Music Video - Lift You Up - and New Website

This never happened in TV news. In some spare time at work at Kelby Media Group, I shot a music video for my song, "Lift You Up." A coworker who heard me play it asked, in complete seriousness, if I was on a record label. "I know people who do music," he said. "And that song's good." When he had some downtime, he even wanted to help, and he did the camera on the moving shots.

How cool is that?

I shot the rest, and edited the video. Plus, I wrote, performed and recorded the song. You've heard the term "one man band"? This is nearly that in more ways than one!

"Lift You Up" is a painful song for me in a couple of ways. First, it deals with trying to support friends who have suffered catastrophic losses in their lives. Second, one of the people who inspired it, for whom I once had great affection, decided to sever ties with me, so I get a bittersweet feeling whenever I play or hear the song now.

Like the song itself, the video is not perfect, but I like it a lot, and I hope you will, too. Please take a look:



I have taken this music stuff seriously enough that that I bought a the domain name MrJohnMusic.com. For now it uses the basic layout of JohnMcQuiston.com, but it has the best of my songs there, and I plan to tailor a style just for it. Stay tuned. (See what I did there?)

Song in Progress

I have some lyrics that I wrote a long time ago that might fit with this one, but I'm not sure yet. It will take some re-working, both for the words and the music, for them to go together well. And the music itself is not finished, but it's a different kind of sound than I usually do.

"No Words":

Here are some other recent recordings:

"Hope":

"Wanted":

"Better Day":

New Song: "Wanted"

I had started to write a an explanation of my recording process, but since I don't know what I'm doing, it would not only bore you, it wouldn't offer any real insight into music recording.

I will tell you that these songs begin with me singing along as I strum or pick my acoustic guitar, and from there I try to figure out how to arrange them. That is, what the song should sound like, and what instruments to use to get that sound, subject as always to the limits of my singing and playing.

Here is "Wanted":


Here are two other recent recordings:

"Hope":


"Better Day":

Hope

I wrote this last year playing my acoustic guitar, and have played electric versions of it jamming with friends. This is my first stab at recording it. The drums are loops. I played the rest: guitars, bass on my synthesizer, and a synth string. Oh, and I sing again. I should have warned you about that sooner. Sorry.

In case you missed my other recent recording effort, here is "Better Day."

Better Day

This is a song I recorded recently at home. It gives me a chance to test some (caution: web geek jargon ahead) new HTML5 code that will play music and video on websites like this one without Adobe Flash, which won't work on my phone, and apparently many devices, including Apple products. Owning no Apple products, I can't say that last part for sure.

Anyway, here's the tune, on which I sing (you have been warned), play lead and rhythm guitar, and bass on my 25-year-old, 8-note polyphonic synthesizer, add drums using loops, and mix the whole mess together with a free program called Sony Acid Express. (Get your free copy at AcidPlanet.com.)

Let's hope it works, especially after all that preamble.



Update: It works! I got the code from html5media.info, in case you seek an free and easy way to embed MP3 (audio) and MP4 (video) files into web pages and blog posts.

One Man Band

John Strums Again

For more than a month the brace to hold my surgically-repaired arm in place impeded many activities, including normal guitar playing. When I improved to the point I could play at all, I still could strum only by waving my thumb across the strings.



In small doses, my arm could tolerate finger picking.



This week, the brace finally came off. Strumming still stresses my arm, but I can hold a pick and do it for short durations. As an added bonus for you, playing using a pick makes the guitar much louder than when strumming with the thumb. This helps drown out the vocals on this song still incomplete.



Photos by Melissa Matisko using Pancho's camera.

Pretty Good Week

In the last week, I enjoyed smash success with a side business project, had an original song of mine play on the radio, and learned that a Sunday newscast I anchor more than doubled its viewership in the last year.

First, I delivered a completed video biography for a customer of my documentary production company. Comments from the client included, "This is outstanding! I feel like I am watching an A&E Biography." And, after the film showed at a family gathering Friday to celebrate the subject's 70th birthday, "The Documentary was a HIT! Words like 'awesome' and 'unbelievable' were used to describe it."

That same night, a co-worker at the station who hosts a show on Sarasota's community radio station, WSLR played my instrumental tune Pulse and then used it as his background music for the rest of the show.

This happened because of another co-worker's breakup. When he left his live-in girlfriend, he stashed his guitar in the photographer's room at the station. One night, after I had finished my story, I went in and started playing for the first time in months, thanks to the all-consuming effort on the documentary mentioned above. Another co-worker walked in and made the mistake of not asking me to stop. So I serenaded her for a while until I ran out of songs that I — and my fingers — could remember.

That was a Friday. After the early newscast Saturday, the woman who runs our studio cameras on the weekend newscasts told me that she heard that I played and asked me to strum some songs for her.

By the next week, the legend had grown. On a computer in the photog room, I pull up the a video of me playing Pulse I had posted to YouTube.



The guy who also has the radio show played the song for his wife at home! She suggested that it would make a good music bed for his monologue. He decided to play it all the way through once before looping it in the background behind him.

Yeah, I know. It's only community radio, but it's still radio. And it was cool.

Then today, we got a memo with our November ratings results and the Sunday early evening newscast I anchor more than doubled its viewership compared to last year ‐ with no on-air promotion.

I am, of course, far too elegant to do something like a touchdown dance. But so elegant that I would not write and record a song in which I sing about doing a touchdown dance.

Massive Mix Six

So titled because there were five previous versions. However, if I rework the song I'll probably keep the title.



The drums and vocal sounds come from samples. I played the rest of the sounds on either my synthesizer or guitar and mixed them all together using free Sony's Acid Express program.

One Man Band

It's a term used in music to describe someone who plays multiple instruments and used in television to describe someone who does a production by himself.

In this case, it's both — though I got help from some recorded drum loops and overdubbed bass for this one.



Note that this was shot on a consumer camera in about 30 minutes and does not reflect the quality of my professional work.

Noodling

And a little fun on Sony Acid (the music software not the LSD). The sound quality from my digital piano could be better. So could the sound quality from my playing.

Catching Up & the $80K Personal Documentary

Stuff has been happening. I've been too lazy to document it here.

Let's see... I'm vice president of my homeowner's association. After the election, the new board members were asked to stand up and we received a round of applause. I said, "We should enjoy it now. That will be the last time anyone applauds the board."

Sure enough, it's been a lot of work. I volunteered to create and write a community blog, which is where my online writing has been directed recently. If you want to read about parking issues and Chinese drywall (which, fortunately, my unit does not have) visit the St. Charles Place blog.

I've got a freelance job coming up next month with the American Bar Association. Its magazine, the ABA Journal, wants to integrate video into its website more. Some of the details are still secret but I'll be doing some traveling and producing video pieces from the road for a project called the Legal Rebels Tour.

That, in turn, has made me fear that my laptop with which I'll need to edit the video pieces will explode at some point during the trip so I've been shopping for a new one. I thought about buying a small emergency backup camera too but I might trust my Canon GL2 to continue its reliable service.

I've made significant headway (more than 21 minutes) editing the family documentary I've been working on. There are a couple of clips up on personal-documentary.com if you're curious to see them.

They interweave historical archive footage that puts the subjects' lives in context of their time. I need to do a better job about asking people about events that were current at various points in their lives.

Speaking of personal documentaries, I came across an article in the street.com about a Chicago TV news anchor who has started a similar business. Only he charges $80,000 and up per project!

I'm glad to publicity for the personal documentary. The more people hear about it, the more interest it generates for all businesses who create them. But I'd hate for people to think that if they're not spending $80,000 they're not getting a quality production.

I can produce them for less than a quarter of that. Like company featured in the article, I shoot and edit them with broadcast quality high definition equipment. I even have a background as a television news reporter, though not in as high profile a job as Robert Jordan, who anchors news for WGN-TV, and I would match the quality of my personal documentaries with any I've seen anywhere -- and, believe me, I have looked.

If you find evidence to the contrary, please point it out to me. I'd like to see what I can do better.

And, lastly, I've even played some guitar lately.

Bitherium

Punjabitherium is an extinct Indian rhinoceros. I know that because I googled Bitherium, which was necessary because I named a song that and didn't want to publish it here on the blog before checking that it didn't mean something that could embarrass me later. The song itself will do that for me.

Where did I get the name? It's an abbreviated version of the guitar tone that I used with my Guitar Port to play one of the lead guitars on the track -- there are two; I'm getting fancy.

Bitherium

The bass is synthesizer courtesy of my Anvil Studio MIDI program, which I still can't get to work. However I discovered that I can buy a USB MIDI cable that I can plug into the laptop and use my old and beloved MidiSoft Recording Session program. The added benefit is that I can use my digital piano downstairs to record the MIDI files. It plays more smoothly than the synthesizer does.

Sequencer Sort Of

I found a free program* called Anvil Studio that will do MIDI sequencing. I have only rudimentary knowledge of it so I can't do nearly as much as I could with my old program that doesn't work with my new computer. But I can record from my synthesizer, so it's a start. The piano and bass sounds in the tune below are from the synth. Then there's the usual assortment of guitars and looped drums, all assembled in my Sony Acid (also free).

Until

*By free I don't mean stolen or pirated. It's actually free. Of course it will probably install all kinds of spyware on my computer that will cost more to get rid of than a good sequencer would have but that's just how I roll, yo.

Crash Course

I got a new computer a few months ago that is just shy of nuclear powered. It runs a 64-bit version of Windows XP to take advantage of its multi-many gigabytes of RAM. I don't know the technical stuff. I just know that between all that memory and the quad core processors (I think there are two of them), all the computer's programs run lightning fast.

The ones that are compatible with XP64, anyway. That's my problem. Few of my existing programs play nice with XP64 and I'm having to find either updates, workarounds or, in some especially unfortunate cases, replacements for my programs.

It took forever to diagnose the problem with my new sound card. I knew it was operator error, I just didn't know where I was erring. Once I learned how to make simple recordings again the next problem was that my Guitar Port software that enables me to replicate many different electric guitar sounds right in my computer didn't work any more. I couldn't find any updates until I discovered that I had to download an entirely new program called Gear Box.

Now I can play and record guitars again. Yay! Here is my latest effort:

Crash Course

The hurdle looming now is getting a new MIDI sequencing program. That lets me record music from my synthesizer and fix it up later. I can make the playing more precise; I can speed it up; I can even change the key of the song. My old sequencer was a Windows 3.1 program called Midisoft Recording Session I had originally installed on my first Windows 95 machine.

Here is the first piece I ever composed using it:

Trem

It's called "Trem" simply because it featured a synthesizer sound called "StrTrem." You can hear how the program allows me to layer sounds. None by itself is too intricate or complicated but together they create a much richer and complex arrangement.

Recording Session dutifully followed me through every new computer and new operating system with no complaint. Until now. Now when I click on it, I get a message reading something like, "This is a valid program but not on this machine."

Crash Course © 2008 John McQuiston
Trem © 1996 John McQuiston

How Self-Aborbed Am I...

...if the soundtrack to my commute to and from work today was a CD of songs that I composed, performed and recorded myself?

Is my level of self-involvement mitigated at all because I did not sing along with my recorded self*?

Baby I**

* Not today, anyway.
** Yes, that's mine. I'd put a copyright notice on it but is that really necessary? I may be self-absorbed -- not to mention retarded*** -- but I'm not delusional.
*** With the usual apologies to retarded people offended by the unflattering comparison to me.

Stately

This song is based on a recording I made so long ago that it was in mono because that took less space on my computer's hard drive, which at the time measured all of 1 gigabyte. One!

To modernize it, I brought the mono file into my Sony Acid program and added some drum loops and a couple of keyboard fills. I recently figured out that Acid will adjust the tempo of any loop to match that of the song. Quite convenient.

I have another version of this song with a lead guitar part but this one goes without a dominant melody.

Stately

More Guitar Talk

Here is a slightly more polished version of the tune I recorded when I first bought my new acoustic guitar. I'm trying a variable bit rate file so if you have a fast connection it should play up to 320 kb/sec. Unfortunately, it's still going to be my playing so don't expect a dramatic improvement in sound quality.

New Acoustic Test Two

The lead guitar is a little smoother and there's a keyboard fill way back in the background there too. I don't have the ideal recording set-up, even without the microphone leg balance exercise involved. I think I'm going to have to try to run the audio through a mixer on its way to the computer. That's how I used to record guitars and vocals before I got my guitar port and thought I could box up my analog guitar pedal until it was a museum piece.

Being able to add a good acoustic guitar sound to songs excites me. I've also made an effort to play the guitar at least a little bit every day. I've kept the streak going since I bought the new guitar. My callouses are coming back but playing still hurts my fingertips.

Guitar Trouble

The guitar is fine. I just liked the title, which I borrowed from a Tommy Conwell album. It's my fingers that aren't working so well. I stayed up until 1 a.m. trying to record a song. You'll notice there's no link to the results. That's because what I have so far is terrible. Granted, that's not much worse than anything else I've recorded but at least I like some of that.

This is a song I recorded years ago and am re-doing now that I have better instruments. The basic track of the bass and percussion with some synth fills still exists so all I needed to do was re-record the guitar parts -- one acoustic and one electric.

Before I could record them, I had to re-learn them. I don't read music (which might help explain why it's so hard for me to write) so recordings are the only way I can "write" the song parts down. Learning the parts of old songs works just like trying to learn any song by ear, except that having played it before gives me some confidence that I can learn it again.

The acoustic part is simple. There are only four chords. But simple doesn't mean easy, especially for underpracticed and overly sore fingertips. It hurt when I recorded the original version and it hurt again this time. The acoustic guitar serves as a rhythm instrument on this song so I have to play the chords very fast. Unfortunately I did not realize this until later.

In the meantime, I move to the electric guitar part. This took forever for a number of reasons. First, since this part consists of individual notes rather than just four chords, learning the sequence of the melody took time. Then once I knew all the notes, I had to practice playing them so that I could do it accurately enough to record it. While neither terribly complicated nor hard on the fingertips, the fingering is unusual and I ended up having to use my pinkie a lot. Finally, I had to find the right sound using the knobs on my guitar and the settings on my Guitar Port computer software. I don't know how long I spent going through different setting hoping to stumble across the right combination. I know I never quite found it. But I got close enough to record a demo.

And it stunk. The playing was poor and the sound didn't work. I thought I could use a slower strumming rhythm on the acoustic than I did on the original. I can't. So I'll have to re-do that. And I have to play the electric part much more precisely. The sound still bothers me. Maybe I'll have to pull the old Korg pedal I used on the orignal out of the closet and try that.

You deserve a reward for reading all of that for no reason. So thanks to a fan who built a tribute site, below is a track by Tommy Conwell. It's not from the Guitar Trouble album. Can't be. That would have worked and nothing else here has.

Here I Come

New Guitar

My left-hand fingertips are very sore. However, the item pictured below is not the primary culprit. It was my old guitar on which I had nearly blistered my fingers as I convinced myself that I would play a new one enough to justify its purchase.


That means that I did not drive straight home from the guitar store and play my fingertips off since they were pretty raw already. (I can feel them just typing this.) But since another of my rationalizations for laying out way too much money for a guitar was that I would use it to record, I had to try recording it.

The guitar has electronics that let you plug it in just like an electric. When I tried that, it sounded like most acoustic guitars sound when you hear someone play them in concerts. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't the rich, beautiful sound that you hear on recorded songs -- and that I could hear from the guitar. So I tried this:


That's an electronic newsgathering microphone I use with my video camera. And, as you can see, I didn't have a regular mic stand for it so I had to balance it on my right thigh as I played. It looks awkward but it works and the results are the kind of sound I was looking for.

Then in my trusty Sony Acid Music program, I duplicated the guitar track then staggered it so that they were about 1/10th of a second apart. Then I panned each track so that one played only in the left channel and the other in the right. This creates a good stereo sound and makes it sound like there were two guitars.


Yes, I know it's only two chords. I know the lead guitar is unfocused, meandering and imprecisely played. And I know that the drums are the same ones I used for Big Room Boom. I just wanted some sounds to fill in around the acoustic to hear how it sounds.

New Acoustic Test