Ok, so it's obvious that I love the history behind recording music, but I also love the Beatles. So it's really not that big of a surprise that the two go together pretty well. Now, a lot of their songs have been leaked through the Beatles: Rock Band video game, (God bless the developers of Rock Band who thought it was a great idea to use multi-tracks for the game.) but this is from what I'm aware of, leaked from the 4-track master tape of the song itself. Now, there are two parts to this song, and the second part (With a Little Help From My Friends) would start by having the first part of the song (Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band) fade into that.
But what I really love, was how this ended up recorded. You see, multi-track recording was still very limited, and the Beatles actually did something very interesting with the recording of this song. Instead of just a single 4-track recorder, they used two 4-track recorders. This was done by using the first 4-track recorder to record the basic tracks (Guitar, bass and drums.) and the vocal tracks. (Lead and harmony.) Then the master tape would be moved to the second 4 track so that there, it could be mixed, and there was another track for recording additional instruments, in this case, the guitar solos, and the horns.
Night-time talk show host Jimmy Kimmel and famous rapper Kanye West are at it on Twitter. Well, it's not so much a feud, as it is Kimmel cracking jokes, and Kanye reacting. Kanye got offended over a parody of his interview on the BBC, involving a child actor re-enacting Kanye's interview. This apparently drove Kanye over the edge, and caused him to tweet several....inappropriate things about Jimmy. So how did he react? In the video I have posted above me, Jimmy talks about the Twitter feud, and talks about his reactions to them, even sharing what happened before the show. And yes, it's hilarious.
Ok, so I'm a huge fan of the Disney Parks, as a lot of my classmates have figured. I have a bunch of shirts that I wear frequently that even show it! But today, I found out about something that, as somebody with Aspergers Syndrome, is deeply dissapointed by.
After getting calls of abuse of it's Guest Assistance Card (People have claimed to have disabilities using it, but really haven't.), both Disneyland and the Walt Disney World resort have announced that they will instead use a card given to families of people with disabilities that will give them a time to come back later, and have them wait in a short line, instead of having them moved to the front of the line when a GAC is shown to a cast member.
Now, like I said, as somebody with Aspergers Syndrome, I am just angered by this decision. I am prone to anxiety attacks easily, and if I'm stuck in a long line for a certain period of time, I can have anxiety attacks. It's worse if I have a dinner reservation at a certain time. Now, imagine if it was somebody with a family member who has down syndrome, a form of Autism, or even a family member in a mobile wheelchair who takes their time to get to the ride. It would cause even more stress to their vacation, and things would be hectic. If Disney actually goes through with this plan, I can say that there will be many unhappy customers who may lose their business, this, sadly, includes me.
Ok, I know I'm about a week late to this, but I *finally* converted my iPhone to the brand new IOS7 engine, and so far, my reaction to it has to be mixed. I mean, I like how sleek it looks, and it does take some time to get used to, but it kinda gets a little too confusing to handle after a bit. But what I do like is how there are some convenient apps built in, like if I pull up with my finger on the bottom of the screen, I get a little board with a couple icons. While I can't really tell what exactly is on there, I can see another way to pull up the camera app, and a flashlight app, which I find very useful, since it's honestly better than having to go into the app store and buying a flashlight app there.
So, yeah, I am impressed, but it's gonna take some time to get used to the phone's updates, and different layouts at times. But I like it. :)
My friend (Well...more-so acquaintance, since we've only talked a couple times.) Ken Stringfellow of Posies/REM/Big Star fame recently spread news about a single for dutch band "Reveller" he had mixed. Hearing him post about the band on his Facebook/blog got me a bit interested in checking them out, and so I checked out their recent single "Pulse."
What did I think of it? Well, I think it's a good tune, with very great sounding guitars (They remind me a bit of "It's Never Been Like That-era" Phoenix, which is one of my favorite albums.) and the drums have a nice sound. They have a great dry sound, and the melody and lyrics, but what I really love is the music video.
Ok, just hear me out: I know it's kind of weird to see a pop-rock song together with a music video showing children in the middle of warzones, both real and staged, but this has a meaning to it. The band is sponsoring a charity called "War Child", to help children stuck in the middle of wars, and give them the comfort and safety that they need and deserve. For each download the single gets, the money given to the band will be donated to the foundation, and I think that it's a very great cause. So if you like this song, and you'd like to download it (I doubt anybody reads this, let alone even cares.) I'd advise you to do, and help donate to the charity. It'd really mean a lot, and would help a very great cause.
Ok, so after that horrid video I posted on Friday, I just had to find something superior to post on here. So I found a video by the acapella group "Cimorelli", a group of sisters who not only perform acapella covers, but they also have several EPs out already, and are even on a major label! In this video, they cover the song "Royals" by Lordi, and even though I haven't heard the original yet, they really do it justice. Do these girls have a bright future ahead of them? Yes. Are they cute? Yes.
Ok, so imagine if a combination of One Direction, a European pop-star, PSY, and a children's entertainer were put in the same room, and forced to write a song together. You'd get this. Just....wow. It's just....well...how do I describe it? Well, I'll put it this way: If I thought Gangnam Style was annoying, this is gonna be a lot worse. I dread the fact that this'll become a fad in the future, and everywhere I go, I'll be hearing "A RING DING DING DING DINGA DING. WHAT'S A FOX SAY?" for the next few months. I really weep for our generation....
One could consider John Bonham, of Led Zeppelin, to be one of the greatest rock drummers of all time. Honestly, it doesn't really matter to me. For me, a drummer is somebody who glues the song together with their timing and steady beat, but I do love a drummer who throws in a couple good fills. Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, Dave Grohl. Those are a few good ones, and some of my favorites. But Bonahm? I think that he had some very good ideas for his drums, and a long time ago, I found some of his isolated drum tracks from many studio sessions of Led Zeppelin albums.
We'll start with "Whole Lotta Love" from "Led Zeppelin II". The full studio multitracks (About 8 or so) for a couple songs were leaked thanks to a bootleg CD of the making of the album. One thing that I should note, is that you can hear the guitar and bass tracks in the intro, and faintly in certain parts of the song. Well, that's because all instruments were recorded together. Not in the same room exactly, but in different rooms, so that each instrument could be seperated enough to feature not so much bleed as heard. Yes, you can hear it faintly, when the drums are playing, but it was good enough for the time this was recorded.
But enough about instrument bleed, let's talk about Bonham's drumming for a second. While I listen to this, I think I can figure out how this was recorded. I can hear the kick very clearly, and the snare as well, so I think this used about 3-4 mics at a maximum for kick, snare, and the overhead mic. One thing I also find pretty interesting about this drum track, is that somewhere around the 3:45-4:00 mark, you can hear somebody - presumably Bonham yelling over the drums faintly. I like that, and it also shows how differently these were recorded in the 60's-70's. But I think that Bonham puts a very good beat to the song. It's not very boomy or special, just a simple beat that goes along very well.
The second, and final song that I'll look at is "All My Love", from their 1979 album "In Through the Out Door". This of course is one of their later albums, and it maintains a really, and I mean really great sound. I'm guessing it was around this time they started to experiment with more drum microphones, because the toms sound a bit louder than on the last track. But what I really love about this drum track is how great it sounds for something recorded in the late 70s/early 80s. Besides the synth track in the beginning, and Bonham's grunting over the drum track, which is still faint, it's pretty well recorded. I also love that loud, boomy, reverb that each drum gives off. The kick sounds very powerful, and I think it may be the microphone's placement that helped with that. (While most bands now and then would put a microphone inside the kick drum, Led Zeppelin seems to record with it outside of the kick drum, but pointing towards the drum skin. I don't know if this is a picture from the recording of said album, but it does sound like this was how it was recorded as shown in the picture.)
But in my opinion, I would say that Bonham was a very interesting drummer, and he'd come up with some very interesting beats for his time, and some of them are pretty iconic for drummers who happen to be fans of the classic rock genre, including me!
Could another Doctor be returning for the 50th Anniversary special of Doctor Who? Last week, Peter Davison, who played the 5th incarnation of the Doctor, has confirmed himself to be making an appearence in the special. A few days before he let it slip, he had mentioned having a script personally sent to him with his name on it. Although, this may have to do with the fact that David Tennant, who is returning as the 10th Doctor, is also married to Peter's daughter Georgia Moffat, who also had a guest role in Doctor Who - as the 10th Doctor's daughter. (Crazy, huh?)
But this wouldn't be Peter's first time returning to the show itself. He had returned to the show twice before. Bother were for charity specials aired by the BBC, including one where Peter Davison's Doctor met David Tennant's incarnation in the 10th Doctor's TARDIS! But this also begs the question - Will we see other incarnations of the Doctor, old and new, show up later on? The 50th isn't too far away, and there's still a bit more news to come, so only time will tell....
If you're somebody like me, who practically lives through music, you'd probably be amazing with the whole deal behind how music comes together. For me, part of the reason I love music so much is the recording process. I love breaking down stems (AKA the seperated instruments) leaked on the internet from Guitar Hero/Rock band games and listening to how songs were recorded, and how each instrument sounds seperated. and to have an entire webshow based off of the recording process is just downright fantastic!
Shaking Through is a web-show hosted in my hometown (And current home) of Philadelphia, PA that brings in local or national artists to record a song and show how it's made. The show takes place at the Miner Street Recording studio, and host/owner Brian McTear helps out with mixing, and also hosts the show. And not only that, but if you are a follower of the show, or it's newsletter, when corresponding episodes are released, (As of writing, the most recent episode shows the band "Hop Along" recording their most recent song.) the mixed and unmixed stems for the song performed on the show are released so we can not only break down the song bit by bit, but we can take a look at our own mixes to test out our skills at mixing, and also gain practice.
If you ask me, I totally encourage shows like this, especially if they also involve audience participation, and help bands get more exposure, and of course, let me break down songs I like track by track.
Just recently, a death hoax was started about the international pop-rock singer "Adele". Earlier this week, news was spread on Facebook of Adele's "death", and many of her fans were shocked, and at a loss of words. Where did this come from? A Facebook page, with the name "RIP Adele" had posted this:
"At about 11 a.m ET on Saturday, our beloved singer Adele had passed away. Adele was born on May 5th, 1988 in London. She will be missed, but not forgotten. Please show your sympathy by commenting and liking on this page."
So that's right. This whole thing was a total hoax just for likes and attention. A celebrity's death, let alone anybody's death, is not something to joke about, or fake for attention. That and it's very obvious that this was a hoax. How could you believe somebody has died from such a lazily written statement from the one above coming from an unofficial Facebook page, when in reality, it would've came from an actual press release? I'm not mad at the people who believed this, as I'd be upset at anybody's death, and I understand how it happened. But who I am mad at is the people who started such a nasty rumor. If you ask me, I think that they should be permanently banned from Facebook. (This includes being IP banned, to make sure they can never use it on their computer, or from their IP address.)
Many are not too familiar with Nik Kershaw's music, but from my varied tastes (I'm a total pop-rock/classic rock/power pop junkie. With the occasional alternative thrown in. But during the summer, I stumbled onto the work of Nik Kershaw. Starting with his album "The Riddle", (I heard the title track around 2 years ago, and I'm honestly still kicking myself for not listening to his other work any sooner.) I slowly grew to enjoy it, and I find it to be a very great album, and while it does have the cheesy 80s sound, it still somewhat holds up. After trying to find his other stuff on Spotify, (I found a "re-recording" of his #1 hit "Wouldn't It Be Good", but it seems very off, almost like a cover. Besides, the original is a thousand times better.)
I happened to check out his most recent album, "Ei8ht" (It's supposed to be, of course, his 8th album. And no, I did not spell it that way.) and I will say, it did not dissapoint me at all. I mean, it's still got the 80s sound to it, but a lot of his songs have a very good sound to them. It's a sound that I rarely hear, but when I do, I enjoy it. It seems to be a cross between 80s Rock,, and Power Pop, two things which I love dearly. There are a lot of great songs on this album. My favorites would have to be "These Tears" and "Runaway", which I feel should've been singles as well, paired with "You're the Best" and "The Sky's the Limit" (The Sky's the Limit is a very good song, but the lyrics at times feel like something off of a children's album. That's really not good.) But I would not only reccommend this album, but I'd also reccommend Nik's other work, especially "The Riddle". I have yet to listen to his other work, but I plan on doing so in the near future, as I have a feeling he could be another one of my all time favorite artists....
Now I'm going to admit something I may get some flack for: I have never in my life read a Harry Potter book, nor have I seen any of the films, despite having a couple friends who are fans of it. But today, something was announced that's so big for the movie, and the nerd industry, that I had to blog about it. J.K Rowling herself has announced plans to make her screenwriting debut with a film series based on the book "Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them", which by seeing the "Property of Harry Potter" sticker on the cover, proves this is a spinoff of the movie and book series itself. Here is what J.K had to say:
"Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for seventeen years, ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world.
"The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt’s story will start in New York, seventy years before Harry’s gets underway."
No release date or production date has been announced, and it is too early to tell who has been casted - if anybody has been casted at all - but this begs an important question: What do the fans think? Well, a lot of them have been taking the news well, but don't expect to see Harry or his friends anywhere in the film series, as from what I've heard, this movie takes place in New York, a good 70 years before Harry's adventures begin!
Ok, seriously. I really think somehow, Steven Moffat and the BBC must of stumbled onto my blog, and realized how bad they're screwing over fans, and now they're caving in. Either that, or it's just sheer luck. Anyway, what you see above you is the poster for Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary, entitled "The Day of the Doctor". The poster shows Matt Smith's 11th Doctor (The one with the fringe and bowtie.) and David Tennant's 10th Doctor (The one on the right in the brown suit and, unlike past episodes, not so ruffled hair.) facing each other's backs, while in the center of the poster, we see John Hurt's unknown incarnation of the Doctor (Many believe it's an incarnation between the 8th and 9th Doctor's regenerations, between the show's second hiatus starting in 1996.) walking away from what seems to be an explosion including the show's most iconic monster, the "Dalek". (On the far right, just look closely at the the gold robot that seems to look like a pepper shaker.
Maybe, with my luck, we'll hopefully get a trailer tonight? Or this weekend maybe? who knows? We still have a bit of a wait to go.
So here's something crazy: The day after I write a story talking about my thoughts on how the trailer for the 50th Anniversary hasn't been released yet, we do get some info on the 50th Anniversary released! Granted it isn't a trailer, or a promotional picture for the 50th Anniversary released, (The one linked above is from the first read-through of the special capturing David Tennant, Jenna Louse Coleman, Matt Smith, and guest star for the episode Joanna Page.) but for fans like me, it's still something special. The title of the episode, which was announced by the BBC today, is confirmed to be "The Day of the Doctor". As mentioned by me yesterday, the episode features former Doctor David Tennant, and actress Billie Piper returning as the 10th Doctor and his companion Rose Tyler alongside the 11th Doctor and current companion Clara Oswald, played by Matt Smith and Jenna Louise Coleman.
And that isn't all the BBC has planned for the show's 50th anniversary. In the UK, the BBC will be airing a documentary based on the creation of the series, directed by Mark Gatiss. The film, entitled "An Adventure In Space In Time" will show a dramatization on how the show was created, and filmed with first Doctor William Hartnell. (Portrayed in this movie by William Bradley.) And on the BBC America channel in, well, America, near the end of each month, they have aired "Revisited" specials, where former cast members look at past Doctors, and also show a serial from said Doctor. The last one shown was in August, showing the 8th Doctor's first, and only, adventure in his 1996 TV movie.
Ok, so it should be clear that I'm a huge fan of the British Sci-Fi television show "Doctor Who" The thing is...not too many people that I know don't really know what Doctor Who is. In the easiest way I can possibly explain, since the show get's confusing at times, I'll say this: The show is about an alien humanoid who goes by the name of "The Doctor". He is of the "Time Lord" race, which as the name should tell you, involves Time Travel. This is where the show's iconic time travel machine, also know as the TARDIS, (Time and Relative Dimension In Space) comes in. Taking the shape of a police box, the Doctor usually travels with a companion (In the classic series, it was both male and female companions, or sometimes just male or female. For the new series, the standard seemed to be a female companion, though for Seasons 6 and the first half of Season 7, it was husband and wife duo Amy and Rory Pond-Williams.)
The show first aired on November 23rd, 1963 - 50 years ago! The show's first Doctor was played by actor William Hartnell, and when Hartnell's health was starting to decline, he had decided to leave the show, but the show needed a way to continue. But somehow, somebody got a creative idea for the show. Why not have the Doctor facing death, and have him cheat it by turning into another man? In William Hartnell's last episode, the episode ended with the Doctor, in his last moments suddenly changing into the Second Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton. And this went on for many more Doctors, with the show now on it's 11th Doctor! (Played by Matt Smith)
Now that the show is for it's 50th Anniversary, there's something special planned for the celebration. For a special movie-length episode of Doctor Who, Fan-Favorites David Tennant and Billie Piper (Who played both the 10th Doctor and companion Rose Tyler, both my favorites in the series.) will join Matt Smith's Doctor and his current companion Clara Oswald (Played by Jenna Louise Coleman) and John Hurt (You may remember him from the famous sci-fi movie Alien, where he was the victim of the infamous chest bursting alien scene.) as an unknown, never before seen, or mentioned incarnation of the Doctor. (Many believe that he fills the gap between the 8th Doctor, and the 9th Doctor's regeneration. After the 8th Doctor's first and only appearance in a 1996 attempt to revive the show for American audiences, which failed due to bad ratings. The show wasn't revived again until 2005, with the 9th Doctor, not showing the 8th Doctor's regeneration into the 9th.)
Now one thing I have to mention is the lack of publicity for the Anniversary Special. There's been plenty of interviews for the special between John Hurt, David Tennant and Matt Smith, but for some reason, we don't have a trailer for the special. But here's the thing: There was a trailer for the 50th Anniversary showed by certain fans at the San Diego Comic Con in July by current show-runner Steven Moffat, but Moffat has refused to show the trailer to fans outside of the convention. This, not surprisingly, has caused an outcry between many fans, all over the world. My thoughts on the situation? I find this completely understandable. I'm upset about this, because it seems to be discriminating against fans of the series who couldn't even afford to go to the convention, or the Doctor Who panel where this was shown. Not only that, but this was shown only in America, and not in the UK, where most of the show's fan-base seems to be. I think it's very unfair to exclude a fan-base in a country where the show even started. If it wasn't for them, where would this show be? Now, I'm hoping that we do get a trailer soon, but maybe Steven Moffat is waiting to surprise the fans with the lack of a trailer to excite them for the adventure that's to come? Who knows? Only time will tell...
I've only been working on mixing for only a short period of time, but as a musician, and somebody who's a fan of the pop-rock genre, I really enjoy my mix of this song. The first time I heard it, I found the unmixed stems on Mixoff.org (A place for recording engineers/recording artists to upload their unmixed stems and have others take a shot at their mixes. Songs are usually recorded unmixed, and they sound sound really lod, and really dry, and that's not good. Mixing is where we take those tracks and use effects/compression/EQing/etc on a Digital Audio Workstation (In my case, I use Mixcraft 6.) to make them sound good enough to release them as a single, or on a CD, or on the Internet. Even for my own music, I have to do the same.), and thought to myself "Hmm...this sounds a little lifeless. Why not add some life to it?". And that's exactly what I did. And while I still had very little knowledge of mixing at the time, and while I'm still learning about it, I really think that I did this song justice.
In my head, I really wanted to give this song sort of a live feeling to it, sort of like an intimate concert that's going on right in front of you, and you can hear and feel everything. On nearly every track, I added reverb (In other words, I've added an echo to each track.) to the bass track and each drum mic. (How drums are recorded is very interesting, and probably one of my favorite things as a musician to do is to research on recording techniques, and how songs and instruments were recorded in the past. Each drum on the kit gets a microphone, and there's two overhead mics on the left and right side of the drum placed a few feet above the drums/cymbals, either pointing down, or parallel each other. I only put the reverb on the Kick and Snare tracks, and since the drum track had no Tom mic, (Well...it did, but it was a trigger mic that sounded terrible, and trigger mics are usually used so they can be replaced with a drum sample, which I find pointless, especially since you can use a tom mic, or even the overhead track!) I had to replace the tom mic with a virtual instrument version of a Tom, which I think was a good replacement.
The only thing I regret is not knowing proper knowledge of compression at the time, since it would've helped in making the piano/vocals tracks sound louder/quieter in some parts, without it sounding off in the recording, as I think this whole mix is 95% natural, and in my opinion, my best mix to date.
Hello everybody, and welcome to my Blog. I am Tyler Green, and I am a student in Mr. Scott's Multimedia Design Class at Wordsworth Academy. I live in Philadelphia, PA, and I am 16 years old. I'm going to use this blog to share my thoughts on personal things, music I like, shows and movies I watched recently that I enjoyed, etc. I also am a musician who plays both drums and keys, and I have a Soundcloud account containing said music. If you are curious to see it, here it is.
