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.

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.

quirky

Ok, hello hi again,
Tho' this blog has been quiet I have been a little busy ...
I've moved house, tho I'm still in Cape Town South Africa ... which has had it's own power/political etc... crisies and drama, thogh we live to tell the tail.
Anyways, since I started this blog my brother in law and a buddy heard some of the stuff, so we decided to record it and see where it goes, Ive been looking around for how to host stuff, so this is more or less a test to check out how it embeds from reverbnation.com.







I will be adding more tunes and see how that goes ... who knows perhaps thois space will become busy again. :)

Explosion in Am7

Dear Diary, this has been quite a hectic month so ....

Anyways, I met this nice chap Arjun on the SA Guitar Forum, he doesn't live too far away, we're both free during the day, so we had a jam.
This isn't a sketch as much as a snippet of the stuff we were doing.

Explosion in Am7
This is a wma file Am7 Dm7 at 95bpm
Arjun playing rhythm and lead guitars, myself bass, Reason3 (Dr Rex) drums.

Here's the forum's thread.

I'll let the tune talk for me, and just say we had some fun, he really liked the tone of the GT-Pro and I got off on his playing ability.

There will hopefully be another tune another time ... watch this space ...

lil loop

On http://www.guitarforum.co.za they are running a little competition for a theme tune and yesterday Sepheritoh came up with a cool idea around the South Africa Guitar Forum.

So building on this I spent a loopy afternoon recycling a drum loop to 110bpm.
Then a clean dry bass line, it will be nice if someone uses this, it's played a bit off the beat but is split on the beat so it can be worked easily.
Then lastly the sketch.

If you're interested the posting is here.

Bettina

Ok, here's an oldish one (circa '94) called Bettina, it's pretty much a bass solo at the moment and started out as a tapping exercise, tho' it did come up as an intro for a tune called "Vibe" from one of my previous bands, so anything is possible.

For now I just did a quick take from memory... and then found that the tabbed version is not quite the same... but anyways...As with most of the stuff on this blog it's the ideas that count, polish can happen later if there's interest.

After my last attempt at formatting, the TAB it's now a plain text file, this can be opened with any word processor.
Bettina.tab

For the samplers out there this is a clean chorused bass at 120bpm.
Bettina.mp3

Lastly I've included the GT-Pro patch I used for this tune, after my last blog this now includes the loudness patch (FM curve) on FX1 which is set to off as default.
I use a Behringer FCB1010 midi foot pedal to change patches and such. For simplicitys' sake I currently use it on it's default V-Amp setting (1+6), if you have one of these also then rocking Expression Pedal A will bring up a dirtier/dryer tone with a Wha on Expression Pedal B.
Bettina.gtl

GT-Pro Setup and patches

Just recently I got a Boss GT-Pro fx-rack to work with which is what I'm using ATM to record (via USB) my sketches.
This is unit has some great guitar sounds but not much for a bassist, it is however very configurable if a little noisy.
This page has some good advice which now makes the GT-Pro much quieter.

I was going to include a couple of my bass patches but after reading about the Fletcher Munson curve (the difference in tone at different volumes) originally here for the line6 pod and then here for the GT-Pro.

Basically the frequencies are :

Low cut filter 55hz
Low Eq +12
Low Mid Eq Center 4khz, Q8, -4
High Mid Eq Center 8khz, Q16, +8
High Eq +12
High Cut Filter 11khz

This has given me pause to revisit my patches so I will post them at another time.

A bit with a Bass

Right Oh,
After doing the A Study thing, I decided to try a bass line for it, so here it is complete with the drumbeat that I used for a metronome.

A Study with bass


If you would like the bass tab or solo'd mp3 leave a comment.

A study

Ok, to kick things off here is a kinda study in A major.

Right click here to download.

For anyone wanting to use the sample it's a clean(ish) guitar at 100 bpm.

For guitarists here's the TAB, once you get the idea, feel free to play around your own self. I find using a half barre (chord) most of the time make it easier.

Phrase 1
E||------------------------|----------------------|------------------------|
B||--10----10----9----9----|--7----7----9----9----|--10----10----9----9----|
G||---9-----9----9----9----|--7----7----9----9----|---9-----9----9----9----|
D||--11----11----9----9----|--7----7----9----9----|--11----11----9----9----|
A||---0--------------------|--0-------------------|---0--------------------|
E||------------------------|----------------------|------------------------|

E Change A Change
---------------------|----------------4----|----------------5----|
--7----7----5--------|--5-------------5----|--5-------------5----|
--7----7----6--------|--4-------------4----|--6-------------6----|
--7----7----7--------|--6------------------|--7------------------|
--0------------------|-----------7---------|--0--------0---------|
---------------------|--0------------------|---------------------|

Phrase 2 Nice Open Chord
----------------------|-----------------------|--------------0-----------|
--2---------3----5----|-------5----3--3--2----|-----------3-----3--------|
--2---------2----4----|-------4----2--2--2----|--------0-----------0-----|
--2---------4----6----|-------6----4--4--2----|-----4-----------------4--|
--0----0--------------|--0--------------------|--0-----------------------|
----------------------|-----------------------|--------------------------|

A to End
--------------------------|--5----------------||
-----------2--3--5--3--2--|--2----------------||
--------2-----------------|--2----------------||
-----2--------------------|-------------------||
--0-----------------------|--0----------------||
--------------------------|-------------------||

A bit about

This blog is an experiment on a number of levels.

I am a bassist based in Cape Town South Africa, I recorded with a couple of bands in the mid '90s.
A few older mp3s.


My main instrument is an Ibanez Musician/Roadster which is a four string bass with 24 frets, and passive pickups but active electronics and so can be played either way. I mostly play passive but find the active useful if the sound dudes is having trouble.

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This blog, TABs mixes etc. are, unless otherwise mentioned, licensed under Creative Commons SA. which means that you may use them in anyway you like, but you must credit its origins, ie you put a link to your site in the mp3 comment field and on your site you place a link to this page. I think that’s how it works. It is also share alike so others can do the same with your work based or borrowed from this.

Please If i have misinterpreted or left something out post a comment, but if nothing else the above should state the intent.

Also should you want higher quality samples, other mixes, or something else similar to what is here, by all means ask.