Jon's Jams

vox2: Tell Me About the Pie Chart

2008-06-25T10:29:00.003-05:00

Title: vox2: Tell Me About the Pie Chart

Length: 2:42

File Size: 3.1MB

Production Date: June 24, 2008

Collaborators: Aimee Tritt

Notes: ...and we're back! It's been a full year since my last post, so I decided it was time for an update. To bring us back, I put together a follow-up to last year's vox1. In that jam I recorded myself making various noises into a mic and spliced them together. Shortly after that I also recorded some samples of the lovely A in front of a mic for a few minutes. This jam is the result of that session, in the same style as the first installment. All sounds are things that came out of her mouth, however modified. Enjoy...

Construction Season

2007-06-25T09:57:00.000-05:00

You may have noticed that the links to my Jams are currently not working. This will be remedied within the week.

In the meantime, I'm willing to take requests for ideas for future Jams. What say you?

Virtual Jazz: All Of Him

2007-06-18T11:06:00.000-05:00

Title: AllOfHim

Length: 4:01

File Size: 4.61MB

Production Date(s): May 2 - June 17, 2007

Gear used: Reason, Cubase, M-Audio Ozone

Collaborators: Leonardo Asseph

Notes: Man, this was a fun one! A couple months ago my coworker Leo gave me an MP3 to listen to, a recording of him playing the saxophone in his bedroom at home. I loved it immediately. He's just so into it! I decided that Leo deserved to be playing sax with a combo on a stage, so that's exactly where I put him in this week's Jam. So I recreated the sonic landscape of a lively jazz club, complete with ambient crowd chatter (thanks to drvono and friend). The sax part is all Leo, though I chopped it up and transposed various bits to match the changes. The other instruments (drums, bass, piano) were either played on the Ozone or programmed, and are entirely sample-based in Reason.

Unfortunately Leo was a temp with my company and no longer works there. The Charlie Parker photo he left in his cube now adorns mine. I used his recording with his permission, and I hope this project finds its way back to him somehow.

Summer loving happened so fast

2007-06-12T09:44:00.000-05:00

Road trips, bike rides, disc golfing, bratwurst, dancing around the May pole... so many wonderful sunny distractions, providing endless inspiration while making it that much harder to spend a day in a cave in front of a PC.

Amazingly, though, I have a free weekend coming up -- one that I'm promising myself not to sleep through. A JAM will be forthcoming...

In the meantime, here's a hot action shot...

Sleep Schmeep: 2OT

2007-06-05T10:26:00.000-05:00

Title: 2OT

Length: 2:44

File Size: 3.14MB

Production Date(s): June 4, 2007

Gear Used: Korg MS-10, Fender Reverb

Notes: I still have some production pieces in progress, but I need to keep the ball rolling here so I played a little synth last night for fun. The performance was fueled by a severe lack of sleep, and while it may be a little wank-ish, I tried to keep it short. I particularly like the ending bit.

This Page Intentionally Left Blank

2007-05-18T10:30:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the non-Jam post, but I'm just checking in to say it's been a busy week preparing for the gig and I won't have any new Jams available until next week. I do have a couple ideas in progress, though, and I promise some interesting things to come.

Plus I have new colors!!!

If Ya Wanna - Jon³ remix

2007-05-10T12:14:00.000-05:00

Title: If Ya Wanna - Jon³ remix

Length: 5:01

File Size: 5.75MB

Production Date(s): May 9, 2007

Gear used: Fender Rhodes suitcase electric piano, Digitech RP200, vintage Ludwig drum kit, Shure SM-58, Korg MS-10, Cubase, Reason

Collaborators: Benzito

Notes: My plans changed so many times this week. I've been kicking around several ideas for new Jams, and I thought I knew what I was going to do last night, but on my drive home from work I began to reconsider. My new idea was just to jam out on the Rhodes and drums, so I sent a text message to my lovely girlfriend asking for a random key and the reply came back "D minor" (the saddest of all keys). I set up a click track in Reason (congas!) and did my Rhodes and drums parts in one take each (big thanks to Gerg for the use of his superfly drumset). After spending an hour tweaking the EQs and effects, I realized the parts would make a good bed for something else. Enter Benzito, a talented hip-hop artist and friend of mine from my home town. He was recently kind enough to provide me with one of the vocal tracks off his new CD, "Long Time Coming" (which you should totally purchase). Anyway, I promised him a remix and I still plan on making the DnB version, but it also sits pretty nicely atop the Rhodes and drums. All I had to do was time-crunch the rhymes by 16bpm and add a synth bass line on the Korg (also one take, inspired by the acoustic bass sample on the original). I also made a few simple edits to the vocal and bass tracks. So yeah, live hip-hop sorta!

The Horse's Mouth: vox1

2007-05-01T13:05:00.000-05:00

Title: vox1

Length: 3:00

File Size: 3.44MB

Production Date(s): April 30, 2007

Gear used: Reason, Cubase, M-Audio Ozone, Shure SM-57

Notes: This is a piece made up entirely of samples of my voice/mouth. I sat in front of a microphone last night and made funny noises for about 5 minutes. The resulting track eventually became the 21 different samples that make up this tune. I used only minimal effects, mostly EQ and pitch shifting. The whole thing took about 4 hours. Incidentally, the thing that sounds like a belch is not actually a belch.

It Begins: ANTM

2007-04-27T15:46:00.000-05:00

Title: ANTM

Length: 5:41

Production Date(s): late Spring, 2006

Gear used: Reason, Cubase, Nord Lead 2

Notes: One day last spring my (recent) ex-girlfriend called me up asking if I wanted to go watch America's Next Top Model with her -- ya know, for old times' sake or something. I do not regret declining, for many reasons, not the least of which is that instead I decided to spend the night (and the next couple of nights) in the studio making this track. Inspired largely by Spring Heel Jack, I attempted to push the limits of Reason. I think there ended up being 30 or 40 modules in the rack by the time I was finished. The only non-Reason track is the delayed synth line that comes in at 1:50, which was performed on the Nord Lead.

Hello World

2007-04-27T15:41:00.000-05:00

Welcome! My name is Jon, and through this outlet I hope to produce an average of one music production piece (i.e. "Jam") per week. To get the ball rolling I'm starting with something I made last year. The offerings will likely remain mostly electronic in nature for now, as I'm still working on getting my home studio up and running.

Check, check 1, check...

2007-04-25T14:02:00.000-05:00

Is this thing on? Can you hear me in the back?