For some odd reason, my review of the Behringer Poly D (see here) has been getting a lot of hits recently. I decided I needed a new piece of music that only uses the Poly D. here it is :
The Poly D is a minimoog clone. Sort of. It has a few tricks up its sleeve, like letting you play more than one note at a time.
The bit of music features some of those things that differentiate the Poly D from the real Mini. For instance, it has three different “polyphonic” (actually paraphonic, but they can’t call it a Para-D 😉😎) sounds and uses both of the on-board choruses. i also did some percussion sounds, which I have rarely done with this synth, just as part of the demo. It is a bit muddy, but I think you can hear at least a few of the sounds…
About three weeks ago I posted a new video. I hated my voice on it, so I decided to do an all instrumental version. Well, I’ve been thinking about it and decided to rerecord the vocals. The results are more in tune (good!), but I am not sure if my voice is better…. Of course, being in tune helps a lot ;)
Lyrics are on video and also original post. Tech details on original post except the added organ is the Rev 2.
OK, a little info about the changes.
I practiced it a little, which I didn’t do before. Part of it is memorizing the words. I still held the lyrics in my hand (you can hear them rustling in a few places…), but I didn’t have to concentrate on the words as much. I also practiced hitting the right notes. Sounds obvious, but if it is brand new, you are reading the words, etc., well… I played around with interpretation, but when I recorded I found that if I didn’t put 100% into singing in tune, I was just as bad as the original version.
I also added a vocal harmony line on the chorus. It isn’t perfect, but I like it :)
I also added an organ part to the chorus the second and third time through, and another organ part just the third time – that makes the chorus grow each time. To me it makes the entire song less static.
One problem is that I didn’t spend a lot of time on the levels and mix, so there are a few mix issues with that fuller third chorus :( (Technical part – to avoid bad distortion, compressor and limiter change volume, which causes “pumping” in the volume.) But I noticed after I posted the video, so… There are a few places where the vocal was over-recorded, so a little distortion there. Overall, though, I think it is much better. (Singing in tune helps 😉 )
Anyway, I do hope this is better than the original vocal version and even better than the instrumental version.
I mentioned in my coffee share that I wrote and recorded a new song last week. So, here it is!
Well, in just a minute. First, I did a vocal version and hate my voice so I did an instrumental version as well. I left the lyrics up in the instrumental version, so you can see what should have been said. So I will post both before going and farther:
Version with my voice (note – this is a newer version, slightly better, but…):
I wrote and recorded a new song earlier this week. Don’t worry, I don’t sing! lol. I did write lyrics, but.. Anyway, I will post it first, so go ahead and click “play” and then I will talk about it. Oh, and there are Scotland photos!
Hello and Welcome! Come on in and I’ll get you a nice large mug of super strong dark roast, a cuppa tea or some other beverage. It is a little chilly out there, but I think almost as warm as it ever got yesterday. I just got back from a long walk, and have to report that it is still as windy as yesterday! But today will be relatively warm and sunny, a perfect early autumn day. I plan on spending every free moment outside, though it is too windy to kayak. Oh, where am I? Some of you may recognize the photo at the top as being from Cape Cod.
I drove down to Cape Cod on Wednesday night, as I often do. I worked Thursday and Friday, which I can do from here. Thursday was rainy and I didn’t feel well, so it was a wash. Friday I felt much better and the weather was nice, if cold and super windy, but my work day was pretty insane. I did get a chance to exercise after work and took a few long walks in my neighborhood, but I did not get away from the house.
As stated above, this was a typical work week. I was able to exercise a few times and got out for a couple of runs. I had massage on Wednesday. I walked the dogs often while in New Hampshire (only the cats are with me on Cape Cod). Typical week.
Last week I said I had a surprise. OK, I need a little background.
Some of you know I write and play music, but you may not know that in the first decade of the century I was deeply involved in composing “contemporary series music”, that is, modern classical. Back in 2015 I released a CD for my Hamlet Symphony. I had planned on putting out other music from this time period to close it out, but I never did.
Until now.
I just released a (download only) CD of piano music. It has two piano sonatas and 24 Preludes, one in each key. Yeah, that is 32 tracks and about 90 minutes of music, but since it isn’t a physical CD, it can be done. I don’t have links, but if you search Spotify or Amazon or other places… Yeah, I will try to get some good links for you.
After I put out the CD, I also put up a recent instrumental pop song, For Her Heartbreak, as a downloadable single. I felt that this was the best fit of my recent music with the classical piano music from a decade back, a good transition. Again, no links, but you can search Spotify or whatever to find it. Oh, if you didn’t see the video back in the winter, here it is again.
(Click here if you are interested but don’t see the video below)
I plan on making pages on the blog for these releases soon. And hopefully I’ll get good links without having to pay…
Anyway, that was my week. As I said, I have a need to get outside and soak in some sun and nature.
Thanks for stopping in! If you have a coffee share I will try to stop by for a virtual drink. Hope you have a great weekend!
On Friday I post a new song onto Youtube. This was a pop/rock tune, which might be good after posting several classical pieces in a row. A quick comment – in this song “Ariel” refers to the moon of Uranus (in a way), not a person of that name – just wanted to point that out since I do know some Ariels and this song is not about any of them. OK, here it is:
You may have noticed that with my new start/emphasis in music, I have been digging through old things I have written and recorded. Here is one I just listened to and want to bring up again. Yes, “again”: I have posted this twice before! I am going to combine those two posts into one here.
Real quick (I’ll go into depth later ;)), this is part of a song cycle about Acilleus that I planned on writing when I was doing “classical” music. It never happened, but I later did a “light-prog-rock” version. The song, “Brisies: That was Yesterday”, takes place just after Agamemnon, in the ultimate political slap down, takes the woman Brisies away from Achilleus by force. Achilleus knows he can’t fight the whole Greek army who he has sworn allegiance to, so he stands by and lets the Trojans kick some Greek butt. In this song he realizes that he is in love with the woman who started out as a spoil of war.
Back in 2007 I was working on a series of 24 Piano Preludes. As I finished each prelude I would often post it on a music forum. The Prelude in C# minor got a lot of attention, and several people said I should expand it and make a larger piece out of it. And so I did. But after that, I decided to continue and create an entire Piano Sonata.
This piano sonata is one of the best things I did back in my “classical” days. The 24 Preludes, when taken as a whole, and The Hamlet Symphony are the only other pieces that in the same league, though I do like my “classical” sonata in g minor.
Of the Sonata in C# minor, the 3rd movement, the Scherzo, is a favorite. Compositionally it isn’t as good as the other movements, but it is a heck of a lot more fun – Scherzo means “little joke”, and this was a joke all around.
Back in July of 2017 I posted a cover of The House of the Rising Sun on Youtube. My vocals were awful, so I redid it as an instrumental and posted that. This second video did OK (for me) but soon drop off the radar as most of my videos do.
Last year I started to see some views on this video. Not a lot, but they trickled in. And then I started see at least one a day, and sometimes four or five. And then I started seeing four or five, and occasional a dozen! By the end of 2021 I was averaging about 10 views a day of this video. I received more views of this the last 90 days of 2021 than all other videos combined.
But the numbers kept growing!
In the last 48 hours I have had almost 120 views of this video.
Hello and Welcome! Come on in (close the door quickly!) and I’ll get you a nice large mug of steaming dark roast, a piping cuppa tea or a (very) hot cocoa. By my adjectives you may understand that it is a wee bit chilly out there. I think it was -8 F/ -22 C when I got up this morning. But don’t worry, it has warmed up significantly! Yep it is now a balmy -1F/ -18 C! OK, it is early and it might hit 22 F/-5.5 C later in the day. So, yeah, come on in and warm up a little. Oh, where are we? Some of you may recognize the photo at the top as being from New Hampshire.
I drove back to New Hampshire Saturday evening, cutting my trip to Cape Cod a little shorter than usual. I had a few things to do Sunday, so…. We had snow on Sunday night into Monday, but it rained all Monday morning. Yuck. Several inches of slush. It was wet and nasty to clean up, and then it all froze. So, yeah, it’s pretty icy out there.
My wife took the dogs up to Maine for the week, but I still did a few walks a day on my own. That being said, I didn’t get as much exercise as I would have liked. I had an appointment Tuesday morning. Work was super busy. The cats needed a lot of cuddle and play time.
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