I’ve splashed some cash again, this time on a wee toolkit and an Egnater Tweaker 1×12″ combo. And some fruity Pi…
This entry was written by , posted on July 5, 2012 at 12:13 pm, filed under geekery, guitar, recording, tech, Video and tagged amps, cruztools groovetech, egnater tweaker, guitar, music, raspberry Pi, video, youtube. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I rang the GAS bell today…want to see what I got?
That’s right, bitches, a POD HD500 and a Fender Blacktop baritone Telecaster. Rawk. \m/
This entry was written by , posted on April 10, 2012 at 8:15 pm, filed under geekery, guitar, music, recording, tech, Video and tagged baritone, blacktop, fender, guitar, hd500, line 6, music, pod, recording, telecaster, video, youtube. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
The Metal Shop Podcast is back! You thought is was dead, but as Tenacious D taught us, you can’t kill the metal.
This entry was written by , posted on April 1, 2012 at 9:43 pm, filed under music, podcasting, recording, tech, Video and tagged bass, drums, guitar, metal, music, podcasting, recording, video, youtube. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
In November 2011, I took a trip down to Doncaster, to play guitar, drink beer, eat unhealthy food and spend time with some of the best folk I know. Join me, won’t you?
This entry was written by , posted on March 23, 2012 at 8:36 pm, filed under guitar, music, Video and tagged Doncaster, guitar, ukmg, video, youtube. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Song 3, after some teething troubles, is finally done. It’s called Complications, and it’s a lot shorter than the last song.
Download it HERE.
The song was based on an idea I was originally planning to do for Week 4, but I decided to use it for Week 3. Why?
Well, my original plan for this week was to revisit one of my old songs, Can You See Me?, but after programming the drums, putting down a bass part and having a play through on guitar, I decided I just wasn’t feeling it, and decided to use the new idea I’d put down on the Voice Memos app on my iPhone the night previous. And thus, Complications was born.
I could’ve quite easily made it longer – some sort of turnaround bridge section would’ve been nice, and maybe another verse and/or chorus could’ve been squeezed in, but in this case, I quite like it the way it is.
And yes, it’s not my best vocal performance. Been feeling very tired and under the weather today. 🙁 Still, at least I’m maintaining my 100% strike rate. 🙂
This entry was written by , posted on January 21, 2011 at 3:28 pm, filed under music, recording and tagged 52 weeks of music, guitar, music, recording, songwriting. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Well, here we are again, and after a few hours slaving over a hot DAW, I’m back with another all-new, all-original piece of music for your delectation.
This time, I’ve farted out a blatant Devin Townsend rip-off, all downtuning and delays and Lydian scales. The song is called Bring Me Home.
Download the song here – Bring Me Home
Some technical notes: this song uses my Yamaha RGX-420 Drop 6 baritone guitar, which is tuned down a fourth to B-E-A-D-F#-B as standard. Unfortunately, this required me to use my 5-string bass, which, to be frank, sounds a bit crap compared to my Ibanez 4-stringer. Anyone want to buy me a new 5-string bass?
Also, after polling for opinions on Twitter, I’m going to record a podcast where I talk about the songs and the recordings in a bit more detail. More on that when it’s done, hopefully later tonight. If not later tonight, then probably Saturday.
Anyway, enjoy the tunes, and be sure and tell yer pals!
This entry was written by , posted on January 11, 2011 at 5:25 pm, filed under 52 weeks of music, music, recording and tagged daw, guitar, music, podcast, pop, recording. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
So, we’re off and running in this mad project of mine, with a bouncy wee ditty called ‘Absentee’. I actually wrote this last week (hey, I can cheat a wee bit, it’s my project, so I make the rules. :P), but I did the bulk of the actual recording today. The only things left over from my original scratch demo were the MIDI drums, the keyboard solo and the guitar solo after the keyboard solo.
Download the song here – Absentee
The whole tune basically stemmed from the riff that makes up the intro and verses. The frantic octave-ey riff that plays in the instrumental section…I’m not entire sure how I came up with that. I just sort of…stumbled into it, I suppose. Cool riff though. 🙂
I had some disasters recording it. I actually had the whole thing done yesterday, but when I was doing one last save, Sonar crashed and somehow everything I had done went missing from the project file, even the stuff I had saved previously in the afternoon – the whole thing had basically reverted to the scratch demo. Much rage ensued, as anyone who follows me on Twitter can attest to. However, today, I picked up tools again and managed to get the song done without anything dying on me.
Yes, the vocals aren’t the greatest, the playing’s a wee bit iffy in spots and there’s a couple of bits of breathing left in the backing vocal bus, but I’m not bothered about that – the objective isn’t out-mixing the Black Album, it’s about writing and recording music and getting it out there, and so far, I’m succeeding.
Here’s to the next 51 weeks!
This entry was written by , posted on January 4, 2011 at 4:24 pm, filed under 52 weeks of music, music, recording and tagged 52 weeks of music, bass, guitar, music, pop, recording, rock, songwriting. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Today, I popped into Cash Generator, just to kill some time before a work meeting…and I saw a Godin LGXT-SA. Seymour Duncan pickups, piezo bridge for acoustic sounds, synth output, ebony fretboard…these bad boys retail for £1600 approx brand spanking new. The price tag for this one?
SIXTY.
FUCKING.
QUID.
I couldn’t get the debit card out fast enough.
It’s a bit rough around the edges (pots are a bit scratchy, no whammy bar arm, switch tip is missing off the pickup selector, the low E string is quiet in acoustic mode, needs a restring and a tidy up), but even so…£60. Fu-huck ME.
This can only mean one thing. I’m probably going to get T-boned by an 18-wheeler driving to work some day.
Did I mention it came with a Hiscox hardshell case? Well, it does.
A pic should be attached to this post, if I’ve used the iPhone WordPress app properly.
This entry was written by , posted on August 31, 2010 at 12:59 pm, filed under life, music and tagged epic win, godin, guitar, lgxt, music. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
This year, I’ve decided that my main goal for the year is to get back into playing live with other musicians. This mission gets under way properly this Sunday when I throw my hat in the ring for the vacant bass player position in the Glasgow hard rock outfit Blood Drum.
It’ll be a weekend of firsts; the first time I’ve ever auditioned for a band, the first time I’ll have done any serious motorway driving, and the first time I’ve ever driven myself to Glasgow.
I might do some in-progress updates about the whole deal. No doubt I’ll be tweeting, but I might throw some video or audio updates in there too. Wonder if there’s an Audioboo plugin for WordPress? 🙂
This entry was written by , posted on February 26, 2010 at 3:57 pm, filed under life, music and tagged bass, gigs, guitar, music. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I was walking up Titchfield St. in Kilmarnock this morning and I went past Cash Converters and I saw an Ibanez Jem 7VWH in the window. For £600.
Fuck. Me. Running.
It definitely wasn’t the cheapie one, it had the vine inlay running all the way down the neck. Wow, if I was any braver than I am I would’ve whipped out the credit card and bought it, even if only to sell on eBay to make a disgusting profit off.
If any of my fellow UKMGers, particularly the scottish ones, fancy jumping on this deal, go for it. 🙂
This entry was written by , posted on September 6, 2006 at 10:16 pm, filed under music and tagged bargain, guitar, music. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
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