For the WIN!  This thing is amazing.  Imaging Auto-Tune that can access each note individually within a polyphonic stereo audio file.  

http://soundcloud.com/jeffschmidt/ruiner-severhead...
I did my "nice" remix of the Imogen Heap vocal track "The Song That never Was" in the previous blog post.

It's time to let Ruiner Severhead hit that shit.


The song is supposed to be about the first day of school.


cute.


Ruiner HATED school!


feel free to download for better sound.


for free. to kids.







Some production notes for the insanely curious.

The main bass line is the American P Bass running through a modified "synth" patch on the Boss GT10. It's NOT midi.

Guitar sounds are both actual guitar and piccolo bass. Although - once it hits the scrotum smasher - all that shit sounds the same anyway.

All the texture type effects were created from recording the sound of the Larkspur Ferry I ride into San Francisco every morning. I recorded "down below" near the back where engines are. I put the sound into a granular synth and tweaked.

I also changed the vocal melodically by pitch shifting various notes to support the harmonic minor flavor. Gives the track a totally different feel.

enjoy.

[cross posted from www.beautiful-bass.com/weblog - cuz that's how I roll]

Short version - I remixed an Imogen Heap track and you can hear it here.



If the player doesn't work for you try this link



Longer version.

Twitter. It's all about Twitter.

I follow a few artists I admire on Twitter. Among them is Imogen Heap.

As part of a promotion called "Twestival" to raise money to improve the quality drinking water in impoverished regions, Imogen Heap released the vocal tracks to a song that was never produced. She only had the vocal parts.

FULL DETAILS HERE

So I downloaded the tracks and built the song you hear above. You can do one also - till mid March 2009 I think.

I played / programmed / produced everything - there's bass, drums, guitars, synth, sound design. All the stuff I most enjoy doing. Playing, writing and knob-tweaking.



Owing to nothing more (i'm sure) than the high quality vocal tracks from Imogen - this is the most commercial sounding thing I've ever produced.

Of course, I also just ADORE Imogen Heap. She writes great songs, has a gorgeous voice and is a killer producer/sound designer in her own right.

She's the real deal, and time totally vanished for me while working on this track. That's a sign I think. :)

Secret evil plan part ii has me considering doing another take on the track all together.

But then again - maybe not.

Hope you enjoy. Donate - and try your own version!

Goin old school bitches!

Like I mentioned in my Sporadic Gig Syndrome post - I opted to flesh out some new ideas for my house concert on friday night (with Steve Lawson, Lobelia & Gustaf Fjelstrom) rather than boning up on my Outre material.

As I don't have any gigs lined up right now - I don't feel any incentive to keep working on these tunes. Just how I roll.

So I figured I'd record them as they stand now for posterity. And also to remember what the hell I played 5 months from now when I want to finish these things.

Then - it hit me. I should record them to the Fostex G16 tape machine I picked up over the summer. I had yet to use it. It would be a great test.

This vid blog documents the effort. Well - about 9 minutes of it. It actually took several hours.


Jeff Schmidt Video Blog 7 Jan 09 (Demo ideas on Reel to Reel Tape) from Jeff Schmidt on Vimeo.

The video only includes samples of tracking 2 tunes - but I got video on all of the complete tunes. I'll put those up in another post when I get some time to knock it out.

Video takes FOOOOOOOOOOOOREEEEEEEEEEVAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!

Wanna see me and others play weird/strange/cool/lovely bass music LIVE?

I have a gig coming up.

No shit.

Me - Jeff "How come I never get to see him play live" Schmidt. :)

Its a house concert in the San Jose area on Jan 23rd around 7:30pm - the Nerd-Farm Solo Bass Hootenanny! where I'll be joining Steve Lawson & Lobelia and Gustaf Fjelstrom. It's a casual but cool affair.



SEATING IS LIMITED - RESERVE your seat at this website.

I haven't played a proper show in a few months. This means I've forgotten how to play many of my tunes.

It may come as a shock - but I actually don't sit around playing my own music much.

So if I'm not gigging - I'm not playing the tunes. If I'm not playing the tunes for a few months - I forget how to play them.

They are, if I do say so - pretty frakking hard for me to play. I can't just "wing it". Wish I could.

In 07 I was playing gigs with such regularity that keeping my material in shape was easy.

But last year was reeeeeeeeealy mellow on solo bass gigs for me. Mostly by choice - but still.

So now, when someone asks me if I'm into doing a solo gig - all I can think about is the time and effort needed to bone up on my own music. Add a certain amount of laziness on my part and you start getting the idea.

That's Sporadic Gig Syndrome.

You should've seen me - hitting Youtube - watching my own stupid videos trying to figure out how I played some of that stuff. I'm such a tard.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS: vote for your fav in the comments!

A.) lower my standards - don't practice & wing it!

B.) gig more. duh.

C.) write simpler music I can play without much prep.

vote now.

Anyway - it seems I'm fated to create music I'll need to incessantly practice. My cross to bare. Weep for me.

My feeling right now is that I'm probably not going to play much Outre material for this engagement. We'll see.

The idea of playing some of my newest musical sketches is far more exciting than spending hours re-learing/practicing older material.

I think I can safely say I have no "hits" that I'll need to play to "please the crowd" - so this shouldn't be a problem. :) If you plan on attending - and this is a problem - speak now cuz I'll have to work on it if you want to hear something. Otherwise I'm going rouge bitches! :)

Does anyone else have Sporadic Gig Syndrome?

Does anyone else write music they forget how to play?

Does anyone want to help me get - ya know - Frequent Gig Syndrome?

Drop a comment.

House Concerts are all the rage now cuz it's easier to put on than at a "proper" venue that often needs 200 people drinking expensive drinks in the house to make it worth their while.

If you want to put on a House Concert just drop me a note and we'll work something out.

50% cowbell - 95% Walken

	Make your own at MoreCowbell.dj

This is pretty epic for jazz fans -

Handwritten notes documenting advice from Pianist Thelonius Monk - captured by Saxophonist Steve Lacy circa 1960.

KFOG Program Director Dave Benson, the biggest jazz fan I know, came in contact with this jem and passed it along to me. It's great stuff. As Benson said - "you just want to have it framed"!

I'll have to settle for having it "blogged" or . . . am I'm sure Monk would cringe - "Myspaced".

Click on the image to see the bigger version.

The most ironic bit to me - Monk saying "Don't play all those weird notes - play the melody!" Classic.

My favorite - 'Whatever you think can't be done - someone will come along and do it".

You know what they say - Learn it, Love it, Live it.

The hating whitey bit at the end is a close second. ;)

As I've discussed on my Beautiful-Bass blog before and pointed out ELSEWHERE practice is a HUGE part of achievement.

The idea of being "gifted" or possessing "innate" ability/talent is massively over stated in the explanation of why some people do amazing things. It's easy to see an elite musician perform and think "they're god" but that totally ignores the DECADES of dedicated practice and motivation that came before the performance.

And here, as Malcolm Gladwell covers in this great interview - we learn luck & circumstance ALSO has a LOT more to do with it than we'd often like to admit.

But you know that - we've discussed that also.

This was interesting to me because it answers the problem I had with the "practice" issue. While all elite musicians are dedicated practicers - not all dedicated practicers are elite musicians. Gladwell suggests that Luck, circumstance and environment (mostly outside of our control) are the other elements that result in success when combined with dedicated practice.

Bottom line - it's not good enough to not suck. It's not good enough to be good enough.

I think about what it must have been like to grow up in the Marsalis home, or the Wooten home. Everyone playing and experimenting with music. Clearly, that kind of shit makes a HUGE difference.

..





My vote is for Gladwell and JMJ to trade places for 2009!

I wanna hear Gladwell throw down the bass line to March of the Pigs.

Ahhh the holidays.

I'm without my bass in the arctic wonderland known as Upstate NY. Which pretty much looks like this in every direction.



I do however have my fancy computing device which affords me the ablility to mangle and mix sound. That's where YOU come in my fearless bass pioneers!

YOUR MISSION:

I want you to send me a bar or 2 of your bass playing OR other any other instrument you play.

I'll collect all the riffs I get and produce them with my laptop toys over the next week.

I'll post the results (for better or worse) on this blog and throughout the interwebs with full credits to everyone who participates.

Or - if you prefer - I'll leave your good reputable name off this auditory abortion leaving your participation totally anonymous. Your call.

For the sake of simplicity / interoperability there's only 2 rules.

Play to a click/metronome with a tempo of 110.

Play in the key of E maj.

You can play in ANY mode of E Maj - but please confine your riffs to the key of E Maj.

Play in any time sig you want - just label what it is

Play with any effect(s) you want.

As simple or complex as you want. Doesn't matter. Don't overthink. Just hit record, play, save the file - and

SEND YOUR RIFFAGE TO ME

beautifulbass@gmail.com

mp3 is fine.

Letter loose kids!

DEADLINE - JAN 1.

but seriously. If it takes you that long to lay down 1 bar of 110bpm bass in E.....

Just found this wonderful headline on the wonderful interwebs.

STUDY: 85% OF ALL TRACKS RELEASED IN 2008 DID NOT SELL EVEN ONE COPY...

Here are a few random thoughts that popped into my cavernous mind on reading that.

A.) Duh . . . Most music just blows.

B.) Duh . . . of course it didn't sell cuz it was stolen/pirated

C.) Duh . . . People are only interested in buying Kanye records

D.) Duh . . . what do you expect when you let amature and hobbyist musicians put their music in online stores next great artists like Kanye.

E.) Duh . . . music continues to have the worst effort to payoff ratio of anything you can do with your time. Besides listening to Kanye.

F.) Duh . . . this obviously doesn't include indie artists. Or does it? Who knows - the article isn't clear. WTF?

G.) Duh . . . now I can't wait to begin working on my next internet music release!

H.) Duh . . . the internet is only good for finding free porn & bad news.

I.) Duh . . . you say Duh too much.

Original article HERE

What thoughts bounce into YOUR cavernous mind?

Alright bass masters. I Was messing around with "normal" bass tones (you know, those with normal bass strings ) and came up with this ridiculousness.

There's a simple 1 bar bass pattern repeated over a drum loop in the player below.

I play the pattern twice with 4 different basses. So, bass 1 gets two passes, then Bass 2 gets 2 passes etc...

Your job - guess which bass is playing which pattern.








DETAILS:

The basses are all running thru the EXACT same processing chain which contains amp mod, distortion, eq & compression.

The settings were not changed from bass to bass.

The basses I used - 2 Fenders and 2 MTDs.

The Fenders:
American Fender Standard P Bass (2008)
Made In Mexico Fender Jazz w/ Nordstrand J pickups (passive)

The MTDs
MTD American 535 (active)
MTD Kingston w/Nordstrand MM style pickup (passive)



I also played the pattern 1 extra time at the end with one of these basses using a bit crushy type distortion effect. There's nothing in the sound that really gives it away so take a stab with a guess for bonus points!

Enter your guess by email - outre@beautiful-bass.com

You can also register your guess in the comments of this post.

NEW: If you use Twitter - you may register your answer there as well. Just @jeffschmidt me your answer or send me a direct message. I've already tossed out a hint to someone on twitter. That's how I roll.

I'll pick a winner by random drawing from all the correct entries I get by 11:59PM (PST) Dec 31st 2008.

Winner gets a free copy of my CD Outre, a free copy of the ultra rare physical CD version of Ruiner Severhead - The Jesus Fist Tapes which was only sold at 1 live show - and a free copy of my next release (whatever that may be and whenever I might make it) I'm feeling good about new stuff in 09.

Happy Holiday & Good luck!

--jeff

Live performance version of "BOUND" from my Ruiner Severhead project.

It sounds remarkably like the recorded version. That's cuz the support tracks are directly from my original multi-track recording. The effects (pitch-shifting & my "smoke & cloud" delays) used on the fretless bass are also the same. The laptop was running Ableton Live and I was sending the fretless bass through a send/return in Live for real-time effects.

Performance wise - I prefer this take over the "studio" version in many ways. I think I was just more in touch with the vibe of the piece here than on the recording.

I used to be opposed to this kind of "backing tracks" performance thing.

But then I realized it's a tremendous creative tool.

I love working in the studio AND performing. It would be a waste to limit my studio or performance ambitions with some arbitrary rules about what is and isn't "allowed" in either sphere.

That's how I roll. ;)




To upload this video - I used a service called Tubemogul. It's a service that lets you upload a video once and then deliver it to several different video sites with a few clicks. You have to set up accounts on all the sites ahead of time though.

Below is several versions of this video from the various sites it was uploaded to.

It's pretty clearly how each service renders the video and it's relative quality.

Check it out if you're curious about that kind of thing.

++++++++++++++++++++


REVVER



IMEEM



MYSPACE

Jeff Schmidt Live Solo Bass [Bound-ruiner severhead]


GOOGLE VIDEO

..

VIMEO


Jeff Schmidt Live Solo Bass [Bound-ruiner severhead] from Jeff Schmidt on Vimeo.


I think it's obvious there are quality differences.

But what matters most to me is traffic.

The same videos posted at the same time across several video sites are viewed and commented at different levels.

One thing is clear. There is YOUTUBE . . . and there is everyone else.

YOUTUBE is the hit - everyone else is playing the long tail.

In terms of ease of use - Vimeo took the longest to upload, process and finally go "live". Almost 2 hours. And that was after a failed upload thru Tubemogul had to be deleted.

Your milage may vary.

I didn't have a regular performance video for my song TRYPTO - so I loaded this one up.

MySpace friend Nathan commented - "it's not as bad as fingersmoran"

awesome.

enjoy!





I'll upload a few more pieces from this performance over the next weeks.

For the curious, bored, and/or insane - there's a gas mask version of TRYPTO out there on the internets and webs that almost no one has seen.

FENDER










and

SPINNY THING









One of these things ISN'T totally gay.

Can you tell which one?

;)

Of course - in order to make "Severhead Come Alive" - I had to figure out how to play that stuff as a soloist.

Yeah - I could've just put on a CD with the bass track dropped out. But . . . that's not really my thing. Besides - figuring this shit out is a blast.

So - I took the most studio wankery piece of the Ruiner Severhead project (a tune called "Don't Tase Me, Bro!" ) and made it the latest subject of Jeff Schmidt - video blog.

"Don't Tase Me, Bro!" - the studio version features massive studio trickery, heavy use of samples and all kinds of brutal processing. I think the session easily topped 30 tracks, and had GIGS of raw material - mostly noise made from horrible bass abuse. ;)

Here's how I figured out how to play it live - by myself. Just as noisy.

Check it out.



grab the original track - for free - to kids - no forms to fill out.

Direct Download the mp3 HERE.

or - just listen to it.



Easily, the most exciting thing for me right now is knowing that no matter how far I push my studio & production vision - I can still find a way to bring it to a live environment in a way that goes beyond mere "backing tracks".

That's where I need this stuff to be. No limits in the studio . . . figure out how to play it live later.


oh yeah - if you come to a Ruiner Severhead gig I'll let you hit the "Dont Tase Me!" button.

word