tmt music

I’ve been spending some time going through some old ideas that I put together using Reason when it was around version 2.0. Rather funny to see how these tracks were put together inside of Reason without all the extra things we have in Reason 4&5.

Anyhow… this one is based around a piano pattern and a synth line that flows in and out of the track. Again, not a finished track but merely a groove.

Not a very creative weekend for me. We had company in the house so I tend to limit my studio time when we have guests. All though there are times when I go down there to hide out.

This idea started as a bassline for a few hours… as simple as it is. And then progressed with the keyboard loop. Then I just started adding to it. This is about as far I got with it. It could be worthy of the Gino Project. We’ll see.

While I’m preparing another idea for the “Gino Project”, I thought I’d post up something I wrote a few years back using Garageband when it first came out. I think this one was written in early 2004. Enjoy!!

Actually this one has no title yet.. i just started calling it Equinox as of this evening. Another song for the electronica project that was sent to both the singer (Libby) and the sax player (Mario) for further development.

The track started out from something else I wrote a few months back which I started to hate. But I added a new guitar lick (the opening guitar with delays) and it began to take on a new life. A big kick and snare and a groovy bass line gets this one boppin your head for sho.

This is probably the third version of this song within 24hrs. Stay tuned for updates on this one in a couple weeks!!

The new electronica project that I’ve put together is starting to take shape. Frozen Air is a track that I started working on and sent a quick demo out to local DC female vocalist, Libby Dorot. She was able to record her lyrics and melody via Garageband and send me her demo. Below is a snippet of what she sent me. Sending the song out to Libby gave the track a whole new life and I’m looking forward to her coming into the studio to put down the final vocals.

I love to read and I love to learn. So that makes my reading material preferences a bit different from most people. You see, I love to read manuals, tech books and how-to stuff. I’ve read a large number of books that have to do with home studio recording but that one that sticks out and makes the most sense to me is Karl Coryat’s “Guerilla Home Recording”

Karl devotes “just enough” space to discuss the fundamentals of sound and acoustics and then dives right into what every home recording enthusiast needs to know. He covers EQ and which frequency ranges are the most important for various instruments and their sweet spots. Karl discusses the signal chain and gain structure. You’ll find useful info on dynamic processing such as compression and expansion. The techniques found in the book about Expanders/Gates is something I use all the time know when recording voice-overs and vocal now.

From mic placement on amps to different drum recording methods using as few as two mics or more. This book has inspired me to stop focusing on the gear i don’t have and start using the gear I do to make great recordings.

You can purchase this book at any local Borders Book Stores or on Amazon.Com. http://tinyurl.com/4efwtvr

Thanks to my lovely wife Michelle, the studio is continuing to grow and has become a comfortable place to work in. Last month we took the time to cut a hole in the wall that divides the control room and live room and installed two sheets of glass so i can see and communicate with anyone in that room. (drummer, vocalist, the dogs, etc)

Not long after that I installed some acoustic treatment on the walls to tighten up the sound in the control room for mixing purposes and I splattered a bunch in the live room to keep the reflections at bay.

Now we kinda did things a little backwards because after getting things set up, we decided the rooms really needed to be a painted. Oy!! So the next two weekends will be spent painting and the tough part will be painting around the acoustic foam.

So other than that the space is almost finished. But I can still comfortably work and record at this point. So let’s get started.

Happy New Year!!

I’ve procrastinated putting this blog up simply because I didn’t think anyone would care about anything I would have to say. But I realized that this site doesn’t just have to be for everyone else.. it can be for me as well. For years, I’ve been writing songs (or at least portions of songs) and never had a place to share them or make them available for others to enjoy, critique, or whatever. Of course there is FaceBook or SoundCloud or the multitudes of other audio sharing places and I’ll utilizing some of those as well.

After I create a piece of music, I let it sit with the intention of coming back to it and building on it. I find that more often than not.. it doesn’t happen. I’m hoping to change all of that. By posting my musical ideas for anyone to listen to then maybe that will not only encourage me to continue working on them but also help me keep track of my ideas.

So what’s this site about? Well, rather than bore you with the typical… “I started playing music at the age of 2 and learned how to play the banjo by the time I was 4.. blah blah blah”… I’m just going to start from TODAY and move forward. Of couse, I’ll be posting stuff I composed in the past as well as in the future but I’m going to focus on taking those old compositions and turning them into a finished product.

So I’ll be flying by the seat of my pants for awhile. And if you happen to stumble across my site. Welcome.. I hope you enjoy what I have to offer.