tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22355935638748191062024-03-13T20:00:36.592-07:00Tommy Grimes IIIThoughts, tips, news and unrelated ramblings from songwriter Tommy Grimes III.Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-3582399170906244532018-11-18T20:15:00.001-08:002018-11-24T20:16:41.265-08:00With the Rider Came the Storm<div style="text-align: center;">
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So, as planned, finished up two in-progress songs this weekend, here's the first. I always loved the soundtracks created by Ennio Morricone for 70s Westerns, so I headed off to recreate something similar (all without going back to listen, so just from the impressions in my memory).<br />
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Got a chance to put the new Aerodyne Jazz bass through it's paces, and used both the Strat and the Tele for the guitars (and the Ovation for the acoustic of course).<br />
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After some consideration, I did decide to add brass and some "nonsense sound" vocals, as those were part of my impressions I had floating about and it wouldn't have seemed right to try without them!<br />
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To turn mp3 into mp4, added a couple of screen shots from <a href="https://www.rockstargames.com/reddeadredemption2/" target="_blank">Red Dead Redemption 2</a>, another part of the inspiration for diving into this too; one screenshot run through the excellent <a href="https://fotosketcher.com/" target="_blank">FotoSketcher</a> for extra atmosphere. Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-56710792356612178662018-11-17T20:25:00.002-08:002019-07-20T03:25:05.873-07:00Enya MorriconeSo last weekend I added <a href="https://www.spectrasonics.net/products/omnisphere/" target="_blank">Omnisphere</a> to my collection of soft synths, which sparked a weekend of instrumental stuff. I called the weekend Enya Morricone weekend, as I had one Enya style track I started, and one Ennio Morricone style western track.<br />
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Through the course of the week, I started another Celtic-style instrumental, though purely guitar based.<br />
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And I also picked up and worked more on the western-style instrumental, have it all mapped out and recorded, will just wait a bit and give it some polish before calling it done.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Writing and recording ain't very photogenic - so here's a shot from Red Dead Redemption 2, through FotoSketcher</td></tr>
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The western instrumental goes by the name "With the Rider Came the Storm", still playing with it this weekend, we'll see if it gets to a point that is somewhat done - I'm optimistic!<br />
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I decided it was time to upgrade my bass. Not my main instrument, so I didn't need anything flash, just a good, solid workhorse, with the Precision and Jazz pickups in it. After some consideration I went with...<br />
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… a <a href="https://shop.fender.com/en-US/electric-basses/jazz-bass/aerodyne-jazz-bass/0254505506.html" target="_blank">Fender Aerodyne Jazz bass</a>. Made in Japan, so solid workmanship if "nuthin' fancy" and just in the sweet spot of quality vs price, with the right range of sounds. Looks pretty snazzy too! Picked it up on Friday Nov 16th from the <a href="https://www.guitarcenter.com/Nashville" target="_blank">Guitar Center in Nashville</a>, as wanted to try it out before purchase, not being familiar with it. Already it's in use on "Awake.." and "Rider.." so maybe y'all will get to hear it soon!<br />
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Have a good one!<br />
TomTommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-38469618441597747552018-10-07T08:03:00.000-07:002019-07-20T03:25:51.896-07:00Echoes of travelin' times 4Sure has been a lot of travel in recent months! Which means I am still catching up with some photos from those trips - only up to Vegas (I think I mentioned Chicago last time, but Chicago is coming up next). About to add more this coming week, with a trip to Venice.<br />
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I kind of expect to see Batman somewhere in this photo (yes yes, I know, Gotham was his stomping ground and not Vegas, but still).<br />
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To wrap up, for those interested, I used the free program FotoSketcher (<a href="https://fotosketcher.com/">https://fotosketcher.com/</a>) to add a bit of extra interest to my Vegas snapshots. Check it out!<br />
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Cheers!<br />
TommyTommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-22340919893407973832018-09-30T18:19:00.001-07:002019-07-20T03:26:31.231-07:00Echoes of travellin' times 3Still playing catch up with some photos from recent travels, this time some shots from Vienna. We've got Vienna from the air as I flew in, the Metropol theater, the hotel street, the B72 bar, and a restaurant I forget the name of. I'll just intersperse those amongst the post!<br />
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The next one to catch up with will be the Chicago trip photos - and then I'll be having a new set of photos from Venice as heading there in a little over a week (don't expect canals though, ironically!)<br />
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Cheers!<br />
TommyTommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-81369894498284017052018-09-23T09:22:00.000-07:002019-07-20T03:27:09.759-07:00Echoes of Travellin' Times 2Catching up on some of my recent travels! Back in August, I was over to Europe and back via Vegas, so we'll start in Sofia, Bulgaria.<br />
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I was only there for about 24 hours - should have been more like 48, but the first leg of my flight to Chicago was delayed and delayed, and eventually I ended up leaving via a different route on the next day (which got me there faster than leaving via Chicago on the same day as planned).<br />
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Had the chance on the one evening there to catch some live music, a fusion of jazz and traditional Bulgarian music. Not often I see a Telecaster and an accordion in action together :) There were also samples of the traditional music being triggered up-front there, to make for a unique sonic palette!<br />
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Getting around in these other cities often seems much easier than here in Nashville ;) I do love public transport in all it's forms! This is a flash forward to Vienna, more on that next time.<br />
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I do love gear and sounds! This last week, the folks over at <a href="https://www.soundtoys.com/" target="_blank">Soundtoys</a> had a sale on <a href="https://www.soundtoys.com/product/crystallizer/" target="_blank">Crystallizer</a>, which I'd tried out on demo some time back but was a bit too pricey back then for quite a specific effect - but was perfect at the sale price! It's kind of an echo / reverb with pitch shifting, so you can get the shimmer reverb for instance, as well as a range of other unique and creative effects.<br />
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Have a good one!<br />
TommyTommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-55559286466597999042018-08-19T14:10:00.002-07:002019-07-20T03:27:48.317-07:00Travellin' TimesBusy couple of weeks, and more coming up!<br />
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I'll be off over to Europe, then back via a few days in Vegas, starting tomorrow, so will be out of commission for the next 10 days or so. So I have crammed in a bunch of stuff before heading off!<br />
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Software</h3>
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Since I am still making use of TuneSmith, I did the right thing and purchased <a href="http://www.rhymegenie.com/" target="_blank">Rhyme Genie</a> - maybe I could have kept on using TuneSmith for free, but heck, if I am finding it useful, the creator deserves their payment!</div>
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After some frustration with reverbs that come with my amp sim software / with Cubase, I demo'ed lots from Valhalla, and settled on the awesome <a href="https://valhalladsp.com/shop/reverb/valhalla-vintage-verb/" target="_blank">Valhalla Vintage Verb</a>. Amazing price at only $50 for such high quality reverbs, and was hard to choose just one - will likely add more to my arsenal later on though. It got used on "Diamonds and Pearls" :)</div>
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Then just today I purchased <a href="https://www.waves.com/plugins/reel-adt" target="_blank">Reel ADT</a> from Waves as it was on sale at $29 - vocal doubling / thickening is another thing that I've never quite got to my satisfaction, and was something I particularly wanted for the work tape of that when the time comes around. I tried out the demo and really liked it, once again it solved something I'd always wanted to do but hadn't found a way of doing!</div>
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And that's it for now! Got to go pack :)</div>
<br />Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-81141464197295171572018-08-05T22:24:00.000-07:002019-07-20T03:28:29.988-07:00Carded<h3>
Did you know</h3>
So long as your sound recording AND the music and lyrics have the same copyright holders, you can submit to the U.S. Copyright Office and cover both in one application, as a Sound Recording application. Can save the time, paperwork and cost of two submissions. See <a href="https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ56a.pdf" target="_blank">this document</a> for details.<br />
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Frettie</h3>
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It's been my pleasure to help out recently with some videos for the awesome songwriter community, <a href="http://frettie.com/" target="_blank">Frettie</a>. In this case, I've been making some videos to show how to sign up and get the most from the website - if you are a songwriter, be sure to check it out!<br />
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If you want to know the kind of thing you get access to, then there are two awesome "<a href="https://gumroad.com/l/knowtherow" target="_blank">Know The Row</a>" events coming up this month, which you can join if you are not a Frettie member - but if you are a member, you get access to those for free (both live and in recorded form if you can't make the date and time).<br />
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I also had the pleasure of meeting up with host and mastermind and owner of Frettie, songwriter Brent Baxter, earlier on this month too!<br />
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TuneSmith</h3>
If you're like me, and you write melody or chords, you'll likely find yourself firing up the voice recorder on your phone and recording a snippet of a tune, some words, or some chords. The problem is, <b>how do you keep track of all that stuff and find the things that are worth actually continuing work with?</b><br />
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I'm trying out <a href="http://www.rhymegenie.com/tunesmith.html" target="_blank">TuneSmith</a>, which so far seems pretty awesome! I move the files off my phone (or tablet), and then I get a list of files that usually just have a date as their file name as they never got far enough to have an actual title or subject.<br />
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I can then just create a new song on TuneSmith, drop the file in there, and add my notes in the lyric section (and the lyrics if there are any, of course). I then sneak in an "R1" to "R5" where R5 is "Ok wow that sounds really cool" and R1 is "Hmm yeah what was I thinking when I recorded that?" - then a quick search of the lyric field will highlight the songs at that rating.<br />
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With audio, notes, lyrics, chords, and rating all in one place, it makes looking through those scruffy notes much easier.<br />
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And of course TuneSmith goes further, and you can add your co-writers, publishers, track when and where each song was submitted, whether it got cut and so on, which is really what it is for - but hey, it turns out to be great for organizing your notes too! PS, it's free, though if you want to use Rhyme Genie you'll have to pay for that side of it.<br />
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<h3>
Carded</h3>
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Now I'm in Nashville, where there is a thriving music scene, it was time to create some business cards. They came out rather nice I thought, good to see the logo worked well there! I used <a href="https://www.gotprint.com/home.html" target="_blank">GotPrint</a> if anyone is looking for printing their own cards, the price was good (I didn't go for any fancy options!) and they turned up really fast.<br />
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<h3>
Songs</h3>
Thanks to TuneSmith, I've also been able to find a couple of other interesting audio notes and have started developing those to see if they turn into something.<br />
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<h3>
Paperwork</h3>
A busy week, had to dive in and sort out copyrights and registration on BMI for a co-write. Would be easy enough, but slightly complicated by the fact that this was a song that existed before and has been rewritten in the co-write, so had to untangle how that works! As part of that, finally registered with BMI as a publisher as well as a songwriter.<br />
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Cheers!<br />
Tommy<br />
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Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-27366579559150491722018-07-22T15:23:00.000-07:002018-07-22T15:23:29.152-07:00Sometimes you have to sharpen pencilsIt's an old adage not to waste your time sharpening pencils as an excuse for not doing whatever it is you bloody well ought to be doing.<br />
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But sometimes you need to sharpen pencils - you need to organize and prepare, so that you can work smarter and faster in the future. It's been pencil sharpening time!<br />
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<h3>
TX to TN</h3>
I've moved from Texas to Tennessee - the call of Music City could not be resisted!<br />
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So this meant....<br />
<ul>
<li>much packing, cleaning and so on</li>
<li>grabbing the fragiles (guitars and computers and paintings) and driving the 9 hours from TX to TN</li>
<li>getting the keys to the new place and moving in the things in a box marked frah gilly</li>
<li>sleeping on an airbed for a week</li>
<li>driving 9 hrs back to TX to let the movers in and give the old place a final clean</li>
<li>driving 9 hrs back to TN</li>
<li>getting the stuff turn up from the movers</li>
<li>buying some new furniture to replace stuff that was abandoned due to being broken (or just upgrading some of it)</li>
<li>then organizing all of that so that the place is ready for me to be creative</li>
</ul>
It all sounds very non-musical, but it's all in the name of music!<br />
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Amongst all that, I did manage a trip down to Broadway. Did you know I've never even been to Nashville before? Had to play the tourist! And it was very inspiring.<br />
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And a trip out to a songwriter rounds night, thanks to Randy England who I knew from the <a href="http://frettie.com/" target="_blank">Frettie</a> group of songwriters. That was cool, and of course I plan to play at some of those in the future (starting with open mics though).<br />
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I'd joined the <a href="https://www.nashvillesongwriters.com/" target="_blank">NSAI</a> a few months back, in preparation, so I had a trip down to the Thursday night workshop. Something that I plan on making a regular trip!<br />
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But mostly, it was all about sorting the place out so that it is a good, positive work environment. It started off like this:<br />
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Well, to be honest that corner doesn't look much different... but that corner was about all there was! Now it's more filled out, I won't have to sit on the floor (soon), and have all my capos, writing pads, pens and plectrums easily to hand. Plus the energy in the place feels good!<br />
<br />
So, it's been a long delay to actually writing and recording, but a necessary one. Foundations have to be laid - and sometimes pencils need to be sharpened!<br />
<br />
Cheers!<br />
Tommy<br />
<br />Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-86054315828364936622018-03-18T21:38:00.002-07:002018-03-18T21:41:38.489-07:00Multiple personalities become one<br />
<h4>
Multiple Versions of Me Become One</h4>
I am a strange sort of fellow, especially in the music I like. You see, I like Steve Earle, and Tom Petty, and Del Amitri, and some country (especially alt and outlaw!)... but there's more. I also like The Dogs D'Amour and Social Distortion and The Levellers, who have almost a punk sensibility. But it goes on! I also like Motorhead, and I like Hawkwind with their space rock. And I also like instrumental music like Mike Oldfield, and electronic stuff like The Crystal Method, and Ladytron.<br />
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I am not sure who else listens to all those genres and styles with equal love, but I do. And, as a musician, the side effect is I also love creating that range of music.<br />
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<br />
Up until now, I've kept that separate, with Tommy Grimes III for the guitar / rock / country / blues stuff, and Faol Glas for the instrumental stuff.<br />
<br />
But I have grown somewhat tired of that, it's a lot to maintain, and I'd rather be making music than maintaining websites and blogs... so, I have decided my instrumental and electronic will all just go under my own name. If people get confused, or can't fathom how one person can create such vastly different types of music, well, I guess that will have to be too bad!<br />
<br />
In terms of being a songwriter, well, I also write melodies, so the instrumental stuff remains valid if you want to assess me as a songwriter - it tells you about what I like and how I write in terms of melodies and harmonies. So going forward, it will all be under just the one name!<br />
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<h4>
The Five Sisters</h4>
So, the piece responsible for that was the draft from this weekend of <a href="https://soundcloud.com/tommygrimesiii/the-five-sisters-extract-and-draft" target="_blank">The Five Sisters</a> - part one of what should be a longer five-part instrumental of varying styles, inspired by the Five Sisters of Kintail, a mountain range in Scotland.<br />
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An odd piece as it wanted to be in 5/4 time (or 3/8, 3/8, 4/8 if you prefer), and it's been on the go for ages! And also it has a lot of layers to it compared to what I normally do. Still not finished, but close. Now just the other four parts to go :)<br />
<br />
This also came about from wanting to do some guitar-based instrumental pieces, so expect to hear some of those too soon. These will be less synth-heavy than my other instrumentals, keeping the guitar as a main focus.<br />
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<br />
<h4>
Stopping Automatic Folder Type Discovery</h4>
Windows is always so "helpful" - whenever I create a folder with audio files in it, Windows decides that I want to see "Artist, Album" etc as the file details. For a musician, that's a pain in the arse, as the files are most likely drafts, tests, or even individual audio files for tracks in the DAW.<br />
<br />
When I look at those folders, I usually want to know "is this file too large to email?" - I don't need to know who it's by, it's by me, I know that!<br />
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Thank goodness then for <a href="https://winaero.com/blog/disable-folder-type-discovery-windows-10/" target="_blank">this article on stopping Windows from doing that kind of malarkey</a>.<br />
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<h4>
Laten.....cy</h4>
This dual Xeon system has always been a bit crappy with latency. It is prone to drop-outs while I am listening / recording (though these don't affect the recording itself; but it is very off-putting while trying to get lost in playing along with your music!)<br />
<br />
It reared its head again as an issue when I revisited the instrumental pieces, as they have lots of synths and effects. Even the Focusrite, which addresses the worst of it all, didn't help out here.<br />
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I did find <a href="http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon" target="_blank">LatencyMon</a> which very helpfully gives you some idea on anything that might be causing latency. The test results give the very interesting and I-would-never-have-thought-of-that step of turning off my network adapter while working on particularly heavy songs. Cool.<br />
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And the other thing I always have to remember - turn on "Multi-processing" in the Bazille synth, else it just never works!<br />
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Cheers!<br />
Tommy<br />
<br />Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-51224621274540542742018-03-01T20:42:00.000-08:002019-07-20T03:13:29.933-07:00BIAS FX and more<h4>
BIAS FX</h4>
Always a sucker for a sale (when it comes to music software at least), I went and demo'ed and then purchased <a href="https://www.positivegrid.com/bias-fx/" target="_blank">BIAS FX</a> from Positive Grid.<br />
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My reasoning would be considered pretty strange I guess - I found I was able to get a "super compressed Strat sound" like I'd been looking for in my other amp sims, and that I really liked the Tele played through (of all things) their Acoustic Sim amp, as seen above.<br />
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Oddly, I wasn't taken with BIAS Amp, it didn't do what I needed, mostly because I was after the compressors in BIAS FX which seemed to do the super-compressed sound really well when I chained two different ones together.<br />
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<h4>
Compound Capo Capers</h4>
As part of recording "The Spirit of Country" I ran into a problem - the Tele has a 9.5" to 14" Compound Radius, and my Kyser capo was not working on the second fret, leaving the guitar out of tune. Sure, could just retune it when I put the capo on, and retune it when I took it off, but I figured there must be an easier solution. There was.<br />
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The <a href="http://daddario.com/pwProductDetail.Page?ActiveID=4115&productid=612" target="_blank">D'Addario / Planet Waves Tri-Action capo</a> has adjustable tension, and presto I could tweak it so that it worked down here where the neck is fatter. Very happy with it, and can heartily recommend it, and it's price!<br />
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<br />Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-74245780278164999132018-02-04T18:24:00.001-08:002019-07-20T03:29:30.409-07:00Death and taxes (without the death)Whew, spent this weekend mostly working on all the documenting of taxes for 2017. I want to get that in to the accountant early, so I can figure how much I am due this year, and then I can plan ahead for the move to Nashville that I'm considering!<br />
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I also made a video demo'ing the iDea, which I am going to put up for sale now that I have the Elite. Recorded the footage, and chopped it up into parts, and took some photos, but haven't yet put it all together.<br />
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Will be kind of sad to see the guitar go, since it has been on every song (that uses an acoustic) for the last 10 years, and I've done a lot of writing on it - but, I can't give in to GAS as they call it! Guitar Acquisition Syndrome, that is. To me, no sense in having more than one sort of guitar that does a similar thing to another. However, it will be like saying goodbye to an old friend, and this one did come with me to the very first Camp Copperhead, so it has sentimental value!<br />
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Cheers!<br />
Tommy<br />
<br />Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-85212114878885587732018-01-28T19:55:00.000-08:002019-07-20T03:14:07.521-07:00Ovation Elite Plus Contour overview, and finally found lyric video software!Weekly update time! When shopping for a new Ovation recently, I couldn't find the information I needed - how much difference does the contour back make vs the traditional Ovation round back? What is the new Op-Pro Studio pre-amp like, and what do the Drive and Expressor do exactly? What does it sound like?<br />
<br />
So, I made my own video now that I own one:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0687ydSaBlI" width="640"></iframe>
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The guitar arrived on Tuesday, and is quite a stunner! Always been a huge fan of Ovations, and this one is by far the best one I have owned.<br />
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As yet haven't recorded anything with her (except for the video above), but will be doing that in the coming week. I got some great feedback on "Long Time Coming" from Brent Baxter of <a href="http://frettie.com/">frettie.com</a> which is a great place to share your songs and get feedback, and based on that I am going to rewrite it some, mostly restructuring and removing rather than adding. That will give me the perfect opportunity to put the new Ovation (named Spirit :) ) to good use.<br />
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I mentioned last time I was searching for software to ease the time involved in making lyric videos, and I found it - under the unlikely name of <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi51amlovzYAhVFG6wKHXqZDZ4QFggyMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.makeyoutubevideo.com%2F&usg=AOvVaw0lsinPMYJ98FuZqqXKTM2y" target="_blank">YouTube Movie Maker</a>.<br />
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The beauty of this software is it will import your lyrics in text file format (.txt), and then your mp3, and as you play the mp3, simple presses of a key on your keyboard will define the start and end point of each line, et voila, your lyrics are done in time with your music!<br />
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I will be putting this to good use in coming weeks, and getting some simple lyric videos done and uploaded. Using video sites to listen to music is an increasingly common thing, even if the video is just a still photo, so it's good to have the music available on those sites too.<br />
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Cheers!<br />
TommyTommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-88664665506144341192017-12-26T10:15:00.002-08:002017-12-26T10:15:32.446-08:00New Year is on its way!Whew, 2017 was one busy year!<br />
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I just spent 3 days in Moscow and 2 weeks in Prague, not music related mind you - with that, plus the preparations for the trips, I was unable to do anything musical for the last month or so, but getting back into it now.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Jb9JRIyUpjM/WkKQl2mxs-I/AAAAAAAAAfM/iy7Uq1jCo4wOUaczSv05POyYSJN6aszGgCLcBGAs/s1600/Moscow%2B01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="876" data-original-width="1600" height="348" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Jb9JRIyUpjM/WkKQl2mxs-I/AAAAAAAAAfM/iy7Uq1jCo4wOUaczSv05POyYSJN6aszGgCLcBGAs/s640/Moscow%2B01.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moscow, view from the hotel window</td></tr>
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I also managed to pick up a persistent cough, so not sure how that will impact my plans to do some recording over the Christmas vacation, but we shall see! I can still write and work on the instrumental side of things of course, so it won't all come to a complete standstill.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prague, one of the smaller Christmas market areas</td></tr>
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It's a good time to be thinking of plans for 2018, and for me I plan on doing some co-writing rather than write it all myself. I am also contemplating a move in May or thereabouts, and may move to Nashville for a bit, because Nashville. I think it would be fun to live there at least for a year or two!<br />
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I am also considering working less on production, arrangement and mixing, and more on just writing - there are so many songs I have in progress and if I stop to play around with them all in detail then that will slow down finishing writing them. After all, everything I create is just a demo or showcase of what the song can be, the plan is always that someone else will pick up on a song and record or perform it.<br />
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So what are your plans for the year ahead? Whatever they are, may they come to pass, and here's to it being an awesome year!Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-5490808805347278222017-10-02T20:57:00.002-07:002017-10-02T20:57:30.931-07:00Old but very serviceableNot me, the iPad. It's an iPad 4, which apparently makes it about 7 years old. As much as I dislike how Apple manages their infrastructure, I have to say that this 7 year old device is still enormously capable - great battery life, runs smooth, and as it turns out, a very easy and convenient writing tool!<br />
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The guitar sounds in Cubasis are very basic, will see if there's anything optional that can be added there to make those a bit more pleasant, but all the same it's very workable for writing. For practicing guitar solos, I might Bluetooth it over to the GT 40 amp (though I won't be able to record if I do that, but it could be good just for practice).<br />
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Thanks to that convenience, I was able to do some writing today, and it will only get easier the more I use this combo of iPad and Cubasis!Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-72698644867893992352017-10-01T19:43:00.000-07:002017-10-01T19:49:57.793-07:00Making Writing Easier<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6pb5GGHkrAE/WdGnVNn01xI/AAAAAAAAAes/lOLDUTpDAgUXFy5iIOuMuoEhBK28dXOAQCLcBGAs/s1600/Writing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="886" data-original-width="1266" height="276" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6pb5GGHkrAE/WdGnVNn01xI/AAAAAAAAAes/lOLDUTpDAgUXFy5iIOuMuoEhBK28dXOAQCLcBGAs/s400/Writing.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The set up for songwriting that I came up with today.</td></tr>
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One thing I am always looking to do is make the writing process easier. I do main recordings on my desktop, but I don't like being tied to the desktop while just experimenting and writing - inconvenient!<br />
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So far I've been using Evernote to sing or play into on my phone, but it's become inconvenient. It used to be easy to add several recordings to one "note" which kept multiple attempts at pieces of a song in one place, but now I can't see how to do that and I have to create a separate "note" each time which gets cluttered fast.<br />
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Besides, I wanted the ability to play and sing separately, so I could have my guitar playing away in my ear while I come up with words, or I could use it to work out soloes and or bass lines without heading to the PC.<br />
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I have Cubasis 2 on the iPad, which I like a lot as it is just like Cubase on my desktop. The problem with it was Apple - because they don't let you just browse the files on your iPad, you have to go through some app or another to see them. That meant moving anything OFF the iPad to start building the proper recordings on the desktop seemed to be a pain in the arse.<br />
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I was considering buying a mini-digital multitrack recorder, but joy of joys, I just discovered that Steinberg actually do things better than Apple - Cubasis has a <a href="https://www.steinberg.net/fileadmin/files/PRODUCTS/Apps/Cubasis/Cubasis_Help/MEDIA.html" target="_blank">wifi server mode</a>, where I can see all the Cubase files on my PC and copy to and from the iPad with ease and abandon!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The raggedy collection of not much yet on the iPad, easily accessed from my desktop.</td></tr>
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Enable it in Cubasis, enter the URL it displays into a web browser on the PC, and that's it - and like it says on the tin, it's wifi, so I don't even need to bother with all that cable-y nonsense. Well done Steinberg!Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-57601747609084112422017-09-03T19:50:00.001-07:002017-09-03T19:50:31.764-07:00Labouring AwayThe blog has languished a bit due to life being pretty chaotic!<br />
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I had a long weekend a while back and managed to wrap up the roughs of three more songs - <a href="https://soundcloud.com/tommygrimesiii/american-now" target="_blank">American Now</a> which was the second song I had on the go about my naturalization, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/tommygrimesiii/on-the-tin" target="_blank">On The Tin</a> which is all about addiction and its false promises (I have a great idea for a cover image for that song, just have to find the time to get the stuff I need and snap the photo!), and <a href="https://soundcloud.com/tommygrimesiii/you-dont-know-jack" target="_blank">You Don't Know Jack</a> which is about one specific kind of addiction.<br />
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I did do a bit more work on The Spell, restructuring it and writing some new parts for it (bass line, an oboe part), but then things got busy with other things in life. Not least was the apartment flooding - nothing to do with Hurricane Harvey, I was blessed to be too far inland to be affected. This was just from the poor state of the city drainage system, ugh.<br />
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As a result, I had to bunch everything up in the apartment, and then live for 4 days with two fans and one dehumidifier running 24/7, which was disruptive to getting any good sleep and of course meant no hope for music with the constant racket!<br />
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However no permanent damage to anything (other than a bathmat and some clothing) so I can't complain.<br />
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Lots of other things also took up time, including a trip to a conference in Dallas, so there's been little progress on getting new songs wrapped up or written. This was the first sane weekend in a while, and I spent it mostly sleeping to catch up!<br />
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Things to look for next - The Spell getting to a point where I can post it, plus I think I will finish up a traditional blues number that I have on the go, There's a Storm a-comin', and I'd love to get back to the instrumental White Blonde & Sunburst and finish that up too. So those are likely what will happen next!<br />
<br />Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-53198105862927314942017-08-01T19:33:00.000-07:002017-08-01T19:33:08.629-07:00So what gives?So here's what I've been up to the last 2 months or so, mostly dealing with lawyers in the U.K. and Spain, and accountants here in the U.S. - nothing music related, just things that have needed attention and have taken up a fair amount of time, thus leaving less time and energy to be working on the songs.<br />
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Still, I've been focused on ways to make songwriting easier. I sold my big ol' CyberTwin and have replaced it with two small amps, a Blackstar, and most recently a Fender GT 40.<br />
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It's just so much nicer when roughing out a song not to have to plug in to a computer and listen through headphones - no waiting for software to start up, not tied to a particular place in the room, and easier to just dial in sounds.</div>
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I'm even contemplating getting a digital multitrack recorder for the same reason. Even with a laptop, by the time I have an interface connected up to it, and I'm tapping the screen or clicking the mouse, it's a lot less immediate than the old cassette based 4 track I started out with, so I may have a look into an inexpensive one of those soon.</div>
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See, I have about 70 song fragments that have been hummed or strummed into my phone, and I want to start fleshing those out more and getting them finished. I want to focus more on the writing and completing that, than on arranging and recording - get 'em written, then I can always go back through them at my leisure to polish up the ones that seem to deserve it.</div>
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I did have something of a break this last weekend, so I dusted this off (it was, literally, dusty):</div>
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Have set to work on a traditional sounding song, something a little Celtic, and that inspired me to get the mando out for the first time in years. Rusty of course :) But I'll get better again! That song is called "The Spell".</div>
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And to go along with that, completed the words, chords and structure for "You Don't Know Jack", which is one of my punk-country songs (can't think of a better way of describing them). Then I also have the more singer-songwriter melancholy "On the Tin" which has all the words, just needs a bit of structuring.</div>
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I think I should be able to wrap all 3 up in demo form this coming weekend, as well as returning to "American Now" which has been waiting on a re-sing plus having the bass added. So could see 4 songs emerge very soon!</div>
<br />Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-43035513055693208652017-06-01T21:14:00.000-07:002019-07-20T03:15:17.871-07:00You can burnI want to do more writing, and less recording - that is, get rough drafts done rather than trying to polish them up each time! To that end, to save me being tied to the computer whenever I want to play guitar, got myself a Blackstar ID Core 10.<br />
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I do have a Fender CyberTwin, but a 100 watt amp in an apartment building doesn't win you any friends. The beauty of the ID Core 10 is that it's a twin speaker amp, even in such a tiny box, and Blackstar's "Super Wide Stereo" really DOES work. Expect a video review sometime!<br />
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And nice sweets from Sweetwater - glad they went with sweets and not water, that would have been a whole lot less interesting.<br />
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Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-8505860889349617772017-05-02T20:57:00.003-07:002019-07-20T03:15:52.408-07:00Mayday MaydaySo, it's a day past May Day, but ah well. Makes for a good title, and "close enough for jazz" as they say.<br />
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Did have a long weekend, unrelated to it being May Day, just booked some time off, which meant a chance to focus on some music! I snapped a couple of photos of the guitars, and started a rough draft of an instrumental piece featuring both Strat and Tele through the same sounds so that the only difference is the guitars (and the pickup selections).</div>
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I named it "<a href="https://soundcloud.com/tommygrimesiii/white-blonde-sunburst" target="_blank">White Blonde & Sunburst</a>" after the guitars, and that means Blondie has become the Teles name. I plan on finishing up the track sometime, keeping it as an instrumental - may even do a little instrumental EP or something!</div>
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Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-37980192412573640412017-03-19T18:17:00.000-07:002017-03-19T18:17:24.551-07:00Songwriting Mar 19thQuick update amongst a very busy time all round!<br />
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Spent today re-recording guitar parts for the song I am working on, as have decided to raise it a tone as I think I can sing it better there. Got the rest of the lyrics written yesterday, so also did a rough recording of them today. They fit. Hurrah! So will re-record them properly next week.<br />
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No bass yet, and not sharing the lyrics or words just yet! Should be able to do that in a week or two I believe. Here's the instruments only sample section, since I haven't shared anything with the Tele on it yet (and this is all Tele!)<br />
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<a href="https://soundcloud.com/tommygrimesiii/tele-sounds">https://soundcloud.com/tommygrimesiii/tele-sounds</a><br />
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Other thing I did yesterday was install all the necessary claptrap to get the Korg Kontrol working - had it for years, but rarely use it. Was handy though for being able to trigger recording in Cubase while I had the .txt file of the lyrics up on screen (after forgetting numerous times and adding "*" to the text document rather than start recording in Cubase).<br />
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The only problem is there isn't a clear place that writes out how to get it working - so in case you are wondering (and in case I ever need to remember, ahem), here are the steps:</div>
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- Install the Korg nanoKontrol drivets (<a href="http://www.korg.com/us/support/download/driver/1/252/1357/">http://www.korg.com/us/support/download/driver/1/252/1357/</a> ).</div>
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Download the nanoKontrol template for Cubase (<a href="http://www.korg.com/us/support/download/software/1/252/1377/">http://www.korg.com/us/support/download/software/1/252/1377/</a> ).</div>
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- Hook everything up to the USB, run Cubase, go to Devices -> Device Setup, click the '+' to add a device, choose a Generic Remote.</div>
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- Use the Import option for the Generic Remote set up to load the template downloaded earlier.</div>
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Not exactly hard, but it just isn't written up step-by-step anyplace - but it is now!</div>
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So that was this weekend! Oh, and took a set of arty photos of the Tele as you can tell from them scattered through this post - the light was just right today when I thought about it :)<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TPMg4S5ks8s/WM8s2lnLh2I/AAAAAAAAAcE/724yBP8fmUszEFVW_ntx8yDpFra9SBHSwCK4B/s1600/a_TeleArt03_final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TPMg4S5ks8s/WM8s2lnLh2I/AAAAAAAAAcE/724yBP8fmUszEFVW_ntx8yDpFra9SBHSwCK4B/s400/a_TeleArt03_final.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-88528326957058801402017-03-12T22:01:00.002-07:002019-07-20T03:16:38.788-07:00My mushroom is infectedAlong with the Tele and Focusrite Scarlett, I also added the <a href="http://www.waves.com/plugins/infected-mushroom-pusher" target="_blank">Infected Mushroom Pusher plugin from Waves</a> into the sonic arsenal lately. I know it's designed for EDM, but I find it works very nicely on guitar and rock music mixes - at least, I like the effect!<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yoVQSWwykMU/WMYmyLs4aXI/AAAAAAAAAbU/lfUJ0DvoVIIjwvCa45LxKEknzXVU0EIGgCK4B/s1600/InfectedMushroomPusher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yoVQSWwykMU/WMYmyLs4aXI/AAAAAAAAAbU/lfUJ0DvoVIIjwvCa45LxKEknzXVU0EIGgCK4B/s320/InfectedMushroomPusher.jpg" width="263" /></a></div>
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I've been using it on the "rough notes" with the Telecaster, haven't tried it out with the bass, the Ovation, or the Strat, but will be interested to see what it does there too.<br />
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<br />Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-76709156503051769052017-03-11T18:56:00.000-08:002017-03-11T18:58:39.956-08:00Updates and Upgrades<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qZ2MPU7IbFk/WMS0p8m6mBI/AAAAAAAAAas/-BnKZ-vNamImSrBOBi8Yjnmal8UNGbOcACK4B/s1600/Tele01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qZ2MPU7IbFk/WMS0p8m6mBI/AAAAAAAAAas/-BnKZ-vNamImSrBOBi8Yjnmal8UNGbOcACK4B/s400/Tele01.jpg" width="171" /></a></div>
Couple of weeks back, got my first Tele. Had gone into the store hoping to buy a fairly standard one, but wasn't enthralled by them, weren't doing much different from what the Strat does. Just as I was done and deciding I'd just wait, the salesman put this Limited Edition into my hands, one of the "Magnificent Seven" that they did last year, and that did the trick!<br />
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I think it's the vintage pickups on it, gave me the sound I had expected and wanted from a Tele. Have been playing a lot since, as haven't done a lot of that - I find that there's writing, there's recording / mixing, and there's playing, and if you do one, it's at the expense of the others, and that meant my playing had slipped.<br />
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So it was time to put on other people's music and play along for practice. The other thing about that is, then I find my brain is full of other people's music and has no space left for its own ideas!<br />
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Despite that, when I have a day or two where I don't fire up some tunes to play to, ideas have been trickling in, mostly little fragments so far, but they will turn into something eventually!<br />
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<h3>
Drivers again</h3>
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So, remember some time back I was struggling with latency, dropouts in monitoring, and occasional CPU dropouts that made Cubase stop recording? Still going on - this dual Xeon machine just is not cut out for audio. With no happy resolution in sight, I decided to replace my Presonus. It had a few other things happening with it too:</div>
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- A high-pitched whine all the time, only for me listening, fortunately it never recorded. Not the Presonus's fault, same as the latency issue isn't, it's the shitty motherboard in this workstation, and drawing power from the USB bus was not working well.</div>
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- The volume knob for the headphones lost the left channel now and then and needed a "wiggle" to get it back. Old age comes to us all.</div>
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- Never did like the layout of the knobs, it saved space, but meant I never instinctively knew which knob was for which input.</div>
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- It couldn't run phantom power for my Audio Technica mic without introducing a whole crap-ton of noise (again, crappy motherboard.)</div>
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Thus, enter:</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-62m8UF7-Eog/WMS2OkNqmgI/AAAAAAAAAa4/AhC1_EbOfq0LiMcC6L7U9oQObScfVVikwCK4B/s1600/Focusrite01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-62m8UF7-Eog/WMS2OkNqmgI/AAAAAAAAAa4/AhC1_EbOfq0LiMcC6L7U9oQObScfVVikwCK4B/s400/Focusrite01.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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A Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 gen 2. Now, I don't need 6 inputs, nor two headphone outs and all that - what I did need was external power, and it did the trick, no more annoying whine, and it can phantom power the mic without noise. Love the layout of the knobs, though it has a larger footprint as a result.</div>
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The dropout issues are better due to the latest hardware and drivers - not perfect, because shitty motherboard remember, but I can find settings that don't give a problem in the sample rate, buffer size and Cubase settings.</div>
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The key thing here is to get it up and running smoothly so that technical malarkey doesn't get in the way of writing or recording. The less bumps in that process, the less there is to knock me out of the creative flow!</div>
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Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-29465595649704884802017-01-30T20:04:00.001-08:002017-01-30T20:04:53.298-08:00Installing synths....... is hard work.<br />
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Always amazed to find that synths have the most convoluted and unpleasant download and licensing systems of any software I own, so when I change computers the work involved in getting them back up and running again is astronomical.<br />
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I don't use synths much in my country-rock side, they are mostly for my instrumental side, except for one song. Decided to bite the bullet and get the synths I need for it reinstalled, since I am remixing everything from the last 2 years - 10 songs down, 4 to go, and 1 more that needs a female session singer!<br />
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Anyway, time to get back to those installs..... wish me luck!Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-89830589295496375982017-01-24T20:58:00.000-08:002017-01-24T20:58:55.907-08:00Sound drivers, ugh!Not too long ago, I changed my main computer, and the sound drivers have never been quite the same since. I use ASIO4ALL, and the new machine always has dropouts when I am monitoring what I am recording, or with some settings actual dropouts that make recording stop.<br />
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Then some combination that worked in Cubase didn't work with Adobe Premiere, then uninstalling the Audiobox drivers meant no sound from Windows though Cubase worked fine, and disabling the onboard sound devices resulted in a crash on updating NVIDIA drivers and ASIO4ALL freezing when I tried to run Cubase.... sometimes I miss the days of reel-to-reel ;)<br />
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Anyway, haven't let it stop me finishing up remixing "Different This Time", which I had thought I liked last time around but ended up making tons of changes to the mix. Next up, finding a session singer for it!Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2235593563874819106.post-62086088517406607562017-01-22T11:47:00.000-08:002019-07-20T03:17:22.927-07:00Hello, 2017!The start of a brand new year! Though I don't believe in New Year resolutions, I am planning to do a ew things different this year - for one, keep this blog updated more often.<br />
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<h4>
Amplitube 4</h4>
Over the Christmas holidays, I decided to treat myself. Originally, I was just going to snag the '65 Super Reverb plus associated cab, but with that coming in around $50 and the whole Fender 2 collection being $99 or so, I thought it would make more sense to go for the whole collection.<br />
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<a href="http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/fender2/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-puKHA3d6a_A/WIUJlhWOXnI/AAAAAAAAAaI/LLH8ouDggCwphwxxBmIE2JX90AJDnyIzgCK4B/s320/fendercollection2_main_image_20161121.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3bBrjLY8s54/WIUKWOMaz4I/AAAAAAAAAaQ/pOa4SmY6KNQddzpnyPH5DtHgw1V6-pyOwCK4B/s1600/Amplitube4_RedPig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>Turned out to be a good choice, as I ended up loving some of the tweed items in the collection even more, especially the '57 Custom Pro and Twin.<br />
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I <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3bBrjLY8s54/WIUKWOMaz4I/AAAAAAAAAaQ/pOa4SmY6KNQddzpnyPH5DtHgw1V6-pyOwCK4B/s1600/Amplitube4_RedPig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3bBrjLY8s54/WIUKWOMaz4I/AAAAAAAAAaQ/pOa4SmY6KNQddzpnyPH5DtHgw1V6-pyOwCK4B/s320/Amplitube4_RedPig.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a>actually upgraded from Amplitube 3 to Amplitube 4 at the same time, and that also proved to be a smart move - I found I was rather partial to the Red Pig cab in combination with the Fender amps, so, I have been going through and replacing some of the sounds in the "Restless Guitar" songs with this new set up<br />
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<a href="http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/amplitube4/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5B1og9Zr5cM/WIUKt--TQEI/AAAAAAAAAaY/8pG-j_eOa_ovoaqFyAaRJHwKT2jQHlDtgCK4B/s320/AT4_main_image_718x450_06_opt2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I also found a use for the Acoustic Sun stomp box in there - it claims to make your electric sound like an acoustic, and while I can't say I've found that to be the case, it sure does add a different sound to your electric, and that ended up inspiring a whole new song! So a worthwhile purchase.<br />
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Useful Links:<br />
Amplitube 4: <a href="http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/amplitube4/">http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/amplitube4/</a><br />
Fender Collection 2: <a href="http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/fender2/">http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/fender2/</a><br />
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Cheers!<br />
Tommy<br />
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<br />Tommy Grimes IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04430917234947096908noreply@blogger.com0