Lovers' Limbo

Well, no jam session tonite as Jeffie wasn't up for it... I will sit down and record something instead.

I did enter Lovers' Limbo into MusesMuse 2+2 contest (2 instruments/2 vocals max). You can find the competition here. Why don't you go listen and vote for me...

TMX: Toronto Music Expo

Well, I'm registered for the TMX for October 1, 2006. I've booked a couple of seminars:

An Introduction to Computer Recording from 10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m., advertised as follows:

Confused by the technological jargon thrown around by advanced recording artists and engineers? Want to know the basics to demystify the magic surrounding the production of music and recording? All will be unveiled and you'll walk away with a bag of tricks to work your song into a masterpiece.

Songwriting in the New Millennium from 2:30p.m. - 4 p.m., advertised as follows:

From making songwriting demos with technical tools in the studio to bringing those songs to the artists who perform them. Don't miss this exciting panel of songwriting/production experts talk about their methods to creating the hits and bringing them to the world.

Haydain Neale, leadsinger for jacksoul, is going to be the moderator of this one. I'm looking forward to it.

Feist eBay Auction #4 (email from winning bidder)

Well, robins9944 emailed me back... it was nice to hear from someone enthusiastic about this opportunity:

Thanks for the congratulations. Sorry that by me winning you had to lose. I'm a big Feist fan and it's been a lifelong dream of mine to sing on a concert stage. I've been taking singing lessons for a few years. I'm not sure when the concert will happen,sometime in 2007. I too live in Toronto so I'll pick one of her Toronto dates when I find out what they are. Thanks for the email and good wishes. Robin

Good Luck to you Robin! I hope to check you out at that concert!

Feel Like A... scotch, neat, double (on the)

Well, the Feel Like A... posts on MusesMuse have been quite critical of my producing attempts and the length of Feel Like A... One critic wrote, and I would agree:

as far as songcraft is concerned, though, i do think the hook is definitely there and salvagable. in fact, i like the melody throughout and the prechorus is a nice set up. i like the bridge, too. one thing i must say is that the guitar solo is very weak and way too long. if yo ulook at the structure of the tune next to the clock, the solo comes in at 1:30 and the bridge (which i really dug) hits at 2 minutes - and the song is almost five minutes long. you return to the verse after the bridge, which is a cool thing to do, but not to cycle through the whole thing again, like you did. ..........and then another guitar solo section at 3 mins!? you're getting way too into your own tune, man. you've lost your listener at this point. he's gone.

But cool of cool, it was very nice of one poster, fabkebab (deadmanscorner on his Soundclick site) to say the following:

Hi there Renz -
I listened to this a couple of times - I am quite a fan of yours, based on your two competition entries a while back (Butterfly and Lovers Limbo - I downloaded them both!!) -
This song is in the same vein/style, but you are clearly trying to step up a notch and arrange a full band song, whereas those two songs I mentioned were layered acoustics (presumably building off the rythm of the main guitar part) -

I have dabbled with trying to sound a bit more "complete" in my arrangements too, and it takes a while to make something sound good (learning to play different instruments, and trying to play to a new rythmic pattern - drums instead of guitar) - In this case I think your song sounds tightest in the solo sections-
perhaps you could try recording the rythm guitar along with the drum, then play your bass etc to match the guitar - then drop the guitar out at the end if you dont like it

Anwyay, interesting to hear you try something new; good luck with it - dont assume that you have to though - those two other songs are excellent and something I listen to regularly

Jam Session #3

So, Jam Session #3 happened... we laid down some vocals to Feel Like A... (but I had to re-do them tonite). Jeff had picked a very good lead before, and he picked a new one for the Bridge instrumental (well, an old one that we used last year). Jeffie mentioned how the song was being "built", how we were adding "layers". I think that's cool... I've written the songs, and they've always been complete in my head... now I just have to "layer" them for others to hear them the way I do.

I'm a glutton for punishment, so I've once again posted a song of mine on the messageboard at MusesMuse. That's where you'll find critiques of the song, and this is where you can find Feel Like A... on my Soundclick site...

Ciao for now and ci vedimes...

Jam Session #2

So Jeff and I were jamming again last night. It was very productive... Jeff has a great ear and picked out a nice solo for Feel Like A... I'm going to re-do the guitar rhythm riff for the song... we both liked the drums I've put in for the tune and the basic bass riff, which I'll perfect and loop into it... then Jeff can add his solo and we can hopefully do vocals next week... stay "tuned" for the completed tune...

The criticism comes...

I posted Prelude to the Fall (see link from previous blog post) on Muses Muse for some feedback. Here's where to find the forum topic where you can see fellow songwriters critique the song. It's an arduous process, but the criticisms are fair... I have to get better at producing the songs... at putting what's in my head (the BIG sound) down into the computer and mixing it all up well.

My wife and I were watching Rock Star: Supernova last night and I missed Dilana's original tune (although I've since watched it on the website, it's called 'Supersoul'), but my wife said one of the criticisms against her was her song was too literal. My wife was in no way being subtle at hinting that my songs are also too literal. From the performance recap page of the show's website, Gilby is said to have thought that the song's lyric was "unimaginative".

Visit my Soundclick site (links on the sideboard) and tell me if you agree with my wife... I do and I don't... but I don't think I'm unimaginative, and regardless, sometimes a song needs to be literal.

The Prelude to the Fall

So, I worked on a couple of songs over the weekend... I've posted a new song (The Prelude to the Fall) on my Soundclick site. I also worked on Feel Like A... with drums and bass for my jam with Jeff tomorrow nite...

Slowly but surely...

Jam Session #1

Okay, so Jeff Russo and I jammed a bit last night. I showed him my laptop set-up with Sonar and the MobilePre USB sound card. Jeff just received a Roland E-600 electric keyboard. We fooled around a bit showing what our respective wares' potential is (mine for recording, Jeff's for live performances) and decided to try to tackle a song a week. Since we found some cool drum loops for one of my songs (Feel Like A...), we're going to work on that for next week. My homework is to lay the drum loops, rhythm guitar and bass, then Jeff can add a lead and vocals next week. I hope to be posting a link to that song in the near future...

My other homework is to try and figure out if I can save the digital audio to MIDI format for uploading into the Roland for live performances (to have drums/bass/piano back-up). I'm also going to look for a MIDI to USB cable for hooking up the Roland to the laptop for recording and/or transferring purposes. M-Audio makes the Uno, which is probably the way I'll go...

A plug for my buddy Jeff btw... He owns a business (The Edge Fitness Business Consulting) and you can see and read about him and his company at that link.

FYI, no reply from robins9944... would've liked to attend that Feist concert...

Feist eBay Auction #3 (email to winning bidder)

I've emailed the successful bidder (robins9944) through eBay's messaging system... I hope she responds, and here's my email:

Hi, I was the unsuccessful bidder on the Feist auction. Congrats, by the way! I had gotten very excited when I received a Second Chance offer, but it was just a phishing scam... so I'm glad that I contacted the vendor who assured me you were following through with the auction.

Anyway, I'm an unpublished songwriter and I'd love to know when the actual dream will take place, if just to participate vicariously by attending the concert and seeing you on stage... If this is an intrusion, I apologize... but if you don't mind sharing the dream (by that I mean, just attending the concert), please email me back and let me know when the big day will arrive!

Break a leg! (in the show business sense)

Lorenzo (from Toronto)