UP PAST 3 AM AGAIN

So... long time, no blog. I believe I got my first comment today! Hooooray! And I got to borrow a bass in the process! Score!

So I got a new amp for our anniversary from my gf.. very nice piece, it has effects on the amp. So this saving me from buying different pedals, which can be expensive. I can test out a bunch of effects to see what intrigues me.. and lots to choose from. So yes I need to put some new recordings up, including the Denton recordings. Good news! I just got Apple Logic Studio 9 installed on the lapi with all the additional content so one step close to getting the other Denton recording on the web with the help of a better program.



Very bummed.. went to a Woods concert tonight and the doors opened at 8, so that mean show starts at 9 (which I called up the venue ' The Loft' and I was told the order would be Opener, Woods, then Closer). So that means they should go on about 10 pm. I show up about 10 til 10 pm and I saw a sign for Woods at 9:30.. SHIT! I need to get in there now and listen to them. I bought a ticket. Went up stairs. They were in the middle of jamming on the end of a song. Then they played one more song and they were fucking done! It was a 30 min set.. nobody does that.. what was the deal.. were they cut short?.. equipment problems?.. too messed up to play? The one song I caught was a cover song, which I love the song, but my problem is that I didn't get to see them perform any of their original material. Very bummed.. plus I wasted 5 bucks parking for 10 mins.

It gets you in a funk, like you don't want to listen to that band anymore, but you know you still like them, so you just don't listen to that band as much anymore. Sucks for them. Anyways laundry day is tomorrow so YAY get to spend have the day doing laundry, which is also the only time I get to hang out with Kristin tomorrow. If you didn't get it the last sentence, it was sarcastic.. I do not like doing laundry, even though it can be enjoyably with Kristin.

Next weekend is Chuck's bach. Gotta get together my wolfpack speech and get ready to be the awkward Andrea's-Brother. Should be fun times, drinking, having good time in swimming pool (hope to have diving board), and titties! Yippy Yippy!

Anyways, ometoomanyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyaaronyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

IN NEED OF A NEW CAMERA

And I think I have found one.

If you have noticed that all my images on the blog are from my childhood, this is because I don't have a working camera or even a smartphone. So in hopes of fixing my current camera, last weekend we went by Wolf Camera for someone to look at my digital camera. The lens is stuck out and it won't power on.. what I figured and from what the guy told me is that it will prob cost about as much to fix it as get a new one. This is the perfect time to finally upgrade to a quality camera and after researching I have decided on a Nikon D40. It is rated fairly well and for the price it is a very good deal. I found a package with an extra lens for under $600. Now all I have to do is pay off my credit card (which will take about a month) so I can charge this new toy. Finally I will be able to take photos of my crap like paintings, music equipment, etc to get my blog more up to date.

Now about new music. I wrote/recorded a rough version of a new song I wrote last night. I badly want to record my collection of acoustic songs I have wrote over the past couple years and I would like to record these serious tracks at good quality. Now most of the time I use the MR-8 and it is decent, but I do have a M-Audio box which allows me to record straight to the computer. I am lacking the software I need to make the quality recordings that I truly want. I could use Garageband.. but I know there are better programs out there and getting a hold of Pro Tools (M-Audio version) or Apple Logic is becoming a diff task. I used to have a working Logic, but I recently noticed it does not start-up anymore.

So time and software are keeping me from updating my blog with new music more often. I also need to knock out the recording from Denton, which I really hope I can do this weekend. The tracks sound great through headphones or my amp, but I am not very pleased with the volume of the recordings.. but I will try my hardest to get what I can out of the MR-8.

In the meantime, enjoy two of my top tracks from the psych-pop sounds of Woods tour only cassette 'Some Shame'. I am getting excited that they will be in town on the 22nd at The Loft.

Woods - Born to Lose
Woods - Military Madness

TRACK A (EARLY VERSION)

Now this is my first time mastering a track and pulling it off of the MR8, so you prob will have to turn up your volume to hear the track well.. but beside that it is a pretty good interpretation of how the Denton recordings went. The track needs to be remastered to find a better volume level and also the recording jumps right into the middle of a song, so prob will fade it in.

The tracks were randomly titled with letters, mainly because the MR8 is slow to type tracks names (think old school texting). There are 5 other tracks that need to be mastered and they range anywhere from 2 minutes to over 10 minutes. After listening to all the tracks today and messing with effects on most of them.. I have an idea of what effects I will be adding and that a lot of the tracks will be split up in parts based on the different songs played within them. I am hoping to get to work on these tracks within the next couple weeks.

ENJOY (Click to download)

Charles if you are able to get this blog to your roommate, Tori, I could put up some pictures from last Monday to go along with the tracks.

PLANS WENT BETTER THAN PLANNED

While I was in Denton, I tried really hard to watch my ebay bids. even tho his laptop was floating around, even tho I had one too many, I was lucky enough to barely win a used Boss Dr. Sampler SP-303 Drum Machine.. kept typing o's instead of zeroes on Charles' unfamiliar keyboard. This is another piece of equipment for me to add to my collection of recording gear, along with my Fostex MR-8 (8-Track recorder with effects) and laptop if needed (which I prefer not to use too much).

Tonight I was working on transferring some songs that were recorded in Denton this past Monday night and I will have them uploaded shortly.. took fooooorever trying to figure out how to bounce tracks/transfer to my mac/convert/move from the MR-8 to laptop.

Lots of ppl were involved in the recording so as soon as I post the track, I hope to get this site out to get the songs out to whoever want to listen to them. I will post more tracks as fast as I can pull them off the MR-8. The explanation of the state of the recordings: they are not anything close to perfect.. the mic which I had sitting on the floor in the middle of Charles' living area, picked up all conversations and all melodies happening at once. I can't adjust the levels because it was recorded on one mic, on one track. And I had probs with flash cards so most tracks jump right into the middle of playing and can cut off abruptly. It has a great living-room recording feel and to help control the voices, I added reverb, so they would become more of an ambiance.

I finally upgraded my digital recorder for a better one with a usb hookup!! So I can transfer files.. hopefully I can find a way to use this with the new sampler!

PLANS FOR DENTON RECORDING

On my Friday, my favorite day of the week. Don't have to worry about waking up to Sunday, with the thought going through your head that the next day in Monday. Tomorrow I am visiting the mall and Fry's to purchase a SD car for my sister's b-day. Also I am getting some compact flash cards for my trip to visit my buddy, Charles, in Denton to record some trumpet material to jam with. We plan on staying for the day and would like to bring some instruments, but I must narrow it down to the essentials. More or less, I better bring only instruments that I can play. We are bringing guitar(s), amp, laptop, 8-track, drum machine, the melodica, sax(?) and tamporine. I would really love to capture some trumpet playing so I can try to play along with it at home, to help so I can understand his style to play along with him later. Not sure what Kristin wants to bring, but I am up for whatever.

I think I ha e had one too many.