Tag Archives: singer songwriter

CD Project Update #12 – Vocals

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Despite me writing in my last CD project update that I was feeling very nervous about going back into the studio after such a long break, I had a great time in the studio today.

As Darren was busy this week I decided that I’d start putting down vocal tracks and by the end of todays session I had 7 songs completed.

  • Girl Like You
  • Back Of My Mind
  • Half Hearted Man
  • Shadows
  • Leave It All Behind
  • Missing You Already
  • Mountain Top

Todays session was the my first one post illness, and the main thing I’ve noticed is that my singing voice is much more reliable. Since I finished my course of antibiotics I’ve been feeling much clearer in my sinuses which has allowed me to become more confident in my singing.

I’m finding that lower and higher ranges are easy to get to and my overall pitching and ability to hold a note has improved dramatically. I had a feeling that was the case in my live shows but this was the first time I have heard this new and improved voice recorded and played back to me

I’m liking that a lot…

Next week Darren and I go back into the studio for some more guitar overdubs. Bring it on!

Peace,

Corey :)

A Pinch And A Punch…

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Logic Pro
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Today is the first day of July which in Australia means that it’s the start of a new financial year which also means that its tax time and APRA live performance returns submission time, yet another couple of large tasks to put onto the ‘to-do’ list however, it has been a very busy week so far.

Monday night was a SCALA board meeting, Tuesday night was Synchronicity Police rehearsal, Wednesday night I was MC’ing the Open Mic @ The Dan and tonight I’m MC’ing the monthly Open Mic @ The Third Cork. Amazingly enough, I get Friday off because of a cancelled gig. Phew!

What was the point of all that? Nothing really, I just wanted to get some things off my chest and to put in some text-links to other projects that I’m involved with but I do want to tell you what happened yesterday. It was a home recording studio nightmare.

You see, yesterday I managed to wipe all of the Logic Pro 9 audio loops from my hard drive. I don’t know how I did it but I’m going to be spending all day re-installing Logic Studio.

How cool is that? Not!

I was doing some recording with good friend and songwriting collaborator Adrian Miller and I immediately had a brilliant idea… Lets use a drum loop from the audio loops library.

I thought it would be as simple as dragging and dropping the loop “Lo-Fi Country Loop 9″ into the prepared audio track but, even though the file was visible on the screen, I press play and it wasn’t working. After half and hour of mucking around I was at the point where I had the problem well and truly licked however, I clicked the wrong dropdown menu function and all of the loops vanished. I went cold and my insides freaked out a little.

I shut down, restarted and opened up a previously recorded song hoping for a miracle but still, no loops but I did get a nice little message saying that there were indeed no loops installed in the library and that I need to use the discs provided to rectify the issue.

Thank goodness I have the full legal copy of Logic Studio.

Now I hear you ask “what lessons have you learnt from this experience?” Well, reading the manual from time to time comes to mind but the most important thing I realised was that if I don’t know it, don’t click it.

I know what Phil Spector would’ve done if he were in my shoes… Is there a gun in the house?

Peace,

Corey :)

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CD Project Update #1 – The Beginning

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I went into the studio last Saturday with drummer Tim Irrgang to start laying down bed tracks for the CD and I’m glad to say that we’re halfway through the preliminary list of 18 songs earmarked for recording.

Tim and I go back a few years and I’ve had the pleasure of playing shows or working in the studio with him as either a bassist or vocalist/guitarist but I’m still constantly amazed at how much of a master player Tim is. His attention to detail is astounding and his dedication to the project is second to none.

It’s very safe to say that I love his work.

Tim setting up his kit

All miked up and ready to go

Recording everything separately has been a very new and interesting experience for me as most of my musical experience has been in the live scene. even when I was in the studio doing demos they would mostly be recorded live with the band. At times the recording process felt a little disjointed but I also know it’s early days and besides, I trust everyone who’s working on this with me so what have I to worry about?

Gotta keep ‘em separated (the tracks that is)

Just to give you all a background on what has happened so far…

Over the last four weeks I recorded 25 songs on acoustic guitar with vocals to a click which I then whittled down to preliminary list of 18 songs. These songs are to be used initially to guide Tim and myself on drums and bass so we can lay down the rhythm foundations for all 18 songs in readiness for acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keys and vocals to be overdubbed later.

The list of 18 will then be culled to a final list of 12-15 songs

Recording the guide tracks to a click was fascinating as I thought I kept pretty good time but as time goes on you soon find out that click-tracks don’t lie. Anyway, with that said, both Tim and I got through 9 of the 18 songs. The rest will be completed in the next couple of weeks.

A big thanks once again to Anthony Stewart for his infinite patience and his great coffee.

The engine room

Anthony hard at work

Watch this space, I’ll keep you updated as more news comes to hand.

Peace,

Corey :)

The Great Experiment Begins

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My name is Corey Stewart and I’m a singer/songwriter/musician from Australia.

I’ve been writing, recording and playing music for over 20 years and in that time I’ve seen a lot of changes in the music industry and a lot of changes in the way musicians get their product out to an audience.

When I first started it was still a really big deal to independently release your own material. The reason being that, the only way to “make it” was to send out lots of demos and hope to get signed to a record label.

Being an independent musician wasn’t really a viable option. There were no broadcast quality home studios in those days so if you wanted to record independently you needed to have a lot of money behind you.

Record labels rules the airwaves and independence was only afforded to a few artists.

Today, especially with the internet being a huge influence on society as a whole, the tables seemed to have turned. Home studios are everywhere, distribution of music is much easier to manage and putting out a CD is the done thing for bands and artists.

In spite of all this, I haven’t released a CD of my own as yet however, this is where my Grand Experiment begins.

Since 2000 I have been fascinated and excited about the possibilities for musicians who market themselves online. Since 2004 I have maintained a songwriting blog and a music industry blog and branched out my experiences to include web development and online marketing.

Over the last few months I’ve been wondering if it’s possible to have some sort of success as a singer/songwriter/musician through using the internet and open source software only. I’m thinking a kind of independent open source music artist. An Online Music Artist for want of a better phrase.

I have been doing some research and I realise that my ideas are not necessarily treading over virgin territory. Artists such as Brad Sucks, Scott Andrew, Jonathon Coulton and Ben Walker have paved the way before me, producing great music and using the internet to their fullest advantage at the same time.

Reading their stories and watching what they do (I subscribe to a lot of songwriting and indie music blogs) inspire me greatly.

I’m not necessarily here to be a trailblazer, all I want to do is to put my music out to anyone who wants to hear it, I want to perform my music to anyone who wants to see it and I want to produce music for anyone who wants to share it.

This site will document my journey, warts and all. My quest is to be a self sufficient, independent, online music artist.

My journey starts now.

Peace,

Corey :)

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