Music City Marathon

Just a quick note of congratulations to my brother, Greg, and my cousin Lauren, who both ran in the Music City Marathon on Saturday. They both ran in the half marathon. I’m not sure I could ever do it, but it is one thing I would love to be able to say I had done. Maybe one day…

Some More Music…The Tain – Part 3

I thought I’d post some more music stuff up here from time to time. This one was done mostly about a year ago – I don’t remember the exact date. It is a cover of part of the song “The Tain” by The Decemberists. The whole song is almost 20 minutes long and is divided into 5 parts. Originally I had the idea of recording the whole thing (ah, ambition…). I did part 1 (which is fairly simple and short) and then did this version of Part 3. I went back and worked on Part 2 for a while, but I never could quite get it to sound right. Although I have a mix of the first 3 parts together, Part 3 sounds better on its own. Also, I’m not sure anyone could make it through part 2 and might miss the only good part of the song….

Anyway, this was recorded in a software package called Tracktion. It came free with my audio interface. It’s quite a nice piece of software – very simple and easy to use, yet quite powerful. I was thinking of staying with it when I upgraded my old Dell music PC to my new iMac, since the package includes both Mac and PC versions. Unfortunately, the Mac version only does VST instruments, and most Mac stuff comes as Audio Units. Anyway, I like Logic better.

So here it is…

Or Just Download it

I need some pictures to go with these posts. Perhaps I should take some of my “Studio” to use as visual aids…

The New Pornographers – Cannery Ballroom

I went to go see The New Pornographers last night. Unfortunately, Neko Case was not with them. I’m not sure why – the local entertainment paper I picked up while waiting outside the venue said she would be with them, so something must have come up. Anyway, they put on a great show. The opening band, Okkervil River, was also very good. I actually recognized one or two of their songs. I think they must be played on Radio Paradise.

I did realize, however, that I am getting to old to stand up for 4 hours at a concert. It was a packed house and it was standing room only in front of the stage. At the end, my legs were terribly sore. Thats one reason I liked the Rock Boat so much – I got to see tons of great music with out too much standing or waiting forever.

Some Music…

I think I mentioned before that I got a new iMac computer a few months ago. I use it pretty much just for running Logic, a software recording studio thingy. Its really quite amazing what can be done with music software these days. Everything is done by the computer – The recording, the keyboards, the guitar amp/effects – everything. Other than the computer, the only hardware I have anymore is a USB MIDI keyboard and an 2 channel audio interface for plugging in my guitars or microphone. The guitars are plugged directly into the interface, all the distortion and everything gets done by the computer. All the keyboards and drums get generated by the computer. There is virtually no limit to the amount of tracks you can record. I would have absolutely KILLED to have a system like this when I was younger. For the longest time I got by with a 4-track tape player, and later with a Roland 8-track digital recorder. The system I have now does so much more than I ever could with those systems its really unbelievable.

Of course, I don’t really have much in the way of time to play around with it anymore. On rare occasion, I make some time, usually at night after the kids are asleep. I am still learning the system. I haven’t begun to scratch the surface of it yet, actually. One thing that helps when in learning a new system is to record some cover songs. I started out working on the Spirit of Shackleton remix/collaboration thing, and then I tried my hand at Mother by Pink Floyd. I’ve always been a huge Floyd fan. I might have learned to play keyboards by picking out Genesis songs, but I learned to play guitar from Pink Floyd.

So I got a little ways into this, but I realized one problem – I can’t really sing it! The original is actually sung by two people – Roger Waters on the verses and David Gilmour on the chorus. I can’t do the verses properly, its just to low. Anyway, after getting partway through recording some vocals, I gave up on it. But that’s not going to keep me from posting it here! So, if you dare, you can take a listen to the incomplete vocal mix. Feel free to use the last chorus for some Karaoke time…

Download Link: Mother (Incomplete Vocals)

Steve McNair Retires

The Tennessean: Former Titans QB McNair Retires

I was never much of a NFL Fan before the Titans came to town. I followed college ball, and my own home team was Georgia Tech (since I went there, at least for a year). Without a NFL team that I had some connection to, it was just hard to get in to. Once the Titans came (and became the Titans – it was hard to feel a connection to the Tennessee Oilers) I finally had a team of my own.

I remember screaming my lungs out after watching the Music City Miracle (and again a few minutes later when the call was not overturned.) I remember literally falling on my face to the floor after “The Tackle” at the end of Superbowl XXXIV. I remember a few year later, after starting 1-4, McNair took the team on his back and drug the team all the way to 11-5 and the AFC Championship. And then the MVP season. Lots of good football, some heartbreaking, some amazing. So tonight, I’ll have to pull out my number 9 jersey and drink a beer for ol’ Air McNair. He helped make me the Titans fan I am today.

Mallory Has Broken Her Arm

A few days ago, Mallory fell while playing outside on her scooter. Pam took her to the doctor this morning, and yep, its broken. I don’t remember all the details, but she will be in a cast for the next few weeks. Hopefully she will be all better by the time we go to Orlando in June (they are coming with me when I go to Microsoft TechEd.) Pam and Mallory stopped by the office after the appointment, so I snapped a picture of the new cast.

Glen Phillips Remix Contest

A few weeks ago, Glen Phillips released the individual tracks for a song from his recent EP for people to "Remix". Since I had just got my new iMac setup with Logic, I played around with it. A little while later, he announced that he was making a competition out of it at a site called www.kompoz.com. By the time the contest was announced, I had already come up with two different mixes. Now I’m not much for the dance remix stuff that most people care about, I wanted to add my own playing. The first remix I came up with is the Piano Mix. Other than some of the original tracks, I recorded a piano part and also a Mellotron flute track. I added lots of reverb on everything, which gave it a spacey feel (Appropriate for the song I thought.) After That I tried my hand at a full band remix. There are several tracks of guitars and keyboard and an upbeat drum loop from Logics loop library. Nothing remains from the original on that track except Glens vocals. Anyway, I doubt very seriously I’ll win (there is some good stuff going on in some of the tracks submitted.) I think at the end of May they pick a few tracks as finalists and let people from the site vote on the winner. We’ll see…

 

That is one thing I will use this blog for: posting any music I might happen to work on. I don’t get much time to do anything these days, but its not unheard of for me to come up with something now and then.

This is my blog.

This is my new blog. It serves no real purpose. I’m just going to use it for random things.

Here is a picture to get us started:

Those are my two daughters, Mallory and Emma. More about them latter.