I'm Still Dreaming Instrumentally

Song Title: Dreaming of You (Instrumental)

Recorded on: Ableton Live 9

Instruments: (In Order of Appearance)
                    Bass (Part of Blue Thunder Pack)
                    Snare Light (from 16 Snares)
                    Snare Accent 2 (from 16 Snares)
                    hh BN Open (from 16 HiHats)
                    pi.sn05 (from Singing Percussion Pack)
                    D #3 (from Singing Percussion Pack)
                    English Horn Solo Legato V
                    Glass (from DrumSynth Reflection)
                    Clap (from DrumSynth Reflection)
                    Mixed Choir Ahh - Ohh (Yes, it really is called that)
                    Female Choir Ahh (Yes, it really is called that)
                    English Horn Solo Legato Vibrato
                    Cello Section Pizzicato
                    Strings Ensemble Legato
                    Strings Ensemble Tremolo

Uploaded to SoundCloud: June 8, 2013

Statistics: 0 plays.

You can listen to "Dreaming of You (Instrumental)" here: https://soundcloud.com/c-l-neal/dreaming-of-you-instrumental.

The trials of being an EDM producer.

When I wrote this I was quite excited, actually. I think this is probably, some mixing issues aside, the best thing I have ever written. I knew when I set out to start writing and recording that I would not sound like everyone else. Not because I would have to try not to rip off people I like, but because I like a lot of different stuff and it all works its way in eventually. Any writer or producer, I don't care who they are, shows the influences of what they listened to growing up. And I've listened to a lot of stuff.

I rather like the strings and the choirs. I think they add a really nice background while still letting the English Horns do their thing.

This was not originally intended to be an instrumental piece. In fact, it has lyrics. But I obviously did something wrong when trying to set up the Ableton so I can't get the freakin' thing to record my voice at all. And I originally recorded the first English Horn (which to me sounds more like an oboe, but what do I know from MIDI sounds?) more to remind myself what the tune of the lyrics should be. I had intended to record a real "deep house" number with some mixed-down vocals that went like this:

When I'm awake I'm always dreaming of you
I can only hope that you're dreaming too

Okay, it ain't Shakespeare but it fit the mood of the song and the fact that I'm thinking a lot about my late wife lately.

Still, I slapped the "(Instrumental)" on it because as soon as I get vocals figured out, I will record another mix with vocals and probably no orchestral instruments at all. I'm looking forward to it.

I hope you enjoy it. I'm pretty excited about this one. Tell me what you think!

ShankThr33 - It's In The Genes!

Copyright (c) 2013 Christopher Neal

A Little Lite but Really Tasty!

Song Title: 116th Street Junk Food

Recorded On: GarageBand

Instruments: (In Order of Appearance)
                    Funky Latin Drums 09 (GB Preset)
                    Cool Upright Bass 01
                    Upright Funk Bass 01
                    Simple Cabasa 01
                    80's Dance Bass Synth 09
                    Chordal Synth Patter 08
                    Funky Electric Guitar 02
                    Club Dance Beat 006
                    Exotic Beat 06
                    Funky Latin Drums 01
                    Percussion Combo 07
                    Motown Drummer 02
                    Conga Drummer 02 (All GB Preset Loops)

Uploaded to SoundCloud: May 24, 2013

Statistics: 12 Plays (4 US/4 Japan/2 UK/2 Germany/2 Viet Nam/2 Netherlands/ 2 Spain)
                2 Downloads (1 US/1 France)
                2 Comments (1 US/1 UK)
                2 'Favorites' (1 UK/1 Canada)

You can listen to "116th Street Junk Food" here: https://soundcloud.com/c-l-neal/116th-street-junk-food.

Again, this was a pretty simple piece. I simply dove into the loops that come with GarageBand and went crazy. As so often happens, I was trying to do something else and was getting nowhere. I was completely frustrated working in Ableton and went back to GarageBand briefly to just snap something off and remind myself that I really can write songs.

Burch, who has kind of been my mentor and often been my sounding-board since I started writing EDM, has told me many times  that I need to get rid of all the loops on my computer. I will agree with him while we're talking but then not do it. Why? Because I'm supposed to be having fun. Come on! And if I'm trying to master something and getting nowhere, why not work with a few loops and put something out?

No good reason, that's why!

Anyway, I've told him that I know the loops are really like junk food. They can be really tasty but have no nutritional value. But I've also said before that there is an art and a science to working with loops. If you do it right, you can come up with something pretty cool.

In fact, several people have agreed with me about this one. One of the comments came from a grumpy English guy who I would have sworn was not listening to my stuff (he's also a musician and his style is completely different than mine.) And he likes it! So if that's not affirmation, I don't know what is.

And the fact that anybody at all is listening to this song in Viet Nam also means that I'm doing something right. I would love to be big all over the world!

So Burch, I luv yer but dude you gotta lighten up a bit on this.

And anyone else who thinks that loops make for sucky or lightweight music?

Bite me!

ShankThr33 - It's In The Genes~

Copyright (c) 2013 Christopher Neal

It's a Big Messy World After All!

Song Title: Big Messy World

Recorded On: GarageBand

Instruments: (In Order of Appearance)
                    Darksitar80b_d (Downloaded from Platinumloops)
                    Indi120_c (Tabla loop downloaded from Platinumloops)
                    Indyfolk120r_g (Mandolin loop downloaded from Platinumloops)
                    Alternative Rock Bass 03
                    Alternative Rock Bass 04 (GarageBand loops)
                    Distance (Loop)
                    KSK Vox Fx (Loop)
                    Club Dance Beat 002
                    Electronic Drum Beat 02 (GarageBand loops)
                    KSK Risa 002 (Loop)

Uploaded to SoundCloud: May 24, 2013

Stats: 6 Plays (United States)
         2 Downloads (1 US/1 Portugal)
         1 'Favorite' (Canada)

You can listen to "Big Messy World" here: https://soundcloud.com/c-l-neal/big-messy-world.

I love EDM but sometimes it just takes it out of me. I had been trying to learn "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" (which I still haven't completely learned) while at the same time trying to learn how to do a four-on-the-floor beat. Trying to learn two such completely different things, even though one is a whole lot easier than the other, is hard. I just got drained. So I turned to my crutch in order to do something fun. And really, isn't this supposed to be fun?

I had downloaded a bunch of sitar and tabla loops. I have for a long time been wanting to do a real kickin' World beat. I went through them, looking for something that I could build a decent trance beat with but not finding anything that quite did it. But I found a few sounds that I hadn't remembered downloading (the KSK Vox and KSK Risa loops) and thinking I would like to do something with them. I'm on a lot of loop websites and I haven't kept proper track of them. Sorry!

This is not one of my great pieces, but I had a lot of fun. Burch likes to roll his eyes when he hears I'm working with loops again but what I always want to say at that point is, "Bite me." I was drained from trying to master things that weren't working and needed a little fun. And like I said before, isn't this supposed to be fun?

So enjoy it in the spirit in which it is offered.

Peace out and catch you later...

ShankThr33 - It's In The Genes!

Copyright (c) 2013 Christopher Neal

Next Stop, Fourth Floor!

Song Title: Fourth Floor Rehearsal Space

Recorded On: Ableton Live 9

Instruments: (In Order Of Appearance)
                    DrumSynth Kick
                    Hi Hat Open
                    Snare Electro
                    DrumSynth Clap
                    Buster Synth Lead
                    Horny Morning (This is an audio effect and no, I didn't name it.)
                    80's Wavepad Pad
                    Bright Pad Filter Sweep

Uploaded to SoundCloud: May 29, 2013

Stats to Date: 2 Plays (United States)
                      2 Downloads (1 US/1 Portugal)

You can listen to "Fourth Floor Rehearsal Space" here: https://soundcloud.com/c-l-neal/fourth-floor-rehearsal-space.

This was the second piece I tried to write and the first I wrote successfully using a "four-on-the-floor" rhythm. I'd never done it before so to learn how I went looking for help. Other producers had told me this before and I'm here to testify, Youtube is your friend. Now, I'd gotten the idea that most people associate house beat four-on-the-floor with 130 bpm. How true that is, I don't know, but the video I watched that showed me how to do it, the guy who made it wrote in 123 bpm. So that's what I wrote this song in. And I tried writing just the drum part in 123 and then speeding it up, but it just didn't sound  right, so it stayed at 123.

I played it for Burch and he said, "Good four-on-the-floor." I'll take it where I can get it. At least it told me that I wasn't wasting my time learning how to do this stuff.

Being an EDM producer is hard. You're a one-man show (or one-woman show, depending.) I love to jam with other people and feed off their energy and ideas. Usually they are also better musicians than I am so I learn by watching what they do and listening to how they do it. It's not like that as a producer. I'm sitting in my bedroom all by myself and hoping that someone other than me likes the ideas I'm committing to the internet. If I get frustrated with something, there's no one there to say, "Hey, you can do it," and encourage you to keep going. The upside is that there's also no big, egotistical jerk trying to front the band and telling you how bad you suck, whether you do or not. And I've always been one of those people who is never quite sure when they've done something good. I wrote a book once that I thought was brilliant. My wife and kids read it and politely decided not to tell me how terrible it was. Then I wrote a poem that I almost threw away. Two days later my wife backs me up against a wall yelling at me for more of that. So I usually need someone else to tell me, not that I'm great no matter what but whether what I'm doing has any value at all. Cuz everyone sucks sometimes. I don't care if your preferred style of musician is Deadmau5, Prince, John Lennon or Beethoven, none of them produced all winners. But it's always nice to hear that you're doing it right.

Let me know what you think!

Peace out and catch you later...

ShankThr33 - It's In The Genes!

Copyright (c) 2013 Christopher Neal

Frustration is the Mother of Creation!

Song Title: Frustration

Recorded On: Ableton Live 9

Instruments: (In Order of Appearance)
                    Kick LD
                    Snare Atom (Part of 16 Snares Pack)
                    Snare Electro (Part of 16 Snares Pack)
                    Saw Synth C Bass
                    Dance Stab Bleep (Part of Miscellaneous Synths in the basic Sounds Pack)
                    Chord Sweeper
                    Saw1 Reso Panned Pad (Synth Pad in Sounds Pack)
                    Strings Ensemble Pizzicato
                    ATMOS Other Planes of Where (This is one of the Ambient and Evolving Synth Noises)

Uploaded to SoundCloud: June 1, 2013

Stats as of June 4, 2013: 4 Plays (United States)
                                       1 Download (United States)
                                       2 'Favorites' (1 US, 1 Switzerland)

You can listen to "Frustration" here: https://soundcloud.com/c-l-neal/frustration.

In my attempts to stop being the John Tesh of EDM, I decided that I really wanted to learn how to lay down a four-on-the-floor beat. My first attempt was a song I named "Fourth Floor Failure", which has since been erased from my computer, never to show up in some compilation somewhere where anyone can blackmail me with it. It really was that bad.

My second attempt was a song called "Fourth Floor Rehearsal Space" which is up on SoundCloud now. "Frustration" is my third one. I'm overall pretty happy with it. It could be better, but for something that got shot out in a couple of days with almost no redo, I think it really worked out well. I think I do pretty good job of building some tension, especially in bar 49 when I change the key (simultaneously releasing tension and starting the build-up again) and again in bar 82 where I introduce the pizzicato. I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure this is the same pizzicato sound that starts off Santigold's "Disparate Youth."

I think if I did one thing differently, I would leave out the drop in bar 57. The Saw1 Reso Panned Pad sound is very, very low and it wasn't as effective as I'd hoped. Live and learn.

I hope you listen and enjoy it. Please let me know what you think!

Peace out and catch you later...

ShankThr33 - It's In The Genes!

Copyright (c) 2013 Christopher W Neal

Four On The Floor and Jesse At The Door!

Song Name: Jesse Beyond

Recorded On: Ableton Live 9

Instruments: (In Order of Appearance)
                    House Bass
                    Kick Jump (Part of 16 Kicks Pack)
                    Snare KW (Part of 16 Snares Pack)
                    Drum Synth Clap (Part of Drum Synth Pack)
                    Trombone Section Legato
                    Strings Ensemble Staccato
                    5ths2 Filter Sweep Pad (this is a synth pad)
                    Snare Evil (Part of 16 Snares Pack)

Written and Recorded: May 31 - June 2, 2013.

Uploaded to SoundCloud: June 2, 2013.

Number of Plays in first 14 Hours: 2 Plays, 1 'Favorite', 1 Download.                   

I have not written an entry about them, and I will, but I will briefly mention my "3 Goals of Songwriting" here. You may remember that I've written about my "3 Rules of Songwriting" and my "Motto of Songwriting" but I've never listed the three goals. The first one has always been:

1) Write a summer song.

Now by that I mean a good pop song that gets pulled out year after year. I use Summer Songs as a yardstick because when kids are out of school and heading to the beach/mall/vacation/whatever they have a soundtrack that they share with their friends and whenever they hear that song as they get older they always remember that summer. So what I really mean is I want a perennial, a song that gets played on the radio even years after it came out.

Yeah, I would be fine if I were a one-hit wonder. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have a string of hits and am struggling to learn how to write good pop music (club style, that is.) But some bands (and some of them very good bands) only have That One Song that people know, even if they don't know the name of the song or the band. Exhibit 1 would be "The Way" by Fastball. I'll bet that most people reading this are going "Huh?" but as soon as you hear it you go, "Oh yeah!" And Fastball is a really talented band and the disc this song was on (All The Pain Money Can Buy) had several good songs (personally I really like "Fire Escape") but if people even remember their name it's in connection with That Song. I have no idea how they feel about that but personally, I would be fine with it.

Okay, a little about my song, Jesse Beyond. (You can listen to it here, https://soundcloud.com/c-l-neal/jesse-beyond.) I've only been doing this for a little over six months now, so I'm still trying to learn how to write the stuff I actually like listening to. And I like to listen to four-on-the-floor dance songs, especially deep house tracks. This is my third piece with four-on-the-floor. I came up with the title because I listened to "Crazy In Love" by Beyonce (which is a song I really like) but then also listened to a song by Jesse J which for the life of me I can't remember. And it's featured on Vevo. Go figure. The only thing I remember about it is that I liked the bass line, before she started singing lyrics that were interchangeable with a dozen other female artists and trying to impress me by dancing around half naked.

ShankThr33's rule number 422: The more skin a woman is showing the less likely her song is to be memorable.

And yeah, I know about Beyonce's video, but I heard the song long before I saw the video. I've never seen it all the way through, I prefer just hearing it.

So I thought, "I can do that" and started messing around with bass lines. I don't know if I did a good job of copying a sort of standard house bass line but I liked what I came up with. And I liked the drum sounds I put on top of it. I got a little carried away with the trombones but I'm experimenting with different sounds and exploring what Ableton has to offer.

And yes, the title "Jesse Beyond" is a take-off on Jesse J and Beyonce.

Listen to it and let me know what you think. I love that people read this blog. The majority of people reading it are in Russia! Why? I don't know but I love anybody who's reading this no matter where you live! Thank you all so much!

Peace out and catch you later...

ShankThr33 - It's In The Genes!

Copyright (c) 2013 Christopher Neal

A Bright and Shiny 110 Sunnyside Morning!

Recorded on GarageBand.

Instruments: (In Order Of Appearance)
                    Techno Kit
                    Techno Kit
                    Smoky Clav
                    Solo Star (GB Preset)
                    Classic Organ
                    Classical Acoustic (GB Loop)
                    Pop Kit
                    Pop Kit

Uploaded to SoundCloud March 14, 2013

Plays to date: 11 (8 in the US, 2 in Canada, 1 in Spain.)
"Favorites" to date: 1 in the US.

Part of the evolution of my career as an EDM producer.

There's really not much to say about this one. I still had no idea what I was doing. I had an idea about trying to find a groove in the song, and I did okay with this one but there are others where I've done much, much better. Even back then.

It's no joke that I listed both "Techno Kit" and "Pop Kit" twice. One of the drawbacks to GarageBand is that if you want to overwrite something, you have to literally erase the original clip you wrote. Ableton allows you to edit more selectively, adding and subtracting notes and beats, but not GarageBand. It's all or nothing. So if, like me, you have trouble figuring out how to play the snare, kick and hihat all at the same time, you have to do them on more than one track.

It's kind of a spare sound, which is something I have been trying to not do. I really want to learn how to produce that full wall-of-sound experience, but I was definitely not there yet.

You can listen to it here: https://soundcloud.com/c-l-neal/110-sunnyside-morning.

I named it "110 Sunnyside Morning" because I was trying to write something light and happy. And it is, compared to some of the other stuff I wrote around this time.

I hope you enjoy it!

Peace out and catch you later...

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