rabbitearsmotel

If you one of the 2 people who check out this blog, I moved it to:
http://rabbitearsmotel.wordpress.com/

it's a little more flexible. livejournal is awesome though.

I love the Astronomy Picture of the Day.

I Can't Imagine
This song is not really about anyone in particular, but more about a "type" of person it seems like I have run into repeatedly over the course of my existence. Could actually be about myself when I was younger. Everyone knows one of those people who are like a tornado ripping through everyone around them; yet everyone loves them because they are smart, funny, good looking or charming. The song itself is a long Pink Floyd kind of thing (i'm partial to that sort of thing); it's the kind of song I would listen too, but was mostly an experiment in playing with Logic. I am still interested in songwriting, but I have become very interested in the art of recording; not to say that I am successful at it (yet).


I know they kill people, but tornadoes are really cool.

I did this in Logic and tried out a couple of new things. I have been having problems getting a decent bass sound; always seems to be too boomy. So for this one, I EQed the bass kind of more trebl-ey, and then doubled the bass part with a synth EQed really low. I was reading an interview with someone who produces black metal bands, and he mentioned that he does it all the time. Synth provides the bottom end, while the bass gives the rhythm. Seems like it turned out okay.


This guy is a visionary; he brings the ancient traditions of Sumo to the world of black metal

There aren't any other "synth" sounds in here. Just a little bit of audio that I played with in the EXS24 sampler. I recorded my piano, reversed it and then made an instrument out of it. You can hear that sound pretty much all the way through the song. I ended up being really happy with that instrument, nice to play a chord and hear a reversed piano coming back at you.


My piano isn't much better.

There is also a flutey (flutish?) kind of sound that I made awhile ago with EXS. It's mostly the reverb send of a synth pad i was playing with, all of the dry sound is pretty much gone. Liked how it sounded at the time, so I loaded it into the sampler for future use. I usually don't throw anything away, even if a song sucks I can always sample cool noises in the song and use later for something else. My new fave reverb is EOS by Audio Damage It has a really great sound to it, a crazy hall algorithm, and it also has an infinite button that can get really ugly. Love it.

This was a wise purchase.

The piano itself is sampled too, although I didn't make that instrument. It's called the Rain Piano, and I bought it online for real cheap (they were having a sample). It's just a beat up old upright that was sampled. The company that sells it is called Sampletekk . They have a lot of good stuff available for download online.


Serious business

The guitar part is my Tele run through Podfarm and a leslie simulation in Logic. I was feeling like the middle eight wasn't very strong (still don't), and in an attempt at adding a little interest, I cut the lead guitar line up into bite sized pieces and then reversed some of them. The bridge was weird as I improvised the piano part, and when I got around to doing the vocals it wasn't really working like a song is supposed to. That's also how that little section with the bass petering out came into play. Suppose I could have actually written a part there, but then I would have had to re-record.


"My son is not a monster"

Drums are EZDrummer; the vintage expansion kit. I bought myself EZDrummer for my birthday last year. Ultrabeat in Logic is really cool, but I have a thing for classic rock and indie, so I needed a different app for that stuff. I think I want to get the EZDrummer jazz kit next; sounds really nice on the songs I've heard.


Wish I knew these guys in high school.

Lastly, I just wanted to pimp my friend Carlos' new record. Carlos is a freaking maniac. He does sort of a dark ambient thing, all tension, mood and an undercurrent of emotional violence. I have had the pleasure to work with him on more than a few tunes, and I have a bit part on this record. It is available for free, and I highly recommend it. Here is a link:

LIngering Last Drops

Streaming Audio LIngering Last Drops


Download this now.


Some of Carlos' artwork

Sorry I got so exited by all of the black metal pictures I found, that I kind of went nuts. Just in case you're feeling all skeezed out, here's a picture of a cute baby elephant playing.


Remind me to get one of these for my daughter.

Godzilla circuit bends. Way cool

Not really much to say in this installment. Haven't recorded much lately as life was getting in the way. This song I am posting was knocked ut pretty quickly and was basically an excuse to try out a fake theremin sound. I do have a real theremin, that my lovely wife gave me for xmas a few years ago, but it's almost impossible to play a melody on the thing.


ES2 is an amazing synth

The theremin sound was made in the ES2 synth that is part of Logic. Speaking of Logic, I am really excited about the new Logic 9. Some really cool features: convert to sample, some really neat audio flex features. It's all been said way better than I could explain it, but very excited. Now to just save up a couple hundred bucks (harder than you think with a kid).


This young man looks really comfortable with an infant

Anyways, not really sure what the song is about. I will probably try and do a re-mix of this, although I accidentally threw away the MIDI files for the drum track. Have been trying to learn how to think like a drummer, and am not always successful. I think I overdid it with the crash cymbals at the end of the song.


Before Logic there was the 4 track and some really weird shit

I should probably update this blog more often as the intent was to document my experience trying to learn how to make decent recordings in Logic. At this point I can't remember a whole lot about the process of this song. Played some stuff, made a few software instruments with samples, etc... Nothing enlightening or interesting in the slightest. I will leave you with some of my plastic block art that I do with my daughter. This is an owl. hope you like the song.


The Owl of Doom

Close The Door

Click that link above to hear the tune

I live in Echo Park, which is just north of downtown LA. It's really nice here: trees, hills, old houses, even a lake. I have been living with my wife in our house since maybe 2000. At the time, the neighborhood was kind of bad in an inner city way (packs of wild dogs, gangs, abandoned furniture on the street), but it was cool and cheap.



This is where we walk our dog. There isn't much open green space like this here in LA. You can understand why we chose to live here. The neighborhood was actually getting better too, coffee shops opening up, less gang activity, etc... But recently the economy has put an end to gentrification, and now we are left with high rents and people who have been pushed out. Couple of weeks ago, there was a shooting: 3 local gang members were hit, 2 died. That was like a block from our house.



So now it seems like the White people are afraid of the Hispanics, and the Hispanics are angry with the "white hipsters" who moved in. Lame. I really love the neighborhood, but at this point we just wish that we could move to a better neighborhood and not think about crap like gentrification, racial tension, and where in the hell we're going to send our kid for school.



"I Need Gasoline"

If you click the link, you can hear a song that I wrote about Echo Park. I don't know why I gave it that title, just kind of fit. I recorded this in Logic, with an MXL USB mic that I used for vocals and the acoustic guitar. Other than that, it's just my voice and some sounds I made with the Automat soft synth (freeware and really nice, go google it). I have no idea why someone made a guitar pedal called Echo Park, but kind of silly.

Drinking a Rolling Rock with my lady on the corduroy sofa. Good times.

I have a bunch of online friends that I record music with, my favorite gathering spot is macjams. It's a horrible name for a really great web site. There are some really talented people there, and it's really given me a kick in the butt to keep playing music. Occasionally there are challenges: write a song that sounds like it came off someone else's record, write an acoustic song with no overdubs, etc... My favorite challenge has been the LIOLI challenge. Basically the idea is: someone is the organizer and they pick a really horrible MIDI loop and you have to write a song around it. The beauty of MIDI is that you can change the sounds, the tempo, the pitch, you can drag the notes to different places. This challenge really inspired me to figure out how to work with MIDI, and was a lot of fun.


This is the best ice breaker ever

The MIDI loop that this song was based around was really awful. It was really bad dance sounding clavinet. Really horrible. I took the loop and turned it into a bass track and a percussion track. The rest of the song is me playing guitar and I tapped the drums out with my keyboard. It's about my wife, and how thrilled I used to get when I would see her. I decided to go for a real 80's vibe on this one; think Love & Rockets/Tones on Tails meets Gang of Four with a little Can thrown in. I don't usually sing like this, but it fit the song. Take a listen:

Got My Eyes On You


These are actual prosthetic eyes. Hope I never need a fake eye

I recorded this in Logic, and used the effects that come with it for the reverb and the drum sounds. For the echo-ey guitar part in the middle I used the TAL-Dub delay plug in. It's free, and I put a link for it in one of my earlier posts. I automated the delay plug in to make the pitch bends and other trippy sounds. Logic is great for editing effects and sound files, really intuitive I think. If anyone tells you that Logic is too difficult to use, don't believe them. They probably have troubles with their email too.


These guys make me happy

I got these pictures by typing in the name of the song and just grabbed a few random images. Google images is (sadly) probably the website that I visit the most.

When I was a kid I was really into UFOs. Apparently everyone else was too, judging by the popularity of books and documentaries on the subject at the time.



I really wanted to believe that there was some sort of intelligent, benevolent beings out there. Maybe if things ever got really bad, they would come save us.



Anytime I was outside at night, I kept a watchful eye out for them. Unfortunately I never saw one (or even thought I did). Now it's too late for me: I'm older and now that I am aware of the enormous distance between Earth and the nearest galaxy, I just don't feel like it's possible. Just another one of the buzzkills that go along with being an adult.



I wrote this song about having never seen one. I recorded this in Logic. I used EZDrummer to do the drum track and the rest is just guitar and bass that I played using the PodFarm amp modelling software.

"I've Never Seen a U.F.O."



Here's the blueprints for a flying saucer if you're inclined to try and make one. I wish you would.





Fund this on Youtube, some guys in France took some footage of a UFO over their house.

I like to kill time in many different ways. One of my favorites is scouring the internet for pictures of robots. For some reason, I just found that very embarrassing to type.



Not sure why they are so appealing to me. My daughter loves monkeys. Both robots and monkeys are kind of like people, but different. Cooler.



I was chatting with some friends, and one was irritated that he couldn't write code. I took his quote and turned it into a song. It's all done on synths that are in Logic. I had to write and record this in about a half an hour, otherwise it wouldn't have been funny anymore.
"Sapience(No Code, Can't Send Notes)"



The song is about a robot named Sapience who is stuck in space. His human companion has died and Sapience wrote the song on software that was loaded in him for his masters amusement. Sapience is confused by the emotions that he feels.



I like these robots as they are soft and plushy.



These are just appealing in that molded plastic sort of way. Kind of like toy soldiers, only cooler.

This is like the holy trinity for me, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, and David Bowie. I could never underestimate their impact on me.




My favorite Bowie records are probably Hunky Dory, The Man Who Sold THe World, Low & Heroes. I have a real fascination with the whole Berlin period. All of that cocaine and krautrock really served him well (as did the influence of Eno)



Eno was what made Roxy Music great, and his first 2 solo albums are essential. If I could only have one record, it would definitely be "Here Come the Warm Jets." Pop, glam, and great experimental songwriting. Perfect.



I wrote this song (the Berlin Years)with my friend "Kevin" . He sent me a drum track that he had constructed and I improvised all of the synth parts over what he had sent me. In my mind I kept picturing Bowie in the Berlin years, hung over and late for a show. The promoter is freaking out, so the band starts without him and jams on this until he gets there. Since there is no guitar on this, I guess Fripp has been up all night with him as well:

"The Berlin Years"



I just love this picture of Eno.

I wrote this song when I was really angry with someone, it's kind of a "screw you, go to hell" type of song. I didn't want it to be angry sounding though (too punk rock and predictable for my tastes); so instead I used Pink Floyd, Spiritualized and random Disney soundtracks as my inspiration. I was going for a lullaby mixed with some dissonance. The best part is that I can't even remember who I was angry at.
http://www.imeem.com/people/Js3nomQ/music/yxWukL-t/mount_st_helen_ill_be_sad/



All of the string arrangements are from instruments that are found in Logic, with the exception of the Fitch Cello. I feel like it has a nicer sound to it for a solo cello sound. I really love Logic, but the symphonic instruments are all ensemble for the most part. Here's a link to the Fitch Cello (it's free); he also has a bunch of instruments like toy pianos, drum kits, horns, etc... You'll have to Google those as his page seems to move around. Anyways here's the cello:
http://mac.softpedia.com/progDownload/Fitch-Cello-Download-25411.html



The beginning of the song (and the end) is a drum loop that I ran through CamelCrusher to add some grit to it. The drums in the verses are midi orchestral drums from the Apple Jampack 4. The synth I used is the FM synth that comes with Logic. There isn't a lot of it in there, just a few sweeps towards the end.



I found all of these pictures in Google images when I typed in "I'll Be Sad." They were just pictures that I liked, except for this last one which just baffles me. I guess if that was the amp that I had to use I'd be sad too.

About 10 years ago I had a friend whp had started dating a supermodel (Helena Christensen). They got pregnant and had to go to Denmark to have the baby; I guess that's where she comes from. Somehow I ended up taking care of their cat. They told me to pick him up in some house in Beachwood Canyon. I go up there, and the house is completely empty, except for the cat, a litter box and a pile of bad art leaning up against the wall. Craziest thing I've ever seen. This was a nice house, bigger than the one I share with my family. Apparently, the house was rented for the cat and Helena's manager would come up occasionally and feed him. I took the cat home, and after about a year when I didn't hear from his owners, I changed his name to Pablo. It used to be #5, guess that was a reference to Chanel. He is totally a member of the family now, my little girl loves him. We haven't heard from my friend or the supermodel in years; last I heard they had broken up and went their separate ways.

A few years ago we bought a new couch for our house. It was a big, forest green sort of thing and was not bad looking. Pablo doesn't go outside at all (supposedly cats live longer if they stay inside); anyways, Pablo doesn't get to work out his frustrations on field mice or whatever is lying around outside, so his primary outlet is the couch. Within a few months the couch looked like hell, so my wife got these nice slip covers for it. It looks much better now. Really clean and adult looking.



Every once in awhile you need to wash the slip covers, and they won't fit in our washer and dryer at home. Our little girl had dumped milk all over the couch, so I took them to the laundromat in Los Feliz (the one across the street from Trader Joes), and I ran into my friend. This friend is always looking for love. He's a really great guy, smart, funny as hell, talented, not bad looking. He has been through a few different relationships in the time that I've known him, but they never turned out the way that he had hoped. If you want to know why he is still looking, you'll have to ask him. So anyways, we're standing around the laundromat and started chatting and he told me that he was about to break up with his girlfriend. He said that it was over, and it had been over for awhile; that they were just propping it up like weekend at Bernies. I loved that analogy.

After my laundry was done, i went home and ended up writing a song that was inspired by our conversation. I used a little artistic license in the lyrics, I really doubt my friend dreams of suicide, puppy dogs and pretty girls. But I think I was in the ballpark. I recorded the song in about an hour, and emailed it to him. He ended up not breaking up with the girl after all. Whatever, his life; and I got a song out of it.

I did most of the song on a couple of Casio's that I have laying around my house. Since then I haven't really used my Casios as I found some good sound fonts that basically do the same thing. I usually get sound fonts at
http://www.sf2midi.com/
They are free, and all you have to do is sign up. They won't send you any Spam. To play sound fonts in Garageband, you need to get a player. Go to the sound font site I mentioned, get some sound fonts you like, and put them in a folder somewhere on your computer. Then open up your sound font player, and it will look for the sound fonts and play them. Try this one, it's free:
http://www.bismark.jp/bs-0/index.html
If you have Logic, the EXS24 will play any sound font you might have. If you have a different recording set-up, I have no idea. Try here:
http://www.google.com



So in the end, my friend wound up breaking up with that girl. Awhile later he started dating another girl but once he figured out that she was his girlfriend, they broke up. He said that he was doing a breakup playlist, but he didn't have the song I wrote for him anymore. Lost it when he got a new computer. I told him I would upload the song for him so here it is:

It Feels Wrong - Mount St. Helen

http://www.imeem.com/people/Js3nomQ/music/Mgfg7TGA/mount_st_helen_it_feels_wrong/

If I have my choice, I really prefer to record music with my computer. I have a kid though (and a job), so sometimes I don't get to play around with it until late at night when my little girl is asleep. So I have fun with other things. Here are some of the things that I love to kill time with. I am only listing free stuff, as the act of finding good free programs is in itself a fun way to waste time.


DrawIt Lite
The first is a program called DrawIt Lite. You can edit pictures, draw and do graphics with it. Kind of like a cross between Illustrator and Photoshop, although a very limited version of it. But you can actually accomplish a lot with it. I can't imagine that most people would actually need anything more than this. I did the picture below in like 45 seconds. It could certainly look a lot better, but I haven't bothered reading the manual; and I just wanted to put a picture up so that you would get the idea. There is a "pro" version, but I went the the free "lite" version. Here's the link:
http://www.bohemiancoding.com/?DrawIt





Paintbrush
Then there is a program called Paintbrush. It's Open Source, which I think is super cool. You can have a lot of fun drawing things with it. If you have one of those USB tablets, you can sync it up with the thing and get much better results. I don't have one; I did the drawing below with my finger on the scrolling area of my laptop. Very simple, it was really easy to get started on this app. Here's the link:
http://paintbrush.sourceforge.net/




Poladroid
This is silly, but fun to play with. You basically take a picture that's on your computer, and drag it into the Polaroid camera. You can shake it around and get some weird results. This is a picture of my daughter that I ran through it. Here's the link:
http://www.poladroid.net/



Phun
This one is addictive. Watch the video above to see what you can do with it. You basically just start moving things around and watch what happens. You can get pretty in-depth with it. I can't wait until my daughter is old to play around with this one. If you search this app on youtube, there are a million videos of what people have done with it. It's also available for PC, if you swing that way. Here's a link (highly recommended):
http://www.phunland.com/wiki/Home



RGB music lab
This is on the geekier side of things, but fun for anyone. Basically you load a picture into it, and then it reads the red, blue and green pixels and converts them into music. The notes are determined by the colors in the picture, and you can determine how loud they get, what instrumentation to use (up to 6 instruments), and what the intervals will be. I love using this and dragging the file into another project on Logic. After I do that, I'll edit out the crap, and save the good parts. Here's the link
http://www.kenjikojima.com/rgbmusiclab/index.html


Here's a link for an online Theremin. You need to have something like Wiretap Pro, or Soundflower to record the thing, if you want to use it in a music project that you may be working on. I used it in this song I did called Kyoto Glitch. I basically recorded a bunch of the theremin and then manipulated it in Logic, added some glitchy stuff, a toy piano i found online and then played a cello and a kyoto over the top of it. I made the glitchy stuff by running an audio file of a thumb being run over a comb through Supertrigga. Here's the link for the song:
http://www.imeem.com/people/Js3nomQ/music/bfvTJbyr/mount_st_helen_kyoto_glitch/
here's the link for the Theremin
http://www.flashmusicgames.com/generator/generator_music02.html



Pimp Your Mac
You don't really need any special software for this. Basically you just search around online for icons to replace the ones that come stock with your computer. I got the ones I used from this site:
http://interfacelift.com/icons-mac/
It's really easy. Basically you go to the application that you want to change the look of, hold down control and click once. Then you choose: get info. A box will open on the left side of the screen and it will tell you about that application. There is a picture in the top left hand corner of the box, and you just drag the new icon on top of that picture. That's it, changes automatically. Sometimes you can't get something to change unless you're some kind of programming wizard (like the finder, and your trash cans). In that case you can download Litelcon and it will do it for you. you just drag the icons you want to change into it and hit refresh. I've changed pretty much everything, apps, folders, drive images. I especially love my trash can, my ichat icon and the icon for itunes. You can do this on PC too, but I don't know how. Here's the link for the program I just mentioned:
http://mac-free.com/download/Litelcon.html



Is anyone reading this stuff? Leave a comment.

No Spring Chicken

I went to the doctor a week ago for a physical and everything was as expected, or so I thought. A couple days later, he called me up to tell me that my thyroid wasn't working. After doing a couple more tests, I got referred to an endocrinologist, who told me that my body thinks my thyroid is a foreign organism; apparently I have been creating antibodies and trying to kill it. Sounds worse than it is: the litany of symptoms is long, but treatable. I'm supposed to take meds for the rest of my life.

The weird part is that I didn't notice. I just assumed that I felt like hell because I am getting older, don't get to the gym as often as I would like, and get less sleep because we have a 2 year old.

Lately I have been thinking about aging, and I am usually okay with it. Every once in awhile it freaks me out, but only because I worry how it will effect my daughter. But overall, I'm doing okay. I feel like I am more aware of the changes in my outlook than in my body. I worry more about the world, the financial crisis is killing me, and the idea of a child suffering (even momentarily) is just too much for me. The fact that I think about this stuff is probably a good thing. Can't stay a selfish prick forever. Overall, I am fine with the whole process. Sometimes it can feel a little sad, but that's par for the course I suppose.

I wrote this song one day when I was thinking about all of this. The song itself is an experiment with Logic and with the classic rock genre. It seemed like when I was a kid listening to bands, that a lot of songs were written in the key of Am, and that they all had guitar solos. I never really do solo's, so I thought I would write a classic rock song in Am, and try my hand at some wailing. It ended up sounding like a lost track from Pink Floyd's "More" album.

"LISTEN TO THE SONG HERE"

I used the 70's drum kit that I have in Logic for the drums, which I pounded out on my keyboard. The guitar stuff is all run through PodFarm. I just plugged my Tele in and dialed in an AC-30 sound. The delay is the Stereo delay that comes with Logic. the stereo delay is a very cool effect as you can sync it up with the songs tempo and pan each delay anywhere in the stereo field that you want.

The picture is from Astronomy Picture of the Day. It's a website that NASA does, and it's one of my favorite things to look at. You're looking at ice crystals in the air glowing. very eerie looking. Here's a link to the site:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

Dub is one of those things that you either can't get enough, or you just want it to stop. I'm into it, it's so stoney sounding. I had never done a dub song before, so decide to give it a shot.

First I took a really simple drum loop and ran it through Supatrigga, which mangled it beyond belief. I cut out the sections that were lame and left the rest. Then I took the sound of a car that wouldn't start; slowed it down and sampled it, and then used that as a part of the beat. I also used some other sounds that I sampled for the beat as well (a door and some bird call are the only things i can remember).

After that, i needed a vocal. Since I am not jamaican and my voice would sound dumb, i went to http://www.freesound.org/ and looked around for a cool acapella vocal. after awhile I found a field recording of a Turkish fisherman singing and talking. Perfect. I dropped that into the track, and then sliced it up and moved things around until it fit. Then I put a dub sounding bass line under it.



The mixing is where the fun stuff started. I ran the "drums" through Camel Crusher to dirty them up a bit, and some delay. On the vocal track I ran it through the TAL-Dub Delay. It's basically a digital model of an Echoplex. I automated the vocal delay so that it varied throughout the song. Then I ran some of the leftover Supatrigga parts I didn't use through a lot of delay and messed with the delay rate in automation. That's what a lot of the weird sounds you hear are.

The whole thing took me about an hour and a half, and now I can say that I've made a dub song. I call it "Turkish Boat Ride"
http://www.imeem.com/people/Js3nomQ/music/BZH7VnEt/mount_st_helen_turkish_boat_ride/

I used to have to hide my Pink Floyd obsession from my friends. It wasn't cool, they were classic rock and we didn't listen to classic rock. My friend Bill and I would listen to them at his parent's house before we would go practice with our glam/punk/pop band. It was all very hush hush. No one ever went in his room, so they didn't see the poster he had up of the egyptian pyramids (the one that came with Dark Side of the Moon).

DSOTM is a fine album, but I really liked Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and Saucerful of Secrets. Syd hadn't gone crazy yet and was writing all of the songs. He had a weird way of playing guitar rhythms and stringing together a melody. For some reason it just appeals to me.

After leaving PInk Floyd he did 2 solo records: The Madcap Laughs, and Barrett. Both excellent. Then in the mid 70's, he really went off the deep end and wound up moving back in with his mother. He died in 2006. So weird to think of this stylish psych icon living with his mum in Cambridge, hiding from the world after taking too much acid. Sad.



anyways, I wrote a tribute song for Syd. It's not about him (it's actually about my wife Nicole), but I tried to write it in the fashion of a song from The Madcap Laughs. I recorded it badly on purpose to give it that sound.

http://www.imeem.com/people/Js3nomQ/music/gCYhGaRI/mount_st_helen_i_could_be_a_person_mp3/

I have been able to hook up with an old friend lately, and we started talking about making some music together again. Sounds like a great idea to me, years ago we put out a couple of records together. So I was playing him some of the stuff I have been working on. I record on my mac with Logic, and have basically been experimenting and trying to get a grasp on the software.

My friend really liked the music I sent him, but he also pointed out that I had completely gotten away from my "lo-fi indie rock" roots. As much as I like to branch out and be open minded, I had to admit that he was right. There is a part of me that will always love listening to a terrible sounding recording, with tons of tape hiss and a off key singer whining over the top of a sloppy band.

With that in mind, here are 2 covers I did.

The first is by Guided by Voices; it's called Kicker of Elves. I recorded this on a Tascam 4 track, with a crappy classical guitar. I used an SM57 to record the vocals and the guitar. The psychedelic sounds you hear are me blowing into the mic while it's plugged into a flanger.
"Kicker of Elves"

The second song is by Cat Power; it's called Metal Heart. One of my favorites. This has my old out of tune upright piano, some guitar run through a cheap delay pedal, and my friend scott doing a human beatbox through a toy megaphone that distorted it to death. Hope Chan approves.
"Metal Heart"

I want to pimp my wife while i'm here. she is an art director, and besides being aesthetically pleasing herself, she has a keen eye for art. her mission: that everyone in the world has cool art and doesn't go broke getting it. her website has a new show each month from all kinds of unknown and semi-famous types doing paintings, photography, and any other kind of art you can think of. go check it out:
http://www.artforemptywalls.com

I record a lot of music. Used to be a career choice, but now it's one of those little things I do to keep sane and blow off some steam. Having a love affair with sound means I am constantly looking for new ways to manipulate it. One of the ways I do it is with plug ins. Not having oodles of cash lying around, I love to search out and try freeware plug ins. It's astounding to me how many talented people are putting together quality sound tools, and then releasing them for free. You can find effects, instruments, synths, tools, all kinds of stuff. I'm on a mac, but most of these are available for Windows as well. Try some of these out, if you don't like them: throw them away. They're free.

I know that you can find anything for free on the internet, but show some class. Don't steal software. It's not cool. Someone spent a lot of time putting it together, and if you steal it you're an ass. If you and all of your buddies download a free version of Logic, eventually Apple will get tired of updating and working out bugs and such. Then I end up getting screwed, even though I have a legitimate copy. Don't steal software. If you can't pony up for something, then you don't want it that badly. Buying your recording software shows a commitment to your craft.

One more thing and the lecture ends: if you download shareware and like it: make sure you send some cash. It's rude and selfish to just take it, and totally uncalled for. These people are trusting that the people who use their stuff will do the right thing. They really believe that you will. As an example, there is a plug called GleetchLab that is a phenomenal shareware plug. you can do granular effects, spectral filtering, glitchy stuff; it's really cool. It was a shareware program, and I read an interview with the guy who put it together and he said that 1000's of people downloaded it and he got like 43 people to actually donate. That's messed up. He still does it, but now you have to pay. It's still dirt cheap and you should buy it. Here's a song I did with it:
"Kalimba Manipulation"

I can only tell you how to install a plug in on an intel mac, but if you're running something else Google it. On a newer mac running Leopard, you need to make sure that the plug ins you get are AU Universal Binary. You can then use them in Garageband or Logic.

Once you find something you want to try, download it. Sometimes they come with an installer. In that case just double-click and do what the installer says. But usually once you download a plug- in, you get a .zip file. On my computer they open automatically; if that doesn't happen on yours, you should be able to double click the file and it will open. If it doesn't get stuffit expander.

After opening the file, you will end up with something called a .component
Put the component in:
HD/users/home/library/audio/plug-ins/components
now you're done. open up Garageband or Logic and your instrument will be there (or your effect or whatever it is)

Here are some of my favorite freeware plug-ins:

"Camel Crusher"
It's basically like an overdrive, but you don't generally use it like a distortion pedal. You put it on vocals and drums to warm them up. You can use it to get subtle tube style saturation, or you can go crazy and make a wall of noise. i use this one constantly

"Channel"
This is another plug that makes your fancy ass mac sound more like an old skool recording setup. You have to check out the Neve emulation. I like to put it on a bus and warm up the whole mix.

"Supatrigga"
This is sick. It rearranges audio according to the parameters you set. Makes for really wild, glitchy, messed up sounds. Try putting a drum beat or a vocal through it. I will generally copy a track, run it through Supatrigga, and then edit out and save the really cool bits. it's not something you want to use for the whole song (or maybe you do).

"TAL-Bassline"
This is an emulation of the Roland SH-101 synth. Really good for basslines in electronic music, although you can do the usual analog bleeps and bloops if you automate it. TAL makes a whole bunch of really nice free plugs, so be sure and check out the rest of their website. Their Dub Delay is especially nice, as well as their phaser, flanger, Juno emulation, and bitcrusher. The phaser and the flanger don't show up in Logic for some reason (it won't validate them), but everything else does.

I'll post more freebies and shareware as I run across them.

For more freeware instruments and effects, check out these sites:
http://www.bigbluelounge.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=35967
http://www.kvraudio.com
http://www.dontcrack.com

Another story why you shouldn't steal software:
I bough a $14 sampler from "Expert Sleepers" . When I got a new Mac, it wasn't working. I sent an email and the guy who designs the software, spent his time duplicating my set up and figuring out how to make it work. It was a $14 application. You don't want to steal from someone like that. They also make a lot of really neat toys, that are dirt cheap. Check out Augustus Loop and tell me you don't feel like Robert Fripp.

Haven't used this since I got the account, so here goes. I am not really sure what makes me more lame: starting a blog at my age, or starting a blog at my age and not utilizing it. When we moved into our house back in 2000, there was a band who lived there. Can't remember them actually playing shows or anything, I think basically they were a bunch of rich kids who had a band to get girls. They lived like animals: standing water in the corners of the bathroom, garbage and dirty dishes piled high, there was a bag of Dorito's under the kitchen sink that was at least 5 years old (you could tell by the packaging). When they moved out they left all kinds of crap (including a VW they were going to come back for). I managed to fit most of their garbage in the VW, but kept the organ.

It was pretty cool, but basically a big, testy space-hog that only worked in fits and starts. It took 3 people to carry it out of the house and into the basement where I had a studio set up. I never actually used it as much as I planned; only once that I can remember. A couple of years later our house flooded and the thing became completely unreliable and smelled like mildew. Not knowing how to repair organs, I tried to put it on Craigsist but had no takers. I was giving the thing away, and still no one wanted it.

Eventually we had a baby and needed space in the basement for all of the accoutrements that go along with our tiny bundle of joy. There was no room in my new studio, so I tore the organ apart with a crowbar and salvaged some parts (the reverb unit and a speaker). then not wanting to pay someone to haul it away, I broke apart and put it all in the trash can. It was all a bit sad actually. My wife had the foresight to take pictures of the unseemly end.

Here is the song that I recorded with the organ. This was recorded on a Tascam 4 track with my friend Scott Matz playing drums. We did the guitar and the drums live at the same time, I overdubbed the bass (played through a Musicman 4x12) and the organ. Years later I found the song and dumped it into Garageband, where I tried to clean up the sound a bit, and added a synth part (I think). This song is the only recorded evidence I can find of that poor organ. Seems like a sin to trash a musical instrument; so this is my tribute:

http://www.macjams.com/song/30208