Thanks again for TAKING A LISTEN folks!

AND NOW:

PUBLIC (for PSC types, anyway) SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:

At times, I tend to be a creative dude. This, at times, serves me as an artist and general Affordable Spirit (kinda like a "free spirit" but with the ability to invoice ). There was a long period of my earlier life where I didn't have this part of me sorted out. I had the classic parental "that's a nice polka you wrote, dear, but you really should work on your plumbing skills now so you can get a real job when you grow up" thang going on well into my 30's.

But I cracked it. Lot's of work, in my case, to show up as who I really was and who I really wanted to be. I even shifted my name to better suite my artistic endeavours (I was born Scott Reinier deSmit).

I LOVE a creative spirit (and we all have one - some of us, like me, have to find it and work it loose. Others it just pours out of. And others still cram it away from the light of day to the world's dismay...) and I love supporting that part of us in others. I do my best to help lift UP people, not the opposite (though I, like any other human, fails from time to time at this in practice).

SO: Two Books ReinMan Recommends. One a Golden Oldie, the other a bit more recent.

THE ARTIST'S WAY by Julia Cameron.
This book mentions "spiritual" stuff at times, but don't let that scare you away. It is brilliant and is VERY good for those of you who sense that you want to do SOMETHING creative in your life, but aren't sure if you got what it takes. This book will show you, and bring out, that part of you that REALLY REALLY wants to rock at Photoshop and Violin Concertos!

COACHING THE ARTIST WITHIN by Eric Maisel
I'm more than half way through this book, and I've got my money's worth a few times over already. Eric is an Artist Coach... like a business coach or a Life Success Coach or what have you. But I'll tell you this: he knows how an Artist ticks. The concept of this book is to help you COACH YOURSELF in a way that feeds your passion, helps you manage your passion so you can use it succesfully in this sometimes "normal" world, and does so with a clarity and heart-felt way. (note to creative aspiring types: if you are afraid of your heart you gonna have a BUMPY ride - but take the ride non-the-less )

OKAY - I'm gonna give BlueLurker back his soapbox now (thanks for the loan, dude!) and get on with my day. Maybe find some coffee around here. ( yes, i wrote ALL THIS without the aid of caffeine or chocolate!)

Group Hug! (except for Arcaico - he groped me last time and I don't really FEEL he MEANT IT! )

Howdy again - more TYPING INTENSIVE ENTRIES on the FUNK THREAD!

Synthvet asked about my set up, and I thought I'd share what I replied with you all:


My main music composition is done in Cubase (sx3) and I really just use it for an over-priced sequencer a la MIDI.

Once that is sussed out I run the tracks (using MIDI sync) down separately to my Yamaha AW2400 by muting all tracks except the one(s) I want and then taking multiple passes. It takes some time but I end up with a "virtual REAL" track assortment of "real" instruments on the 24-track. Thus, I can now ignore the MIDI stuff.

My sound sources for music stuff is a (recently purchased) Korg x50 keyboard, which is also my master controller, and a Roland XV-5050 sound module. These two sources give me WAY too many sounds to get lost in!

Vocals/accordions/etc. I then lay down in real-time onto the 24-track. I run most of my input through a tube (12ax7) pre-amp and through a basic compressor/limiter.

At mix time, the AW2400 has a great auto-mix capability and I twiddle with the mix until I'm basically happy. Its not like the old days when i did this professionally, where a mix might take a day or two - now I write, record, and mix all in one day so the mixes are "good enough" for general. If, for some reason, I ever need to do better mixes everything is saved in backups so I can pick up where I left things off.

That's about it! Again, thanks to those of you who give my stuff your ear now and then - I appreciate that!

Still hugging you!
ReinEar

damn!!!! i always show up late looks like the concert is over

you an me both Matt

Pretty cool, there, reindude! Needs more cowbells, though

I would like to be in the video. Silver pants, 3" high clogs, and big ass afro. I will dance like it's 1999.

Can I?

Seriously, I can act, you know...

Love it Reinman, thats a great song, I like the beat , vocals are great too also the record quality is awesome

Merci, all!!

Afro?! - okay Sage, you are ON! I'd pay good money to see you in a 'fro, dude!

L#rue: those vocals were fun as I had to do the BIG dude, myself, and the Choir Chicks too! For a moment I felt like Phil Collins, but thankGAWD that passed quickly!

Nice. High quality.

Coulda used some raw kickass blues slide a la Les Paul though. And cowbell, yeah MORE COWBELL!!!!!!!! :lol:

Mr. Boat, you are so right. I know a few great guitarists but they live a good distance from me (do you BLAME THEM?) so it doubles my production time (like up to TWO DAYS! ) if I wait for them to get sober enough to lay down some steaming grueling funk riddems.

Presenting: The Official Music Video
The production quality of this is unparalleled; it took me almost an hour of intermittent work.
(If it seems repetitive, that is just because you are whiny and impossible to please)

That is.... er, um.... VERY interesting Mr. Fungus! Thank you... I think....

*ReinMan rushes off to register song at SOCAN before european song pirates grab the music from Fungus's YouTube video*

P.s. is that dude in the video supposed to be ME or BlueLurker. He seems to be more "lurker" shaped, imo.