Friday, March 3, 2017

Top 10 Songs

Top 10 Blues, "What's Gonna Happen" is #1 in #Blues today out of 55,777 songs.
Top 10 Rock, "Just The Thing" is #6 in Rock out of 258,621 songs.
http://pwcarrmusic.com/songs/


Today, Friday March 3, is just the second day since "Just The Thing" was released to Soundclick.  It started out at number 8 on the Rock chart...and climbing.  😄

Sunday, May 24, 2015

"Some Kind Of Blues" on Spotify

"Some Kind Of Blues" by Pat Carr is now available on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4vg5W9MSgIKHKJpkt32ape

Top 10 Blues, "Bad Habit" is #1 in Soundclick Blues today out of 55,282 songs. Have a listen on the New PWCarr Musichttp://pwcarrmusic.com/songs/

The New PWCarr Music site.

There is a brand new PWCarr Music site.  It's sleeker, slimmer, trimmed-down and optimized for viewing on any device.  Check it out and let me know what you think.


http://pwcarrmusic.com/

Friday, September 12, 2014

3 New Old Songs on CD Baby

I just released 3 new songs on CD Baby.

"Don't Be Afraid" and "I Can't Stop" are from early recordings I made on 4 track tape.
"Night After Night" is a live band recording mixed on the fly to Digital Audio tape.

They are a departure from my usual blues songs. They are more like old soul songs inspired by Otis Redding -- slow and soulful love songs.

They did not make the cut for a CD release in regards to genre and recording quality, but I decided to release them so my friends, family, and fans could hear them.

You can check them out at the Music Store on PWCarr Music.

Enjoy!

Pat Carr

Monday, September 1, 2014

New Music Store

Check out the brand new music store for Some Kind Of Blues at the bottom of this page.

Also, there is a new Music Store on my web site with the best versions of all the songs from my two CDs (no duplicates), plus two single releases, "What's Gonna Happen?" and "Just The Thing."

Enjoy!

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Recording Some Kind Of Blues, track 6 Dancing With Diane

Dancing With Diane is a funny little story about a guy who meets up
with an old girl friend, then has to explain to his wife.

I had made a previous recording of Dancing With Diane on 4 track tape, so I already  had a drum pattern for it on my Alesis SR16 drum machine.
I recorded the kick and snare from that pattern onto my computer
as an audio track, and used it as a basis for building the rest of the tracks.

I added a MIDI drum track for the tom fills and high hat. 
Another MIDI track was created for crash and ride cymbals. 

I played the bass track on my '68 Fender Telecaster bass, but then I
decided to create a MIDI bass track for a cleaner sound - no noise - and
better control of the note placement.   There are some parts where the
bass note slides down the neck.  On those notes, and at the end of the song, I turned the MIDI bass down and the bass guitar up. 
As the song plays, it is switching back and forth between MIDI bass
and audio bass guitar.

Dancing With Diane has three rhythm guitar tracks.
There is a clean guitar that is playing mostly chords and notes an octave
higher than the main rhythm guitar, and a distorted guitar that is playing pretty much the same thing as the main rhythm.

The other guitar track is the lead solo.

I sang two complete vocal tracks because I didn't like parts of the first one.
It turned out that I didn't like parts of the second one either, so I just picked the best of each one and turned one off while the other is playing.
So, like the bass, it is switching back and forth between the two.

The last track is a blues organ played with Ableton's software synth using my Alesis QS8.1 as the MIDI controller.

Dancing With Diane has 12 tracks:
     acoustic drums, MIDI drums, cymbals, acoustic bass, MIDI bass,
     3 rhythm guitars, lead guitar, 2 vocals, and organ.


Listen at PWCarr Music
http://pwcarrmusic.com/

Dancing With Diane by Patrick W. Carr
Personnel:
Pat Carr - all instruments, vocals

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Recording Some Kind Of Blues, track 5 Mean Streak

Mean Streak is my take on the sentiment expressed in Stevie Ray's
Pride And Joy.  I guess you could say that song was its inspiration.

I made this recording of Mean Streak backwards, or rather in
reverse order from the way it would normally be done.
I had a previous recording on 4 track tape, so I recorded the bass
and rhythm guitar tracks from it onto my computer.  As I recall,
it was not all that easy to get them synced with each other.

Then I recorded a MIDI drum track by playing along with the bass
and guitar.   The drum track has the kick, snare, toms, and high hat.
Another MIDI track was created for crash and ride cymbals. 

The lead guitar track was played on my Fender Strat Plus.
One thing I really like about Ableton Live is the ability to use
envelopes to control the parameters of a track, including volume,
panning, and effects.  For instance, I recorded the lead guitar at a
constant volume, then used a volume envelope to bring down the
volume during the vocals.

There you have it.  Mean Streak is a fairly simple recording.
Just 6 tracks:  bass, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, vocal, drums, and cymbals.

Still, it's a lot of work getting all the tracks mixed properly, using EQ to
to remove rattles and string squeaks on the bass guitar, for example,
and then mastering the resulting stereo mix.

Listen at PWCarr Music
http://pwcarrmusic.com/

Mean Streak by Patrick W. Carr
Personnel:
Pat Carr - all instruments, vocals