Moot Booxlé Dot Com

(This is a re-post from my Blogspot, which is going away. Originally posted 6/30/2009.)

Is it possible that my years of carrying a tape recorder in my pocket could be over?
Since 1999, I’ve used a tape recorder for everything: musical idea sketchpad, diary, confidant, “audio camera”. Some of the best and worst moments of my life have been captured on cassette tape.

Enter the iPhone 3G S. I finally stepped into the 21st century and bought the newfangled gadget, and now I’m finding myself using it for everything. Camera, memo pad, Twitter, Facebook, Email, iPod, game machine…and oh yeah, it’s a good phone too. I can talk inside my house now!

I got curious about its audio recording capabilities and a few searches led me to this app: http://www.sonomawireworks.com/iphone/fourtrack/
I was skeptical at first, but I went for it…and it’s amazing. Does everything it says on the label, and does it well. I can record a song idea very quick just using the standard earbuds/microphone that come with the phone. And when I’m done, I can transfer the raw tracks via WiFi to my studio computer and work on my idea further, or just make a mix for archival purposes. Very cool.

So I was driving home last night from a friend’s house and thought…ok, now that I have what amounts to a mobile studio in my pocket, what can I do with it that was never possible before?
Hey, I know! How about I record a whole song while driving down the interstate!
Without any thought, I put the phones in my ears, opened up the 4-track app, and laid down a vocal “bass line” to the built in metronome. By the time I rolled into my driveway, I had a vocals-only version of “If You Want Me To Stay” recorded, start to finish.
I put it in the computer today and couldn’t resist throwing real bass and some synthetic drums on there, but I left it alone otherwise. I wanted to preserve the spontaneity.

So here it is, for your listening pleasure, my mobile cover of Sly’s “If You Want Me To Stay”, more or less exactly as-is, except with a little EQ and the aforementioned bass/drum overdubs.

Just picture me driving down I-75 at 2AM while doing this.

CLICKETH HERE
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Comments (3) Nov 09 2009

(this a re-post from my Blogspot, which is going away. Originally posted 10/7/2009.)

As I unearth them, I’m going to start posting some of the more “interesting” writings I’ve done over the years. Here’s one I wrote somewhere around April 2000 (before I started putting dates on everything).
This was a series I did by drawing random lines in old textbooks, then making sentences out of the words inside the lines. Yeah, I didn’t pay much attention in High School. This is the kind of stuff I would do. Without further ado, here’s:

Which future; They expect presently to restrict themselves, not become involved in that available to all. Instance: old man and so forth, despite the needs, is a child. A skinny feels guilty if he weighs…while both seem they are trying. Themselves, they do not see the problem. For example, many are unable or unwilling when they’re sober. But they are in a fog. They can also avoid the obvious, really. Since there is, it would be, which would point. Some pleasant experience is to accept the incoming. Reinterpreting that impulse coming from an injury makes them feel good. You imagine it ready to drill you. Developing these opposites reduces pain. In addition, he had his family. During these periods, he became irrational. Any process is normal, mainly caused by oxidation. Oxygen is a fresh development.

Hey, I didn’t say it was going to make sense. Or even have complete sentences. However, I feel that the last sentence really sums it up. Fresh.

Later on….
MooT

Comments (1) Nov 09 2009

When is music not music? At what point does a musical artist cross from the realm of musical performance into the realm of performance art/theatre?

I ask myself this after watching a news segment about concertgoers walking out on Britney Spears in Perth, Australia recently. Apparently, they were shocked and appalled that Britney wasn’t singing live; she was lip-synching the whole time. I’m shocked myself. Shocked at the fact that they didn’t see that coming!

It’s common knowledge (or so I thought) that lots of pop artists use pre-recorded tracks live, including, quite often, their vocals. This is usually to insure that the audience gets to hear actual singing while they do their crazy choreography, instead of them just huffing and puffing through the song.

Milli Vanilli where are you now? Those guys (minus the one that died) have to be pretty disgusted by this modern pop landscape. Their career went into the toilet when the fans found out that not only were they lip-synching, the voices being heard were not those of Rob and Fab, but studio singers. Imagine how different that scenario would have been if they had debuted in 2008 instead of 1988. In this day and age, a savvy producer can take any bum off the street and make a passable performance out of their off-key warbling. I don’t know how much actual singing talent those dudes had, but it’s for sure that if they’d had the technology that we do now, any lack thereof could have been masked and a huge scandal avoided.

So let me get this straight. Almost two decades ago, a major record label (Arista) dumped a huge-selling artist for lip-synching live, but today, it’s almost encouraged, expected. Talent seems to be secondary to performance ability and image. As long as the “artist” has the look and the moves, the rest (the actual MUSIC!) can be manufactured in the studio.

Aussie Britney fans, I feel your pain. But at the same time, I’m shaking my head in amazement that you are fans of this manufactured product, yet you actually expected to get an authentic experience out of her live show. Don’t you see that it’s not about the music? If you’re a fan of the music, good for you. But that’s not really the point. The music is merely a vehicle by which money travels from your pocket into someone else’s.

I’m pretty much done ranting now.

Keep it on the ONE y’all.

MooT

PS: Remember when the Black Eyed Peas were a Hip-Hop group? Those were the days…

Comments (10) Nov 09 2009