SamuelBLupowitz
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Posts posted by SamuelBLupowitz
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I eagerly await the commandments of Deity 2.0!note: if MIDI is the language of the gods, we are in serious trouble -
A friend and colleague of mine wired up his house for FireWire back in the mid-aughts, networked ports in the walls and such. Poor soul!Firewire was the sh8t several years ago. One of those technologies that came and went pretty fast. -
I was born in 1989, and I started digging into the Beatles when I was 10 or 11. John Lennon was already spoken of as a martyr by then (and while George Harrison passed, still too soon, right as my interest in the Beatles was peaking, it wasn't the same kind of shocking tragedy). I'm sure it changed the way I perceived the members of the band relative to someone who caught them in real time on the Ed Sullivan show when they flipped the world upside down... I connected with Paul McCartney in a big way early on, because he still seemed real and vital, making records, telling stories, touring... Lennon felt like a mythological being who had walked the earth in a different time.
It's not really fair to him to view him that way. He was a complex person, by many accounts someone who could be difficult and cruel, someone with a lot of trauma in a time when it wasn't generally accepted or encouraged for men to deal with their emotional and mental health. He was also someone who aspired to change himself and the world, and was much loved by the people close to him.
It's funny, these past few years, and the pandemic in particular, has made me wonder about artists we've lost, especially ones who had a lot to say about society and global events. I'd love a peek into the alternate universe where he was still around to write, speak, or sing about what we're going through. "All I want is the truth; just gimme some truth."
But since I didn't get to share the planet with John Lennon at any point, I'm eternally grateful for his part in the music that set me on my path and shaped me to such a great degree.
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I'd seen some of that Jessica instructional video before (I spent a few weeks learning that solo some years back), but never the whole thing. Man, I could watch him play forever. You know, sometimes with players I'm blown away by harmonic understanding or technical execution or any number of ideas that seem totally outside of my vocabulary... but this is different. It's amazing how he takes a simple two-chord pattern, and plays mostly major pentatonic over it, but gives it so much energy, life, melody, and sense of beginning, middle, and end. It makes sense that the original solo was an improvisation, since it's mostly pretty "lick-based,"I guess, but when I throw my bag o' piano riffs at something, it doesn't wind up sounding as iconic as that!
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Here's a variation on the theme of using tube amps to bring sampled/modeled electric pianos and such to life -- if your acoustic piano sound feels too pristine or synthetic, try running that through some speakers and recording the room sound, too.
I know, it sounds silly. And maybe it's wrong for your production (of course, anything can be wrong for your production, no matter how cool it is out of context). But I've learned firsthand how much more "authenticity" that can lend a digital piano sound, particularly if you're tracking with a band.
Here is an article from bmi.com about exactly this phenomenon (I'm the keyboard player mentioned in the first paragraph). I swear, having some room bleed into those dynamic (!) mics on the speakers was the difference between "kind of a shitty piano sound" and "hey, he's rocking a piano with a band."
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Yeah, that's how I felt about it when I tried it, too. I think the modeling sound over samples isn't necessarily for everybody, but for certain aesthetics and playing approaches it just hits those nerve centers just right. Makes me happy.
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Jerry Lee's made a life out of getting away with inappropriate things ...
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I mean, is the free market the reason we have those things? Maybe it's the reason we have so many options... but I don't know, I really don't feel that my experience in my brief 31 years has shown me the benefits of a system that rewards only nonstop growth, where making the same amount of money as the previous year means your endeavor is failing. I'd like to think if Uli Behringer, for instance, is so enamored with vintage synths, and they weren't accessible, he would still make them for people, he just wouldn't have to be such a dick to get to get his business to the point where he could afford to do it.Capitalism has the built-in stressor of being outstanding and horrific at the same time, since the free market is why we have synths, higher standards of living and the freedom to eat up resources arguing the point on here. Lord Elpus.But I don't know, as a creative person who has also poured hours and hours of time and effort and experience into creating music (among other things) even though it costs more by far than I've ever made back from it, I've never been able to follow the argument that human beings need financial incentive to achieve things.
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I fully agree with the tenor and content of your post... except I must sheepishly admit I didn't know the trick about Shift. Probably because I've never read the Logic manual. Oops.My other beef isn't with the people doing the videos as much as with the cluelessness of the people watching them. I mean, you think most people would know by now that if you hold Shift while moving a control, it fine-tunes it...right? So I saw a video where a guy gave this as a tip, and there were a zillion comments about what a great tip this was, how it changed their lives, etc. Again, no diss on the person giving the tip - but he sure has a much better handle on how few people read manuals, or even bother to look up the list of keyboard shortcuts, than I do
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[video:youtube]
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That's what a fool believes, Mark.Kenny Loggins is a term muttered by frustrated Scottish people who can"t remember their password.I believe that"s where Kenny Loggins name was derived from at birth.
Very true. I scream 'Kenny Loggins' when I step on my son"s Legos.
I scream the same for similar type injuries. Until I realize I"m alright.
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Oh, I cannot wait to watch this. Chuck Leavell has been a favorite player of mine since the days long ago when my dad would put on the Allman Brothers' Greatest Hits and point out his playing in Jessica.
Also, a lot of starpower in that trailer, but isn't Keith Richards just the greatest?
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well, son of a... wonder if that"s the simple solution to some of my noise issues with the Hammond. See, I started the thread to brag, and look at all the helpful tips I"m getting!When you are looking at the organ from the front there is a matching transformer on the left side. Generally you don"t put a Leslie up against that side of the organ or you can get hum. If you do you move the Leslie over a bit. I like my Leslie away from me at home. They sound nice in corners. -
This is a useful resource, thanks! I had heard legends of the potential for pitch instability on analog synthesizers, but having never owned one myself, I was marveling at hearing the oscillators start to drift, particularly when I was trying to overdub a part with the oscillators tuned a fifth apart and I was hearing the interval change as I played. So far the randomness has been good for creativity!Be aware that the pitch is not always stable, you may find this link useful: https://www.adventures-in-audio.com/classic-synthesizer-the-minimoog-tuning-the-minimoog/ -
A friend of mine was generous enough to loan me his honest-to-goodness Model D while he's in grad school in Arizona (his family's home is around the corner from me) and I am having a blast playing around with the real thing for the first time. Apparently my brain can engage with how synthesis works a lot better when I have actual knobs in front of me, though the gaps in my knowledge are laid bare with no presets or patch memory to fall back on. Either way, I've been working on a solo album the last couple of weeks, and as soon as I got back from picking up the Moog, the track I was working on suddenly found itself in need of a LOT of synth parts. I have no regrets.
As you can see from the attached photo, his has been well-loved (like many of the vintage instruments in my stable); I'm not sure if the pitch ribbon was a more recent mod since my friend was in a bad car accident a number of years ago that required him to reimagine his playing, or if it's an older customization. I'll ask him. Also, this may amuse some of you, but I had no idea that on the original D, the monophonic keyboard only retriggered legato notes going *down,* not up the keyboard... unless that's a modification as well?
Anyway, his mother told me "guard it with your life," and that's what I intend to do! In addition to flavoring my solo tracks with more Moog parts, I definitely plan on running some things through the external input and seeing what happens.
Edit: Couldn't get the photo attachment to work today, so here's a photo:
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Got one more new tune from Noon Fifteen for the year, and another interactive video you can swipe around in. Something a little gentler for the season. Hope you enjoy!
[video:youtube]
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Awesome track! I really love the spacey breakdown in the middle. Perfect gritty organ tone, and the rhythm section is solid as a rock. The vibrato the bass player is throwing on the eighth note lines under your solo (when you start bending the pitch) is a subtle, inspired arrangement choice! Wasn't expecting his trippy envelope filter solo, and it was a great touch.Second single off the upcoming album has dropped. . . . We actually did some detailing in the arrangement after this and got a perfectly arranged take, but I knew we already had 'the' take when we"d played this one. -
Yeah, pretty standard DAW behavior. You can set the automation to "write" whenever you move a fader or pot, so that you create the automation curves in real time. You just have to remember that it's on before you make broader tweaks!
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Be still my beating heart.
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The Billy Joel Angry Young Man technique is a little closer to the earth, at least, since it's just alternating right hand thumb and left hand index finger. Comparatively, that Spider Fingers move is nuts -- alternating fingers on one hand (index, thumb, middle if I'm not mistaken, though he may get the ring finger in on the action as well); I can alternate thumb and index one-handed on a Hammond and that's about it. Thinking about doing that on a grand piano, man, what a workout.And you almost have to be BE Bruce to play Spider Fingers.I put Spider Fingers in the same category as Billy Joel Prelude/Angry Young Man intro. Exhausting!
I bought the book but that didn't make my fingers any longer, for those LH 16th note parts when the band drops out. I know he's a tall guy but he must have big mitts even for someone of his height.
And watching that live video of The Way It Is I posted earlier, I noticed Bruce was hitting tenths with his left hand as almost a matter of course. Certainly he's known for a disciplined practice regimen that I could never bring myself to duplicate, but it is helpful to observe that he has that purely genetic leg up on me too. :wink:
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This is great. I've missed the last two and getting see some of you will help make the house feel a little less empty this year!
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The slight tuniness was despite my best efforts. The tuner came less than a week before the show, but the combination of a full dress rehearsal and some aggressively flucuating temperatures (with open windows to ameliorate any Covid anxieties) left the piano even further out of tune by the end of the show than before the tuner came. There's a G two octaves above middle C that sticks out to me in particular, and that note is prominently featured in a number of these tunes, including the marathon Burn Down the Mission.BTW I really did like the sound of that little spinet â great percussive tone and the slight tuniness added to the immediacy of the moment. I once got to play Elton's original upright that many of these songs would have been written on. Garbage! Definitely attests to Reezekey's Law.I'll still take the real thing any day of the week!
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Sorry to pull us slightly OT once again, but I just feel like under the circumstances this needs to be shared. [video:youtube]
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I'm far from a mic connoisseur, but damn it, I love my (er, well, my workplace's) Delphos so much. And Matt is a gem. Definitely considering a pair of Mini K47s as my next studio purchase. I've been lucky to have a pair of Sennheiser MKH40s for drum overheads, but it's good to have options (and to be able to mic drums and stereo piano simultaneously in a session), and if somebody's going to get my money...
Let's hear it!!! Post your music here!
in The Keyboard Corner
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