Not a blog.

Okay, so just what does this whole recording process entail - and why does it take so damn long?

Well, a great part of it is the ability to constantly improve what you’ve done. “Good” can be made “Better.”  Here’s an example of one of my songs, “Hearts,” showing the differences between a version of the song mixed down in 2004, followed by another version of the song mixed down in March 2008 (Uh, wow, four long years…):

 “Hearts” Evolution (.mp3) - Click To Listen

In the first version, I had my lead and background vocals, keyboards, MPC2000XL drums, Alesis D4 congas, Mike’s saxophone, Vince’s guitar, turntables by my friend +he op+imis+  and a smooove Fender Jazz bassline played by our original bassist, Chris Monaco (who once played bass for Richard Cheese & Lounge Against the Machine!).

In the second version, the keyboards, sax, bass, turntables and guitar remain, but I re-recorded the lead vocal, replaced the drum track with NI Battery samples, added Louie’s and Lisa’s background vocals and replaced the D4 congas with Keith’s live congas. On a more subtle level, I added some shakers/hand percussion tracks which, together with the live congas, made it sound more “live” despite the fact that the drums  were still programmed.

On a more basic, visceral level, the older version sounds “thinner” and the newer version sounds much more “beefier.”

Constantly improving one’s work is a natural part of being an artist. Things can always be done better, but at one point you have to be satisfied with what’s good enough, move on and let it go for others to hopefully appreciate.

Been doing some recording this past month, nailing down Louie’s and Lisa’s (above) background vocals for some more tunes on May 1 and May 18. All of the tracks were recorded at their place in the Valley, as they have a small DAW studio setup built around ProToolsLE (which I’m no fan of, but know enough to record tracks). They got to lay down the background vocals for “Let’s Go Outside,” “Invisible” and “Everyone Together” while I engineered in the next room. The cool thing about digital recording (aside from the cut and paste process)? The ability to copy the recorded files into a USB stick.

Louie adds some tracks.

I, Engineer: Me being quite the ProTools fool.

Recently I assessed how many tracks/parts have been finished and how many have yet to be done. Looks like I’m more done than not done in this recording endeavor!

Been recording lately. Keith came in tonight to record conga tracks to replace my drum machine congas - sure adds some new life to the tracks, especially to “the twins” — a.k.a. “Hearts” and “Brand New Thing,” two songs that don’t exactly sound alike, but have the same level of involvement by other bandmembers and both are songs I have been perfecting and re-perfecting over the past four years or so. Phew… Also, Mike has been sending me tracks via FTP from his own home studio. Hope it all comes together soon.

I’ve been busy upgrading my little recording studio lately, hitting the learning curve trying to get up to speed and learn their features. Here’s what I’ve added recently

Cakewalk Sonar 7 Producer Edition

I’ve been using Cakewalk’s Sonar 5 Producer Edition all this time since 2005. I skipped 6 so I’ve been pressured to go to 7, because it’s a lucky number. J/k (sort of) but after going to the NAMM show I felt sort of left behind. As a paying Cakewalk customer since 1995, I bought the upgrade from the Cakewalk site. I was reluctant to upgrade since I wanted to finish my album project first, and also though this program would eat up more CPU resources, but it wasn’t that bad. In fact, I’m able to take full advantage of dual processors now as version 5 somehow would give me problems when I did (it worked fine in single-processor mode). I’ve been spending tons of time reading the manual and learning all of its bells and whistles. So far, so good! Sonar has always been a reliable program for me and this time’s no exception. So the upcoming album will be mixed down on Sonar 7.

Propellerheads Reason 4
My second favorite software program was also due for an upgrade. Having been on Reason 3 forever, it was high time to go for version 4, especially since I’ve been using Reason for more than just a “tinkering around” tool lately and doing video soundtracks/scores with it. The new version has all sorts of stuff I’ve always wanted, like a metronome count-off (one of the things that kept me from making serious music with Reason), a song time length display, a new synthesizer (Thor) and some other goodies.

I had a (mis)adventure ordering it though, initially purchasing it from the Propellerhead PropShop site but having my card declined (even though it’s not maxed out). The error message mentioned it could be a bad communication with my bank so I just kept trying and trying…no luck. Finally I reached Propellerheads tech support who told me my bank might reject the order because it’s in another country (Sweden). They did say I could buy the upgrade from a domestic store or website, so I went on over to Sweetwater.com and found it for the same price ($129) — minus the $20 shipping fee that P’heads charged! Serendipity, baby! But after making my order with Sweetwater, the card got declined again, so I called the bank and they indeed put a fraud hold on it, and explained that the orders to Sweden were in fact mine. Anyway, after that was cleared up I finally ordered it and it arrived this past Wednesday. Looks great (well some of the graphics and labels are a bit too tiny for me eyes) and sounds great. Can’t wait to use this for more projects!

M-Audio Axiom 61 USB Keyboard Controller

After falling in lurve with this thing at last year’s NAMM show, I finally had to have it, especially since it has onboard transport (Rec, Play, Rewing, etc) controls and a nice semi-weighted waterfal keyboardl. I’ve been using its predecessor, the M-Audio Radium 61 USB controller since it came out in 2003 (damn, five years…) which was originally intended to be part of my e:trinity laptop setup back in the day. Well, all these years, I never got the laptop (I’m just as picky with laptops as I am with women, lol) and I put e:trinity to rest in 2004, so the Radium took up the empty space on my computer desk between me and the monitor to remind me I should be using the computer for making music, rather than just surfing the web or writing blogs (ahem…). But the thing I disliked most about the Radium was…the thing felt like a toy, making all sorts of cheapo sproingy noises everytime I played the keyboard. And as a keyboardist, feel and action are everything.

Anyway, I was lured by a local music store’s (West LA Music) clearance sale but though this wasn’t a sale item, they gave me a sweet deal on it $245) that was even lower than the best Internet price I found ($275). And even with tax ($265) it was still lower! So yes, West LA Music is my favorite brick & mortar music store (suck it, Guitard Center!). Another interesting thing to note was that after looking at some old receipts for my gear, I bought the M-Audio Axiom 61 exactly six years to the day (February 19) as I bought my other M-Audio USB interface, the MIDISPORT 4×4, which is the heart of my MIDI system and has been blinking away faithfully all this time since 2002.

Okay, I bought this on Tuesday and I gotta say thing thing was kicking my ass for the next two days, as I was trying to get it (especially the transport controls) working with Sonar and Reason.

Using the Axiom with Reason was a breeze, at least it was supposed to be. I got this a day before Reason 4 arrived, so I tried it out on my Reason 3. After downloading an Axiom controller update, I was able to use it with little effort after setting up the Axiom 61 profile as the main controller. But after futzing around with the keyboard, especially using the aptly-titled Enigma software application to program its various parameters as well as using the onboard buttons to program it, I discovered the keyboard was freaking out, not responding to certain controllers even though it should be. I eventually (after a few long nights with little sleep, argh) learned how to reset the keyboard to factory defaults (Axiom users, here’s how: Power off, then hold down the “-” and “+” keys on the left-hand keypad when you power back on). After using Enigma again, and leaving the onboard parameter programming alone, it finally worked well, and because of the default Reason controller setup, the thing responds more like hardware! It’s just too awesome to scroll through patches via one of the knobs rather than the computer-style File Open dialog menu.

Sonar with Axiom was yet another adventure, as it was nearly pure hell trying to get the transport controls to work, despite the supposed Axiom 49 (same as the 61, just less keys) profile in Sonar 7. I eventually learned via the Cakewalk Sonar online forums how to set it up, using MIDI Machine Control. But it seemed like too much controllers set up in the system and eventually I used the ACT Controller profile and double-clicked on the parameter cells to get it to work. It’s not 100% there, but the transport and faders work just fine now.

Phew. The stuff I go through. Now I want to just make music.

I had another upgrade tonight, a very small one. I bought another keyboard — er, a computer keyboard (QWERTY) as my old keyboard, though functionally fine, has a few screenprinted character labels worn away (yeah, it’s REAL fun guessing where the “,” and “.” keys are…) My only criteria: PS2, black, a straight (none of that contoured stuff - won’t fit in my keyboard drawer) bottom edge and a power switch. I saw some online, but the shipping cost almost as much as the keyboard itself! I even stopped by a couple of local computer shops, none had any that fit my criteria, until I went to my (literally) local computer shop (Loco Computer in East Hollywood), just a block from home. Fit all the above criteria to a T and has a nice solid clicky action (I hate spongy keyboards), and was only $7.50!

Okay okay okay, now time to make some music…

I spent the past weekend at the 2008 NAMM Show at the Anaheim Convention Center, nearly an hour’s drive south of here. People come from around the world to attend this huge music products show, but I’m just a NAMM commuter. Never mind that in the days leading to the show I was suffering from a nasty ear infection which made me temporarily deaf in one ear for a few days. Not the best thing to have when you’re going to the NAMM show. Anyway, after going Thursday and not going in due to a mix-up regarding my name badge, I finally got to go in on Friday and Sunday, armed with my video camera, running into friends, meeting celebrities and playing with all that gear.

The only product that really floored me was the Korg Kaossilator, which lists at only $199 and is a real cool toy for making all sorts of noises, and takes up way less space than another keyboard.Watch the video above to see my NAMM adventures.

The full 8-piece Soul Barkada did its thing on Friday night at The Derby in Los Feliz. We were part of a benefit show organized by the lovely Czarina Saba from the acoustic trio Todo Azul which featured our respective bands, as well as fellow Filipino American bands Apartment 92, Linggo, Late Night Merienda and CommonAlien. The proceeds of the show went to support the anti-povery programs of Gawad Kalinga in the Philippines.

The show was organized via MySpace messages and while I’m trying to say away from limiting ourselves to the Fil Am scene (nothing against it, just trying to move on to a larger audience), this show was at a fairly well-known venue and it was a noble cause, so how could we pass this up?

It didn’t start out so well. I was really disappointed at the venue, namely that they had very artist-unfriendly loading procedures and the room we played in had a late 70s-era 8-channel mixing board - with only five of them functioning! Ugh. I also got a little exasperated with the sound dude who made us set up in such an unorthodox manner. I also had fun giving him ‘tude (hey, it’s not every day I get to be an asshole, so why not), being extremely condescending. To put it short, we expected a lot more from the freaking Derby!

But we put on a show, the third band up and did our set:

1. Hearts
2. Brand New Thing
3. Why?
4. White Christmas Intro/This Christmas
5. Everyone Together

(We were set to play “Love Fall Down” as the fourth song, but due to time constraints and logistics (it involved moving a keyboard around), we cut it from the set).

Basically, the set worked, people dug the sing-a-long at the end of “Brand New Thing,” I sang a faux-intro of a solo rendition of “White Christmas” which led to the Donny Hathaway cover, and the groove and Mardi Gras beads not only got people dancing, but people from the other room curiously checking us out.

The set ended with a thundering ovation. We were all on a performance high - after playing to relatively empty rooms, ,this was validation for all we’ve worked for. Wow…other people commented that (not intending to be competitive) we set this standard for energy that some of the other bands found hard to match.

After the show, since all eight of us were there, we stood out on Los Feliz Blvd for an impromptu photo session while Dennis’ cousin Chad snapped pics of us.

Great way to end the year…now to look forward to 2008 (with more shows and finally that album release!)

I got my first haircut after some two and a half years today, courtesy of my sister’s good friend Sherry from Artform Sudio near Downtown.  The long hair just got out of control. No more ponytail, no more wannaberocker ‘do. But actually the new haircut isn’t too radically short. It’s still longish; the hair is about how I had it back in the Spring of 2006. I was supposed to get this for my birthday party the other week, but didn’t have the time. But hey, got the new hair in time for this Friday’s show.
In due time it’ll grow long again; I kinda like having it long for the time being…just not out of control.

 In preparing for Saturday’s Top40 gig with a band called Common Ground, I have to make sure my gear is in top working order. My decade-old Alesis QS6 has been plagued in the past few years with a faulty right output jack that sends no audio. I’ve fixed t in the past by opening up the unit, removing the mainboard and re-soldering the output jack contacts, but the problem keeps coming back again.

So on Tuesday evening, I decided to open it up again and this time remove the old solder and re-solder it with  new solder.  So I did that, put everything back together, plugged it in and ta-d…

Oh wait, it’s not turning on.  Maybe one of the ribbon connectors I removed wasn’t plugged in fully. So I opened it up again and found that one of the ribbon connectors going to the LED screen wasn’t pushed in all the way. So I plugged it in again and…

Uh-oh. Things aren’t looking good.

But alas, it was one of the connectors, which wasn’t seated properly, leaving a pair of the connector pins exposed. Damn my worsening eyesight! But that was the culprit, and soon I was making patch edits for certain sounds on the QS. That thing used to be my workhorse during my old acid jazz days, and I even used it for Rhodes, strings and delay-effect organ sounds in my e:trinity era as well. It got supplanted by my Nord Electo a couple years ago, but I still hold on to the old QS6 because of its sounds - it’s got nice bread-and-butter ROMpler sounds and some very nice digital pads.  So it’s nice I keep the old black horse still running. Knowing how to wield a soldering iron really helps.

Well that was nice…I was greeted with (automatic) birthday greetings in my Yahoo! mailbox by various forums that I had registered for. Also got one on my main email account from the Saturn Fans forum (car-related).

So Sunday was, my 36th the 18th anniversary of my 18th birthday. Time marches on and stops for no one. Damn.

I can get truly personal and discuss in detail the ramifications regarding the new age that I attained, but I guess I better not. Which is silly since isn’t that what a blog is for?

Anyway, Sunday was very low-key. I woke up late, had breakfast at nearby Square One Dining which was a mere two blocks away and read the Sunday Times there and enjoyed a real tasty French toast with apples, pecans and whipped cream. The bill was rather high, but I guess I had to spoil myself somehow on this day. I sang in the choir at church then had the requisite low-key family celebration. Didn’t really matter since the big party will be on Friday, which is done on purpose since people are usually either out of town or entertaining out of town guests on Thanksgiving weekend.

Time moves on. Tomorrow I’ll have a rhythm section rehearsal with the band. Saturday night I got called to do a Top40 band gig in the ‘burbs. Oh yeah, and today, I formally launched the website of a “secret” side project. I’ll have to explain it to you sometime if you don’t understand it.

I have many things in life that I’m thankful for, yet I can’t say I’m totally happy. A few things in life constantly elude me, and become constant subject matter to my songs. But I’ll tackle that another time.

Session bass legend Carol Kaye did a one-night-only clinic at West L.A. Music in Universal City on Thursday night. After a friend recommended it to me, I thought it just might be a cool event to go to. What I didn’t expect was to learn a while ton about music from one of the most heard session bassists in rock music history!

For those of you who don’t know the name, you’ve definitely heard the bass. She played bass guitar for such classic songs as the original theme song to Mission: Impossible; The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations,” “California Girls” and the entire legendary Pet Sounds album; Joe Cocker’s “Feelin’ Alright,” and a number of Motown classics from the Supremes to the Four Tops to Marvin Gaye.

Born in Washington state and raised here in the Los Angeles area (Wilmington), Kaye, now 72, started playing professionally at age 14 as a rhythm guitarist and picked up the bass when it literally fell into her lap as the session bassist failed to show up.

The clinic featured her trademark pick-on-flatwound strings bass playing (amazingly good - for a 72-year old!), as well as some tunes and examples of guitar, showing the crowd of about 30 (including a number of women) how to keep a drummer from playing too slow or too fast, groove techniques and how to better read music at a recording session. Also, her “war” stories of working with such legends as Les Paul, Ray Charles, Mel Torme, Quincy Jones, Brian Wilson and even Phil Spector were priceless.

I even got a question in regarding playing with a pick. I told her that I long considered myself an “anti-pick” player but watching her play deftly with a pick inspired me to want to do it, so I asked her about the proper pick-playing techniques. I also won a free Ibanez (the guitar company that sponsored the event) t-shirt!

At the end she signed autographs, answered other questions, even received a bouquet of flowers from another attendee of the clinic and posed for pictures. I got mine below: