Derek K. Miller Derek K. Miller dkmiller@penmachine.com http://www.penmachine.com/images/derek_jan2006_roland.jpg http://podcast.penmachine.com/ Tasty free original podsafe instrumentals from Derek K. Miller in Vancouver - now on CD at buy.penmachine.com http://podcast.penmachine.com/ Tasty free podsafe instrumentals you can reuse and share, now available on my CD (plus bonus DVD) at buy.penmachine.com. I'm Derek K. Miller from Vancouver, Canada, and I've been a professional musician since 1989. Enjoy, and feel free to share and remix. Most tunes are under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license, and are registered with www.socan.ca (SOCAN). Tasty free podsafe instrumentals you can reuse and share, now available on my CD (plus bonus DVD) at buy.penmachine.com. I'm Derek K. Miller from Vancouver, Canada, and I've been a professional musician since 1989. Enjoy, and feel free to share and remix. Most tunes are under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license, and are registered with www.socan.ca (SOCAN). en-us No Fri, 20 Jan 2006 19:43:49 -0800 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Copyright 1994-2006 by Derek K. Miller (SOCAN), some rights reserved (unless otherwise noted), with a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 license. dkmiller@penmachine.com dkmiller@penmachine.com http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/ Long version of some music for a photo film. Long version. Roland Tanglao is apparently making a short photo film with the theme "Red," and it will be exactly 1 minute and 30 seconds long. He asked if I had any music that would fit, so I decided to write something exactly that length, which is "Less Red Than Red." Now, 1:30 is pretty short, so I made a longer mix of the same composition with some extra instrumentation (most notably piano), which is 2:45, and that is "More Red Than Red," this one. Although they come from the same source recording, I think the emotional result is a bit different, especially with the piano coda on this track. It was mastered by Les Thorn (ltmuzick.com) in New York City. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Wed, 1 Feb 2006 20:05:30 -0800 00:02:45 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#red http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#red?more Short version of some music for a photo film. Short version. Roland Tanglao is apparently making a short photo film with the theme "Red," and it will be exactly 1 minute and 30 seconds long. He asked if I had any music that would fit, so I decided to write something exactly that length, which is "Less Red Than Red," this one. Now, 1:30 is pretty short, so I made a longer mix of the same composition with some extra instrumentation (most notably piano), which is 2:45, and that is "More Red Than Red." Although they come from the same source recording, I think the emotional result is a bit different, especially with the piano coda on "More Red." dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Tue, 31 Jan 2006 20:19:55 -0800 00:01:30 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#red http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#red?less New month. New promo. Here's my latest Penmachine Podcast promo, recorded when I had a cold, and thus a lovely deep Barry White voice. Please play it on your show. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:21:18 -0800 00:00:35 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#promo_200602 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#promo_200602 INTERVIEW WITH DEREK: Roland's Rabble - Show 7 - Derek Miller - Podsafe Music to the world INTERVIEW WITH DEREK: From Roland Tanglao's podcast "Roland's Rabble" on dogmaradio.com, Show 7. Roland's description: a show loosely about Web 2.0 with regulars: Michael Tippett of Now Public, Will Pate of Raincity Studios and special guest, Derek Miller supplier of podsafe music to the stars. We talk about Derek's great podsafe music and the impact of the new GarageBand's new Podcast Studio and we have the world premier of Derek's new song, You're the Big Sky. 12.7 MB MP3 (55 minutes and 41 seconds, RSS Feed for this podcast) Recorded Thursday Janary 12, 2005. Got an idea or a person who should be on this show? Email me roland AT rolandtanglao.com or call me at 604 729 7924 Show notes and Links: Buy Derek's CD at buy.penmachine.com CD Baby Navarik Our Music 2.0 Podcast Northern Voice - lots of blogging, videoblogging, podcasting sessions at both day 1, Moosecamp, and the 2nd day, the "normal" conference Mashups roland@rolandtanglao.com (Roland Tanglao) Technology Thu, 19 Jan 2006 00:18:49 -0800 00:55:41 http://dogmaradio.com/rolands-rabble-show-7-derek-miller-podsafe-music-to-the-world http://dogmaradio.com/rolands-rabble-show-7-derek-miller-podsafe-music-to-the-world Derek sings a song to his daughters and young Kai. We'll ring in the new year on the Penmachine Podcast with my second tune in a row where I actually sing, a month after my last one. It has been some time since an update, but there was Christmas and the new year and a bunch of gigs with my band, plus there was that CD album I released and that you should buy. But now I'm back. This latest song has quite a story. Back in early December, my work set up a charity auction to take place at our Christmas party, where staff members paid money (which went to a good cause) and then got fake virtual money to bid on services by other staff members, such as free tech support, Japanese lessons, and so on. I offered a custom composed and recorded song. My co-worker Carl won. He and his wife Cathy had an adorable son Kai last spring, so he asked me to write a song they could sing to him. I mulled that over for some time, and then one day it came, just like the cliche: in the shower. I had been thinking of an amazing song that my bandmate Mark Olexson had written (and which I hope to convince him to release as podsafe one of these days) for his wife Mandy for their wedding. Its first line is "There's a blue sky." I began singing a different melody in the shower, but with those words. When I had dried off I rushed downstairs and tried out some chords. Within an hour, I had changed it to "You're the Big Sky," written the rest of the words, and sketched out the chords and melody. I wrote them for my two daughters, thinking that writing a song to be sung to someone's child, it would be best to think of what I would sing to my own. So the song is for all three of them. The next day I recorded the acoustic guitar track and the basic vocals. It took ten days before I could finish the rest of the instruments, in dribs and drabs over nine different mixes of various complexity. The finished recording has 16 tracks in total: two acoustic guitars, four electrics (right and left rhythm, lead, and special effects), bass, two drum tracks, three percussion tracks, and three vocal tracks, plus Hammond organ. It was complicated enough that GarageBand was starting to choke on it, so I had to bounce the acoustic, drum, and percussion tracks into separate stereo mixes and then build the rest on top. I'm very happy with the result, and so is Carl, my high bidder. "You're the Big Sky" is simple enough to sing to a child, but works for grownups too. One other piece of trivia: every word in the lyrics (available in the Lyrics tag inside the MP3 file, or on the website) is one syllable, no more. And once again, you can hear me singing for a change. I hope you like it. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Mon, 16 Jan 2006 11:42:22 -0800 00:03:48 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#bigsky http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#bigsky New year. New promo. Here's my latest Penmachine Podcast promo. Please play it on your show. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Sun, 01 Jan 2006 15:21:18 -0800 00:00:43 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#promo_200601 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#promo_200601 Satire. Derek sings and plays blues guitar. Lyrics by Chris Pirillo. Chris Pirillo wrote some lyrics on December 7, 2005 as a blog post. Then he asked me to write a song around them. The result is perhaps the whitest possible white-boy blues, wherein two guys from the Pacific Northwest complain about an unreliable broadband Internet connection. It's "Comcast Connection Blues," baby. You may download it and cry your broadband nights away. It features me actually singing for a change, and also includes what I must say is some surprisingly fine lead blues guitar, which I recorded in only a couple of takes. It was mastered by Les Thorn in new York City. The tape operator was my five-year-old daughter, Ms. L. Miller. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Thu, 15 Dec 2005 13:28:55 -0800 00:02:01 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#comcastblues http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#comcastblues Solo classical guitar of the traditional Christmas carol. Back in October 2005, I said I would record a Christmas carol, and thought that "We Three Kings," written by John Hopkins Jr. (1820-1891), would be a good one. So here it is. Unlike any of my other tunes, this has no loops, samples, MIDI instruments, or other fancy stuff. It's just me playing the classical guitar my parents bought for lessons when I was 10 years old, with a microphone and some reverb for that concert hall sound. It's short, just two minutes, so enjoy it. The composition is public domain, and the recording is (C) 2005 by Derek K. Miller. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Mon, 12 Dec 2005 22:33:22 -0800 00:02:01 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#we3kings http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#we3kings A remix of one of my tunes from June, much faster and more electronica-style. When I first converted this page into a podcast back in June, my first track was "Pirilloponzi," with vocals sampled from the June 23 episode of the Chris Pirillo Show (thechrispirillo.com), featuring Chris, who organizes the Gnomedex conference (gnomedex.com) with his girlfriend Ponzi. They are very funny together. Well, now they have a video podcast at ponzi.pirillo.com, and I sent them a very short, modified version of "Pirilloponzi" as a theme song. After that, I extended the remix and made it into a full tune, which I'm calling "P and P." It no longer has vocals, but it's the same guitar part I recorded before, with completely different background tracks, and speeded up to 140 beats per minute. Give it a listen. By the way, the photo is by Kris Krug (kriskrug.com), another gnomedexer. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Fri, 09 Dec 2005 10:58:30 -0800 00:02:14 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#pandp http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#pandp A stompin', semi-Latin hard rock instrumental inspired by my daughter's silly phrase. "I'm washing off like an aardvark!" said my seven-year-old daughter a few days ago. "What does that mean?" I asked. "I dunno. It just sounded silly." "I like it," I said. "I should use it as the title for my next song." And so I have. It's a stompin', semi-Latin hard rock instrumental. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Wed, 07 Dec 2005 23:59:59 -0800 00:03:09 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#washingaardvark http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#washingaardvark Merry Christmas everybody. I'm Derek Miller from podcast.penmachine.com. Merry Christmas everybody. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Mon, 05 Dec 2005 14:22:18 -0800 00:09:09 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#xmas2005greeting http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#xmas2005greeting A classic public domain Italian song sung by my friend Simon James, solo. My friend Simon James has recorded some tracks with me here before, but this one is just him. He sent it to me yesterday, and it blew me away: he has taken some classical singing lessons, but I had no idea he could sing like this. Believe it or not, it's just him in his apartment with a nice microphone and some reverb effects. The song itself is hundreds of years old (and is thus fully public domain), from Italy around the time Shakespeare was writing in England. It is "Amarilli Mia Bella," by Guilio Caccini (1546-1614). The recording of "Amarilli Mia Bella" is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License, i.e. you can do what you like with it, as long as you note that Simon sang it. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Simon James care of D.K. Miller) Music Tue, 29 Nov 2005 11:20:00 -0800 00:02:00 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#amarilli http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#amarilli My custom theme tune for BusinessJive.com: share and copy, but don't use it as your own theme song! Judd Bagley of the Business Jive podcast at businessjive.com paid me to compose and record this exclusive theme song for his show. So you are free to download, file-share, copy, and webcast it without having to ask me, as long as you give me credit. However, you cannot use it as a theme song or background music (i.e. you need to play the whole thing if you use it on a podcast or radio show), use it to promote anything other than Business Jive, or sell, alter, or make any other commercial uses of this track, as detailed in the Creative Commons Music Sharing License. (See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed-music for license details.) dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Fri, 25 Nov 2005 12:20:07 -0800 00:02:09 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#businessjive http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#businessjive What my contribution to the sing-along chorus of "If Every Day Were Christmas" Slau, a recording artist in New York City, has a Christmas song called "If Every Day Were Christmas." It's a fairly straightforward, sing-along holiday number, but ever since podcast co-inventor Adam Curry suggested using it to help promote podsafe artists, it's taken on a life of its own. Now Slau is (with great patience and politeness, given the technical and logistical complexities of the task) coordinating a recording process where dozens of musicians from the Podsafe Music Network are recording a big "We Are the World"/"Do They Know It's Christmas?"/"Tears Are Not Enough" version of the track, with the publishing rights being transferred to UNICEF. This podcast episode of mine documents what my contribution to the sing-along chorus sounds like, and how I put it together. I'm not sure my voice will end up in the final mix, but I made an effort, anyway. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Thu, 24 Nov 2005 11:59:59 -0800 00:06:10 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#charitysong http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#charitysong Bleeping synths and screaming lead guitar, remixed and extended by Les Thorn Les Thorn (ltmuzick.com), who masters my Penmachine Podcast tunes, asked me for the separate instrument tracks of my July recording "Stop Yield Go Merge," so he could try a remix, and the result is right here. I like it. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Tue, 22 Nov 2005 22:54:19 -0800 00:03:24 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#stopyieldextended http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#stopyieldextended Another R'n'B-style funky groove instrumental with spanky Strat-through-Fender guitar tones. If you listen closely (or, actually, not that closely) to a few spots in this tune, you'll hear the sounds of my two kids in the next room, where they were draining their bathtub while I was recording. Hence the name: "Take Time for the Tub." It's yet another R'n'B-style funky groove instrumental, which seems to be what I do when I'm not trying to record anything else. There's some really spanky genuine Stratocaster-through-Fender amp tone there, in the classic James Brown-Stevie Ray Vaughan vein. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Thu, 3 Nov 2005 16:15:02 -0800 00:03:02 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#timefortub http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#timefortub Where I suggest that we should give Steve Jobs a style makeover. Where I suggest that we should give Steve Jobs a style makeover. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Wed, 2 Nov 2005 14:10:02 -0800 00:01:18 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#dscpromo4 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#dscpromo4 Spooky suggestions for listing podsafe tunes in the Podsafe Music Network. Spooky suggestions for listing podsafe tunes in the Podsafe Music Network. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Mon, 31 Oct 2005 09:35:21 -0800 00:01:35 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#dscpromo3 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#dscpromo3 How do I record tunes for the Penmachine Podcast? Listen to me talk about it. The Editors' Association of Canada, to which I belong, recently asked me to buy a digital recorder for our monthly meetings. I just did so, and on Friday, October 21 I tested it out by recording a 14-minute podcast of how I record my instrumental tunes. I talk about the equipment I use and the process I go through in constructing and releasing a track on this podcast. Backgrounds: "Clouds or Smoke?", "Fresh Snow in the Valley," "Pocketbook," "Stop Yield Go Merge," "Meltdown Man." dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Sat, 22 Oct 2005 09:35:21 -0800 00:13:50 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#howderekrecords http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#howderekrecords Promo for podcast.penmachine.com and my upcoming CD release I have finally put together an actual audio promo (1.6 MB MP3 file) -- otherwise known as a commercial -- to send to podcasters around the world. (The background track is "That's No Dream.") It notes my upcoming podsafe CD release. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Wed, 19 Oct 2005 01:05:55 -0800 00:01:41 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#promo1 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#promo1 Happy funk guitar-organ combo in a convertible with the top down My original composition was a sort of Tori Amos angst solo piano-stomp, with singing and everything, but after removing the words and adding groovy percussion, gritty Wurlitzer piano, funky Hammond organ, and changly Stratocaster guitar, it magically turned into a peppy little four-minute number. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Wed, 12 Oct 2005 13:10:22 -0800 00:04:11 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#thatsnodream http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#thatsnodream Second try's the charm: I got on Daily Source Code 255 After a failed previous attempt, I finally got a piece of audio feedback/promotion on Adam Curry's Daily Source Code podcast #255, following the earlier appearance of one of my songs there. (The background track, once again, is "Cold Cloth and an Ice Pack.") dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Thu, 6 Oct 2005 22:20:08 -0800 00:01:42 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#dscpromo2 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#dscpromo2 Soft back-porch acoustic, loud propulsive guitar, then back again I imagined "How Tall Jennifer Is" as a Green Day-style pop-punk number, but somehow it didn't turn out that way. Instead, it's soft at both ends and fast and loud in the middle (so don't let the first minute fool you). Think of it as starting on the front porch, moving into the padded garage, and then ending back on the porch. The Jennifer in question is one of my daughters' imaginary friends. They have many. And I don't have a clue how tall she is. The photo is how I guess Imaginary Jennifer might view one of her friends, my oldest daughter. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Sat, 1 Oct 2005 09:30:08 -0800 00:02:58 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#howtalljenniferis http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#howtalljenniferis Moby meets David Lynch and the Cowboy Junkies in a spaghetti western down on the bayou: spooky piano, tremolo guitar, and organ over a stuttering beat provided by Simon James I had quite a bit of positive feedback from listeners to my earlier jazzy track "Clouds or Smoke?", so when my friend Simon sent me a late-night, dark-alley rhythm track, I built on it with a couple of heavily-effected guitars, organ, and a Moby-style piano loop. There's also a spaghetti western/David Lynch soundtrack element to "The Burning Moon," which I hope you enjoy. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller and Simon James) Music Fri, 23 Sep 2005 22:34:26 -0800 00:02:56 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#burningmoon http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#burningmoon A bit of audio feedback and a promo for Adam Curry's "Daily Source Code," which I don't think he ever played. In a bit of shameless self-promotion, I sent this piece of audio feedback to Adam Curry for possible inclusion in his Daily Source Code podcast -- which already played one of my tunes earlier in September 2005. I don't think he ever played the promo, though. (The background track is "Cold Cloth and an Ice Pack," one of my earlier podcast tunes.) dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Thu, 15 Sep 2005 18:30:50 -0800 00:02:02 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#dscpromo http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#dscpromo Twin-guitar shuffle blues from the roadhouse, written for CBCers CBC Unplugged's "Studio Zero" is a podcast assembled by locked-out CBC employees on their picket line. Their first episode (23 Aug 2005) used three tracks from my podcast, and in thanks for the honour, I put together this blues instrumental -- inspired by Freddie King, Jimmie Vaughan, and Colin James -- to dedicate to them. The title comes from what happens when you're locked out of your job: you had a plan, had to change it. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Sun, 28 Aug 2005 00:48:22 -0800 00:03:25 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#hadaplan http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#hadaplan Wild 'n' crazy, Brylcreem-and-burgers rockabilly guitar workout In honour of my discovering the Rockabilly Guitar Page, here is "Meltdown Man," a wild 'n' crazy, Brylcreem-and-burgers instrumental, perfect for a summer night at the drive-in. As any proper rockabilly tune should, it features twangy guitar playing with lots of slapback echo, stand-up bass, and train-shuffle drums -- and that's it, nothing else! dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Sun, 24 Jul 2005 09:18:18 -0800 00:03:17 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#meltdownman http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#meltdownman Bleeping synthesizers, a backbeat, screaming lead guitar, and an ominous string section "Stop Yield Go Merge" took eight months to record, start to finish (plus another two months before remastering). That's not because it was hard, or even because I was lazy, but because I started it in the fall of 2004 with the bass line, and then forgot about it. When I found the rough track on my computer, I liked the dark string section, so I got back to work on it, ending with my usual el-sloppo guitar. Then, in September, two months after I released it, Les Thorn of ltmuzick.com kindly remastered it (for free!). It's only two and a half minutes long. Go ahead and download, file-share, copy, webcast, remix, and have fun with this track. You don't need to ask me, though you need to give me credit, and let other people do the same. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Tue, 19 Jul 2005 15:44:26 -0800 00:02:25 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#stopyieldgomerge http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#stopyieldgomerge Bluesy space rock with a jazz beat makes it not Pink Floyd Last week I bought a new guitar, so I recorded a new track with it, and called that track "Clouds or Smoke?", because one day earlier this year I was walking in downtown Vancouver and saw what I thought was smoke from a large fire. But it turned out to be merely an ominous dark cloud. Now that I listen to it, the beginning of the song sounds like Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here," but I swear that wasn't intentional. Go ahead and download, file-share, copy, webcast, remix, and have fun with this track. You don't need to ask me, though you need to give me credit, and let other people do the same. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Mon, 11 Jul 2005 01:37:18 -0800 00:03:55 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#cloudsorsmoke http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#cloudsorsmoke Sampled vocals from Chris and Ponzi about email and love, with a twangy groove in behind Chris Pirillo and Latthanapon "Ponzi" Indharasophang organized the Gnomedex conference I attended in Seattle in June 2005. Shortly before that, they recorded an episode of Chris's online podcast show (www.thechrispirilloshow.com) on June 23, 2005, where they talked for more than an hour about how they met and fell in love. It was very funny. So, the day after I set up my own podcast here, I downloaded their show, sampled some chunks of it, and turned it into a song. (I hope they don't mind.) I called it "Pirilloponzi"--the photo is by Kris Krug (another gnomedexer), the music is by me, and the sampled lyrics are by Chris and Ponzi. Go ahead and download, file-share, copy, and webcast this song without having to ask. However, if you want to sell, alter, or make any other commercial uses of this track, you have to get permission from me, Chris, and Ponzi, as detailed in the Creative Commons Music Sharing License. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Wed, 29 Jun 2005 17:00:00 -0800 00:03:17 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#pirilloponzi http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#pirilloponzi Power-chord driving music in a sugary, head-boppin' combination -- yum! I kept meaning to start work on another basic track that Simon sent me, but I was too busy and procrastinated. So I plugged my Strat into the SansAmp GT2 amp simulator, then into the eMac, and let 'er rip. "Hotcake Syrup" was the result. It's a sugary, head-boppin' combination of British overdrive guitar, three drum tracks, Clavinet, SVT-style bass, and a hint of bleepy synth-percussion goodness. Yum. Go ahead and download, file-share, copy, webcast, remix, and have fun with this track. You don't need to ask me, though you need to give me credit, and let other people do the same. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Sun, 20 Mar 2005 20:00:00 -0800 00:02:58 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#hotcakesyrup http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#hotcakesyrup Medley of "Standing Your Ground," "Disappear," "Time Laughs At Me" by The Flu, circa 1994 On February 5, 1995 (ten years to the day before I posted this track online) I arrived with my snare drum and bandmates in Melbourne, Australia for the first and only international tour by our indie original music act, The Flu. It was our big attempt to Make It. In late 1994, we'd independently released an album (on cassette!) called Light House, had set up what may have been the first self-run indie-band email list, and had for the last year been living entirely off music income, mostly by driving all over the province playing crappy bars as The Neurotics, as well as busking on downtown streets. This is a medley of three of our songs. Go ahead and download, file-share, copy, or webcast this track, but don't use it commercially, remix it, or alter it, and make sure you give The Flu credit. (See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed-music for license details.) dkmiller@penmachine.com (Dennis Boulter, Alistair Calder, Sebastien de Castell, Darrell Henke, Derek K. Miller) Music Sat, 5 Feb 2005 20:00:00 -0800 00:03:14 http://www.penmachine.com/2005/02/flu-jangle-pop-ten-years-later.html http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#flumedley Theme music with techno beats, an echoing riff, and lead guitar too In 2003 I came up with several names for instrumental songs, and have slowly been using them up. The title "Fresh Snow in the Valley" inspired the basic riff of this tune, but I originally envisioned it as much slower. However, trying to record an interesting version at the tempo I had imagined turned out to be difficult, and the half-finished track sat for weeks while I worked on other stuff. Then yesterday I decided to try a faster, more techno approach, and it worked out well. There's a lot of layers to it, so you might hear things best if you listen through some headphones that have good bass response. What "Fresh Snow" turned into was a hybrid, with high-gain feedback lead guitar, an echoey riff, techno bass and drum loops, random electronic noises, and funky breakdowns. Go ahead and download, file-share, copy, webcast, remix, and have fun with this track. You don't need to ask me, though you need to give me credit, and let other people do the same. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Sun, 7 Nov 2004 20:00:00 -0800 00:04:07 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#freshsnow http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#freshsnow A slow march with guitars that bloop, twang, and scream This track, a spacey groove instrumental, started out as an accident. I had planned to record my electric guitar directly into the iBook laptop I use for work, since my wife was using our eMac in the den. But it turns out the iBook lacks an audio-in jack, and has only a tiny condenser microphone up next to the screen instead. So I recorded the basic "Gronk Patrol" chord progression playing the guitar into that mic, without any amplification, just the tinny acoustic chingle-changle of the strings in the ambient space of our bedroom. After processing the resulting sound with an effects combination I called "bloopy tremphaser" (tremolo, phasing, equalization, heavy compression, and other sound effects), I had pretty cool atmosphere going. It's the first thing you hear when you listen to the final tune, accompanied by sampled drums that I slowed waaaay down from their original speed. Over the next several weeks I added a triple-tracked bass line (electric and synth bass, plus electric piano), as well as more drums, different amplified guitars (twangy echoes in one ear and heavy distortion in the other), then some regular piano at the end. But never mind that. I think the result has a lot of spooky atmosphere. I like the guitar solo too. Go ahead and download, file-share, copy, webcast, remix, and have fun with this track. You don't need to ask me, though you need to give me credit, and let other people do the same. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Fri, 5 Nov 2004 20:00:00 -0800 00:02:50 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#gronkpatrol http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#gronkpatrol Old-style funk-R'n'B combo jam: bass, guitar, drums, organ Like its predecessor "Pocketbook," this track is an old-style R'n'B instrumental (well, okay, there's a bit of synthesizer in there too). "Cold Cloth and an Ice Pack" started life as a loopy, deep-down line I played on my Fender electric bass. But after I added some funk guitar and drum loops, chopped-up greasy organ samples, and sloppy Neil Young-style lead guitar from my Stratocaster, the old bass line didn't fit anymore, so I ditched it for a new one. Finally, I layered in some echoey analog synthesizer and shimmering tremolo guitar for atmosphere. Most of the noises come straight from the Fender guitar and bass, in addition to the built-in loops, samples, virtual instruments, and effects in GarageBand--except for the lead guitar sound, which is the Strat played through a Danelectro Daddy-O overdrive pedal. The song's name comes from my oldest daughter, who likes to have a cold cloth (a wet washcloth) and a blue-gel ice pack at her bedside at night. She's always been a heat factory--on sweltering summer nights, she'll sometimes put the ice pack right on her pillow and sleep on it. Go ahead and download, file-share, copy, webcast, remix, and have fun with this track. You don't need to ask me, though you need to give me credit, and let other people do the same. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Tue, 14 Sep 2004 20:00:00 -0800 00:03:10 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#coldclothicepack http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#coldclothicepack Four-on-the-floor electronica pits a piano against hovering UFO sounds, written and performed by Simon James In 1987, when I was 18 years old, I first met Simon James at the same New Year's party at which I discovered I could play the drums. We've been friends ever since. He played keyboards in an old band of mine nearly 15 years ago, I've seen him sing opera in front of a crowd, and for the past few years he was living in Vernon, B.C., studying to become a massage therapist. (He also does some DJing.) In the summer of 2004 he came to Vancouver to visit his parents and friends, and one night he joined my family for dinner. Later, as my wife and I were putting the kids to bed, Simon sat in the den, tried out my new MIDI keyboard-GarageBand setup, and created this little techno number in about half an hour. He's been using synths and samplers for ages, so he knows what he's doing. After he'd gone home, I rearranged the tune, gave it some structure, mixed it, and added some organ to the fade-out at the end. I also gave it a name: "Deep Cycle Discharge" (written and performed by Simon James, produced and mixed by Derek K. Miller). Enjoy. Go ahead and download, file-share, copy, webcast, remix, and have fun with this track. You don't need to ask Simon or me, though you need to give us credit, and let other people do the same. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller and Simon James) Music Tue, 10 Aug 2004 20:00:00 -0800 00:03:12 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#deepcycledischarge http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#deepcycledischarge R'n'B horn intro leads to groovy funk soundtrack bass, Hammond organ, and drums In mid-July 2004, I picked up an M-Audio Keystation 49e MIDI keyboard controller, and that finally let me easily use Apple's GarageBand software on my eMac. "Pocketbook" was the first thing I created, and only took a couple of hours of fiddling with GarageBand to produce. It's based on a bass-and-drum loop I put together using one of Apple's pre-existing Funk Drums loops in GarageBand (with some of my modifications), and a pattern I played using the Upright Bass software instrument there. The main organ is derived from Apple's Classic Rock Organ, which I processed a bit with some amplifier distortion and Leslie speaker tremolo (I call it Crunch Hammond), while the horns are chopped-up and rearranged chunks of a few of GarageBand's R'n'B Horns samples. The song itself has no vocals (I haven't plugged in a mic yet), and is in a Meters-MGs-groovy soundtrack-style. It has no chord changes, and I think it starts off better than it ends, but I think it's pretty good for a first try, especially since before my daughter started taking piano last fall, I didn't even know where middle C was on a keyboard. Go ahead and download, file-share, copy, webcast, remix, and have fun with this track. You don't need to ask me, though you need to give me credit, and let other people do the same. dkmiller@penmachine.com (Derek K. Miller) Music Sat, 17 Jul 2004 20:00:00 -0800 00:02:35 http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#pocketbook http://www.penmachine.com/musicpages/demos.html#pocketbook