The Time Has Come...

So, later on today once I have actually slept I will be starting to film my next music video with one of my best friends. I really can't wait. These last few hours I have been writing down some simple ideas that could become explosive (not literally) for the video. I've had a serious think about locations and what content I actually want to include and what kind of mood want to set to match the temperament of the song. As for now, the track is called 'As The Sun Rises' (That's the only thing I've giving away tonight and I'm sure that title will stick) and I just feel like all these ideas are ready made to work together. I'm really hoping the weather is fine tomorrow. As the title gives away the song should feel quite warm and inviting. I don't really want everything looking cold tomorrow and most certainly not wet because I'm not sure it would be easy to edit that out.

'Oh, look it's not raining.'

I'm undecided on what to wear tomorrow and that bears a problem for me. What I wear tomorrow will be recorded for then rest of my life, no doubt. If it's warm enough, maybe some shorts but British summers aren't warm anyway so maybe it'll be ok to look cold.

New Proposals

Today has been rather different. I spent most of today down Nottingham with my old school friend Kieran Cooley and his boyfriend, Dan. I think it has been a month or so since we last met up, maybe even longer so we had a bit of a skate day. I drove down to their new house in Sneinton with my deck in the boot, soon after we rode into town. Before we set off we got talking about our plans for education. Kieran went on to tell me that he had not long dropped out of his course which shocked me a little because not long ago we were both talking about University and more but, then he told me that he will still be going back to college this year taking a new pathway in Media. He went on to tell me that he had been asked to provide a portfolio of work but, was unsure how to go about it. We sat down for a while discussing ideas and all different possibilities that would be achievable in the time limit of a couple of weeks. We came up with ideas like, street photography collections, animal park life photography, edited works, vlogs and making a music video or at least helping me make one. My main thought was that we could help each other with this, I'm fairly experienced with a camera in hand and I could pass on a few techniques, skills and hopefully a few editing tips too. I suggested that I introduce him to iMovie on my Mac with it being the best app I have to make movies. I want to get Final Cut Pro X at some point but it's so expensive, I guess that is what 'professionalism' costs.

When we got into town we didn't really know what to do or where to go, we never do really. We normally just end up wandering, going wherever our feet (and wheels) take us but today I suggested that we skate down to a flatland spot underneath a car park near Broadmarsh which was fun for a while., after we went to Subway and visited a few shops. I was still trying to suggest other little things that could work for his portfolio, some of which didn't come to me until later in the day when we were all heading back to his house to watch some Facebook videos and Netflix.

I've not long gotten home and I'm quite excited to be able to work on another video so soon but, also more importantly with a friend. I have recorded some footage already ready for a new video but, I'm not sure what that will be for yet or whether it will be another. Either way, I have a lot to think about again. I'm hoping to spend sometime in my studio tomorrow morning while my mum's at work so I can get something done and ready for storyboard. I have a couple I could use at the moment but, I'm still unsure. I'm hoping to actually release an EP before I go back to college and then maybe get an album ready for next year after I have performed around Nottingham a little more and gained a few fans. I really am starting to take my music more seriously and I can see that in my work and the levels of work I produce now compared to last year. I believe that this time last year, I was producing nothing. I was constantly thinking about doing something but, something always stopped me whether it be work or something more petty like just being to lazy and wanting to play games more than anything (when I had the time).

RECORD FIRST ORIGINAL MUSIC VIDEO, CHECK.

Again, it has been a long day recording both music and film. This morning until early afternoon, I have been recording the last few little parts for my new song, "I Don't Care". There were only two things that needed recording and that was the guitar solo and the bass. I am very happy with how they turned out after the mixing process. The guitar solo is very distinct and I feel like it is the also the right sound for me like, what you would expect me to play but with a bit of a surprise. The bass adds a sense of completeness the overall sound of the track.

I used my pair of WeSE headphones for the mixing to make sure that I had everything panned exactly where I wanted it and that the levels were spot on. It didn't take long for the track to be ready, it must have only taken me two or three hours to get everything perfect and ready for the video.

I had already recorded most of the footage I decided to use yesterday and some even further back than then. The ones from yesterday were shots of me playing my guitar and of myself singing, the others were from a couple of weeks ago when I went out with my skateboard, camera and tripod. Daring, though to be honest I did only take with me a camera that I brought for £1.99 out of a charity shop and to my amazement the damn thing works! It's a shame about the battery (I have to use an external battery for it work... pros and cons, eh?)

I still needed to record a few other little bits like , more guitar playing and a bit of acting out. By the time I was filming this, I had already mashed the other bits into half a video and I just needed more ideas. That's where the acting came in. I don't want to spoil it too much before the release on Monday but, it involved make up and applying it. Not all of it but, yes. Make up. It's not really something I wear a lot but, I do like to occasionally.

The music video was officially finished at 22:23pm. I'm so amazed with myself that I've been able to pull this off again. The last time I made a music video I was using a shitty windows laptop and windows movie maker. I will never go back to those days again!

HOORAY, FOR THE NEW MUSIC VID. WOOP, WOOP!

YouTube Covers

Hello everyone!

As you may have seen already, I am starting to get into filming and recording covers. I've watched many people do this before and I think that now is the time to jump onto the bandwagon, though what I don't want to do is simply copy everyone else before me. I do want to challenge myself and keep myself musically active, (that is the main point of this) but, I do fear that this can't happen without small complications.

The software I use for editing videos and recording are very basic and at the moment I don't really want to buy into new software that could make my work better, (my budgets won't let me) it's not that I don't have the money or that I'm a 'poor kid' but, I don't have a job currently and I don't want to splash out cash when I have no income. That wouldn't be clever. I know that is good software out there for around £40 but, I question it's potential.

My ideal for covers are not pop songs and  I have already agreed this with myself though, I don't want to do metal covers either (even though metal is still a sub-genre of pop). I want to make fun covers that are enjoyable. My sudden inspiration to dive into this kind of work comes directly from The Piano Guys as I find their videos not only very fun and enjoyable but, very uplifting. If I had or were a cello player, I would go down those roots and maybe even if I were a better piano player but, this is not me. Plus, there are five of them yet just one of me! I highly recommend giving The Piano Guys a listen by the way, they really are an amazing group of people.

As I've said before, my set up is very simple at the moment. I do not own my own recording  studio, just a mixer, a laptop and a couple of leads that do all of the magic. People have questioned me if I use MIDI with this setup, possibly assuming some kind of USB connection. Well, no I do not. I have the option to use MIDI on my keyboards and also my Zoom G.7ut Guitar Effects Processor (which is fantastic) but, I do not use it because I do not have the the correct leads or an interface, I'm not even sure I would if I could either.

Tripping back to the original subject of covers, I'm going to count my cover; Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness, Miror B Theme as my very first. Before this, I did an acoustic cover of Rush's 'In The Mood' But, I'm not too happy with the video for that or even the overall audio to be honest. I think it needed a little more than I originally gave. I'm not going to bother going back to that one, however it is finished and still a decent quality piece of work that I'm happy with for at least that reason. I can't wait to get started on my next cover now, it can be a painfully long process for a couple of minutes of entertainment but, it really is totally worth it!!!

If anyone has any suggestions of song for me to consider making a cover for, please comment. :')

Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness, Miror B (Cover)

A couple of days back I asked my facebook friends to suggest me something to cover just for fun. I asked the question on the 2nd August and had no idea what to expect as suggestions but, one of my friends suggested that I cover Miror B's Theme from the game Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness. I was a little unsure at first because I had never heard it before despite being a fan of Pokemon but, I decided to take it on as a challenge as I don't challenge myself enough! 

I spent the next couple of days learning the song and listening to it repeatedly so that I knew it well, I wanted to make this cover the best that I could with equipment I have.

On August 4th, the first thing I had to do was make a drum track. I used Cubase 5 for this and used three tracks. One track for the snare one for the bass drum, hi-hat and any other percussion (crash) and on for the audio of actual track for me to work with so the structure of the song matched the original. This didn't take too long to do. I remember that I didn't finish it on the night I started it even though it just needed a few finishing touches, (eg. reverb). I finished it the next day on August 5th and then continued to export the track and then import the track into audacity. I decided the first track I wanted to layer on top was the bass because this would be the most useful after the drum track to guide me through the structure. I recorded the bass using a line in from my AD-82 Mixer before that going into my Zoom G7.1ut Guitar Effects Console on a clean setting. This is the best method I have to record any guitar/bass parts, I used this method for my guitar several times later on but, with a distorted setting.

I also had two keyboard tracks that I wanted to add to the track were I used the headphone output at the back of the keyboards and put it into the mixer on a line in. I used two different keyboards purely to get the exact sounds I was after. I used my Yamaha NP-30 for a bright natural sounding piano and my Casio CTK-651 for synthetic Midi sounds which I wanted to use the trumpet. My Yamaha only has about 10 different sounds loaded where as my Casio has nearly 200 to choose from.. I'm not sure that I'm ever use them all though...

I was recording footage of me playing whist I was recording the cover using a Sony NEX-3 camera, moving it around the room for different shots. I only use Windows Movie Maker to put my video together so, it was quite challenging to get everything smooth and perfectly in-time but, I'm happy with the final result.

Here is the final result:

My cover of Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness, Miror B's Theme is also available for free download and to listen to on Soundcloud.

Please follow the link:

https://soundcloud.com/kimkeeton/mirror-b-cover 

Thanks, for reading :')

Enjoy!