Signal/Noise: This Is Not A Podcast

Brand new

Jason — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 22:37:00 -0400

So here’s a new recording. This is somewhat special I guess, mainly because it marks a milestone—it marks my return to recording actual real instruments as I play them. I think this is only the second recording here I’ve posted that is of me playing in realtime instead of arranging pre-recorded loops and assembling beats and stuff.

Anyway, as always, I am really unsatisfied with this. But I decided after two weeks of going nuts to just call it done. I’ve been trying for days to record a decent solo for the end part, but a friend recently told me it was fine without the solo, so that was excuse enough for me to give up.

I kind of wish there were more to it. Maybe if I had any lyrical/vocal talent at all I could make it better.

So the only thing in this track I didn’t record was the drums. I don’t play drums, so those are loops. The rest is me.

Anyway, like everything else, it has no name. It is what it is. Have a listen.

File Download (5:03 min / 4.7 MB)

Tonight's Work

Jason — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 00:42:00 -0500

Well, I’ve been playing with this software on and off for a few days. It’s called Ableton Live, and I am finding it a little complicated, but I’m coming along slowly.

I finally got it to do something cool at least. So thats a big step in the right direction. For the track attached to this entry, I started with a MIDI track, came up with the underlying beat, then ran it through a couple of filters. Pretty basic stuff, it’s just a matter of getting used to the Ableton mindset and interface. They sort of take a different approach to the process than I’m used to.

Maybe one day I’ll get back around to actually playing a physical musical instrument.

The funny thing with this music software is that it’s supposed to unlock your potential and stuff, but it seems to actually just confound your efforts and bog down the creative process because I wind up sitting there searching for the right button to do what I want to do. I’m sure it’s just a matter of spending enough time with it to really learn it well. But this is the Internet Age, who has time?

Enjoy.

File Download (1:06 min / 1 MB)

Sorry for the silence...

Jason — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 22:53:00 -0500

I’m only posting this out of guilt. I’m not very happy with it. I was happy with it, as I was recording it, but I made a few mistakes and turned the wrong dial, resulting in a few very annoying measures.

Normally I’d throw this away, but it has been so long, I really wanted to get something new out here.

Enjoy.

File Download (7:25 min / 6.8 MB)

3 the hard way - Remix

Jason — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 02:16:29 -0400

So the Beastie Boys, being the forward thinking gentlemen they are, are releasing vocal tracks to their songs one at a time to the general public to encourage remixing.

So of course I had to oblige them.

I have to say, the Beasties are hard as hell to remix. It has a lot to do with their rapping style I think, which often falls just a little bit off beat for a time. It sort of actually enforces the beat, but only when you can hear the beat. Coming up with a new beat with only the slightly off-beat vocals is a little bit of a challenge.

I had to give up on three different songs before settling on one that was straightforward enough for me to work with.

Maybe I need to work on my internal quantizer.

Either way, the remix is available at the end of this entry, and I’ll add a link to the Beastie Boys remixer site.

For this one, I did one of the synth parts. The rest are all from various loop libraries.

Beastie Remixers – New Beastie Boys vocal track every week.

File Download (3:03 min / 5.6 MB)

The infamous first solo

Jason — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 20:28:00 -0400

This was my first ever recorded attempt to actually improvise a real, on-key solo. The backing track is from a Neil Young song.

It’s not particularly good, but it was done in one take, so it could be significantly improved with some effort.

I actually thnk it starts out really well, aside from some sloppiness at the very start. It just ends so pointlessly, I guess I ran out of ideas very quickly.

File Download (0:52 min / 0.8 MB)

Fun with a vocoder

Jason — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 20:22:00 -0400

So this was fun.

Basically, run an audio source, in this case, a synth in playback mode, into one input of a vocoder, and then run a guitar into the other input. The vocoder combines the two, and you’re basically playing the synth’s playback with the guitar.

If that makes any sense.

File Download (2:02 min / 1.9 MB)

Somebody call the Atomic Dog

Jason — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 14:01:00 -0400

This loop reminds me of something George Clinton would use. I actually had big plans for this thing, I stayed up really late one night trying to do something with it, but there is some sort of tempo problem with it when looping, and I got sick of trying to keep it on beat.

Still sounds cool though.

File Download (0:21 min / 0.3 MB)

I've lost my lucky glowsticks.

Jason — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 13:51:00 -0400

This entry is a recording of me playing around with the preset patterns in an analog synth and drum machine. Korg Electribes to be exact, EA-1 and ER-1.

Really, you just hit play and pick random presets, then apply effects and tweak knobs to taste. Usually it just sounds like cheesey techno, but from time to time, things align and some really cool stuff results.

This is just 10 minutes of playing around with knobs, and occasionally playing along with a keyboard.

I had just gotten the recording stuff set up when I recorded this, so I hadn’t figured out all the levels yet. As a result, it is a really quiet recording. You’ll have to turn up the volume to really hear it. Don’t forget to turn the volume back down afterwards.

File Download (10:10 min / 9.3 MB)

Galvanize - Molten Zinc Mix

Jason — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 10:04:00 -0400

I used to participate in these Sony remix competitions. Of course, I never won any of them, there are thousands and thousands of entries to each one. The file attached to this entry is one of my favorites. It’s a remix of that Chemical Brothers song that came out a while back. I think it’s called Galvanize.

At any rate, this was done with Sony Acid Music Studio, using tracks from the original song, plus a few loops I downloaded from Soulseek. I seem to remember making a couple of the tracks myself, though I can’t remember which ones. It’s been a while.

I should get back in to those contests, they’re a lot of fun.

The thing I like about this one is the piano breaks, definitely stylistically dervative of Beck in the Odelay days. I don’t really like the ending. It doesn’t fit at all. I always intended to go back and find a better way to end it, but you know how that goes.

The original competition website – Yes, the competition ended in February, and still hasn't been judged.

File Download (3:25 min / 6.3 MB)

Gibson Falcon, Reborn

Jason — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 01:40:00 -0400

Several months ago, I purchased my first “vintage” amplifier. An early 60’s Gibson Falcon, model GA-19 RVT.

When the amp first arrived, I was sorely disapointed, because it sounded really bad. I had bought it from a guy on Ebay, so I contacted him and got half of my money back, so that made it easier to swallow.

So I took the amp to Nashville Amplifier Service, and they did an incredible job on it. It came back sounding like a new amplifier.

Well, not a new one, but a different, better amplifier than the one I brought them.

Attached to this entry is a demo recording, showing how the amp sounds. In the weeks and weeks of research I did on the GA-19 RVT prior to buying it, I was surprised by the lack of info available. It seems like very few people own these things. The value of them is steadily rising though, so somebody out there is interested.

So I guess I’m hoping this entry eventually gets indexed by Google and maybe one day it will help someone who is in a similar situation.

The amp repair guys set me up with an Eminence Red Coat Private jack speaker, and some new Electro Harmonix power tubes and rectifier tube. The preamp tubes are the original ones. They’re 6EU7 and 6C4, which are obsolete, and rather pricey. No reason to replace them if they’re still working. Of course, they also did a full cap job and whatever other magic it is amp people do to the guts of amplifiers to make them sound better.

The demo is of me, playing an MIM Fender Telecaster ‘72 Custom reissue, using a Catalinbread Poblano booster for the overdrive. I made sure to vary the amp’s settings throughout the recording, so you can hear the reverb, tremolo, and overdrive settings all at differing levels. By no means a full example of everything a Falcon can do, but a good basic representation of how it sounds.

The Poblano, although an awesome booster, is too bassy for this amp, really. The amp only has one tone knob, so you can’t set the EQ in particular ways. The amp just has its own voice, and thats the way it is. It still sounds good, but a little muddy in the higher gain range with fat boosts like the Poblano. I don’t really have a treble booster, I bet something like a Picoso or ZVex SHO would sound great.

I got a kick out of the crazy reverb sounds towards the end of the clip. Thats only at about half. At full, the amp just goes insane with howling ringing reverb, not really useful. The Falcon really has a unique reverb sound though, not liek what we’re used to with the Fender-style reverb in almost any other amps you see.

In the links section, I’ll add a few links to some images of my amp, so you can see what’s under the hood.

PS: A few minutes in to the recording, you can hear a sort of electronic glitchy sound. Thats interference from my cell phone, not the amplifier.

Nashville Amplifier Service – Amp wizards in Nashville, TN.
Catalinbread Sogrado Poblano Picoso booster – A ridiculously long name, and ridiculously cool booster.
Gibson Falcon tubes and speaker – Hi-res, clear photo showing the tube layout.
What you see is what you hear – The setup used for the demo recording.
Owner's Manual – Original owner's manual for Gibson Falcon.

File Download (7:05 min / 6.5 MB)