Thursday, October 02, 2008
Remix Song: KP1-4.2 Baal T'Shuva, by Michael Hedges
Click to Listen:
This was another Michael Hedges solo track from the "Beyond Boundaries" album. I didn't know what the title meant, until I looked it up on WikiPedia. The phrase means "He Who Has Repented", but I don't know what the reference is as far as why Michael gave the song that title.
The title seems appropriate to the message of healing, especially spiritual healing. Repentance can be a very emotional and painful experience, but the after-effects are a feeling of relieve and composure. There is so many moments that need reflection and repentance, For me, I want to repent from procrastinating this recording project --- I started this project last winter, as far as the concept, and the methods of recording. I'm not really sure why it has taken so long to get the project going to do the actual recording and editing, but I have no more excuses.
As I was playing through the song, I kept hearing allusions to the Hallelujah hymn that is sung at Easter time, I don't know if this was sub-conscious or not, but I echoed the allusion in the violin part.
I love the way the guitar sounds (hopeful, full), and this was main reason for choosing this track to add violin and percussion.
Upon request, I've added another link to this song provide connectivity via viddler.
New Song: KP1-3.2 MOVE FORWARD, composed and arranged by Kevan Paul
Click to Listen:
"Move Forward" is an original composition based on a violin theme that has been going around in my head for about six months. The addition of the 104 beats-per-minute drum track gave my original version of the theme a whole new feelling, and I just went where the rhythm wanted to take me while trying to keep the run intact.
I was desperate to find some guitar samples to go with this, but I had to settle for the cheesy GarageBand sample loops for lack of a better option. The intent was to give it a sporadic "heavy-metal" sound in certain sections to give the impression that sometimes you have to just "grind it out" and keep moving forward regardless of the circumstances or how many people are expecting or predicting your failure. When failure is not an option, this is song that I want running around in my head. I had recorded this song last Sunday, and had it running in my head all week. When I get the chance, I want to re-record the guitar tracks with my own electric guitar or from a friend.
The primary violin part is going through the DigiTech GNX4 with IPS (Pitch add = 4th Up). This may seem a little "bright", but I wanted the theme to stand-out. I can't remember what the RaySpace settings were, but this was the first song that I applied RaySpace to after I bought it online from QuikQuak.com,
The recording isn't as perfect as I would like, but the artistic intent is representative for what I was trying to achieve.
Remix Song: KP1-2.2 Rickover's Dream, by Michael Hedge
Click to Listen:
This song is a "re-mix" from a solo guitar recording by Michael Hedges, on his "Beyond Boundaries" album. I added original violin parts that I feel adds a whole new dimension to the song, as well as the synthesizer percussive effects that give the song the "dream-like" essence that keeps true to the title that Michael gave it.
The violin part was essentially a one-take improvisation, with mild editing (I did not hear too many weird notes), and the synthesizer track was deliberately random to give a sub-consciousness effect of the Rapid-Eye-Movement phase of sleep (when the dreams occur).
Dreams are an essential part of daily healing, and the reason I selected this song via the title and ability to add violin tracks (one with dubbing to a second track for the runs and fills).
I can't remember the synthesizer settings or the DigiTech GNX4 settings that I used on this song, so I hope I can replicate if I need to someday. I'm going to use the blog to keep better record of the settings for future reference.
New Song: KP1-1.4 TOUR de FRANCE", composed and arranged by Kevan Paul
Click to Listen:
This song is an original composition based on creating a feeling of progression and freedom at the same time. The title and content was inspired by the band Kraftwerk who created a song about the Tour de France. This song becomes a natural addition to an album about healing, as Lance Armstrong is a perfect example for the difficultly in healing and how hard work and effort can make the body and mind stronger and overcome adversity and impediments.
Note 1:
The song cataloging system that I'm using to keep track of the mix-downs that I like is the reason for the numbering in front of the song title. KP1 refers to this first recording project, the 1.4 indicates the first finished song, with the fourth mix-down as the preferred track. As time goes on, I may post all versions of the mix-down and let people vote on the one they like best.
The Analog-To-MIDI Odyssey:
There are elements in the song that come from the attempt to convert the analog signal from the violin to a MIDI file using the WidiSoft Analog-to-MIDI-AU (MAC Audio-Unit) plug-in, but I was using the demo version of the plug-in and would only get 15 seconds of data with 30 second gaps in-between. This actually turned out to be a good thing, because the default settings of the plug-in produces too many data points, whiich totally choked the GarageBand application on the MACBOOK. I tried to match the MIDI file with the time-line, and then cut-out the blank spots, then attempted to change the MIDI instrument to something with synthesizer strings to make it sound "electronic" on purpose. This was not very successful; I actually recording the first takes in August, but tabled the recording. I pulled it out again for this album project and tried to cut-out the parts of the violin jam that seemed annoying to me. I never could get a clean play-back before October 1st, because of all the extra MIDI notes that the MAC could not process fast enough, but then I finially found out that I could lock all of the tracks before play-back and this would limit the processing power needed. This saved this song from the scrap-heap.
I added the diffusion pitch-bend of the RaySpace plug-in to the primary violin track, but this seemed a little overwhelming. One of the violin-to-MIDI samples were interesting enough to convert to a Fretless Bass part, and another was converted to a synthesizer-Cello-Ensemble-with-Trills. I still thought the piece sounded too busy, until I accidently muted the primary violin track on mix-down attempt number 4 --- this yielded a version that I liked because it allowed the MIDI-modified parts to be heard, I had lowered the bass track(s) volume, and the RaySpace pitch-bend was kept on one of the tracks.
I hope to purchase and learn how to use the WIDISoft plug-in better, but the sampling I did taught me that I need a lot of time tweaking the sensitivity and polyphonic settings to get the right amount of sampled data-points. This idea of analog-to-MIDI conversion has been attempted by me before by playing through the Vocorder option on the Yamaha PSR-740; with similar mixed results (not optimal). I never recorded any of these experiments, but I am still looking for the analog-to-MIDI option. I know Barcus-Berry has an electric-violin that has a MIDI output feature, but I'm trying to find my own alternative until I can afford such an instrument.
Back to the song:
The end-result is a composition that gives me the feeling that I'm riding in the middle of the Tour de France Peloton with the whirring of the wheels, and the constant uphill climb characterized by the ascending violin parts. Overall this was a satisfying experiment in using the sound modifications to the violin track and then having fun with mixing other rhythmic elements. And I love the RaySpace reverb tool for giving the violin the natural ambience that it needs to sound like a Stradavarius in the concert-hall! You'll hear what I'm talking about later when I jam with cello tracks from Yo-Yo Ma's solo cello recordings.
I think I got the French sound right, as I just listened to a song on Pandora called Belle, by Alif Tree, from the album French Cuisine that has a similar mode, melodic line movement, etc.
http://www.pandora.com/music/album/alif+tree/french+cuisine
Self-Produced Recording Project of Electric-Violin Music
Announcement of a Recording Project to be completed from October, 2008 to December, 2008
Self-Produced by Kevan Paul
Recording at home-office studio in Payson, Utah, USA.
The goal of this project to produce a prototype or concept album of music to demonstrate unusual or interesting ELECTRIC-VIOLIN techniques, styles, and sound enhancements.
Title of Album: HEALING AGAIN, FOREVER
Genre: Jazz Violin, Neo-Classical, Cinematic-Rock, Orchestral-Pop
Reasons and Motivations for the Project:
I have been experimenting with electric-violin "sounds" and analog-to-digital sound effects processors for several years, and have recently been motivated to produce something different in terms of my musical output. I have been performing with several "western and folk" ensembles for the last ten years, as a chance to perform violin music whenever and wherever I can from a local performance perspective, while maintaining a career as a computer network engineer. My performances have been in good and healthy environments like town celebrations, private parties, cowboy poetry gatherings, schools, and churches. Avoiding the cultural trappings of bars and clubs and band member issues, has allowed my family to participate in my music performances in ways that I am comfortable with. The "Folk" violin genre has many pre-conceived expectations and inherent limitations in terms of style and participation as a band member, however, I have done everything I could to stretch the limits, and have patiently developed my ear training and harmonic "blending" with any song that seemed right for a violin part.
There is another side of my musical background and training that leads to other styles and instrumentation blends - this project is the beginning of being able to share some of my experimentation technique and style for unique violin sounds, while doing some basic home recording via a MACBOOK and various applications and Audio-Unit plug-ins, with other Digitech effects processors, a Yamaha keyboard, and whatever other instruments I can get my hands on.
A recent conversation with my brother David, has motivated me to try to generate a prototype or concept album of music to demonstrate what I have "discovered" or learned about basic home recording and combine it with my talent for violin music performance. I will dedicate this project to his personal healing process, and this is also the impetus for the album title that I have selected to use.
The style that I have selected for this album may be called neo-classical, cinematic-rock, orchestral-pop, or something along those lines. The intent is to be as melodic as possible using the violin as the primary or secondary voice throughout the composition or "re-mix", while introducing some of the unique stylistic sounds from modifying the violin from direct acoustic violin inputs using a piezo-electric transducer embedded in the bridge , an electric-violin (Yamaha Silent Violin -- no acoustic body), guitar-effects processors, and midi-to-synthesizer sampling, and anything else I can find to make it interesting.
My intent is to use my other guitars for some parts, but will rely on other guitar samples or solo guitar tracks as a reference to add the violin parts. I have an Ibanez electric guitar, a mahogany Johnson dobro resonator guitar, and an Ovation 6-string. I am going to try to use these instruments in some of the recordings along with violin as a way to stay true to the artistic vision that I have. With that said, I am planning on taking several solo guitar tracks from Michael Hedges, Pat Metheny, and some of the Narada recording artists, and perform a "re-mix" version of some of these solo tracks to add the harmonic and melodic parts that I believe are missing. Hopefully, if these songs develop to the level of perfection that I am hoping for, that I would be able to find local musicians that could help me perform and/or record these tracks (with the permission of the original artist and/or representative, of course).
My intent is to post a new blog entry for each song as it unfolds and develops. My personal favorite is when an artist shares their inner thought process while they reveal their creation or assemble their ideas. What motivation is there for revealing one's own inner feelings and thought-processes? I don't know, but I know that I am personally always interested in getting the story behind the story when creativity is involved.
As each song may have a story to tell, I am planning on using as many multimedia techniques as I can, while keeping true to the vision of "rapid-prototyping" as stated in the blog mission-statement. I hope that everyone who takes the time to listen will enjoy or find it entertaining. I will make full versions of the music available to anyone --- if someone wants to produce further evolutions of this type of music, I will make myself available for future recording, performance, or compositional projects.
If this first concept album can be completed within the rapid-prototyping period outlined (two months), then I will be motivated to continue to produce additional concept albums of various styles, and/or eclectic blending of styles at my creative whim.
Self-Produced by Kevan Paul
Recording at home-office studio in Payson, Utah, USA.
The goal of this project to produce a prototype or concept album of music to demonstrate unusual or interesting ELECTRIC-VIOLIN techniques, styles, and sound enhancements.
Title of Album: HEALING AGAIN, FOREVER
Genre: Jazz Violin, Neo-Classical, Cinematic-Rock, Orchestral-Pop
Reasons and Motivations for the Project:
I have been experimenting with electric-violin "sounds" and analog-to-digital sound effects processors for several years, and have recently been motivated to produce something different in terms of my musical output. I have been performing with several "western and folk" ensembles for the last ten years, as a chance to perform violin music whenever and wherever I can from a local performance perspective, while maintaining a career as a computer network engineer. My performances have been in good and healthy environments like town celebrations, private parties, cowboy poetry gatherings, schools, and churches. Avoiding the cultural trappings of bars and clubs and band member issues, has allowed my family to participate in my music performances in ways that I am comfortable with. The "Folk" violin genre has many pre-conceived expectations and inherent limitations in terms of style and participation as a band member, however, I have done everything I could to stretch the limits, and have patiently developed my ear training and harmonic "blending" with any song that seemed right for a violin part.
There is another side of my musical background and training that leads to other styles and instrumentation blends - this project is the beginning of being able to share some of my experimentation technique and style for unique violin sounds, while doing some basic home recording via a MACBOOK and various applications and Audio-Unit plug-ins, with other Digitech effects processors, a Yamaha keyboard, and whatever other instruments I can get my hands on.
A recent conversation with my brother David, has motivated me to try to generate a prototype or concept album of music to demonstrate what I have "discovered" or learned about basic home recording and combine it with my talent for violin music performance. I will dedicate this project to his personal healing process, and this is also the impetus for the album title that I have selected to use.
The style that I have selected for this album may be called neo-classical, cinematic-rock, orchestral-pop, or something along those lines. The intent is to be as melodic as possible using the violin as the primary or secondary voice throughout the composition or "re-mix", while introducing some of the unique stylistic sounds from modifying the violin from direct acoustic violin inputs using a piezo-electric transducer embedded in the bridge , an electric-violin (Yamaha Silent Violin -- no acoustic body), guitar-effects processors, and midi-to-synthesizer sampling, and anything else I can find to make it interesting.
My intent is to use my other guitars for some parts, but will rely on other guitar samples or solo guitar tracks as a reference to add the violin parts. I have an Ibanez electric guitar, a mahogany Johnson dobro resonator guitar, and an Ovation 6-string. I am going to try to use these instruments in some of the recordings along with violin as a way to stay true to the artistic vision that I have. With that said, I am planning on taking several solo guitar tracks from Michael Hedges, Pat Metheny, and some of the Narada recording artists, and perform a "re-mix" version of some of these solo tracks to add the harmonic and melodic parts that I believe are missing. Hopefully, if these songs develop to the level of perfection that I am hoping for, that I would be able to find local musicians that could help me perform and/or record these tracks (with the permission of the original artist and/or representative, of course).
My intent is to post a new blog entry for each song as it unfolds and develops. My personal favorite is when an artist shares their inner thought process while they reveal their creation or assemble their ideas. What motivation is there for revealing one's own inner feelings and thought-processes? I don't know, but I know that I am personally always interested in getting the story behind the story when creativity is involved.
As each song may have a story to tell, I am planning on using as many multimedia techniques as I can, while keeping true to the vision of "rapid-prototyping" as stated in the blog mission-statement. I hope that everyone who takes the time to listen will enjoy or find it entertaining. I will make full versions of the music available to anyone --- if someone wants to produce further evolutions of this type of music, I will make myself available for future recording, performance, or compositional projects.
If this first concept album can be completed within the rapid-prototyping period outlined (two months), then I will be motivated to continue to produce additional concept albums of various styles, and/or eclectic blending of styles at my creative whim.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Design Science and Electricity Production
Everything we do with technology-based design tools now relies on electricity. Why are we still just "burning rocks" to produce our electricity? There is a better way to produce electricity using bio-engineering and microbial bioreactors. The multidisciplinary education and teamwork requirements for these new energy production processes are similar in nature to the multidisciplinary requirements needed for new media production. There is a parallel level of development that needs to happen, and so as we track to development of design-science using new media tools, we will also track the development of new energy production tools.
The ASM.ORG report on microbial bioreactors produced in 2006, provides a good summary of the necessary breakthroughs to reach production objectives.
On November 16, 2007, National Public Radio interviewed Bruce Logan, Directory of Hydrogen Energy Center, and professor at Pennsylvania State University, who has been involved in the microbial bioreactor technology.
Here are additional global links via the Penn State H2E Center
Commercial Fuel-Cell companies include Ballard Power (BLDP), Plug Power (PLUG), FuelCell Energy (FCEL), Energy Conversion Devices (ENER), Medis Technologies (MDTL), Hydrogenics (HYGS), PolyFuel (PYF.L), SFC Smart Fuel Cell AG (F3C.F), ITM Power (ITM.L), Ceres Power (CWR.L), Ceramic Fuel Cell Limited (CFU.L), Millennium Cell (MCEL), Protonex, Idatech, Distributed Energy Systems Corp. (DESC), Mechanical Technologies Inc. (MKTY), Astris Energi (ASRNF), Neah Power (NPWS.OB), Power Air Corp., Dynetek, Nuvera, UTC Fuel Cells (formerly International Fuel Cells) (UTX), General Motors (GM), more.
Vancouver, BC, Canada – October 22, 2007 – Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ: PLUG), through its wholly owned subsidiary Cellex Power Products, Inc., today announced a purchase order for GenDrive™ fuel cell power units from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) for use in lift trucks at one of the company’s distribution centers. This is Plug Power’s largest single GenDrive order to date, although the specific terms are confidential.
The ASM.ORG report on microbial bioreactors produced in 2006, provides a good summary of the necessary breakthroughs to reach production objectives.
On November 16, 2007, National Public Radio interviewed Bruce Logan, Directory of Hydrogen Energy Center, and professor at Pennsylvania State University, who has been involved in the microbial bioreactor technology.
Here are additional global links via the Penn State H2E Center
Commercial Fuel-Cell companies include Ballard Power (BLDP), Plug Power (PLUG), FuelCell Energy (FCEL), Energy Conversion Devices (ENER), Medis Technologies (MDTL), Hydrogenics (HYGS), PolyFuel (PYF.L), SFC Smart Fuel Cell AG (F3C.F), ITM Power (ITM.L), Ceres Power (CWR.L), Ceramic Fuel Cell Limited (CFU.L), Millennium Cell (MCEL), Protonex, Idatech, Distributed Energy Systems Corp. (DESC), Mechanical Technologies Inc. (MKTY), Astris Energi (ASRNF), Neah Power (NPWS.OB), Power Air Corp., Dynetek, Nuvera, UTC Fuel Cells (formerly International Fuel Cells) (UTX), General Motors (GM), more.
Vancouver, BC, Canada – October 22, 2007 – Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ: PLUG), through its wholly owned subsidiary Cellex Power Products, Inc., today announced a purchase order for GenDrive™ fuel cell power units from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) for use in lift trucks at one of the company’s distribution centers. This is Plug Power’s largest single GenDrive order to date, although the specific terms are confidential.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Thoughts on what MultiMedia is....
2010 MultiMedia is an incubator for creative teams to bring new products and services to a forum level and beyond. The most innovative products and services usually start with a small kernel of enthusiasm combined with a necessity to solve a real-world problem. 2010 MultiMedia seeks to rise above the political institutions and silos of creativity that are driven to existing traditional markets.
For example, why is the "Department of Music" and "Department of Art" so isolated from each other and still focused on the successes of old media and their traditional material contraints? The new "Department of MultiMedia" is needed where analog and digital media come together to create new processes and therefore new products. This is a natural consequence of using the tools and methods that are inexpensive and available to a student. OK, I guess you could call this "Film School", but multimedia is more than just film production. You could call it "Design School", but when was the last concert presented by the School of Design? Let's call it multimedia and start creating a new set of criteria for the mastery of it's processes and bring engineering, design, music, art, and media production into a new set of educational and career opportunities that hyperfocuses on the new tools.
The new creative processes are those that allow us to move between the analog and digital worlds rapidly. Getting stuck in either realm is not the long term solution to wish upon any creative individual. The best of both analog and digital processes gives the best chances for teamwork and creating new streams of harmonious thought and action.
For example, why is the "Department of Music" and "Department of Art" so isolated from each other and still focused on the successes of old media and their traditional material contraints? The new "Department of MultiMedia" is needed where analog and digital media come together to create new processes and therefore new products. This is a natural consequence of using the tools and methods that are inexpensive and available to a student. OK, I guess you could call this "Film School", but multimedia is more than just film production. You could call it "Design School", but when was the last concert presented by the School of Design? Let's call it multimedia and start creating a new set of criteria for the mastery of it's processes and bring engineering, design, music, art, and media production into a new set of educational and career opportunities that hyperfocuses on the new tools.
The new creative processes are those that allow us to move between the analog and digital worlds rapidly. Getting stuck in either realm is not the long term solution to wish upon any creative individual. The best of both analog and digital processes gives the best chances for teamwork and creating new streams of harmonious thought and action.
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