Hi all... Check out this original song I made called "TheHarpBeatsFasterThanTheHeart" .
The song is composed of a series of overdub loops that I first captured live and on-the-fly, and then manipulated (also live) while recording to get the composition you hear in the track. I used the free live-looping software "Ambiloop" to all of this. First I laid down four measures of the "harpboxing" beat track (yes, I am beatboxing and playing harmonica at the same time). Then I laid down a little harmonizing riff with octaves (also four measures). Then four measures of another little harmonizing riff (thirds and fifths). Then I laid down an extra bit of rhythm harp that accents various beats over 8 measures. All these were done with an A harp in 2nd position, key of E. Then I laid down a 16 bar solo using a D harp in 3rd position, key of E minor. The last two tracks had a bit of hall reverb, slapback delay, and a notch filter applied (Ambiloop has these FX built in, and you can apply them to any combo of selected tracks).
These were all overdubbed as separate independently controllable loops in Ambiloop, and were done "on the fly" (ie. I just recorded each in a row, and didn't cue them up or manipulate their length in anyway). Once they were recorded, I used Ambiloop's "mix to disk" function to record a looping session. Once you press that, everything you do after is recorded directly to an audio file. So that means the track was recorded as I manipulated the loops "live" by muting and un-muting the individual loops. I did this by tapping hot-keys "on the beat". In this way, the performance could be repeated in a live situation.
All sounds (harp and beatboxing) were recorded direct to my computer's sound card via a vintage Concord dynamic microphone on a stand.
The video is made up of a bunch of weird stuff I had on my hard drive including some original art and photographs.
I did one with audacity, Lowrider, a few months back. its pretty simple to do with that program as well. not in real time, but separate tracks you can bring in and out for a recording. I like it isaac... ---------- Kyzer's Travels
Kudos Isaac. I like all this sort of stuff. I like the idea of "pushing the envelope" just to see what comes out the other side. You never know. Jodan Chudhan on here does something like this too and he does weird little videos to go with them. You never know, stuff like this may become viral.
Keep on doing it. The Blues is great but we need people who push the little harp to new frontiers and beyond. ----------
It was almost a little repetitive for me but it grew on me.... and then lodged itself in my head. Grr. I've tried "harpboxing" before kinda jokingly but found out it's hard! When I watched the video with the music in my ears, my pupils dialated, I started sweating, my mouth dried up, and I couldn't look away. Haha. Jk. It sounds good my friend. Keep up the good work!
Last Edited by on Feb 11, 2010 7:10 AM
Thanks guys! Yeah, I'm definitely interested in pushing the envelope when it comes to the understanding of what Blues Harmonica is all about. Doing this kind of stuff has been my vision from the first time I realized that I wanted to go beyond campfire songs with the harp. I know I've got a ways to go, but this song represents the first moment when all my skills (harp playing, beat boxing, technology, etc.) have finally gotten to the level where I can at least do SOMETHING like this with them.
Thanks to each of you for the kind words, but special thanks to Brandon. It means a lot coming from a loop-master such as yourself!
@Mvlun: Viva la hippity hoppity!
PS. I cashed in a bunch of Amazon gift certificates I've been hoarding, and bought a Digitech rp155 that has a built in 20 second looper. It's the most expensive piece of kit I've bought to this day. It's on it's way, and I can't wait to start practicing live performance looping with it! ---------- ------------------ The magnificent YouTube channel of the internet user known as "isaacullah"
I know with the heartbeat theme you want to keep the underlying beat real front and center, but on the mix afterwards you might want to bring it down a little bit, to let some of the other parts shine.
I think you might have gotten to the other parts a little sooner and done a little more with it. You could also use a stronger thump on the beat. Maybe you could do that with a stomp box, or maybe just by miking yourself differently so you get more percussion out of the lip pops. I'm being really nit picky though. This is actually the sort of stuff I'd love to be able to do.
I've actually been trying to do some notes with my throat while I'm playing, but even although I can sing in key and play harp in key it's really hard to do them both at the same time.
Thanks nacoran! That's exactly the kind of advice I'm looking for. Yeah, I agree with you. I but the rhythm on the B track, but I didn't fool with the mix too much. The beats do obscure the melody at some times. Yes, I also think I should have got to the solo sooner. The issue is that I had to pre-record the solo. Since I was doing this "live" and having it mix straight to disk, I found that I had to wait for the solo to play through one whole time (36 bars) on "mute" before I could cue it up at it's start again (at least, I couldn't figure out how to get a loop to start at it's beginning regardless of the position of the other loops in Ambiloop. They are all synced.). I'm hoping that with really "live" looping, this wouldn't be an issue, since I'd just set up the peat track and the harmonies, and then just play the solo live over them...
It's also good to know that I should work on various micing schemes for the lip pops. The issue there is that I am "harpboxing", so the harp is always kind of in the way of the mic. I'll try out some of my other mics though and work on changing my cupping technique so that I get the best of both the harp and the beats... Yeah, I'm working on the stomp box thing, but my foot tapping isn't as steady as my beats as of yet! ;)
I listened to it a couple of times, it grew on me and I like it. Sort of trance-like. Great effort and result for a first time thing. I admire your stones for putting it out there and looking for honest feedback. The only negative I'd offer is that maybe some of the lines were a little too simple and school-rhymey, but for all I know that was exactly the sound you were reaching for.
But to go off on a tangent--I found your use of the word "made" interesting in your first sentence, when you said, "Check out this original song I made." I tend to think of songs being written or created, not made. That word to me connotes that the song was built on a production line or something. Do you think of your creation as something done by a traditional song writer or more by an engineer of sorts, what with the use of all this new-fangled technology? I know that electronica is not new, I've just never really paid any attention to it. I also recall a number of threads discussing whether looped music is real music. I think it is real music, but belongs in its own category. Anyway, well done!
Hey holliston... Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate it... As for the "made" thing, you know, I never really thought about it, but you bring up a REALLY good point there... Yeah, there is certainly an element of "assembly" to this kind of track, especially the way I went about it for this particular track. You make your individual parts, and then you put them together into a "whole". But there is definitely a very creative aspect too in that 1) you have to create the individual pieces. This comes from inspiration, not from a package. And 2) when you "assemble" the whole, you can do it one of 2 ways. There us the really "assembly-line" kind of way (that I eschew), which is a fully "produced" work where you use software tools to line all the tracks up exactly and pitch-shift it and tempo-shift it and auto-tune it, etc. until it is "perfect", and then call it a track. This kind of track can;t really be reproduced "live", at least not completely live. And then there is the way I did it, which is fully on-the-fly, and I think very "creative". I just manipulated the tracks live, as I heard how they should go in my head. Given the proper tech, and set-up, you can easily do this kind of music "fully live", with no pre-recorded or manipulated tracks made aforehand.
So, I guess the short answer is that by "made" I meant "made up", as in "created". I certainly would NOT say that I "wrote" this song. I wrote the individual tracks I looped (ie. I tried various things, and then decided on certain phrases, timing, key, etc.), but the SONG was fully improvised... I think "improvisation" takes on a new and slightly different meaning with this type of music. This type of music lets you "improvise" by combining written pieces and phrases in completely unique an novel fashion, in addition to the standard understanding of "improvise" which is to just play a phrase "live" without [much] forethought.
Thanks for bringing this up, you've really made me examine some things that are of great interest and import to me and this kind of music!
