This one’s called “Final Words.”  Music and lyrics by Kim Pingul f.k.a Cocoa, produced and arranged by Kim Pingul and me and some extra assistance from Harmony Speaks.

This one’s pretty dark; Kim needed to get something off her chest.  This was the first rock/acoustic song I’ve ever produced, and it came out great.  I finally got to record my drums and bass and use the acoustic guitar recording setup that I outlined here. We’re pretty happy with the final product, and we hope you guys like the song.

Later on this week, Less will be coming through to record some material.  So we might be releasing new stuff very soon!

MsP’s staying real busy.  More coming your way, very soon!

-mnshyn

If you like what you hear, make sure you like this blog entry, and also make sure you are a fan (or nowadays make sure you “like”) this song which is also on the MooN ShynE Facebook Fan Page which you can be a fan of as well. Of course, while you’re at it, make sure you guys like the Vincent Facebook Fan Page and the Timmy Titus Facebook Fan Page to show your support!

Click here to download the track!

More coming soon!  Stay tuned!

-mnshyn

If you like what you hear, make sure you like this blog entry, and also make sure you are a fan (or nowadays make sure you “like”) this song which is on the Black and Blue Ink. Facebook Fan Page which you can be a fan of as well.

More coming soon!  Stay tuned!

-mnshyn

Fourth track off of Roll Call ‘10!  My contribution, “Casa de Luna [2 Seater].” This will appear on Roll Call ’10, and on ADM’s upcoming album “Chamber Waves.”  A mashup version with a rendition by ADM is also in the works and will also be featured on both albums.  This is a definite departure from what you’re used to hearing from me, as it is akin to the new house music that’s out today, combined with some elements of trance and other genres.  It’s also the first track that I’ve completed that uses Illformed’s Glitch plugin, which people have claimed that Timbaland has used it in past tracks for reverse, gate, tape stop and other juicy mid-bar effects.

More coming soon!

-mnshyn

My attempts at recording acoustic guitar were always fine.  Never great, but they could pass.  Now that I have my own acoustic/electric, I figured I can try to figure out what way would be best to capture a nice, thick sound.

Recording direct (whether it was acoustic or electric) always sounded dull to me.  There was just a certain tone that was missing, and I could never put my finger on it, whether it was the missing reverb, or just the way the pickups were bringing in the sound.

With an electric guitar, you can always use plugins to mess with the sound because electric guitars are manipulated in so many different ways today that you can record something direct, then use effects to get the desired effect later.  This goes for distortion, overdrive, flangers, chrouses, and whatever else.

Acoustic guitars are a lot more difficult, because the desired tone and/or sound for a majority of acoustic guitar uses will be very similar.  The differences may come in the way it’s EQ’d, or some style of compression or reverb.  However, that particular sound of an acoustic guitar cannot be created or be the product of a manipulation from an electric guitar and have it sound that accurate (at least during the time of this writing I haven’t found anything that would do that yet).  Of course you can get VSTi’s that have acoustic guitar sounds, but where’s the fun in that? =]  Especially since, unlike an orchestra or a chorus, you can buy yourself a guitar and a mic to record with for about $200 (of course at the very low end of the food chain.)

With an acoustic/electric, you have a choice of either mic’ing it up, or going direct, or doing both.  Neither on its own for me ever fit the bill completely.  However, recording both simultaneously covered all grounds and got me the sound I personally was looking for.

Keep in mind also that I don’t have a state of the art studio, and I’m stuck with an E-MU 0404 Sound Card with two mono inputs.  I do have a Samson MDR6 mixer, which I thought would be useful for me when I bought it, but realized after I wouldn’t be able to simultaneously record four tracks and be able to manipulate post-session.  I could, however, use two mics and feed them through one mono signal or two for a stereo, if I so desired.

The final setup that I came up with that got me the sound I wanted was the following:

1. Ibanez Acoustic/Electric direct with the bass slightly up into a Studio Projects VTB1 Tube Preamp  into one channel on the 0404
2. Audio-Technica PRO37 small diaphragm condenser mic at the 12th fret about four inches away + Audio-Technica 2020 large diaphragm condenser about six-seven inches pointed at the third fret, going into the MDR6,  then into the other channel on the 0404.

I then compressed both recordings softly and gave both a slight reverb.

The direct recording captured I’d say about 80% of the sound I wanted, but the mics gave it that extra 20%; that character and natural reverb.  I then panned one 25% to the left, then panned one 25% to the right.

I think it’s pretty good.  What do you think?

More to come people.  Stay tuned.

-mnshyn

Third track off of Roll Call ‘10!  K-Maculate’s contribution, “Terminicus,” featuring Black and Blue Ink.!  This will also be on Black and Blue Ink.’s upcoming sophomore effort, “The Lyricist Manifesto.”

And if you haven’t seen it already, check the previous post for ADM’s Promo Video for “Screamer!”

More coming soon!

-mnshyn

I created a really simple video in Motion 4 as a promo for the song “Screamer” on the upcoming “Chamber Waves” album due out July 1st, 2010 by ADM.

Click play on the video and it will automatically start in 720p HD. Or click the ‘YouTube’ logo in the video to see the video on their site. Once there, switch to 720p (in the lower-right of the video) and see a larger version with clean audio.

Enjoy.

That’s it for now………

Second track off of Roll Call ‘10!  ADM’s contribution, “Circumstance,” featuring Black and Blue Ink.!

More coming soon!

-mnshyn

I have to admit, I like the song Paparazzi a lot.  It’s mostly the melody though of the chorus.

I’ve heard the song played many times, and I always had deemed the song to be in C minor (relative major being Eb Major).  Usually I have a decent ear when it comes to chords, and I dismissed the whole song to be in C minor, and the chorus probably followed suit.  When the chorus comes in:

“I’m your biggest fan, I’ll follow you until you love me, Pappa, Papparazzi”

The sound of it seems to obviously be a very pop typical I-V-vi, or possibly a I-V(with the 3rd in the bass position)-6, in it’s relative major.

But I was wrong, and maybe next time I should actually learn a song first before judging it!  Being primarily a rap producer, you don’t go further than 2 or maybe 4 chords.  I play instruments for other genres though, and for the most part there aren’t that many key changes in the songs I play, but I usually call them when I play.  Having never played the song before, I found out, as always, assumption is the mother of all… you know the rest.

Ready for a little music theory?

==

Now before we proceed, I think we need a small review of major and minor chords.  If you’re good with basic major and minor scales, then you can move past this section.

The roman numerals above denote the chords in a particular scale, starting from the root upward.  Major chords are in capital letters and minor chords are in lowercase.  For example, assuming that the entire song was in C minor, the i chord would be C minor, the ii-o chord would be a D diminished, the v chord would be a G minor, and the VI chord would be an Ab Major.  The relative major of C minor is Eb Major  [To find the relative major of a minor, it's the iii chord in the minor scale; to find the relative minor in a major, it's the vi chord in the major scale].  So the I chord would be an Eb major, the V chord would be a Bb major (1st inversion, with the D in the bass instead of the Bb), and then the vi chord would be the C minor.

Sound confusing?

Here are the scales:

Eb Major Scale: Eb(I), F(ii), G(iii), Ab(IV), Bb(V), C(vi), D(vii-o), Eb(I)

C minor scale: C(i), D(ii-0), Eb(III), F(iv), G(v), Ab(VI), Bb(VII), C(i)

If you play the Eb Major scale, it will sound like a nice do-re-mi progression.  The C Minor, not so much, though that’s a conversation for another post.  As is, the C Minor scale looks exactly like the Eb Major scale if you started on C instead of Eb.  All Major and Minor (natural) scales work the same way, with their relatives.  To mix it up, composers will go between both relative scales (with some little added things) to make things sound extra good to the ear.

A lot of pop songs have a progression of I-V-vi.  Let It Be by the Beatles is a good example.   It’s in C Major, and the chord progression is C Major, G Major, Am (I,V,vi) in the first half of the progression of the verses.

==

Going back to Gaga, I assumed that the chords for the chorus would be Eb Major, Bb Major, then C Minor.

When I analyzed it, I found out it isn’t.  It’s still a I-V-vi, but not in that scale.  It’s actually in Ab Major.

But how does that work?

I’m glad you asked!  I owe it to my Music Theory I teacher who gave me this insight a few semesters back.

Here’s a clip of the song, second half of the first verse, into the chorus:

Let’s go over the chords of the song.

The intro is a C minor chord repeating.

The verses go: Cm, Ab, Cm, then Cm, Ab, Fm, leading into chorus.  It’s in C Minor Scale. (i, VI, i, i VI, iv)

The chorus goes: Ab, Eb, Fm, Db and repeats.  It’s in Ab Major. (I, V, vi, IV)

Let’s take a look at the two major scales involved here, the Eb Major (relative of C minor) and Ab Major:

Eb Major Scale: Eb(I), F(ii), G(iii), Ab(IV) | Bb(V), C(vi), D(vii-o), Eb(I)

Ab Major Scale: Ab(I), Bb(ii), C(iii), Db(IV) | Eb(V), F(vi), G(vii-o), Ab(I)

If you’ve noticed, I’ve split each scale in half, four notes on each side.  Each set of four notes is what music theorists call a tetrachord. Notice how the first half of the Eb Major scale closely resembles the Ab Major scale’s second half.

So how does this work?  Basically, if you play around in the first half of the Eb major scale, you can move to an Ab major scale progression and it will sound nice and peachy; especially if you use a G to lead into the Ab.

The composers of Paparazzi did so by using the F minor in the end, pausing the music while Gaga sings the last note, and Gaga’s last note is a hanging G note.

Why are these three things important?

1. The use of the F minor, is almost foreshadowing.  If you take a look at the Ab Major scale, what’s the relative minor?  (remember the notes above, look for the 6th, which is an F, and a minor at that).  It makes the move even more comfortable since both the Eb Major and Ab Major scales have that chord in common.
2. The G serves as a leading tone to the Ab Major.  It gives your ear the tension to want to move to the Ab Major chord because it sounds incomplete.  Try playing C,D,E,F,G,A,B in succession (a C Major scale, without going back to C).  Your ear will want to play that C because things don’t sound right without doing so.
3. Then the pause.  Why the pause?  To make the G sound even better when it leads into the Ab Major.

Play the clip above, and listen for these key things, and you’ll hear how it was done.  Pretty nifty, if you ask me.  I’m sure that this isn’t the first time the technique was used, as I’m sure it was used many times.  However, this is something current that uses it, and for composers who want to know how to move in scales, well here’s one good way to do it. =]

That does it for today’s music theory lesson.  More music coming your way, very soon!

-mnshyn

First track off of Roll Call ’10!  FoRcE oNe’s contribution, “Top Pedigree,” featuring MooN ShynE!

More coming soon!

-mnshyn