When I first heard them on the radio I swear that time stood still. I bought their album, played it non-stop on my stereo, I couldn't get my fill.
But that was over three years ago. (Where did they go?) It seems that nobody knows.
Time moves on, Like a faded song.
I joined their fan club, hung up posters, Taped their videos. I was their biggest fan.
Stood in line all night for tickets to their sold out show. They were the greatest band.
That all seems like so long ago. (Where did they go?) I hear they're back in the studio.
And now time moves on Like a hopeful song.
(Chorus) There's a new album coming out! (Coming out, coming out) There's a new album coming out! (Coming out tomorrow) There's a new record coming out! (Coming out, out, out) There's a new album coming out And I'll be the first one in line.
When I first learned I'd hear my band once more I swear my heart stood still.
I counted down the days til I would hit the record store The news was such a thrill.
Now there's only one day to go, (Where did time go?) To resurrect them on my stereo.
And now time moves on Like a skipping song.
(Chorus)
(Solo)
(Chorus)
When I got home I put the record on I couldn't trust my ears.
It seems the band had changed their sound And left me all alone, It was my greatest fear.
What happened to the band that I know? (Where did they go?) And now we've got three more years to go.
This song is dedicated to Underworld, Ben Folds, Genesis, Blur, and any other band that I really liked but took forever between albums before finally releasing something terrible and/or changing their style altogether into something I couldn't stand. Or almost as bad, break up altogether before they can produce something else (like Jellyfish, Imperial Drag, Sugarbomb.)
Of my recent songs, the first song that I posted was meant to feature the synthy-sounds of my Korg R3. The second one featured a lot more of the Roland JV-1080. For this one, the foundation is pretty much all built around my Roland digital piano.
I had this idea of a song about the joy that I have felt at times discovering a new band. There have been times when I've heard a new song where everything just disappears, time almost literally stands still, and the song holds my entire focus. It happened the first time I heard Jellyfish's "The Ghost at Number One" on the radio. When it got to the bridge "Mrs. Lynne the fruit of your labor..." I had to stop everything I was doing and just focus in on the song.
So after buying the album and memorizing all the songs, focus eventually shifts attention to waiting for the follow up. It seems like in the 70s albums were released annually. In the 80s closer to bi-annually. Then the 90s to today, it seems like 3 years is the norm. That's a long time to wait for another 40 minutes of music. So the song goes from the love of a band from the first album, to the excited anticipation of an announced follow up. Then it falls apart at the end when the fan finally gets the album, listens to it, and finds out the album isn't what was expected.
This happened to me when Underworld went from a pop band to a weird repetitive techno band that I just couldn't stomach. It also happened after Ben Folds went solo and after a great first album followed it up with "Songs For Silverman" three years later. The album was so disappointing and completely unforgettable that it serves as the main inspiration for the thoughts behind this song. (Ben Fold's has since somewhat made up for it with his last album, "Way To Normal," again released three years later.) Blur was another band that I loved but then shifted their sound to this weirder, harsher, experimental stuff that held little of what I originally loved about the band. I didn't discover Genesis until their "Invisible Touch" album which they didn't follow up for another 5 years with "We Can't Dance" which was quite a let down. Then 6 years later they released another album without Phil Collins, "Calling All Stations" which was even worse. (I've since discovered all their great albums prior to "Invisible Touch" which made up for their weaker later albums.) So these are all the pieces of my history that inspired this particular song.
I've been playing around with the opening melody on the piano for over a year now and had the opening verse in my head for sometime as well. I also had the chorus "There's a new album coming out" in mind as well. Though when I played it on the piano it never seemed to join up with the softer, slower verse part. When I started to work on recording it, I figured I'd just go ahead and put the two parts together and see if they fit. I think in the finished product they actually fit well, both musically and thematically.
As I said earlier, the main foundation of this song is recorded from my digital piano. I used an electric piano sound for most of the verses and a regular piano sound for the rest. I've never been a big fan of electric piano, at least not the adult-contemporary DX7 tinkly piano from the 80s. But I've enjoyed the sound from Supertramp, Billy Joel, Queen, and others in the 70s. I probably would have prefered to try and use a Wurlitzer if I had a good emulation. As it is, I think this one sounds pretty good without sounding to schmaltzy.
After working out the piano parts, I used a soft-synth for some brush-style drumming and used another soft-synth for the rest of the drums. I did all the drums by hand, and only used one loop for some tambourine during the solo. The bass parts are from the JV-1080, and then most of the other synthy background stuff and solo were done on the Korg R3. These were all a combination of presets, modified sounds, and sounds I built from scratch.
The distorted bass in the chorus is a direct reference to Ben Folds Five. I also took some inspiration from the sound of this song from Josh Fix and Ambrosia.
For the record, I've never bought a vinyl record. I had a small turntable when I was a kid where I used to play a Smurf's album and a Muppet rendition of "Bremen Town Musicians." I grew up mainly on cassettes until adopting CDs in the early 90s. For the purposes of this song I mention records, since I don't know anyone who looks fondly back at cassette tapes. I do still love finding a great record store--even if I only buy CDs.
The video, which is a bit more animated than my last one, is filled with images of a sampling of various albums that I've really loved over the years -- until the last verse where it's all images of albums I am less fond of.
Where have I been most of this month? Working hard on my second and latest song: "Infinite In Between." Presented here both through a static-image YouTube video and Soundcloud player at the bottom. Both present the same song.
This song is sort of my trippy pseudo-Moody Blues-inspired psychedelic synth odyssey. I used the JV-1080 a bit more this time and the R3 as more dressing, save for the lead parts. I also added a bit more piano; most of it is single octaves, but there are a few sections where I played a bit more.
Lyrically, the song was sort of inspired by the idea introduced to me way back in 9th grade, I believe, about how between any two points there is a theoretical infinite distance in between. For example, if you stand on the opposite side of the room from a wall, then walk half way to the wall, then half way again, then again, and repeat over and over again, you would theoretically never, ever reach the wall. There is an infinite amount of half-ways to pass through before you ever touch the wall. I coupled that idea with the idea of the undefined state. The point between ON and OFF. What is that point exactly? At what point does something stop being on and start being off? And what about that moment, however infinitely small where you are in between those two states which isn't defined. What if you get stuck there? As a programmer, I often get stuck there and it usually leads to unwanted results, like the infamous PC blue screen of death.
Anyway, once again, I wrote, performed, and recorded everything you hear on the track. The JV-1080 was used for drums, saxophone, and bass. The R3 was used for leads, vocodor, and various effects. I used a lot of presets and very few original or modified sounds. So any R3 owners might recognize a few of the sounds.
The main lead theme of the song, which is played in the intro and during the chorus, came about because I was trying to find a way to get into the song and while I was improvising I found the lead riff. It's actually a coincidence that it fit in with the chorus as well, since it was never in my head when I was originally composing the song. The instrumental break is also an improvised addition that I didn't originally plan on. I was going to just repeat the verse again with some type of solo over the top, but when I sat down to do that, the brassy fanfare popped up in my mind and I built something to suit that. Then added the vocodor and Moody Blues-esque swelling background chorus as well. I liked it so much I had to go back and end the song on it. Originally it would have ended right at the "I am the infinite in between" line at the end of the chorus, but instead I went back to this and faded out. The repeating high piano octaves that sort of add rhythm to several sections of the song came about due to how I have my keyboards set up. I sit near the top of my piano with my computer in between that and my R3. So my left hand which usually accompanies low note octaves could only play on the top of the piano. I was using it to keep time while I played around with the opening lead riff. I didn't intend for it to be part of the song, but then my wife commented how she liked it while listening to an early version of the song, so I kept that in there and through the rest of the song.
I'm still learning about mixing and I've heard a lot about compression so I put compression on everything. I don't really understand what I'm doing and as I was making the song, everything sounded really muddy and unclear. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Then I turned off the compression effect I had on the whole track and suddenly everything sprang to life. I really need to figure out what I'm doing there!
The final song clocks in at almost six minutes. I'm not sure how it got that long. It's really fairly straightforward pop arrangement of: intro, verse, bridge, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, instrumental, chorus, outro.
Anything else? I'll probably post the lyrics in a separate post later on.
Enjoy and leave a comment here or on one of the embedded files if you like it.
I just found a series of synthesizer tutorials on YouTube called "Synthesizer Boot Camp" by Simon Cann. Mr. Cann is the author of "How To Make A Noise" which I posted about earlier. Like his book, it's full of a lot of good information, though I've seen it done better and more clearly elsewhere.
If you see me looking in the mirror on the other side, Don't be afraid, I'm here to help you. I've got a warning. Listen to me and I'll be your guide. Black Rock, don't know where to find you.
(chorus) If there's black in your white If there's wrong in your right How come you've always gotta take so long? If there's day in your night If there's peace in your fight... Black Rock, don't know where to find you.
I can stop time, reverse it to the moment when you most regret. So tell me when do you want to go? It's never easy picking up the pieces with a broken net. Black Rock, don't know where to find you.
(repeat chorus)
I'll be good please tell when it's over. I'll be good please tell when it's over. I'll be good please tell when it's over. I've been good please now tell me that it's over.
Now it's all over, you're a hero, yes you saved the day. Stand up, be proud now and take a bow. My work here's finished, it's time to be on my way. Black Rock, don't know where to find you.
(repeat chorus)
I'll be good please tell when it's over. I'll be good please tell when it's over. I'll be good please tell when it's over. I've been good please now tell me that it's over.
While I'm on a video making kick, I made this for my Marble Madness Medley which I shared early on in this post:
I'm also experimenting with a site called SoundCloud for hosting/streaming music. You should be able to both listen to and download the song through this widget.
Here's my first fully original song that I put together with all my new equipment. The main synth sounds are almost all Korg R3. Some of the sounds are presets, most of the rest are either programmed from scratch or modified from the preset sounds. The drums come from the Roland JV-1080 as well as one or two minor synth sounds.
I've been playing around with the main theme for several months now, to the point that my 7 year old son has learned it and plays it regularly when he is on the keyboard. After coming up with the theme, I started to think of lyrics. Somehow after recently watching the terrible (and wonderful) movie "Troll 2" the idea of this poor dead ghost of a grandfather being forced to appear to his grandson to help him save his inept family from being eaten by goblins (not trolls despite the title) was on my mind and inspired the lyrics. They are only loosely based on the story, but since it was a source of inspiration, I included random images from the movie in the YouTube video. Feel free to ignore the video and just listen instead.
Finally, I have a lot of experience with writing music, and some of recording, but I have little-to-no experience mixing. So if anyone out there who sees this and has any comments to share in helping with getting a better final mix, I'd love to hear it.
This was posted on Synthtopia and it cracks me up. This is the intro to a video called "Introduction To Your Casio Keyboard." I remember all these sounds from my own Casio.
Currently on my link list on the right, my top link there is to a synth blog called Synthtopia. Every day there's always a bunch of posts about vintage and newer synthesizers, electronic bands and music, reviews for various gear and software, and random goofy electronic noises. Many posts have embedded video or audio to better show off their subject.
What I like most about Synthtopia is that they find and gather up all the good stuff so I don't have to!
This is a journal of my attempt to learn more about synthesizers and electronic music as well as a place to gather and sort all the things I'm finding on the web.
