the decemberists are in town tonight, and we have tickets!

happy birthday to me! no wait, it’s kerri’s birthday. happy birthday to her!

question: what do you get when you mix bad, rusty singing with new recording gear?

answer:

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i picked up a few more toys last week with the goal of experimenting with music composition this year. the first is the presonus firebox, which provides a firewire recording interface to the computer. i also bought a behringer condenser microphone , which got good reviews and was in my price range (read: cheap).

my computer is, as the kids say, pretty ghetto, but i had a firewire card in it and setup was very easy. put the CD in first, run the driver installation, it tells you when to plug in the firebox, do it, and let the installation complete. later, i actually downloaded the latest driver and firmware from the presonus website, which i should have done first. the CD that shipped with the device appeared to have an older driver.

once the installation was done, i pulled up m-audio session, which i had as part of my m-audio keystudio bundle and configured it to use the firebox as the input device.

next, i created a new composition in session, added a guitar and vocal track, and set up session to record both at the same time. my mic was in input one of the firebox and my electric guitar (a cheap one) was in input two. i configured the firebox to mix internally and send the mix to the headphones, which i plugged in. i hit record in session, and started playing and it did it’s thing.

i did have to mess with the levels a bunch. first, since neither the mic nor guitar were amped, i had to to turn on the “48V” internal amp. then i adjusted the output nobs on the front of the firebox to boost the mic level a bit and trip the guitar. i also had to adjust the latency in the firebox control panel on my computer, since my computer is, as i said, ghetto.

after that, it was just a matter of playing with session. i copied and pasted sections, added effects, adjusted volume, etc. the one thing i still need to figure out with session is how to get the overall audio output higher; it’s pretty faint with the current settings i have. and with the midi controller i have, i want to add some other instruments, and harmonies, etc. it’s all very exciting, and as soon as my voice instructor/wife gets me up to speed, i’ve got big plans! until then, i’ll likely stick to just instrumentals…

the decemberists, one of my all-time favorite bands, has a new album out today. and kerri is super excited because we have tickets to see them on her birthday. how lucky is she?!

i love joshua radin

ok, i didn’t say it was good music. evidently this guy was an ex-army guy who stayed in germany when he left the military and joined the band “Captain Jack”. the reason i’m posting this isn’t because of the scantily clad women (well, it sort of is, indirectly). i woke up this morning with this song in my head, which made me think of an article i read a few weeks back. bear with me a few moments and this will all make sense! well, one more distraction. did you know it’s “bear with me” not “bare with me”? the second one would mean “let’s get nekkid together”, which i guess sort of ties in with the girls in the video, but that’s a total coincidence.

back to the article… it was talking about earworms, and why you can’t get some songs out of your head. the article theorized that it seems to happen more often when you only get a part of your sing stuck in your head, and that a way to get the song out of your head faster would be to listen to the complete song. to me, it makes sense. when a song is stuck in my head, i seem to only repeat a piece of it, like the chorus or a verse; it’s not like the whole song replays in my head. so my attack plan was to find the song online, listen to it, and be done. 

now, if it worked, why feel the need to write a post about it, you may be wondering. ah, good question!

so if you watch the video (or at least the first part of it), you’ll see that it takes place on a generic “army barracks”.  well, it’s not so generic. it’s actually turley barracks in mannheim, germany. the next logical question is “um, how the heck do you know that?” because i know everything! ok, not really. well, maybe. but that’s not why. the answer is because that’s where i was stationed when i was in the army. no foolin! and, i happened to see them filming the video! so did 99% of the males stationed on that kaserne. for obvious reasons. we liked to march. 

it turns out turley barracks was closed in 2008. i found some pictures on flickr.

and one final thought, dane cook has 3 albumns in the top 100 albumns on itunes. frat boy comedy coming from a guy thats 50. sweet.

my wandering from the captain jack video on youtube brought me to this. i apologize in advance: 

a quick post tonight, but i wanted to at least write something to keep with last nights post. i’m headed to bed early, for tomorrow i shall rise and get on an early flight to texas. i’ve actually never been there before, so it’s a new place to see, even if just for a short trip. i think i’ve gotten to used to not traveling in the past 3 weeks that i haven’t had to go anywhere, speaking of routines. it should be alright, though. we’ll be meeting a vendor that i’ve needed an “in” to for awhile, and i get to see some colleagues from the east coast that i don’t get to see much anymore. oh, and i started learning a new song. all in all, a crazy busy day, a short, early evening, and tomorrow is a whole different animal (i’m flying frontier!).

as always, i’ve been meaning to write for awhile. i’ve had all these (good) ideas that i’ve been wanting to write about but didn’t take notes and now, after a very long day, my head can’t recall what it once thought was the most important thing in the world.  i’ll work backward and see how far i get…

today we took the ski train up to winter park for some mountain fun. it was actually planned for my birthday, and it was a great present. the ski train itself is worth it, but being up there with kerri and two of my best friends makes it even better. it was a good day, though. it was a cold and we were reminded we need to upgrade kerri’s gear, but we made the most of it. my legs felt good, and my friends, who hadn’t been up there in over a year, did great. i brought the camera but didn’t use it; too cold, too overcast, but more on that later.  this paragraph already had a few things that sparked my failing memory.

my birthday. the big 3-4. i guess i’m destined to prefix all my birthdays from now on “the big”. i still don’t do birthdays, but k had the house decorated when i got home from work, which was awesome. we drank some wine, had dinner, and watched hockey. what more could i ask for? she got me a midi controller keyboard, which was way to expensive but that was very in line with what we’ve been doing musically lately. what a weird thing to say…”what we’ve been doing musically”. a couple of guitar lessons and all of a sudden i’m a musician.

speaking of music… the guitar lessons are going very well. we’re switching back to more classical work so i can focus on my note reading. i’m also continuing to read my music theory book, so things are starting to (somewhat) make sense.  a few weeks ago, kerri and i were playing with a keyboard and she was teaching me a few things, then we went for a few nights with me working on my songs (i have 3 “covers” that i play and (try to) sing) and her playing keyboard accompaniment.  music will always fascinate me, i think. it’s such a combination of so many things…theory, math, formulas, patterns, creativity, passion, soul, everything. i’m not nearly as advanced as i need to be to do the things i want to do, but i have some cool tools (including my birthday present) with which to experiment.

i actually took a few pictures yesterday, too. as i said, i took the camera with us on the train today, which was big for me. i didn’t use it, but it was there. yesterday we went with some friends to an acquaintance’s photography show, and it inspired me a bit. we got to talk to the photographer, and i actually sounded like i knew what i was talking about, which made me feel pretty good. i put two new pictures on kettlepot, which are the first new pictures i think i put up since i redid the website.

a new family guy is on tonight, so i’m totally distracted.

finito!

just finished (finally) watching donnie darko. i guess it is kind of a cult classic, though if you look at the cast i’m not sure why it never really got more attention. here is the imdb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246578/. i actually bought the movie over a year ago, but for some reason was compelled to watch it today.

the movie itself was interesting, dark, and leaves a lot of questions unanswered. but the reason for this post was more for the song at the end. mad world, performed by gary jules. i believe it was originally a tears for fears song. the song goes very well with the movie, and is hauntingly sad which may not come across entirely with the lyrics alone (which i’ve pasted below). but if you get a chance to hear the song, or watch the movie, it may be more clear.

Verse 1
All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, Worn out faces
Bright and early for the daily races
Going nowhere, Going nowhere
Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, No expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrows
No tomorrow, No tomorrow

Chorus
And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad
These dreams in which i’m dying, Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take
When people run in circles its a very very
Mad World, Mad World

Verse 2
Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
And they feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, Sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, No one knew me
Hello teacher tell me whats my lesson
Look right through me, Look right through me

Chorus
And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which i’m dying, Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take
When people run in circles it’s a very very
Mad World, Mad World

Enlargen your world

Mad World

as i sit here in my newly-purchased counting crows t-shirt from the concert on wednesday, i am motivated to find a t-shirt from another one of my favorite bands…the decemberists. lead singer colin meloy has a very unique voice, and a lot of the songs are stories to music. i really like the fact that you can listen to the words and follow it as if reading a book. for samples, check out apology song, the sporting life, the bagman’s gambit, and the mariner’s revenge song. yes, i am pushing this band on to anyone who will listen. i know they won’t be for everyone, but give them a proper chance. i included a link below where you can download a few of their songs for free.

the decemberists official site: http://www.decemberists.com/

download some mp3s here: http://www.buyolympia.com/killrockstars/Band=The+Decemberists

in my constant quest for new (and free) music, i stumbled upon to websites today. the first is NPR Live Concert Series. on the site, you can download most of their concerts, which is awesome.

searching for more decemberist music, i also found a blog that had links to a few concert series mp3’s, as well.

link 1: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4627437

link 2: http://somuchsilence.blogspot.com/

p.s. if you haven’t checked out the decemberists yet, give them a listen. colin meloy is the lead singer, and has a really great voice. a lot of their songs are stories…being a fan of lyrics as well as music, that works for me, as well. you can download their NPR set from the second link above…just search for colin meloy.