New original - "It's About Time"

[Prime Mover and Shaker]

Between the MOTH project and just plain taking some time off, it's been well over a year since I've finished recording any new Jay Psi material.

 

This one will probably replace the first track on the debut album (which is going to come out one of these years, really!).

 

For those of you unfamiliar with my work, and working style.... I've been posting rough demos for years, gathering folks' feedback in the hopes of better polishing these songs when the time comes to record the real deal. I'll be playing bass and keys on most songs, that's probably it.

 

I will neither be singing nor playing guitar on the final product; what you hear here is merely an attempt at these trades in order to give someone who knows what they are doing an idea of what I'm thinking.

 

So, click below for "It's About Time", and let me know what you think of the composition.

 

Thanks! http://rushmessageboard.com/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.png

 

http://jaypsi.com/Featured_Song.html

 

 

 

Feel free to poke around the site & check out the other demos as well.

[stoopid]

Welcome back Jer. ;)

 

Hard to find any fault here, and anything needing adjustment to these ears is entirely performance/production related.

 

It was nice to hear some of your ideas given the full treatment in MOTH. You should keep pushing these 'demos' out there in hopes of a collaborative effort to get them done, rather than wait for an imaginary band to appear to record them. It would be a shame to have all that material and no polished versions to show for it. Just my $0.02

[Del_Duio]

Pretty cool, man!

Sounds like a cross between Ace Frehley and Les Claypool voice-wise, that's great.

 

Composition-wise I like it. The beginning bits reminded me of how they put the little bits of Cygnus X-I in the middle of Hemispheres.

 

The recording is really clear too, how are you recording this stuff?

[JARG]

I'm always down to add my talents such as they are to any step in the process, Jer.

[Prime Mover and Shaker]

You guys rock! ...and I'm sure I'll be taking you up on that offer, John (and your previous offers as well, Kevin). :)

[Prime Mover and Shaker]

Pretty cool, man!

Sounds like a cross between Ace Frehley and Les Claypool voice-wise, that's great.

 

Composition-wise I like it. The beginning bits reminded me of how they put the little bits of Cygnus X-I in the middle of Hemispheres.

 

The recording is really clear too, how are you recording this stuff?

 

 

For drums, I use an old version of Reason to create the drum track (using it's Redrum drum builder). It's not a patch accessible by Cakewalk; it's a separate executable. Once I'm satisfied with the drum track, I export it as a stereo .wav file onto my hard drive.

 

I then open up Cakewalk (Home Studio 2 - yeah, old as shit, but it works!) and import the drum .wav as a dumb file. That is, I no longer have any compositional control over the drum track; I'm committed to what I came up with in Reason, unless I decide to go back to Reason and make changes. This can be kind of a pain in the ass. But I don't tend to make such changes all that often.

 

I run the guitar into a Line 6 Guitar POD; similarly, I run the bass into a Line 6 Bass POD. The analog outputs of both pods (1/4") are run to a patch bay.

 

I run the analog output (1/4") of my keyboard to the patch bay as well.

 

The vocal mic goes into a mixing board that I use solely for amplification purposes. I then run its output (1/4") to the patch bay.

 

I do have a Dr. Rythm drum machine that runs stereo out 1/4" to the patch bay as well, but I only use it to facilitate tempo changes mid-song, as Reason can't really do this (or at least the version I have can't).

 

My computer (running XP) has an EMU card that has two analog 1/4" inputs. I have routed these inputs to the patch bay as well.

 

So, by using a single 1/4" cable on the patch bay, I can select between guitar, bass, keyboard, or vocal input to the computer. Moving one more 1/4" patch cable allows the drum machine's stereo signal to do the same.

 

I then add vocal processing (usually just some reverb) and often a bit of flange to the bass in Cakewalk. Then I'm ready to mix it all down to a .wav, which I eventually convert to an .mp3 for website purposes.

 

All of this technology is 10 years old or more. I do eventually want to upgrade (maybe an iMac & Garage Band), so that I can have more control over the drums, but this setup works for now.

Edited September 22, 2015 by Prime Mover and Shaker

[stoopid]

You don't need a Mac to work on music. Plenty of awesome software for the PC/Windows. And, frankly, everything on the Mac platform is overpriced (software and actual computers).

 

My tools include Superior Drummer 2, Amplitube 3, and Sonar x3. Along with a bunch of various plugins. Cost of entry is steep if you're doing everything from the ground up. I did it in stages so I was able to spread out that cost over 2-3 years.

Edited September 22, 2015 by stoopid

[Prime Mover and Shaker]

What I'm wondering, though... and I've been into Guitar Center to verify.... I'm getting near the conclusion that Garage Band will do everything I want it to do. So, maybe an iMac with no additional software, given that Garge Band is included (plus the $150 interface card for my analog hardware) is a more palatable option than building up such a suite of software?

[stoopid]

What I'm wondering, though... and I've been into Guitar Center to verify.... I'm getting near the conclusion that Garage Band will do everything I want it to do. So, maybe an iMac with no additional software, given that Garge Band is included (plus the $150 interface card for my analog hardware) is a more palatable option than building up such a suite of software?

 

All DAWs have plugins built in, that effective "do everything I want" (reverb, delay, pan, EQ, etc). The more expensive DAWs even come with virtual instruments.

 

Have you heard of Reaper? It's very cheap and works fine for most people, and there's a huge library of free plugins available online and with the DAW.

 

Your insistence that a Mac is somehow superior or that it offers something of a perfect solution concerns me. Where did you read/learn this?

[JARG]

I think it might be a stretch to say that he's insisting on a Mac. It seems like he's considering it and wants to hear people's take.

[JARG]

My setup is more streamlined than Jer's.

 

My DAW is Guitar Tracks (a Cakewalk product), and I plug my guitar in a usb interface (UA-1G which is another Cakewalk product). So my signal path is guitar -> UA-1G -> computer. Signal processing (amp/effect emulation) is done via Amplitube which runs as a plug in in the DAW. Virtual drums are Addictive Drums. The other virtual instruments came bundled with Guitar Tracks.

 

I love the ease of that setup, but I miss having real amps and cabinets...but I don't have deep enough pockets to justify them.

[stoopid]

I think it might be a stretch to say that he's insisting on a Mac. It seems like he's considering it and wants to hear people's take.

 

And the part I missed about Garage Band being included. Depending on any inherent limitations, that could absorb much of the apple tax.

[Prime Mover and Shaker]

Yeah, I'm not sold on a Mac, for sure. It just seemed like an attractive option, with it all being in one package.

[Fridge]

I use Mixcraft as I was after a product that was simiar to Garageband but was suitable for Windows....it's excellent value for money and can do everything I ask....all i normally use is my old zoom gt9tt as a usb interface..in bypass mode I can route anything through it inclusing vox..I occasionally use a bahringer usb interface as well....most of my stuff is recorded direct to mixcraft programme as it allows for only 3ms latency...I will occasionally use Audacity then export to mixcraft.

 

Try it before you buy, IMO it's a steal.