Now seems like an appropriate time to blog, as for one, I’m waiting for my neighbor to finish mowing his lawn so I can work on some vocal tracks, and two, I haven’t blogged in months.

I was so excited about my session today! I had the relaxant - Oban 14, and the lubricant - lemon juice all ready to go (see above).

Way to set me back with your stupid lawnmower.

I decided several days ago that I’m going to try and fulfill a near life-long dream of mine, which is submitting to and winning the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Sure, I’m a long shot, but I still feel as of I have some good music in me before the deadline is up.

Hell, just to submit would be an honor in itself.

I am however having trouble picking a category to submit to, e.g., rock, folk, etc. I have it narrowed down to those two categories, but I feel as if I need some input from my friends and listeners.

Any input at all would be greatly appreciated.

That’s all for now. Enjoy this lovely 80 degree April day.

DJ

With the addition of this sign, I finally made the name of my studio official a couple of weeks ago. I think it’s a rather nice compliment to the room.

On Friday, I uploaded a new song called “Let Me Love You Like This” to ReverbNation. I’ve gotten more than 200 plays since the upload and the feedback has been 100% positive.

Given that the song is very sappy, I’m surprised at that.

Anyway, it was a generally easy track to get started, but it remains unfinished. I did 9 takes on the base acoustic track and another take of fingerpicked guitar to lay atop the second half of the song. As a producer of my own music, I’m trying to figure out where to go from here. I plan on adding keyboard and glockenspiel, but other than that I have no true direction.

I suppose I’ll figure it out.

Thanks for all of the plays, folks.

Sleep tight.

DJ

Earlier today, UPS delivered a Novation Launchpad which I won on an eBay auction a few days earlier. The Launchpad is a MIDI controller for use with Ableton Live - a sampling and looping program made for making music.

I’ve wanted to get into sampling or at least multi-sampling acoustic instruments for the past year or so. With this, I’ve finally made it a reality and am excited to make music with it.

Only problem is, it’s a complete bitch.

Right. It’s impossible to figure out this first day. I realize that I need to give it some quality time, but tonight, I fall asleep very frustrated.

I hope to figure it out soon and make some cool new music with it - including an interesting mix of the song “Down” I wrote many years ago.

Until then, sleep well and rise with a yawn, followed by a smile.

Nighty night,

DJ

I’ve had a couple people ask me recently what steps I go through in recording a song. I figured my newest song, “Here for The Night.” was a good one to reference, as the edit view is pictured below.

I wrote the song in a fairly short sitting, and it is nearly five minutes long. The song is played in the key of E and is in a 6/8 time signature.  

As with all of my recordings, I begin with recording an acoustic guitar through a dry track with two Behringer pencil condenser microphones set up in a straight stereo configuration. This is routed through an M-Audio preamp, and then to Pro Tools for processing and editing.

Next, I recorded some shaker, panned to the right in the first measure of the second verse, followed by a tambourine panned hard left four measures later. I recorded both of these through an AKG Perception 820 Tube microphone - my main vocal mic.

Next came the harmonica - also into the AKG. It was not panned. I then played two layers of electric guitar with a Gibson Chet Atkins SST through a Vox AC30, miked again by the AKG. The signal was effected by tremolo and long delay before it hit the preamp.

For the last verse and fade out of the song, I played a mandolin, again through the Behringer set-up, but this time with the microphones in an x/y (criss-cross) configuration.

Lastly, I recorded lead vocals, vocal doubles, and three layers of harmonies through the AKG.

As far as mixing goes, each song is it’s own. Every track is EQ’d by at least a EQ3 7-Band EQ. Each track also has a D3 Compressor/limiter as well, set appropriately. I also used various Waves compressors on the harmonies - in addition to D-Verb and Waves TrueVerb as reverb plug-ins.

The lead vocal was arranged in conjunction with two auxiliary tracks, loaded up with various reverbs and delays. All in all though, the vocals didn’t undergo much processing other than the reverb.

The last process I underwent was fading each individual track out to end the song. I did a poor job of this and it will have to be fixed by a professional mixing engineer. I’m excited to finish these recordings so I can take it to be mixed by someone that knows what they’re doing.

It should be a fun and educational process for me.  

Thanks for spending a few minutes to read tonight.

Sleep tight.

DJ

http://www.reverbnation.com/danieljereb?profile_view_source=header_icon_nav 

A couple of days ago, I posted a rough cut of an original song called “Here For The Night.”

After listening to the upload today, I realized how displeased I was with it. I spent very little time on it, and am disappointed with myself for putting out something so half-assed.

Tonight, I decided to re-upload a remixed version (pictured above) with a few layers of vocal harmonies. It still needs mixed and mastered by a professional, but it’s exponentially better than the first version I posted.

Take a listen if you’d like: Reverbnation.com/danieljereb

Thanks for reading and good night,

DJ

Earlier tonight, my father asked me why I wasn’t making music anymore. I responded with a two-tiered answer. First off, I have no desire to, and secondly, my software program Pro Tools 9 isn’t working anymore.

The kind person in him immediately asked, “What can I do?” I told him how there was an incompatibility issue with Mac OS X and Pro Tools 9, and he immediately offered to purchase the upgrade for me as my Christmas present - as that was the only solution to my problem.

How sweet is that? I cannot thank him enough. Not only do I have the ability to create music at my disposal again, I also have my hobby back, and in the end, that’s all it truly is.

Getting it installed and setup is a different story.

After a lengthly install process, I cannot seem to figure out how to rout my preamp through Pro Tools 10. I suppose it’s time for another customer service call in the AM.

In the end though, I am extremely thankful of the kind gesture my father didn’t hesitate to put forward.

So, on a personal note, thank you dad for a great present this Christmas.

I am grateful. I hope you are too for whatever it is that makes your life good or great.

G’night.

DJ

I haven’t blogged in two months. Why start again now you might ask? I don’t know. Lack of physical and/or mental stimulation could be a factor. Maybe it’s a sheer renewal in desire or provocation, but probably not.

Definitely not.

Who knows?

I have been depressed lately. I haven’t written any new songs, nor have I even touched a guitar in over a month. Why? I’m not sure. All I do know is that I’ve had no desire to do so.

On the contrary, I have been practicing a bit of hand percussion over the past few weeks. I even purchased a Remo 14” djembe and a Zildjian 15” A Custom crash (pictured above) a few weeks ago. I also purchased Waves Mercury Version 9 and Ableton Live 8 Suite as software components. The former of which is useless to me right now, as I’m having a huge problem in the studio at the moment, as my main music production software program, Pro Tools 9, will not operate without flashing an error within seconds of record or playback. This is intolerable, as I paid good money for the program and it’s supposedly the best the world has to offer. I’ve searched the Internet for fixes, but it seems that many people are experiencing the same problem, and Avid, the manufacturer, has yet to provide their own fix.

Those of you “in the know” may ask, “Why not just use Ableton?” which is a fair question, but the answer is, I don’t have time to learn another DAW from scratch. Yes, I consciously purchased Ableton, but with the idea of routing it through Pro Tools for editing. Not for a standalone DAW.

I will call Avid customer support tomorrow morning and see where it gets me.

Unless that gets me somewhere, my hobby of making music is on hiatus. This is especially bad, because I’ve had more than a few people take serious interest into my songs recently.

At the very least, I’m probably going to lose a lot of music that I worked very hard on.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do at this point. I don’t know if I’m going to pursue this with Pro Tools, or even at all with another DAW. I really have no motivation to finish this record, and I especially don’t want to start from scratch.

Oh well, life goes on.

Sleep well tonight and prosper in the morning.

DJ

Earlier this week, I put a track called “Hey Marie” up on my ReverbNation site. I am decently satisfied with the results seeing as I mixed it myself (usually an epic fail) and the fact that it has yet to be mastered.

What I am truly satisfied and even enthralled about are my acoustic guitar tones. Amazingly, they sound as crisp, clean, and warm as any I’ve ever heard. What is the secret you may ask? A $50 pair of Behringer C-2 condenser mics pictured above. I realize that I’m playing a Taylor and that’s amazing in its own right, but actually capturing that world-class tone is another thing. More than anything, I wanted a stereo pair of Neumann or Mojave condensers, but at $1,600/pair, I just couldn’t see any justification. As a result, I gave the Behringers a chance because of good online reviews, and man, they didn’t disappoint.

On a side note, I’d like to thank everyone that took the time to listen to my track on ReverbNation. My local rank is up to ten in only three days. Whether you liked it or not, I can see all of the plays and I couldn’t appreciate it more, so thanks again.

I’ve been working on some new songs in the past few days, so new material is on its way. As for what’s already written and destined for the album, I’ve been tracking those as well.

Thanks again for all of your support.

Sleep tight.

DJ

I spent a few hours staring at this setup tonight, again battling a scratchy voice.

I suppose all the scotch I enjoyed tonight didn’t help the cause.

I’ve been trying lately to lay down a master vocal for “Starlight” so I can ultimately finish the song. Simplicity is the theme of this song, as it was built from the ground up to be a single guitar track and a solitary vocal.

I’m hoping to find that perfect vocal tomorrow.

Bring on the Mucinex.

Earlier today, I won a Gibson Chet Atkins SST via eBay auction. This has long been a dream guitar of mine, so I treated myself to it for my upcoming birthday.

Treating myself to something for my birthday is something I’ve never done, so it felt good and the anticipation of receiving it is absolutely killing me.

Thanks for reading everyone. Have a great weekend and stay safe.

DJ

As per my friend Ashley’s request, I’ll get back to blogging on a more regular basis again.

S/O to Ashley G. Thanks for always motivating me, no matter what it is in life.

Last week I wrote a new song called “Starlight.” I’ve been putting off tracking it though, because it’s mostly finger picked. Anyone who has worked in a studio knows a finger picked song usually requires a ton of takes.

However, last night I decided to give it a go after I was loosened up from a few glasses of scotch. Unbelievably, I played it perfectly on the second take and will keep all but the vocals as a master track, as I had a scratchy voice last night.

I am happy with the results of this song, as it’s getting back to my roots of “whisper rock,” a la Elliott Smith and Joshua Radin - two of my idols and biggest musical influences.

I may post this song very soon, as it’s not a biggie mixing or production wise. I’ve decided to play only a single guitar track with minimal or maybe even no background vocals at all. Should be an easy enough task, even for a novice like me.

I’ll keep everyone updated on the progress of that, as I should have it finished very soon.

Thanks for reading and keep cool y’all.

DJ

enigmariaaa:

danijay1:

It feels like its been forever since I last blogged - I actually have no sense of reflection on when I last did.

My hippocampus may be rotting due to alcohol abuse, thus disengaging my memory somewhere between short and long term.

Tonight I laid down some guitar and percussion tracks on “Hey Marie.” I tracked this song a few weeks ago, but did so on nearly six-month-old guitar strings, which is unacceptable for my record, so I redid it and the results were pleasing.

My Taylor acoustic sounds as gorgeous as ever.

Tomorrow I’ll re-track the piano part for “Love You Anymore” with Joe Hill, who is always a pleasure to work with.

While I’m speaking of this song, I must say that I’m very excited to have found a wonderful and very talented young singer to track the female part of the song. Hopefully I can finish recording most of the instruments on this song by mid-August and have her vocals finished and mixed by the end of the month.

So, that’s where I’m at right now. Not very far along, but striving to get these tracks laid down.

Have a good night everyone.

DJ

Tone it down on the alcohol my friend. You need to be alive for the completion of your amazing album.

I don’t know about the amazing part, but I definitely need to tone it down.

It feels like its been forever since I last blogged - I actually have no sense of reflection on when I last did.

My hippocampus may be rotting due to alcohol abuse, thus disengaging my memory somewhere between short and long term.

Tonight I laid down some guitar and percussion tracks on “Hey Marie.” I tracked this song a few weeks ago, but did so on nearly six-month-old guitar strings, which is unacceptable for my record, so I redid it and the results were pleasing.

My Taylor acoustic sounds as gorgeous as ever.

Tomorrow I’ll re-track the piano part for “Love You Anymore” with Joe Hill, who is always a pleasure to work with.

While I’m speaking of this song, I must say that I’m very excited to have found a wonderful and very talented young singer to track the female part of the song. Hopefully I can finish recording most of the instruments on this song by mid-August and have her vocals finished and mixed by the end of the month.

So, that’s where I’m at right now. Not very far along, but striving to get these tracks laid down.

Have a good night everyone.

DJ

Here it is - the last piece to my studio. An AKG Perception 820 tube condenser mic. After testing it out tonight, I believe I made the right choice.

I benchmarked it against a Neumann M 147 - the best vocal mic I’ve ever used. At $2,900 though, I believe the AKG was the smart buy at nearly 1/3 the cost.

I can’t wait to hear the warm, thick, cutting vocals this will leave on any and every track.

Boom!

DJ

My lil’ stinky knows how to be quiet as a mouse when I’m recording. Such a good girl!

Putting cockiness aside and a smidgen of confidence in front of me, I believe in full faith that I can make, with the help of a few others, an album with world-class tones right here in my home studio.  This is a bold statement to make considering the limited equipment I’m working with.  

So what is all this equipment you see in so many boring and subtly repetitive photographs?  

Without further ado, my list is currently as follows:

Instruments:

• Taylor 314ce Acoustic
• Gibson Les Paul Studio
• Morgan Monroe Rocky Top Mandolin
• Yamaha Metallophone
• Hohner Special 20 Harmonicas

Synthesizers:

• Roland XP-50
• Casio Privia PX-110 (MIDI Controller)

Recording Hardware:

• Apple Macbook Pro
• AKG Perception 820 tube condenser microphone (Main vocal mic)
• AKG Perception 400 condenser microphone
• (4) Behringer C2 studio condenser microphones 
• CAD GXL 1200 condenser microphone
• M-Audio Fast Track Ultra pre-amplifier

Recording Software:

• Avid Pro Tools 9

Plugins:

• Massey Demos
• Antares Vocal Express

Miscellaneous:

• Vox AC 30
• Audio Technica, AKG, and Sennheiser studio headphones
• Meinl cajon
• Various effects pedals and percussion instruments

As Porky Pig would say, “That’s all folks!”  Thanks for reading today and have a nice weekend.

DJ