The Linear Canvas
This journal is about the wrongs and rights of the world, as I see them.

The Linear Canvas

My Newest Recording – Addicted To Something

April 26th, 2011 . by Alexander Fisher

Alexander Fisher 1975-2I have played around with this guitar lick for quite a while. I think I had the music to this long before I had the lyrics. My wife Jill was writing some poetry one night and I pretty much stole borrowed the whole first verse from her. I also say the F word in the end of the song, so cover your ears.

The song is about the addictions that we all have from legal things like coffee and cigarettes to anything else imaginable. It is also about confronting what you need to do when you unburden yourself from the hassles of that habit. It’s all a realization that habits are hard to break and people will change their lifestyles in the end to accommodate their addictions and never seek help.

It also gave me reason to play really loud for over six and a half minutes.

 Addicted To Something





I originally recorded this song in analog on my Yamaha 4 track. It was one of the last songs I recorded on it and was also one of the first I recorded after I got a real set of drums.
I used all of the original analog tracks, but also added some new guitar parts and all new vocals. At first I wasn’t going to use the analog drum track, but after applying a little EQ it was good enough. The lead guitar in the left channel is the original analog recording. It was recorded before I installed a Seymour Duncan humbucking pickup in my Stratocaster, so it is definitely my original  single coil setup on that track.

The lyrics were written by my wife Jill Fisher and me. I wrote the music. I performed all the musical and vocal parts.  I used a Shure SM-58 microphone to record all the vocals. I played my Fender Stratocaster electric guitar on the recording using my Line 6 Pod 2.0 as a direct box. I played bass guitar on my Rickenbacker 4001. The drums are my Ludwig’s.

I recorded, mixed, and mastered this song on my desktop computer using a PreSonus Firebox audio interface, with Cakewalk Sonar v8.5 Producer and Sony Sound Forge v9 software. The master is recorded in 24 bit at 44.1 kHz resolution. On the original analog tracks I used my Yamaha MT-100II 4 track recorder at 3.75 inches per second using dbx noise reduction.

My Newest Recording – You Don’t Have To Be

April 14th, 2011 . by Alexander Fisher

DarbydaleI had been playing a lot of keyboards on my recordings lately. A piano is a great instrument to ferret out a pretty melody in a new song. But I was ready for a change back to loud.

Last year, my cousin, Matt Henderson, from East Lansing, Michigan had asked me to help out on a recording he was doing. He sent me a demo of “You Don’t Have To Be”. I was immediately struck by the beauty of the song, especially with Matt’s excellent vocal and piano tracks. Unfortunately I had just broken my ankle and no matter how much I wanted to help, I just couldn’t get it together.

Recently, I decided that I wanted to record my arrangement of “You Don’t Have To Be”.  From the beginning I heard the song with a full electric sound chugging along in the background with screaming leads over the top. Matt’s arrangement was very beautiful, but I needed over-driven guitars, thumping bass, and crashing cymbals. I recorded it nearly the way I heard it in my head all along.

You Don’t Have To Be

[audio:http://www.linearcanvas.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/You dont have to be 20110413_1856_24bit_441mcd.mp3]

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Matt finished his version of the song and uploaded it to Facebook. You can hear it at Matt Henderson’s Facebook music page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Matt-Henderson/357286361522

After hearing Matt’s completed recording of “You Don’t Have To Be”, it inspired me to write and record “The Wavelength”, one of my favorite songs that I’ve written.

Hear “The Wavelength” at:
http://www.linearcanvas.com/?p=1148

The song was written by Matt Henderson. I am responsible for the arrangement. I performed all the musical and vocal parts.  I used a Shure SM-58 microphone to record all the vocals. I played my Fender Stratocaster electric guitar on the recording using my Line 6 Pod 2.0 as a direct box. I played bass guitar on my Rickenbacker 4001. The drums are a combination of MIDI patches and a Roland Octapad drum pad using Session Drummer 3.

I recorded, mixed, and mastered this song on my desktop computer using a PreSonus Firebox audio interface, with Cakewalk Sonar v8.5 Producer and Sony Sound Forge v9 software. The master is recorded at 24 bit at 44.1 kHz resolution.

My Newest Recording – Birthday Song

April 8th, 2011 . by Alexander Fisher

Super Full Moon 2011

I wrote “Birthday Song” last week for my wife Jill’s Birthday. I met Jill on a blind date. We were married twenty-five years ago.

I originally wrote the piano part about two years ago and was just waiting for the inspiration to finish it.

I also want to thank the unwitting birthday well wishers leaving messages for Jill on our answering machine. Also the crew of Apollo 11.

I love you Jill.

Happy Birthday.

Birthday Song

[audio:http://www.linearcanvas.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Birthday Song 20110408_1700mcd.mp3]

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I wrote the song and sang all the vocal parts.  I used a Shure SM-58 microphone to record all the vocals and the tambourine. I played my Fender Stratocaster electric guitar on the recording. I played Bass on my Rickenbacker 4001. All of the other instruments were played using a Roland MIDI keyboard and Roland Octapad drum pads.   I used TruePiano for all the piano sounds. The drums are from Session Drummer 3. Everything is played live, one track at a time.

I recorded this song on my desktop computer using Cakewalk Sonar v8.5 Producer and Sony Sound Forge v9. The master is recorded at 24 bit 44.1 kHz resolution. Some of the original tracks were recorded on my Foster VF-16 using 16bit/44.1 kHz digital audio resolution.