I think that I have outdone myself with perhaps the longest entries that I’ve ever entered into my blog — but when you’re reflecting on over thirty years of personal music history, you ought not expect a short essay. But I promise that this will be the last part of this three-part series.

It was such a simple thing that really sparked this whole reflection, seeing my music out on last.fm and wondering why it is that I just cannot seem to pick up my guitar these days or pour myself into creating new music in GarageBand. The reality is, I’ve been thinking about this for the past few months and just have not nearly the same enthusiasm or drive to create new music like I have over a year ago.

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Filed under: General, Music, Orthodoxy, Performance, Recording, Spirituality
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I was chatting briefly with my friend Wes, and he was asking if I had used Last.FM before — not able to recall all that memorable an experience with them, I couldn’t answer for certain. Curious, I visited last.fm (a site about music essentially — listening to it, sharing it, and recommending it) and of course couldn’t resist searching to see if they were carrying any of my music through my connection in CDBaby. And sure enough, I have tracks up there. Which of course, prompted me to think about my music, where I’ve come from and where I may or may not go with it some day. I’m contemplative that way.

Music has always been an integral part of my life, past and present, and has often been a sustaining force for me when all other things failed. It has been inspiring, motivating, heart-sobering, enlightening, and even at times an amplifier for some of the most emotional times in my life. And like my friend Jamison has shared, there have been albums, songs, artists, and musical experiences that have become hallmarks in my life — things that will always remain framed and hung in my memories.

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Filed under: General, Music, Recording
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Well my holiday weekend wasn’t as fruitful as I’d hoped with regard to music — I just didn’t have much for creative inspiration, and it ended up becoming a time to just putz around with my new keyboard. Tonight, however, I managed to put together a little 2:50 piece featuring the Steinway, flute, three-piece strings, and a little hint of organ to spice things up. (Who’d ever think of an organ as an instrument to spice things up anyway?)

So enough talk — download tonight’s experiment. I tried to pay more close attention to execution on the strings and flute, so they’d sound a bit more convincing. Let’s face it, it’s hard to make strings and woodwinds sound convincing on a keyboard — it requires a great deal of skill and patience to pull it off. I have a long way to go before I could ever manage that. But regardless, enjoy.

Filed under: All Things Apple, Music, Recording
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It was definitely a strange Sunday. I slept in with Natalie until around 11:45 and just had to get up at that point — she still slept on from her long night shift. I got up for awhile, but then a killer headache, nausea, and small fever came on and rendered me useless for nearly five hours or so — even haven taken four Excedrin. But by about 8:00 I was feeling a bit better (and doped up with caffeine from the Excedrin).

Armed with a donation of new instruments from a good friend, I decided to spend a little time with GarageBand this evening and try out some of the instruments. And because I don’t have the capacity to put an expression pedal on my cheap-bought-off-craigslist-for-$25-Yamaha keyboard, I know that some of the instruments are invariably going to be difficult to play without them sounding like they came from a keyboard. But I digress.

I am a sucker for emotional [I can't believe it, but I almost typed "e-motional"... I think I should trademark that.], orchestral tunes, especially when you bring in the organ for dramatic effect. It really has a way of lifting up my spirits sometimes — inspirational.

So I started out with GarageBand’s Orchestral Romantic Organ and slowly built on various instruments to build some different colors along the way. Download tonight’s little experiment. (5.5 MB, 3:58, 192 kbps)

With the tune I developed this evening, it’s lit a flame inside to try and assemble the liturgically-influenced album I’ve been thinking about inside. I’m not sure if it will be an instrumental or with words (I’m leaning towards a little bit of both in it), but since I’m not really tied into any church at the moment (and am a bit “hungry” from my isolation from the Orthodox), so this may be my temporary means of communing with God — through writing a few songs of inspiration and reflection in remembrance of Him.

Which this leads to a whole different topic that I wrestle with.

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Filed under: Music, Orthodoxy, Recording, Spirituality
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My last post, which reviewed GarageBand ‘08, might have come across the wrong way, sounding a bit like I’m poo-pooing the application as being substandard to the industry and severely lacking. Well, in some ways it is and other ways I must admit it impresses me.

I was messing around with it a bit more this evening; and though my first composition was fine, I felt myself finding the edge of creativity with the instrument voices that I had available to me — with the styles that I was trying to pull off. But I decided to persevere and try something totally off the wall and go dance/techno style and see what I could come up with just for the sake of fooling around.

The end result actually surprised me: audio file (192 kbps, 5.4 MB, 3:56). It’s got kind of a dance-funk-charlies-angels theme-phish kind of thing going on with it. Kinda fun.

It did start out to be a techno-type tune, but then I started throwing in some a few things, changed the beat up a bit and then despite my laurels, I even used a “fake” electric guitar in the tune and it actually sounds good for a GarageBand tune. I was VERY surprised.

I still hold my ground that Apple REALLY needed to include a lot more instruments in the default packet—I mean seriously, they don’t even have a clarinet in the list of woodwinds. While purists and clarinet players alike might prefer it that way and use the real thing, I don’t play clarinet and can think of times I’d really like to use a clarinet sound. Or a nice oboe or french horn. I LOVE the french horn. But none of those nice, real instrument sounds are available in the default package.

Anyway, I like the latest tune I came up with—it’s fun, upbeat, and something I could probably listen to a couple times and not get sick of it. Enjoy!

Filed under: Applications, General, Music, Recording
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I don’t pretend to be a virtuoso by any stretch of the imagination, and though I’ve been doing music for years, I’m plenty rusty and have much room for growth as with any other musician. With that disclaimer aside, I’ve been playing around with GarageBand a bit lately, an application part of iLife ‘08.

All in all, it’s a good application and can do quite a bit with so little. I’ve managed to throw together a few samples of what I’ve done with it so far; just messing around really and getting used to the interface, how things work, and some of the various quirks associate with the application. You can hear a few tracks here:

demo test 1.mp3 (1.8 MB, 1:18)
demo test 2.mp3 (3.6 MB, 2:38)
demo test 3.mp3 (5.7 MB, 4:07)
demo test 4.mp3 (2.6 MB, 1:51)

They’re nothing fancy; mostly midi stuff with a few guitar tracks or loops thrown in here and there, but gives you an idea of what you can do with the application. I’m sure if you’re a prodigy you could create some amazing things with it. I’m not, so the results will be ordinary.

Anyway, all that aside, it’s a decent little application that has a few drawbacks. The biggest drawback is the lack of sounds and instruments that come with it. You are essentially given an over-glorified Casio keyboard in terms of your options; not quality-wise necessarily, but in terms of volume. There really isn’t a whole lot to work with and after a few songs you may find yourself getting bored with your options.

This is where Apple decided that they could make a little more money off of you — give you a taste of what you can do, but leave you empty handed and wanting more…more instruments, more soundbanks, more effects. Personally, I find myself on Google searching for freebies to keep me somewhat satisfied.

I don’t think I’ll use GarageBand for any of my projects unless I’m able to acquire some more decent sounds; namely some quality stringed instrument sounds, a wider array of pads, and other cool instruments that could add value to your recording. Presently there just isn’t much going for GarageBand in terms of instruments unless you buy the expansion packs.

I’ll pass.

Filed under: Applications, Music, Recording
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Working within state government doesn’t really have much for creative opportunities—so, you have to make them. Our State CIO (essentially my boss’ boss’ boss) wants an e-Card to go out to all the legislators and elected officials, including the governor. They were planning on sending out a thrown-together Word doc, but fortunately I’m intervening and making a pleasant flash-driven holiday e-Card.

So a part of the e-Card involves a short 40 second arrangement of Silver Bells…affectionately entitled “Sliver Bells”. When I have the card done I’ll post it for you all to enjoy. In the meantime, enjoy this short clip of acoustic holiday cheer. It makes me wish I would have recorded a Christmas CD earlier this year.

Filed under: Music, Recording
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We had a fabulous rehersal tonight and recorded much of it straight up on my laptop using two large diaphragm mics strategically placed in the sanctuary that we were rehearsing in.

Practicing for a worship service that we’ll be playing at, we’ve prepared some good covers of U2’s “Yahweh” as well as Jars of Clay’s rendition of “Nothin’ But the Blood”, both of which have turned out quite nicely. I may post brief, 20 second clips just to give you an idea of how they turned out.

But in the interim, download this mp3 of “Roots”, one of my originals that goes back a few years. It’s still a little rough (after all, this is perhaps the second rehearsal we’ve actually worked on it), but I’m extremely excited about where this seems to be headed.

Within the next few weeks I hope to have the official site for Crash Effect up and running and perhaps some more information on our myspace crash effect site. I, personally, can’t stand MySpace…but it’s a marketing necessity.

Anyway, enjoy the mp3.

Filed under: Music, Recording
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I checked the status this morning with my order for Mystique, my third CD release, and it looks like it’s going to ship August 7th and then take another seven days to ship. So I should have the CD’s by the middle of August. Time to book some cafe shows to promote the CD.

I imagine that Mystique will hit iTunes and other e-tailers by Christmas…in time to load up that new-fangled iPod of yours. Let’s just hope they get the cover art right this time.

sidebar: with Studio72 Sampler2003 I had a reverseable cover that you could have either direction…but the intention wasn’t to have my mug as the cover shot. Now if you go to any of the e-tailers out there toting my CD’s, they’ve got the wrong cover shot.

Filed under: Music, Recording
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Well, I’ve finally got all the artwork finished, shot the music engineer (me) and took care of all the pre-production ordering with CDBaby and Disk Faktory. Barring no complications with the audio master, I’ll have the CDs in hand in about three to four weeks, including production and shipping.

There are only a few songs on the CD that I’m less than thrilled about, but it’s good enough. (It’s short of a miracle that I’m even acknowledging that, given my perfectionistic tendancies)

I hope to have my music site, michaelmiles.org updated with a new look within the next few weeks along with more information about the CD. It probably won’t reach digital distribution (to retailers like iTunes) until this fall.

Filed under: Music, Recording
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