Remix

I managed to get a copy of some music production software over the course of the past couple of weeks. After asking my favorite DJ (Shissla) what he uses for his remixes, and consulting with my friend Clay, I settled on two packages made by Propellerhead software, Reason and Recycle.

Reason is essentially a fancy sequencer with a nice set of sound processing tools (delays, reverbs, and other effects), synthesizer functionality, drum machine, etc. I bought a midi keyboard to use to build bass lines and maybe trigger drum and other sample sounds, but I wont' likely be playing any real music on it. The software will help to piece together various pieces into a full song track that I and interested others can play, burn to cd, etc.

Recycle is a super cool piece of software that helps you to take samples of existing music and tweak it to fit the tempo and pitch you want so that it can be combined with other clips of music and still sound good. I presume this is the type of software people use to create mashups, combinations of one or more songs to make a completely new song. This is my goal.

Since my composition skills are somewhere in the neighborhood of none, my plan is to find snips and clips of other music I like, build grooves out of them, and see what I come up with. I've recently found great moments in songs by Brooklyn Funk Essentials and Lady Sovereign, a new British dancehall rapper, that I'm dying to pick apart.

My main obstacle to this at the moment is free time. I think about working on this stuff all the time, but I can't do it while I'm working, out in the city, driving, snowboarding, etc. So I have to grab those moments when I can.

Wish me luck.

Willie

I went to see Willie Nelson at the Fillmore last night. When I saw the tickets for sale, it seemed like a romantic idea to see such an American icon at an American landmark like the Fillmore. It's a great venue to see a great, intimate show. I was excited to see the rugged, wrinkled, grey haired, smooth, sexy man.. the one that had loved all those girls before. I was excited for his timeless songs, his charismatic stage presence honed over decades.

Unfortunately, reality set in once we got there. As it turns out, he is a geriatric little grandpa with a geriatric little grandpa band. He's a little bit hunched.. his black jeans are pulled way up around his tucked in tee shirt. It took him about 5 minutes to get on stage once he was announced.

As he started, he seemed to be sort of blurting weak breaths of old lyrics into the mic. His bandmates were mostly older guys too... some looking kind of like confused deer in the headlights. Certainly not the lively, hells angels ho down I was expecting.

Monica and I kept looking at each other with a shared recognition of the bait and switch that we had fallen for... but he was cute and still iconic so we did our best to enjoy the show. I even got a plastic cup of whiskey to try and get into the spirit of things.

Once he got warmed up, the songs flowed a little better and the guy does still have some bounce in him and he had no shortage of loyal excited fans. But ultimately, we got bored and left pretty early.

Sorry Willie. We tried.

Cabin

The Cabin

Kelly, Monica and I opened up our new ski cabin for this year in Truckee this weekend. The place is a little small considering we have 10 potential roommates on any given weekend. But it's cozy and warm, and close to plenty of snow and other interestingness. I look forward to getting snowed in there at least once this year.