Bruce Baldwin's Obsessive Music Creation Blog

"Secrets of Flight" Released!

Bruce Baldwin — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 21:26:04 GMT

Okay, so I've been terribly remiss about updating this blog.... I blame the "social media"! Anyway, first things first - Christina and I completed "Secrets of Flight" and it's now available at CD Baby and iTunes! Soon to be available from almost every major music download site! We're incredibly proud of the final result. Christina created the design and the artwork, which is STUNNING, in my humble opinion. Amazingly, the cover photo was taken in our own back yard! It's nice that everything about this CD is just us, and no one else. But, oh my, it has taken time and effort.

We have signed up with a site called Pledge Music to raise money to pay back some of the costs of producing and manufacturing the discs. For those of you that already pledged, THANK YOU a million times over, and we TRULY appreciate your patience as the campaign runs its course (29 days left). We remain hopeful that we can hit our target before then, and we urge you to consider pledging to order the signed CD or buy other cool stuff we are offering (my old guitar, a private performance, origami crows). TELL YOUR FRIENDS! FYI, If the pledge runs its course without hitting the target, then those who pledge are not charged.

For our true fans who just can't wait, you can download any or all of the tracks right here For all others, we're happy if you just listen.

Vacancy by Ascent

Bruce Baldwin — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 20:49:55 GMT

'Vacancy' is one several acoustic songs from the upcoming 'Secrets of Flight' CD. Song by song, we're getting closer to being finished!

Vacancy by Ascent Music Online

Christina wrote the words to Vacancy a couple of years ago. She tells me it comes from the same place as "Hiding From Reality' comes for me. In other words, a dark, personal place.   With that in mind, I tried to give it a relatively stark arrangement that would support the words.

The final song nearly didn't come into existence at all.   When she first gave me the lyrics, a melody came to me pretty much right away. As I've probably mentioned before, my brain has been trained (through repetition) to come up with melodies without any conscious effort. All I need is the words in front of me, and at least one chord. And once the melody is in my head, it's nearly impossible to think of anything else when I look at the words.   As wonderful a 'gift' as this may sound, it can be a detriment, since that initial melody is not always the best one for the lyrics.

So, with 'Vacancy,' I had a melody that worked with the first verse, but just wouldn't work with the rest of the song!   Christina doesn't think in beats and measures like I do, which often leads to more interesting melodies, but sometimes the rhythm I think exists in the first few lines doesn't really exist throughout the rest of it. The words just wouldn't fit.

I tried and tried to come up with something different, but it wouldn't happen.   So, the words sat in a pile of papers for a long, long time.   I found them again around the time I was working on "Ascension." Fortunately, the spectre of that old melody had finally flown away.   The new music felt right for the big picture of the song.

We've played the song live more than a few times during the last year or so.   Christina really gets 'in the zone' for this one, and you can hear it in the recording.

The recording was relatively easy for me, although I struggled with whether or not to leave the piano and keyboard parts in. The little piano bits were improvised off-the-cuff, and I didn't plan to leave them in the song. I tried to put lead acoustic guitar in their place, but n the end, nothing else complimented the mood of the song like the piano.

(photo by Christina Baldwin, (c)2011 ChristinaBaldwinPhotography.com)

Descent by Ascent

Bruce Baldwin — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 20:07:51 GMT

Descent will be the final track on the very-nearly-done Secrets of Flight CD. There are several other tracks you haven't heard yet, but we couldn't wait any longer to share this one with you.   The unfinished songs are mostly vocals and acoustic guitar... Descent is a great big epic proggy mostly-instrumental multipart piece.... with a rap in the middle of it. If that's not your bag, turn back now!

Descent by Ascent Music Online

Descent is sort of a companion piece to Ascension, or maybe its evil twin...   Or I guess you could say it further develops the ideas in Ascension and then departs from there.   It also contains a few subtle and not-so-subtle references to a couple of the other songs on the CD, including What the Crows Know and Talking in Circles.

I actually set out to write and record something that would be just percussion and vocals.   Since Christina and I have always had songs in our live set that are performed that way, I thought it would be good to have that style represented on the CD.   I especially wanted to layer up percussion sounds played on my new Korg Wavedrum. As you can hear, that's not what I ended up with!   I did record some layered-up drums, but it wasn't going anywhere for me.   The drum parts were variations on a pattern: 4,3,2,1...   dadadada, dadada, dada, da.   That pattern is the only thing that survived from the original idea, and it occurs through the final piece.

Somehow the idea changed from a drum-and-vocal song to an instrumental continuation of Ascension. I'd had a lot of fun recording the ending section of that song, and I wanted to revisit that territory... not to reprise it, but to go further in that direction. To make it easy for me to get back there, I used the tracks from Ascension as a template (in Sonar), including all of the guitar, drum and keyboard sounds, along with their effects.  In other words, all I needed to do was plug my guitar in or switch on my keyboard to get the same exact sounds. This is one of the many benefits to using "virtual" guitar amps and recording drums (played on the HandSonic) through MIDI. This meant that I was starting from the same sonic palette.

Of course I ended up adding even more sounds. There are 58 tracks! Nearly every gadget I have is incorporated in this song.  There many,many different guitar sounds ( the short guitar solo at 3:41 was played through two different instances of Guitar Rig at the same time), and you'll hear a lot of layered eBow throughout.  There many instances of synths, especially Cakewalk's Rapture. The echoing piano is processed through several guitar effects. As on all of the other songs on the Ascent CD, I played all the keyboard parts rather than programming them (which is a big step for me).

The section that first occurs at 1:37 was actually the original chorus to Ascension. It had lyrics at the time about "searching for truth"...   When Christina and I were first practicing the song, that chorus really dragged it down.   The 'searching' chorus was rejected in favor of the more upbeat 'a comet rages' chorus.   Anyway, it works about a million times better in this context.

And so what about that rap section (2:26)... how did it get there?   Well, somewhere around the time that I was thinking that this would all be a big drum solo, Christina commented (favorably) that we should certainly be highlighting all of our skills on the CD.  Which brought up the point that Christina has skills (Skillz? Flava?) that we don't generally use.   Since she grew up on Rap music (Yes, I know, it's called Hip Hop now, it was Rap then) in the 80s, she still has a (somewhat frightening) ability to do this. On occasion, she's woken up a sleepy Ascent audience by busting out a few rhymes...

It's not anything that I would have ever thought to do, but I was into the idea right away.   I wrote the words that she's rapping, once again as an extension of the ideas in Ascension.   The words are definitely not 'gangsta.' On the demo I recorded, I basically sound like Weird Al.  I think my jaw actually dropped when we started recording, because Christina somehow made the whole thing real....  I think she was actually possessed during the recording session. Her version sounds more like Eminem's Latina sister! It's a nice contrast to the general pomposity of the rest of the piece.

Anyway, there's so much stuff in this recording that I could go on trying to explain it forever.   So I won't.   Listening back to it now, I'm proud of the big structure and the general sense of drama.   I can definitely hear a big Pink Floyd / Yes / Genesis (Steve Hackett) influence happening, but I think there's more than that. I hope you will listen and let me know what you think.

Independence (revisited) by Ascent

Bruce Baldwin — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 01:44:13 GMT

Okay, so the Beatles made their first album in a day. So what? Ya know, there were four of them PLUS George Martin PLUS a whole bunch of engineers in white lab coats...   Christina and I are making "Secrets of Flight" all on our own, and it's taking just a BIT longer.  As part of our process, we've been remixing and remastering, and wouldn't you know it, RE-RECORDING songs....

Independence by Ascent Music Online

We were happy with Independence when we originally did it, but compared to more recent tracks like Ascension, it sounded murky and lifeless.   A few months ago I was trying to make a better mix, only to discover that some of the original tracks just didn't sound as good as they could....

I replayed the drums using the HandSonic, just like Ascension and Adaptation. It's the same "kit" as Adaptation, so it's my own snare and toms multi-sampled.   So, I'm playing it on the HandSonic just like a real drum kit, but with my hands and no sticks. It can be challenging to play drums last on anything, but I discovered that I could duplicate the groove by playing along with the original track.

After I was happy with drums, the bass didn't sound so good anymore! I couldn't bring out the mid-range without introducing a crusty, crunchy sound. So I replayed the bass to really groove with the drums.   The guitars and the organ sound I left alone. I like the lead guitar bits because they're understated.   I did fool around with the tone a little bit.

When I made a mix that I thought was perfect, I played it for Christina...   Well, she didn't want me to have all the fun for myself, and she wanted to resing it... She got even more soulful this time!

The final mix took about a million tries, searching for those perfect frequencies to make it sound vibrant and warm...   So, then end product you're now hearing is about 75% new, built on top of the old tracks.   We think it sounds WAY better, but would really like to know what you think. Hopefully it sounds semi-consistent with the other recent songs.

You can read the story about the song further down in this blog.   New songs coming your way very soon! Get funky one time!

Adaptation (revisited) by Ascent

Bruce Baldwin — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 04:53:31 GMT

So, you can't record a CD without breaking a few eggs...

Adaptation by Ascent Music Online

After continuing to fine-tune and improve the sound of the songs for Secrets of Flight (the new Ascent CD), we realized that a couple parts from a few of the songs needed some attention. In the case of Adaptation, I was never fully happy with the recording or the arrangement, and took the opportunity to re-record some of the parts... and after I got started, it turned out to be ALL of the parts....

I actually built the new recording on top of the old one, one instrument  at a time. In fact, the only parts that remain from the original recording are a couple of E-Bow tracks on the choruses! My hope with the new arrangement was to make it sound like it was from the same "planet" as Ascension.   I once again recorded the drums using the Roland Handsonic. The drum "kit" is similar to what I played on Ascension, but in this case I also multisampled my own toms (Pearl birch kit) as well as using my Yamaha snare.

I had assumed that Christina's vocals would be one thing that remained unchanged, but she also took the opportunity to re-record her parts entirely to better suit the new arrangement. And it came out even better! The harmony parts had been lurking in the back of my brain somewhere, and she nailed those as well. I think it adds a much needed "pop" element to the sound.

You will, of course, hear that I used some synth arpeggiators again... once again both the Korg Kaossilator and Cakewalk Rapture.

Anyway, we're thrilled with the new sound of the song, and excited to be getting closer to the completion of the disc.   I think this could be our hit single.....   We would love to hear your comments!

Ascent - Ascension (Video)

Bruce Baldwin — Sat, 14 May 2011 20:15:00 GMT

Here is the first video from the upcoming Ascent CD!   The song is called Ascension.   We made a deliberate choice to wait until the video was done before releasing the song to the world.   This has allowed sufficient time to ensure that the mix and mastering are as good as they can be. I really feel like this is another big step in my musical evolution.   I have spent so much time and effort on the recording, mixing, mastering, and the video, that I could write a book about the experience.

About writing the music:
This song started, like so many do lately, as a looping experiment, just one of the many ideas that I stumble upon while practicing guitar.    It was a chord progression and a melody over a 7/8 drum pattern.   The melody was in 7/4 over the 7/8 pattern. I liked the melody and tried many variations until I came up with something that I thought would work. When I started to write words to go with the melody, I realized that it would work better if it were in 4/4.   The funny thing is that I just couldn't get that 7 pattern out of my head, and I found myself playing parts of it in 7 no matter what I did. This is why some sections of the final song are in 4 and some are in 7.   Also, because I'm fascinated about the idea of concealing numbers and information in music, there are actually many things that happen seven times in the song. See if you can spot them!

The funny thing is that the original melody on the verse was eventually replaced because it didn't suit Christina's voice.   I created the new melody to be deliberately simpler and funkier.   And then Christina added those bluesy elements that brought it to life .

The song also originally had a different chorus, a big half-time chorus with spacey keyboards and different words.   After we tried playing the song a few times, it was clear that the chorus was the weakest link. I conceived of the new chorus, melody and lyrics, while walking our dog, Berkeley, through a little patch of wilderness on a series of high hills near our house. It was right at dusk, and I was actually imagining that comet streaming across the sky. Looking down at all the little houses turning their lights on, I knew that they would never see it, but the crows would. In my head, it sounded almost like disco....

About writing the lyrics:
The lyrics of the song are basically an exploration of my own relationship with information - religion, science, and the natural world.   It's not an attempt to say that anyone is wrong or right, but rather a series of unanswered questions. I'm amazed at how much there is to know and learn by just looking around us and reading a few history books. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's easy to miss the forest for the trees...

About the recording:

To give you a general sense of the layers and parts are in this song, here's a screenshot of the song in Sonar...

To start with, I wanted to do something with a repeated synth loop that I could also use when we play live. I originally imagined that this would be some kind of a bass line, but as you can hear I ended up somewhere different.   I created these loops using Cakewalk's Rapture synth. The two synth loops, in the first and second half of the song, are the only programmed bits of the recording.   I played all of the other synth and parts, including a few layers of keyboards on some sections.

I played the drums using the Roland HandSonic (plus kick pedal) as a MIDI controller, using Session Drummer 3 to play acoustic drum samples.   I've used the HandSonic as a drum kit so many times now that it feels natural to me, and I think my brain does exactly the same thing it does when I play acoustic drums (I end up playing many of the same patterns. The shots of me playing air drums in the video demonstrate this well). Because I want to retain my own recognizable drum sound, I actually multisampled my brass Yamaha snare drum - four samples at each of five different velocities. As some of you may know, I play drums HARD which produces a different sound than many of the much tamer sounds on offer.  The kick drum and the toms are Steven Slate multisamples (Old Zep kit) which I tweaked and modified. I was going for a big arena-rock sound. Other than the snare, it's a similar kit to what I used for "Vertical Bird."

Why did I decide to use the HandSonic rather than my acoustic drum kit?   For one, I'm using the HandSonic when we play live. Also, it's great fun to use MIDI to record drums, because I can punch in and replay parts as many times as I want, without worrying about whether the audio will sound right.   Rather than to cheat and "fix" anything, I just replayed until I got it right.  And then I can endlessly change the sounds after the part is recorded, and it still has the feel of my live playing.

The guitar and bass parts, as usual, were played using Guitar Rig 4 as the amp. I wanted the guitar sounds to be "present" and in-your-face without going overboard.   I tried many, many parts that were later discarded.

Christina's vocals are what make this song exceptional, and so as the engineer/producer, I focused a huge amount of energy on making sure the recording was just right. This means that she sang the song about a dozen times. Through trial and error, I added just enough compression and echo to the recording make it fit right in the mix without being too harsh.

About Mastering:
My huge realization of the past few years has been how critical good mastering is.  I have only just started to get it. I have learned to rely not only on my ears, but on visual tools (Voxengo SPAN is awesome) that let me figure out which frequencies are too dominant or too subdued in the mix.   I spent a (painful) week of remastering this song every night, and then Christina and I would each listen to the song in our own listening environment to determine if it sounded right. It was tough to get through, but worth it in the end.

About the Video:
I don't really know anything about making videos, but I put all of my creative energy for a few weeks into making this one. I used Adobe Premier Elements, and nothing but my Canon PowerShot camera for all of the filming!   Our co-star is our pet dove, Peaceful. There are a few images in the video that I found on the Internet, primarily all of the TVs, the satellite dishes, the maps, and the space shots (thanks to NASA for those). I'll be adding the credit for the images I used, wherever possible.   The ocean and picture frame shots, Legos, lightbulb, and the slow demolition of the Shakepeare head are all mine.   You should have seen the funny looks I got while filming empty picture frames in the morning surf at Laguna Beach.  It made sense somehow. There are a few of Christina's art pictures in here - the chess board, the crows, and the old car.   The spotlight effect was created using a flashlight against a sheet of plastic.

Nothing personal against the Bard, by the way - we had that bust in our house, and it happened to get broken, so we decided to put it in the video. Christina didn't like the video of her holding the head in an "Alas, poor Yorick" kind of way, or else you'd see that in here too. To me, his head in the video represents history, knowledge, and truth, all of which are subjective!  And then all of that gets broken.

Anyway, if you like this video and song half as much as we do, then you will love it!   We would really like to hear your comments.

Ascent - What the Crows Know - Remixed and Remastered

Bruce Baldwin — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 04:59:00 GMT

New and Improved!   "What the Crows Know" by Ascent!  The MP3 is available here for a limited time. After that, you can hear it streaming at AscentMusicOnline.com. Please listen and please let us know how it sounds!

The recording of the Ascent CD has been a long journey, and now that we're getting closer to completion, it was time to take a critical look back. I've learned so much about that black art called "mastering" during the past year or so, and I've finally learned enough to know that some of these tracks didn't sound nearly as good as they could.   I have begun on the daunting project of remastering the songs we've completed for the CD so far.

I was already dissatisfied with the final mix of "What the Crows Know," and after Christina and I worked on the much-brighter-sounding "Hiding From Reality," it sounded like it was under a foot of mud.   So, I went about trying to fix the final master, only to realize that I didn't have an "unmastered" final mix to work from.   How silly of me.   Worse yet, when I loaded the original files back into Sonar, I discovered that I couldn't just mix it down the same way again, because I no longer even had some of the effects plug-ins I used the first time. So, I created a brand new mix, but stayed relatively true to the original version. In addition to changing the effects slightly, I systematically removed some low-end noise from the vocal track.

The real magic was in the EQ after the mix.   I've come to rely on using an audio spectrum analyzer (Voxengo SPAN) to compare the frequencies of the final mix to the frequencies of other songs.   In this case, I looked at the dominant frequencies of "Hiding From Reality" and "Talking in Circles" and boosted these frequencies (using a parametric EQ) where they were missing in "Crows."   After some hit-and-miss attempts, I discovered a few sweet spot frequencies that made all the difference.   Add a little compression, add a little limiting, and voila!

After a few dozen listens, we are delighted with the new final mix of "What the Crows Know," and it's our new standard for what we want our CD, "Secrets of Flight" to sound like.   There was a whole world of detail hiding in there, waiting to come out.    Sounds that I'd forgotten that I'd even recorded!

Check it out!

Ascent: Hiding From Reality

Bruce Baldwin — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 16:10:00 GMT

We're starting the new year off with a new version an old song....   "Hiding From Reality" is the the sixth song from the upcoming Ascent CD (our new year's resolution is to have the CD completed by June).   It's a song I wrote way back in 1995, and it's a very personal song for me. We decided to include it on our CD because of the strong response this sad, sad song continues to get whenever we play it live - and we've been playing it live, off and on, for the past dozen years or so.

For a limited time, you can click here to download "Hiding From Reality."   After that, you can hear it by going to AscentMusicOnline.com. And then, of course, we hope you'll buy our CD in June!

This is probably the most effective song I ever wrote about what it felt like to grow up with my family. Songwriting can work like therapy for me, and this is a prime example. Keep in mind that the truth is subjective, and the world described in the song is seen through the eyes of a confused kid. The meaning of it is perhaps slightly less cloaked in metaphor than usual for me, and that's why people get it. But you're never really going to get a plain narrative from me, so you'll have to figure it out on your own!

Musically, the song is very simple, yet I'm still not sure what key it's really in!   It somehow manages to establish a tonal center, despite some jarring chord choices that don't belong.    I don't know why it even works. I suppose it's because the unresolved nature of the music fits perfectly with the unresolved lyrics.

Christina did a wonderful job of making this song her own.   I hear both vulnerability and strength in her performance. I've never really written melodies from the perspective of a singer, so props to her for making it soulful and "singerly."   The effects on the vocals were subtly manipulated throughout the song using Cakewalk's "Vocal Strip" and "Perfect Space" VSTs. The reverse echo was created manually by reversing the track, adding reverb, and reversing again.

It's fitting that the guitar I played on the recording is the same one I wrote the song on, all those years ago. My trusty Ovation Elite is now over eighteen years old, and still play it almost every day.

You'll notice that this song is mixed and mastered to sound much brighter than many of our earlier recordings.   We're very interested in your thoughts on how it sounds. My own personal new year's resolution is "better mastering." I'm in the process of remastering the songs recorded for the CD so far.   By comparing the dominant frequencies in our recordings against other professional recordings that we admire, we realized that we could get a lot brighter and warmer.   The remaster of "What the Crows Know" (which you'll hear sometime soon) sounds like a brand new song!    Your feedback would help us know whether we're moving in the right direction.

Virtual CD Track Nineteen: Vertical Bird

Bruce Baldwin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:29:00 GMT

Sometimes I wonder what people who don't obsess about music every day do with all their time...   I've spent an inordinate amount of time on this track, primarily for my own amusement.   I do hope you enjoy it as well!

Download Track Nineteen: Vertical Bird

Just for the benefit of anybody that may be new to this page, you're about to listen (I hope) to music that I wrote and recorded at home. On this track, I played guitar, bass, electronic drums, and keyboards.   Although some of my other tracks include programming, this one is just old-fashioned playing (and some minor editing)!

Although people tell me all the time that my music sounds like "movie music," I rarely think of it that way myself.    However, I do think the first couple of minutes of this track would make a great opening for a film... Any takers?    Maybe it could be a film where the cast of the X-Files gets into a fight out in the desert with the members of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.... Eventually, a giant Robert  Fripp robot takes them all out with laser cannons...   After that, it gets a bit self-indulgent!  But like I said, I do this stuff to keep myself happy.

"Vertical Bird" was born out of an attempt to get a really big drum kit sound that I could play with my HandSonic.     I play the HandSonic like a drum kit by using a foot pedal for the kick drum, then using the two pads in the front as snare and hi hat. The other two larger pads I use as toms, and the cymbals are assigned to each of the other smaller pads. Although many other people (non-drummers) play this thing by quietly twiddling on it with their fingers, I hit it hard like a drum, and I have the pad sensitivity adjusted accordingly. By using MIDI, I can trigger many, many different available drum sounds on my computer.      Since I had recently upgraded to a new version of Cakewalk Sonar, I had a new version of their "Session Drummer" software.   The drum kit sound I started with is supposed to be a "John Bonham" sound.    I modified it quite a lot by using separate outputs for each drum sound, and then applying different effects to each one.  All of this work an enormous sound, and very fun to play.

So, I recorded about ten minutes of me playing the drum kit I'd created, with no clue what I would do with it.   This is usually a good way to kickstart a creative recording for me. The next thing I put down was the pulsing electronic sound that runs through most of the track.   Instead of using an arpeggiator to do this, I played a few bars on the keyboard, and looped it.   I don't actually remember which synth I used. I ran the original synth sound through some guitar effects (distortion, chorus, etc), and manually adjusted the "wah" effect throughout.

The primary guitar part is very typical of me.   It's like the mutant offspring of "Tectonics" and "What the Crows Know." If you've been listening to my stuff for a while, you already know that I'm a little too fond of Phrygian mode (even if you don't know what that is).   Whatever I played was not premeditated, I just kept playing until I stumbled upon this idea. I'm using Guitar Rig 4 for all my guitar sounds now.   I played all of this stuff really, really loud, because I had a few days off work, and nobody else was around! The huge, epic nature of the piece also demanded the big power chords.  You can't argue with that. I resisted the urge to windmill my arm around while playing them.

I came up with the synth melodies by improvising them on keyboards, based on the guitar part. I played around with a whole lot of different analogue synth sounds (modeled with a variety of synth plug-ins on my computer) and settled on two that worked.   I created the primary synth sound from scratch using a Cakewalk plugin called z3ta+.    I like any synth that gives me a whole lot of sliders to experiment with!    All of the string sounds were created using Dimension Pro.   I wasn't necessarily striving for realism.

You probably wouldn't know, but I changed my whole style of playing bass relatively recently. I played bass in a band for a handful of gigs last year. During that time, I decided to finally get around to playing bass with my fingers (no pick) after vehemently rejecting this idea for many years prior.   After discovering a fuller sound, and greater control of dynamics, I decided to give my bass pick a rest indefinitely. I didn't need to do a lot with the bass on this track as it was already so full sounding.   I tried to create texture and leave a lot of space.

There are a variety of other sounds and effects that show up. I could wear myself out just writing about them!   Anyway, I'm quite pleased with this piece at the moment.   I would would welcome your comments or feedback!

Get Funky One Time

Bruce Baldwin — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 03:40:00 GMT

Just in case anyone doubted that I am a deeply silly person at heart.....

Download Get Funky One Time

"Get Funky One Time" is not technically a remix of "Independence," but it features unused vocals that Christina recorded during the various takes of that song.  As time goes by, she improvises more and more while recording. Most of these vocals are little asides that she did in between the lines or during the end section of the song.

The rest of this is a whole new recording. I guess you can't leave a person like me with a room full of electronics and not expect something like this to happen once in a while.

The synths and drum loops were created using the Korg Kaossilotor, along with Cakewalk's Dimension Pro and Rapture, and a whole lot of effects.   I played the bass and guitar parts (using Guitar Rig 4) because I was just having too much fun...

The funny thing is that Christina sang words "get funky one time" in the middle of "Independence" at all...   For unknown reasons, I had spoken those fateful words at that same point in the song when I made the demo. Because I had to clarify that it wasn't really part of the song, she was compelled to sing it.   A few different ways. And then we both kind of liked it.

Ascent: Independence

Bruce Baldwin — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 18:57:35 GMT

The fifth song from the upcoming Ascent CD is "Independence."   You can hear it now by going to AscentMusicOnline.com

Strange but true: I co-wrote this song with a younger version of myself. Really, I did.

I've been obsessed with recording for as long as I've been obsessed with making music, possibly longer!    Back in the days before you could do everything on the computer, I recorded absolutely everything on cassette tape...    This started with recording just about every practice session with every band I played with.   I remember "inventing" my own system of of overdubbing by hooking up two boom boxes.   I spent at least a decade after that recording songs on multitrack cassette, until the digital world finally allowed me move on to other mediums.   I still have a big box full of cassettes, many of which are unlabeled, and most of which should never be heard by anyone!

Once every few years, I get nostalgic, and dig through those cassette tapes, to see what I can find. Last year, I was on just such a nostalgic journey, searching for recordings of the band I played with in high school...    I successfully uncovered a few things and shared them with my former bandmates.   Because of the randomness of the process, I ended up finding many things I wasn't looking for.

The cassette in question must have dated from the early to mid 90s, and it was full of song demos.   Not nice, fleshed out, pretty-sounding demos, but the kind of demo I make when I've come up with a song idea and I don't want to forget it.   In other words, I'm just playing guitar and singing something to remember the melody.   More often than not, it's nonsense syllables, because the words haven't come yet.   Sometimes there's an early nonsense-syllable version, and a later version with words.   Trust me, I've never been a singer, so a lot of it is hard to listen to. The cassette contained more than a few things that eventually turned into real songs, but many more that never did. I copied about a dozen of these onto my computer, because I thought some of the melodies had potential.   It was truly amazing to me that there were so many song ideas that I had no recollection of at all.

This particular song, now called "Independence," was a complete song whenever I made the demo. I think it was probably 1995. It stood out to me because I can't imagine writing a song like this now.   The lyrics, in particular, are something that would seem strange coming from a happily married man, but their simplicity resonated with me.   The demo of the song was very "folky" sounding, with a shuffle feel.   Interestingly, the beginning and the end of the demo included an instrumental guitar bit that eventually (much later) turned into the song "Intentions."

I decided to rework the song, to see if could be viable as an Ascent song.    I felt that the simplicity of the song might offer Christina a chance to stretch out and improvise a bit. I ended up completely changing the melodies of the verses and the choruses, but keeping at least some of the basic chord structure.  I took away the shuffle feel, and it became more bluesy, less folky. The bridge ("throw this baggage overboard") I left completely as it was.   So I do see the end result as a 50/50 collaboration between my 1995 self and my 2009 self.

I recorded the drums first, close-miked, and later added some heavy compression. This was just before I upgraded my audio interface, so it's just four mics.

The guitars were recorded using NI Guitar Rig 4. As I mentioned in my last post, my computer now lets me use this real-time like an amp, and I can completely change the amp sound after I record it.   I went through a million different sounds to arrive at this one. Since this is basically a simple blues song, I didn't want to fall into the easy trap of having long solo sections over it.  That's been done well enough by far better guitarists than I!  What I tried to do instead was to have the lead guitar provide the occasional commentary to the vocal.

The bass was through my old Roland pedal, but later modified by the cabinet simulation (no amp) in Guitar Rig. It sounds really crusty and noisy on its own...   I should probably have redone it straight through Guitar Rig.

I actually played the organ part, rather than programming it, like I often do.   Mainly because the chords are easy and it was fun!   The strings in the middle section are programmed - I treated it as a little mini-composition, and it's quite lovely on its own.   Both the organ and the string sounds were created using Dimension Pro.

As I'd expected, Christina really nailed the bluesy vocals and made it sound authentic.  I really love all the bits she ad-libbed and invented. It's a good reminder for me to use basic chord progressions like this more often, because it gives her more freedom.   It's a nice balance to the madness of "Talking in Circles."

It took me about a million tries to mix and master this song.   I've learned a lot about how modifying the EQ on one instrument can affect how the other instruments sound, and even the vocals...   I feel like everything can now be heard in the mix.   I hope it sounds as good to you as it sounds to me right now. Please let us know what you think!

Virtual CD Track Eighteen: Disgruntled

Bruce Baldwin — Tue, 25 May 2010 20:40:00 GMT

Hello Again! Here I am, continuing to churn out free music for your amusement (and my own)...    The faint of heart may want to steer clear of Track Eighteen - it's bit "heavier" than usual.    It's not that I don't think you can handle it.   But don't say I didn't warn you.

Download Track Eighteen: Disgruntled

This piece, like so many others, is essentially the product of getting some new equipment.   I recently upgraded my computer because my old one was cracking under all the demands I was making of it.    Or "crackling" to be more specific! With the Sonar software and all the different VST synths and effects that I run, I had become accustomed to popping noises, lockups, and software crashes.  I was rebooting many times a day to get through a project.   Eventually, enough is enough! So now I'm running with an AMD Phenom II quad-core processor and 8GB of RAM, and everything is working as it should!

I have also upgraded my listening environment with a couple of Mackie MR5 studio monitors.   I'm hoping that they'll be a big help in my ongoing quest for better mixing and mastering.   Great, clear sound. For now, I am using an M-Audio Fast Track Pro for my inputs and outputs.   I had purchased a PreSonus unit that wouldn't work as well as I'd hoped, so it's already been sent back.   I need more mic preamps to record drums properly.

One of the nice things about my new set up is that I can do almost everything in real-time, with (almost) no latency . For example, the Guitar Rig 3 software that I've been using for my virtual amp was previously not really allowing me to hear the guitar sound in real time, so I was usually having to play with a completely dry sound when recording.   Not so rock and roll.   Now, I can actually use it as designed, and hear what I want to hear.

The big, fat guitar sound on this track was the result of playing around with those Guitar Rig sounds. I couldn't help but make up a few drop-D riffs with a sound like this.    I recorded guitar and bass using amp sounds from that software, while hearing it LOUD through the monitors. A nice change.

The drum sounds are another new toy, Abbey Road 70s Drums.   Another NI product (like Guitar Rig) - perhaps they should be sponsoring me!    Anyway, I had bought this when it came out, only to find that it would barely run on my old computer. Works like a charm now.   Great acoustic drum sounds, and a ton of control.   I bought it to use with my HandSonic, but everything on this track is programmed.   I didn't play a note. I tried hard to program something that sounds like what I would actually play. It was a lot of work but I think it worked out.   I feel guilty when I program drums rather than play them, but this was fun.

The final piece in the equation is the Korg Kaossilatotor. A fun little synth toy, I bought it to use for special effects when playing live. I used it to play all of the "keyboard" sounds on this track.

There was no structure, melodic or harmonic development in this piece, so I don't know what else to tell you.   I had fun making it. I'm glad to know that I can still rock out when I need to.

Let me know what you think!

Ascent: Talking in Circles

Bruce Baldwin — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 02:41:00 GMT

The fourth song from the upcoming Ascent CD is "Talking in Circles."   You can hear it now by going to AscentMusicOnline.com .  The song will begin streaming as soon as you enter the site (for now).  Later, you can choose "Listen" to hear it. Or you can buy the song on iTunes, eMusic, et cetera.

I will be the first to admit that this a very strange song!    There's a lot going on, much of it just under the surface.   I didn't shy away from letting my influences show, and mixing them all together.

I wrote the lyrics about four years ago...   I wrote the first line, "talking in circles, deflecting the blame," in my notes during a business meeting (disclaimer: a small group of people at a previous job). Believe me, this was a reasonable observation of what was going on in the room at the time. It was one of those meetings where everyone is talking, but nothing is communicated, and no-one is listening. Like many lyrics I've written, I start with a kernel of truth and then expand and exaggerate it into something else.   I started to think, what if the whole world is run like this...   So the lyrics quickly spun out of this idea into something that's almost science fiction. Or is it?   The idea of marketing pitchmen and CEOs hiding in bunkers from the dangerous effects of their ill-advised products seems especially relevant at the moment. Right, Mr. Toyoda? I still chuckle at the absurdity of lines like: "Some paid with their dignity, some with their lives, for company dinners and new trophy wives."

The "circle" idea also informed what the music would become.    I wanted to create a circular pattern that repeated around and around. A propulsive pattern that sounds like something running out of control.   I've always enjoyed these kind of patterns where it might be in three or it might be in four or it might be in six...    I remember that when I was first creating it, I was using many more layers of circular patterns, but I eventually realized that it would be too dense to make an actual song out of it.

The chorus was always a struggle. I knew that the song needed a chorus, but I didn't have anything I liked. The original chorus had the words "I need to feel that I'm human."   It sort of made sense with the rest of the song, but it always felt forced. I had that version of the song in my brain for a long time, but I didn't feel like it was worth doing. Only when I stumbled on a new chorus did it work for me.   I always meant for the chorus to sound huge, like the last chorus in the recording, but I realized that it was more effective to strip it down and then build it up later.   Up until nearly the last minute, the first chorus was going to be a dreamy-sounding synth thing... but I suddenly remembered that I had recorded some other electric guitar parts for it months ago.    When I tried this one, Christina and I both liked how jarring and gritty it sounded.

My original demo of the song was quite robotic in the vocal department - and badly autotuned!   Christina's vocal recording brought a bluesy-ness and an urgency to the vocals that I could not have contributed on my own.    She also added the higher notes that happen at the end of every other line, making the melody more dynamic and memorable. The echo and other vocal effects change continuously throughout the song, which was fun to do.

The guitar solo section in the middle sort of wrote itself, and was added spontaneously one day. The chord sequence just came out of nowhere, and it came together right away. I love it when that happens, and I really like this section of music. Listening back to just the chords and the bass, it could be its own song!    I recorded two other solos, but they aren't all that great.

The "ambient" end section of the song features an eBow loop that I recorded one day while practicing. It wasn't done with this song in mind at all. When I practice by myself it often sounds a lot like the closing minutes of this track, and sometimes I'm inspired to hit the "save" button on my looper pedal. It was a stroke of luck that I thought to save this one and add it here, because it think it provides some balance and space, and just the right commentary on what comes before it.

I recorded about twice as much instrumentation as I needed for this song.  I did countless layers of HandSonic percussion, and the various bits bubble up to the surface at different times - tablas, congas, toms, and other percussion parts with various effects on them.   There are three separate eBow tracks, two of which play throughout the entire song. The acoustic guitars were each recorded in stereo, using a condenser mike and a dynamic mike.    The electric guitar was processed through NI Guitar Rig 3.

I used several synths, and in general I played them on keyboards, rather than programming like I have done in the past.  The spooky low-end sound that happens at the beginning was created using a freeware synth called DSK Darkness Theory.   The string sounds were all created using Dimension Pro.

That's about all I can tell you! Please add your comments to let us know what you think of the end product!

Virtual CD Track Seventeen: Frozen in Time

Bruce Baldwin — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:31:00 GMT

Here's the first new music from me in 2010...     Written and recorded last weekend!

Download Virtual CD Track Seventeen: Frozen In Time

The origins of this track were a general desire to connect my HandSonic to my computer and play around with synth sounds through MIDI. I have so many virtual synths on my computer, and I love gadgets.... The basic drum track is a modified loop that came out of that. The first version was a cheesy-sounding synth-pop thing that was going nowhere.

After realizing that the basic "groove" had potential, I eliminated most of the synths I had recorded, leaving only the drums and the squelchy-sounding bass synth that's still there. Because the drums were recorded with MIDI, I was able to experiment with different sound samples for each note. I actually ended using samples of my acoustic drum kit. In fact, the drum sounds were from the recording session for the Ascent song, "Indigo."  I intended to replace this mechanical-sounding groove with an actual drum kit performance, but I decided that it wouldn't necessarily sound better, so I left it alone. Plus, it tickled me that the HandSonic was playing my acoustic kit sounds.

The piano was the next thing to come. The sound is the Truepiano Amber VST, with two layers of echo added.   To be honest, my rudimentary piano playing just sounds cooler this way! I realized that I had used this piano-with-echo effect years ago on my "Cat's Cradle" CD.... but I figured I'd risk repeating myself since that CD didn't necessarily suffer from overplay on the world stage! ...I think my original inspiration for the rhythmically echoing piano is from a Pete Townshend song, but hopefully I use it differently.

The guitars and bass were recorded using Guitar Rig 3.   This allows me to experiment at length with the sounds after they are recorded. I actually added the wah-wah to the lead guitar after it was recorded, by manually sliding the little slider in the software.   Kind of fun!   I recorded about ten times as much lead guitar as I ended up keeping. Some of it was pretty crazy!  You still get a taste of that in the middle. When I got close to the final edit, I realized that I'd already made my point by the middle of the track, so let most of it go.

I think this track sounds very typical of me. I didn't necessarily stretch myself, but I had fun.   Many of my old tricks are in evidence here. Probably I should have given up Phrygian mode for New Year's, but now it's too late!   I'll have to wait until 2011!

Please let me know your thoughts....

Ascent: Adaptation

Bruce Baldwin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:16:00 GMT

The third completed track from the upcoming Ascent CD is called "Adaptation." Please go to ascentmusiconline.com, enter the site, and the song should begin streaming right away. Like our other songs, it will be available soon at all your favorite download sites, including iTunes and eMusic.

Christina wrote the words to this song right around the same time as Indigo.    I think it was actually within a few days. I'm sure that she will comment elsewhere regarding what the words are about....

The basic music came to me pretty easily, sitting around with an acoustic guitar and the words in front of me.  I don't think that I ever had any other version of the basic chords and melody.     Befitting of a song with this title, the arrangement and the recording went through many changes to reach its final form. The original version had a busy spy-hunter-like bassline. I recorded the drum part with that bassline in mind.   I was hearing it as a very rock-oriented song with guitar doubling the bass.   After recording the drums, bass and guitar, it became clear that the song was simply not happening.  It didn't sound like something Christina should be singing over.

I tried modifying the guitar part, and leaving the bass alone, but it didn't "groove." It sounded clunky and forced.   After becoming completely frustrated with the whole thing, I decided that I would scrap the drums and bass and make it an acoustic guitar song. That resulted in what you hear at the beginning of the recording.   I soon realized that the new acoustic guitar part would actually work with the existing drums, but I needed to start over with the bassline. That allowed the current arrangement to come together.

The instrumentation is nothing but guitar, bass and drums. I thought about adding strings to fill out the choruses, but decided instead to use eBow.  I added electric guitar for texture, and to toughen the song up just a little.

Something incredibly odd happened when Christina recorded the vocals. I think my computer was overburdened, and having trouble keeping up. Somehow, the vocals recorded at a slower rate of speed than everything else.   It was like you slowed a tape down a little bit. It was entirely at the wrong tempo, but the pitch was right. A complete disaster! I've never had that happen before, in hundreds of hours of recording on the computer. To make matters worse, she had just recorded about eight takes, and was very happy with how it went! Fortunately, I was able to implement my remixing experience and un-stretch the audio the proper amount to get it back in synch.   That was basically a whole night's work.

We also recorded harmony vocals for the chorus. I liked it, but Christina didn't, so we scrapped it. We will "save it for the remix."

I've become more and more critic of the final mixes, in terms of EQ and compression. The song was remixed and remastered about a million times. Please let us know if you think it sounds good!

Virtual CD Track Sixteen: Insurrection in Oxnard

Bruce Baldwin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:58:00 GMT

It's time for another new track for my Virtual CD.   This is one that I started last November, and finally got around to finishing during the past week.

Download Virtual CD Track Sixteen: Insurrection in Oxnard

I created the basis for this track during a trip out of town with Christina.   We were on our way to Cambria, California, and we stopped overnight in Oxnard. I had loaded Sonar onto our laptop to provide myself with some entertainment.    I created the orchestration and the piano, which is now the middle section of the piece, in the morning while Christina slept in. Yes, my idea of entertainment is sitting in the dark, drawing notes on a staff on a laptop screen. Why not? I was trying to get some dense Brahms-like orchestration. The sounds were created using Dimension Pro and TruePiano, which were brand new toys for me at that point.   I was just experimenting with the sounds.

I didn't really get beyond about thirty seconds of music at that time.   I came back to it few months later, and tried hard to develop and expand the basic themes, but I couldn't get anywhere with it.   That was pretty much the end of it, until I pulled the file up last weekend, and had the idea of playing some guitar on it.   I don't know how or why I suddenly came up with the guitar part. I had the echo on and it immediately gave me this idea. I think perhaps I was channeling David Gilmour.   Since I liked the guitar part so much, I was determined to flesh out the rest of the piece. I added to the synthesized drum part by doubling it on a single floor tom.   I also played conga on the HandSonic. The last part added was the bass.

You may notice some sound effects at the beginning of the track. I created one of the sounds by crinkling up an empty bag of Swedish Fish, and then adjusting the pitch.   I mention this just in case Swedish Fish wants to send me some free product....

I'm a bit disappointed in that there's really no harmonic or melodic development, and no meaningful structure, but I think the final piece evokes a mood. And I'm satisfied with that.

Meanwhile I've been hard at work on the new Ascent CD.   I have completed the instrumental parts for four of the songs, and drums for another. Christina just completed the vocals for "The Adaption" which should be done soon. Stay tuned!

Jon Anderson and Bruce Baldwin

Bruce Baldwin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:27:00 GMT

It's finally time to reveal the identity of my mystery collaborator. It's been far too long!

In December of 2006, I received a message on my cell phone that sounded like this:

"Hey Bruce, this is Jon Anderson. I really enjoyed your work.....   very,very good stuff. Very beautifully arranged and , well, organized, that's all I can say. And the idea is, I'll send you a couple of pieces and you can work on them, evolve them, develop them whichever way you want, and we'll see where it goes.. " (yes, I saved the message)

My heart skipped at least a few beats, and then went into overdrive. I wouldn't have believed it, but I recognized the voice. There was no denying it. It was the voice I'd been hearing since I was teenager.   Jon Anderson's music with Yes made such a profound impact on my life and my music. Songs like "And You And I," "Wondrous Stories," "Awaken," ""Starship Trooper," "Gates of Delirium," and on and on, have informed my musical appetites and ideas for as long as I can remember. And here was Jon himself, telling me he liked MY music!  Even just knowing that he'd HEARD my music was a thrill. And he wanted to work with me.

I had sent in a musical sample from a call for orchestrators I'd found on a website. I composed a less-than-one-minute piece specifically for the purpose (see "Wishes Fulfilled," to hear the actual piece). I had a such good feeling about it, but I never really expected to hear from Jon.

My phone conversations with Jon were like a whirlwind. He is so full of ideas! He told me that he had hundreds of unfinished musical ideas that he wanted a collaborator to help fully realize.   Sure enough, the music came, two CDs full. And later on, MP3s in emails.   The music was meandering and nebulous like a cloud forming, but there were lovely melodies and intriguing chords lurking in there. Much of it was played on layered-up keyboards..   I had to listen and listen and listen to pick out the individual notes and melodies. Music that Jon sent me later included harp and even vocals. I felt like a was getting access to some long-lost bootleg recording. Awesome.

Jon has a kind and generous spirit. As I worked on the pieces and emailed him the results, I was consistently amazed at the quick response through email and phone calls.   Jon was always excited about the music, always complimentary of my work.   The only piece he asked for changes on was the very first one I did.   I think his suggestions gave me a good idea of the kinds of development he was looking for. After that, everything else he loved right away.

There are a total of seven pieces that I completed for Jon.   The final versions include quite a lot of my ideas. Truly, I had complete musical freedom to arrange, orchestrate, develop, et cetera.    I gave them voice, structure, and harmonic development. But their heart and soul is still Jon's. As you hear them, I think you'll be hearing both of our identities loud and clear.

The majority of the pieces I created using Cakewalk Sonar and Synful Orchestra. A couple of the pieces contain live or electronic percussion. Oh, and one guitar concerto, on which I played acoustic guitar.   Some of the pieces involved more hours of work than I can count.

Over the years that we've communicated, Jon has told me about many ideas he had for this music: films, videogames, webcasts, even a ballet! Jon's a man of many ever--changing ideas. So far I'm not sure what the future of this music is, but with Jon's energy, I look forward to amazing things.

Since it's been a long time in the making, so exciting, and so much effort, I've been eager to share this music with the world.   I recently contacted Jon and got the okay to put a piece or two up on the Internet. Thanks, Jon! The first two I'm putting up are called "Far Reaching" and "Elizabethan Garden" - I didn't actually know the names of most of these pieces while I was working on them, but Jon tells me these are the titles!   The arrangements may sound a bit like an orchestra, but it's really a small ensemble - strings, horns, oboe, and percussion. These were the first and fourth pieces that I orchestrated for Jon.  They were completed during 2007. Please go and listen on www.myspace.com/bruceandjon and come back here and make comments.

Oh, and if you're visiting my site for the first time, I hope you'll consider listening to some of the other music here, much of which is free. My band with my wife, Ascent, is the process of recording our new CD, which I think Yes fans might like.   Check it out!

As Jon might say, zoooooooom......

Ascent: Indigo

Bruce Baldwin — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:24:00 GMT

"Indigo," the second completed track from Ascent's forthcoming CD can now be heard at AscentMusicOnline.com! If you click ENTER, it will start streaming right away. Just in case it's not immediately obvious, you can also click on "Listen" in the site to choose "What the Crows Know," "Indigo" and a slew of older tracks.

"Indigo" demonstrates a completely different side of Ascent than "What the Crows Know."   When we first starting doing "Crows," Christina's comment was, "This is what all our new songs should sound like. This is our sound."   Whoops. Didn't happen!   Not a big surprise, since we both love so many different styles of music.  And we're both delighted by the sound of this song. So it goes.

Christina wrote the words to "Indigo" about a friend of hers, whom she hadn't seen in a long time. Christina has a history of writing songs for people ("Dawn's Resolve" was another), which is a really cool gift to give someone.   This is a big difference between she and I - I'm more likely to write words about someone and never tell them (usually because they're too bitter or too abstract).    I'll let her comment on the lyrics, if she wants to.

Christina gave me these lyrics just a few days after "Adaptation," which is another new song that's already partly recorded.   The deal was that she wanted to have "Indigo" recorded prior to going to visit her friend in Vegas, which was just a few weeks away at that time. Easy to say when there's not even a note of music yet!

The way that I typically write music to pre-existing lyrics is to put the lyric sheet in front of me, strum a few chords, and just start singing whatever melody pops into my head. The melody then suggests further chord changes to me, and it's like "poof," instant song. Although some might think this would be a great ability to have, I can tell you that it doesn't always work out so smoothly, or yield great results.   For one thing, the rhythm of the words to verse two isn't always the same as the rhythm of the words of verse one.  As a result, whatever melody I came up with might not fit the whole song. For another thing, that initial melody and chord progression aren't always so great. But my brain grabs a hold of that melody and refuses to let it go. Sometimes that first idea will prevent me for coming up with a different idea, because the melody and the words become fused in my head.   I've sometimes tried to come back to lyrics after weeks or months to try something different, but still be stuck on the first melody that occurred to me.

The first thing that I came up with for "Indigo" was just dead boring. It was a strummy, folky, R.E,M.-on-a-bad-day kind of a thing.  The melody was pleasant, but didn't go anywhere. If I recall, I played that first version of the song for Christina, thinking it was all done.   But when I went back to it the next day, I realized what a lackluster song it was.   The only really good part was the chorus. I just kept singing that chorus over and over again. Somehow or another, I was able to free myself from the boring chords and melody of the verses, and create a new song around the chorus.

Somewhere around that time, Christina started making comments about wanting to use the soulful, bluesy side of her voice more.   I decided to make the arrangement to "Indigo" into a vehicle for her to do that.

I started, as I usually do, with the drums.   I wanted the arrangement to be sparse and open, so I didn't want to overplay. To force myself to be basic, I only put microphones on the snare/hi-hat and kick drum.   I tried to play quiet grace notes and keep some funkiness in the space between the notes.   Somewhere during the multiple takes, the condenser microphone that was recording the kick drum actually fell on the ground (sorry, I play loud!) and I didn't even know it.   The kick drum ended up with a more muffled sound than I'd anticipated, but I felt like I'd nailed the feel, so I decided to keep it.

Most of the guitar was played through Guitar Rig LE, which is an amp simulator. The nice thing about using a plug-in (on the computer) for your guitar amp is that you can completely change the sound after you record it.  I especially like the raw (for me) sound on the choruses.

It was important to me that the bassline was melodic but also somewhat sparse. It was pretty easy for me to find the right part, but then I had to play it about a million times to get the feel just right. The bass sound is the one that i usually default to - played through my Boss effects pedal, with just a little bit of chorus.   The funky part in the middle section resulted from me just messing around and then deciding I liked it.  I thought about playing a little guitar solo over it, but I'm glad I left it uncluttered so that Christina could improvise over it.

I'm trying to avoid string arrangements that sound just like the ones I did on the last CD.   The string part is very simple, and I used the default string sounds in Dimension Pro.  I intentionally avoided the Synful Orchestra sound because I wanted it to sound different. What I was going for was the type of effect that happens when the strings come in at the end of "Hey Jude." I think I got that without going overboard.

Christina recorded the vocal part four times one day while I was at work.  I'd never heard her sing it up until then, because we were rushing to get the recording done in time for our Vegas trip. When I heard it, I was amazed at how she'd worked with my melody and turned it into this soulful, bluesy vocal.   There's a magic in her phrasing and inflection that I could not have come up with in a million years. I was grinning ear to ear while I put it all together to mix the song.

I've been learning a lot lately about audio mastering, and applied some of that learning to the final mix of this song. I've realized that those critical elements of warmth and sparkle have been sorely lacking in my recordings for a while now.    It's amazing what just a little bit strategic equalization and appropriate compression will do for the final mix.   I worked very hard at balancing this song out just right. I hope that it sounds as good to all the listeners out there as it does to me.   After getting though that process with "Indigo," I have discovered that I desperately need to go back and remaster "Crows;" it sounds good, but it could sound a lot better than it does. It will certainly be remastered for the CD.

So, there you go! Another new song, and another ton of information. I have already recorded all my parts for the third new Ascent song, "Talking in Circles," and most of the fourth, "Adaptation." If you've read this far, and you've listened to the song, I humbly ask that you leave your comments either here or on the Ascent Guestbook.

Ascent: What the Crows Know

Bruce Baldwin — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:52:00 GMT

Hello!  "What the Crows Know," the first song from Ascent's new CD in progress, can now be heard on ascentmusiconline.com  (if you click ENTER, it will start streaming right away).    If you like listening to the streaming audio, we hope that you'll consider downloading the mp3 when it becomes available in the next couple of weeks (from iTunes, eMusic, Napster, Amazon, Rhapsody, and others...)

I started to write the words to this song a couple of years ago, just a few months after we moved to California.   If case you haven't figured it out already , you should know that I'm fascinated by birds. In fact, the band name Ascent was inspired by bird flight, as were some of our other songs, including "In Flight."

One night, as the sun was setting, I saw hundreds and hundreds of crows flying over our house, all headed South.   I was amazed by the huge numbers, and the communication that seemed to be happening between all the individuals.    This was not something I'd ever seen in Arizona. I made sure to head outside at sunset the next day, and sure enough, the crows were doing the same thing, flying in the same direction.    Each night I watched them, and tried to figure out exactly where they were going, and when and how they all came back. Once I started to pay close attention to the crows, I started to notice all the strange social (and anti-social) behaviors they were engaging in. During the day, the crows were all independent, doing their own thing, but at that one time of day they were all working together.

One rainy afternoon at work, I saw another huge group of crows in what could only be described as a whirlwind across the street. Hundreds of them were circling, and making an incredible sound.   There was no easy explanation for what they were doing, but it was clearly a major event in their world. I looked around at my co-workers, and saw that not another soul was interested. The crows were living in a universe all their own. That day, I wrote the majority of the song lyrics on my PDA.

The music for this song came out of a practice room improvisation.  When I practice, I'm usually creating loops of drums and guitars, and always searching for interesting guitar riffs or chord progressions that can be repeated endlessly and still work. The majority of these improvisations don't get saved, but once in a while I hit upon something that I like enough to store in my RC-50 Loop Station.   Modal music lends itself well to endless looping and soloing without sounding too trite (to me, anyway). So this improvisation was really just an excuse to play guitar solos in Phrygian mode.  The guitar riff and the basic drum rhythm of the final song are essentially the same as that first improvisation.   I had originally created a sort of ascending bassline that I discarded later.

A week or two after saving this particular improvisation, I thought of the "What the Crows Know" lyrics I had written on my PDA, and thought I'd take a crack at putting the two together.    It worked!    I recorded a little demo, with a ton of echo all over my voice.    When I played the original demo for Christina, I don't remember her being too impressed.   I think it was probably pretty boring and repetitive, and the song had no chorus.

At least a couple of months went by.   I was sitting around strumming acoustic guitar, and I started playing something like what is now the chorus of the song.   At some point, I figured out that it worked to tack this chord progression on to the existing "Crow Song," even though it is clearly not in the same mode. I wrote additional lyrics to go with the chorus, and the song was done. When I played the song with the chorus to Christina, she loved it, and we started to play it in our live set.   When we play it live, I play the basic drum pattern on the HandSonic and loop it, then play the guitar with the rhythmic delay on it. The HandSonic kit is one that I set up specifically for the song, and it includes Doholla (a Middle Eastern drum) and Dholak (an Indian drum) sounds.

It was really difficult for me to get the recording started properly.  I probably recorded the drum parts a hundred times, but I was still unhappy with it. It just didn't have the right feel. I think part of this was that I was playing it much too slow, and I wasn't used to hearing the drum sounds all on their own (without the looped guitar). For a while, I considered not using the HandSonic, and playing heavy rock drums, like "Kashmir," instead.    I walked away from it for a week in frustration, and then it turned out to be much easier when I tried again. I ended up adding a couple of other drum sounds for effect, including the conga in the middle section.

I initially used stereo mic's for the guitar, but it didn't sound right to me because I'd been playing the Ovation through my effects pedal (Boss GT-3) when we played it live. In the end I decided to do the guitar like the live version.   The bassline was new but it was really easy.  My primary goal was just to leave a lot of space.

There are multiple drones beneath the surface of the song, played on electric guitar using Ebow.   I didn't loop these parts, I just played them straight through. In the middle section there are no fewer than three tracks of drones playing at once!    There's a little bit of "lead" Ebow in a few spots too.

Christina recorded her vocals one day while I was at work. She recorded it five times, and we worked together to assemble the best composite track from those five.    The effects on the vocal include plug -in that simulates a tube compressor, called "Vintage Channel VC-64." I also used this effect on the drum parts, to balance them out. There is also, of course, some echo.

I'd had the idea for a long time that there were going to be harmony vocals on chorus, but I didn't actually try to work them out until after the lead vocal was done.   I came up with three-part harmonies and recorded myself singing them, to see if it would work. Because I'm such a poor singer, I had to autotune myself (I sound just like T-Pain! I'm on a boat!). I put Christina through the pain of singing these parts over and over again, but in the end we decided to discard most of them.

When Christina recorded the harmony vocals, she also improvised the vocal bits that happen during the solo section. She suggested that they should have a "creepy" effect, so I applied the reverse echo.   We liked it so much that we added these vocal parts to the beginning (backwards) and end of the song.

The guitar solo was pretty easy for me, compared to the rest of the recording. After all, the song was originally just an excuse to play lead!   The recorded solo was originally about twice as long, but I edited out the middle of it. It's strictly improvised, but after recording it a few times I had worked out the first few phrases.

There's an intentional lack of keyboards or programming in this song, but there is a little synth in the middle and end, an echoing sound from a Cakewalk synth called Rapture.

At the start of the solo section, there's a sample of a screechy sound - this is actually a sample I downloaded from a site called The Freesound Project.   Apparently, it's someone abusing a grand piano that's been "prepared" with dry ice! It's licensed under a Creative Commons license, so have to tell you that it was created by someone named Batchku. The name of the sample is "Leaving Bird Rust Island" - seems apropos!

So there you go, a new song and a whole ton of information! We're excited to be releasing new Ascent music. Please listen and let us know what you think.

Overdue Update

Bruce Baldwin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:25:00 GMT

Hey loyal readers!

Is there anybody out there? Once again, you may have been left to think that nothing is going on with me musically.   I see that it's been more than 80 days since I've posted here.   Whoops. Well, the good news is that I've been busy, busy, busy, and new music is coming soon. I'm just lousy at communicating, as usual!

Much of my musical energy this year has been directed to Ascent.   Thanks to Christina's efforts, we are keeping busy and building up steam (check out the new website she created). We've been playing gigs all over Orange County. At each gig, I've been fine-tuning my one-man-band routine by looping guitar, percussion, Ebow, guitar-synth and samples. We are also three songs into recording our new CD! I'm very excited about this music, and I think these are some of the best-sounding recordings I've been involved in.   The recording has benefited from all the research and development I've done since starting this blog, as well as Christina's critical ear. We plan to release our CD as mp3 downloads, one song at a time.

The first song, "What the Crows Know," should be available within the next week or so.   The songs will be available on a variety of sites, including iTunes, eMusic, Rhapsody, LaLa, and so on. As each song becomes available, I will post on this blog about the writing and recording process. So it will be a lot like the Virtual CD, except that you'll have to actually buy the songs for 99 cents each, rather than just get everything for free.   But then, what else are you really going to do with 99 cents? Seriously.   And if you've been downloading my Virtual CD, you're already about fifteen bucks ahead, so it will balance out!

There may well be more free Virtual CD tracks in the future. I have more than a few unfinished pieces lying around that may get up and walk at any time.   In case you haven't noticed, all the Virtual CD tracks are now located at a different address: obsessivemusic.info. They are still 100% free.   Feel free to direct all your friends and acquaintances to this URL to download the whole thing.

In addition several upcoming Ascent gigs, rumor has it that I may be playing a gig or two with the Courtney Chambers Band, as the bass player. Courtney rocks, so check out her music!