Ever play something so wondrous, so magical, and wish you had pressed the Record button? Just had that moment. It was good; reminded me of why I still have my music equipment. But it also speaks of the ephemeral nature of the Moment, how it’s important to be present when it happens. Joyful, yet melancholy. …
Category Archives: Music
Fully Automatic
As much as I rail against the tyranny of Autotune, I confess that I secretly adore it — in certain contexts. It’s a clever tool for making new sonic textures or for twisting a singer’s voice into ways that are not physically possible. But if it’s used to make up for a singer’s lack of …
Detect Traps
As useful as it is, it is a slightly hazardous thing to post a catalog of my music collection or to have my playlist tracked while I listen to music. Several times in the past — most recently this weekend — I’ve gotten requests from complete strangers to send them a copy of something in …
Sketch of Noodles
When, on the rare occasion, I turn on my music equipment and press Record, I’ve been saving my little songs with oblique filenames like “noodle<date>”, because that’s what these are…anonymous noodles. It’s me noodling around like a guitarist does with his tape deck: recording little ideas, roaming around to see where the phrases lead. Noodling. …
Thin Wall Holds Everything Back
Thumbing through my mental notebook on reasons why my music project suffers as much as it does. It occurs to me that the sound is dull, lifeless, muted. A song could be full of big sound, and I could be using the fullest extent of my mixing and mastering skills to date, but the final …