Jammin' on a Sunday morning

Sorry about the recent decline in activity, hope to get a lot of recording done in the near future. In the mean time, have a Sunday morning jam session :)

Space sounds

A long weekend again, so I had some time to record new stuff. Take a listen to the below video, it's a little bass/guitar/piano piece with some ambient synths and a some simple beats, all tied together with the message the astronauts from Apollo 8 sent to Earth. 

Enjoy!

More voxing around

Yesterday I continued experimenting with the Tonelab, and since I just watched Crazy Heart, I was kind of tuned to blues. I ended up recording a few layers of guitars, even a bit of slide play. I really like how the mixes sound using the Vox patches, it somehow feels more natural than my previous material.

 I searched the web for some matching images, an I put a few of them together to serve as some visual aid to the audio track. They are all pics of rusted out cars left in the dust, kind of the dead horses of modern cowboys. I like the feel of the whole thing, check it out.

(Links to all original images can be found in the video description, thanks to their respective creators.)

Enjoy!

Voxing around

The little home studio I'm building is getting bigger fast. I found a great deal these last few weeks, and I managed to put my hands on a second hand Vox Tonelab SE. This processor is one that I had my eyes on ever since I heard it at one of my friends place, in the office of The 4th Floor branding studio.

The Vox Tonelab SE - out of production, into my collection.

So what makes this old, outdated, heavy and huge floor effects unit so interesting for me? It has a vacuum tube driven preamp section, powered by a lonely 12AX7, which makes all the difference in warmth of tone, fatness of distortion, you name it. It has a different vibe than anything I ever played before as far as processors go. Generously makes up for the lack of USB compatibility and whatnot. And what I like about it compared to it's newer generation buddies is the twin assignable expression pedals - a real treat for creating unique dynamics and effects.

I have it since Monday this week, but today was the first time had a little me time with my new toy, so I quickly dialed up some inspiring tones, made a few clicks to get a pretty groovy drum track going, and recorded a few tracks to see how the unit would do. And it did great, at least I am very pleased with it - unlike with my general skills in improvising a guitar solo, which is a story for another day. Clean sound, very nice tones from the factory patches, easy to tweak, so yeah, it was well worth the buck, even though it's missing a button, and generally has a noticeable mileage.

For anyone curious this is what tonight's fiddling sounds like: 

I really hope I'll get around to doing some serious recording with this unit. Thanks to everyone who was involved in getting this piece into my hands. Cheers!

Suspended in a sunbeam

I finally got around to mixing down and tweaking a draft that has been sitting on my shelf for too long. I think this is one of the most complete songs I ever managed to write and record. The speech at the beginning is from the first chapter of Dr. Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot, entitled You are here. I have the audio from this [link]. (No copyright infringement intended.) The working title for this piece is 'Suspended in a sunbeam' - no doubt you will guess why after a listen.

I wanted to take a peek into what it means to think in a post-rock fashion. I really can't judge whether I succeeded or not, maybe you can be of assistance with this issue. I usually find myself in trouble categorizing my work.

The mix is far from perfect, somewhat uneven at parts, the kick drum could have a bit more... well... kick, there are some peaking parts, the solo guitar is a bit off and whatnot, but this is a track that I am sure I will take the time to rerecord, and mix properly, as I am really pleased with it. Maybe even include some keyboards - I can't decide if it makes it too crowded or not.

I am really curious of what anyone else thinks about this concept, so please, if you give it a listen, leave a comment on YouTube, any and all suggestions are more than welcome. Enjoy.