Dave G

Thanks for checking it out, YYZ (sorry I didn't notice before that you had replied to this thread). Actually getting a little radio airplay with this one, though it's in Mexico and Germany and on a few gay-oriented radio programs here in the States (by virtue of "Ryan's Last Drive," a song on the CD that deals with gay teen suicide). What the hey, with commercial radio airplay being largely a no-go area if you don't fit neatly into a popular genre and have a few hundred grand to blow on independent radio promoters, you get heard where you can!

It looks like the only Steinbergers out there anymore are the low-end "Spirit" models with wood bodies. If you want the REAL Steinberger with the entire bass made of the graphite blend, you'll have to track one down on eBay or such. I always liked the design of them and it would be a very practical bass for me at this point for live use in terms of the compact size and not having a headstock, but when I tried one of the original Steinbergers around fifteen years ago, I found the neck radius kind of uncomfortable...it was like wrapping my hand around a telephone pole.

QUOTE Hey Dave, I just checked out your music. I really enjoy it! Great writting, production, playing...all around good stuff. Doesn't really remind me of Rush but of this project I was part of in the early 90's. Check it out. Finally got a chance to check that out, LP (now that the holiday insanity is over!). Yep, I can see why the range and character of the vocals in the verses is kind of similar, isn't it? Really cool track, by the way...great groove going on and I really like the bass part. Good stuff!

QUOTE Force Ten - 4:12 - What's the "uhh.. uhh... uhh..." thing that Geddy throws in there? I don't know either, but it's awesome!!! You know, I don't think I've ever heard him throw that in when they've played the song live. Has anybody else? Btw, on the subject of trivia that most probably have no interest in, that cool, sparkling synth sound on "The Enemy Within" was a PPG Wave 2.2 run at high volume thru a big set of monitors and miked from twenty feet away (according to a magazine interview). The synthesizer in question was reportedly thrown in a dumpster when the band were cleaning out their warehouse a few years back, despite the fact that the synth is a collector's item that goes for thousands of dollars (on the rare occasions you can actually find one for sale). Like I said, useless trivia, LOL.

Thanks for dropping by the site, LP, and for the kind words. I'll check out the clips you posted tomorrow when I have the house to myself again and the TV sets are off (tranquility pretty much ends around here by 5 or 6pm, LOL!). You have a valid point, MehYam...just about everybody does start out sounding like someone else. We're not re-inventing the wheel as musicians and we need some kind of a jumping off point to get started, someone else whose work most closely approximates the kind of thing we envision ourselves doing. But Rush progressed beyond being Zep emulators over the course of their next few albums, and I think most would agree that by the '80s they had evolved into a band that was more than just the sum of its influences. There's nothing wrong with never moving on to that stage if one isn't trying to be a serious artist and just wants to have some fun playing music. There are times I wish I didn't have any ambitions beyond just playing and having fun myself, to be honest...we know the odds of achieving even modest success as an original artist aren't so good, and the spiritual cost of shooting for something like that and failing is high indeed. But, like gluttons for punishment, we keep hammering away, LOL.

I don't think I fully realized how much Rush's overall approach to song construction, arrangement...everything, really...had infected me until I released my first CD last year and had ample time to reflect on it and become objective. I had numerous people telling me that it almost sounded like the album Rush didn't release during the Power Windows/Hold Your Fire period, as if this was a good thing. To me, it was NOT so good. It meant I'd failed to really establish an identity for myself and had fallen into the trap so many "neo-progggers" fall into by emulating another band from prog's heyday. The CD is still selling so I guess some still enjoy it for what it is and that's cool, but I realized that's not what I really want to be doing. So I pretty much did what LP stated...distanced myself from Rush and most of the things I'd been listening to growing up and started listening to more contemporary things like techno/electronica and more modern rock. And I found that, because those genres were fairly new to me, when I tried to incorporate them into what I do, it came off sounding very different from any of the other techno or modern rock artists out there. You start mixing enough genres and varied influences, and eventually they start to meld together to the point that you don't really sound all that much like any one influence any longer (and hopefully out of that, eventually your own "sound" begins to emerge). Rush appeals to us because they did their own thing and created their own unique, idiosyncratic sound...and that's why a Rush soundalike band is never going to be as satisfying.

QUOTE I love the stuff. Was just giving you a hard time No worries, LP, I didn't take your post as being negative. Btw, I listened to your tracks too...nice job! Really liked the one with the female vocalist. As a side note, I just put up an updated mix of the song I posted yesterday. I should know by now that the first mix I do of anything is NEVER going to be the last. Did something different drum-wise with the 2nd verse and added some little fills and accents to spice things up a bit. I just have to be careful and not get too carried away with rhythmic weirdness...don't want to chase everybody off the dance floor when I start gigging this material. Ok, I've taken up more than enough space in this thread with my jabbering. Neeeeeext....

QUOTE Nice drum machine...lol! I use them all the time, and I'm a drummer!! Blasphemy! LOL, no, I know how it is...a lot of times, depending on the project, it's easier to just use a drum machine for something quick rather than go through recording an acoustic kit. I went for the more organic drum sound on my first CD, but I kind of got bored with that. Actually a lot of what I've been using lately in the drum tracks started out as "live" drum loops that were processed to the point that they sound very synthetic, something I've deliberately gone for this time out. It's kind of fun playing real bass over those tracks - you have a very "techno" sound, but because many of them started out as live drum performances, not everything is dead-square on the beat. Of course, having done this, I'm now going to have to find a drummer who uses V-Drums or the like if I want to approximate that synthetic vibe when I play this stuff live. Should be interesting, given that there probably isn't one within a 100-mile radius of here...

Here's a link to a song I just finished up. Other "reference" mixes from the new CD I hope to have completed by January '05 can be heard on my web site (the mixes are basically 95% there but may be subjected to a few more tweaks before I turn everything over for mastering). "Out of the Closet" (MP3) Project Vector Site - MP3 Audio Page Edited to change the link - just posted an updated mix and the link name had to change.

I know many audio sequencers have a more elaborate MIDI side than Pro Tools (I used Opcode Studio Vision prior to PT), but in all honesty, even as a keyboard player doing largely sample/synth based music, I don't really find myself needing anything more in the MIDI department than what PT does. I was looking at Digital Performer for a while too, but I kind of asked myself, "what do I really need that my current software doesn't do?" About the only major thing on my wish list is the ability to import and intelligently deal with Acid loop files. Well, that and maybe coming up with some kind of software authorization scheme (rather than insisting that PT hardware be present) so you can run Pro Tools on a laptop without having to lug around an M-Box or Digi 002 along with it just to enable the software to run.

I've been using Pro Tools for about five years now and have been considering switching to Sonar (and getting everything happening on one good, fast PC as opposed to the hybrid Mac/PC setup I'm now using). Would be very elegant having my audio sequencer plus Acid and my plethora of softsynths all running on a single computer. I'd just have to get over the hurdle of adjusting to yet another new audio sequencer...Pro Tools has spoiled me with its simple layout, and everything else just seems so convoluted by comparison now. I guess anything will start to feel like home once you've used it long enough, though.

In this day and age, many probably aren't even aware that Cubase actually started its life in the late '80s on the Atari ST platform before eventually being ported over to the Mac and PC. Ah, the brief but interesting heyday of the Atari ST as a hot MIDI sequencing platform. As far as I know, Cubase Audio Falcon, which exploited the built-in 8-track, 16-bit hard disk recording capability the Atari Falcon030 featured, released in 1993, was pretty much the end of the line for Cubase on the Atari platform.

Carvin 4-string I had custom made out of unfinished American Walnut. I got the active model but I don't use the onboard EQ at all. I basically just run into an ART Dual MP preamp and from there straight into Pro Tools. I have a fairly consistent chain of Waves plugins I've settled into to get the sound I want at this point. When the new CD is done and it's time to start doing some gigging in support of it, I've been thinking it would be cool to snag a 5-string Steinberger (going for that "hi-tech" look don't ya know, LOL...plus it would get in my way less while I'm playing keys). The original 5-string Steinbergers don't seem to be very easy to find, though. Ditto with the Trans-Trem models.