So the lullaby is uploaded and I’ve gotten some ok responses on it. Maybe I should give a week more. I have gone into acoustic mode again and it seems to be easier for me to stay longer there. It’s also not as time consuming as the electric music as it’s just 2 guitars. Ones the chord structure is recorded it’s just laying down the melody ones or twice, and then do some improvisation on it. The improve is what takes the longest. I get rather hysterical with what it sounds like. I tried to let go of some of that hysteria, which can be heard on ABCD. I left noise on the tracks, and there are several mistakes on the sole track. I only got one comment back about that. A woman commented on it and said that she thought it needed some work. I smiled and commented back that she was absolute right. I doubt that I will spend more time on that song though, as I have several new ones cooking. I have no theater job the next 4 months so I have to concentrate on being downstairs in my studio recording, not worrying about ripping my fingertips to pieces. I don’t need to play contra bass at night at the theater. Yup! I’m tired ! I will go to bed. Nite!!
Martin Nielsen music's Blog
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Lately
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Lullaby
So I am working on a lullaby for my girls. It’s been long time coming and finally I can see the end. I wrote the melody 4 years ago on piano and I think it’s the first time I had done that. It is a little easier for me now to write on piano, as I often get stuck in the ways that I usually move on guitar. It is as if my fingers go certain ways and repeat themselves. I guess now would be a good time to expand my musical vocabulary but…Hey there is the piano….why don’t I go over there. I think I’m a bit hysterical, both with lyrics and music. Actually the lullaby took a turn over the last 3 weeks. It’s becoming more of a pop-rock song than intended at first. The girls don’t mind. For the longest time, one of their favorite goodnight songs was Yellow Submarine, so I figured it was ok to lean into the more rocking side of me. I had them sing at the end of the song. They love to be part of things and it’s a great way to be together - Headphones ‘n all. I can’t afford a drummer on it, so the listener will have to cope with the drum machine program I made for it. After the initial piano track was done, I added a faint percussion loop and fretless bass. For some time that seemed to be just right, but when the vocal was added it just didn’t feel right. I grew up with the loud stuff in the 70ties and I have no training in doing soft lullaby-ish vocal tracks. So to accommodate my own deficiencies I added the drum beat and my good old fretted bass. The guitar track was not intended but I was testing tone on a Strat I’ve been working on, and the lullaby was the song loaded into the Mac at the time. Lots of goofiness came out of that and I’m deciding to keep it… I think. I like stereo stuff, so after having played with the guitar sound in solo style I made a counterpart to the piano and panned them left and right. Not all the way. App 50% I should say…I could go downstairs and look, but naah. -
For the gear freaks
Ok. So I have been asked alot about how I record.
first of all I use Logic on an old Mac G5 machine with 6 GBs of ram. I think 2 would do. I call Logic "my second wife" I have used it since it came out in ,I Think, early 90ties on atari computers. I then used it on PC up till 2005 and had to switch to Mac as Logic was sold to apple, and apple stopped further development for the PC platform. Unfortunately Mac is a very expensive endevor and lacks the high read-from-and-write-to-speed that was so wonderful on PC. I'm still looking for a program that will do for me what Logic does. My biggest problem is that I know Logic so well. All the programs out there are good.
I use AKG 451s 414s and RODE NTVs. Not alot of people are familiar with the NTV. RODE came out with the big tube mic "CLASSIC" in 96 I think and shortly after with the NTV which was tube as well but with fixed pattern. Perfect for little project studios like mine and with a pricetag to match the economy of those same little studios ;)
I use Universal Audio LA-610s for preamps (channel strips actually) and have yet to run into trouble with them, knock knock kncok.
I use a stereo mytech A/D converter. (awesome)
My monitores are an old set og 3020A from Genelec. Truely a set of workhorses.
When I need to check my mixes I normally take a trip in my wife's car.
That's it for the studio talk. -
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Getting started
Soooo... I finally got started on this myspace thing. And hey!! I even posted two of my own songs and "Never let you go" which a friend of mine wrote. I enjoy the acoustic stuff the most and maybe that's because I'm 49 years old. Other than this newest endevor I'm a family guy with house and garden where I spend as much time as I do in my studio. I teach bass and guitar and train vocalists. My newest plan is making a youtube series of the essens of bass playing. not that nobody did it before me but I'm confident that somebody out there will benefit from my approch to bass playing. I may post a song with more bass on it in the future but for now I like my acoustic guitar a little too much.
A man seriously committed, who wants to do better and better!
Nice Blog..:-))
Love from India..xxxx