Finally

After a long break I finally have some new stuff to share. It took a little longer than I had hoped, but I'm pretty happy with the way these songs came out. I wanted to get some new music on here for people to listen to that would be fairly impressive. The first songs I posted got a luke warm response from those of you that did visit this blog, which wasn't a lot of people (thanks to those of you that did) but since the quality was so low I dind't really push people to check it out. Now I think learned and improved on that first effort enough that I've found a pretty decent sound. (When you listen please remember this isn't professionally produced, just the best I can do right now with the best equipment that I can afford) So without further ado, here is the first song:


Fake it (Cover of the Seether song)

This isn't my strongest vocal performance but I don't think it came out too bad overall. I still haven't found the ideal eq and mix settings for the vocals. I'm still working on it. I think you'll agree when you compare this second post...


Good (Cover of the Better Than Ezra song, Ver 2)

...With the version I originally posted on my Facebook wall and re-posted to this blog (which you can link to in the gadget over on the right, "direct links to songs I've posted", "Good Cover"

     This comparison will really show something that was really slowing me down with this project for a while, the drum sounds. That was a tough hurdle for me. I had a hard time getting the DAW to use plug ins that had good drum sounds. But after a large number of tantrums set off by some new problem that each step towards good drum sounds brought, I think I have something acceptable. Now, for this third post I had a different problem altogether...


Like a Stone (cover of the Audioslave song)

     I had 2 problems with this song. The first was learning how to play it. This is one of my favorite songs and I thought it was simple enough that I could come up with a decent version of it if I am going to be worth anything as a musician. So I checked the guitar tabs, listened, played along with it and got the basics of it. When I started to lay down the bass, I noticed there was something wrong. To try to make a long story short I'll just say this, Tom Morello and Chris Cornell are obviously skilled musicians and I picked up some good knowledge learning to play this song. I'm especially proud of the solo. I was very intimidated by the prospect of trying to do justice to a Morello solo and although it is obvious that it isn't him playing, I'm not ashamed of what I was able to do with it.
     The second problem was getting passable vocals. This is a tough song. If you're familiar with the song you'll notice that there are 2 notes in the last chorus that I had to back off on. That's where the problem was; If I'm driving down the street and listening to this song, I'm all over it. But, when I get in front of that mic, with my house as quiet as I can get it, I start thinking about it and don't sing "relaxed". I try, but I still need to improve on that. With that said though, I don't think I did too badly. I guess that's why I'm posting it.

    Now for the last song...


Jam D

    This is an original work that is the result of working with my brother Jamie (aka Jam D) when he recently visited for Thanksgiving. We were playing around with my studio setup and he found the 808 kit in my drum module. He came up with the 8 bar beat that runs for most of it and then we mutually arrived at the 4 bar bassline. The next day we were planning to visit our cousin Lorie. So I wanted to come up with something to show off what we had created the night before. So I created a drum loop and played some bass with some variations of the basic line and started playing my guitar along with it to see what I could come up with. I know I'm not breaking any new ground with it, but I think it sounds pretty cool. Especially in that I played  it one take after about 2 practice takes.

     So there you have it. It's basically an EP to showcase where I am with this music thing. If this is your first visit to my blog then you may be wondering if this wasn't professionally produced, how did I record this? Well, check out some of the earlier posts, I get into some of those details. This is me performing everything in real time, with very minimal editing (just some minor clean-ups). I hope you enjoy. Please leave comments and let me know what you think.

I promise more soon

I know I haven't posted anything on here lately, but I will be adding some new stuff on here soon. I've been working on some different things and should have new stuff to add soon. Stay tuned!

Getting there...

* Under Construction Update:
The file has been posted. Post complete*

Now I'm checking to see which colors will look best w/ the background, so sorry for the rainbow style post. It may make it interesting visually, but once again that is just secondary. Today I'm going to post the cover of "Good" that I was talking about in the last post. Here's a link:

http://www.box.net/shared/7qxo7e8eyc (Hit back on the browser when you're done to come back here. Or, copy and paste the target to a new tab. Then you can listen and read. I'm sorry, I want the link to open a new window, but I haven't figured out how to make that happen yet. )


Like I said in the my last post, some of you may have heard this before. I also said that I had a story to tell well I guess it's time;

Not so long ago, I was laid off from the company at which I had spent 11 years building a "career". (I can't believe how quick the time since has past though, it was St. Patrick's Day '09) At the same time, I had been working on learning Cubase, a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), software that emulates an audio studio that allows you to record, mix and master songs on your PC if you have the right peripherals. I did have one of those, a Lexicon Omega. It was cheap compared with the good equipment, but it allowed me to plug in my guitar, keyboard and MIDI drum pad and mix them in Cubase. It worked okay and I was starting to get the hang of how to get a decent sounding song out of it. (Starting to, I wasn't quite there yet) ...



Sorry for the interuption in the written story but I've decided that I'm going to continue in speech with my next song post. So without further ado, here is something that I'm working on now. You'll notice it's called "I like this riff". It is a work in progress (this is just a "first draft") but it gives me a chance to share with you a little bit of where I am musically. Stay tuned after the song for the story. I hope you enjoy.

And now, here is the link:

http://www.box.net/shared/5xqgzogg3d

And don't worry, the song isn't 11 minutes long

Thanks,
jdj

I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm working on it.

So, to start with, I've changed a couple of font settings. Hopefully it shows up. I can't actually tell at this point, but that is completely secondary. This post is to test to see if I've found a way for you, the reader (assuming that someday there are some of those) can listen to my music.

So here goes (the link takes you to a new page, just hit back on the browser when you've heard enough to come back here):

http://www.box.net/shared/4mkknxl4f4

Now you should be able to click that link above and listen to my cover of STP's Plush (acoustic).

Let's publish and find out...

So, it seems to work well enough. I don't know if this will be the permanent format, but I think it will do for now.

Now, since I have posted music I guess I need to discuss it. In my last post, I opened the subject of "the decision" which is what I will henceforth call my decision that what I would like to do is find a way to make a living playing music. That is the genesis of this blog.

If you are reading this, chances are you followed a link from my Facebook page. Maybe you heard the song I posted to Facebook a while ago. I got a decent response from people that were actually able to listen to the song, but found that in a lot of cases people either didn't know that it was there or weren't able to listen. Then I had issues with my DAW (which I will discuss in detail at some point in future posts) so I didn't have any new stuff to post.

Well I have new stuff to post now and will be updating this blog often. I would like to get feedback and help from you. So please leave comments and help me out.

jdj

PS. BTW, I know it's weird singing everything "jdj" but for now I'm leaving my real name out of this blog, it is potentially embarrassing enough,
Joe

mobile text

So this, as is most of what has been posted to this blog is a test. i just found this mobile blogger application and i want to see how it works. i don't actually have too much interesting to say i am still working on trying to set up this blog. but i will give a quick description of when i'm going to right now ( i know this, the lack of capitalization is going to drive me crazy) :

as of yet in this blog i haven't brought this up, but the purpose of this blog is to be a showcase for my music and (hopefully) tell the entertaining story of my journey after making the decision that i want to be a musician. ( a decision that i recently made that will be a blog entry of its own)

so for now, i'm working on setting up some type of music player in the blog so that i can post my music and you can listen to it. i think i have a way to do it and i am going to work on that now.

i still need a clever sign off,
jdj

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The answer is yes (you can change the tittle)

I considered making the tittle of this post "Comcast web pages suck" or something along those lines. I mention this because yesterday I was all ready to start my own webpage. I had a great story for the opening blog (I'm sure it will be the next installment). I figured I'll try using the "personal webpage service" that comes "free" with their service. I typed up a good portion of the story, went to hit backspace to make a fix, reached a little high and everything was gone. ctr-z, nothing. Back on the browser, web page no longer valid. So, after some time of sitting there trying to remember what the words were (I really liked the way it came out the first time) I typed up something similar (Not exactly the same, but not bad). So, lets hit the save; I touch the mousepad to hit the save button and accidentally clicked and...

...it's all gone. Again. Again, no way to get it back. I even tried to leave a small version of this story on that page so that if anyone ever stumbled upon it, they would know why it was abandoned, but that was erased also.

So, after stomping around in anger for a while I asked Sarah (my girlfriend, if this all goes well you'll learn more about her I'm sure) where should I go. She sent me here. So far, so good. I notice as I'm typing that it's autosaving often. I like that.

If you happen to be reading this right now, I must apoligize. I'm just setting up this blog and wanted to have something here to look at. I know this post will not be permanent (at least not without editing). I was pissed about the comcast thing though.

Post clever sign-off here!