Music madness

I once was told that the foundation to Our taste in music, is link´d tothose day´s when we were much younger. 

That may well be the reason why My own taste in music belongs to the 50´s - 60´s. I know and recognise that music, and its even easy to tell witch artist was the composer of a song. Even when its performed by an aother artist.

That may well be the reason why all those songs that I´ve written seam to sound the same. They could easilky be recognised as my song´s.



Yesterday a thought popped up in my mind, a subject to write a song about. Less then an hour later the lyrics and music was ready for a first recordning attemt.

Am I a composer? Well in some sense I might call me self that. On the other hand during my life I´ve only  written 4 songs in Swedish! And possibly a thousand songs in English!

The lyrics in my song often tell stories related to a darker world, for someone unknown world of HBTQ, Fetish & people with BDSM as a lifestyle. My intention is to tell their stories in a realistic way, instead of just using four-letter words.

In the recording process I´m forced to use my own talent both in regards of playing isntruments and to add the vocal´s on a recording. This is way to foten a huge problem for me, as I very often tend to write lyrics with a femnale voice in mind, and not a male voice. With that in mind i have to admit that I do love to sing, but as far as I know there may not be that many who enjoys me vocal performance.


Yesterday´s  song was once again written for a female voice, and I dont store such a sweet voice in my collection of instruments. 



Already a year ago I bought an electronic voicegadget. The blue box can perform harmonies, and even transform a male voice to something near to a female voice. Unfortinutly the use of it is not easy at all, I tried at least a hundred times to use it in hope to find something female!



 With this my latest song, it seams that I´m getting closer. There seam to be so much to learn in regards of how to sing, how to formulate each word, and how to make the Blue voice box perform the way I want it to do.



As usual I search among the drumsounds in my two keyboards, and finally when I found a suitible drumpattern I start the recording. The rhytm guitar in this case me Bison guitar, then the bass a Hofner copy thats really nice. Each channel is recorded until finally everything sounds almost like the song I can hear in my head.

"YOU LIED TO ME"

“you lied to me”

Music/lyrics by MJ

20131020

Chorus:

Am          Am       G             G

He, You lied to me, you fucking lied to me.

F                  G             Am       am

You sold me the dream, but you lied to me.

Dm           G             C            Am

You said I´m your Master, but now youre a slave.

F              G             A        A             

You need to be used, said you know to behave.

Verse:

E             E          Am        am

I cant go on this way with a man like you.

F          G            Am          D

Someone that told he need, a slut like me.

E           E           Am       Am

But you´re just a fake, it´s true cant be denied.

F             G             E         E

You can never own a slut me.

I know I am and always be a slut and a slave

In collar n chain for My man to use.

I am the one who need the love and pain He give.

A Master who know to play the blue´s on my back.

Break:

Dm                        Dm                    Am          Am

So pack your things and leave me while you can.

F                   F              Am          Am

Youre not a Master, not my man.

G        G         am       Am

just a fucking lier a fake of a slave

G              F             E         E

You´ll never be, my of man.

New recording of old song

Among hundreds of songs written I have to admit that only a few of them may be called good. Then sometimes a song that I written seam to penetrat my mind. I make new recordings of it in hope to get it better, or perfect.

So there it was, an idea of a song. Heard a song on the radio with a popular Swedish group. It made me wonder, why the hell could their sinple song with three notes be a HIT. So with the use of their three notes and two more I started to write me masterpiece!

Why not make a modern styled tune in the same manner as  Ravel´s - Bolero. 

So after an hour or so I set there with me guitar in hand and a song of no less then ten minutes. A song that was rather sweet and nice in the beguinning and reaching its peak during the 9th minute and ending sweet and soft.

As it seams to get colder everyday, working outside the house with cars can only be done at the afternoons while the sun is shining, so I used late evenings and even the hours before lunch to make yet another recording of this song.

S & M interlude

You can listen to the demo following this link.

Junkyard or...

A small guesthouse in our garden, app 30 sq metres divided into two rooms. A house that´s become a nice space where I can play my music and dream of fortunes and fame. Somehow it started with a couple of guitars and amplifiers that by now have grown in porportions like mad.

Searching every fleamarket, and scrapyards nearby have given me lot´s of gadgets that can be used in my little studio. Cause thats what I call it. Many of those gadgets have been brought home in hope they could be repair´d and later used as some kind of studio equipment and lucky for me, it has worked out just fine.

Today at least I can call it a Studio, even if it isnt HighTech in any way. Main part of the things is old things. Even the computer is regarded old by today´s standards. But still it works fine for me and have not cost a load of money.

Both walls of the outer room is by now stacked by amplifiers and speakers. 

the mighty BURNS Orbit Three D12. the VOX AD60 witha homemade cabinet.

playroom´s PA & mixer stack. including 2 old scrapyard mixers, 400 watt power-amp,

80 watt Stereoamplifier, EQ units and some sound effect gadget in the stack. Main part of those gadgets come´s from the scrapyard, even the heartshaped chair is a scrap finding.

me sweet little BURNS Double B 100 watt bass amp and a cab with 15 inch FANE speaker. Also one more homebuilt speaker system with 2 x 12". not to forget the cheap scrapyard guitar.

in the control room I stack´d up no less then 2 electronic organs from the 60´s and 2 keyboard´s. Keyboards bought cheap second hand, organs collected for free as scrap. Those organs that was so popular during the 60´s-70´s and costed a fortune has absolutly no value today. You can have them for free, still they are very nice sounding instruments.

Three heart´s in the system. SONY reel to reel taperecorders used with the hope of getting some kind of 60´s sound to the recorded tracks.

the modern heart of the studio. A computer, a mixer and a Sappire 6 soundcard. Mainly caused by "no money" I use a recording program called AudaCity. A nice tool that I´ve learned to use and it works fine for me.

so here on a swivel chair with an old guitar as a seat I can look out thrue the window in to the playroom.

more MAD gadgets

What to do with all things collected. Load of thing´s at no use piled in a corner. So I restarted a smal lproject of mine using the pedalboard with speakers and pedal from an old electronic organ.

This unit was the partly modified to house a 50 watt poweramplifier. A small kareoke preamp with some kind of echo inside, and a load of telejacks.

Finally the project was ready, and whoow it did work really great. The speakers was maybe a bit to small, bit using a telejack I can add external cabinets to this little gadget.

So everything went like inteded, I managed to produce a monitor system that actually  works, and there is also possibilities to connect the unit to the main amp-system.

Already a couple of days ago I managed to repair the 400 watt PA-power amplifier. this amp is going to produce power enough for the almost 15 sq-metre playroom in me studio. 

Yes - No - how to make it workD

During the last week or so, might been mmore I´ve been working  hard with one of My latest tune´s "COLD STEEL"

It may well be a common problem among musicians, the search for the perfect sound, regarding both the sound coming out of the amplifier´s and the sound recorded. Sometimes, well almost always I do get desperate in Me search for the perfect sound. With the hope to make a recording that sound as perfect as the sound you can hear inside your head.

To record a song is´nt an easy job at all. Maybe if you set up your band and record everything live, you´ll get the sound if not perfect, almost good.

So You start collecting and buying loads of recording equipment that fills your entire home-studio.

So once again I started the process of recording my song as I thought it was´nt perfect, it didnt sound the way I wanted it. By now the the two small rooms in our former guesthouse has been turned into My studio and stacked with gear. There´s even a so called controlroom.

Beeing an ole man, I still live in the world of Reel-to-Reel recording. Those was the day´s. Today I´ve been modernised slightly using my computer and the possibilities of a recording program called "AUDACITY". A program that was found free at the net, and after the first weeks of testing it It proved to work for me.

The intention with this program may well have been to contruct a modern program with the possibilities of today, but I use it in a similar manner as I use a multichannel taperecorder.

In other word´s, I do record each channel separatly. This means that every recording must be if not perfect, then almost perfect. I cant play the wrong chord-note.



So I start the job with searching for the right drumpattern in one of my keyboards. The old Casio CTK was really nice during the last years, but at this very moment I seam to prefere the drumpatterns from my latest gadget, the Yamaha unit.

The drumpattern is then recorded in stereo. In this tune I also  used the programs built in equaliser to make this pattern sound the way I wanted.



Next step is to record a rhytmguitar as a main structure for the song, this will possibly later be deleted in favour of new rhytmguitar channels. I mainly use my very nice Rämje Stratocaster as a Rhytmguitar thrue a VOX amplifier. 
After a couple of hours playing different styled rhytmguitars its time to play the bass. One of me three basses will be used with the same VOX amp line´d directly to the mixer. During the last weeks I´ve been using the inbuildt Octaviser a lot to get an extra low bassound. When this the first bass channel is recorded its time to fire the big one. My latest gadget is a 100 watts Burns-Baldwin bassamplifier with 2x15 inch speakers. The sound of this unit is in one word extreme. Three different microphones in front of the cabinet.



Finally I use two channels to record the leadguitar. One of them distorted with the help of a Burns Buzzaround Fuzxzbox from the early 60´s. the other one clean.

Almost or at least partly finished I start to mix each channel using three different sets of monitors. All in hope to get the best sound possible.

As I did´nt find the earlier recordings of the song good enough, I wanted to try out a new sollution to my problem. So with the mix in order I followed  my normal way of working. The song was recorded on my MiniDisc unit, and from that moved to a tape recorder.

The result showed that those old Reel-to-Reel recorders still do the job! Suddenly the recording did sound much better. 

complet chain of gadgets look like this:

Computer using AUDACITY and a Focusrite and and external recording mixer.

channel 1-2 / Drumpattern of aYamaha keyboard line´d into the recording mixer.
channel 3 / a Rhytmguitar that gives a clue of the chord structure of the song, 
later to be deleted.

channel 4-5-6 / Rhytmguitar, usually a Rämje Stratocaster line´d with a VOX AD60VTX. buildt in reverb used and AC30 settings.

channel 7 / Bass. In this song a Höfner Violin COPY used for the bassline. The VOX amp with both reverb and octaviser is used lined to the mixer.




channel 8 / Bass. The same bass used but now connected to my Burns-Baldwin BB100 amp with 2 x 15 inch speakers. 3 different microphones used to record its great sound.

channel 9-10 / Lead guitar. the Burns Marquee thrue a Burns Buzzaround fuzzbox, to a Burns Orbit Three amplifier is used or the VOX amp when I want some echo in the sound.

So once more, here´s the latest recording made of this simple tune.

COLD STEEL

no - yes- no never -yes it works

Natuarly I´ve already written about todays subject, but here come`s yet another  blog filled with my thoughts.

To make - write music is such a joy. Jump Started with a couple of words that pops up in my mind and give me the first line. Might be the parts of a chorus but can also be a line in the verse. 

Now I du hurry to find a functioning pen and paper, still those two items is the winner instead of the computer.  Often those words pop up in my mind while I´m behind the steeringwheel in my car. It may be a hazard, driving in 70 mph and trying to find pen and paper somewhere in the car.



Mking in music on my behalf also means the urgent need of a big mug filled with black coffey

As usual I get stuck somewhere in the middle of the song before I finally reach the last words and realise that I written a Real Hit!!  The feeling is in fact close to those rare occations when I realise that I ´m a lucky father.

The brand new song now run´s the 15 metres to my little so called studio wich is in a small former guesthouse in our garden. Now it´s time to find the perfect rhythm and drum pattern. 



Usually done with the help of my keyboards. 



The drumpattern is then to be recorded and a rhytm guitar comes next. By now it´s in the middle of the night and a couple of channels have been recorded in hope that this is the first and final take.



The next day is almost a copy of the first one after realising that it was all wrong. the drumpatterns sounds like shit, all the instruments do the same. Still I can always hear the song inside my head, and there it sounds GREAT! 
Now Im in trouble cause I need another sound, another way to play and sing the song.

Finally and that aint the second day, the song has now been recorded several times during a couple of days and weeks. At least it´s now much closer to the song in my head-mind.

Drumpatterns seams okay, no less then three different rhytmguitars, organ mainly in the left channel and sweet violins to the right. The fuzz lead guitar in the middle and yet another clean lead guitar partly to the left. At this stage after a couple of hours mixing the backtrack is ready!!!!

Cold Steel - instrumental

here´s the backtracks as instrumental, as usual the my songs always tend to be more then 5 minutes long. In this case more then 6 minutes.

With the intetion to make the song sound like a Hard Rock tune, I used my homemade Dare-Burns Bass. This bass can give an ultra low tone caused by its 4 pickup design. Neck pickup into me Burns BB100 amp furter to no less the three 15inch speaker give such a sweet thundering bass. Exept that during the recording session two out of three speakers just popped and said:
GOOD BYE!!!!!

Satisfied so far it´s time to get some vocals on tape. Well just the expression as most others I use a computer to record my songs. Uses this free download program from AudaCity that I do like cause by now I do understand how it works. And its no cost!



In hope to obtain the best sound that my money can buy I pick the microphone and often connect it to my voicebox. All in hope to get the vocals proper. this song is written as many of my songs with a female voice in mind, the voicebox is meant to help me get something similar of a female voice, it doesnt.



Yet a couple of hours spent on singing the lead vocal and harmonies and the song is finally ready. Well not ready for production, Ready means it can be used as a DEMO and hopefully  some of me bandmemembers and freinds could listen to it and make the final judgement. 
Good or Bad!!


So here is the DEMO version of my latest composition.
Cold Steel

Gadget world

I guess all kind of musicians is searching for that perfect sound. Trying to write the best song ever, and make it sound like a million pound´s!

What do I need? In my case there some gadget´s needed among them a nice guitar, an amplifier and if possible a couple of freindly musician´s to back up the tune. 

So I´ve got the guitar and the amplifier, but those musicians cant be found in my small studio, at least not when I do need em! so I go for the substitute. Some kind of gadgets in form of a drum-machine.  As I´m not the man to program such a gadet I go for a keyboard with buildt in drumsound´s. 

During the last  years I´ve been using a CASIO CTK keyboard witch have done a great job, but very now and then I dream about other sound´s coming from the keyboard.

So I´m alway´s searching for a complement to my CTK and a couple of day´s ago I found a nice little gadget at a fleamarket. With the price of 15.oo £ there was no use in testing it. 

Arriving home it was connected to power and a big smile took its place in me face, realising that what I´ve bought was a true bargain. The Yamaha E313 showed up to have loads of new and nice sounding drumpatterns. It was also touch sensetive.

The first part was done, next was to connect it to the small mixer I use for me keyboards and organs. And not to forget make them all work together. Took me at least an hour. So until i found someone who can play the drum´s I do have a couple of substitute´s!

On the other hand in search for that perfect sound it seams to be extremly crowded. Soon there will be no more room for all instruments and gadgets. Already and old Farfisa organ have to be stored in the dark.

I do realise that it´s about time to sell some of the instruments and amp´s that I no longer need.

During the last week´s since I´ve got the BURNS BB-100 working I hade some real problems in recording the bass. With 3x 15" speakers the bass seam to be to low for those microphone´s that I had. I´ve tried out at least 10 different mic´s that could perform the way I wanted. But somewhere back in my mind I did remember that once I´ve bought some weird mic´s. 

I searched high and low and couldnt find em. A week later I even dreamed about those mic´s and in my dream I found em, and the dream also showed that they was right for the job. The morning after I found them at the same place where I stored em, just so I could find em. And for sure, those mic´s did the job. Noiw it was possible for me to record the sound from my bass´es!

Instruments and amps for sale!!

"Egmond Solid 7 - 1960"

the guitar known as Paul McCartney´s first is in very good condition and is a nice instrument with a weird tremolosystem. It´s neck have been reinforced with a U-shaped steelbar(cant be seen)

"GALSON "lawsuit" Jazzbass 1972"

extremly nice jazzbass wtih frets taken away. Never used on stage. Equipped with original Fender covers. One of a kind, much better then most Fender´s.

"SQUIRE Stratocaster by Fender 2005"

very good condition and set up for maximum performance.

"ROCKSTER 2004" 

Cool guitar with one humbucker and 2 singelcoil. A few dent on its body otherwise the perfect beguinners guitar.

LINE 6 15 amp and cab. Formely a combo split to amp and cab. 

MIDISTART midikeyboard. Dont even know how to use it.