Back in the game

Today I got a chance to work on the song again! I layed down a relatively clean guitar track along with the first two tracks, and then I recorded a distorted guitar track along to only the original first track, which is the "directing" track for the main melodies. This distortion sounded BIG, because it's a dirty amp model (I forget which one) plus a distortion pedal model "based on" the Electro Harmonix Big Muff Pi. I may have to pick up the real thing someday, judging from the sound of this digital re-creation. Now I have 4 tracks to work with, with different levels of improvisation making wildly curving paths that meet, then go off again.
Soon I'll listen to what I've wrought, then start finding and isolating the best bits to use as melody segments that I'll put into the grid pattern that is the session view in Ableton Live. I'm glad to have actually made progress today!!

Mind, then matter

So far, I haven't updated this blog very much. This is because I haven't worked on my new song much, at least physically. In my head, though, it races and circles around. I add beats, connect sections, and dream of overdubs of vocals and guitars that I'm just hearing as they come to my spirit antenna and start to coalesce. The last song I wrote before this stuck in my head for a year before I set it down! It wouldn't go away, and so you'll hear it someday. I'm hoping to set down a few more guitar tracks in the next week, and then start bringing it together in sections in Ableton, which is designed for such songwriting; you can mix and match with ease. I will update soon, so please be patient.. this is going somewhere.

new world

I rehearsed with Serotonia last night. Once again, a technical difficulty presented itself for our perusal. Last time, it was the drum machine (hereafter in this blog to be known as “Bossy”) that ran out of battery power. We made do with Dave on actual drums while he wasn’t singing, which actually worked out very well, and gave a different feel to the session. Last night the tech problem was my old Line 6 digital amp making squealing sounds whenever I turned it on. I had to use my little Marshall practice amp, which gave me a choice of clean or distorted along with reverb or not. That was it, no stranger flangers and rotary speaker simulators or delays or whatnot. It was refreshing to just concentrate on playing, though I did miss the sound of twirling in place underwater that I sometimes get. Each session is a new world. -marcsonic

in between in a good way

I haven’t physically worked on my new song since my last post, but I’ve been running through the riffs and sounds in my head, and combining them, adding parts, etc.. so you could say that I have been working on it! I have also been thinking of what a future set might sound like, and how I’d structure it. My focus of late has been improving my sound, which includes my playing and how my GNX guitar processor influences what you will hear, along with some other concepts. I’ve got a cool little tube amp that’s going to keep the analog warmth fire burning. Stay tuned... marcsonic

Well come to the early days of marcsonic!

Good morning! Well Come to marcsonic music!! I'm Marc Coleman. I have the day off today, and I decided to start this blog to chronicle the ascent of marcsonic. That is the name of my new solo music venture. My duo with my wife Kordula, Fake Tourist, is in a state of indefinite hiatus, for the great reason that she wants to focus on her sculptures, which can be seen at www.velvetdoordesign.com. Our two young daughters are the main focus we have in our lives, so there isn't much time at present to focus on more than one or two other things. We are both artists, and have chosen our paths. Mine is music. I play every so often in the basement with my old band Serotonia, and that is great fun. My new thing, marcsonic, is my music from myself, with friends helping out in various ways. I started a song yesterday, and some of my web friends expressed interest, which made me feel excited, and glad that they're curious. Kudos to you, my friends!! You're going to supercharge my work ethic! The song is, so far, just two tracks of distorted and delayed guitar that I laid down into Ableton Live through my GNX3 guitar unit. I improvised 6 minutes or so as one track, then improvised another track with the first, letting the first one loop once, so now I have twelve minutes of ambient moods and riffs that sound cool, but unfinished. I'm going to add more to it as soon as I get a chance. The idea with marcsonic is to combine psychedelic rock with electronic textures. I want to take it to the stage when it's ready, but I want to write some more songs first, and figure out the best way to play solo with guests. Some day I plan to come to your town, and if yr into it, perhaps you can guest on stage! That's part of the concept. I want to play with as many of my musician friends as possible over the course of this life. I hope to see you soon, and I plan to put up something for you to hear on this blog as soon as I can. Thanks for reading! -marcsonic