Monday 24 December 2012

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays 2012!!

Happy Holidays! Christmas Jazz Piano Improv video "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" 
 

Monday 10 September 2012

Jim's Tips & Tricks - MOOG Looping Jam 1/2/3

Sept. 7, 2012 - felt inspired to do a looping jam, using only sounds from my Moog Little Phatty.  The metronome of my BOSS RC-2 Loopstation is used only to start the jam and is dropped very soon after the rhythmic component is done.  I did three jams, they are all here for the viewing.  Thanks for watching!


Video Blog - Aug 31/2012 - INCURA keyboard rig demo #2

Another demo of my INCURA keyboard rig, sorry it was shot with an iPhone so the audio isn't a clean signal.  I wanted to get this done after a rehearsal so I had to just shoot it with what I had.  My last keyboard rig demo was made when we were opening for Apocalyptica, but the PA was turned off, so this time I can show you some of the sounds.  Thanks for watching!


Beach VLOGS!

Took my iPhone, iPod touch, Line6 Mobile In, my Strat and some headphones to Iona Beach.  Had a great time out in the clean air, jamming with JamUp Pro and my Korg Monotron Duo in video #1.

In video #2 I got the guitar out and jammed with JAMMIT on the iPhone, along with some of my favourite RUSH and YES songs!

Of course, because I was filming it, I had to bring my iPod touch in order to record the audio from the iPhone - I used Multitrack DAW and an iRig to get the signal in.  Enjoy!


Saturday 11 August 2012

Test for Echo (RUSH cover) - recorded in 1999!

Click HERE for Soundcloud link- TEST FOR ECHO

Recorded in August 1999 - thirteen years ago!

This was the last song I ever recorded to TAPE.  A Tascam Portastudio 424 to be precise.  This is a cover of RUSH's "Test for Echo".  I played bass, drums, guitar and sung the vocals.  The guitars and vocals were only ever meant to be scratch tracks but I never ended up redo-ing them.  Proud of the bass and drum work though.

This was back in the days before I'd ever heard of autotune, non-linear editing, drum replacement, or audio quantizing (I know it existed but I didn't know any of that fancy stuff!)

Iust put microphones in front of instruments and hit record.  I used to record 4 tracks of drums (using a submixer to mix to 4 tracks), then bounce to DAT.  Bounced that DAT mix to 2 fresh tracks of a NEW cassette then recorded two more tracks (usually bass and a rhythm guitar).  Bounced that to DAT - repeat and rinse.

Used an Alesis Midiverb II for all effects and an Ibanez guitar compressor pedal for the snare drum!!

Good old days:)  Enjoy

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Jim's Tips & Tricks: Late Night Analog and iOS Jam #2


Another late-night jam, writing a large piece of music right now, which is why I haven't uploaded anything in awhile - it'll all be worth it!  Decided to get out some gear and just jam it all up.  Korg Monotribe, iPad running Sampletank (controlled by Casio 88 note keyboard), and iPhone running Geosynth.  Took the time to record it all into Pro Tools to make it sound prettier.

Enjoy, thanks for watching!


Friday 20 July 2012

BASS Cover! Dancing Machine - Jackson 5

Using my favourite new app, JAMMIT!  This app is amazing, for MAC/PC and iOS.  Gives you the REAL master tracks to jam with, something I've wanted since I was a teenager jamming with my favourite CD's.  I used to actually record my own versions of songs mainly for the purpose of muting an instrument and jamming with them.  JAMMIT lets me do that with two of my favourite bands of all time, YES and RUSH!  There's lots of others to choose from too, including Dream Theatre and this song, by the Jackson 5 - Dancing Machine.


Can't embed this one, so click to visit!

CLICK TO VISIT ON YOUTUBE

A word about the great folks at JAMMIT and some of the complaints they've had to endure. People write reviews that say you can't use your iPod library, or that the prices are too steep. There's no way that any current software could remove particular instruments from the multitrack iPod track with any sort of accuracy. If one assumes they can use their iPod library then they're not quite informed on what this app is all about. Try some inaccurate centre-cancelling software in that case.

The prices? All I have to say is that the JAMMIT people had to go to the source to get to the master tapes of these artists, as a musician with a little knowledge of licensing and publishing, the licensing fees must be huge! These tabs/notations are the most accurate I've seen, and I don't mind paying $3-5 to get a version of the song with the bass/guitar/keys/drums/voice muted so I can "play with the band". Nuff said, just wanted to say something in defence of this great service. Thx JAMMIT!

Sunday 15 July 2012

Back at it

It's been a little while, I've been on tour with Incura, as well as playing bass for Jason and the Diatonics.  Having a great summer, but wanting to get back into the synthy video game!  Decided to explore MIDI control of another keyboard (my Moog Little Phatty) via the Shredder app for iPad.  Worked pretty well, all things considered!  It's analog pitch-MIDI conversion, so don't expect amazing tracking...the glitches kinda make it all feel part of the analog domain though.


Hope to do some more videos soon.  Gotta admit, getting banned from Adsense really put a kink in to my work ethic, but I wasn't really out to make money with this stuff, just have fun with music so I'll be back at it.  Thanks for watching!

Monday 21 May 2012

Banned unjustly, but not forgotten


Well, well, well...Looks like my adsense account has been disabled and will not be reinstated (after appealing).  It looks like I was click-bombed on May 2nd, seeing 30-40 clicks on my ads after normally generating much less - google first disabled my account due to "invalid click activity" and, then after I appealed it, stated that it would not be reinstated.  I will search for adsense alternatives, as I really enjoy making these videos, but they do take a considerable amount of time and, while I don't need to become wealthy with this, it is satisfying to know that I am even being compensated a little bit.

So, here is my last video song for at least the next few weeks while I figure this thing out, the aptly titled, VITRIOL!


Wednesday 16 May 2012

MASSIVE Genome Ipad MIDI Jam!!


Finally getting my brain in to the GENOME Midi Sequencer, by White Noise Audio. It is VERY COOL!

Using network MIDI, I've connected the iPad2 (running Genome/Arctic Keys/BS-16i/NLog Pro), to an iPhone 4 (running Sunrizer) and an iPod Touch (running Arctic Keys).

Also, via an iRig MIDI connector on the iPad, am sending a MIDI signal to a Moog Little Phatty as well. Can you believe this all works! I have a pretty strong WiFi signal, so the iPhone/iPod Touch work well and there isn't any discernible latency.

Presumably I could run my other iPod touch as well, with a compatible virtual MIDI app. I also have a MIDI splitter box, so the idea of sending to more MIDI hardware is also a idea (or by chaining with MIDI THRU).

The possibilities are great with Genome!

Thanks for watching!

Monday 14 May 2012

Moog Little Phatty Filter CV Explorations!

Part one is all about using pulses sent from an iPhone with the Korg Monotribe SyncKontrol software into the Little Phatty's Filter CV input.


Part two involved using an expression pedal into the filter CV input, playing my Fender Jazz bass into the external IN - the bass is completely processed by the Moog.


Saturday 5 May 2012

Beautiful May the 4th afternoon here, grabbed my Monotribe and a bunch of iOS devices and jammed on iMS-20, Kaossilator, Monotribe SyncKontrol and Geosynth! 

Tuesday 24 April 2012

New Stuff!

Been working hard on new material.  I'm currently working on a pretty heavy guitar-drum oriented prog song, with (I'm sure) a lot of synth elements once the framework has been laid.  Drums and scratch guitars are done, did some Chapman Stick too which is always fun.

Thanks for watching!

Saturday 21 April 2012

DEVINE Jam!

Just got the new DEVINE expansion pack for the Animoog! Was inspired by the cool new sounds, layed down a song, written as I went along exploring the sounds. Thanks Richard Devine and Moog - great sounds!





Thursday 19 April 2012

A little JAZZ THEORY!

Short lesson with some advanced jazz theory. Upper structure harmonies is a concept I learnt from Dr. Kurt Ellenberger. The idea is that you can create complex jazz chords by thinking about simple triads played over basic chords. Once this concept is mastered, you just need to transpose for other chords.

Older Moog Videos

Here's a link to some of my older stuff:

Animoog Mixed with Moog Little Phatty explorations

Animoog B.A.S.E (Biomimetically Augmented Synthesis Expansion) pack jams

New Blog!

Hey everyone, decided to have a centralized web presence to go along with the other smatterings of visibility I have on the internet.

This blog will be all about MUSIC, and the love I have for it in every facet - writing, recording, performing, jamming, exploring...  I will also hopefully have some reviews and thoughts about my favourite gear and some helpful lesson tips via my youtube channel:

www.youtube.com/jimmclaren1

Here are links to some of my latest works on my youtube channel

My first video song, RAKTATAK!

My second video song, PRELUDE AND FUGUE in J


And lastly, my late-night jam from last night.  Connected a bunch of my analog gear together and improv'd away for the better part of an hour.  Here's a clip of the first couple of minutes.



Thanks,
Jim