Tag Archives: voice

“Your Decision” – Weekly Podcast Episode 18

1 Reply

I’ve been really all over the place with my song selections lately, but this week I settled on the new song “Your Decision” by [wiki]Alice In Chains[/wiki].  It just seems to fit well with my style, and I thought it would do well.

I had planned for the first time in a podcast to record multiple track/layers, and do some video effects, but I ran out of time.  Additionally, I forgot to bring my voice recorder (Sony ICD-SX700 that I always use for podcasts) home, so I ended up having to use Audition on my recording machine anyway.

Given that, I decided to go ahead and tweak the audio (EQ, reverb, compressor) and add a lead.  Somehow, whatever I did makes the entire video seem dubbed (the guitar solo and one little vocal part are, of course, dubbed, but the rest is not!!)  And yes, I had to extend the lead a little, because I left too many measures with the rhythm.  lol  I typically like leads anyway, so it gave me a chance to use the old lead and add a little of my own flair.

Anyway, I originally (after recording) wouldn’t have said it is my best performance ever, but the quality overall seemed better the more I listen.  The tweaks on the vocals definitely highlight my voice way more than typical.  This new recording style may be here to stay, given that it’s really no more difficult than the voice recorder, and it lets me add additional layers.  This in turn gives me more time to play around with studio equipment and try out and perfect techniques for future albums.  Let me know what you think!

Direct link to podcast video on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc9YDp4b6j4

Rush “Freewill

2 Replies

“You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice //
If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice //
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill //
I will choose a path as clear. I will choose free will”

This chorus really bothers me. The concept of making a choice has an implied adjunct of options. That is, there are limited things to choose from. Free will implies that each individual can make up their mind, and yes, I would agree with that for the most part, but the choices are limited and unaffected by the chooser.

The idea of choosing free will is simply preposterous, because the choice is being made in order to express the chooser’s freedom, yet in choosing it, the chooser is accepting that it isn’t something innate to him. Does this not seem a bizarre contradiction to everyone else? On a side note the music to this song, as with the majority of Rush songs, is unbelievable. Anyway I am not certain that Neil Peart didn’t have some sort of ironic reason for saying this the way he did, but it really bugs me at face value.

(This was written a while ago, but I thought I would port it to this blog)