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fake pond… real frogs.

mark is sending me the FINAL for Kansas tonight. he has put the final touches on the mix and it is perfect.

friday we will mix “missing the heart.”

“it’s you” – is basically done – so we can easily mix it next week – probably FRIDAY again. debating on whether or not to post any audio snips of this one – it just works as a whole song but in parts it might be bizarre – i want to deliver this full on or none. so, it’s wait and then full on – no peep show on this one. see, each little creation is different. so there’s no formula for any of this – if i ever get a formula i’ll quit and just go watch tv.

i’m going to open up “Wheels” tonight and get it going – that’s the next tune – straight ahead rocker – there’s a lot of it on my dictophone that may be the whole song – you should be hearing a clip from this before the week’s out.

til sooner rather than later,
-rob

last night we recorded the guitar solo for KANSAS. i am loving the way it sounds – it soars and then at the end it’s crash and burn – what i played right there at the end makes no sense anyway – it’s fitting that the amp says – huh?

we used a bunch of stuff to get the sound right including my ‘74 Marshall SL spec 6 KNOBS ON 10, a phase shifter that my buddy PLEXIFIED gave me – a Boss Phaser a green PH-1R – lots of control and we used it in a subtle way – we didn’t want “phase-city” just some color. PLEXIFIED is from the Metroamp board, http://forum.metroamp.com, great guys on there – i have learned so much and been inspired by the innovators on that discussion board – all chasing their individual DREAM-TONE. when i posted on there about some slouch stealing my EVH Phaser from the local fire hall gig at a million o’clock in the morning – PLEXIFIED felt my pain, and sent me a phaser he found that kills! what a good dude who just happens to be a monster player! thanks DAVID (plexified).

we also used the Eventide H3000 panned hard right.

we hit the amp with a little mid boost from the GE10.

we put a delay in the jumper loop – my digitech set to TAPE DELAY.

all this wonderful stuff was sent blasting into my WEBER Stan Spec (Pre-Rola Treatment) TED WEBER speakers!

we talked about running it through the budda because of the crash and burn break up at the end – but i’ve decided i like it. it doesn’t need to be perfect – it just needs to be RIGHT.

so – here’s an audio clip of the solo.

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enjoy! the final version of this tune will be available on iTunes and Amazon within the next week or so. if you dig it, it’s yours!

thanks as always to mark [schenker - KIX, Funny Money] for creating a great mix on this stuff and sprinkling his magic dust all over it.

mark’s there on the right next to that BEAU HILL dude – mark’s friend with all THE GOLD on the walls – and what’s that there behind them? well it appears to be the KANSAS ProTools project open – huh!! well waddya know about that? i wonder if they… and if maybe BEAU… nah – it couldn’t be… could it?

-rob

here we have some pics and an audio clip of the session in which the guitars for my song “Kansas” were re-amped. and by re-amped, i mean the guitar performances are captured straight into ProTools by plugging into a mic pre and running the signal into the computer where an amp simulator is used to approximate the sound of an ear splitting fire breathing TUBE BURNER. when we do the final mixes, these tracks of raw guitar input are piped out to real amps to get – well – to get what we’re all looking for – which is exquisite guitar tone.

check out the audio clip.

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Bogner on the left with a 57 and a 121 and Budda on the right with a 57 and an e906 – scooped.

the pics were taken with the settings as recorded. check out that MID knob on the Budda… NOYCE!!

KAH-RUNCH!

thanks mark!

-rob

mark sent the latest version of Kansas with the dobro and mandolin and the re-sung intro sans drama. sounds really good. almost done – gonna run the guitar signals through some heavy duty loud freakin’ amps and it’ll be a warp. i mean a wrap.

but i got new girl now… i’m on to the next tune. it’s brewing… not totally unlike – 0h – maybe like Greenday but no – and maybe some Def Leppppperrrd but not really – but well… oh pretty good.

i’ve got a verse and chorus loop together with some lyrics that may just make the cut in some form – it’s currently called “From the Heart” and that title really seems to resonate with the feel of the tune so far – but this is like naming your kid and picking out a good college on the way home from the first sonogram.

but imagine for a moment getting a letter that was penned by your heart addressed to your head. that would be a letter From the Heart – would it not? so yeah – that’s where that’s at – it’s all loose. if i had REAL MAN GUTS i’d post a rough version of it – it would be like looking at a sonogram though… don’t know if i know you guys well enough to be showing of x-rays and stuff. hee hee!! hi BRIAN! yer baby is beautiful! much moreso than revealed in the FB post sonograms!

it was very strange – i put down the guitar tracks last night – with a guitar playing the melodies for the vocal and it totally sounded amazing – i figured once i put a real vocal on there it would be a slam dunk – but when i heard it with the vocal at first it was utterly unremarkable.

so… me and jack (i know – jack and i) me and jack went to Crawfords and bought a fishing license – no VISA or check – just cash thank you – then we went and played with fishing poles and mixing boards in the garage.

just like the old man – droooool notwithstanding

it gave me some time away from the track and when i came back it wasn’t all that bad so i spruced it up a bit and sent a copy to craig who is very patient at being a sounding board for me on this project – i know he wants to jump in with both feet and just start rewriting everything i send him because he is a talented creative freak whose mind never stops – but he patiently listens to the stuff and gives me great objective feedback which is crucial in the process – it keeps me going – a very strange chemistry that. and one that i am thankful for.

well anyways… i think that’s all i got.

for now.

for now…

oh well what the heck here’s the sonogram!!

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From the Heart [RUFF!]

have faith… it’s only the size of a peanut right now…
and wait til you see it in color, you might not recognize it.

what is childhood without a fake pond in your front yard?

so, i’m sweating my butt off digging a trench to re-route the downspout that comes down next to our new trendy fake pond – on like the hottest day of the summer. to avoid heat stroke the breaks are often and long. suddenly, heather and the kids are leaving for the pool. ding ding ding – and i’m off running up the stairs to work on my little creature – KANSAS.

i re-sang the verse because the take i had was too over the top – it was turning a simple intro into a drama queen meets coverdale thing – so i had to back off the drama without losing the edge and immediacy – the intimacy is important in this take – and you can’t be intimate when yer crooning like coverdale – but back off and now you sound like robbie singing with his Chicago VI record circa 1973. so it was a weird trip trying to back off the drama without losing a good and meaningful delivery.

then the DOBRO! i recorded a dobro track that covered a majority of the song – one painful lick at a time cuz i don’t know how to play the freakin’ dobro! but i was making it happen the best i could and with some great amount of effort i must say. but when i was done i realized that putting the dobro through the whole song would be like turning it into a skynyrd song – i wanted the skynyrd flavor because it fits the Kansas theme – but i couldn’t let it turn the song into something it wasn’t meant to be. so, again i had to back off. i just left enough of it in there for a good effect – i hope.

then the MANDOLIN. and again – do i know how to play the mandolin? i have no idea. but i just sat there and messed with it until it was doing what i needed it to do to create the moment i was looking for.

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taking the mandolin community by storm…

so i take these tracks and send them to mark for insertion into the project – and now we KNOW we are bound to technology like black on a harley.

until next time… this is it!
-r

never satisfied… i am reworking the verses in Kansas. and reworking and reworking. did i mention the rework?

as i work on songs there is a process of finding and weeding out the weakest link (as if a metaphor in which you “weed” a “link” makes any sense at all). without “reworking” that sentence i’ll just move ahead.

one of the things that goes into building a melody is the “stresses” that get put on different syllables of the lyric. most of the time this sort of thing just rolls off the tongue without a second thought. but sometimes you hit a line where you have a feeling it could work in more than way . then it’s nice to have some real “reason” to pick one or the other.

that’s where yer basic – waddya call – edu-ma-cation comes in.

so, imagine my surprise when i got an email from mark which addressed the exact issue i was battling with in this regard.

mark sends me emails from songwriting classes he takes when something comes up that is of particular interest. there’s always something to learn – ya know? it’s a funny thing how there’s always more to learn but yet we all seem to know enough not to destroy each other but yet there’s always more to learn. it’s almost like it was planned out. as if someone is in control. kind of like how the ocean with all its power comes up and gently kisses the shore – yet sometimes it roars in and destroys stuff – but not all the time – but just enough so that we have an understanding of its power but yet we will sit down right next to it and put our feet in – even put our babies in there as it gently rolls up wave after wave after wave – i mean it’s almost like it’s all planned out – as if the grand design was created by – oh i dunno – a creator maybe? gee i wonder. <- which is a gentle way of saying, "DUH!"

back to the issue at hand...

here's an interesting email i got from mark that is insanely relevant to the issues i'm playing around with in the Kansas verse rework. check out the audio files too - good stuff from the teacher as he critiques a lyric mark submitted in an assignment - the guy is pretty amazing with his insights.

see - this is so incredibly interesting to me because from the very beginning of my musical experiences i was trying to figure out WHY things worked. WHY certain songs created such emotion - i remember playing CHOP STICKS on the piano and comparing it to PINBALL WIZARD - back when those were the only two songs i knew!

and now... after that amazing preamble we get to the heart of our post... the email from mark and my reply - accompanied by the soundclip mark sent me of the critique - and then some sound clips of me putting the teaching into action. now pay attention. class? classss?

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MARK’S EMAIL

I wrote this the other day and this particular instructor likes to do audio feedback (has to be way easier than typing) which is a first for me so listen to the attached mp3, he has a lot of really enlightening points. (stresses are in bold and counted for “rhyme” – assignment was to create an unbalanced section using additive and/or subtractive rhymes, this one is ABAB)

put out your hand and don’t be scared to get close (5)
I already know you’re a little rotten and disturbed (5)
knock a rock out of the dam and let yourself go (5)
I’m of like kind and quality and maybe a whole lot worse (6)

teacher’s critique (@ 1:00 is the part that was about negative modifiers like CAN’T that pertained to the issue in Kansas, but the whole clip reveals great insight into a number of interesting issues)

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MY EMAIL REPLY

there is so much information in what this guy says in his critique – and what he does with what you already wrote is amazing how he pushes it up to 11.

it’s amazing to hear this guys insights – so i’m forwarding it to craig – this is awesome – thanks for sharon.

what’s great is that he justified a mistake i made in the song we are mixing tonight – i THOUGHT it was a mistake anyway until i heard what this guy says – check it out – it’s amazing because his example is using the exact words that i made my supposed phrasing mistake on…

can’t and get.

But you know this don’t look much like home
And I can’t get back to Kansas alone

my original vocal track stressed GET and let CAN’T take a back seat.

as i sung it a billion times trying to get a good delivery and inflection – i didn’t realize that i had changed the stress around to make it stress on CAN’T and GET became a little more played down. i thought it didn’t sound quite as rockin’ that way. but he says that we should stress negative modifiers or else they might go right past the listeners ear in which case gives them the EXACT OPPOSITE meaning you were trying to convey.

amazing how this relates to the exact issue i was having with a performance that will be “committed” to the mix tonight.

very cool and a little bit spooky really. BOO!!

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here’s audio of the 2 different stress patterns in the Kansas verse:
stress on CAN’T

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stress on GET

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and you thought we were just throwin’ this crap together willy nilly!!

njoy!
-rob

oh – careful now – watch that posture..

pictured here is me with the Kansas ProTools project which is so big it won’t even play anymore in my home studio setup. [it's not really all that big - but my leetle computer can only handle so much...] so, i am very happy to arrive at mark’s where i will be able to hear it all together instead of in it’s various and sundry pieces. yes, the project is in that little black thing about the size of a wallet. crazy huh?

we worked on the drums and changed and tweaked a few fills and whatnot – then mark did his thing busting the drums out into individual tracks and putting these lovely little compressors on each track – it made my eyes hurt to see so many tracks and so many compressors all working at once and i thought of my little computer at home and how it would BUCKLE under the weight of such processing madness.

we got the acoustic guitars tweaked up nice – more compression of course.

we picked a nice sound for the hammond organ that glues all the acoustic guitars together in your ear and brain.

then we got a little bit picky about the guitar sounds… trying to find an amp model that had the right amount of crunch (think NICKELBACK) and the guitar on the other side needed more of an AC/DC knock with some clarity. now there is an integral part of the chorus where the guitars do this sweeping neck slide – and if you don’t have enough juice it sounds like you are trying to play ERUPTION on a banjo. but if you add too much juice your rhythm track turns into MUSH. so this took quite a while and in the end we decided to use a real amp but it was too late at night to fire up that kind of fire power at the BIG ROCK CANDY MANSION. so, we left that for another day.

here’s a clip of the chorus so you can hear what we are working towards… note the INTEGRAL neck slide. it resembles synchronized swimming – everybody now – one, two, and… NECK SLIDE!

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njoy!
-r

the next song is ready for mixing – it’s called Kansas – man i worked my butt off on it – lots of hours – lots of hours and lots of hours. it’s an acoustic thing that goes to 11 at the chorus.

i’ll be going over to mark’s tomorrow evening. which will be great because i will finally get a chance to hear the song with all the parts playing at once – the project is so big that my computer chokes on it so i have to work on it one piece at a time and just imagine what the pieces sound like all together.

my toe hurts. i had a “thing” removed from it. i guess if yer going to have a “thing” it’s best to have it on yer toe – ay?

aw-right – til later and beyond!
-rob