This follows contiguously from set one, as the sled-dog race continues outside.

 

More of Gabriel Caplett playing.  I’m sitting next to him with my home-brew stereo mic in one hand, and some wine in the other, as we all sit chatting and enjoying Gabe’s music during the sled-dog race.

 

{Future episodes of Ephemera may contain interviews.}

 

~strandgeist                Creative Commons 2.5

This follows contiguously from the sled-dog race outside.

 

We step off the street into Cathy’s door [slam], walk up the stairs, and in to the studio where her annual sled-dog race gathering is in progress.  We say ‘hi’ to some friends, pour a glass of wine (Jess kindly holds the microphone :-), and sit down with Gabe as he plays mostly original songs—singing with his guitar.

 

Stay tuned for the next installment, which features another set with Gabe.  Share and enjoy!

 

~strandgeist                Creative Commons 2.5

This is the start of the U.P. 200 Sled-dog race.  It is after dark in downtown Marquette Michigan USA, and crowds are milling around on either side of the track.  The main street (Washington Street) has been paved with truckloads of snow for the sled-dogs as they shush out of the starting gate.

 

This edited Natural Stereo Audio Vérité recording begins with the crowd mid-way along the starting track.  We then walk down progressively down toward where the track leads out of town.  The crowd thins to a few handfuls of people here and there.  We hear the sled-dogs tramping past, the shush of the sled-rails, and the mushers shouts.

    We then move back up the track to hear the MCs, Author Frida Waara (the first woman to ski to the North Pole) and Walt and April Lindela, as they introduce a couple of mushers and the countdowns as they send the sleds on their way.  We move behind the grand-stand to the staging area where you hear the dogs yelping and a baby cry.

    {Would the mother please contact me so i can put you in the credits (or at least document your names for History, if you’d rather remain anonymous in the notes).}

 

This is the First of three segments from the sled-dog race.  This is outside.  Following this will be two segments in which we go inside to a party up in Cathy’s 2nd floor art studio (as the race continues outside), which feature two sets of Gabriel Caplett singing his original folk songs.  {He’s good!}

 

The original outside recording is over 40 minutes in length, so i’ve taken the liberty of editing it down to 16.  It still truthfully follows the natural sequence of events, and there are no added effects—just natural Stereo with the ‘Nodule Mk II’ home-brew microphone (a sort-of miniature Binaural mic).  Share and enjoy!

 

~strandgeist        Creative Commons 2.5

Audio Vérité found sound.  We went out to the Neejee Road sledding hill on a ‘cardboard day’ (when the hill was too fast for sleds).  For this recording, i stood just off-trail, next to the sled run with one of my home-brew Stereo microphones (the ‘Nodule’ mike, Mk II) plugged into the MicroTrack 24/96.

    In the sound field, you’ll hear the sledders swooshing down Left to Right, and hear everyone swish-clomping in their snow-suits and shoe-pacs from Right to Left as they walk back uphill behind me, on the squeaky snow.  About 12 minutes into the recording, i go on up with Jo and Claude, and ride down on our cardboard.  {The Audio is distorted here, as i forgot to reduce the sensitivity.  I’ve tempered it, so don’t worry about your speakers.}  Then we go sit at the bonfire.

    Speaking of speakers: this will sound very natural on any Stereo sound system, and sounds great in Matrix Surround.  But, the best way to listen is on headphones, as this is essentially a variation on Binaural recording.  It will sound quite real.  {You may feel an urge to step back from the sleds, or look over your shoulder at the people walking behind you.}

 

~strandgeist       Creative Commons 2.5     share and enjoy

Okay, folks.  I got GB3, and have started playing with it.  Just for fun i put together this ‘mash-up’ (which, back in my day, we once called a ‘collage’) using only the stock sounds from the GarageBand 3 library.

 

As a joke, this has no ‘content’ whatsoever; it consists of nothing but a collage from the library.  The only thing i’ve added is my editing.  {This was a lot of fun.}  Enjoy!

 

{P.S: at the end (the last 2 minutes, after the ‘moo’) imagine the credits rolling on some ‘50s Technicolor romance. ;-}

 

~Joan        Creative Commons license

old apple two c

pro dos... electric duet

what a funky groove

 

 

Yep—played on my old Apple IIc Plus.  I hope you like the strange haiku as well.   ;-]

 

Enjoy!

 

 

~strandgeist        Creative Commons 2.5

a variation

a theme i recognise

eno on the brain

 

Believe it or not, this was done on a hand-me-down ‘consumer grade’ keyboard (from a deceased granny).

 

The first part i laid down was the melody — without any harmonic structure other than the one in my head. I played to the metronome, i think -- or possibly a version of the drum track.  I then experimented playing different chord structures over the melody (accompanying the onboard sequencer as it played back the melody).  I had the “Patented Carlos Santana Chord Progression” (as Frank Zappa once put it) on one take, various mono-chord grooves, and this take is the one i liked best.  It has a Brian-Eno-esque quality (the “Patented Brian Eno Chord Progression”, if you will), so i named it ‘Enovariation’. {Both Frank and Brian would approve of my composition technique, i think — melody first, then possible harmonic variations second.}  Also, the index number (on the raw CD master) happened to be ‘17’ — which i decided was catchy, and fitting for the title — in honour of the ensemble Heaven 17.  Enjoy!

 

~strandgeist        CreativeCommons 2.5

postscript to a thought

often it intrudes again

was i here before?

 

This is one of my Live experiments.

 

I found a tiny little Yamaha keyboard at St. Vinnie's for 75 cents one day (a PSS-1 [i think; i can't find it], perhaps it's the first 'Yamahopper').  I played around with it that morning - getting a cool little groove out of it.  So, i put one of my 500-dollar studio mikes on its dinky little speaker (it didn't even have a headphone jack), and recorded its little sequencer playback - pasting together a long version with a MiniDisc recorder (the sequence only ran for eight bars or so).  Then (i think) i layered another part onto that - some arpeggios.  I then took this to my gig at EmmaJoe's that Monday night, and played it back through a stereo digital effects processor, and played my flute - improvising a nice melody over the ostinata.  I think it turned out okay.

 

Enjoy, "for music hath charms to soothe the savage breast." (William Congreve)

 

~strandgeist            CreativeCommons 2.5

beneath veil of night

patina upon landscape

sparkle in moonlight

 

This is a stand-alone of the 2nd version of the flute track for ‘First Snow’ (the first was lost accidentally, due to a ‘Revert’ mistake in GarageBand2, so i had to play it over again).  This is a more mellow improvisation, so i think it fits the mood of the piece better.

 

This is a peek into the production process — hearing just one of the tracks in the layering, without the rest of the instruments in the mix.  {You can hear the synthesizer part very quietly in the background.  It was playing back softly over the studio monitors and being picked up by the flute mic.}  This piece (the final mix of which you can hear as ‘Tranquil MMVI.42’ in the Tranquility podcast) was my first attempt at doing real production in GarageBand.  For the flute part, i created (and used) my ‘Maximum Pyramid’ hall effect (so named in honour of Paul Horn).  Enjoy!

 

~strandgeist                CreativeCommons 2.5