Journeys End A story of Unrequited Love, Cubase and GuitarsCast your minds back to 1987 Computers had just started to make a real impact on the music world. For the average punter it was possible to buy a small computer and create music all by yourself. No moody drummers or bossy bass players, no grotty guitarists or keyboards to butter up just to rehearse. The power was in your hands to do as you wished. It was at this stage in my musical career that I foolishly purchased a Yamaha MSX computer complete with sixteen track sequencing software written by a now defunct company. Cubase was around but still over my meagre budget, for the price it would cost to acquire an Atari and Cubase I could have the Yamaha and an MT32, add this to my Roland JX3P and away you go. I quickly got together with an old mate of mine and in no time we had an Album written. We went into the studio and that�s when I realised I should have got the Atari. The Msx would sync to tape but would speed up and slow down a few precious hours of studio time went by until finally I got the thing to work by playing only four of the sixteen tracks that had been programmed for each song. Now this wouldn�t be so bad until you realise that the MSX backed up files to cassette tape and would only hold one song in memory at a time. It took an age to load and this had to be repeated four times for each song. But none the less I was bitten by the computer bug and I made myself a promise to upgrade to Cubase on the good old Atari.The reason I tell this story is because by using a computer for music I discovered that my talents lay in instrumental music as a lot of people did at that time, being a guitarist it meant Guitar instrumentals.In 1991 I started what was to become a solo guitar instrumental CD although the market for such things was limited Joe Satriani was riding high carrying the rest of us mere mortals with him. I knew of a 24 track studio which would give me some time in between block bookings that otherwise would not be used and so armed with a Yamaha SY55 for a sequencer and my trusty Les Paul I laid down the first of three tracks for my solo CD. This is where I had it confirmed to me that Cubase was the way to go because at the beginning of one of the tracks I needed a sample of some Motor Bikes to come in just before the track started. By somehow positioning a small box on what at the time seemed like a blank screen the engineer for the session managed to do just this with ease. I played all my parts to a click track and some friends of mine came in and did drums and bass guitar for me.Several years passed I now owned a PC and Cubase Audio the solo CD was shelved for a while due to cash flow I got myself involved in a project for a Charity CD. This CD was to have at least four songs on it all of which I programmed and one which I composed, an instrumental called Joshua. I had programmed up drum parts for the tracks but when we got in the studio the engineer asked me if I would like real drums on the songs , I jumped at the chance. For Rock you cannot beat real drums( no pun intended) Magic it was just Magic a drummer who can play to a click is one thing but a drummer who can play around with a click is something else. I knew that from that moment my dream of a solo CD was definitely on. So I started to compose using Cubase to write all the parts including a guide drum track. Some songs needed Brass some Strings others just a big pad but it all went into the PC via Cubase. I have always programmed strings and Brass as separate lines as opposed to chords as the original instruments are monophonic not polyphonic. In recording Brass or Strings to tape I always have separate tracks for each line I have written to get the most out of my synths and to create the right mix between each part. So on November 11th 1997 I started the first sessions for my solo CD. I soon came to realise that all the parts would have to be replaced with real instruments the feel I was after was one of a bunch of real muso�s having a good time playing good catchy melodies and really letting their hair down.Having already enlisted the help of Dave Avery for the Drums and being lucky in the fact that Neil Kavanagh who owns the studio I was recording at is also a very good Bass player I was half way along the road to my �real world� Neil new of a brass section so no problems there and he also knows of a Cello player and Violinist. But he warned me you will have to give them the �dots�. Now I don�t read or write music but as I�m sure you are aware Cubase has a Score editor so It looked as if I had some Learning to do. The first sessions where just track laying what I had programmed as a basis for my guitar parts. I used my drum and bass parts at this stage with the Idea of replacing them later. A basic shape emerged for each song some worked better than others. At this stage I just needed the basic Idea for the drummer to work to I might even replace some of the guitar tracks when the drums and bass had been recorded. Anyway That�s the first part of the story of �Journeys End� Cubase is in there doing its bit you might think I use it in a strange way but that�s the beauty of the programme it can be anything you want it to be.
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JOURNEYS END part twoIf it ain�t broke fix it anywayAfter recording all my guides tracks and most of the guitar tracks in November 97 it was a cold day in January 98 that saw me in the studio again to get the drums down on tape.Dave Avery turned up nice and early and as usual at �The Old Barn Studio� things didn�t really kick off until around midday. Firstly because real drums have to be miked up as I�m sure you all know and second because we wanted a cup of tea. Eventually we got down to business. Dave had been given a cassette of the songs to help familiarise himself with the material and very quickly was playing some superb drums to some difficult tracks in a variety of styles. The trick for me was not trying to get a good drum track more decide which of the many great ideas I should keep. Although at one point in the proceedings I must confess to being a little paranoid. After the third track Neil the engineer asked Dave if the mix was OK in his headphones. Dave replied � a bit more of the click please � Neil looked at the appropriate knob and said �well it would be nice if I had turned it up at all� It was at this point I called for a break whilst I reviewed the drums we had already done with the click track turned up loud. I scrutinised those drums and I have to say they were spot on. Now of course the rest of the parts where also in time but even so I was impressed. On the next track Dave stopped half way through �sorry I was out there, can you drop me in� and to my amazement Neil rolled back the tape Dave picked up what he had been doing prior to his timing error and was dropped in spot on. Of course the technique of dropping in is not a new one to anyone who has recorded anything at the most basic level but, to drop in on live drums is a nightmare. Needless to say I also scrutinised that drop in with the fine tooth comb of disbelieve and could not find fault. We managed four tracks on the first day, not a lot you might think for eight hours work. I was not concerned because we had three days and the reason for the apparent slowness was more to do with Dave�s built in quality control. A track would be run through several times to get the correct feel and figure out the breaks. Then a �take� would be recorded, Dave would come and listen to the recording and go back in to record another �take�. Again this would be listened to, then a third time which was �the take� and so on. We rarely got past the third �take� and the drums where sounding brilliant. At every stage Dave would ask me if all was OK I had an easy job just listening and saying yes. Such was Dave�s talent that my only concern was if the general feel was right for the track as I had intended, and most of the time it was. I left the studio at the end of three days feeling more excited about a project than I have in a long time.The next time I could get back in the studio was early March I had two days to oversee the recording of the Bass Guitar. Neil Kavanagh the owner - Engineer of the studio was also a Bass player and had agreed to do the sessions for me. I think once he had heard the material he wanted to do it anyway which is good because trying to record and play at the same time is not an easy task. It was at this point that Cubase came into it�s own, as I had printed out some basic chord charts for Neil to follow. To do this I had first played the tunes into Cubase in the normal way. This was something I didn�t normally do because the melodies to my music where always carried by the Lead Guitar. Needless to say I have a good memory but after doing this project recording the tunes into Cubase will be standard for me. Next in the arrangement window I made a copy of the melody part and the �pad� part in the normal way. I always programme a pad just to give chord structure to a piece of music whether it is used or not in the final mix. I glued all the separate bits of each part into one long part so I was left with two parts both lasting the length of the track. Now I selected both and went into Score Edit to be confronted by my music in dots on two separate staves. I have to say that this is a very satisfying experience and although I do not read music for some strange reason to see my work laid out in this way gave me a sense of pride. By going to the �Function� menu with in the Score Editor and selecting �To Voice� and clicking on OK when the prompt �Enable polyphonic voices� appeared I made the two separate staves into one Piano type stave with the melody on top and the chords on the bottom. Next I used the �select all� command from the Edit menu and �Make Chords� from the �Function� menu in the Score Editor. I was now looking at my music which had been transformed into an instant chord sheet with corresponding tune. OK so it�s not quite that simple, unless you use chords like A C D or Am Em in other words simple chords with the root notes on the bottom, you may find Cubase interprets your inversions in a strange way. As a guitarist I don�t use the chord A sharp I only use B flat yes I know they are the same but if you are trying to read a chart and you see something unfamiliar it can put you off. To edit the chord names is easy just double click on the chord name you wish to edit and a simple editor appears. As this project is all instrumental I didn�t need to put lyrics into my charts but you can and it�s very simple to do. Make sure you have the melody stave selected and in your tool box you will find a pen so there you go easy. I�m not going to go in depth with this because the manual is actually rather good at explaining how to use the Score Editor. Just one tip quantise the copies of your music so as everything is on the beat. This gives Cubase something concrete to work with even if it does sound bloody awful.Back to the studio armed with my newly printed charts Neil was putting down some cracking Bass lines. As with Dave the drummer my main problem was picking the best Ideas and discarding the rest. To each track Neil came up with at least two parts with totally different feels. Sometimes it was obvious which worked best, sometimes not so obvious. But by the end of two days Neil had done Ten of the Twelve tracks so I was very happy. He promised he would do the remaining two tracks in any �down time� he had. My project was really taking shape now, I needed to do some repair work on the guitars and finish one or two bits I�d missed on the original sessions but the next thing was Brass parts. Will Clive be able to fend off the sneers of the Brass section or will he run humiliated from the studio, find out in the next exciting instalment of �Journeys End�
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JOURNEYS END part three frustration sets in I couldn�t get back in the studio why? because my band COBRA had it booked up recording their new CD !! Finally I managed to book two more days to finish off the guitar parts. I had been analysing some monitor mixes, listening to the Bass guitar and the Drums. One of the bass lines in a song called NORTHERN ROCK had been giving me some concern. At the time of recording I had not finished all the guitar parts, the Bass guitar had gone on before a harmony guitar and I was not sure that what had been played would fit. So to save time I programmed the parts into Cubase that is two lead guitars and the Bass. I selected all three parts and chose EDIT from the EDIT MENU this gave me a KEY EDIT window with all three parts in it. Selecting one of the notes would make all of the notes in that part bold and the notes in the other two would be faded slightly. This allows you to see exactly which part you are working on even though you are working on three parts at once. I could see at a glance how the parts fitted together and whether any obvious clashes would occur. As luck would have it my fears where unnecessary. Now you may be wandering why I wanted to do more work on the guitars. Well after playing to my heavily quantised backing tracks some of the playing was a bit stiff. All this was only hi-lighted by the real Bas and Drums which now grooved along nicely. Also one or two of the songs needed some special attention. One of those is a track called BLUE JIG which is supposed to be Z Z TOP meets THE DUBLINERS. As you can imagine getting the right feel for a track which switches between all out Blues Rock to Irish Folk is not easy. Another song which was causing me concern was the title track JOURNEYS END. This has a PINK FLOYD feel at the start moving through some very melodic sections to a big LED ZEPPELIN type section and finishing on a big orchestral melody. Few yes well the feel of each instrument would be crucial and the guitars at the moment where not cutting it. As you can see I had my work cut out but with the help of Neil Kavanagh the studio owner I knew things would work out. I needed also at this stage to figure out how I was going to market the finished product. I had already managed to persuade a friend to do me some art work for the CD cover and I am sure I will sell some CD�s at gigs. But apart from trawling around record companies with an instrumental CD which I can see will be a thankless task at best, the only other solution I can think of is the INTERNET. I have already set up a WEB SITE which is not as hard as it sounds. If you are on the NET already with someone like COMPUSERVE or AMERICA ON-LINE chances are they will give you a free web site. Most providers will do this and also provide software for you to write your web pages. If you don�t want to do this or you have already used up you space then there are places that will give you a web site free so long as you have a provider already. One such place is GEOCITIES which will give you six Meg of disk space and an Email address. Or FORTUNE CITY which is based in the UK will give you TEN MEG of disk space, so setting up a web site is not as hard as you think. By registering with the major search engines you can have a big advertisement for your product. The other thing I have been doing is publishing a FANZINE for my band COBRA. This has a form on the back page for fans to write and join our fan club. I have set up a PO BOX which costs �52 a year and we have been receiving mail at a steady rate ever since. Publishing a Fanzine is again not as hard as it sounds, if you have a PC or any other computer and a printer its a doddle. Of course you need DTP software but that is widely available at a reasonable price and if you are lucky you might even get hold of a copy of QUARK EXPRESS the industry standard. To print you Fanzine just print out one copy of each page in draft resolution and one copy in Best resolution on A4 paper. Now using your draft copy and a prit stick, glue the pages together to make a mock copy of your Fanzine. This will be used be the printer as a guide. Take your Best resolution pages to your nearest photocopy shop and they, if they are any good, will photocopy your pages on A3 paper and put the magazine together for you. I make our Fanzine in this way the cover is on ART ( shiny ) paper and the rest on normal paper all A3 in size, it cost us about �70 for 250 copies. The content of course is up to you , we have a gig list a cartoon and various news stories about the band and interviews and of course we plug the fact that we are recording a CD. We give the mag away at gigs and it is a huge success at present after two issues we have accumulated over thirty fans which hopefully will all buy either the bands CD or my CD or BOTH!! OK that�s all for this time I�ll see you next issue with the concluding part of JOURNEYS END. Free web sites are - http://www.fortunecity.comhttp://www.geocities.com COBRAS web site - http://www.ourworld.compuserve.com/hompages/CLIVEROGERSClive Rogers Official Web Site - http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/nevermind/379And finally for a sneak preview of the CD check out :-http://www.en.com/users/dhwthere is a REAL AUDIO PLAYER file on this site of some songs off JOURNEYS ENDCheers Clive Rogers
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