#Frail Autumn,, #Lyrics, #music, #songwriting

November, the Stereo and You…..My Friend. Synth experimenting.

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Photograph from WP free library.

Added some trial synthesiser sounds on top of the basic one guitar, vocal and drums. About four layers now. Keyboards are definitely not my best forte. So it is like my typing on this keyboard with writing. One finger at a time. I played an overlaying acoustic guitar too that sits quietly in the background. The chugging acoustic sound is still prominent, but somehow more broken up by the other’s introduction.

NOVEMBER, THE STEREO AND YOU…MY FRIEND.


THERE IS A LITTLE MORSE CODE S.O.S. CALL AT THE END.

Synthesised sound is pretty much on one level and repetitive. Also in overload mode. But it’s good to layer single note melodies because, if they marry well, some hidden sequence of notes may provide an avenue of thought as to a saxophone, trumpet, violin, background vocal harmony, etc. substituting the monotony of synthetic dirge. I can only play minimal presentations. So dirge it will always remain.

To be logical with determining a fuller sound of extremes, only human skill can add sound on sound which is ascending descending from lows to highs to lows; provides fractured or staggered rhythms of brass or woodwind, emotional delivery through breath control on a saxophone; or realises glorious sweeping notes dancing within the beauty of well played strings. Like cello or violin.

THE BASE TO FUTURE IDEAS FOR THIS SONG.

November, the stereo and you…my friend

Still got that photograph

Showing us kissing.

It was the darkness that night

That slowly turned my mood to blue

I was away for the day

I returned much later

With nothing much to say

But ‘Hey!’.

You shook me free from all my mad ideals.

Straight back to the days

When all we did was dance.

I suppose I’ve got myself to blame again.

I’m reckless and useless

A poor excuse for a man.

December, it’s Christmas time

And I am on my own.

Me and my whiskey breath

Watching the phone.

But it don’t ring

And you know that it won’t ring.

Coz your long gone.

And I’m left wondering.

What this New Year will bring.

On my own……..

SUMMERS THE TECHNOPHOBE UPDATE…..ELECTRONIC DRUMS ARE, AS YET, NOT CONNECTING WITH THE MAC M2 COMPUTER.

Currently played through headphones or monitor speakers. But not connection to the Mac M2 as yet!

It was a no go with the electronic Yamaha drum kit this morning. The lead I bought will not yet connect fully. My Mac M2 isn’t recognising the sound board/audio interface I used. Fed up more with technology nowadays. I am just swimming around in a dark lake of uncertainty. I have no clue what works with what, despite extensive reading if what to do on the internet advice sites. The photograph shows 1 Red and 2 Blue lights. Mine currently has the Red and Left Side Blue working. So, as yet, no input. Only Output probably. Also, I have read the instruction book of the Yamaha DD65 kit which shows how to use the Function button on the kit and set up the kit for computer acceptance. No joy at all. But there you go…….. Life’s little tests. Never mind.

38 thoughts on “November, the Stereo and You…..My Friend. Synth experimenting.”

    1. Still searching for others to be a part of this whole Frail Autumn malarkey cookie. Getting into a bit of a rock vibe presently. Much more upbeat and my true style. A cello on November is my firm ideal. And a beautifuly played guitar melody. Akin to that little opening ‘La, la, la bit. Wednesday Addams style .
      So I’m picking up the electric guitar more from tomorrow. See what happens tune wise. Another 5 songs (more upbeat) and I can create an album as you have done……well you’ve achieved it twice.

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    1. Cheers Shep.

      Always loved a cello sound. Some instrumental sounds just become favourites I suppose. I played trumpet at school so listened to a lot of others’ songs and sounds to see what it was about. Within these past months of learning it’s been enlightening Shep. What’s in my head as opposed to what’s been recorded are like chalk and cheese.

      But it feels great to finally get the songs out of my head and into some fashion form of reality. Now people can say ‘Yeh! But it could be better like this, that, the other’. And we’d try it out and say ‘Yup! Spot on’. This has been my little technical practice rehearsal for the next steps I suppose. It was nice to get the collective songs so far onto that blog the other day. A chapter now closed. Next step is to get together some rockier songs. Then, really chase after the rainbow and kidnap some musicians on the way to that Frail Autumn reality.

      Hope you are chasing down and creating some fine toons yourself Shep. All the best.

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    1. Yes. There is a Salvation Army hall in Aberystwyth. I’ve never been in there and never seen a band play around the town though. I may put it out on the ‘Events’ page on our local community collective emailed site in Machynlleth. They do a SwapShop too. Maybe I could get a tune or two from a few brass players for a swap for some jars of honey from Angie’s shop. 😉 Joking of course. Mind you. I did get a small solar panel electrical set up for the VeeDub Bus once. It was in exchange for a bottle of single Penderyn malt whiskey from her shop. 🥃🥃

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    1. There’s a system of skills exchange too Shep. Someone fixes your dripping tap in exchange for mending his/her broken chair leg. I think the taxman is onto that one though. I don’t think the Sally Army need a bass player to join them on God rest ye Merry Gentlemen and In the Bleak Midwinter at Christmas time though. So pounds in the poor box it is.

      Late on FaceBook last night, a local jazz band with four brass players, a keyboard player and a drummer uploaded a short 15 second video of themselves playing outdoors. I kid you not. I swear the internet algorithm is following everyone’s’ conversations…… Spooky.

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  5. Oh no about the drums and Mac not connecting! I hope you figure out the issue soon. I know how frustrating those things can be. I bought some mini microphones a couple years ago and it took me weeks to figure out how to get them to work with my old iPhone for making videos and achieve better audio.
    Gosh now I am going to look up Machynlleth on YouTube. As reading through your comments just reminded me you had told me about that village months ago and I had meant to find some walking tours of it or such.
    I continue to enjoy your musical progress, Gray. You are quite the producer.

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    1. It does say the kit can be used with Mac OS. So it will be something I’ve overlooked or a dodgy lead. I was reading the Apple Mac MIDI page advice last night. Then exhaustion overtook. So later today it is then…… I had issues with Apple mic connections changing from Lightning to USB C connections. Technology moves too fast.

      Mach is community driven centrally and there is so much countryside over the Powys County area it is a walker’s paradise. Sea and countryside in and around our area.

      I can’t produce my overall sound at all really. Not enough musical playing ability for scope. With others involved, and their particular style and sound to their playing creating synergy…..there will hopefully develop a unique Frail Autumn sound. Fingers crossed. Cheers Sheila.

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    1. Very nice watching that. Right in wintertime with no blossoming trees or colour, but still a very interesting watch. Lots of trees have been planted along the Main Street now.

      Those snacks were from the market day visiting curry ‘van’. Not a van at all but a very large vehicle. You could see all the countryside and hillsides around her. And spirals on the tree trunk bench too Sheila. I have walked past that bench hundreds of times. And walked down the Main Street thousands of times. 😊

      Just by that spiral bench area are the community gardens. And as she says, extremely eco friendly all over. Zero waste is the Machynlleth aim. Nice video. Cheers Sheila.

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      2. They had great big dug up areas in the Main Street and surrounded with safety fencing. Then they came back and planted them all. I don’t get to Machynlleth much now. Bit of a hermit. I remember your blog post about Ireland from a while back though.

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      6. I have actually been abroad about 6 times in my whole life. I have never had wanderlust at all. Not through fear of flying either. Just love the countryside and beaches here. You live in a large county with many types of vista. So you literally have the World within your north to south to east to west distances. That’s cool. Cheers Sheila.

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    1. Brilliant. I’ll have a look later Sheila. Yup! So much info my brain still hurts from yesterday. It’s supposed to not need a driver. Just an interface converter. Maybe Yamaha have an exclusive one. A bit like Apple control their products to make sure you buy their’s. Thanks for the link again. I have read some of the forums. Fingers crossed this is one I haven’t seen.

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    2. I have looked and haven’t seen this. Thanks so much for looking. It seems Yamaha are like Apple and corner their own market products. The UX16 interface to connect drums to computer is old now and not made anymore. People on eBay are selling them at high prices. As you say…..Ugh! So am still searching.

      But to be honest, getting this electronic kit at such a low cost is fantastic. My grandson loved playing on it. Hand drums selection and a bits of different sample music in his ears and he was happy for an hour. #44 was his fave. And headphones don’t make outside noise. Perfect. Also, it gives me a chance to practice some drumming to get new beats ideas to new songs. And I can plug it into speakers and so it can be played in a live situation too.

      I actually have a feeling I will sort the computer link out because I have Cosmically ordered answers to be sent down. 😊 Someone somewhere will have a UX16 interface lead in a bottom drawer. There I’ve sent it out, with a ‘best of luck’ wave bye bye, to the World. Cheers Sheila.

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      2. I was watching a UX16 Yamaha lead on eBay. Just before lunchtime he sent me an offer. £20. I snapped his hand off. So Cosmic interventions again! Never fails. And a comet was to be seen in the sky over the West as the sun set last night. Very cool it was. And we got the Northern Lights a few days ago too. Bless the stars and Universe indeed.

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    1. Cheers. The subject of the song is about male depression. I wrote it when nurse training as we were studying the subject on the social care module. As a male nurse it was something that really captured my focus. The song’s themselves? Now I can draw a line under them and record them again with other musicians involved. Get them brighter and with a more unique sound hopefully. I want to call them ‘The Template’s Project’. 😊

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      3. Aww, that’s so sad, Gray. My mom had Alzheimer’s and she was a wanderer. I thank Omniscience everyday that my dad lived long enough to care for her. Even though he didn’t do everything I had wanted for her it was still probably better than a care home would have. At least he did all he could with love for her. He softened so much at the end. Not like their early years. And I just had to trust him.

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      4. It’s difficult isn’t it. My Dad still lives on his own and does okay. He made his views known years ago that he will never go to a Nursing Home. Trust has to be there. It’s the person’s wishes that are paramount. Even a small window of voiced clarity, within the dementia, of choices made has to be listened to.

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      8. You treat patients as if they are your family. We were taught to imagine that a patient could be one of your family members. But with your actual family, skills are overridden by emotion. So you aren’t as effective with your close family members because it does affect your natural professional reactions. They seem to fly out of the window.

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  9. hi, Gray, so a few hours ago I noticed you posted something that looked pretty cool. there was a photo of you as a young man (dashing) and at the end an audio track. did it go away? because I can’t find it.

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    1. Yes there was a post. I was listening to the song last night and realised I hadn’t compressed the song. So it was bouncing around loudness and notes wise. It sounds very weird when that happens. You get pure imbalance and it all sounds off. The other problem when ‘bouncing’ the track for sending songs by email to myself, is that the Mac changes the quality format to cope with the email accepting the volume of song information. Like when you can’t send too many photographs by email. Musically WAV file is the best format for listening, but too large. Mac offers high end formats for iTunes, YouTube, etc. Why email and not MP3? Sending to email allows me to put songs in my iPad File app and then post on to here in WordPress.

      On re listening to a few of the songs uploaded here on WP, I do despair at the differences to be honest. But shrug the shoulders because at least the process of this GarageBand project I’m undertaking is being written about and discussed. And the songs are out there to be listened to despite the weird fragmented qualities they possess. As said in my little justification Mantra……it needs to be ‘Warts and all’.

      As said, all of the songs I upload here on WP sound completely different than from the originals on the GarageBand recordings. Here on WP they sound flat, muddy and lifeless when compared to what I hear on GB. I am no technical producer of any skill whatsoever, so cannot cope with mixing at all as yet. Or have the knowledge for properly handling compression complicity.

      Also, I never finally mix the tracks for tone, dynamic bite, individual instruments/vocals levelling properly, treat compression with respect or look at synergy in changing individual instrumental sound for mixing textures. Even getting at my true vocal sound either. I put my vocals in a little GB library box that states bright, classic, narration, natural (which doesn’t sound natural at all), etc. Using my decent mic like the vintage 1970s Shure SM58 is wasted. The ambience created is completely askew, and therefore so wrong for actual getting a decent listening experience. I just have no skills in this area. So I tend to sing in a brighter, cleaner, clearer way resulting in emotionless values. Singing out loud here in the house has a different ambience. Whether listeners like my voice or not is just the reality that not all people like the same vocal sounds. Some singers you like or love and they resonate with your soul. Others simply don’t mesh with your soul and leave you completely indifferent.

      I need to truly look into this conundrum further in reality really Sheila, because it’s frustrating knowing what the music sounds like in my headphones in The Den. Okay….the songs are still being played naively on instruments I have no skill or dexterity playing as a musician. But, despite playing naivety, the songs are far more clear and vibrant than here on WP.

      I bought the monitors/speakers for mixing properly too….but haven’t used them in earnest yet. Basically because it is far too complex for my current skills base. I’m caught up in so many learning curves. It gets overwhelming at times.

      Actually Sheila. I may turn this answer to your enquiry into a blog. So thank you for cosmically ordering my next upload. 😊 All the best to you.

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