K&W at Borders SCP - 21Aug2009

Another good time at South Coast. My voice was good, the sound was good, the Harmony box worked (pretty) good, and a good "crowd", of, mainly, two. I always pass out song lists before we start, to (a) give fair warning of what we're about to perpetrate, and (b) help people call out songs that we actually do know, as opposed to random stuff we don't.

This time, two older ladies actually took it to heart just the way I've always intended it -- they started right away commenting and cooing over this and that song on the list, and almost immediately moved to a closer table to listen better! They stayed tuned in, asking for songs and generally appreciating the music, and even moving even closer when a pair of comfy chairs opened up, and hanging out way past their expected "goin' home" time.

Of course, I wanted to try out the Harmony box, here where I can actually hear what it's doing, and was quite happy with it. I didn't mess with the "room" effects at all (though I should have), 'cuz the initial settings sounded pretty good just as they were. I proceeded sparingly with the harmonies, but nobody cried "foul" when I started using them, though one music-loving gent immediately sussed out what was going on, and how.

At one point, the ladies were whispering to each other and eyeing me suspiciously, and I thought that surely they were starting to wonder about where the "other singer" was coming from. (That, or my zipper was down...) I asked them directly if they had a question, but they were wondering if my guitar played without being plugged in (Huh?). I said that, sure, it works fine, and they seemed satisfied once they'd decided that it was "a six-string, then" (Double Huh?). They never mentioned the vocals, which possibly/hopefully confirms my theory that most people will just hear the harmony as "sweetener", not as some mysterious "other person".

As the night went on, I got bolder about employing the harmonies, and played songs where it was more and more integral/blatant. And despite his initial reservations, Warren didn't seem thrown or distressed by it. (An incidental big upside for him is that he gets to move to the more powerful amp channel, so he gets more headroom to get louder, or "cleaner".)

Towards the end, a nice lady who's seen us there several times before came by, and after a few songs, she asked "What's that reverb? It almost sounds like a harmony." Exactly!

I set up the movie cam and got some decent takes of the box in action. The "poster child" is the Everly Brothers' "Dream", and Crosby, Stills and Nash's "Teach Your Children" shows off the 3-part harmony really well. Check out any or all of:

Dream
Teach Your Children
The Boxer
Sweet Baby James
Southern Cross
Cinnamon Girl

"Sweet Baby James" is an example of judicious use of the harmonies, where they only come in occasionally (requiring me to kick the button accurately -- so far, not so easy). On the other hand, "Cinnamon Girl" is kind of botched up (I mixed up which part goes where, and undoubtedly confused Warren in the process), but it's still a good example of the harmony working well. It's also an example of the danger -- I'm liable to make all manner of other mistakes while I'm trying to work the box. Although in this case, it's no excuse, since it's an "On at the beginning, off at the end" song. I guess I can screw up a song without any help, after all...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 15Aug2009

Mostly healed/cured up from my throat infection all week. I was a little scratchy, and tried to take it easy, avoiding the really high screechers. It helped that Warren wasn't there (he opted to join Jim on a streetcorner in Laguna instead), 'cuz I could play my capo-2 songs just without capo to put them down a bit, easing the burden on my voice. But about half-way through, I was warmed up enough to do the original keys again.

And it was my first time out with the new TC Helicon Harmony-G box, (which I'm thinking of naming "Harmione" -- get it?), which is basically a harmony-singing robot. It takes the mic and guitar as input, and, based on the guitar chord it's "hearing", it adds a cloned second (or third) voice track, pitch-shifted to an appropriate harmony note. It's simply amazing, and works really, really well for many songs, (though not so good for others, due mainly to misleading-ness in the guitar part).

I'll admit to having some trepidations about getting it in the first place -- first because it was unclear whether it could actually work at all, and second because it can certainly be seen as "cheating" in some way. But, the ends justify the means, and desire begats rationalization, so: (1) Very few people in the audience give you any points for "purity" -- they're just there for the music. I'm always hyper aware of *how* the music is being made, and am quick to detect "bogus" (i.e., taped or MIDI) tracks. But even then, I don't walk out -- I watch/appreciate the live human for the pieces he's contributing. Most of the bands on our cruise were using MIDI backup tracks, but nobody on the dance floor seemed to care. (2) When used sparingly (i.e., quietly) (which, admittedly, I can't promise I'll always do), most people won't recognize harmony as "another guy" -- they'll just hear it as "that guy's voice sounds really good". You get the same reaction with reverb (and compression, etc.). Which (3) (and I know this may be stretching it, but like I said, this is all just necessary rationalization), this is really only a (big maybe) step above. Reverb is supposed to be the sound bouncing off of walls, but, when there's no walls, the same effect is faked, at first with analog methods, and now, digitally. Which led to "digital delay", which sounds like a full-on echo, and is really a "cloned" track, played back a bit later in time. These harmonies are that, taken another step, and pitch altered, too.

OK, enough conscience-assuaging, how did it sound? I thought it was great. In fact, at times it sounded so cool that I could hear myself performing better in reaction to it -- like the way I perform better at SCP because of the great acoustics there. This whole pushing buttons with my feet thing is new, so I'm clumsy at it, but I got the hang of it from time to time, and only really blew up a song once.

The weirdest part was that, apparently because of my newfound sensitivity to harmony, there were times that I was hearing (hallucinating?) harmonies over my voice, even when the box was off. I had to keep checking the lights, but nope, it was off. That got me thinking that, if I could hear 'em in my head, that must mean that they'd sound good for real, so sometimes I'd take a risk and fire up the box on a line here and there of a song that I hadn't previously "marked" for harmony. And got a away with it, too. Pretty magical. Or mind altering. Or both.

Anyway, the whole first half was pretty dead, which was OK 'cuz it let me experiment with the box a bit. It also adds "effects" to the (even solo) voice -- essentially different kinds of reverb (big room, small room, echo, etc.). It changed "the sound" quite a bit at first, but I got it dialed in to sound "right" (or I adapted to it) after a while. By the half-way mark I was wondering where everybody'd gone, and thinking that I'd only had like three tips in the jar. But then it busted wide open -- it got dark, which seems to improve my mood, my sound, the "atmosphere", something. And people started to show up -- and stay a while. Had a big group in the back clapping loudly for 50's tunes. I couldn't see 'em way back there without my glasses, but they walked past me to drop in some tip money and say thanks, and turned out to be several middle-aged Asian couples. You just never know.

So I ended up with $67 in tips, and a great time. The box is a huge success as far as I'm concerned, and I've only scratched the surface -- adding harmony to my currently-deliberately-harmony-free set list means it's only used on some songs. Once I get good at it, I can add songs that I couldn't do before, because of their reliance on vocal harmony to "sound right". And it has advanced features that let it do songs that won't "work" with the predefined presets, so there's all that to investigate.

I guess I'm excited to have something else to play with/learn about. Until now, learning a song was all about learning the guitar part. Now, there'll be that, but there will also be a "how do the vocals work" component to figure out. More puzzles = more fun. And I daresay that I'll/we'll sound more like a "real band". The near-record tips seem to say that nobody was particularly put off by the "fakeness". I will have to try not to go overboard with it, though...

K&W at Irvine Spectrum -- 08Aug2009

I started the evening with a scratchy throat, and ended it with almost complete laryngitis. But it was a pretty fun night -- lots of people out, many of them friendly.

Had some teens that sat in for a long time -- the girls requested Disney tunes, and one of the guys was a big Cat Stevens fan, which had me dredging up all that I could find, including the recently revived but still unstable "Trouble". Warren's really fond if this one, though, so I guess I'll see if I can smooth out the rough spots in it with some practice.

It was also the first outing for Journey's 80's power ballad "Don't Stop Believing", which I'd'a never even considered but for its appearance in the new surprise-hit TV show pilot "Glee", and its evident popularity among the kids on our cruise a week ago. Works kinda OK as an acoustic number, and even better in Real Life, when I'm more liable to get to really pounding on my guitar than I am in the bedroom.

The second time through it, though, my throat was completely blown out (I should'a known better), and I had some pretty embarrassing cracks (to wild (ironic) applause from the teens) on the high note. Still, it's fast, loud, and fun -- something the act needs at times.

Oddly, despite the good response, it was pretty light, tip-wise. I still have no idea what makes a good or bad night in that regard. I haven't detected any kind of pattern at all. Guess I'll keep looking.

Harmony Box -- Do atheists get prayers answered?

On our cruise last week, I spent a bit of time watching a guy named Bruce play and sing in various places around the ship. He's from Memphis, and played the same kind of stuff that I do, though a lot more of it since he has to fill lots of time on those cruises. It's always interesting to see other "takes" on the songs I do, and to hear other songs that I might want to add.

Oddly, he played 12-string guitar, only. That's kind of rare. He also had more electronics than I do. One box was a "looper", where he could stomp a button to have it start recording the guitar chord "track" as he played and sang, say, the second verse of a song, and then he could play lead guitar over that track's playback as a third verse. He also had an effect pedal to give him some distortion or whatever to make the lead stand out. But the third box was the most fascinating.

I noticed that he had occasional vocal harmony backup, but there weren't any other people up there. It's possible to sing to a tape, but *really* hard to get the timing right and match the speed. I ran into him taking a break in one of the lounges late at night, and asked him how he got those harmonies. It's that third box -- an electronic harmonizer that duplicates your voice, modified (up or down) to a harmony note, based on the guitar chords that you're playing. This is, of course, genius, amazing, and I had no idea that such a thing existed, but there it was, turning only-child Bruce into the Everly Brothers.

It's also the answer to my main issue with my performances -- no vocal harmony. But even if I found someone that could/would sing with me, I'd have to make time to rehearse with him, and I couldn't learn new songs with abandon the way I currently do. This robot harmonizer will learn as fast as I do, know all the songs I already know (making the same mistakes I make), not be bored on songs that don't have/need any harmony, not complicate the gig scheduling, and no rehearsals required.

When I got to play "with" Bruce, he apparently had wired me through it, and reached over and kicked it on during the chorus of "Let It Be". Wow. Seems to work. Needs a lot more investigation of course, but, wow.

As soon as we got home, I looked it up, found one on eBay, and bought it. It's on its way, but it looks like it won't quite get here in time for Saturday's gig. But next week, look out.

Cruisin' to Mexico -- 7/26-8/2 2009

I'm not gonna try to document the whole week's vacation, but here are some impressions...

First off, for a country whose day and nightime temperature is always about two hundred, and whose humidity needs to be written in scientific notation, they have an alarming lack of Mountain Dew. 'Nuff said.

The ship is, frankly, astounding. I will give them that. I'm amazed at the audacity it took to decide to build something that big and that complex, and get away with it so well. But it comes off mainly as a Vegas hotel/casino with very low ceilings (much to the delight of the adolescent "Look! I can touch the ceiling!" boys).

And it's got gaudy on its gaudy. They apparently had decorators come in, and then had other decorators come in to decorate the decorations.

Anyway, the cruise takes you down to Puerto Vallarta for a day, then Mazatlan, then Cabo San Lucas. You can get off the boat and shop at the unique little shops to be found at each one:

Puerto Vallarta

Mazatlan

Cabo San Lucas

But, it turns out that I already have as many dirty joke and/or alcohol dependency T-shirts, brightly painted ceramic iguanas, serapes, pre-aged cowboy hats, hand carved running horses and fish, and, for that matter, blue diamonds and Rolex watches, as I need.

That's OK, we all had a really great time, on the boat and off. Nobody got sick, and there was always plenty to do, or not do.

The kids joined the 15-17 teen "club" (although Acacia's only 14), and hung out with the other teens most of the time -- dancing (or whatever) 'til 3, sleeping 'til noon. We're not normally the "set 'em loose" kinda parents, but they couldn't get lost or abducted, couldn't run out of money, and couldn't starve, so it seemed OK to just let 'em do their thing. We saw them every night at the mandatory 6:00 dinnertime, and ran into 'em occasionally around the boat, so we kept in touch, somewhat. And of course, they joined us for the shore trips.

Without 'em, we swam a little, relaxed a lot, saw some movies, watched the karaoke (I sang twice), and there was always musicians for me to go watch, scattered around the boat. To keep the band sizes (and pay) down, there's a lot of singing to MIDI tracks going on, but there was one guy (Bruce) that played (12-string) guitar, and sang over it, very similar to what I do, so he was the most interesting it watch.

I ran into him in one of the lounges, late one night on a break, and we got to talking about playing and audiences, repertoire, and such. After a while, he said, "Gee, it's too bad you don't have your guitar -- I'd like to jam with you." I told him I *did* have my guitar, and he said, "Go get it!"

I tried to play songs that he could join in on, but the songs that I think are "impressive" are always somehow "tricky", so he was pretty lost most of the time. But he was enjoying it anyway, as were the dozen or so people scattered around the lounge, who were clapping and whooping it up. One (apparently well-lubricated) guy shouted out, "Hey! You're good!", and later, "You're fired, Bruce!" to big laughter. I hate to say it was the highlight of my trip, but it kinda was.

Anyway, we all had a great time -- clearly the best vacation we've had in a while. It's cool that you don't have to "travel" to go places, and that you just drive to Long Beach, and you're on vacation already. When we went to Disney World, there's the pain of at least a day of traveling, twice, with the actual vacation in the middle. This eliminates that hassle. Admittedly, Mexico isn't my favorite place to visit, but it's the voyage, not the destination, right?

I've posted some pictures -- I know, what's more boring than other peoples' vacation pictures, but it's a gallery of thumbnails, and you only have to click the ones that look interesting, and I won't be there to have hurt feelings if you just scan through 'em. Check it out, here.