firstly, two shows i’m doing this weekend:
1. friday, may 28, with sad brad smith and friends, at Heart of Gold, 10p. i’ll be playing drums, piano here and there, and bass guitar and melodica at the same time (it’s never been done before).
2. saturday, may 29, mucca pazza plays Do-Division Street Fest at division and damen at 7pm. http://www.do-divisionstreetfest.com/
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now, floyd, episode three (click it). i actually just decided that this was a floyd episode, as i didn’t approach it as orchestrally or intentionally as the first two. but, the melodica has sort of become my instrument of choice for floyd’s character, and, having bought a new melodica last week, i’ve been using it a lot. this one was also an opportunity for me to play more with all live instruments, except for that fake honky tonk piano and a fake keyboard sound. here’s the layout:
2 melodica’s
bass
drums
cowbell
conga’s
tamborine
piano sample
wurly sample
this track is interesting to me, but more repetative than the last couple. for that i appologize (especially if it bores you) but, the goals were as follows:
live drums – decent sounds, but i’m still working at figuring out how to get better live drum sounds. this was not a total success.
live percussion – a success in this case, as i havn’t recorded a live three instrument (or more) percussion section in my little home studio. worked pretty well i think
MELODICA! – my new melodica is pretty satisfying. and i’m loving how expressive it is, as a wind instrument, but easy for me to play, as a keyboard instrument. i also just love the character of it
eastern modal melodic work – this is a little vague, but by ear, i just used a lot of lowered 2nd’s and a couple of other little minory eastern sounding notes in my main scale for this piece. i also went for some flourishes in the part that were characteristic to my ear. this worked pretty well. sort of, almost phrygian.
groove – i’ve been feeling like making something a bit “funky” (as the kids say now), and this was another influence on this piece. the piece is really the product of a short “to-do list” of musical and sound ideas. the way that they all came together isn’t exactly what i expected from any of them individually, but that’s part of the fun of it, i think.
thanks for listening, as always.
also, my interview and performance on chicago’s WBEZ 91.5 FM aired on monday night! thanks to all that tuned in. i’ll be posting clips from the show shortly! so stay tuned!
j
Tags: floyd, instrumental, jon steinmeier, melodica, song a week
May 29, 2008 at 7:21 pm |
I’m so glad that Floyd is capable of “getting about some business.” He sounds so normal and well adjusted in this piece. I love the use of the Melodica and I love all the REAL instruments. Now I want to know if Floyd will find love.
I did not find this piece boring. It’s fun and makes me want to get about some business. Great joy Jonathan.
hugs
mom
May 29, 2008 at 9:07 pm |
thanks ma! glad you liked it.
June 9, 2008 at 8:28 pm |
Jon Jon,
How did you mic the drums on this? What did you do to them afterwards?
Andy
June 9, 2008 at 9:59 pm |
hey andy! welcome. D112 outside the kick, right near the head though, a 57 on the snare, pointed more or less aacross the head and an inch away back from the rim, and then two condensers as room mics, one on the floor tom side of the kit about 5 feet back and the other behind the drummer about 4 feet. this was loose, cause i had a problem with the stand for the second room mic, and didn’t use much of it in the mix.
afterwards, i’m still technically working on it.
but i’ve given up for now. a little eq on the kick, a little eq on the snare, messed a lot with how much room to have in there compared to kick and snare, and that’s mostly it.
what did you think? any advice?
j
June 10, 2008 at 8:44 pm |
My experience has been all trial and error and I think my room enters into it quite a bit. It’s a basement, so it’s got low ceilings. Currently I’m putting the kick mic 12 to 18 inches away from the resonating head, and I have a condenser on the snare, pointed right at the shell (trick learned from P Bessenbacher). Then my overheads are over the hats and floor tom or right shoulder. The overheads are equidistant from the middle of the snare. I’m going to mess with a basic X-Y pattern for overheads, too.
I usually eq, compress, and gate the heck out of my kick and snare mic, and bring them up in the mix just enough to support the overheads.
I never got good results with a 57 on the snare head…for whatever reason. Not a good enough engineer I guess. But it’s pretty standard so there must be something there.
June 11, 2008 at 1:02 am |
nice. i’ll try that! i gotta get on the compressor train, i still havn’t figured that out exactly.
bobby conn’s new favorite mic set up is pretty great. he mics the kick outside, probably 12 to 18 inches like you said, mics the snare with i’m not sure what, and has an equadistant V-pattern for overheads directly above the snare (about 4 feet up) and to the right of the kit, by the floor tom, both basically pointed at the snare head i think. those are both big diaphram compressors i think. it’s been sound’n really good, what i’ve heard.
the room is tough in my case too, low ceilings, small room, really dry.
June 18, 2008 at 10:55 am |
I LOVE this one!! based on my previous conception of Floyd, I don’t see him as much in this one, but maybe it’s just a new side of Floyd
I don’t get as much of a visual image from this one, but I definitely feel it – just not with my eyes. I can’t put my finger on why I’m so into this one, but I am!
June 18, 2008 at 11:00 am |
thanks nadia! yeah, it’s a bit more energetic and pro-active than the others. it makes sense that this is the odd-ball in the bunch so far. to me too. glad you dig it though! it was really fun to make, and unusual compared to other stuff i’ve been doing.
yay