Archive for the ‘160-180 BPM’ Category
Last night I had a horrible nightmare. In this particular dream, I was back in 1998 and in between sets at my weekly Saturday night gig at Ryles. I had just ordered another Long Island Iced Tea to help numb the pain of my musically tortured soul, and somehow, manage to get through another 45 minutes of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Brian Setzer Orchestra covers. My cheap, polyester suit itched uncontrollably and I was surrounded by guys with soul patches and fedoras. This was the height of what w...
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In my quest to tame the overly-live tracking room in my new house, I bit the bullet and trekked out to my local Guitar Center to find a solution. I figured I could pick up a few of those foam panels and line the walls of my studio on the cheap. I mean, how expensive could foam be?
According to the ponytailed sales guy in the pro audio department, I needed to cover my walls with Auralex foam. He said these foam panels were the "Rolls Royce of acoustical treatments" and were priced according...
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Loop #91
I just realized that all of the straight ahead jazz loops that I've posted have been in 4/4. Sure, I've done some 6/8 Bembe variations, but those were more in the Afro Cuban realm. Today's loop is an outtake from a full session of 3/4 grooves I just recorded for Volume IV.
If you're looking for some extra waltz-based inspiration, just take a look at this list of contemporary compositions. I'm going to sleep a lot better tonight knowing that Joe Satriani's "Always With Me, Alw...
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I've recently received a lot of requests for more reggae loops. Some via email, some via the comments section and some via the hippie who decided to camp out in front of my house and play his djembe all night. To prevent any sort of rogue drum circle from forming in my neighborhood, I spent the majority of today laying down new reggae infused loops.
I began by setting the click to 166 BPM and experimenting with different delays on the snare channel. As I've mentioned before, this is a tr...
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I just realized my "Style" category was missing one crucial genre: Reggae. But then I also realized I have no clue how to play the real "roots" stuff. Apparently I forgot to take that "Reggae 101" class at Berklee (they still let me graduate) and Burning Spear hasn't called me for any gigs lately.
To be perfectly honest, the majority of what I know comes from listening to Stewart Copeland with The Police and Pete Thomas with Elvis Costello. Hardly Rastafarian, but they are both masters ...
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The life of a touring musician is one that is often full of bizarre and surreal encounters. Between hanging out with methed-out truckers while you eat pancakes during 4am pit stops, to the VIP events you attend because you're "in a band", traveling around the world and playing music will supply you with plenty of crazy stories to tell your grandkids (and blog readers). Often times, these encounters include rubbing elbows with the most random of celebrities in even more random situations. Like...
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One of my biggest regrets is that I never saw Elvin Jones perform before he passed away. Whenever he was in New York, performing at The Blue Note or The Village Vanguard, it seemed like I always had a gig or a rehearsal and couldn't make it to the show. I kept hearing from friends that he was still playing with the same fire and energy that he did in the 1960's with Coltrane, to the point where it seemed like he getting better in his later years. I had a false assumption that age would never ...
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It's been one of those days. Sometimes the best therapy is to pound things out on the drums.
[caption id="attachment_1345" align="alignleft" width="289" caption="Dave Grohl - circa 1991"][/caption]
Loop #34
I'd be lying if I said Dave Grohl's influence wasn't apparent in this loop. Lots of eighth note kick, tons of compression and a Saint Patty's Day gone awry.
Preview Here:
[audio:161_grohl.mp3]
Download the Logic session here. (36MB)
Get the .wav file here.
161 B...
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I'll admit it. I care about what people think of me. This morning while sitting on the couch, eating a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles, I was flipping through the TV and landed on something awesome. It was a VH1 Classic episode consisting of nothing but British heavy metal videos from the early 80's. Classic indeed. As the credits rolled for Judas Priest's "Breaking the Law" and Matt Pinfield introduced Motörhead's "Ace of Spades", I had an epiphany:
What Would Lemmy Do?
[caption id="attachm...
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