Darryl

Darryl is a singer-songwriter just tryin' to make a livin' doin' the best he can.

CD Update – It’s in Good Hands…

Jan 312012

The CD is in other people’s hands now. There comes a time in this process when you let it go and let other people deal with it. I’ve done all I can do for now and there is just the waiting.

So what’s happening you ask?

Well at this point the tracks (songs) have been mixed by me. Mixing puts the instruments and the voices in the right spots and at the right levels so it sounds even. I pan the instruments to positions in the stereo field so that it sounds like you’re siting in an audience. I add and subtract tonal frequencies by using things called compressors and EQs – some of you may know what those are and some may not, but suffice it to say that they are tools that help the sound and using them wisely takes a good ear – an ear that I am constantly working on to improve.

Now the tracks have been sent to another guy with lots of computer gear and he is going to ‘master’ the tracks. In essence the mastering engineer (great title, huh?) will get the tracks to play nicely together as an album by making them all the same relative volume and adding some EQ and compression (there are those terms again). He will also do something that is a recent development – he will add meta-data to the tracks. What the? Meta-Data? Sounds like sci-fi Star Trek crap… well, actually all it is is my name, album name and track name embedded in the audio file. Did you ever wonder how your computer ‘knows’ what the title of your songs are? That’s right, META-DATA!

The other aspect of this project, that is now in someone else’s hands, is the artwork for the sleeve. This is something that an the songwriter should definitely hand over to someone else. Unless you are schooled in the finer points of graphic design, don’t even think that you can do this. Besides getting the photos to fit on the template, understanding all of the ways that the text font relates to the graphics and the colors, you also need to understand (deeply) how to use a graphics app like Photoshop. And we’re not talking getting ‘red-eye’ out of a photo. Who has time to do that? Not Darryl.

So I float around and wait for these guys to send me stuff to listen to and to look at and to approve or offer tweak suggestions. Part of me is relieved to be done with my portion of the CD and part of me is wanting these guys to hurry up an be done so I can sen it off to be duplicated. Then the real wok begins: getting YOU to listen.

CD Update

Diary of a New CD No Responses »

Jan 232012

I’ve been remiss in updating this blog – MY blog – the blog that is supposed to connect me with YOU. I last posted about my Christmas song and then I got distracted with recording and mixing my upcoming CD project, “Big Texas Sky”. Well this is just a little tid-bit that I wrote on my Facebook page the other day and after I wrote it I said to myself: Self (I said), you should write this on your BLOG! SO here’s what I wrote – If you’d like to, you can *LIKE* me on Facebook too so you can get a double dose!!!

Anyway… I’ve been working hard on getting these mixes done for the new CD. I just finished round 3 of mixing and listening. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Once” then you’ll recall the scene where they all pile in the car to listen to the results of the sessions. Well that’s where I am right now: listening to mixes in the car, on my iPhone, on my living room stereo, and anywhere else I can. I take notes and then go back to the studio. I am hoping that this is the last round (3 is usually the magic number for me…).

Stay tuned for more updates on “Big Texas Sky” due out in February (I’m stickin’ to it!!!)

“Christmas Time” ~ a new holiday song

Country Songs, Holiday Songs, New Songs No Responses »

Dec 172011

… as if we need more holiday music.

For some reason I love this niche genre of music and I find it a challenge to write in this genre. That said, there are certain things that go into a good holiday song and I tried to shove them all into this one.

Let’s see if you can identify all the aspects of a typical holiday/Christmas song that I jammed into this nugget:

the sound of sleigh bells – always an indicator that this is a seasonal/winter/holiday song
quoting other well known holiday songs – in this case I quote ‘Jingle Bells’ AND in the guitar solo I quote ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ AND I quote the lyrics to ‘Hark The Herald Angels Sing’
allude to a holiday movie – in the bridge section I make an attempt to conjure the scene from “A Christmas Story” when the parents are sitting on the couch having a glass of wine after Ralphie and his brother have finally gone to bed
any mention of snow, ribbons, mistletoe or other seasonal paraphernalia
finally, a child’s voice over - I love those ’60s and 70′s country songs that have kids voices in them like Ray Stevens’ ‘Everything is Beautiful’

Thanks for listening ~

If you would like to download this song, you can go to my Bandcamp Page for a FREE download.

Happy Holidays

Darryl

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Christmas Time

[Verse]
At home with the family
Hiding presents underneath the tree
Ain’t no place I’d rather be
At Christmas timeGot a bunch of songs to sing
The old carols, a few new things
Can’t wait to see what Santa brings
At Christmas time

[Chorus]
Hey
It’s Christmas time
Hey
It’s Christmas time
Peace on Earth good to men
Sharing love with family and friends
I hope this feeling never ends
At Christmas time

[Bridge]
The snow is falling gently
On this peaceful silent night
I pour you another glass of wine
Drink a toast to the season
As we sit in the firelight
Nothing could be better
Nothing could be better than Christmas Time

[Verse]
Kids are waiting quiet as mice
Didn’t need to ask them twice
If they’ve been naughty or nice
At Christmas timeUnwrap another box of cheer
Throw the ribbons over here
Mistletoe kisses suddenly appear
At Christmas time

[Chorus]
Hey
It’s Christmas time
Hey
It’s Christmas time
Peace on Earth good to men
Sharing love with family and friends
I hope this feeling never ends
At Christmas time

[Tag]
Hey
It’s Christmas time
Hey
It’s Christmas time

Jingle Bells…

Blue Cave Studios

Articles No Responses »

Oct 182011

Hey There -

Just to let you know that my alter-ego, Blue Cave Studios, is running a blog post series on how to save money when going into the recording studio. I wrote an e-book based on a lecture I gave at the Indie Music Conference in November of 2010. There are 9 strategies all together and I just posted #8 entitled – Socialize Off The Clock -

Take a look - there might be something that you can use to save a few bucks next time you’re laying down some tracks.

Click here for more info –> Blue Cave Studios

CD Update ~ Writing Music

Diary of a New CD No Responses »

Sep 112011

Writing Music (on paper)

I thought that I’d write a short post about writing music. Not composing or songwriting, but the act of writing it all down on paper using traditional notation. It’s not something that is talked about in the songwriter symposiums or in a songwriter’s circle, but being able to notate music and hand a lead sheet to a fellow musician can be an integral part of creating a good performance.

I’m thinking about this now because I am in the process of recording my CD and I am about to invite other musicians in to play on some songs. Having legible lead sheets that make sense just makes the whole process go so much more smoothly than having nothing or some cryptic doodling.

I’m a trained musician – meaning, I went to a music conservatory and learned music as a trade so I have no issue with transcribing my songs; I’m fluent. But there are so many singer-songwriters that do not read music and have not gone to conservatory which is quite fine. But, I often wonder how they communicate their intentions to other musicians. Do they stand there in the studio writing letters on a piece of paper? Do they orally walk the performers through it? Do they make the musician sit at home and do the transcribing themselves?

Writing a lead sheet is really no big thing. But, the writer needs to understand a few basics of music notation: time signature, chord symbols, repeat signs, slash or rhythmic notation and perhaps a few other things like drawing a treble clef and the occasional drawing of a whole, half, quarter or eighth note. These are things that I teach to my 6-7-8 grade students in my music classes. So an adult songwriter should know about it presuming they had a proper public school music class… right? (That’s another article all together…)

So here I am. I just finished lead sheet #4 of 7 and will dive into #5 later today. It takes me about 20 minutes to do a lead sheet and I lay it out on my computer using a software program called Finale. I am only going to do 6 lead sheets though. Why not 7? Well, on one of the songs, I am playing all of the instruments and I do not need a lead sheet since I know the song.

It sounds like I’m contradicting myself. Darryl, are you saying that you do not always have to transcribe your songs? Nope! If you’re playing solo and you have the lyrics written and just write the chords over the lyrics to help you remember, that’s cool. Or, what most people do these days: record it on their smart phone.

But, if you’re going to hire me or some other professional musician to come in and play for you, I expect a decent lead sheet. I don’t want to have to sit there trying to figure out your song from a description, your chicken scratchings of chords (assuming they are even the correct chords – did you transpose the key because you use a capo?) or the recording on your smart phone.

I guess a lead sheet is just common professional courtesy. Are you a professional?