After completing “Blah Blah Blah” on the Nintendo DSi, I played the demo songs that came with the game and became curious how they accomplished some of the effects I heard. I discovered a feature of the song sequencer where you can mute different instruments as each pattern plays, instead of having to make separate patterns. That led me to experimenting with that feature, which led to working on another song. The final result is “Let Me Put My Stylus on Your Touchscreen,” now uploaded to the site. I also worked a little with one section of the synthesizer editing controls that I learned about, using that to add additional variety to the patterns.

Now I’m focusing on my next regular song. I had a request for something acoustic at a point when I was in a mellow mood, and that resulted in me coming up with some folkish/balladish music I can loop. I’m working on the lyrics, and once those are done, I need to fine tune the music before it’ll be ready to record. Knowing how these processes usually go, it might be another week or two before that’s done. And that usually means I’ll fill time with some more electronica.

My previous post mentioned the Korg DS-10 Plus software for the Nintendo DSi. This past week I experimented to see what I could create using the features I understood already. I was surprised at the complexity I could achieve. The program doesn’t do looping per se, but you can record “patterns,” then arrange them in a sequencer (basically a timeline) to build a complete song. In a couple hours I finished my first attempt, which I’ve called “Blah Blah Blah” and posted on the site. It consists of 11 patterns that I mixed and matched, and there’s a section after the drum break where I’m playing live over the patterns using a touchpad feature similar to the Korg Kaossilator. I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface and am looking forward to pushing this “game” to the limit.

As an administrative sidebar, I’ll note that I received my official copyright certificate for the Groove Expedition logo in the mail this past week. That took about six months less time than I expected, and I’m glad to find out there weren’t any conflicts with existing art.

I’ve been busier than usual lately, and using any down time to recover, so there hasn’t been much musical progress. I have, however, increased my instrument arsenal.

One weapon is the Microkorg XL synthesizer. It’s small – 37 mini-keys – but that’s perfect for me. I don’t have a ton of space to accomodate a full-size keyboard, these smaller units are less expensive, I’ll mostly be using one hand to do background sounds or leads, and it’s portable. Fewer keys doesn’t mean smaller range, because you can increase or decrease the pitch up to 3 octaves. It also has a vocoder, meaning you can speak or sing into a mic and have the synthesizer alter your voice, but I’m not sure how much use I’ll get out of that other than goofing around at home.

I have two reasons for getting the Microkorg. The first is that I want to add background sounds to my rock songs. It’ll take some experimenting for me to determine exactly what that means. My passion is for the guitar, so that’ll remain the strongest element, and I’m sure I’ll still do all the leads on the guitar as well, but I can use the synth to add depth and interest to the music.

The second reason is for playing leads over the electronica I create on the Kaossilator. For me, the touchpad of the Kaossilator is great for setting up all the background loops, but leads have been a struggle. When I create a piece, I usually have some brief melody that I like to return to repeatedly to give the listener a rest in between the more random soloing. On the touchpad, there’s no markings of any kind, so playing the exact same series of notes in the same way every time is tough. I always end up with unintended “mistakes” that may not be noticed by anyone else, but they bother me. Having a keyboard where I can play the note I want, when I want, will be great.

My other new weapon is the new Korg DS-10 Plus virtual synthesizer for the Nintendo DSi. This was just something for fun, and I’ve only had a little time to play with it, but I’m impressed. It has a keyboard and synthesizer functions like any real synth, plus the touchpad and loop recording of the Kaossilator. But it’s even more powerful than both combined. Where the Kaossilator can record one program, the DS-10 software can record 16, and you can arrange them however you want into a full song. It also has a grid where you can turn notes on and off, either to create a melody or drum pattern, or edit one you’ve created on the keyboard or touchpad. I’m sure it has other amazing features I haven’t had time to discover yet. And I know I’ll be recording songs on this thing and posting them online.

Now I just need some time and energy….

Following up on the previous post, I did go back and work on that last song in an attempt to lower some of the volume peaks in order to boost the overall volume. Between that and the reading I’ve done on the issue, I’m back to feeling it’s not a good idea. At least for me.

The first problem is that the louder parts of a song are compressed, and that process reduces the quality of the audio. The data compression causes a reduction in quality, and the lower volume causes a reduction in the amount of detail one hears. The second problem is that, when an album is engineered to have its songs at a consistently loud level, people find it that level of noise displeasing after awhile. Several songs in, they’ll start to feel like switching albums. The third problem is that, in a song like the one I’m working on, the chorus is meant to be louder than the verse, and that distinction is lost when the volume is equalized across the entire song.

An interesting anecdote I read came from a sound engineer. He wrote about how people bring him their music and ask him to do the engineering, and his first question is, “Do you want it to sound its best or be loud.” Invariably, the musician answers that the music should sound its best. Then, the day after they receive the recording, they call the engineer and ask why it isn’t louder. Unfortunately, you can’t have it both ways.

Another interesting anecdote comes from Paul McCartney. In commenting on the remastered Beatles box set that came out last Fall, he stated that the remastering really didn’t make much difference to him, because he was happy listening to music on a radio at the beach. That is, he’s fine just hearing the song, regardless of sound quality.

Most of the time, I’m probably the same way. I have a lot of albums I ripped to 128-bit mp3s back when the encoders were new, and I’m sure these files aren’t great quality. I listen to them and don’t notice or think about it. I’ve also taken tests where they play a 128-bit mp3 and a 320-bit mp3, and you’re supposed to pick which is which. They always sound the same to me, and I have to just guess.

So all this worry about high fidelity may be lost on Paul McCartney and myself. But, if the Beatles box set was less expensive, I’d buy it, and if I could get all my old CDs back and re-rip them at 320 bit, I would. And because I can record my music at higher quality, I will.

Up until now I’ve just focused on accomplishing a live recording where all the instruments and vocals are mixed at what I think are good levels and the overall mix is normalized – that is, as loud as it can get without any part being distorted. All of this has been done using the controls on my multi-track recorder, and the only thing I’ve done on the computer is bring the final stereo mix in, trim any silence off the beginning, and fade out the end.

But in listening to a couple songs last night, I realized I’m ending up with an overall volume level that is lower than what it should be, or at least what I’d prefer. The problem is that there are volume peaks, usually in the vocals, since that’s often what I’m pushing the most, and the bulk of a song can’t get a volume increase without causing those peaks to be distorted.

So over the next few days I’m going to take the song I just completed, “So My Spirit Flies,” and remaster it completely. I plan to export the individual tracks from the recorder to the computer, and then lower the volume on any peaks, thus enabling me to increase the volume of the mix. It’s work I’ve done before, so it won’t be a problem to accomplish – I’ve just been hoping to not have to do it and to complete everything on the recorder.

My avoidance of this has mostly been a time issue – not wanting to spend – and often not having – hours of time to sit in front of the computer massaging sound files. But I’m not going to be satisfied with the results unless I put this effort in, so it’s time to suck it up and get the work done.