Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Metal Fury

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Evocative but incorrect name for the song. Usually for instrumentals I just try to find something clever to say -- involving puns or alliteration. Metal Fury doesn't describe this at all. Cool riff though.

More instrumental white-boy funk. More Variax. More Logic Pro. Etc. This was done with the new bass -- but I only played one string. Hoo-ray for minimalism!

Head Out on the Highway.

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Created in Reason.

This is kind of psuedo-car commercial music. I wrote this after viewing a flash movie on the BMW site. Driving Wheel is an attempt to recreate a piece on the site -- strictly for practice.

Climb Aboard. We're Headin' to the Funky Junction.

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New track done in Logic Pro -- which crashes way more often than it should doing simple things.

Guitars are all Variax through various Guitar Amp Pro settings. The solo sound is pretty cool, too. Again, Variax, with a kind of Santana-esque guitar tone.

I think I learned something interesting with this track, too. Doubled guitars sound good if you double them by actually tracking the part twice. Check out the two riff guitars. I panned them left and right and used slightly different sounds on each. Now, my playing could be a lot better but even so, it certainly wakes up the sound.

I also played my new (used) Fender Squire P-bass. For 70 bucks, it sounds okay. Again, through the Logic Bass Amp plug in.

The drums and percussion are just loops.

Word.

Lo Jackson



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Another tune composed in Reason. Feel free to rap over it.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Along the Seine

A Nicola Conte inspired piece of nuevo-jazz nonsense. Created in Reason. Guitar loop sounds like it's about to die; breaking up and such and the bass could use some help. But overall, not too bad for one of my first compositions.

AlongtheSeine.mp3

Is it Live or Variax?


NovatoHayride.mp3

This is a tune I recorded in Logic with my new $300 Variax. You wouldn't think that you could get a good guitar for $300 but in this case you can, kind of.

The Variax is a guitar modeler. It basically imitates other guitars. Some better than others. On this track one guitar is an acoustic, one a typical Stratocaster and one is a Telecaster. All were played with the Variax. Pretty decent. I can't quite get the sound out of the Telecaster model to sound exactly like a Tele -- but I probably need to experiment with it a little more.