I Write Songs At Home

The whole idea of this website was initially supposed to be to add an blog entry every time I wrote a song, for the purpose of promoting the creation and recording your own music at home. That would allow those kind enough to read to follow along in my progress. 

If you've been following along at your computer you've been nodding off and you've noticed that your computer has been collecting dust. I just have not been creating enough musical output, for a variety of reasons. That being the case, I thought I would widen the focus of the blog to include commentary not just on my own music, but on others as it relates to the music creation process.

A quick legal comment: one reason I was hesitant to cover music by others is the wild, unsettled universe of copyright on the web. I am now confidently aware of the concept of <fair use>. What that means is that as long as I use small illustrative clips of other people's music for commentary purposes only, everything in this blog will be legal and proper. It is analogous to one literary work quoting another, with attribution of course.

That being the case, the first musical influence I will choose to comment on became clear given recent events: Michael Jackson.

Since some who read this may idolize him, I will be honest--I believe with reasonable certainty that he actually did the criminal acts for which he was acquitted. I don't intend to argue the point--I'll just refer you to a book written by the uncle of one boy.

Still, that does not prevent me from being a fan of the music. 

There's a funny thing about the artists I believe to be pedophiles--that does not prevent them from creating outstanding work. Woody Allen went on to make Match Point; Roman Polanski, The Pianist; R Kelly, Trapped In The Closet. Does committing unspeakable acts and getting away with it somehow enhance the creative process?

I said I would be honest.

But back to the subject at hand: the influence of Michael Jackson. I can point to one particular song he wrote which made a huge impression on me as a songwriter. He did not even record the song under his own name, although he made a cameo appearance on it. The song is "Centipede", performed by his sister Rebbie Jackson.

Even at the height of their fame the Jackson family always said Rebbie was the best singer in the family, and I agree. Even so, in spite of the song being a hit her career never took off. 

What really impressed me though was not so much the song she sang but the flip side of the single. That was the same song without the lead vocal. It introduced me to a whole new way of listening to pop music.

When you listen to a song without the lead vocal you can hear things that were there all the time which you never heard before. As a songwriter it was a revelation.

Although I have heard Michael haters (incredibly) claim he did not write his own music, it is clear that he certainly wrote many of his biggest hits. What separates him from you and me is that in his position at the top of the musical food chain he had access to the best equipment, the best engineers--and the best collaborators.

I remember reading a musician's comment at the time (I'm sorry, I don't remember who it was) that as soon as he heard "Centipede" he said to himself, "that has got to be Michael Boddicker."

I had read a little about Michael Boddicker and I made it my business to find out more. As soon as I heard some of his music I knew what the musician was talking about.

Boddicker worked with Jackson as a synthesist and arranger. He was highly in demand for his original sounds (e.g., the opening synth bass sound in Luther Vandross' "Stop To Love" is his). The instrumental portion of Jackson's song behind the shouted lyric "Centipede!" was identifiably Boddicker's style. It was clearly sequenced and quantized. It is reasonable to assume that Boddicker performed a large portion of the instrumental version of the song.

One lesson I took from countless plays of that instrumental was that it did not matter how expensive the gear was that I had. I had enough. I did not have Boddicker's chops, but I could slow down my MIDI sequencer and put together a sequence of sounds just as elaborate as a professional.

Even though there was a world of difference between Michael Jackson's music and mine I could take my time and make it sound as though I hired Michael Boddicker. And so can you.

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Because this blog centers more around songwriting than singing or performing, the video in the sidebar "Gone Too Soon" shows an example of one of the extremely well crafted songs Jackson was able to give us. This slower paced example was not written by him but by Buz Kohan and Larry Grossman. Again Michael Boddicker added his magic to Jackson's version of the recording. I must admit though, I selected this version because in my opinion the performance in the video, taken from the memorial for Jackson soon after his death, was striking, better than he performed it himself.

Where To Get Music Tools Mentioned On This Page

Synth Bass

MIDI Sequencers

There are a couple of other things I might include in my standard band setup: horns and strings. I think what I’ll do instead is wrap it up here and consider myself ready to resume writing songs. I will go back and add those things if I feel inclined to.

I can easily use Kontakt for sampled horns and strings. The thing is I have always been particular about saxophone sounds, never being totally happy with sax samples. I am always looking for the next best way to recreate that beauty of an instrument. 

That is actually why I chose the Yamaha S30 I now use as my keyboard. It has a compatible slot for Yamaha’s PLG Series plug-in cards (officially called the Modular Synthesis Plug-in System). The expansion card I have, the PGL150VL, gives me access to saxes and other horns using Yamaha’s physical modelling synthesis. 

In addition to the S30 the PLG expansion cards can be used with other Yamaha synthesizers, including the S80, S90, CS6X, CS6R and Motif.

Since then I have found something even better. I already owned Reaktor before I got it as part of the Muse Research Receptor with Komplete inside. A typical Reaktor instrument looks something like the one shown here and virtually always has excellent sound.

Discovering that there were Reaktor instruments being created using physical modeling synthesis, I researched physically modeled sax and other horn sounds from Harm Visser. I almost pulled the trigger to buy them when I ran across a better alternative in the Reaktor User Library.

If you own Reaktor, you probably know about the Reaktor User Library. Here is a word to the wise: you’d better use it. My opinion is that the User Library, which is a searchable database of instruments and patches created by users and maintained by Native Instruments, is the biggest bargain in software synthesis. Although the theory of Reaktor is that you can build your own instrument, you don’t need to. Other people, people who are good at it, have already done it for you and continue to do so while you sleep.

Through the User Library I found an ensemble (Native Instrument’s term for an instrument), called Silverwood. The little bit of experimentation I have had a chance to do with it indicates that these physically modeled horn and brass sounds are the best that I have found. FREE, if you are a Reaktor owner.

Obviously, I have more experimentation to do. Bear with me while I take time to set that up. Stay with this blog to keep track. 

In the meantime, here is a snippet of another old song of mine, "Put On Luther", to give an idea of how I have been known to use sax and strings in the past. 

Also, you can take a look at a video demo of the Yamaha PLG plugin I have and the type of brass/horn sounds it can make.

Where To Get Music Tools Mentioned On This Page

Native Instruments Kontakt

Yamaha S30

Yamaha PLG Series Plug-In Boards

Yamaha S80

Yamaha S90

Yamaha CS6X

Yamaha CS6R

Yamaha Motif

Native Instruments Reaktor

Muse Research Receptor

Native Instruments Komplete

Harm Visser Acoustic Modelling Instruments

Silverwood for Reaktor

Here is what I consider the basic keyboards for my taste: acoustic piano, electric piano, organ and synthesizer. There can be many variations (and of course millions of variations for that last one), but my standard setup will contain just one version of each. After all, this is only for getting started on a song.

Acoustic piano is the easy one. I am using the Akoustik Piano application from the Komplete suite. It has many sampled piano sounds, but since I am not a pianist I am not picky. I’ll just take the first one. I can always choose another sound later if it is better for the song.

Native Instruments was kind enough to create the Elektrik Piano application to cover that end. Again, there are many sounds but before knowing which one is needed for a song I will just choose one at random for my standard band.

In my mind the best software emulation of a real instrument is B4 II, which emulates the Hammond B3 organ. I will settle on a rich organ sound as part of my setup.

Although I have access to Reaktor, the world’s greatest software synth, I will not make that part of the setup. I will only go to it as needed because it is so vast. Of all the components of the Komplete application the one I am most familiar with is Reaktor. I owned it before I decided to spring for the whole Komplete package as part of the Receptor. If you only buy one software synth this is the one to get. If you are not sure, check out the Reaktor User Library which is a free benefit of being a Reaktor owner. There you can see the extra freebies which are above and beyond all the synths and effects which come standard with the application.

Instead I will go with FM8, an FM synth emulation, to be my standard. Because I used to own a Yamaha TX802 and was able to convert my huge sound library from that to the FM8 I can select even an analog sounding patch from what I have to start myself off.

In this clip called "Watch My Smoke" I built a really keyboard oriented song. The background vocals were done by my now grown kids. 

Below the song clip is a video demo of a single instrument created in Reaktor. Remember, this is only one the unlimited number of instruments that can be created with the application.

Where To Get Music Tools Mentioned On This Page

Native Instruments Akoustik Piano

Native Instruments Komplete

Native Instruments Elektrik Piano

Native Instruments B4 II

Native Instruments Reaktor

Native Instruments FM8

Yamaha TX802

In putting together my standard band I start with the drums. Battery, which is part of the Native Instruments Komplete suite includes perhaps the greatest collection of sampled drum sounds ever committed to software. Of course, I would probably say that about every component of the Komplete application.

I am not familiar with some of the Komplete applications. That includes Battery. Some people enjoy the learning curve aspect of getting into a new application. I am not one of them. I like to just know and go. In a case like this I try to find out just enough to get done what I need to do and learn the rest later.

I do ultimately try to sit down and read the whole manual. I would STRONGLY suggest that you do that with any new application. Today’s software is so mature that doing so always produces pleasant surprises that makes things easier in the long run.

My original plan was to create a custom drum kit to be my standard kit, but Battery comes loaded with preset kits, so why stop being lazy now? A quick run through the kits and I made my decision. All of the kits sounded good, but I notices there were differences in how they were laid out on the keyboard. Because this is to be my standard and I normally use General MIDI format to set up my drums I chose the GM kit. I can always replace individual sounds when I need to.

A word about General MIDI drums: since the MIDI key layout is the same in all situations there is no need to ever get used to a new layout. That is why I settled on General MIDI for drums a long time ago, even though it was different from how I would have set up my drums. The geniuses who invented GM probably knew better than I what would work.

The untitled clip in the sidebar illustrates an early experimentation with the Roland TR-606 Drumatix drum machine. Although it sounded far from drumlike to my ears, it taught me that it was possible to make even primitive tools work depending on the situation. 

Also in the sidebar is Native Instrument’s own video about Battery.

Where To Get Music Tools Mentioned On This Page

Native Instruments Battery

Native Instruments Komplete

Roland TR-606 Drumatix