Music Theory and Alternate Dimensions

Well as you can see from the title this one's going to be kinda weird.

I have been poking around with this idea lately. It's more of a concept that I want to use in a story.

As you guys may know I'm also an amateur writer on type of being a songwriter. The reason I post about my writing in this music blog is simply due to the fact the entire concept revolves around music.

Basically the main character in the story is rather special, he can walk through songs as if they were a place.

It's a plane of existence where sound is a location, and he has the ability to go there and experience music like nobody else has. 

Basically this character is able to listen to a song in headphones close his eyes and be transported into the song. As he walks around inside the song's dimension he can interact with the different musical parts in the songs. 

I've been playing around with this idea for about a year, and even though I generally write horror, I would love to try this out if only in a short story.

What do you guys think? Worth a shot or a complete rubbish idea that I should throw away for all time? 

Concept of a Portable Recording Studio

Recording studios have always been thought of as these massive multi-million dollar structures with way more knobs, buttons, and faders than we can possibly count.

Ever since I was a teenager this never appealed to me. I never liked the thought of having to go to the ends of the earth to record an idea. This brings me to my next thought. I've never imagined a recording studio as being anything more than a sketchpad. I mean you can write your lyrics and chords down. You can even write out sheet music or tabs.

However to have audible feedback is an amazing concept. To be able to digitally document all of your musical works is amazing.

So why do we always think of music in such a stringent and sterile environment?

Isn't music suppose to be as imaginative and raw as we are?

Music in my opinion is the epitome of humanity. The absolute best language for conveying anything and everything about, God, love, hate, or any other thing involved in the concept of humanity. It's anything but sterile.

So I always liked the idea of being able to capture that passion and energy at a moments notice.

When I was about 19 I came up with an idea for a portable recording studio solution. The idea was to be able to fit all of the basic requirements of a composing and recording studio in a backpack.

Even if it was a slightly large backpack.

I realized that beyond all the insane outboard gear you can get yourself caught up in, there's not much to a recording studio at it's most primal level.

Computer
Audio Interface
Microphone
Microphone cable

That's it!

So if you want you can get a mic, a mic cable, a buss powered interface and a laptop.

This is super simple and great for doing basic things.

However over time my highly refined concept needed drastic expansion. But my primary requirement remained the same.

I want a recording studio in a backpack.

I like to fancy myself as a composer on top of being a singer/songwriter.

So as a composer I came across virtual instruments. It was  stroke of genius for whoever thought these things up!

Nowadays a virtual instrument is as expansive as you want and much cheaper and more practical than the real thing.

A primary example of this is Native Instruments. They are a company that makes several virtual instruments.

Let's take Battery 3 for example. It's a product designed around drums. Any kind of drum you can imagine they probably have it in there. From electronic and weird, to orchestral, ethnic, rock, jazz, pop you name it they probably have it.

For a good rock drum set you can be set back thousands.

With Battery you are set back a couple hundred and you have access to thousands of drums!


As you can see from the above link it's not terribly expensive.

I use it almost every day in my work.

Now to run those instruments you can use the piano roll on your recording software.

You could also use a midi controller keyboard or pad controller. This is my personal favorite as far as options go, since you still play the instrument.

Neither way is wrong though and doing what ever works for you is perfect.

I have a M-audio keystation keyboard for my home studio.




I also have an M-audio Oxygen 25 for my backpack studio.

I unfortunately don't have a link for the Oxygen 25 but the keystation link is above.

I use the keystation for piano based things where I need to cover a lot of keys very quickly. I personally use the 88 key one.

However if I'm writing orchestra parts or anything other than full keyboard parts I jump for the 25 key.

The key restriction forces me to think about what I'm playing more and actually results in better music.

This 25 key controller fits in my backpack as well.

This means the list is as follows

-Computer
-Interface-
-Microphone
-Mic cable
-2 usb cables
-25 key controller
-Optional mixing headphones (not optional for me)

All fits in my slightly oversized backpack.

People are shocked and amazed when they see me recording from a backpack or coming up with a full orchestral piece with a tiny keyboard and a Macbook laptop.

Mac vs Pc

It doesn't matter leave it at that.

I have a Mac, because I prefer it. Not because one is better than the other.

If you have any other questions regarding portable recording studios feel free to comment! I will answer all questions to the best of my ability!

Thoughts on music as a career

You know, we all do it. We say we're going to work on songs and we actually do. However there are those times when we really don't and every once in a while we allow that time with music to grow less and less. We spend tons of time on social media, watching tv, or doing anything really. But unfortunately we just don't work on music.

We call ourselves songwriters and composers right? Why don't we ever really get down into the depth's of our souls with music like we used to? Why don't we bleed for it anymore?

As time goes by we tend to forget how wonderful writing music really is. It's definitely unfortunate. However it takes time and discipline to get back into the groove.

Well I can't say that for all of the music world. However for us mere mortals we require time and patience.

It's an old concept of effort and reward. Most people like to be rewarded for their time. For some of us we only require a finished piece to feel satisfied. That sense of accomplishment if you will. For other's they feel the need for more external and non-holistic rewards. Some could desire payment for their work, others maybe praise. I think personally a lot of people would like to have both.

As you may or may not know my primary goal right now is to gain financially from my writing, enough so that I can make music full time.

This is not to say I'm doing it for the money. If I were doing that I would be in another career path. However I would like to make enough to pay the bills and have some extra for play. This way I don't have to hold down regular jobs in order to keep my house.

It's a struggle I believe most artist's or writer's go through in their lives. We want a ton of time to pursue our art without having to worry about where we are going to get food from.

Truth be told even though vast riches sounds nice I think I would be happy just doing music for a living and paying the bills.

What are your thoughts?