Whitey's workshop

Why is Brian Wilson so Important?

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 20:37:00 -0400

Brian Wilson is one of three brothers in the Beach Boys. In the Beach Boys Brian was the main character, the man with all the solutions. He was their composer and arranger. Brian was a musical genius, while everyone in the group could sing and was a very important member of the group nothing of the Beach Boys could have been done without him. The Beach Boys or Pendletones, which is what they were originally known as, started off as a small band of brothers and friends in California. In 1961 Brian Wilson wrote his first original melody which would later become the top ten hit Surfer Girl. This musical talent from Brian helped get the band together and gave them their first hit in the studio. After Surfer Girl hit the charts the Beach Boys had been born. Brian would right all the songs for the Beach Boys. Each song had sounds layered perfectly in it. Between the intricate layers of lead vocals and backup singing or the drums and bass the band got its own one of a kind sound that made them unique.

The Beach Boys now had a sound and a hit, but they needed more songs to give them something to play and record so that they could upgrade their recording contracts to better studios. Brian Wilson sat down and began to write hit after hit for the band. Songs such as 409, Surfin Safari, Surfin USA, Little Deuce Coupe, Fun Fun Fun, Good Vibrations, and so many more hits that prove Brian’s genius was endless.

Even though Brian had his moments of true genius he also had his downs and his run ins with death. After doing shows for years Brian became afraid of the stage he feared having to perform in front of the huge crowds, so he turned his path to drugs. Before nearly killing himself with drugs he was turned towards a recovery center that gave him the help he needed to recover from his addiction and his run in with the devil. After years of rehab Brian Wilson was able to come back and perform and be out in the eye of the world again. Early in the 2000s Brian finished and mastered the Beach Boys greatest album, “Smile”. Brian had been to the promise land then to hell and back. Although Brian had had his downs he still was the greatest song writer of his time and is without a doubt an influence to everyone. He influenced all music of his time, including The Beatles, and that is why Brian Wilson is the most important song writer and musician to this day.

this is my Alien video game soundtrack. My video game is a game...

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 10:20:00 -0500

this is my Alien video game soundtrack. My video game is a game that takes place in space when a young army recruit moves up the ranks of the space army until he eventually leads his troops to victory on an alien planet. In the song i started of by building the sounds that i was going to use. Using xpand and vacuum i created sounds combining pad synths, synth leads, and bass. Also added onto the sounds was arpeggiation. I made 7 different tracks and then moved the melody and chorus of the song throughout each of them. Onto each track i added compressors and EQ to make the sound more clear and also to get the more spacey sounds that i wanted. Other than EQ and compressors I also put on reverberation onto the song, created in some spots the effect of coming or going giving the song effect and making the listener pay attention to what is going on in the piece. The last and maybe most important thing that i did to the sound was i did tons of panning, or moving the sound from left to right, that makes your ears wonder where the sound is coming from at all times. In place the sound is moving from left to right so quickly you may believe your spinning and being tossed from side to side. Over all i believe that this song is the perfect piece for a spacey creepy type of game. Enjoy Lost in Space.

This piece here is a simple combination of some bass synths,...

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 11:56:57 -0500

This piece here is a simple combination of some bass synths, synths, bass, and drums. I first started out by finding a drum beat for my song. I put 4 different beats into Xpand on Pro-tools and then from there started to perfect each one to make it sound better than it was before. After i had the drums just right i tried to find the rest of the instruments that i would use in my song. Using Xpand i found 8 bass sounds that i used and and 7 different synth sounds to use. When i was mixing the bass it was very hard to mix it so it would clip. For the bass i put the gain up and the thresh down, by doing this i kept the big bass sound without it clipping. Also on the bass I raised the bass EQ making a richer sound. For the synth i brought out the treble to make it more noticable with the bass and drums going behind it. Also to make it a little more interesting i put panning on the bass and the synth, so it goes from side to side each measure. also i added some reverb half way through and then i moved it back down to create a going away and coming back effect. I think that the improvements i made to this mix made it the best it could. I hope you like what i did to my Big Bass and Drums mix.

this was pretty cool

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:46:02 -0500

this was pretty cool

This is my first try at making a song in protools. For this song...

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 11:37:00 -0500

This is my first try at making a song in protools. For this song I used loops preset in protools making a nice little tune.

This is my first song that i have mastered using Protools. This...

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 11:37:37 -0500

This is my first song that i have mastered using Protools. This is a nice little blues with two drums, a left and a right, a bass, a rhythm guitar, another solo guitar, and last but not least the organ. using the mixing panel to move the sound levels, panning, EQ, and the harmonic chorus i have synced these tracks to sound great with each other. The ability to use Protools has made mixing so much easier and precise. Enjoy Raif in the Snaif Blues.

Tom Dowd in the studio, and his slides.

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 10:59:25 -0500

Tom Dowd in the studio, and his slides.

Who is Tom Dowd?

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 10:58:32 -0500

Tom Dowd was an amazing man of music. He was born in Manhattan into a family that was greatly involved in music. His mother was an opera singing and his father was a concertmaster. From a young age Tom was involved in playing and studying music. When he was a child he learned how to play the piano, violin, tuba, and string bass. He also played in the high school band while he in school. After high school Tom went to the City College of new york where he continued his music education. Dowd also playing the band at Columbia university where eventually he became the conductor there. While Dowd was still in school he was drafted into the military.

In the military Tom Dowd was assigned to help develop the nuclear bomb to be used against Japan in World War II. Tom was learning things about science that no one else in the world would know for years to come. When Tom was finished with the military he returned to college to learn about the sciences. the only problem was the what they were teaching was wrong and Tom knew it, but because of a government secrecy agreement he couldn’t say anything to dispute what was being taught. So instead of staying in the sciences and being taught what he knew was wrong Tom decided to study music and become a studio engineer.

Tom was hired by Atlantic records and started to produce big hits like “If i had known you were comin’ i’d baked a cake” which was his first big success. After that he started to record people like Ray Charles, the Drifters, and the coasters. When he started in recording the only way to change levels was to use big knobs that were hard to manage. so Tom decided to made his own way of changing and bringing out instruments. He created the sliders used in changing sound levels in instruments so he could bring out instruments or fade them out with one hand instead of having to occupy both hands. Tom Dowd also became the first to use 8 track in recording. Tom Dowd was so far ahead in using 8 track that the recording engineers in England didn’t even know such a thing existed, but Tom opened up a whole new world for recording making it possible to record bigger bands with a better sound.

Tom worked in music from the 40’s up until he died in 2002. He spend almost his entire life devoted to music and improving how people listen to it. Tom Dowd was born into music and he died still loving it.

In music tech we were sent this little movie that i like to call...

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:54:31 -0500

In music tech we were sent this little movie that i like to call lego breakdown. At the time we got it it had other music to it that did not really fit with the video at all, so our task was to take out the old sound and put in our own little sequences that will match the video better and sound much better than the original song that was with it. After watching the movie several time i figured out what i wanted to do and put it down. So now we have the finished product of LEGO Breakdancing.

"TIMMY"

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 21:22:55 -0500

“TIMMY”

- Timmy

My best friend MIDI

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 11:35:39 -0400

When MIDI was created it was almost a revolution in being able to create new sounds and do hundreds of new things with keyboards and computers. MIDI is a code that enables the keyboard to interact with the computer. It tell the computer note on, note off, velocity, and what note is played. MIDI also enables keyboards to interact with one another so instead of being a keyboard player having to run around playing many different keyboards you can just change the sounds that one keyboard makes and use only one. MIDI is the essential for recording especially at home. With MIDI you do not need tons of different instruments just a keyboard and a keyboard player. Also with MIDI many different tracks can be played at the same time. For example, you can play a synth guitar and a bass at the same time. Since the time that MIDI has been created it has evolved from only being used on keyboards. You can now find MIDI used on guitars, drum pads, and even wind instruments designed to be plugged in with MIDI. With MIDI you can do anything even play drums on your clarinet.

This is a little 45 second track that I made as an end of the...

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 11:26:00 -0400

This is a little 45 second track that I made as an end of the quarter song for music tech. Everything in the song i played on the keyboard and using MIDI changed the sound to fit what i needed it to do. I have synths and sort of AB and then somewhat of a resolution theme to it. I multi-tracked loops using what i learned from Les Paul and then i put a chorus on most tracks. This is a good track that i am proud to have created. This song is called the Chase.

This is just something that thew together during free time in...

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 11:47:00 -0400

This is just something that thew together during free time in class. It’s basically just beats and synths. Almost every synth is multi-tracked and then chorused. Because this was random i’m going to call this one pancakes. Enjoi

This is a little thing i did with the voice recorder on...

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 10:40:00 -0400

This is a little thing i did with the voice recorder on garageband. I read and exert from Alice in Wonderland. I read the entire exert down then i split it into all the different parts like the Mad Hatter and the March Hair. After putting in the splits I put in mostly vocal transformers to chance my voice so that it would fit each part. After my reading i made a little remix of what i had read putting in bits and pieces from what i read and combine them with beats and synths. Enjoy Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland

"A band that sucks together plays together"

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 22:17:00 -0400

“A band that sucks together plays together”

- M. Joseph Fischer and M. Blackman

Second song out of music tech using a simple AABACA sturcture....

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 11:44:00 -0400

Second song out of music tech using a simple AABACA sturcture. This song has so much going on the first time through it may just sound like to much, but go through it another time and see how much you like then. I have all points of music here dance beats, metal guitar, singing, blues guitar, bubbles, synth, shakers, acoustic guitars, grand piano, and even a crowd cheering. So much stuff for the listener to try and pick out. The use of multi-tracking and different layering helped to make this track what it is. This song sounds best when blasted, so blast it and hope you like Agents

Les Paul

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 20:59:58 -0400

Les Paul is a very talented, because in his life time he has become the most influential man in music today. without Les Paul’s innovation with electronics we may not have the technology of multi-tracking, re-verb, the electrical solid body guitar, and many other great innovative ideas that the one and only Les Paul could think of. Les Paul revolutionized how we think of music and how it is made. Other than being an inventor he was also one of the greatest guitar players of his time. He took advantage of every opportunity he could get, and it is in those little two minute opportunities that he took advantage of that made him who he is know as today.

so much stuff going on see if you can pick it up and follow the...

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 10:48:00 -0400

so much stuff going on see if you can pick it up and follow the guitar all the way through and pick out the drums. Enjoy Raif