held a benefit gig to help recoup some of our losses... wow I've never had a benefit gig before and was really touched, about R3000 was raised which won't cover much but was a really sweet thought.
Anyways I'm back to researching what's out there that can record about 8tracks at once, so far the pick of the current bunch seems to be the Yamaha AW1600, and perhaps a netbook for the mp3's.
Will get back one day to let any who read this know how things worked out, any suggestions would be really appreciated.
'till next time .....
Anyways, this isn't really a musical entry, just a note to myself and any who read this that a few weeks ago I was robbed at gunpoint of my car, recording gear (Roland VS1880 / IBM T43 Laptop) plus mics, leads etc. wallet (R120.00) and cellphone (contacts backed up to laptop :( ), but I didn't get a scratch other than going through the emotions, so as the title says - Shit happens but life goes on.
This happened on my way to recording the Barleycorn Sessions a folksy kinda get together every Monday evening round the corner from where I live.
These guys are amazing, they really appreciated what we were doing (recording the seperate tracks for a remix if wanted and a live mp3 for the artists) so they held a benefit gig to help recoup some of our losses... wow I've never had a benefit gig before and was really touched, about R3000 was raised which won't cover much but was a really sweet thought.
Anyways I'm back to researching what's out there that can record about 8tracks at once, so far the pick of the current bunch seems to be the Yamaha AW1600, and perhaps a netbook for the mp3's.
Will get back one day to let any who read this know how things worked out, any suggestions would be really appreciated.
'till next time .....
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
oct 08 67 2
Recently I was looking at one of the other music collaboration sites, I've explored
kompoz.com, they do have a better gadget to share your music with, it's still not ideal but here it is.
Notice that the title of this tune is a date, the originator of this tune "themeeksheep" is way prolific and has a bunch of tunes on kompoz just waiting to be finished off with a few takers here and there so I have my doubts that this will see much more action but IMO it's a nice groove and I had fun playing guitar all over it. (click on the gadget to go to the project page, from there you should find my guitar mix... I did say it wasn't yet ideal (for me - yet) )
kompoz.com, they do have a better gadget to share your music with, it's still not ideal but here it is.
Notice that the title of this tune is a date, the originator of this tune "themeeksheep" is way prolific and has a bunch of tunes on kompoz just waiting to be finished off with a few takers here and there so I have my doubts that this will see much more action but IMO it's a nice groove and I had fun playing guitar all over it. (click on the gadget to go to the project page, from there you should find my guitar mix... I did say it wasn't yet ideal (for me - yet) )
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Do it
OK, this is a new song, rather nice, but what is stumping me is that I cant seem to embed/include the rss from other sites into the body of this blog ... WTF.
Adding the whole page is clumsy, there's got to be an easier way.
I eventually found Google Gadgets...
http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/
which allows you to add gadgets to your web site, they don't show in preview of blogger being script based but then blogger and google know about each other so maybe thats why ... anyways after much anguish on my part it works..... so.
New song, new mission, lets see what happens.
Adding the whole page is clumsy, there's got to be an easier way.
I eventually found Google Gadgets...
http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/
which allows you to add gadgets to your web site, they don't show in preview of blogger being script based but then blogger and google know about each other so maybe thats why ... anyways after much anguish on my part it works..... so.
New song, new mission, lets see what happens.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
For You
Mid Feb and my first post of the year ... very slack ... but I have an excuse and a plan,
I've been pretty busy collaborating on indaba.com but they don't yet have a widget that I can plant here.
If anyone could let me know how to embed RSS into here I would be grateful for that to, but until then I just figure I will iframe the whole page if that works ... so ....
Recently one of the collaborations I was working on finished (was "published") so here it is
My first published indaba tune ... hope you enjoy it.
I've been pretty busy collaborating on indaba.com but they don't yet have a widget that I can plant here.
If anyone could let me know how to embed RSS into here I would be grateful for that to, but until then I just figure I will iframe the whole page if that works ... so ....
Recently one of the collaborations I was working on finished (was "published") so here it is
My first published indaba tune ... hope you enjoy it.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Last tunes for the year
Hi again,
Please click here to listen to tunes.
This is probably my last post for the year, been quite productive even if this blog does not really reflect it ... other than by its absence of entries.
Anyways I'm quite impressed with reverbnations management tools, so I've created my own hhh profile
The couple of songs in there to get it going were recorded mostly just to have fun and learn some tools at the studio - hence Gello.
Gello Studios
Elliot doing most of the sequencing and keys, John doing vox, his son Matt on lead guitar, myself on bass and rhythm and Matts Gfriend doing fem vox.
Please click here to listen to tunes.
This is probably my last post for the year, been quite productive even if this blog does not really reflect it ... other than by its absence of entries.
Anyways I'm quite impressed with reverbnations management tools, so I've created my own hhh profile
The couple of songs in there to get it going were recorded mostly just to have fun and learn some tools at the studio - hence Gello.
Gello Studios
Elliot doing most of the sequencing and keys, John doing vox, his son Matt on lead guitar, myself on bass and rhythm and Matts Gfriend doing fem vox.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Online Music Collaborations
Hey again,
Just an update, I've been looking at doing collaborative stuff over the internet recently, and it's quite exciting what's out there at the moment. Here are a few I've found :
Indabamusic:
This is kinda close to my heart as indaba means "discuss" in ndebele/zulu so it has a african feel to it right away ... I mean this in a good way :) ... anyways it seems more geared toward remixing ... several competitions with Name artists 3eb, K-OS, etc. but regular musos are very welcome ... I've seen Vernon Ried, (from Living Color ... one of my favourite bands) wicked!
Anyways here's my profile
http://www.indabamusic.com/people/714866974
Basically you have what are called sessions, you can preview whatever the owner feels is a good example of the song, if you like it and are signed up you can then download whatever is available to work on, bring that into your own DAW (Digital Audio Workstation ... Cubase Reaper GarageBand Pro-Tools etc.) and submit an audition, once accepted the rest of the tracks / mixes are then unlocked for you to contribute further.
There is a limit on how much you can download per month (this is very african) you can pay for more.
It also has a shout box to allow members of the session to communicate nicely.
Kompoz
This site took me a little longer to figure out, also a very vibrant community, also running remix competitions (eg. Rudy Sarzo - Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourn)
It has quite a bit more AJAX (web2 technology) which IMO is a double edged sword, anyways they have various projects which again you can preview, but once you're logged in you can download any available track (ie - no audition) to start with it's best to get the lot as they are zipped together along with license notes (Creative Commons).
Once you are in the detail of a project you can preview any of the tracks uploaded so far, and for each track there is a play, download and comment count, there is also a recent activity box and a forum dealing with the project.
Again you're expected to do your own thing with the track on your own DAW but there is a sync track they recommend you use to keep things together ... seems to work nicely except that they use a sine wave, I've since made my own (version1..0) using a square wave pulsing A440 @120BPM, this should [being square] match up much easier.
http://www.backstage.co.za/gareth/data/blog/sync-01.mp3
One other nice thing is that they've incorporated google maps so you can see where the other members are from.
Anyways here's my profile:http://www.kompoz.com/compose-collaborate/profile.member?memberId=7895
Riffworld
This was the first collaboration tool I looked at, but then I was searching for collaborative music software as opposed to a site, so this is a 98MB download before you get started, the T4 is free, but they >>really<< want you to buy the full version, it's tied in somehow with the Line6 POD, which I don't have, but it does give an indication of quality.
Anyways, first you download the software (PC or Mac ) and register on the site ( I'm at http://www.riffworld.com/Members/hiphophippie) then fire it up. Basically it's a simplish DAW that works around phrases, (riffcasts) as these are short and centrally stored in it's own format it can be near realtime with your riffcast appearing to all logged into that session pretty soon, this (riffcast) can then be looped, mixed whatever with results being available to all quite quickly.
This does however have a SERIOUS BUG unfortunately, in that you can't save the raw data, you can export the mix, but the riffs are kept online. (as far as I can work out)
On all the sites the folks are friendly (so far), encouraging and range in style and competency so you can find your own level and learn from all around.
Creative Commons seems to be the license of choice when there's one to choose.
Just an update, I've been looking at doing collaborative stuff over the internet recently, and it's quite exciting what's out there at the moment. Here are a few I've found :
Indabamusic:
This is kinda close to my heart as indaba means "discuss" in ndebele/zulu so it has a african feel to it right away ... I mean this in a good way :) ... anyways it seems more geared toward remixing ... several competitions with Name artists 3eb, K-OS, etc. but regular musos are very welcome ... I've seen Vernon Ried, (from Living Color ... one of my favourite bands) wicked!
Anyways here's my profile
http://www.indabamusic.com/people/714866974
Basically you have what are called sessions, you can preview whatever the owner feels is a good example of the song, if you like it and are signed up you can then download whatever is available to work on, bring that into your own DAW (Digital Audio Workstation ... Cubase Reaper GarageBand Pro-Tools etc.) and submit an audition, once accepted the rest of the tracks / mixes are then unlocked for you to contribute further.
There is a limit on how much you can download per month (this is very african) you can pay for more.
It also has a shout box to allow members of the session to communicate nicely.
Kompoz
This site took me a little longer to figure out, also a very vibrant community, also running remix competitions (eg. Rudy Sarzo - Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourn)
It has quite a bit more AJAX (web2 technology) which IMO is a double edged sword, anyways they have various projects which again you can preview, but once you're logged in you can download any available track (ie - no audition) to start with it's best to get the lot as they are zipped together along with license notes (Creative Commons).
Once you are in the detail of a project you can preview any of the tracks uploaded so far, and for each track there is a play, download and comment count, there is also a recent activity box and a forum dealing with the project.
Again you're expected to do your own thing with the track on your own DAW but there is a sync track they recommend you use to keep things together ... seems to work nicely except that they use a sine wave, I've since made my own (version1..0) using a square wave pulsing A440 @120BPM, this should [being square] match up much easier.
http://www.backstage.co.za/gareth/data/blog/sync-01.mp3
One other nice thing is that they've incorporated google maps so you can see where the other members are from.
Anyways here's my profile:http://www.kompoz.com/compose-collaborate/profile.member?memberId=7895
Riffworld
This was the first collaboration tool I looked at, but then I was searching for collaborative music software as opposed to a site, so this is a 98MB download before you get started, the T4 is free, but they >>really<< want you to buy the full version, it's tied in somehow with the Line6 POD, which I don't have, but it does give an indication of quality.
Anyways, first you download the software (PC or Mac ) and register on the site ( I'm at http://www.riffworld.com/Members/hiphophippie) then fire it up. Basically it's a simplish DAW that works around phrases, (riffcasts) as these are short and centrally stored in it's own format it can be near realtime with your riffcast appearing to all logged into that session pretty soon, this (riffcast) can then be looped, mixed whatever with results being available to all quite quickly.
This does however have a SERIOUS BUG unfortunately, in that you can't save the raw data, you can export the mix, but the riffs are kept online. (as far as I can work out)
On all the sites the folks are friendly (so far), encouraging and range in style and competency so you can find your own level and learn from all around.
Creative Commons seems to be the license of choice when there's one to choose.
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