I said I was going to record Snowblind , a song written and originally recorded by the band Black Sabbath, a few weeks ago. The song first appears on their “Vol 4” album which in my opinion is the greatest Black Sabbath album. I wasn’t sure if I’d manage to get it done, but I’m here to tell you that it is nearly done, almost nearly done at that. All I need is to add some strings starting at the last verse and record the ending guitar solo.
I should say I need to learn the ending guitar solo. I had never played that deep into this song before to ever need the ending. So yesterday was the first time I ever looked at the sheet music for it. I think I can do it, but it is a lot of string bending and hammer-ons. The tuning on this song is 1.5 steps down from normal anyway and that makes the strings so loose that I swear you can see your breath moving them.
I just fade this recording out near the end. The finished total song length will be nearly seven minutes and the final solo is about one minute itself. With the holidays upon us, I hope I can finish it soon, but two weeks may be the best guess. It depends on how obsessed with it I become.
If there is one thing I regret in recording this song, is using the the same key that Black Sabbath played it in. My fingertips are intact and I think my vocals could have benefitted from a step or two higher in key. Also I used my Stratocaster. Tony Iommi used a Gibson SG guitar, which I think has a much fatter sound. My Strat has a humbucker pickup like an SG, but I still think the sound is slightly thinner.
There are some other things in the song that I will probably change too when I finish it. I think the bass guitar is too loud in this mix, for one. Some other things I notice I may just live with, making the American Idol excuse that I’m making it my own. I love that.
When I finish the song I will repost it. As I said, It’ll probably take me a week or two before I’m confortable recording the ending solo. I just thought that I wanted to share it now, because it rocks. Really.
I was looking at my web site and I realized I had never posted my most recent music video. I posted it everywhere else except my own site. How’d I forget that?
Alexander Fisher–The Wavelength
I used Sony Vegas Movie Producer to create the video. It is shot entirely with my digital 8mm Sony camcorder using green screen technology.
Whenever I pick up an acoustic guitar, I end up playing something by Led Zeppelin. I have all of Led Zeppelin’s albums and I have several videos and music books. I guess I’m a fan.
I hadn’t recorded anything new for awhile. I was just busy doing videos and things. I hadn’t played Thank You for quite awhile either and started playing it in the the last few weeks. I decided to go ahead and record a cover of it. I haven’t heard the original in months, so I did the arrangement from memory, which I think was faulty. But as they say on American Idol, I think I made it my own, for better or worse.
It only took me about forty-eight hours to finish this project. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to play a certain part here or there, but after a little practice, everything went pretty smoothly.
Thank You
[audio:http://www.linearcanvas.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Thank You 20111025_1618mcd.mp3]
Thank You was written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. I didn’t use any rhythm boxes or a click track to make this recording. I just recorded all the tracks using my own built in tempo. I didn’t even use a count in. I just knew when the other tracks were starting. I do that on occasion. Sometimes because I have all this electronic stuff around, it makes me feel better when I minimize its use and just go with my instincts. I think the tempo varies in places, but I meant it to.
The guitar is my Takamine G series acoustic. The bass is my Rickenbacker 4001. The drums are Session Drummer 3 and a Roland Octapad. The organ is from the Dimension Pro plug-in using a Roland MIDI slave keyboard. I recorded and processed it with Cakewalk Sonar 8.5 Producer and Sony Sound Forge 9.
I bought an Apple TV network device a few months ago. There are many of these network appliances out there that act as an interface between your television, the internet, and your home computer. They will play music and video usually from any network source they are connected to. Looking at the other network devices available made me realize some of them had more content providers available on them than the Apple TV, and there is always that exclusive Apple country club tax involved when buying an Apple product. But still I knew I had to have the Apple device and the under $100 I paid for the latest version Apple TV seemed almost like a bargain.
Most new TV’s and nearly everything else anymore, contain some kind of web app for anything from Netflix to Pandora. My 2006 Hitachi plasma TV doesn’t include any internet connectivity. But you’ll never get me to replace my plasma for lack of network apps. There’s no need for that currently anyway, as my Apple TV adds that same connectivity, within the Apple world, which is both good and bad.
I purchased the Apple TV for a couple of reasons, but the reason I bought the Apple instead of another network device, was my reliance already on iTunes for my music. I bought a 20GB iPod in 2004 and have been using Apple music products when I could ever since. I also have an iPhone. But I still use a PC. I am too deeply invested in PC software to change to a Mac now. But I have a lot of reverence for any product with the Apple name on it. My next computer could be an Apple, now that they have some PC compatibility.
The Past
I had been using a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) audio device on my network, so this wasn’t a stretch by any means to convert to the Apple TV. That Netgear MP101 device was actually able to read an iTunes folder on a computer to play my iTunes music only.
I use a program called GoodSyncto duplicate my iTunes folder on the music server from my computer. I could manually update the files, but that would be too tedious. The Netgear device didn’t care that iTunes was not actually installed on the server, as long as the folders were arranged as when it is present. This way I didn’t have to have my personal computer on to play music. I could just use any old computer on the network to serve my iTunes folders to my stereo upstairs. That was easy enough.
This Netgear music player did a very good job of serving music around the S/PDIF digital audio network I have constructed around the house. I was converting the analog output of the Netgear into optical S/PDIF. Now I split and amplify the Apple TV‘s optical audio output to connect to my system. I then split and amplify the optical signals again to make four outputs, finally converting each optical S/PDIF to 75Ω coaxial S/PDIF. I feel comfortable running each RG6 digital audio cable around forty feet to any digital audio device that supports coaxial S/PDIF. Any further than that and the signal loss could be a problem.
“It’s not conspiracy, it’s not theory, its science and you owe it to yourself, your children and their children to open your mind, your eyes and your ears and listen to what these professionals have to say!”
“Learn Why 43 Technical & Building Professionals are Calling for a New Investigation into the Events of 9/11! Watch 9/11, Explosive Evidence – Experts Speak Out and Learn Why You Should Too!”
Just a mere and simple utterance of the word, 9/11, or September 11th, or any other various related terms can stir up a caldron of emotion – and it runs the entire spectrum. From steadfast defenders of the government’s official explanation of what happened on 9/11 to those arguing theories of a deep, dark, evil conspiracy. There is no shortage of passion.
Regardless of your personal beliefs about what happened on 9/11 we can all agree (as we’ve been told over and over again) that 9/11 has indeed fundamentally changed the world we all live in and experience every day.
This would all be well and good if there was no doubt about what happened. If the official story was rock solid and beyond reasonable doubt, we could all stand up in unison, proudly, pound our chests with righteous indignation and get the bad guys without a second thought.
Unfortunately this is not the case and there are at least 43 highly trained, skilled technical and building professionals who after having examined the evidence not only have a reasonable doubt about the official story, say that there is absolutely no way that those buildings could have come down the way we were told that they did!
Watch 9/11 Explosive Evidence – Experts Speak Out and learn from 43 brave men and women as they share with you their compelling and convincing professional expertise and insights about the events of 9/11.
It’s not conspiracy, it’s not theory, its science and you owe it to yourself, your children and their children to open your mind, your eyes and your ears and listen to what these professionals have to say!
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Over the last few weeks, much has been made of comments and audience reactions during the televised Republican presidential primary debates in the media. These comments made by the participants and the audience member’s reactions, were in response to questions asked about the death penalty, and health care for people who are uninsured. In both cases the audience made it very clear how they stand on these issues. Critics are fair to conclude this group of people showed little compassion for those affected in either case.
My own observation is that these issues are almost entirely affecting the poor, alone.
More recently I read a story in the news that said the number of people in the United States that live in poverty is higher than it’s been in many years. I think there can be many reasons for this, but the influence of politics in world economics can have a great affect on poverty. A loss of a job that was sent overseas or eliminated in a poor economy, can send many to poverty as quickly as they can be shown the door. This can happen to anyone, regardless, as long as they are in the middle class or below. (The rich have their own unique safety net, lots of money) Some of these people cannot find new jobs for any number of reasons. Some don’t look anymore. Some never did.
I believe the audience members at the debate would argue that these people are just lazy. I don’t doubt that some are. But without knowing the individuals involved and their reasons and experiences, I don’t understand the reactions. I’d guess some are just born into poverty and just don’t know how to break the cycle, without help. I’d also guess others are just born pitiless and don’t know how to break that cycle either.
I made a mistake when I started recording my newest music video. I feared I would have to start from scratch re-mixing the video tracks for sure. I was just not sure how far backwards I would have to go in the project to fix what I had spent two weeks doing, to get this far.
I had been using Pinnacle Studio for video editing and I had done a music video on it previously. But that video was not near as involved as this one was becoming. Pinnacle was not up to the task as it would only allow two video tracks to be used at once. That really turns into one track if you are doing a chroma-key (green screen) video. One becomes the track for the background and then you are left with only one track for your video. That was just not good enough.
I tried several other video editing software titles. Many are available as 30 day trials. That may be something you should keep in mind the next time you have the need for video software but not the money or desire to purchase any. Some of these programs offered unlimited video and audio tracks. The one I decided was best and wanted to purchase was Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum HD. Vegas comes in a Pro version that retails for around $600 as well. It does unlimited tracks for that price. And it should. The Movie Studio version is retailed at around $129. I found it online for $79. It will only allow ten video and ten audio tracks itself. That is obviously not unlimited, but it is manageable. Besides, it is the easiest to learn, at least for me as it somewhat mimics the multi-track audio program I already use. I also own Sony Sound Forge Pro, which also shares some of its interface, control methods, and appearances.
The mistake I made was not setting up the program’s project preferences to widescreen (16:9). My digital camcorder is not high definition, but it will record in 16:9 aspect ratio. It is capable of standard aspect ratio (4:3) as well. It was two weeks before I even noticed the black letterbox lines at the top and bottom of the video I was editing. Once I did notice them, I knew that I had a problem.
These are 9/11 Facts. Look them up if you don’t believe me.
Larry Silverstein bought the World Trade Center in August 2001. The two buildings that fell on national television a month later, buildings one and two, had been condemned for asbestos contamination. The asbestos removal would have cost three billion dollars ($3,000,000,000). Mr. Silverstein paid two-hundred million dollars ($200,000,000) for the whole complex. Not a very profitable investment, yet.
That same month, Mr. Silverstein was awarded an insurance policy for several billion dollars that included coverage for terrorist attacks. Terrorist coverage on a condemned building already known to be a target for "terrorists". That doesn’t seem like a very good risk for any insurance company. Selling a policy like that would usually get someone fired.
Mr. Silverstein finally settled for four and a half billion dollars ($4,550,000,000) after the towers fell. He wanted more. Over four billion dollars in profit for a one month ownership of the WTC site. Not too bad. Never mind that the only building that Mr. Silverstein actually built, building seven, also fell several hours later after sustaining some minor fire damage. No aircraft hit it, just some debris. And like buildings one and two, it fell into its own foundation at near free fall speed, without much damage to surrounding structures. Some of building seven’s occupants read like a financial who’s-who of the US. That Included offices of the Securities Exchange Commission (the Wall Street cops) where they kept all the evidence for criminal cases. All of the criminal evidence on WorldCom, Enron and many others were there in building seven, and destroyed in the collapse.
Nothing to look at here. Move along.
I am writing a much longer article about what I know about the events of 9/11. I will post it some time soon. For more info: http://www.ae911truth.org/
I just posted my recorded versions of One of the Boys, and Ready for Love. Both songs were from the Mott the Hoople album All the Young Dudes. I didn’t realize they were both on the same album. After I realized they were, I wondered if I would be re-recording the whole record. I was only half not serious. I got to looking in iTunes for the contents of the album and I remembered that I had also recorded Sweet Jane. It is a Lou Reed song that Mott the Hoople had on that album also. I do a hybrid of the Lou Reed “Rock and Roll Animal” version and the Mott version. But I hear more Mott than Lou in it.
I just did a re-mix of that Sweet Jane recording, so here it is. I don’t see me recording anything else from the album. Not even Jerkin’ Crocus.
Sweet Jane
[audio:http://www.linearcanvas.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Sweet Jane 20110807_1637mcd.mp3]
Sweet Jane was written by Lou Reed. The guitar is my Fender Stratocaster electric. The bass is my Rickenbacker 4001. The drums are Session Drummer 3 and a Roland Octapad. I originally recorded the song on my Fostex VF-16 digital multi-track recorder and then processed it with Cakewalk Sonar 8.5 Producer and Sony Sound Forge 9.
Recently I did a re-mix on another Mott the Hoople song I recorded (One of the Boys). It made me start thinking about this song, Ready for Love. The song was written by guitarist Mick Ralphs and was originally recorded on Mott’s All The Young Dude’s album. When Mick left Mott to form Bad Company, he took this song with him and it was recorded for Bad Company’s first album as well.
I have always felt I do a bit of a cross between the two versions. Probably a little louder than either one though. I also do an After Lights ending like was originally recorded by Mott. Not note for note, but the same feeling, I think.
Ready for Love
[audio:http://www.linearcanvas.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Ready for Love 20110502_1530mcd.mp3]
When I started to look for it, I couldn’t find any of the original recorded tracks anywhere. I looked on all my old hard drives. I checked both the computer drives and the drives for my digital recorder. They were no where to be found. The mistake I was making was that the original mix sounded so good, I assumed that I was dealing with digital files. What I found was that the recording was probably one of the last I did on my analog Yamaha four track cassette around 1999. By then I had acquired a Sony MD recorder. It wasn’t much of a digital audio recorder, but it did work. I replaced my dbx cassette deck as the sub-mixing deck with it. It made a big difference. But I only used it like that a few times as I bought a digital multi-track just a little while later.
The guitar is a Fender Stratocaster electric. The bass is a Rickenbacker 4001. The drums are Ludwig’s. I originally recorded the song on my Yamaha MT100II. I transferred it to my Fostex VF-16 multi track recorder and then processed it with Cakewalk Sonar 8.5 Producer and Sony Sound Forge 9.
I said I was going to record Snowblind , a song written and originally recorded by the band Black Sabbath, a few weeks ago. The song first appears on their “Vol 4” album which in my opinion is the greatest Black Sabbath album. I wasn’t sure if I’d manage to get it done, but I’m here to tell you that it is nearly done, almost nearly done at that. All I need is to add some strings starting at the last verse and record the ending guitar solo.
