Category: Music

Bring On the Comments?

For those who, like me, hear lyrics incorrectly on a regular basis and if you blog, you may be able to appreciate my most recent mistake. I heard the song Bring On the Comets by VHS Or BETA and started to ask my wife when the song got to the chorus, “what are they saying?” “Bring on the comments?”. “Are these guys bloggers?”

Well, my wife laughed (ok, laughed is a little strong. I think she smiled… maybe), but now every time I do a blog post I get this song in my head. So, without further ado, this post is live, bring on the comments… Listen to it on iTunes.
VHS Or BETA - Bring On the Comets - Bring On the Comets

For other misheard songs, check out KissThisGuy – The Archive of Misheard Lyrics

Self Tuning Guitar

So this is pretty cool. My friend Kip says that it would make me look like a dork if I showed up with one of these at an open mike night, however, I don’t think I’ve ever been to an open mike night where *everyone* didn’t look like a dork. It’s a cool piece of gear. And by the way, I’ve never done and don’t plan on doing an open-mike night, no matter what Kip says.

The Death Of High Fidelity

There is a great article on the Rolling Stone website about why modern music is so terrible. I’ve been saying this for a while myself, but music is all about the dynamics. Audio compression makes music that could sound edgy and interesting sound like the candy coated drivel the industry has gotten so good at producing.

Watch the video below to understand what this all means and then read the article from Rolling Stone. Awareness is probably the only way this will get fixed.

Band ‘Mute Math’ Does Own Arrangement of Transformers Theme

Anyone who grew up playing with Transformers has got to be really excited about the upcoming release of the Transformers Movie from Michael Bay on July 4th. Well, the band Mute Math has gone so far as to do their own arrangement of the Transformers Theme.

You can listen to it here or get it at their site.

Update: I removed the link on my site since this appears to be the official Transformers Theme from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. I just thought it was an arrangement of the song they did for fun. Apparently not! Way to go Mutemath.

Yamaha PM7 Trumpet Mute

Ok. So this is not about programming, but I know a lot of programmers who are musicians. For all you trumpet players out there (I know there’s gotta be at least one), I bought the Yamaha PM7 practice mute because of it’s ability to, first and foremost, mute the sound so that I don’t disturb, kids, neighbors, very small rocks, etc. and, secondly, because it provides a way for me to record trumpet playing on my multi-track recorder (DAW). Well, I bought it believing that the “Personal Studio” that you usually buy it with wasn’t necessary. Plus I got the thing brand new off of ebay for $30 (retails for $70). I had figured that the “Personal Studio” was just acting as a simple pre-amp. Apparently there is something else to it. I borrowed the “Personal Studio” from a friend who had one already and it worked fine, so I now need to get one of those.

Anyhow, I just figured that others who buy just the mute would want to know that the “Personal Studio” (Yamaha ST9) is required for it to work. This information isn’t presented anywhere on the web including the Yamaha web site and music instrument vendors such as Musician’s Friend, etc.

At some point, I woould like to crack open the ST9 and and see what they are doing in there to make it work that my recorder doesn’t seem to provide. If there are any audio engineers out there with an idea, please let me know.