BB Baby Blues Singles Cover Art

So how do I do the recording and mixing?   I will elaborate on that for those that might want to know.    Recording music is a complicated affair but now that I have done over a dozen songs I can produce an entrie song in a few hours.    My computer is a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop running Windows Vista.   For capture, editing and mixing I used  Sonar LE 6 which is DAW software (digital audio workstation), Sonar LE came with my Roland Juno Stage.    

Sonar LE - tracks in Baby Blues project

For the Bass and Drum tracks I used the DR-880 EZ-Compose feature.  The Ballad Bass EZ option 6 has an underlying background tone and I used I believe a Latin option for the percussion effect.    EZ-Compose  has a 12  bar blues pattern preset so I used that and set the key to C.      The DR-880 plugs into a  USB port and I have the bass set to midi channel 3 and drum to midi channel 10.      So I record the 12 bar pattern into two midi tracks into Sonar LE.  Because the timing isn’t perfect as I don’t know how to sync things up I usually got to use the nudge feature in Sonar to move the tracks a few ticks one way or the other so the first note starts right on the beat one.    That done I copy and paste the 12 bars duplicating several times to make one long track.      I then go in using the Sonar note editor and modify the last bar or add a bar to make an ending measure that fades out.  

 The second step  I record the left hand track for 12 bars and usually replicate those 12 bars multiple times also.      The next step is recording the  right hand track and usually I play the whole song in one step.    If I do have troubles and make mistakes I’ll use the punch in and punch out feature in Sonar LE to correct.   I like to play the whole song so there will be differences in the notes, volume and rhythm otherwise the song will surely sound repetitive.    Midi track wise  I have the left hand track set to midi track 1 and right hand track set to midi track 2 and the Juno Stage keyboard range split as needed.   Often I have a different piano sound for each side of the split.

For  “Baby Blues” song I have a second right hand lead piano track.   I recorded this lead piano track using a heavy left hand on the modulation wheel which made the piano sound a bit like a guitar.   I think that was the first time I ever used that mod wheel/stick in a song and the effect sounds quite nice I think.     I recorded that track in one take just improvising and though the playing is not perfection the notes vary greatly between each set of 12 bars which gives the song some flavor.  

 I use a Behringer Xenyx FX1222 USB mixer.     USB is great because my laptop connects right to the mixer for my audio sound in and out.   So that’s three USB connects, the Juno Stage keyboard, BOSS DR-880 drum machine and Behringer mixer!      My speakers are connected to the main outs of the Behringer.

Behringer 1222 mixer , connects left to right mike, RD700, Juno Stage, BOSS DR880, output to speakers, headphone, not show in back is USB audio to computer runing Sonar LE

 I lost count of the steps but at this point what I do is play the midi tracks in Sonar LE  (which is playing the Juno Stage and BOSS DR-880 and record that mix to a new Sonar instrument audio track  via the USB audio connect from the mixer.    

Recording the vocal.      I  mute my midi tracks and sing along with my instrument audio track.  You got to listen to the sound of course through headphones while singing into the mike.  If you used speakers instead of headphones the sound is going to echo back with your vocal audio track.   The Shure SM58 microhone  is plugged into the Behringer and I have some reverb and equal effects on it the Behringer provides.     The headphones are plugged into the headphone jack of the Behringer so I can hear my voice and the instrument audio track.     I don’t why it works but I’m very glad it does in that the  instrument audio track sound going into the mixer via the USB .. does not come back to computer ..   thus all I get recording the vocal audio track in Sonar is just my voice  nothing else.      This setup my friends was a real mind bender for me to understand and accomplish and believe me seeing it all work and having everything still sync up  perfect in the tracks is a credit to how well Sonar LE works!    However don’t think I have the perfect setup here going as I do have some 60 cycle hum going on though I suspect everyone does.  

 For the dog bark sound I used the Juno Stage GM2 patch 228 dog bark sound effect.   I just put the mike in front of the speaker and put the barks in the vocal audio track.   I thought about scattering barks throughout the song but went with just 3 in the beginning and 3 at the end.     

The final step in Sonar is to use Bounce feature which mixes my vocal audio and instrument audio tracks together into a final audio track.    Of course I can preview the mix and usually I need to adjust the vocal level down just a bit and I add a bit of reverb and compression.        I take the final audio track wav file Sonar built and use Sound Forge to insert some blank space at the end and front and save it to the wav and mp3 formats I need.

 To create the sheet music in Finale Composer I save my Sonar LE project to a .mid file,  open that up in Finale and copy and paste the tracks it into my new Finale document.    Finale is a great little composer program.   I’m able to print to Primo PDF Windows Vista provides and get my nice PDF file version of the sheet music.

The mp3 music track of “Baby Blues” can be downloaded from my CDBABY page for free.     The sheet music you can find on my BB Basics Files download page (see menu on right side of this page).   Follow the instructions on the Boogie Basics page on how to get the password for the download page.

My foot switch collection

 I’ve been fighting  foot pedals all year it seems.   I first used an Roland EV-5 to click the drum machine on and off on the Juno Stage.   Then I started using both the BOSS DR-880 and the internal Juno Stage drum machines.   So I purchased a BOSS FS-6 dual switch where I had a separate cable going to the Juno Stage and other to the BOSS DR-880.   Unfortunately if you don’t unplug the cables after you are  done every day the little 9v battery goes dead after several days in that FS-6.   That sucks and surely I would not care for that worry if I was doing gigs  so now I’m using two of the little Roland DP-2 foot switches.   The DP-2 is relatively cheap and doesn’t use a battery. 

The Juno Stage Rig as of August 2010

I also purchased used on EBAY an OnStage laptop/mixer stand that I had planned to put the Dell 22″ Monitor on.   But that doesn’t work out at all as you can’t get it as close I a need for my  eyes to read music on it.    Anyway I put one of my KC-60′s on it and the other KC-60 on top the subwoofer.   Before I used just one KC-60.   I like the more stereo sound I’m hearing but for some reason I can’t turn the volume up near as loud now as we get feedback easily in the mike.    With both right and left mixer jacks going into one KC-60 we can turn it up loud without feed back ..  I  don’t understand why that is.     I’ve had the  Roland PK-5A pedal unit for several months now but I’m not very fond of it.    Just a little bit of practice on it seems to make the left leg tired and also my back cramp.   I am going to start doing some basic scale drills on it each day spending at least 30 minutes.    If I find I don’t like it .. well it’s gona go on the EBAY block.       Other rig news is I’ve sold my vintage Roland PRO-E arranger keyboards.  I found I just didn’t like playing on 37 keys.

Monclova Home Coming Festival

I didn’t make it down Saturday but did spend a couple hours Friday evening listening to the All4It rock band.   The members of the 4 piece band (lead, bass, drum and keyboard)looked to be in the mid-50′s age group and they played great old cover songs from the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s like they had been doing it for 40 years.    A different keyboard player took the stage most of set two so I guess they had two guys sharing that job.    It’s always great to watch a keyboard player doing his thing with a band ..  unfortunately my ears seem to have troubles hearing the keyboard over the guitars most of the time.   My observation was a good percent of the songs the keyboardist was using a gritty rock organ sound.     However he had a few solos that I’ll have to try myself sometime.   He did a solo introduction with vocal of 3DogKnight’s   ”I  May Be Weary”  that was interesting.    Also the keyboard solo in Hotel California  sounded good also.   

All4It! Band

It was great to have live music and beer I could walk to.   The crowd was a little sparse I thought so I hope more people make it over to Monclova for the 2011 event.

Inside GearFest 2010

SweetWater is a music gear equipment company head quartered in Ft. Wayne  Indiana about a two hour drive from me.    They are a different kind of music warehouse company.  For example when you purchase gear online from them you get a personal followup call from your assigned sales engineer.      When I seen the invite from Sweetwater to GearFest 2010 I didn’t think much about it at first.   Then I read there would be like 150 companies exhibiting products plus some free seminars so I signed up.   Still I was a bit concerned it might be time not so well spent.     I can say now that I’m extremely glad I went because SweetWater’s GearFest was a totally awesome experience.    The SweetWater facilities are incredible and I surely will go back again.       The highlight of the trip for me was a 90 minute talk by a mixing engineer.  

Mixing Lecture

Outside there were several large tents set up with over a hundred exhibitors.  Everything on display was for sale at GearFest prices.  That meant any gear you saw exhibited could be bought on the spot.    Well not that exact unit but a new unit right  from the warehouse shipped to your front door at a crazy low GearFest price.  I don’t want to tell you every little thing about GearFest because that would be like telling you the end of a new movie you been wanting to see.    Buy some gear from SweetWater and get invited to GearFest 2011.

Cats Out CD cover

A sampling of the songs in Cats Out is available on the player on the top of this page.   Cats Out  will be available on most  online music distributors in the coming weeks for digital download.   Simply search for artist name  Scott Haas or album name Cats Out.    It can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months to appear on distribution sites so be patient and check back again if you don’t find it on your favorite music site on the first try.    The physical CD’s are scheduled to be available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/ScottHaas  around 6/11/2010.   

For you keyboard and piano students the piano sheet music with lyrics  for the songs on Cats Out is available for download  now for a modest fee via the  Boogie Beau Album link on the right of this page.    

Cats Out is my first attempt at composing, recording and all other 101 things it takes to get an original album of songs up online.    Exactly how it’s all done on the computer and keyboard I’ll save  for a future post.     I will say that with the initial learning curve of several software programs behind me the composing, recording and mixing won’t be so challenging next time.   

May 23, 2010
Scott Haas  a.k.a.  Boogie Beau

Roland KC-60 and Behringer Truth B2092A

I use a Roland KC-60 amp which has a sub-woofer output jack on it.   Unlike  the Roland KCW-1 the Behringer Truth B2092A doesn’t have a volume control.   Instead it has an input trim control.   As it turned out the output volume was near perfect for my small 15 x 11 studio room.    However I thought it need a small boost so I got a Behringer MicroMix MX400 mixer.   That worked out great and acts pretty much like a volume control.

Behringer Micro Mixer

The end result is that I’m happy with this setup.  That said I wouldn’t do it again simply because the Truth is a large heavy box with no handles.  It’s really hard to move and takes up a bunch of room at 24 inches tall and  23 inches deep and 13 inches wide.    The other thing is it has a noticeable buzz to it so between that and my PC I don’t have the quiet environment I’d like to have when I’m not pounding on the keys.  One last note is I tried connecting direct from my main mixer L and R outs to the Truth then from it to my Roland KC-60.   Even on the lowest input trim setting the bass volume was way to loud.   At 360 watts the Behringer Truth B2092A can shake down the house.

Owens Center for Fine and Performing Arts

After near a dozen lessons spread over four months I’ve completed my  Owen’s College  Community piano lesson offering.    It was fun, interesting and I surely improved greatly on my sight reading.    Owens College has a music education department and a newish building called the Owen’s Center For Fine and Performing Arts which houses music classrooms, practice rooms and a theater.    My instructor Dr. Lynda Dunn had decades of experience and got me going on some great books from Alfred’s publishing called Alfred  Piano for Adult Beginners.   

Owens Practice Room

Something I found hard was playing the acoustic Yamaha piano which the practice room had.   Between a different chair height and keys that pressed harder than what I have at home I had troubles warming up each week.    Of course  just playing for someone else (the teacher) wasn’t so easy for me either as I just get nervous and the brain stops working.    The big thing about lessons is they make you practice hard because you don’t want to look like an idiot at the next lesson.     I’m continuing on with the sight reading practice a bit every day.  I’m also doing better at  finger type exercises now as  I’ve found I can now sight read and play the notes in those long exercise riffs.    In all the lessons were a good experience.   I think I’m pretty good at learning on my own but as I mentioned a little pressure to practice hard sure helps speed the learning process.

Boogie Beau's Stand Rig

 The mike stand is an On-Stage Stand MS9701TB and I love how it adjusts.   I had planned on mounting the mike on a goose-neck via an attachment that went right on the tier bar.   However that didn’t work.    When you get playing hard there is a thump when you hit bottom on the keys and that sound vibration gets transferred to the stand and to the goose-neck arm and to the mike.   So a mike arm not attached to the keyboard stand is the only way to go.

A couple miles from me on Briarfield Blvd. is a newer place called Vino 100 I had never been to.   I saw in the Blade’s Club line up an acoustic guitarist Calen Savage was playing there so I checked it out on on my way home from Degage.    Vino 100 is  a wine shop and bar combination and appears to me to be a  yuppie hangout which isn’t quite my glass of wine.   From the street you just see a wine shop but once inside right behind the wine displays is the bar area.  It’s not a large place by any means however there was a  noisy crowd there for a Thursday evening filling most of the seats around the bar and tables in the room.   The music was ok but unfortunely the area they had the entertainment at wasn’t on a raise stage and was tucked back in  a  corner not viewable from much of the main room.    I listened for a bit and left, maybe someday they’ll get a piano player.

A few weeks back I finally made it over to check out the new Shawn’s  in Waterville.   This place is basically Shawn’s Backdoor South and even looks the same inside and has plenty of big screen TV’s.   What’s nice is there is a ton of standing area around the bar and people seem to really enjoy hanging out there.    When I was there Johnny Rodriguez was playing  for a packed house on a Saturday evening.    I went back a few weeks later and got my Jigg’s dinner on St. Patty’s day there.    

Of the three of the places I mentioned above I definitely like Shawn’s the best.   It has a  home town friendly atmosphere to it.