Fuzz Bucket Video - Descension April 20, 2015

(This photo is from a previous jam session that I haven't posted yet. I was having fun pulling frames out of the video. Apologies to Jamie for the grimace photo but it was too funny!)

Musicians:
Dan Shimmyo - Tenor Sax
Jamie Williams - drums
Eric Maurer - Novax CH7

Last Monday night after generating CG fur on animated characters all day I drove over to Eric's house with my Tenor Sax and 4 GoPro cameras. Eric's basement is already set up with microphones and recording gear. He handles the audio recording and I handle the video recording.

GoPro cameras setup:
3 X Hero 3+ Black Edition cameras:
I'm pretty sure this is the first time I tried recording 24fps instead of the standard 29.97fps. I'm doing this because I believe it shoots a sharper image and still gets the same low light sensitivity and same battery life, although strangely it uses up more disc space. They're all set to shoot in SuperView (ultra wide) mode.

1 X HD Hero Original
I set this camera up to record in PAL. I'm hoping by recording at 25fps I'm decreasing the shutter speed and allowing more light sensitivity. But the footage doesn't look too hot so maybe the resolution is still too high (720). I mounted this camera on Eric's guitar but fortunately in this video he's not playing it.

Descension
Out of the 90 minutes or so jam session I chose this clip for the video after Eric and I both independently chose this clip to post on soundcloud. I think we liked it because it was a reasonable length, feels like it has a beginning, middle, and end. Usually we like to end on single note concisely but instead we kind of let it trail off. Well, we make this stuff up on the fly so we don't always communicate our intentions clearly...
One of the things I like about this video is that you can tell that we're having fun. Yeah, there are some rough parts where we're all stumbling a little but overall we found a few cool grooves and transitioned into other cool parts.
I chose not to use split screen effects because it seemed like too much work. Actually, I think it's a lot cleaner without splitting the screen. I also like to be able to split time from one musician to the other to hilight what they are playing. When I thought my sax playing was a little too sloppy I even switched to one of the other cameras to take your mind off the sax.

Well, if I haven't scared you off, please check out this video of 3 CG Animation nerds playing improvised music in the basement.



And here's a teaser from our next jam from this Monday the 4/27. I was looking for funny faces and I found a bunch in the drumcam footage. Enjoy!

Fuzz Bucket Video - Headache In My Eye

Can't believe a month has gone by since my last post. Well, it was worth the wait. I taught myself how to edit video and I have something to show for it. Here's the first video I ever produced (not counting the "outtake" video below. This jam from 3/12/2015 was so good and the video footage looked pretty cool that I had to make this fancy edit and post it as soon as possible. I'm kind of blown away by seeing us play in this form instead of just in an audio file. You can almost see us reacting to each other and wondering where the next note will lead us. My favorite thing is seeing spit shoot out of the valves on the saxophone except I don't think it's visible in this edit. I might have to make an alternate "spit take" haha! I'll talk more about the making-of the video in the next post.



Here's a video of us recording a saxophone loop to get a jam started. We end up arguing a little and there are a couple funny moments: It's on facebook via this link

Fuzz Cast 25 - Recursion

  This episode is a major upgrade from previous shows in regards to it being recorded almost entirely live instead of requiring production after-the-fact. This is because I hooked up a mixer so I could play stuff off my laptop, play my guitar, bass, or drums, and of course, I've got my trusty blue snowball usb mic. So I'm really only recording 2 tracks, the voiceover in one, and the instruments/computer/sound effects in the other.
  I've been setting up a Squier Hello Kitty guitar. It sounds great and the setup is pretty slick but it goes
 out of tune easily and it has limited tone capabilities because it only has a volume knob and one pickup.  B
ut if you like the classic single humbucker sound you'll like this.
  I've also been introduced to the most amazing thing I've ever heard which is an amateur commercial turned i
nto a brilliant jazz guitar piece:
Jones Big Ass truck rentals & storage - Harmonizator
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoLS9We9hl4
  This week's featured track is a jam session from this past Thursday called recursion. Normally I try to mix and post our recordings but this week Eric beat me to the post. For this jam we experimented with a new idea
. Due to a computer mixing glitch during our previous jam session we got a track that had me playing saxophon
e and drums simultaneously.  We thought it sounded amazing so Jamie had the idea of bringing his looper pedal
 and sampling my sax playing and then sprinkling it into the jam while I played the drums.
  So, the jam consists of me playing a saxophone solo where Jamie sampled a portion of it and then Jamie (bass) and Eric (guitar) come in and I start playing the drums. We definitely had a good time with it and it ende
d up being an 18 minute jam. It was more like 3 or 4 jams in one but with the saxophone loop being the thread
 that binds them all together.
  Here's the track on soundcloud:
Fuzz Bucket - recursion https://soundcloud.com/maumau13/fzzbkt21215recursion
  This was also the first jam session featuring my brand new Squire bass which was my brother's birthday pres
ent to me.
You can download Fuzz Cast on iTunes here:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fuzz-cast/id897769608?mt=2&uo=4
or on my blog:
http://shimmymusic.blogspot.com/
or directly from libsyn:
http://fuzzcast.libsyn.com/

more links:
soundcloud.com/shimster
danshimmyo.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/danshimmyo
www.facebook.com/FuzzBucketNYC

Check out this episode!

Fuzz Cast 24 - Nonsensical Ramblings

I'm slap-happy with the bass today because it's my new toy. My brother bought me a Squier Vintage Modfied Jazz Bass as a belated birthday present. I'm also more comfortable in the studio today because I've got a boom arm stand for the microphone which allows me to position it especially while playing bass. The bass tones today are complements of a device called a Vox Amplug for Bass. I'm pretty happy with the tones that I get, plus I don't have to deal with latency issues that I get from using the amp emulators available in Garage Band.
  Nonsensical Ramblings is a Fuzz Bucket jam session from 9/24/2014 where Jamie played Novax, Eric dialed knobs on the synth and played drums, and I played Trumpet and Saxophone. It's a good fun drony moody thing. It came highly recommended by my brother, Roy, who was visiting over the weekend to deliver the new bass.
  Nonsensical Ramblings is on soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/shimster/fzzbkt-9-24-14-a

You can download Fuzz Cast on iTunes here:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fuzz-cast/id897769608?mt=2&uo=4
or on my blog:
http://shimmymusic.blogspot.com/
or directly from libsyn:
http://fuzzcast.libsyn.com/
and also on Stitcher app:
http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/dan-shimmyo/fuzz-cast?refid=stpr

more links:
http://soundcloud.com/shimster
http://danshimmyo.bandcamp.com
http://twitter.com/danshimmyo
http://www.facebook.com/FuzzBucketNYC

Check out this episode!

Soundproofing an apartment room, sort of...

  I live in an apartment on the 5th floor of an old building in Astoria, NY. The floors are hardwood and noise can be heard between the floors pretty easily.  Because of this I've been hesitant to rehearse or record music at home.  Even though I own the place, I've been hesitant to do major renovations but I recently decided that I either needed to move out or find a way to transform my spare bedroom into a music room.
  Luckily I'm on the top floor and the room I'm renovating is in the corner, so the main problem is isolating the floor as much as possible so that my downstairs neighbor doesn't hear too much noise.  To prepare for the project I had to patch the walls and ceiling that I've been neglecting all year. That's a whole other story...
  So with the walls and ceiling patched and painted it was time to tackle the flooring.  The original floor was an old hardwood floor. What I decided to do for the soundproofing was to purchase a product called Peacekeeper Barrier from a company called Audimute.  I chose that product because of the low price compared to other options, and also the fact that it's made from recycled tire rubber. I also wanted a hard surface on top of the peacemaker pad so I made an unusual but very cheap choice. I decided to install 1/8 inch hardboard, a.k.a. Eucaboard, and put carpet tiles over that.  The carpet tiles cost about $100 and the Eucaboard cost about $22. The peacemaker barrier cost $160. So, it was approximately a $300 floor treatment.  Finally I chose to hang sound absorption sheets from the walls to quiet the room down a bit more. The absorption sheets cost $244.
  I rolled the peacemaker barrier out onto the floor and cut pieces to fill in small gaps.

The black material is the peacekeeper barrier. The joints were covered using sound isolation seam tape (it looks like electrical tape). Over the peacekeeper barrier I placed the 1/8 inch eucaboard. I bought 4X8 sheets cut into thirds so they would fit in my car.  For the installation I cut up a few pieces by scoring them with a utility knife and bending the pieces apart. This made for some sloppy cuts but I thought it was adequate since I would be covering it up with carpeting.

 

I joined the eucaboard panels with duct tape and then started installing the carpet tiles.

 

Finally I put the bed back together and brought in a desk, some rugs, my laptop, office chair, guitars, amp, keyboard, couple saxophones, and an electronic drum kit. The electronic kit has an isolation platform that I built out of mdf and tennis balls.

  Now that I'm basically done I'm pretty happy with the results. The room is so quiet I can hear my ears ringing and the ceiling fan spinning at night.  Moving from the hallway into this room is similar to the feeling of walking into a quiet movie theater.
  If I could do it again, I might consider 3/16 or 1/4 inch hardboard, possibly 6.4mm peacemaker barrier, and maybe a thicker carpet. But the reason I kept things so thin was because I didn't want to have to modify the baseboard and shoe mouldings.
  If I wanted a much more professional installation I would consider a laminate flooring over the peacemaker barrier.  But that would have required power tools, possibly leveling the floor and installing a new moulding. And finally, to take things even further I would consider covering the walls with peacemaker and another layer of sheetrock.
  As far as how well the soundproofing works, I can't say that i know for sure. But I have been practicing tenor saxophone in the daytime. That is the loudest instrument I play. I tend to play my electric guitar turned a little lower, and all of my bass playing has been direct into the board. The ultimate way to annoy your neighbors though is by playing the drums. Even electronic drums can be annoying for your neighbors. That is why I built an isolation platform just for the drums.
  I still have to cut 1/4 inch from the bottom of the door so that it will open all the way to get past the new floor thickness.  And I might consider some soundproofing to the door as well later on.
 

Fuzz Cast 23 - HamHocks And Beans

  After a long hiatus, maybe 6 weeks, I'm in my new home rehearsal room / recording studio. It's the most cozy room in the whole place so I might have to update the rest of the place. It took a lot of work and planning but my music space is done and I can't wait to start producing music in that space. In this episode I played some trumpet to demonstrate how I'm able to hit a much larger range of notes, particularly the high notes. My tone is still too breathy but what really sucks is that the mics were too hot and the trumpet was too loud so the sound quality blows. Sorry about that. Next time I'll back off from the mic.
  I spoke a little about going to an Extreme concert and how awesome of a guitarist Nuno Bettencourt is.  And I bitched about work again.
  This week's musical track is called Hamhocks and Beans. It features me on drums and saxophone and Eric Maurer on the Novax CH8 (guitar/bass) and a mini moog keyboard.  It's an epic 17 minute jam so make sure you're comfortable.
  I hope to have more home-studio recordings to share with the podcast.
  Hamhocks and Beans is available on soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/shimster/fuzzduo-1-9-15-e
You can download Fuzz Cast on iTunes here:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fuzz-cast/id897769608?mt=2&uo=4
or on my blog:
http://shimmymusic.blogspot.com/
or directly from libsyn:
http://fuzzcast.libsyn.com/

more links:
soundcloud.com/shimster
danshimmyo.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/danshimmyo
www.facebook.com/FuzzBucketNYC

Check out this episode!

Fuzz Cast 22 - Diddle-eyed Joe & the Infinitude

Well, I'm back at work but I've got a nice jam session from last week before Thanksgiving. We got out early on Wednesday so Eric invited me over for a jam session. It's one of the most creative jams we've ever had. Well, from my point of view it's some of the most creative saxophone playing I've done. I love coming up with cool rhythmic riffs. There's also some cool psychadelic stuff where Eric rerouted my saxophone audio through his effects rig.
  Also, in this episode of Fuzz Cast I talk about home repairs, soundproofind, a cool band I saw called Mamarazzi, and my initial disappointment with the EWI USB. I'll keep working on the EWI and see if I can incorporate it into my workflow.
  The jam is called Diddle-eyed Joe and the Infinitude. A little Quentin Tarantino reference in there, but I thought the name was rhythmically appropriate. Hope you like the jams.
  The track is also available on soundcloud here:
https://soundcloud.com/shimster/diddle-eyed-joe-the-infinitude
You can download Fuzz Cast on iTunes here:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fuzz-cast/id897769608?mt=2&uo=4
or on my blog:
http://shimmymusic.blogspot.com/
or directly from libsyn:
http://fuzzcast.libsyn.com/

more links:
soundcloud.com/shimster
danshimmyo.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/danshimmyo
www.facebook.com/FuzzBucketNYC

Check out this episode!