I know this might seem like a random post, but I wanted to share what I saw yesterday while driving to take care of some errands. Now as you all probably distinctly remember it was not but 6 months ago when we all were dishing out an absurd amount of money for a single gallon of gasoline. Below is the picture I took yesterday of the gas station sign that displayed the prices. Regular Gasoline = $1.35/gal!
I was amazed when I saw this, hence why I snapped the picture. Anyway after doing some quick research I found out that gas prices nationwide and in Colorado were at their peak the week of 7/17/08. Here is a screenshot showing that info. (Source : http://www.gasbuddy.com)
Also just for reference here is todays top ten states with the lowest avg. gas prices nationwide. (Source: http://www.gasbuddy.com)
Random blog post I know, but I just had to share what I saw with the rest of you out there because I was stunned when I saw that price. Also just fyi – Colorado has a statewide tax of $0.38/gal on gas, so subtract that from the above listed price and you really get a feel for what gas is really costing the greedy ****** that provide it to us….
Ok people… here she be! I’ve been trying to find a way to present my tunes on this blog without people calling me a fake and accusing me of not actually producing this music myself… The best I could come up with is a screenshot of the Logic Studio 8 window in which my music is made. If there is still an issue with it I can take a whole screen movie of the track playing, but I doubt I will have any issues of that nature. Anyway…
So this is a song I originally wrote for guitar (as with all of my songs) and further composed it as I learned how to use Logic. All the parts in this tune are played live by me, except for the drum loop as I have found it very difficult to play dums on my MIDI keyboard.
The song is unfinished, but I wanted to post it on here to hopefully get some constructive criticism from you folks out there. The parts I still need to add are:
- The full bridge
- Guitar lead
- The drums now are one loop, they will be changed so they differ throughout the song
- The rest of the drum fills
- The entire ending of the song
Here is a screenshot of the Logic Studio 8 arrange window in which all the editing is done:
And last but not least, the song as of present.
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Thanks for taking a look! Much more will be added to this, and I will post updates as I finish the additions. All my songs are untitled so far, they are named in the number they are written (this one is called Numba Dos as it is the 2nd song I wrote.) Any and all constructive criticism is welcome, please give me some feedback and let me know what I am doing right, or wrong if you see it that way. Also any input on the name would be greatly appreciated as well. If you think I should add a part, drop me a comment and let me know as I can literally make my MIDI keyboard sound like any instrument in the world (and I’m not joking I have 40 gigs of different patches for my MIDI.) And again, thank you so much for looking, and hopefully commenting on my creation as I have put 35 hours to date on this song. Thanks again!
~Andy W
So after three nights of staying up until 7:00AM working on this, I’ve finally completed this DIY guitar effects pedal. I ran into some issues of wiring up the speaker so the sound was clean and not distorted. I still have to fabricate the rest of the top to cover the internals but besides that it is complete and working. Below are some pics of the TalkBox. (Sorry for the not-so-good quality, these pics were taken with an IPhone.)
If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below. I will try and record a sample taken from my TalkBox so you’ll be able to hear what the finished product sounds like.
~Andy W
I’ve always been interested in certain effects that can be obtained from different effect pedals that are available from a variety of guitar companies. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about the natural sound of the guitar whether its an acoustic or electric guitar, but some of the effects that can be produced from these pedals are amazing. One effect in particular that has always amazed me is produced by a pedal called a “TalkBox”. The first time I heard this effect used was in the song “Do You Feel Like We Do” by Peter Frampton. For those of you who have no clue what I am talking about, listen to the sample below. This is a clip from the above song where this effect is used.
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A standard TalkBox looks something like this:
I was browsing the net and I happened to stumble across this video on youtube that describes how to fabricate a TalkBox pedal out of relatively cheap materials that can be found at any hardware store.
So I am in the midst of fabricating my own from some stuff I had lying around the house, and some wood from good ol’ Home Depot to build the enclosure. The box is almost done, I wish I had a camera at my disposal so I could document the build for all to see, but unfortunately I don’t… Ill snap some pics tomorrow of the finished product and the internals and upload them. I have a pic of the internal diagram of the talkbox below:
Once I get some pictures of my TalkBox I’ll post them, and also Ill record some samples with my guitar so you can get a taste of what a homemade TalkBox sounds like… More to come on this topic tomorrow. Also if anyone is interested or has any questions about the build or if you need help building your own drop me a comment and I’ll be sure to get back to you
~Andy
Hiya everyone,
As you can see the blog is quite lacking at the moment… due to the fact that I just had this made for me a few days ago. Anyway, I will be posting all of the music I have been recording lately at my house in Boulder, CO (where I currently reside) and I would like some constructive criticism on it as it gets released.
I know what some of you may think: great heres another wannabe artist… I assure you this is not the case. I have been working really hard on producing these songs that will be uploaded in the coming week or two and many, many hours of work has gone into them. Im not looking for fame or fortune (although it would be nice) but just some comments on how people like it, and any thoughts on any additions I should make to songs, things along those lines…
Anyway I hope to get a few visitors here that will eventually spread the word about this blog and hopefully, in time, people will be letting me know what they think of my creativity and spare time… As someone somewhere once said: If you build it, they will come… I sure hope so
~Andy W
