BREAKING THE ELECTRONIC MUSIC WRITER’S BLOCK, WITH GUITAR.

The title kinda sounds counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? Thing is, I ain’t talking about what most people consider to be REAL MUSIC. I’m talking about EDM – Electronic Dance Music.

EDM. Ya know, It’s still music, it’s just not always created through the traditional method of recording instruments in a studio. Or by people that understand music, or even know how to play instruments! Instead, they do something that deserves a different kind of respect. They SAMPLE. And they arrange those samples in clever and infectiously groovy ways. Sometimes, the results are fucking GENIUS. 

Like just about ANYONE who has ever dabbled in DJ’ing, I recently started in on a path to create my own music @ home. My investment in production related software/hardware thus far has been minimal. So to, has my actual creative output in the form of completed songs.

Currently i’ve got NI MASCHINE with the full size controller running on a mid-2009 Macbook Pro. To make things a bit more palatable, the MBP is connected to an external 23″ LCD. My current DAW, is the DJ friendly ABLETON LIVE.

Thus far, I’ve sampled tons of rad shit from my extensive collection and created some nifty loops (some of which I’ve shared with a few of you via email) but I’ve yet to complete an entire song. The reason is simple. I find the process of making sounds using the traditional keyboard/mouse stifling and for the most part, un-creative.

I know the above statement goes against the grain of the popular method for creating EDM sounds. I’ve sat alongside a few of you as you’ve drawn out your bleeps and beeps with keyboards and mice. To be honest, it’s something I’ll probably never favor.

For me, something is missing from the creative process. And it’s the obvious element, the instruments! In my case, it’s the guitar. An instrument that I’ve been playing for about 15 years. If I was a keyboardist, I would look at adding a fancy MIDI keyboard, but that’s not what I know. I leave that to you, Billy.

My skill level is intermediate. That affords me some real advantages when it comes to creating melodies, rhythms and creative noises. I’ll explain.

When I first decided I wanted to DJ in 2008, and before I actually acquired my first pair of turn-tables (2x Pioneer CDJ 400s) I did some really nerdy pre-planning. The pre-planning consisted of creating an excel ‘database’ of all the songs I owned that were EDM. The database included the title/artist/speed/genre and sub-genre. I then when one step further, by sitting down with my beloved acoustic guitar (model) and key’ing about 90% of the database. It took hours, and I loved it.

When I was done, I noted that my 80% of collection of mostly progressive house and techno tunes, were in a minor key. Neat. I always meant to create a YouTube video showing how I key’d them. The process is pretty simple if you own a guitar and can play major/minor scales and the barre chords to go with em. It goes a little something like this:

Using single notes, attempt to find the root note of the song by plucking up and down the neck. Once you think you’ve got it, try to play a full minor/major barre chord over top of the song, in time. If it sounds right, your chord will blend into the playing song, you can also try to ID the root note of the song, by playing along with major/minor keys. I find repeating the first 4 notes of a minor scale particularly effective.

Going through this manual process, sharpened up my ears, and I felt more ‘connected’ to the songs I was mixing. DJ’ing can be as simple as pushing the right buttons, at the right time. For a lot of DJ’s, that’s where their LEARNDING ends. I wanted more, so recently I came full circle with the gigs I was doing, and started taking on mostly non-EDM gigs. As much as Iove playing an hour of techno/house stuff, I find it really refreshing when I can pull from non-EDM sources for my sets. Which leads me back to the subject of this post – GUITAR!

Every time I sat down with ABLETON/LOGIC/MASCHINE (stand alone) I was always left with the same dread. Here is an empty session, let’s dig up some different .wav files for kick, snare, hi-hat, tamborine, bird chirp, cell phone ring tone, etc, and arrange it into a song. I kinda had the same feeling as when I am DJ’ing other people’s tunes, that is, I *kinda* felt phoney, and despite evidence to the contrary, that I had no right to be calling anything I did, my own ‘music’. So I went to my local music store – MOTHER’S (now L&M) and bought myself an shiny new electric guitar.

Now when I sit down in front of my computer, the blips and bleeps I make, are coming from my own two hands, through the guitar! Neat, meet street. Obviously, I’ll still need to use those dreaded .wav samples to make part of the rhythm track, but at a very minimum, I am able to compose the chord structure, melody and provide ambient color tones, using my black axe. Those being the parts I always hit the creative wall with before. Actually, with MASCHINE >> ABLETON integration, I should be able to tap out the rhythms as I did in the stand-alone version of MASCHINE, with finger drumming. Another process which I’ve favoured to feel connected to the creative process of music makin’.

Over the past week, I’ve felt loads more involved in the creative process, and I look forward to my time in my man-cave, going through the epic list of creative ideas I’ve been keeping track of in EVERNOTE over the past year, and getting shit done.

The completed results will represent the genres I like the most:  Techno/progressive, liquid drum & bass, tech-step, UK Funky/Future Garage, and maybe even electro if I can figure out a way to make a non-cliché sounding track.

When you hear ‘em, they might sound EXACTLY like every other EDM tune you’ve heard.That’s not really important to me, though. It’s more that I made it on my own terms, and more importantly, that I finished what I started.

So, just like my guitar, stay tuned.

Owen

COUNTRY MUSIC GETS A BAD RAP. IT’S A CRYIN’ SHAME, GLEN

Country music – and it’s fans – are like gun owners. It’s just a few of em are ruining things for the law abiding few that want to shoot deer from the comfortable distance of 200 metres. I’m fixin’ to tell ya why.

Country is one of those genres that I have a narrow, but genuine appreciation for. For the artists/albums I like, I love em the same as any pop cheese by Genesys, Kenny Loggins or Abba. That is, un-ironically. I just like it. However, I can appreciate the bad taste in your ears that country pop champs like Toby Keith leave. He’s got songs about getting revenge for the September 11th attacks and driving big trucks. Not only does he look like a PIG, he sounds like one in his song writing too.

We can thank Garth Brooks for Toby Keith. He paved the way for acts like Toby back in the 90s. Right out of the gate, Garth’s urban cowboy tunes were mediocre @ best. Odd too, because he was using song writers. It’s a common complaint ‘Artist X doesn’t even write their own songs!’ I take no issue with artists using song writers. There are those that have a gift for song writing, or singing, or both, the later is the most rare.  What troubles me about the proliferation of mediocre country pop in the 90′s, was that neither the songs, nor the vocal performances were particularly good. There were countless one hit wonders from both male and female singers, most were completely forgettable, then and now. In my Owen opinion, there are only three people worth a dang from the last 15 years that have contributed quality country pop. The first is Dwight Yoakam, he almost deserves his own blog entry, so I’ll move onto the 2nd, who is Brad Paisley. He’s a mean guitar player, reasonable song writer, and strong singer. He’s rare. The 2nd is Shania Twain. She’s a enough capable song writer (better with a co-writer) reasonable singer. Teaming up with pop svengali MUTT LANGE for ‘The Woman in me’ and ‘Come on over’ albums, was a really smart move. Mutt is a mean mother fucker in the studio. He can work those mixing console knobs to make your vox sound boss on a tune he co-wrote with you, and when it’s over, he can go and bang your best friend, all in a nights work for this crafty South African. Case in point, did you know he wrote THIS song? I bet you didn’t. I’m a wiki fiend. Trust me, the actual meaning of the song , is fucking nutty, son.

Doing the dishes the other night, me and my girlfriend were discussing the idea of talent. Specially, her experience in art school led her to believe that a lot of people are sent down the wrong path by their parents and peers to the creative arts. She blamed the abstract movement. It’s not that old, and certainly would account for all of these ‘artists’ biting off more than they can chew with whatever ‘creative endeavours’ they undertake.

Respect should be given for those artists that work towards their strength. If you ain’t a song writer but can belt one out a tune like a motherfucker, like say this WOAH-MAN, bring in a song writer to take care of business. Sorted. That’s what Shania did. Now she can live out the rest of her days in her castle villa in Switzerland, getting drunk on € 500 euro bottles of wine, and texting mean shit to Mutt Lange about how the gal he left her for, looks like a busted version of herself. She’s not laughing all the way to the bank, she’s got one in her god-damn basement. She uses euro notes as napkins after she’s done eating €1000 slices of cake. SHIIIIIIIIIITTTT.

Shania Twain is first and foremost, a musical artist with pop sensibilities. That alone is the reason for her worldwide success. You can’t argue with a strong melody, it’s SCIENCE. I will be listening to songs like THIS and THIS till I drop. They’re quality pop, and for that reason, i’ve created this blog entry to ram that idea down your throat, and if you’re clicking the god-damn lynxxx contain within, into your ears.

Like rap, the big record labels know they can sell country pop to the masses with little effort. Non discerning plebs, will eat up whatever is popular, other’s will rail against it. Another subset of people like me, will appreciate the good parts at face value, and throw away the cookie cutter filler from the Garth Brooks school of entertainment. This is because a of easily accessible music, is like McDonalds, it’s not great, because it doesn’t have to be. The unfortunate consequence of this, is that a whole generation of 30 somethings are completely unaware of the rich history of country pop. I am not.

I credit my pops with introducing me to LOADS of quality music when I was younger. country pop wasn’t one of em, though. This time it was good ol’ Canadian Country music TV station - CMT. I watched it regularly when I was in my teens. Dotted amongst the crap, there were some pop gems.

When i moved to Ireland in ’98, I missed Canada, so I bought albums by Dwight Yoakham, Shania Twain and Glen Campbell. When I came back, I got hi-speed internet, and downloaded even more. As I mentioned above, my tastes in country are narrow. As per this article it’s mostly limited to the county pop acts. To date, my collection of albums is probably only about 40, of which I listen to only about a dozen albums regularly. If you dig deeper into pop infused country, you might find more stuff you like. The non-subjective point of this blog entry, is to appreciate good pop in whatever form it’s in. The subjective part is how much you appreciate old Johnny Cash albums. I don’t, but you might.

While people will forgive pop music for it’s lyrical fluff, this isn’t always the case with country pop & rap. Many of the greatest anthems of all time, are straight pop tunes, some are disguised as rock! The pop sentiments of love and good times remain the same. The same simple lyrical fluff is present in country pop, it’s the subtle differences in the intro and chorus of the county song that throw people off. Sometimes it’s just the fake southern accent that puts people off. The song might even be completely bereft of any ‘country sound’, and people will write it off because of preconceptions about the genre. They are missing out.

I mean, just listen to this POP GEM. Sure Kenny Rogers has put out some pure country yack throughout his career, but Mel Tellis really nailed when he penned this one for Kenny. I defy anyone to deny the brilliance of the chorus on the song. It’s infectiously catchy. The version I linked is live. The ‘country sound’ on the studio version is even more subdued. Is it labelled a country song because of the adept acoustic guitar pickin’? Because that’s a stupid reason. It’s a pop tune, through and through, and I love it.

Know this one by queen? That sound is rockabilliy, and the roots of that are country. It ain’t all bad.

More examples. The US and Euro versions of ‘That don’t impress me much’ by champion Canadian wolf breeder Shania Twain. The Euro version eschews the traditional instruments associated with ‘the country sound’: A pedal steel guitar, a violin and/or fiddle, as well as having  the guitar more up front guitar in the mix. The euro version focuses more on the kick drum, I lived in Ireland for 4 years, I tell ya ! dance remixes are like crack cocaine over there. Like a hairy chested greek moth to the flame, the euro zone can’t resist their dance mixes. United they stand. Eurovision, btw, is a great example of the pop sensibilities of the Europe. Don’t get me wrong Def Leppard , my own top 10 of bands/artists has at least 4-5 coming from the eurozone, but they definitely prefer their dance music more than other parts of the world.

Shania Twain is an example of what music insiders (ie ; the people profitting from music sales) call ‘a cross-over’ artist. In this case she crossed over from country to pop. I really don’t see a huge distinction here, both are radio friendly. As above, the major defining difference between a typical country song and it’s pop equivalent, is the use of the ‘country’ instruments I mentioned above.

Don’t write off country because of bad examples you’ve heard thus far. Or even the that ‘country sound’ , you don’t hear in regular pop music. These sounds are just color. The roots of the songs still come from guitar and piano, and are often very well written. Don’t forget that Whitney Houston’s smash hit ‘I will always love Jews’ was written and performed first by Dolly Parton.

Give this ‘country’ a chance.

Owen

Goodbye APPLE, hello MANGO

This post will contain one part opinion, and one part guide. If you want to skip over the opinion part (Your God will forgive you), skip ahead to PART TWO.

PART 1
If you’ve read any of my 1_______000′s of posts on phasebook, you’ll know I ain’t much for brand loyalty. On the surface, it might appear I change products out of contrary attention seeking behaviour, but that’s not true. It comes from a need to have the best product at a reasonable price. This is balanced against my strong dislike on our dependency on big bad corporations like Apple/microsoft/google/samsung/foxcon/et all, for said products. As such, I’ve had a semi-abusive relationship with Apple over the 2.5 years that I’ve owned my iPhone 3G and MacBook pro. You know what I mean, Joan Jett.

ENTER Microsoft MANGO. Definitely one of those product examples where I was stuck with one product – my iPhone 3G – while I waited for another one to ‘ripen’. MS finally released MANGO to the masses in late September, and the reviews came back positive. MANGO, is the the latest software update for the critically ignored – but excellent – mobile operating system for phones and tablets from Microsoft. AKA, WP7.

With the release of MANGO, the feature set of the Windows phone 7 is finally synchronized to their competitors in the smart phone market – Apple & Android. RIM and their brickberry line, doesn’t count. So, on Sunday October 9th, I bought a pristine condition used Samsung Focus and in doing so, took the first step to un-tethering myself from Apple. I’m not gonna explain OLIVE the reasons why I switched to this particular type of phone in this post, because it would sound too much like I’m trying to convince YOU to do the same – BORING. Ever tell someone to change what their doing? How did that work out for ya? Probably not too well

If you want to know MOAR, you can read reviews of the MANGO operating system on ENGADGET HERE, and on ARSTECHNICA HERE. For certain product purchases, I’d rather take the advice of stranger on the internet, than someone I know.

My iOS to WP7 SWITCH ‘experience’
Experience is a mostly bullshit term, I’m glad I don’t have to use it my job. Previous to purchasing the Samsung Focus, I busted out a god-damn spreadsheet LIKE A BOSS, to list the current iOS apps I had which I deemed critical to daily use, and their equivalent on Windows Phone 7 and Android. The list was shorter than I had expected.

We all know a few cats who’ve spent tons of do$h on their smart phone apps  - I am not one of these people. My primary purpose for my SMRT FONE always been email on the go, calendar, RSS/News, wiki lookups, fbook and notes on the go. For these functions, i’d been able to get away with using mostly free apps. In August, I started to avail of my iPhone 3G for another nifty purpose – as an e-reader, via the excellent STANZA app. Over the past week, I’ve getting used to the new WP7 phone. Here has been my experience thus far, in changing over each function/app.

iOS MacMail client replaced by WP7 Mail client: 
I use gmail. Accessing and using my google account under iOS and WP7 is simple to setup and use. Contact integration – as it is across the entire OS – is far better under WP7. If you’ve already bought a WP7 phone, I don’t need to tell you how much of a better experience digital conversations are under WP7. Office attachments are easier to deal with under WP7.

iOS built-in calendar to WP7 built-in calendar:
Here is where I hit my first snag under WP7. Me and my GF sync our google calendars like a fuckin’ nerd couple. I don’t know how ya’ll do it without a digital calendar, but for me, syncing your calendars electronically is a simple step that can make the difference between double-booking, or not booking @ all. The caveat I ran into, was with regards to syncing our calendars like we done previously under iOS. One advantage to waiting a few months to adopt new technology, is that you can count on someone else to work out a solution for ya. And here it is: 

EVERNOTE:
I had previously noted cross-platform support for EVERNOTE when I made my spreadsheet. What I didn’t note, was that the free version of EVERNOTE under WP7 supports FULL offline sync, something that is not available for EVERNOTE on the iPhone. NICE! Being a heavy evernote user, this was a really nice surprise. As much as I love EVERNOTE, it’s not without it’s shortcomings. Formatting for instance, is a constant annoyance. Now that I’m on WP7, I will consider using the MS note taking service – OneNote – if I can find a way to easily migrate from EVERNOTE.

RSS/NEWS APPS:
I replaced Engadget, MSNBC, BBC & Globe/Mail with their WP7 equivalents.

E-READER: Stanza (iOS) vs. Freda (WP7)
Under iOS, Stanza was my e-reader, configured to connect to my CALIBRE home e-book server. Stanza under iOS is easier to configure and connect to CALIBRE than FREDA under WP7, otherwise the functionality between the two is similar. Both – like the CALBIRE e-book server app – are free. One annoyance. Bookmarks are kinda retarded at the moment on FREDA. There are apps that I had to abandon from iOS, nothing I care too much about. Conversely, there are apps available under WP7 that aren’t on iOS that I will no-doubt find and enjoy.

I hope the above short-list is helpful to others considering the switch from iOS based phones (3G/S, 4) to WP7. Down south, there are 3 new models of WP7 phones that will be made available this week. I’m hoping Rogers will carry them, and they sell well, so Microsoft won’t give up on the great product that WP7 is.

Owen

♫ MAKIN’ MOVES, YA REAL HARD COURSE ♫

I like a lot of music, and I want to share it (FORCEFULLY) with you.

Most people have belligerent opinions on at least one topic. Thankfully, mine is MUSIC. Safe enough right? Maybe.

Anyway, I wrote a bunch of posts about EDM for the excellent MANALOGUE blog, run by a guy i know named Jack. Now I want to expand that to the other genres I love – pop, metal, rap, jazz, classical, rock, punk, country. As such, this blog was born yesterday. Literally.

We’ve got access to an unprecedented amount of music. Everyone claims they listen to everything, that’s almost always bullshit, though. I actually do -EVERYDAY. I’m a confident person, but this is the internet, so I feel a need to prove my eclectic taste in music, OVER AND OVER again. Until you ask me to stop, at which point, I won’t.