I Found An New (Old) Track!

(from the Was I Really This Young? department)

Hi everyone!

I was going through some very old backups tonight - and I found a file from 2003 called "Personal Demos.wav".  

Hmm - that sounds intriguing...

Playing back the file, it appears that it contained some early attempts at doing twin-track recording in my apartment - possibly on my computer or on my DAT machine - or some combination of both.

There are about 4 song fragments in there - so I zeroed in on one that was mostly complete:  a cover of Mannequin by Wire.

Two basic parts:  acoustic guitar left channel - vocal right channel.  Talk about early Beatles! Super Wide Stereo!!

Although it was very raw - it was also recorded very cleanly.  It might take a little work - but there was definitely something there I could work with.

I started by importing the stereo file into Audacity and snipping out the song from the rest of the fragments.  

Next - I split the stereo file into two mono tracks so that I could work on the vocal and guitar parts separately.

First the vocal.  I decided not to compress it or tamper too much with it - I liked the live feel.  Instead - I just boosted the gain by 3 dB using Audacity's Amplify to balance it against the guitar volume.

Now - we need to make to sound like I'm actually in a room somewhere - instead of singing directly into the microphone.  I used Audacity's GVerb to add some ambiance - but kept the room small.

Roomsize: 10m

Reverb Time: 4s

Damping: 0.9

Input bandwidth: 0.75

Dry signal level: 0 db

Early Reflection Level: -22 dB

Tail level: -28 dB

(Adapted from The Quick Fix settings here: https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/GVerb#Instant_GVerb_settings)

That did the trick - vocals sound great.

Next guitar.  After adding the identical GVerb to it, and doing a quick mix panning the vocals slightly right and the guitar slightly left - I realized the guitar needed more work.

Reading thru the GVerb documentation - they mentioned that it was a "mono" reverb.  They also mentioned that by inverting the original signal and summing it with the GVerbed signal - you could isolate just the reverb.  

Viola!!!

So - here's what I did:

• I duplicated the guitar track 4 times, giving me 5 identical guitar tracks.  
• I added the 10m GVerb setting listed above to track 1.  
• I added the same GVerb setting - but with the room set to 20m - to track 2.  
• I inverted tracks 3 & 4.  
• I mixed track 1 (10m GVerb) and track 3 (inverted) and panned it 100% left.
• I mixed track 2 (20m GVerb) and track 4 (inverted) and panned it 100% right.
• I panned the original guitar track - track 5 (dry) - 50% left.

This left me with 4 tracks:

• 10m room reverb (guitar only) - 100% left, 
• guitar (dry) - 50% left
• voice (amplified 3dB) + 10m room reverb (vocal only) - center
• 20m room reverb (guitar only) - 100% right.

All that was left to do was mix it to stereo and make an MP4 out of it!  Here it is!

Pretty neat!  

Cheers,

Paul

Quick review - Pixies at the Paramount, Seattle - 12-Nov-2009

(From the Rock A My Soul department)

Hi everyone,

I've been extremely busy lately, so I haven't had a chance to see too many bands live. However - I did manage to catch one of the Pixies "Doolittle" shows.

Basically - it's the 20th anniversary of the album Doolittle. (Has it been that long? Sheesh!) So - they're doing a small tour playing the entire album - in order. The only other songs in the show are the b-sides from Doolittle. (More on that in a sec.)

So - yeah - it did rock. There's a couple of songs on there that, back in the day, they rarely played - plus one - Silver - that they never played at all.

They started out with a few b-sides to warm up. Namely: Dancing The Manta Ray, Weird At My School, Bailey's Walk & Manta Ray.

Then - Doolittle. Complete.

Odd pacing for a rock show, really. One normally expects a few hits, then an unknown song or two, then more hits. But - all of these songs are already known! So, you get the album pacing. Which isn't necessarily the best in a concert hall - but this worked for me.

(In case you've forgotten: Debaser, Tame, Wave Of Mutilation, I Bleed, Here Comes Your Man, Dead, Monkey Gone To Heaven, Mr. Grieves, Crackity Jones, La La Love You, No. 13 Baby, There Goes My Gun, Hey, Silver and Gouge Away)

A note here about the visuals. They started out with the short film "Un chien andalou" - this is the inspiration for Debaser, so it makes sense here. Then, they kept the lighting and visuals appropriate, but more complex than I usually associate with the Pixies. Artful video projections and good lighting for a change. That was welcome for me - it's about time they had some support on tour this way. One of the highlights was a video projection of them - while they were on stage looking at themselves. Very cool.

First encore was the remaining b-sides: Wave Of Mutilation (UK Surf) and Into The White. Into The White was an extended "freak out" version with tons of white smoke. (Get it? ^_^)

Then, we got a second encore. Since they were out of b-sides, this meant we got a few classics: Caribou, Vamos and Gigantic. Vamos was particularly extended with a Joey Santiago guitar solo. Since it was Joey, it wasn't a "classic guitar rawk moment". Instead, there was a lot of creative guitar playing - like using the guitar pickup switch as a percussion sound, and a short segment with a tossed drumstick.

The second encore was performed with the house lights up - this meant there was no expectations that the band would stick around after that. A good way to end.

Quick notes: Kim gave a running commentary throughout the show - announcing side changes of the vinyl, etc. I thought it was cute, anyway. ^_^ David & Joey were lively. Frank was in impressive voice throughout - he still screams like nobody's business. However - he didn't say a word to the audience the entire evening.

I did purchase the show - haven't had a chance to download it yet. Looking forward to checking it out now that I'm home, and away from the theater.

Cheers,
Paul

First Led Zeppelin, then My Bloody Valentine, now this?

Hi everyone,

Okay - this may not shiver your timbers like it does mine, but after Wire, my favorite band is Swervedriver.

And....

Swervedriver 2008 Reunion World Tour

The Road Is Long

So it looks like Swervedriver will hit the road once more. It all happened quite quickly and we met up in a pub in London last month and figured out what we'd like to do, which at this point is just heading out and playing some shows again.

As far as new recordings are concerned, I already have two albums to record next year (a new 'solo' and The Setting Suns debut) and they take priority. Maybe the Swervies can rustle up a new tune or two but really, there's more than enough going on with that back catalogue already.

I gotta say that something that really sparked my interest in this was hearing the live version of Sandblasted that has been posted for some time at swervedriver.com and subsequently at the MySpace page. I'd just never heard it played like that before. I mean, I guess I was there and everything, but it's got this great kinda country style to it that sounds like it might have only happened one night, and it's stuff like that that keeps the whole thing alive to me... not only in the music but the fact that other folks cared enough to record and post these recordings.

In the meantime this 'Bolts of Melody' tour has been going really good and finally it's reached the point where nobody bitches after the shows about the lack of Swervedriver songs! I guess because they've been leaving completely satiated by the set that culminates with the twelve minute C chord that is Ramonesland. Things are nicely in place to build on with another album next year and there's already a great album taking shape I think..

So I guess I'd better sleep now.. cheers - A

BTW - The 'A' stands for Adam Franklin, head swervie. I do have Bolts Of Melody - remind me to tell you about it sometime.

Cheers,
Paul

P.S. A slight update - looks like the classic Swervedriver song "Duel" will be in Burnout: Paradise!!! w00t! Hit the accelerator now, baby!

Queen Guitarist Brian May To Complete His Doctorate

(from the Killer Riffs, Killer Asteroids department)

Hi everyone,

Various news sources, including the Sydney Morning Herald, are indicating that Queen guitarist Brian May is going to complete his doctorate in Astrophysics, 30 years after discontinuing his studies to form the rock group Queen.

This is so cool on a number of levels - brainy rock people, doctorates at 60, astronomy - I don't know where to begin.

Congratulations, Brian!

(Also noted here at the BBC)

Cheers,
Paul