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Album Recording Issues
February 17th, 2009 under blog. [ Comments: 2 ]

I bought a new computer recently – it has Vista 64-bit on it.  The previous machine had XP on there.  My Cakewalk software (for music recording) was designed for 98 and while it didn’t work perfectly with XP, it worked about 98% of the time.  Pretty close.  So, I tried to install it on the new machine and it did not work.  The computer is just way too powerful for software from 7-8 years ago.  So, I need to upgrade.  Do you know how much I detest spending at least $200 on software?

I know it’s a necessary purchase, but it’s not one I’ll happily make.  Anyway, I downloaded a trial version of the most recent version of Cakewalk – Sonar 8.  I get so hung up on stupid crap that I haven’t really tested it out and I only have 3 days left of the trail.  This is what I call a Big Waste of Time.  My hangup has been the MIDI – specifically, I can’t hear the MIDI stuff I’ve previously recorded.  That also means I can’t record MIDI in the future.  If I want to seriously record at home, I have to be able to hear that stuff since I use MIDI for drums.  Until I get a drumkit (yeah right) that’s my option at home.  My other choice is not have drums on there, and just use the software for demos.

My traditional laziness (or as Jenn calls it, I’m “unmotivated”) has reared up again and I have yet to call Cakewalk tech support to find out how to get the MIDI working.  In other words, the thing holding me up…yeah, I haven’t even got that fixed.  I looked around a TON online to try to figure it out on my own, but no luck.  The damn MIDI output just isn’t showing up where it should.

Band practice has been cancelled tonight as Matt has to work late.  So that means I have tonight to call them.  Tomorrow is out of the question as we’re having Travis & Brooke over for dinner.  Thursday will hopefully be the made-up band practice and Friday Julie and I head to Dallas to see the family.  Yes, I have to call tonight.

(as an aside, I’m currently listening to John Parr’s Man in Motion (St. Elmo’s Fire)…I’ve always loved this song since it first came out.  Perhaps it’s a bit cheesy.  I don’t care, I think it’s great.  I want to do a heavy metal version of it.  It calls for a metal translation.  I will do this sometime.)

Having problems with the MIDI drums brought up another issue to my mind.  Why do I have to be so independent and butt-headed that I can’t get help with my album?  Why do I have to do everything myself?  Why am I insisting that the credits read “Everything by James Hines.  Suck it, bitches.”?  I’d like to think it’s not ego, because I know I can be full of myself at times, but maybe it just is that.  I think a good chunk of it is to prove that I can do stuff by myself.  I can do music by myself and it can be GOOD.  I feel that I’ve been shat on a lot in my life over my songs, and I really want this album to stand up and knock some people back.  Yes, that is my ego right there.  I’ve forgiven the various people over the years who have “overlooked” my songs, but it still stings.  I’m not afriad to admit that.

So my solution was to record everything myself, play all of the instruments, sing, engineer, artwork…all of it.  With the MIDI problems I came to the conclusion that maybe I don’t NEED to do everything myself.  I can still make an album that’s “me”, while striving to have the best production possible.  Holy crap, I can actually let people help me!

It’s kind of hard for me to admit all of this, because I’m fiercely independent and I have been as long as I can remember.  There are pictures of me when I was 2 or 3 trying to swim and refusing help from my older brother.  All throughout grade school and college when it came time for group projects I’d do it all myself.  I’d let other people be in the group, but I would do all of the work.  Like, the 3 Penny Opera video I made in college for Mr. Raleigh’s Dilemma.  My song choice (my band, you’d better believe I’m making a video for my own band and not someone else’s), my production ideas, I did 90% of the camera work and 98% of the editing.  It’s not an amazing video, but it’s MINE and I’d rather have it be faulty with my vision.  So yeah, I’ve always worked that way.

Compromise vs. ego.

So, I thought about the drum issue and I’ve come to the conclusion I’m going to get Matt to help me.  Have him play the drums and help me in production & engineering.  I can let go of that stuff and I know the album will turn out better for it.  I really want to finish this project.

NP: Fabulous Thunderbirds – Tuff Enuff (or, Don’t Mess With Texas)
Twang Twang Shock-a-Boom – It’s a Twang Thang
February 1st, 2009 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: 2 ]

Released: 1990
Tracks: Amnesty; It’s No Secret; Heaven Sent; While My Hair Grows Long; 1000 Roses; Anastarsia; Always Give Your Love Away; Nicotine Queen; Let Me; Blue; Big Stick
Best track: Big Stick, Always Give Your Love Away or It’s No Secret
Track to skip: Anastarsia is only decent

For this review I’m working from a copy with a lot of hiss – it’s probably 4 or 5 generations deep.  Maybe one day we’ll get some pristine copies of this Twang material (come on, Davíd, I know you have it somewhere), but in the meantime this is all I have to work from.  To be honest, it’s not too bad.  Yeah, there’s a lot of hiss, but it’s still very listenable and the quality of the songs still comes through.  It’s pretty impressive that in the span of about a year, Twang released 3 full albums and the “best of”, Me So Twangy.  Contrary to what I thought in the review for Twanger, It’s a Twang Thang is definitely the 2nd Twang album and Twanger was the 3rd.  So what, I got it wrong.  This album definitely continues the fun and excellent songwriting from the first album.  I guess they hadn’t earned too much money by this point, because it still sounds like everyone is playing in the same room together.  Who knows, it might’ve even been recorded in someone’s bedroom.  I think the closeness of the band works in the album’s favor, because Twang wasn’t a band that thrived on big production.  For much of their career it was just acoustic guitar, upright bass & minimal percussion.  This album reflects that ethos and brings it right up to the front.

For me the songs from this album and the first one are kind of interchangeable.  The songs are all more or less consistently good and a handful of these are outright Twang classics.  Amnesty, Always Give Your Love Away, Nicotine Queen, Let Me & Big Stick still get great reactions from audiences at Twang and solo Davíd Garza shows.  If you’re paying attention, you’ll see that Big Stick is repeated here from the first album.  I don’t know why, but I’m glad they included it here as it’s a far superior version.  They dropped the rap bit from the front of the song and play it more up-tempo.  The version here is great, possibly the best song on the album.  Let Me gets its introduction here and it’s still one of Davíd’s best slow songs.  He even re-recorded it for his Overdub album in 2001.  I love the extra musical bit at the end of this version and also Jeff “El Jefe” Haley’s bass on this.  Truthfully, he’s excellent on this whole disc.  His upright just booms throughout.  It’s No Secret is probably my favorite contribution from him.  His playing is fantastic on that song.  It’s No Secret is one that I sometimes forget about, but listening to it here was a great experience.  Stellar version of it on this album.  The only “kinda” misstep on this album is Anastarsia.  It’s a decent song, but it doesn’t come close to even the average tracks here.  I usually find myself skipping it.  Other than that, though, everything’s great on here.

I really view this as a continuation of the first album.  This one is solid all the way through and, yeah, it’s at roughly the same quality as If I Loved You, Would You Ache.  Both are completely essential if you’re into Davíd Garza’s early material.  It’s a Twang Thang has more of the classics, though, so it’s going to get a slight bump in the ratings department.

Rating: 91