I’ve been waiting for this. it feels like it’s been a long time. With the simplified protocols and integration, I can start jamming with iPad, use that as master clock, synch a DAW on the MacBook, and play along with guitar. Check out the video integrating two iOS devices:
I found out about the video and the tech via Synthtopia and the leading aps are being made by Finger, although Synthetic Bits‘ Funkbox is definitely in the mix.
What you see above is still, in my opinion, the best way to do this. Those pedals, in that order, with that amplifier, provide enough sonic options for me to do pretty much anything I want to with an electric guitar. There’ a lot I’m not capable of, in terms of both technique and technology, but right now my focus is on documenting what I can do, instead of encroaching into the territory of what I can’t. Quite simply, i want to be able to come home, plug a guitar into that set-up, and, should the moment so strike me, press the record button and have a document of that evening’s inspiration.
Now, of course I have the capacity to do just that with the present technology. Even if I don’t want to set up the computer and the A/D converter and Logic (or even GarageBand), I can just do like FBdN and record right to iPhone OS. Or I could use the old minidisc. I could even go right to an old cassette multi-track.
The problem is TIME.
Not that these things take time, but rather that I want to be able to take whatever I’m doing and bring it back into a digital audio workstation later. That’s no problem, unless there are going to be loops. And there are always loops. If a song sketch is off by even a tenth of a second, that means that after a minute, the deviation is 6 seconds – that’s not music, that’s chaos.
So the question now is: how can I get a master clock associated with an impromptu recording of a song sketch? Playing along with a metronome is not enough. Whatever device records the initial jam has to associate a bpm with that snippet, which can then control other music. I’m not sure this is possible.
The more sensible approach would be to take the impromptu performance as inspiration and then properly construct music around that, starting with the beat and locking in the time. Of course, this means recreating that moment of creativity in a very sterile setting. Much less fun and much more time consuming.
All of this would be a piece of cake if I (a) had no day job and (b) were fabulously wealthy.
This is Hector and Achilles, composed, arranged, mixed and recorded in about two and one half hours. It’s GarageBand with the gutar recorded via microphone through LabSeries solid state amplifier. the guitar is an early 70’s SG with strings that need to be changed. Some of the sounds were jacked from GarageBand extension packs obtained through bittorrent.
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Just spent the last two hours working on a new-is composition. I’ll post the draft a little later today. The song is called ‘Real Change’, which comes from remarks made by Jesse Jackson before a 1969 benefit concert by Cannonball Adderly. This project grows out of my displaced interest in becoming a DJ. That was not what I was after because I didn’t really contemplate doing anything live, and that’s kind of essential for a DJ. Anyway, I’ve used samples and mixed in live performance and Logic loops. It’s getting there and it’s definitely fun.
In recent weeks, I’ve committed myself to utilizing the various composition tools at my disposal, especially this computer. So I’ve been mucking about a lot in an effort to basically duplicate the experience I had with iMovie. While that has worked out well, I’m not satisfied with the limitations of the software. Having to go to the previous version to create clips with video manipulation and different speeds has been a chore, even though it has added more visual options. However, when push comes to shove, I would gladly give up the visual spfx and just enjoy the simplicity and effectiveness of the new program’s interface. In a way, that’s the most important feature of all, and not all those bells and whistles.
So this brings me to the Native Instruments I/O box and the midi controller for software instruments, and now it’s all about GarageBand. Lots of tracks, beautiful interface, loops galore for all instruments and voice. It’s plenty of bells and whistles with a (now that I got the hardware interfaces) friendly and inviting interface. I’m getting pretty comfortable pretty quickly, but I still haven’t done a ‘mic’d up recording’. That will have to wait till I address the issue of getting started.
So the options put me in mind of a complex dance. I can let the machine lead me, more so than in a long time when I just recorded to four track live with a drum pattern generated by a Zoom multi-effects pedal. Now, I can sequence directly, but it’s clumsy. The software is really encouraging loop development and provides numerous grooves, tempos, kits, fills, and everything else you could hope for.
My most successful compositions have been developed so that they would sound full and complete, even if only played by a single, six-string guitar. No effects, no amp, perhaps no pick. That, to me, was the DNA of a composition. I could then layer, overdub and jam at will.
Another decision is whether to begin with something (simple) and new, or try to create, from the ground up, a performance of a song for which I’ve (basically) decoded that musical DNA. I have started that process already, just to have a canvas from which to work. I’m bothered by having to hunt and hunt for exactly the right rhythm part for songs that I’m already acquainted with. I’m guessing that hunting will go easier when I’m doing that while conjuring a new composition. There are a few contenders for this, but so far nothing I’ve played while plugged into the I/O box.
And then there’s the bass…
So I have a ways to go, but I have gotten started.