A Journal of a Song Being Recorded

A Journal of a Song Being Created

I thought I would take you through the process of how I made my latest creation, "You Need Love (Don't Throw Your Life Away)".

For the last few songs I produced lately, I took partially produced things from 10-13 years ago on GarageBand and followed them through to completion, or I used midi tracks from Noteworthy Composer to begin a project. But THIS time, I decided to create something totally from scratch.

"You Need Love" was something I had written while the band was up at the Mellos in Vermont. I have a distinct memory of showing a group of them, and Chuck T. saying, "Ah, you get to all the cool riffs first!". Yeah, that's a pretty cool riff on that prechorus, Chuck! So simple yet effective. No idea how I 'got to it first'!

Standing So Cold in Your Winter Life

Don't know where it came from, but I know why; it was to reach out to our modern situation. The song's thought is to reach out to all of us awash in a culture that leaves us all drowning in stimulation, & simultaneously substantially isolated. This is FAR more true now than it was then, with our ubiquitous cell phones and such. The answer is, of course, THE Answer, Who is the Person of Jesus Christ, especially in the means He gave to solve this, Communion. Jesus is Love. Basic Good News in a time crying out for It.

Inititally, I was thinking that I was going to do all of this myself, with no outside help. My first step was to create brand new base scratch tracks on Noteworthy Composer for bass, drums and rhythm, putting vocal simulations over them to make sure I had them lined up, so it would match with what I heard in my head.

I then exported audio by making MIDI files for each of these elements and uploaded them as tracks into a fresh GarageBand project on my miraculously revived ancient MacBook. At this point I uploaded and transformed the rhythm tracks, assigning amps & tone settings for the bass, drums & rhythm piano. I then plugged in my Squier Strat knockoff and started creating guitar tracks. I created a 'Brit and Clean' rhythm guitar track and an 'Echo' track for guitar extras. I stereoized and doubled both and kept improving the blend and tone. In tone, these tracks remind me of George's guitar on "Nowhere Man".

Vocals? Are a real problem! We live in a tiny prefab trailer type place and there is rarely a moment when I can record in-the-air. But one day, the moment came; no machines were running, the dog was gone on a long walk, everybody was either gone or napping. I plugged the mic into the computer and just let her rip. I believe what you hear is a second take for lead vocal and just one take for the back vocal. Later I added that "Jesus is Love" you hear at the end, and was able to cut-and-paste a few things I needed. Thank the Good Lord I got it in!

I then created tracks from the GarageBand recordings by exporting mp3s. I then uploaded those tracks on my regular, non-ancient computer and uploaded them to the Audacity app where I can more easily mix and 'master', so to speak.

I then created a mix, adding some elements at this point in the process, such as limiting, amplifying, noise reduction, normalizing and compression for some things. At this point, Mike expressed an interest in doing something on this, perhaps with Greg, so I sent them a demo.

Mike & Greg - unlike retired me! - are very busy working men! So it took awhile, of course. After a few months, Mike was able to get me some sweet piano & synth tracks. It took me some tries but I got it mixed in. Mixing is hard! Lots of learning going on for me in all aspects of this. 

I had been sending demos to my friends at AVA, and they expressed strong interest in getting it on there this month. Greg said, well, why don't you just send in what you got for now, and we can always add a lead from him and more live instruments later. Greg had sent me a play-along acoustic track at one point that I actually did mix in. 

At the same time, I was inspired to create a matching video. My wife helped me design the cover. 
You put all that together and what have you got? This is the result:

"You Need Love" Video

Audio on RN

I actually think this is a crucial message for NOW.

 How Did You Record This?

Enter the King of Glory 

CLICK above to hear on ReverbNation

After putting out the "Enter the King of Glory" classical instrumental on my ReverbNation site, I got a question from an admin on the "Catholic Music Insiders" FB site. He asked, 

"What a great instrumental. Did you record it on an organ, or is it a midi?"

Well, that's an either/or question. BUT it's not as easy as that to explain! I thought an extended article was the way to make clear what happened. Let me go through that process.

First of all, it's based on a four-part choral "Credo" or Creed with orchestra that I wrote about twelve years ago. At that time, I mapped out the sheet music for what I heard in my head on Noteworthy Composer and produced a primitive MIDI version so it could be heard. This is what that sheet music looks like on the program: 

And so it sat for all these years. Then, last week, I had an inspiration to get pro level orchestral 'voices' or sounds to make it sound more like a real classical concert. I've found a 'formula' lately to get good results on some of my creations. So, I created MIDI tracks for each vocal part and for the treble and for the bass orchestra parts. I then transferred these tracks to the GarageBand app (on the ancient Mac that is somehow still working!!).

To get an orchestra sound, I decided to take the treble part and make it a brass ensemble. I then panned that to one side and replicated it with a woodwind ensemble panned in the other ear. LOVE how that sounds! I then did the very same idea for the bass clef parts using cathedral organ on one side and plucked harp on the other; I think this gives it both a clear attack and a rich sustain. Wow! (I wasn't able to easily pan on GB, so I saved that for the next step.)

The next step was the vocals, and I ran into a brick wall. All the vocal sounds I could find were quite unsatisfactory. Maybe someday I can get live Soprano/Alto/Tenor/Bass voices to record, but that moment was not then or now. Then someone chimed in with a remarkable insight. Why not make this a pure instrumental that proclaims what the sounds speak. It sounds like the high royal entrance of the Ultimate Glorious King. Why not just make it all instrumental and let it speak that? Of course, that's right! Brilliant! Maybe someday I can get the Credo version recorded vocally in Latin, or even write more Mass parts. If any reader feels so inclined please go for it!

So, I used the "Smart Strings" voice on GB to approximate each part into violin, cello, etc. as seen here. 

I then created exportable tracks for each of these. I also created a single track with the four vocal tracks together as "String Ensemble". These nine tracks I then loaded up on the Audacity app on my regular computer.

Here I find it easier to do things like pan, add effects or mix. I panned the four individual string parts as if they were in order of front of you, with the ensemble mix centered. Each orchestral pairing was panned harder to each side. The general reverb I added was like "Church Hall" just short of "Cathedral"!

All in all, I was pretty amazed by the result. It really does seem to foretell how the King of Everlasting Glory, the Bread of Life, the Lamb of God WILL return to the center of his altars one day soon, with his Queen Mother seated at his right as in David's kingdom. And of course we think also of His final triumph at the End of Days and the Eternal Glory that we experience now through His Great Gift.

 "Classic...Live...Living...Waters"!

Hey, Mark Lajoie here.

We have now, after 47 years, put out an album of live performances! It took me awhile to figure out how to revive and/or enhance some of these. Several of them were recorded & salvaged by Joe Prunera and given to me many years ago and I had posted some of them on ReverbNation, hidden within the backlog of our many songs. Recently I began working on the live material; eventually, I had the idea that others should hear them. I'm no producer, and these are not of ideal quality for sure, for instance, "Roll the Rock Over" cuts off at the end; but it's undeniably a treasure to have these gems available to admire.

Some of the recordings capture the genesis or earlier version of the songs, like "Prodigal Song" or "Great Rock Road". Others are missing something in the mix: you can't hear the bass or the piano, etc. But each of these captures some of that live magic that we undeniably had, and the powerful strength of expression in that Best of All Messages.

On the cover you see our classic bus that took us to so many of those performances. We stopped doing regular concerts in the early 90's. The first song, Love in Arms, is actually pretty recent, recorded by Jim at our 2014 concert at St. Peter's for the Mellos. The others range from 1982 or so to a reunion concert in 2004. 

The cuts flow immediately from one to the next:

1. Love in Arms

2. Roll the Rock Over

3. Prodigal Song

4. Carry On

5. Gigue de Lajoie/Do You Understand

6. Don't Run Away

7. Step Down

8. I'll Survive

9. Great Rock Road

Go to our LinkTree to be directed to your favorite listening source, although it is not yet released to Apple:

https://linktr.ee/LivingWatersMsc

What a JOY to hear this! Let us rejoice!

Peace & Love & JOY,

Mark Lajoie