From what I have heard, this is a cover of sorts of a popular Garth Brooks song, the Dance. My friend Stig Anders Mellem from Norway has put this together. I provided bass and drums and mixed and mastered the song. That’s Stig in the picture below!
@emmakhalin sings on this. @margab is on slide guitar. Stig on piano and violin.
I wrote this a while back, but just updated it to my current abilities.
Way way down in the crevices all the little parts of everything are futzing around. Here’s how I think it sounds. The soulful Quark Sisters make an appearance in the last verse. Charmed and Strange.
Doug Cross on vocals and acoustic. Myself on acoustic picking, keyboard, bass, drums and backing vocals.
“Penny Lane” is a song by the Beatles that was released in February 1967 as a double A-side single with “Strawberry Fields Forever“. The lyrics refer to Penny Lane, a street in Liverpool, and make mention of the sights and characters that McCartney recalled from his upbringing in the city.
This is a remix of my cover version.
A song about a TV Show from a few years back that I binge watched. The great @darrengarrett on vocals. He sings along with the Morgan Tabernacle Choir at the end of the song.
Waking up this morning and I’m lacing up my shoes.
Gonna take the boat on a midnight cruise.
Gotta get supplies, set it up like I should.
I got a feeling Angel, there’s gonna be blood.
Rita’s got the baby and she’s packing up the kids.
Gonna take a breather down in south Madrid.
Dad is riding shotgun and he’s going through the code.
Me, I’ve got my needle, and my eyes are on the road.
Rudy’s got a problem, he’s been taking folks apart.
Now he’s got my sister and he’s going to break her heart.
He’s been incognito, he’s been doing it so well.
But now he’s on my table and I’m sending him to Hell.
A new song by Without Focus. That’s @eipi who wrote, sings and plays acoustic guitar, @smokytubes on electric guitars, @rabbitwithmachinegun on keys and myself on bass and drums. I handled production chores on this one as well.
A quick sojourn into the Twilight Zone.
I’ve updated this song. Written by @cocobark who provided vocals and piano. I added drums, bass and synth. @gbailey played the guitars.
@martingagliardi on Bandlab recorded the guitar track. I added bass and piano. “Makin’ Whoopee” is a jazz/blues song from the 1928 musical Whoopee!. This song has been called a “dire warning”, largely to men, about the “trap” of marriage.
Steely Dan cover from their 1977 album Aja. A top 20 Billboard hit in 1978. @darrengarrett on vocals, @michelefortunato on trombones. Other instruments and production by me, @steve2k2. This was very difficult, and I had to play the guitar lead in parts. Impossible for mere mortals to do that one!
This is not clearly explained in the manual, but I found a nice guy willing to help on YouTube.
Check out the video here. In the Replies is more information on the mapping which I will try to repeat here.
You will need the Controller Editor, which came with your Mikro – you should find it installed or in the Native Access program. On my Windows 10 machine it is here: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Native Instruments\Controller Editor. You will need to open this in Administrator mode. I created a link on my taskbar.
First create new template and name it in the controller editor. Here a snapshot of mine (after I set it all up)
Then, select all the pads (shift click from right top to bottom left to select all). Once you do this , go to ASSIGN tab, then the action tab labeled “Press” and set Type to None.
In Superior Drummer 3, I selected the drum set I wanted and set up all the routing. Don’t forget to make sure you have set the MIDI input in your DAW to the MASCHINE Micro MK3 and also make sure your drums trigger on channel 10 if you chose to do that. Then once you are happy with your drum setup, save it as a project in your Superior Drummer. You can probably make this a default but I haven’t done that yet.
Now this is the lame but necessary part. You need to decide how you want your drums to be laid out in your head or write it down. You will need to go back and forth between SD3 and Controller Editor and change the values for each pad that matches the note values in SD3. In the Controller Editor you do this under ASSIGN>Hit tab, note. Use the format C0, NOT C-0, or you will be sorely disappointed.
In SD3 you find these notes by unfolding the “midi mapping tab on the right side of SD3. If you don’t see it, it is under the show pop down menu. make sure to unfold hamburger menu in midi mapping and view “show keys”
Now, select the individual drum with mouse to identify the value and punch that in to the controller editor.
Remember you can change the articulations of each drum but you will need to save it under: Mini in/EDrum Settings > Save as under user presets.
Make sure your MIKRO is in MIDI mode. It should show up in the little window on your MIKRO.
I did a couple of other steps as well. I set the MIDI channel to 10 on all of the pads and changed the color values. Here’s an example.
You should make sure the final template is save in the controller. You can call it up anytime you need it.
I use Sonar as my DAW (Free from Bandlab now!) – I’ve set up a nice template that has everything set up the way I like to start. If you do this you should have very little setup to do after you initialize everything.
A big thanks to Broken Bird Productions https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNjeL7ftmQYVfXuqqiGjiA
Please check out his YouTube videos and subscribe.
Here is my colorful MIKRO setup
Here’s my current drum setup in Superior Drummer
This cover is the Dave Edmunds version. Me and my Bandlab buddies @thelonewulfproject and @mojoespage.
Here’s an updated cover of the Beatles Fab Song called Because from Abbey Road. @kiwichrys from Bandlab helps out with some vocals here.
I added the bass line to this Bandlab collab with @beatledrex. Maybe I’ll update it with more instrumentation at some point.
Stephen Weber posted this on Drooble. It is a pretty cool idea. Zoom in for detail.
Here is a write up of how to interpret sample rate and beats per minute. An example involving 5/4 time is also included to demonstrate the concept.
You should be able to see the document below, but if you can’t, here is a link.
Here is an audio sample. It starts with 4 beats, then plays 5/4 for 4 measures then ends with 4 beats.
2019 is coming to an end. I put together two CDs of my collaborations with some very talented Bandlab musicians and also some solo efforts. I’m making them available to whoever wants them. The links below to Disk One and Disk Two will take you to pages that have a player that shows all of the songs on the CD. It allows you to download individual songs if you want. The player will cycle through all songs if you let it run.
I use a program called imgburn to create these images, and if you need it, you can use it to extract and burn the images to CD. It is free.
So, the process will be like this. Go to the DISK ONE and DISK TWO links. Download and UNZIP the image files. Take note of where they are saved. Normally it will be your DOWNLOADS folder. Then, if you need the software to create the CDs, go to the link about imgburn and download and install that program. Using either your own burner software, or the imgburn program, you will create your CDs from the two image files.
To download Disk One which you can burn to your own CD, click here.
To download Disk Two which you can burn to your own CD, click here.
To download imgburn and also get more information on how to install and use it, click here.
The two disk images are about 650MB each, so on a slow system it will take a while. There is a button on each disk page to download the CD images to your computer.
Unless you already have something to extract the CD images, you should install imgburn from the download link provided above. Once you have imgburn installed and the two CD images downloaded and unzipped you are ready to create your CDs.
If you see any errors or omissions on this site, please let me know.
Here are the contents for both disks.
Here is some information I have about each musician on the CD
@eipi – Dave is a Guitarist, Vocalist, Songwriter from the UK who wrote ‘Bend’, ‘This One’s for Her’ and ‘Band of Brothers’. He plays and sings on those songs, and also on ‘Norwegian Wood’, ‘Imagine’ and ‘Wild World’.
@rabbitwithmachinegun (Robert Foy) from Georgia, primarily a keyboard player, he prefers creating or collaborating on original works. He utilizes synth arps (kinda like a loop), and drum loops on occasion but mostly creates from scratch. He is a member of Without Focus and plays on ‘Bend’, ‘This One’s for Her’ and ‘Band of Brothers’.
@dawningday Guitar – Klint was part of the band Without Focus who worked on ‘Bend’ and ‘This One’s for Her’
@elizabethdarcel is a singer/songwriter from Kansas City, Missouri. She started singing at 4 years old in church choir then moved on to school performances. In 2017 she started focusing heavily on writing and producing her own music. Her influences are widespread across all genres – influences include John Mayer, Maggie Rogers & Fleetwood Mac. Her style varies from song to song easily switching between a folksy Americana feel while other tunes provide R&B, Country, Pop & Jazz feels. Most recently, Elizabeth was featured on Phat Talk Radio and the November Featured Artist for the Bandlab Blog as well as being regularly streamed on several internet radio stations. Elizabeth did the vocals on ‘Killing Me Softly’, ‘I’ll Be Around’, and ‘Walking in Memphis’ on this CD Set.
@eungang – Bill Farr is a songwriter and guitarist, formerly from the Boston area who now resides in the Land of the Morning Calm, S. Korea. Bill wrote ‘Night From Day’, ‘The Other Day’ and ‘The Nameless Heights’ and produces his own music. Along with his songs here, he also played on ‘Killing Me Softly’, ‘Norwegian Wood’ and ‘Wild World’, ‘San Tropez’ and ‘Lucky Man’.
@darrengarrett is a guitarist, bass player, keyboardist, drummer, vocalist and songwriter from the Winnipeg area. He sings on ‘Walking in Memphis’ and ‘Use Me’ on this CD set.
@thelonewulfproject Doug is a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter from the Des Moines area. He plays guitar on ‘Tupelo Honey’, ‘Well Wishes’, ‘Ruby’ and does vocals on ‘Here Comes the Sun’, ‘Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters’ and ‘From the Beginning’.
@kiwichrys is a songwriter, performer, vocalist, guitarist, music teacher, and songwriter from Auckland New Zealand. She wrote ‘Well Wishes’ and provided lyrics for ‘Words’ and performed on ‘Words’, ‘Well Wishes’, ‘Every Night’, Harvest Moon’, ‘Always Remember Us This Way’, ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’.
@textured_grooves is a professional drummer from Manchester UK with over 30 years experience who does session work (both live or programmed). He played on ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight’, ‘The Other Day’ and ‘The Nameless Heights’.
@azzronika Aaron is a guitarist, keyboardist, drummer, vocalist, songwriter, and bass player who provided vocals and some instrumentation on ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight’ and ‘Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters’. His musical influences include Queen, The Beach Boys, Vocal harmony groups, Beatles, Muse, ELO, EJ and Film OSTs. He writes and has a large portfolio of original material. A pianist by trade, he loves arranging lots of instruments and sounds. Visit and subscribe to his YouTube page, won’t you?
@mojoespage Joe is a Guitarist, Keyboardist, Drummer, Vocalist, Songwriter, Bass Player from Florida. He likes to produce good music for singers. He produces all his tracks but prefers to have others perform the vocals. Check out his album, MoJoe & The Indispensables for his best collabs. Joe played guitar on ‘Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters’.
@cocobark – Cocobark is an Americana artist from Houston, Texas. She’s been compared to Natalie Merchant and Neko Case, but Coco’s distinct style is one of a kind. You can find her recent work on Spotify under “cocobark”. Coco sings and performs on ‘Tupelo Honey’, ‘Bad Moon Rising’, ‘You Don’t Know Me’ and ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’.
@therealmadamez is from California, Madame Z is a singer/songwriter and multi-faceted creative talent whose music has been described as jazzy neo soul with a rock edge. www.madamezmusic.com – She wrote and sings on ‘Choose Happiness’.
@michelefortunato is a professional trombone player from Italy – he plays and records around the world. Michele played trombone on ‘Fall Apart Blues’.
@doesdwars From the Netherlands, Walter is a songwriting who is adept at composing, arranging and mixing all kinds of music. He plays guitar, bass, drums and is a vocalist. With kiwichrys , he wrote and produced the song ‘Words’ for this release.
@the_mooney_blues from West Virginia has been playing guitar and singing since the 90’s, and is also a vocalist. He is an in demand collaborator on Bandlab, and played and sang here on ‘Lucky Man’.
@paranoidcitizen – Veena is a Guitarist, Vocalist and Songwriter – She wrote and sang on ‘Dance Class’ for this release. She always enjoys playing around with novel and unique sounds. She grew up learning Indian classical singing and aspires to bring elements from her roots into her music. She also hopes to record her first EP of acoustic songs next year.
@gbailey Gerald Bailey is from Arkansas and has been playing guitar since he was 10. He has played on Bandlab with the Global Remotes and contributes his lead and rhythm guitar to many tracks on Bandlab. He plays here on ‘Dance Class’.
@jannasyn Kai Hale is a keyboardist, vocalist, songwriter and plays ukulele – She wrote and performs on ‘We’ll Get By’.
@steve2k2 A&M Recording Artist, Private Lightning Band, Home Recording, Cakewalk Sonar Platinum user, Love Izotope and Waves products. Based in Massachusetts, I provide whatever was not mentioned in these previous bios. Very thankful for all of the contributions from the many talented artists on these CDs.
Now this was fun. This is the original video of a live Bill Withers tune – The audio however is done by myself and Darren Garrett (@steve2k2 and @darrengarrett on Bandlab)
Here is the link to the audio file by itself
I’ve remixed and mastered this song
Here’s my version of one of my favorite old songs. @elizabethdarcel (Bandlab) does the great vocals and I do the instruments. There’s also a video available below.
In honor of 50 years of Abbey Road, here’s my version. @thelonewulfproject and @kiwichrys on vocals.
From one of my favorite albums https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Someone_Saved_My_Life_Tonight. Bandlab’s @azzronika on vocals and some synths, @textured_grooves drums. Thanks Aaron and Terry, hope you like it.
The Cars were a great band back in the late 70’s – it was a great time to be in Boston and in a band.
Here’s a brand new update for the coming 2020. One of the songs I am most proud of. Maybe it doesn’t fit the mold these days, but I like it.
Put this together with a couple of Bandlab buddies. @mojoespage did most of the instruments, @kiwichrys sang with me.
A Marc Cohn cover from 1991. Interesting Wikipedia page about this song Walking_in_Memphis . ‘Reverend Green’ was really Al Green. Special thanks to @darrengarrett and @elizabethdarcel for their great vocals.
This is a new song from Without Focus, a Bandlab band, written by @eipi – The first 2 verses are a poem from one of his favorite novels Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon. Without focus is @eipi on acoustic guitar &vocals, @rabbitwithmachinegun on keys (inc horns) and myself @steve2k2 on bass, electric guitars, programmed drums and production.
Here’s a cool new song, written by @doesdwars from the Netherlands (on Bandlab) who does most of the instruments and the mix. @kiwichrys from New Zealand (naturally) wrote the lyrics and did the vocals beautifully. @koenfu #sax and Frans #trombone. I played the bass guitar and one of the electric guitars for a couple of licks in the middle.
My song, updated from last year. New mix, new Bass Guitar.
An update of my song from a few years ago, new mix, new bass guitar.
The glade is dangerous and fraught with peril, but we have our warrior with us darling, so let’s dance into the night and pray to the gods for safe passage through the monsters.
Here’s another hit from the band Without Focus from Bandlab. An original by @eipi who sings and plays acoustic guitar. Without Focus is @eipi, @dawningday on guitars, @rabbitwithmachinegun on keys, and me on Bass and Drum programming.
A great song written by @eipi on Bandlab He plays acoustic and sings here. @rabbitwithmachinegun (Robert Foy) – keys @dawningday – electric guitars @steve2k2 (that’s me) – bass, additional piano during chorus and mixing/mastering
This is a new song by @chrysalynn on Bandlab. She’s a great vocalist and plays acoustic guitar as well. On this version, @thelonewulfproject plays acoustic and lead guitar as well, and I added bass and drums.
I found this fascinating, but I don’t know everything in detail. Here’s what I just did.
I downloaded a music track of a guitar playing from Bandlab. When I imported into my DAW, I noticed that the waveform was not centered. It appeared to be above the mid-line, leading me to think there was a DC component. It was present through the whole track.
I exported it from the DAW and then reimported it as an additional track. It was centered. It looks like the DAW export might have done some processing.
The differences brought me back to my EE days. The top image with the ‘DC’ component shows a step function. The image in the bottom has eliminated that DC component. Looking at the point where the step was, it looks like a little pulse remains, with some ringing afterwards.
I noticed in my DAW, I did have some other processing going on. By process of elimination, I found out that the ‘console emulator’ was what had cleaned up the signal. Here is a link to more information about the console emulator. https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR%20X2&language=3&help=ProChannel.8.html
With only the console emulator in the processing path, here is what the difference looks like on the stereo signal.
It looks like another component added some additional processing in the first image because there appears to be more of the ‘ringing’ activity after the pulse.
I guess the takeaway is that the console emulator, which I usually have on each track, contains some sort of brick wall high pass activity, and will remove the DC component for you.
Originally Duke Ellington and Bubber Miley…1926. Then Steely Dan came along in 1974. And now, here is my version.
Here’s my cover of a great Bonnie Raitt song. @cocobark from Bandlab is singing on this one.
Another great collaboration from Bandlab. @cocobark on vocals, @LoneWulfProject on Acoustic guitars. I added the other parts and did the mix/master.
From the first McCartney album – 1970 a great time to be alive. This one is sung beautifully by @chrysalynn on Bandlab.
I thank the Lord there’s people out there like you. A Good Friday release of this Elton John cover. Some great performances from
Here’s a cover of the great old Cat Stevens tune Wild World. @eungang and @eipi from Bandlab helped out with guitar and vocals.
Here’s a cover of Lady Gaga’s song ‘Always Remember Us This Way’. It is sung by Chrysalynn from New Zealand. Check out her Youtube channel and also on Bandlab. I added bass and drums and mixed/mastered it.
Here’s another cover song. I worked with Bill Farr on this. I added piano, Bill did the rest. This is a Pink Floyd song from 1971.
An a capella vocal passage was uploaded to Bandlab by @therealmadamez – it was in bad shape so I used Izotope RX7 to restore it. Then I added Indian drums, bass and a strummed crescendo guitar.
Here’s a new song by Bill Farr (@eungang) – Bill is a Boston transplant now living in South Korea. I played piano on this one. Everything else is Bill!
An old Kenny Rogers song. Always loved it. Vocals and Rhythm acoustic guitar by @thelonewulf on Bandlab – check him out! I did bass, drums, picking guitar, keys and backup harmonies on this one.
I redid this for 2019. It is still a bubble gum country flavored pop song.
