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Category: Audio Production

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 79): Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 79): Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet

Graphic design/publishing nerds will get the title of this one. I put it there as filler because I didn’t know what to title this catch-all musing.

Life’s been pretty dang good here through 2024. I released another one of my songs on streaming services, which was fun. I did a remix/remaster of it, felt pretty happy about the overall sound, and then realized once it was posted everywhere that I should have boosted the vocals about 1.5 dB. Ah, well, when I post my next collection of things, I’ll post a remixed version. Until then, just go to any streaming service (and I mean ANY streaming service – I got that sucker on all the big’uns) and give it a listen. It’s called “We Really Just Don’t Care” by your humble writer, “The Musical Schizo”.

I got to see two of my favorite bands of all time, Living Colour and Extreme at one of my favorite venues – ACL Live at the Moody Theater. Thanks to my hetero life mate Ned for snagging those tickets – they were AMAZING seats in the center section of the mezzanine – so basically directly across from the stage and only slightly higher up. The view:

Moving on to other stuff, Chandler and The Bings has been sporadically busy as usual, but with great gigs in FOUR cities (Laredo, Austin, Killeen, and San Antonio). And five if you count Cedar Park/Leander separate from Austin – it kind of is, since almost no one from up there would travel to our downtown Austin gigs. We’ll be hitting Houston and San Antonio on the same day at the end of April, so we’re certifiable. It’s been a crazy year so far, with only more craziness to come for the band. Love those boys.

I’ve been wanting to own an American-made Ernie Ball Music Man bass for the better part of my life as a bassist, and now I do. I saw an ad on Craigslist for a EBMM Sterling 5H, which isn’t my beloved Stingray style, but it’s a little lighter and more ergonomic. The ad mentioned they’d consider a trade for a Line 6 Helix. And wouldn’t you know it – I happened to have one of those sitting around the studio because I hadn’t sold it yet. So I got in touch with the seller, and then weirdly got a call from an old coworker/friend who used to produce my ex-wife’s radio show. I was like, why is he calling me? Turns out it was HIS bass! So we made the trade (and had a great reunion) and after a LOT of tweaking the setup, I’m a pretty happy camper with the ol’ Sterling 5H. I still think there’s some special magic in my cheapo Stingray that’s been my #1 since 2018, but this new one is definitely giving it a run for its money. Kind of hilarious that a $2000 bass is in direct competition with one I got for $330, but magic is magic. And price doesn’t trump magic. EVER.

On a more creative level, I picked the song that I’m going to collaborate with my old pal Dennis C. Miller on – actually, it’s going to be more me driving the bus on it – but it’s his song from about 20 years ago and I’m going to produce a version of it. That should be coming in the next month or two, so once we work that stuff out you should see it appear on a release from him later this year (and I might put it out, too, if that ends up being the deal).

On the mental health front, it’s been a rough go the past month or two. I don’t really reveal it much to most people, but I struggle with depression sometimes, and it’s been a dark time in my brain. Thankfully life has a way of keeping me just busy enough to not be swallowed up by it, and reminding me that I have so much value and I am loved no matter what my shitty-ass brain tells me. Just practicing gratitude daily and trying not to spiral, and it works for me. Meds might help, but my valleys aren’t persistent enough or frequent enough for me to feel like it’s necessary. Thanks to my lovely wife, and my wonderful children to help keep me from falling in the pit. If you need to talk, you know where to find me. I’m a good ear and I will love on you as much or as little as you need.

What else – oh, I’m also rather enamored with Olivia Rodrigo’s songs, and she just released a few more on the expanded edition of her record GUTS, including a BANGER called “obsessed” that you should check out. It’s awesome, and she put it together with the inimitable and excellent St. Vincent (Annie Clark). (The other four songs on GUTS (spilled) are fantastic as well.)

So that’s the update. I hope you have a fantastic day whenever you read this.

Lead with love, and peace be the journey.
TMS

Necessity Being The Mother Of Invention (and all that)

Necessity Being The Mother Of Invention (and all that)

I have a great day job. I get to make audio productions for the largest audio company in the world, with hundreds of radio stations, streams, thousands of podcasts, and just a MASSIVE footprint.

Sometimes this job requires the musical side of me to pop out and do some stuff because whatever resources I have aren’t quite good enough or exactly the perfect fit. This post will be about that.

I’ve been doing commercials for a local annual event every year, and am very proud and honored to have them as a client. The nature of my contract with the aforementioned day job precludes me from using their resources on stuff that falls outside the company, so I honor that. My library of music to use on outside stuff is minimal at best, and I’m not interested in paying piles of money to license music, because, well, times are tight. So, my composing and performing skills bailed me out. This necessity led to the invention of some music!

The first cut I created is a typical country-rock midtempo stomp tune:

Then that wasn’t quite working the way I wanted, so I checked their other ads to see what sort of things they had in them, and it was more rock-oriented. So to kill both birds with one stone, I came up with this one:

Then this client had some ads for a BBQ fest they were having as part of the larger event, and that one was just BEGGING for some Texas Blues. So I grabbed my Strat and made this little ditty:

It was so fun coming up with bespoke music for these ads that I think I might actually start composing more stuff to use for any non-company stuff I work on. It stoked my creativity in ways it hadn’t been stoked in a while. And it was all so fast and easy to make it all sound good using REAPER and my Line 6 Native, iZotope, Native Instruments, and Steven Slate Design plugins.

I’ve also created jingles and little ad sounders for clients for the day job, which I won’t post here, but if you’re curious, I’ll email them to ya – just get in touch with me.

Thanks for reading and listening, and peace be the journey!

TMS