Liner
Notes (extracts from email I sent)
Dream On
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Well I found
some time over the holidays and did manage to record a complete song. It's a classic
Aerosmith song, Dream On. I just found it in a fake book a few weeks ago and
for some reason it hit for me. I'd always thought it was a good song, but I'd
never really listened closely. It is a truly great song, I now believe, after
learning it in every detail and recreating it. I played and sang every part,
mixed it down and amazed myself at the result.
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I recently upgraded my gear and finally got the time and focus to
do a complete song. I did it as an exercise to learn the new software, SonarXL,
but it turned out well enough to be presentable. It is a cover of an old
Aerosmith tune that I found in a fake book a few weeks ago and started messing
around with, and discovered that I really like. Since I’d already learned it
pretty well, I used it as a starting point. I was amazed at just what I could
actually do. I did a version of every part in the original recording, using
midi for drums, bass and keyboard parts and of course the guitar and singing
are real. Brian came over did the gong hit at the end, I didn’t have a synth
for that. Sonar is really good, much better than the old Cakewalk. And I really
enjoy doing this stuff, but it takes incredible amounts of time. I spent 7 full
days on this 4:27 piece of audio.
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I used the
GR-30 for the strings, piano, organ and bass parts. I have a Boss DR-5 for the
drums. The guitar was all recorded direct and then processed with Sonar.
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Yes, that is me singing, that seems to surprise a lot of people.
That was the easy part of doing the song, it is much harder to learn and play
all of the parts and record and mix, but people seem to appreciate the singing
the most
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One guys
wife said my voice didn’t sound as “rich” as Tyler’s. I can live with that. In
fact, I welcome criticism, it will help me to improve. I know it is a good
recording, it came out better than I thought it would. But you know it is more
than just sound, more than just notes on instruments. I think I got some real
expression in there, some of what I felt came through in the performance
***
3AM
My next effort, 3AM, is in the final mix stage and sounding pretty
good. I’ll upload it when it’s done. I enjoyed doing harmony with myself on the
backup vocals. That’s something I always wanted to try, and now I have. It takes
a lot of time to do a song, I’ve put four full days into this one.
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I didn't pick this song for its meaning, I just noticed it is popular in the bars and it is a catchy tune. I thought it would be easy but it took five whole days to record.
***
My Sacrifice
This one is a very different style, maybe too hard for some
of your tender ears. A "power ballad." But it is now #4 on the
Billboard Top 100, there must be a reason. I'm getting into current music, I've
gone from 1973 to 1996 to 2002 in my first three songs. But I'll continue to
explore as I find my range. And this one only took a little more than two days
of work, it's getting easier.
***
Hands Clean
This one is really new, it’s the single from the soon to be
released album by Alanis Morissette – Under Rug Swept. Another different
direction for me. I couldn’t sing these notes a few weeks ago, but I’m
practicing!
***
What It’s Like
This one makes me
cry, I think it is a very powerful song. And I’ve added a Martin acoustic
guitar to my collection so the sound is different again.
***
Iris
I played Mandolin
in this one, thanks to Brian, who loaned it to me. It once belonged to Michael
Coleman, a high school friend that we lost to AIDS a few years ago. The song
took a little longer to do, it has a lot of detail and a complex structure,
something I didn’t really appreciate until I got started on it.