Room 34

QUOTE (Snowman @ Oct 16 2008, 12:25 PM) This sounds awesome! Which synths do you use? Thanks... actually, believe it or not all of the keyboard sounds on the recording (and the drums too) are either built-in or add-on software instruments in GarageBand. The "electronica/remix" type drum sounds come from the Remix Tools expansion pack, and the Mellotron sounds are the (absolutely awesome) GForce M-Tron software instrument (worth the $80 for a Mellotron lover like me). All of the other drums and keys (the analog synth, electric piano, Hammond-style organ, etc.) are just built-in parts of Garage Band. I use a little 2-octave USB MIDI controller keyboard to run those. The only "real" instruments you hear on this album are the acoustic and electric guitars and the bass. I have a Washburn acoustic, a Fender Strat and a Fender 5-string Jazz Bass. I also play saxophone and clarinet, but those aren't used on this album. *EDIT* I should clarify though that although these are built-in GarageBand software instruments, it IS actually me PLAYING them... there's only one thing on the album that's an "Apple Loop" -- the blues slide guitar bits at the beginning (and again at one spot in the middle) of "Trophallaxis."

Hi all! Just wanted to let you know about my latest recording project, available now streaming on my website and as a FREE download. (The only thing it costs is your email address, but I promise, no spam.) The album is called The Bee LP! and was inspired by a picture of a bee my 5-year-old son drew this summer: http://room34.com/wp-content/uploads/bee_cover-200x200.jpg What does it sound like? Well you can listen to the whole thing right on my site, but to give a brief description, it's instrumental, a hybrid of electronica and rock. Some tracks are intense, some are mellow and ambient. Check it out! http://room34.com/music/bee Thanks!

I've seen Yes live 5 times since 1997 and they're always great. You're in for a real treat! (Sadly, on the "Ladder" tour Jon Anderson had the flu when they came to Minneapolis, and they had to cut a few numbers, including "Awaken" which I REALLY wanted to hear...) My next show is going to be Rush in May, and a former coworker got tickets for us to see Return to Forever in June, which should be good too. Those are my definite concerts coming up in the near future.

Margaritas on the rocks, with my standard recipe. Very simple, very good, and very STRONG... Put 10-15 ice cubes in the shaker. Pour in equal parts (generally 1/2 cup each, per person!) of the following: * Tequila (Cuervo Gold or Sauza Gold... tonight it's Sauza) * Triple Sec (or if you've got money to burn, Grand Marnier) * Lime Juice (fresh-squeezed is ideal; Realime will do) Shake the hell out of it and pour into an ice-filled glass. Ideally the rim would be salted, but who cares... it's what's inside that counts!

Heh, I was going to come in here and vote for the ASOH "Rhythm Method" but then I saw I already voted over a year ago, for "O Baterista." Well, that probably is the one I enjoy the most overall, but ASOH was my intro to Rush so I'll always have a soft spot for it.

Well the month is almost half over, but it's not too late to start! RPM Challenge I just finished up my album today. I'm going to take a few days off and then I may actually consider submitting a SECOND one just for fun, if I can pull it off (AND get some sleep AND retain my sanity). Here's a page I set up for my album (including full streaming MP3 audio of all of the tracks): Room 34 - Unnatural Disasters

I was using Pro Tools LE (with the Digidesign Mbox interface) for several years, but I found a lot of things about Pro Tools unnecessarily cumbersome (such as setting up a click track, which SHOULD be the easiest thing in the world), and then I discovered the wonders of GarageBand. GB does lack some of the features of PT (such as actual waveform editing), but it more than makes up for it with the wealth of great built-in MIDI instruments (that actually sound GOOD, especially the drum kits, piano, electric piano, clavinet and organ sounds), and great effects for live instruments. I switched to GB completely back in February and I haven't looked back. I don't think there's ANYTHING that would make me use Pro Tools again instead of GarageBand. You can hear my most recent GarageBand recordings here: http://room34/com/music/divzero It's not that PT can't do these things; it can do them all and more, but it's not as easy to use, and it requires a bunch of expensive add-ons, where all of this good stuff is built into GB. Also, since Pro Tools breaks some of the normal hardware interface rules to reduce lag, it also doesn't play well with the OS, and I find every time there's a new version of Mac OS X, the current version of Pro Tools never works in it, and they want you to pay $89 for the upgrade, just to get a version that works with the current OS! Phooey. Who needs it?!

Sorry, Geddy, but... ...ALL of them???

I used to have a video tape of the video for Duran Duran's "The Reflex" taped seven times in a row, back-to-back. I spent the entire summer of 1984 either playing Atari or watching MTV nonstop for hours on end, with the VCR on record and paused, waiting for that video to come on, so I could record it yet another time on the tape. Yeah, I suppose I was a bit OCD. A year later, I watched "Midnight Madness" (taped off HBO) every day when I got home from school, through my entire year of 6th grade.

Yes, the Jazz is cool, very easy to play and nice range of sounds from the deep punchy mid pickup to the "nasal" sounding bridge pickup. I have always loved the Jazz Bass, and don't even regret selling my Music Man in exchange for a MIM Jazz! (There's some slight buzz with the MIM's cheaper pickups, but the Jazz just "feels" right, has more personality, and weighs about half as much!!!)

I can't speak for the Ibanez, but there's no way I'd touch a Squier bass with a 10-foot pole. Get a MIM (Mexican-made) Fender Jazz. I just "downscaled" -- I sold my underused Music Man bass and used the proceeds to buy a MIM Fender Jazz 5-string AND a MIM Fender Stratocaster. The leap in quality between the (Chinese-made) Squier instruments and the Mexican Fenders is huge, much more than the price difference would suggest. I can definitely tell these instruments are not of the quality of my old bass. The bass pickups have more buzz, and the guitar is kind of hard to get in tune (but it usually stays in tune pretty well, once it IS in tune, even with heavy tremolo use). Anyway... that's my suggestion. Mexican-made Fenders.

Try something from one of the early albums... "Bastille Day" is a good one. Or maybe "Fly by Night" since it actually still gets some radio airplay.

I did not like the acoustic set on the R30 DVD. I think "unplugged" is a worn-out gimmick, and Rush is wise to stay away from it now!

My wife has been telling me the same things. I am definitely looking forward to what's ahead! We're also watching each of the films as I finish the books, which has been fun. My wife was determined to finish reading all 7 books before the end of summer, so when her first class met she could ask them what they did over the summer and she was going to say she'd read all of the Harry Potter books. This resulted in her staying up until 1 AM the night before her first class, cramming in the last 500 pages of Deathly Hallows!

Hey, nice stuff... very cool sounds and well-done!

I resisted the Harry Potter phenomenon for as long as I could... other than the Bertie Botts jelly beans they started selling a few years ago. I HAD to buy some to subject my unwitting mom to the "vomit" flavor. (Yeah, I was 29 at the time. What's wrong with that???) Anyway... earlier this summer my wife borrowed the first three Harry Potter books from her mom and started reading them, and she just tore through them. Well, the rest of the world might not exert enough pressure on me, but if my wife was THIS into the books, there must be SOMETHING about them, so I decided at long last to read them. I've been reading them on my daily commute for the past 5 weeks now, finishing each volume (the shorter ones so far, at least) in about 2 weeks. For me that's a big deal, because I'm a pokey reader and I only have about 40 minutes a day to devote to them! I've really been enjoying them, and feeling like a chump for waiting so long! I've encountered a few spoilers, of course, including this t-shirt I unwittingly read last week... http://www.threadless.com/product/844/Spoilt Oh well... yeah, if I've waited this long I deserve it. And Rosebud's a sled. Thanks. Anyway... has anyone else held out on Harry Potter or another "must read" series like I have?

QUOTE (Lerxst2112 @ Sep 17 2007, 04:51 PM) LISTEN! I think that goes along with the shriek in "Cygnus X-1". Random high-pitched screeches are not really singing. Whereas, the vocal line in "Freewill" really IS singing and it's sustained for several measures. Then again, there's plenty of early stuff that's really high throughout, like "Anthem."

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I don't think that manic wail at the end of "Cygnus X-1" should really count.

I gave it 5 stars; it's definitely my favorite Rush album of all.

The section in "Freewill" right after the guitar solo/instrumental section is definitely the highest part in any song that he'll still dare to sing in the original key (and he NAILED IT at the St. Paul show last week!) but I'd guess that there's stuff from the earlier albums that must have been higher -- at least, higher overall. I notice that when they play "2112" these days they do it in a different key. I also noticed they are playing "Circumstances" in a lower key on this tour -- I could tell the moment I heard it, of course, but I also noticed that Geddy was playing his red bass and Alex was playing his black guitar... telltale signs that they're playing in a lowered key. But again, I think the impetus for playing in a lower key is that OVERALL the song's key is too high for him to sing in at a sustained level. It's one thing to belt out 4 measures really high (as in "Freewill") but if he had to sing an entire song in that range, or even slightly lower, it would be too much for him.

The bass parts definitely get considerably more complicated from A Farewell to Kings onward, so if you're looking for an easy place to start, try something from 2112 or earlier. I enjoyed playing parts of "The Necromancer" a lot when I was first learning the bass. Some of the suggestions others have mentioned have me wondering... are you really bass players? If you're going to pick any Rush song as an easy bass part, would it really be THAT? Case in point: "Animate." It may sound like a fairly easy bass part, but Geddy's idiosyncratic finger strumming technique is not easy to master, and it's really the key to the bass part in that song. Another one... "Tom Sawyer"? Well yeah I suppose if you can't tell the difference between Taurus pedals and a bass guitar, and you're only paying attention to the parts of the song that feature lots of keyboards, then yeah it's easy! But the stuff he's doing on the bass under the guitar solo is NOT. It's not the toughest stuff around, but with the position shifts it requires, it's a recipe for hand cramps. Might as well throw "Natural Science" in there while you're at it! I'm thinking specifically of the "computerized clinics for superior cynics" part, which was part of a Rush medley a band I was in used to do, and that part just about killed me every time. It's not THAT fast, but it's such a driving sound and the fingerings are just awkward enough that I could barely keep up and I ALWAYS got a cramp. Luckily it was right before we finished up with the final portion of "Bastille Day." Now THERE's an easy one!

QUOTE (owlswing @ Sep 6 2007, 07:22 PM) I'd have to go with the missing - Better Off Dead. " I want my two dollars" Right off!

On the list I'd say The Breakfast Club, but since you offered "Other"... well, I have two big favorites that are missing: Sixteen Candles and Better Off Dead!

I love Fletch... I even named my kid Fletcher! (No kidding.) Not a big fan of Fletch Lives, although it did have its moments.