A friend of mine asked that I explain my latest parlor-trick approach to music making. There are lots of different ways of making tunes on computers, but I’ve been fiddling around with a sortof “live layered jam” approach where I cycle through a loop, adding an instrumental part each time through. Loads of fun to do.
So click HERE to listen to this 11 minute podcast of a little 12-bar tune being built up layer by layer.
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Richard, and the rest of the crew of the tall ship Bounty, are heading out in a couple days. They’re leaving from San Juan Puerto Rico with a destination of St Petersburg, Russia — so this is a two-way crossing of the Atlantic.
I decided to dedicate this little tune to the Bounty. It’s long, much like this voyage — and the many watches that they will all be standing. It’s a little boring, which is my fondest hope for the voyage as well. It’s in the key of E, so Rich and his crew mates can jam along on just about any instrument that’s likely to show up on the ship. It’s a bit of a lullaby, for those moments when things are hard. But it’s also a little jaunty, which describes Rich and the rest of the crew to a T.
Best listened to under headphones (think, iPod) — the bass part totally disappears when I listen to it on my PC.
Safe journey and smooth sailing.
Click HERE to listen to this 14 minute MP3.
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Hey! It’s my 60th birthday today AND this is the 60th Geezercast. How ’bout that? This one is really short — just a 5 minute intro to a new tune that I built to learn about “slicing” — a musical technique that Robert Perry (son of Marcie’s cousin Joan Perry) taught me about when he came to visit a month or so ago.
Click HERE to listen to this 10 minute podcast.
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The media is full of stories that remind me why I worked so hard to set up community radio stations back in the ’70’s.
Click here to listen to this 13 minute podcast
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Yep, that’s quite a mix of topics for one Geezercast, but that’s the way it happened. You’ll just have to listen to find out what was going through my brain this afternoon.
Click here to download this 11 minute podcast
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Yep, I got skunked by the weather the first time out, but last weekend I made the grade. I talk about that and all the good engineering I’m starting to do. This show also features a one-time-only tune for the intro and outro which is a live, one-take snapshot of some of the “jam with the synth” stuff I’ve been doing recently. Not good enough to get promoted to “permanent theme music” status, but interesting.
Click here to download this 11 minute podcast
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We visited Richard at Northland College this weekend and I was honored to be a guest on the award-winning Tea Time at 12 radio show that he co-hosts with his friends Kevin and Dan. I realized after my guest-shot was over that Richard really wanted me to tell old-geezer stories about my community radio days. So I decided to put of few of them in this here Geezercast instead — maybe Rich can play them on WRNC some time to make up for my mistake.
Click here to download this 14 minute podcast
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Ze Frank has all us Sports Racers (check out The Show to find out more, or if you’re really into it check out his whole site — well worth the journey) mashing up a cool vocal track by a mystery guy named Ray. There are some interesting issues that have arisen now that it’s looking like Ray is an inner-city black preacher in St Louis who has trouble with Jewish people. I play the tracks I made up, and explore those issues, in this podcast.
Click here to download this 12 minute podcast
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Well, the farm party is over, fall is in the air and I have a new keyboard to play with. So this is a Geezercast showing off what the new gizmo can do, which leads to reflections about the Mifflin Street Block Pary in Madison, WI of all things.
Click here to download this 10 minute podast
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I was going to do another one of my “see, I’m in the majority” rants based on the current polls. But I came across one where I’m in the minority — a majority (admittedly skinny — 51 to 49%) of Americans think it’s OK for the administration to rummage through our Internet traffic and phone calling records in the name of fighting terrorism. I was so struck by that number that I decided to devote a Geezercast to the topic.
Plus, there’s a new version of Jamstix out and I dropped a new theme song into the show as a result.
Click here to download this 10 minute podcast
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