Since I have purchased that TonePort recording interface I can tell you I have no time anymore. No time to do anything…but record!! I learn with every day and every second and I love it! I record various pieces, not necessarily complete tracks, but I feel every moment spent this way like a big step forward. You know, I feel like a sponge in a bucket of water, first time after a few good years when I have this feeling.

You know, every new thing I learn on guitar, helps me, I am eager to learn new things, but guitar playing is not a secret anymore, it is something that I do since a while and I don’t have that feeling anymore, but with this home recording, I really feel every second, every note…

While in studio, you learn things just watching the engineer there and I consider I have learned a few things while recording various songs during these past years but really nothing compares to these days in front of my home computer, spending quality time with my blue guitar…

No, really, before making fun, let me tell you that I have just finished a raw version of a cover song that we play since a few years and I was more than happy about the result so far. Of course, there is a raw version and I have so much to add to it, like proper drums(at this moment it only has a “control” track), I need to call my colleagues to record their takes (I recorded everything myself so far but hey, I am not a one man band, you know?)

Spending time recording opened my eyes regarding the guitar possibilities. For the moment, so far I had the impression that the Fender Stratocaster emulation on my Variax guitar doesn’t have personality. Well, I was so wrong, for this song I can tell you that I couldn’t find a better match than the Strat, of course, through a particular setup.

At this moment I can not upload the song here anything since I speak about a cover, a song from a professional touring band here so until I am sure about the copyrights I won’t risk, but I will contact the band since my drummer of 8-9 years ago is with them at the moment, as a keyboard player. If I can only find his phone number…

Here’s the band, not the song, cause I only have one unplugged version of the original song, it hasn’t been released on anything else, as far as I know. By the way the guy I speak about is the keyboard player in the first video.

Enjoy!

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After receiving my new toy, the USB recording interface, I can tell you that I spent a good deal of time playing with it, searching for the right tone, also playing with Ableton Live software and I am quite happy with the result so far.

My intention is to record at home my musical ideas in the best possible way, without spending too much money on gear and I think that this little toy is the best solution I have come up with, so far.

The fact is that when learning how to use the software, I have tried to record a few tracks that are familiar to me, pieces from one of our own songs, that we (aka Tentatii, the band) recorded about 6-7(?) years ago here in a local studio in Pitesti so today I just felt the desire to listen that song again and I said to share it with you here.

I remember there was a period where we were looking for our own style, we came after a period when we tried to follow the trend with summer songs (well, don’t blame me, OK? We tried…). We had 2 songs with very crowded drums at that moment, and when this song came to being, I remember we practically constrained the drummer to keep a steady beat, without any moment of “creation”, if you know what I mean. He complained about this a lot but in the end we did it like this, even if he kept complaining about this for the whole recording session. He still reminded us once in a while about this song for a few years after that day…

So, the song is called Poate ca maine (Maybe tomorrow) and because it is in Romanian, I will give you a translation, as close as I can, even if it may not sound too “English”. It goes like this:

1) You’ve never even told me that you intend to leave
I didn’t know I will be alone during too cold nights 

You left and never even looked back for a moment
You left me all alone, me and my sadness 

2) Sometimes I stare to nothing/emptiness, I dream of blue nights with you
 We used to walk hand in hand, we used to have a single meaning (direction?)

I wish we could be in the past and maybe we could change something
Sad moments to smiles, but maybe it is better this way

Chorus: Maybe tomorrow, something will change
Maybe tomorrow,  I’ll belong to someone else
Maybe tomorrow I won’t regret a thing,
But today I’m lall alone, me and my sadness 

The fact that we decided to simplify things reflected on my guitar playing as well: no solo! Period! So instead of a solo, there are a couple of notes that are more part of the rhythmic section than of a solo section, but in my opinion they work well with the song.

I remember how this song came to being, the bass player came with it as a ballad, on piano and sounded lovely, …too lovely, if I may say so. I think the whole “catch” belongs to the drummer who instead of playing it as a ballad, played a fast rhythm. Then the lead singer came with a different chorus that the original one and voila!

Poate ca maine
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I think I will start a new page on this site, called My music, or something similar, since this is the 3rd song I upload here already.

What do you think?

PS: That’s a song just made for Fender, I wish I had a Strat at the moment we recorded the song, but I didn’t. By the way, the picture is taken at one of our gigs in a local pub, but I’m not in it. Also, even today, this is the “opening song” on our gigs, since it has a good rhythm and gives you a good start, and people can actually sing it.

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Note: What I am going to write here should not be considered a review. It is not since you need more time in order to write a review. These are just my practical observations on playing MY new Line 6 Variax 600 guitar. I don’t want to say that all Variax guitars behave the same, because frankly I don’t believe so. This is not a review of how it feels, I will not say here if the sound of Gibson models is close to the real Gibson model or anything like this, this is not the reason for this post. I started as a fan of Variax possibilities, I truly believe this is the way to go in the future and I do support this as much as possible. Read on…

Later edit: please read until the end because of a last moment phone call.

So, yesterday evening I have received my new guitar, a beautiful Variax 600, blue. I can tell you I have waited almost 3 weeks for this guitar to come here from UK so I didn’t have the chance to test it, I saw this particular guitar for the first time when I opened the box.

I opened it, took the guitar out, I am sorry I didn’t make a movie out of it, it should have been interesting, but I had no camera and no patience to wait anymore. The guitar is nice, I love the finish on the neck, natural wood color, I had no problems with the quality of details, playability, or general feeling of “cheap” as I have seen some people saying on the internet. Nothing in this direction, but hey, I get excited pretty fast and a new guitar can blind you in the first days from that point of view, right?

So, let’s test it to the rehearsal room!!

I plugged everything together, as you probably know if you are familiar with Variax guitars, you need 2 input lines in the PA, a guitar input, as usual, and a voice input, for the acoustic guitars. There is a foot switch that makes the…switch between the two lines. Done! Let’s see the baby in action!

First, a jazzbox model, because it was set there. I started to pick a few notes…surprise! I was picking a straight D major chord and the notes were…well, how to put it, not right! The notes on the G string sounded like having some kind of flanger or rotary effect, like in a wave, coming to me and then disappearing back! WTF?! I switched to an other model, then to an other one, then to an other one…

General result?

The Spank models, meaning the Stratocaster emulations, on all positions had big issues with G string from 2 points of view:

• volume: the volume of the G string was lower than the volume of the B and D strings. Picking the notes in a chord gave me the impression that one string was not present there. Playing the same pattern on the 3 strings gave me the impression that somebody was having fun with the volume knob while on G string.
• sensitivity: when picking B string or D string from as smooth as I could to hitting them hard, they sounded as they should, low in the first case and loud in the second case. Well, not the same situation with G string. When picking notes on G string easily, you can barely hear the notes, while when increasing the force applied on picking the same notes, the volume suddenly jumped, it was like having only 2 levels of volume on G string.

Gibson models gave me a beautiful sound for distortion, I was quite happy with how my guitar sounded on Gibson models through my BOSS processor…except at one moment when I had the sudden impression that I was tuned to some radio station, since my guitar suddenly started to make a hum-buzz-radio-like sound that scared me since the volume was high on the PA.

At one moment I had the surprise to see that a string just disappeared from the mix…it was not there anymore, WTF?!! As I have understood from somebody from the internet having similar problems, switch to an other guitar and then back to it. OK, I did and the string was there. That sounded too much like a reset on a computer. I know this guitar is a computer but come on…

On a 12 string guitar, the low G note on low E string was way too powerful, IMO, produced a strange resonance. Now, I can not be sure if this was real or just an impression caused by the particular room conditions, because the 12 string is produced by kind of an octaver or something. Now, this low G note may have been resonating with somebody else in the room, like the speaker or drums, or who knows, I can not tell for sure but the impression was that playing a F, G, A sequence, the G was louder and that was not good.

I had the impression of a strange behind-the-note effect in some cases, again on G string mostly, like picking the G string, hearing the clean G note and then behind it a long distorted but very low volume tail, like a low volume distortion. Strange. I can not tell you on what guitar because I have stopped looking at the models and focused more on how the particular notes sounded. Like I have never done with any other guitar, I have started to take every single fret and play it in order to see if sounds strange on some notes…

I also experience a strange noise on an acoustic model that was set on custom bank, so I just switched to custom bank and started to hear a noise like when the cable is broken and you move it around to have the two pieces in contact.

At that moment I was already mad with the fact that the guitar was not what I expected but what happened after this really put an end to it: I tried to save a model on the cutom bank following their procedure described in the book and that was the end of it, after this I wasn’t able to start the guitar anymore, nothing made any noise anymore, the guitar was dead!

I unplugged everything and called the guys at the company that sold me the guitar decided to ask my money back since I needed a reliable guitar, not a toy, but there was nobody there at that moment.

I called Silviu, my friend who owns one and told him about my experience with it and he somehow convinced me to give it another chance and have it fixed or replaced by the company instead of asking the money back. Also, I experienced a loud noise when pressing the foot switch and I was also mad at it because it can not be used on stage like this, imagine hearing a shot amplified as loud as possible every time you switch your guitar from acoustic to electric. He explained me, however, that this is normal and not a bug, you just need to turn of Phantom power on your mic line. Well, good to know…

I am going to call again the guys from the company to see how I can fix this and keep you posted.I expect a good feedback from the guys who sold me the guitar, I hope for the best and I hope to end up with a good, reliable guitar that can be played on stage.

By the way, I have also attached a few pictures with the guitar and yours truly!

Later edit: I have managed to get the guys on the phone and they told me to cool down cause there is no problem, the guitar is actually a computer (of course) and needs a bit of “tuning” using their Workbench software so I should get back to them with the guitar, they will connect it to their computer and “re-tune” it, kind of how they do it with your car computer, when something goes wrong. Strange, very strange, but efficient, if it works. So, I am happy with this solution and probably tomorrow I will take a day off to go to Bucharest to tune my guitar. Damn!

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A quick and happy(for me) news now: yesterday I placed an order for a brand new guitar!

Yep, for real! I ordered one of those modeling guitars that I’ve got so crazy about, I have ordered a Line 6 Variax 600 Blue, the guitar in the picture here.

But since the color is not so “usual”, they don’t have it on stock for the moment, so I have to wait for 2 weeks to bring it from wherever they bring it, Germany or UK, I think. I am usually the typical customer to buy a black (electric)guitar and in the beginning when I saw this color, i said WTF is that? The most stupid color ever!! I have first seen it on Fender, along with a crazy green, but after looking again and again, I’ve fallen in love with this color for good! It has a vintage look…

However, my band mates still think it looks stupid…

So, two long weeks of waiting…oh, well…

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Today I had to take my wife to the local county hospital for a minor surgery, she needs to remove a limp on her wrist. What made me write this here is the fact that we went to the same hospital, same floor, same doctor that operated me 10 years ago for a cut tendon on my left hand.

It was funny(in a not so funny way) to see again those places after ten years because they brought back so many unpleasant memories. I remember I was thinking about how my life as a guitar player is over and how I won’t be able to play the guitar again. How would I play the guitar with an injured tendon on my left hand? What should I do?

I had a couple of ideas while recovering from the surgery, like trying to play left handed, but I would have needed to start all over again learning the guitar and all those processes in my brain needed to be reversed also…I have also considered starting playing drums since I used to love playing drums at that moment.

The good thing is that after the surgery I was able to recover well and I’ve got back to playing the guitar. In the beginning I remember my pinky had no speed and precision, I wanted it to press a particular fret at a particular molment but my pinky used to think something else.

But after a while, I’ve got back to normal(I still have an issue with that finger but I have managed to live with it) and playing the guitar actually was the best thing I could have done since I needed exercising that finger and guitar playing gave me all the reasons in the world to do that while actually playing. By the way, 4 fingers playing sucks big time!

So today, while seeing again those places made me remember all these and how the doctor said that comparing to the patients there, I have not such a big problem(and how right she was) and she will do her best because I play the guitar. Thank God I do!

PS: My wife still haven’t had the surgery due to doctor being very busy today with urgencies so I am going to go there tomorrow again. Brrrr….

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In the last post I was telling you about this show we prepared. So, now, after the show, here are a few pictures and a few observations.

The show was interesting and I had fun being part of it. However, it could have been promoted a bit more since we have lost a considerable number of participants because they didn’t know about it, people that would have been there otherwise. I say this because I know the level of enthusiasm the show generated last years. This was the eight edition. This year we were expecting more people that actually came up. Well…

As good impressions, I loved the sound or rock, the sound of drums and guitars, generally speaking. I loved the enthusiasm of 50-60 yo people singing and playing on stage. Since our drummer couldn’t make it, we managed to get our ex drummer that already knew the songs so we managed to play just fine. Except one of our song that was a bit shorter than usual, but hey, nobody noticed, right?

As bad impressions, I didn’t have a good control on stage over the second guitar and voice. Also, between me and the Marshall amp was some kind of love and hate relationship since I was not happy with the sound I managed to get from it, no matter how hard I tried, but overall, it gave me a great feeling of power and control since being close to it, the sound monitors were not such a big help comparing to the amp itself.

I played with my band, Tentatii, and also with a girl singer, from another band I used to be part of. We put up 2 songs in a hurry, right before the show and we managed to have them going: Have you ever seen the rain and Mustang Sally.

So, until I will upload a video, here are a couple of pictures my wife took while we (and an other band before us) played:

After the show, together with some good friends that came to watch the show, went to a restaurant near by for a wine and some food.

And, to end this post in a happy note, here’s a piece of conversation my wife unintentionally heard between one of the guys in the first picture and his wife:

- What do you have there?!

- Water, dear!

- It’s not water, it’s Vodka!

- …get out of here!

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Today that show I was telling you about a few weeks ago will take place and I am part of it. Yesterday I was invited to a local TV show to speak about this event, along with the organizer/producer, the presenter of the show and another local musician.

It was a funny thing to do because we kind of remembered together the previous editions of this show, Retro Rock 70’s. At one moment we have watched and commented a mix of moments from previous editions where I could see myself everywhere, playing with 4-5 bands, except my actual band. Damn!

So, this evening that show will take place and we only have one single issue: the drummer announced us yesterday evening that he won’t be able to come to that show. What?!! Now you’re telling us? Damn! I called our previous drummer to replace him for this evening, he should fill in just fine because we played together for a couple of years, he was part of that “dream team”, he knows the songs so it should be no problem. Well, only a small one: he has a contract to play every evening somewhere around here. Doh!

The producer/organizer of the show is a drummer and a very good one, so I asked him to fill in, he agreed so in case nothing gets better until the end of the day, we will play in that formula. Again, it should not be a big surprise, we have played together a couple of shows in the past, he is a very experienced and inventive drummer and frankly with him on drums I dare to play a song without any rehearsal.

But I was also asked by him to fill in for a guitar player in the band of his daughter who could not come with her band from Bucharest, she will come alone. Again, no surprise, she was in my second band and we played together for 1 year I think, I know her, she knows me so we can put up a couple of songs. Just that we haven’t played together since 1 year or more. So, last night, around midnight, I contacted her on Messenger to agree on a couple of songs. We agreed on Venus from The Shocking Blue, Black Velvet from Alannah Myles and Have You Ever Seen The Rain by Creedence Clearwater Revival. All these in the middle of the night.

There is no need to say that I have no clue about how these songs go, but I need to figure it out by this evening and manage to play them. Have you ever seen the rain is high school music, no problem here, but Black Velvet is a very beautiful song that needs to be nailed right, otherwise it would be such a pity…

Of course, she also proposed Proud Mary! Right, my nightmare! I told you a few days ago I hate Proud Mary because it does not come naturally to me!No Proud Mary this time!

So, even if I feel things are a bit unstable, with the drummer missing and a brand new set that we need to figure out this evening, I feel OK and positive about the show tonight!

Of course, you are all invited, no need to say this! If you won’t be able to make it, I will post here a couple of pictures and why not, a movie or something

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A discussion today with one of my friends and long time guitar buddy made me remember a story that I have forgotten. Or at least I thought it is forgotten…

During my high school period, I went camping with a couple of friends somewhere in the neighborhood of a village. We spent there a couple of nights around the fire. I used to have long hair and of course, my acoustic guitar with me.

When we wanted to return to the city, we realized we missed the bus to get us home and the next one was leaving the second morning, so we had to spend one more night there. So we decided to spend the night in the bus station and play the guitar.

We met these 2 young ladies, sisters, that were living there, they saw us playing the guitar and they joined us in the bus station; they played and singed very well and we had a great time there. One of them told us that her boyfriend also plays the guitar and sings. Well…

During that night they sang a few songs, that I don’t remember, except one because of 2 particular reasons: the girl playing the guitar and and singing lead used a very interesting combination , going from D chord to Dm and still keeping the G key and damn, it sounded so beautiful. The second reason was a verse something like “God only has clothes for beautiful girls”.

The next morning we left and we never saw these girls again.

3-4 years later?

I was in the university this time, still wearing long hair, still playing the guitar, this time in a real band, hard rock. Of course, the night life was great, we had parties all the time, mostly in the university buildings (where students live when they are not from the city, damn, I can not find the word!!!).

Best friends. Beer. Girls. Girlfriends. Drinking parties. Guitar.

The girlfriend of one of my best friends tells me one day: you know, I have a cousin playing the guitar and he sings also, with his girlfriend, maybe we could all meet one day. Well, why not? Let’s meet. Of course, the proper occasion was an other party in the same location I can not find the name for.

So, we meet. I meet the guy, his future wife, his sister, who was part of their singing band at these parties, damn, a lot of people. We became friends, playing and singing together at every such party. We played once on the roof of the university facilities, in the middle of the night, with this friend that made me to remember this story. He also plays the guitar.

So, around 8 months pass, time when we’ve got drunk a lot of times playing the guitar and having a lot of fun. Everywhere where those parties took place, we played together.

Well…One night, the wife of my guitar friend takes the guitar and starts to sing a beautiful song where she used at a moment a D to Dm change over a verse like “God only has clothes for beautiful girls”. My eyes popped out! Where do you know this song from? Well, she says, I composed it!! My jaw dropped…Where did you say you are from? From there…Damn! Do you remember about 3-4 years ago 3 guys playing the guitar in the bus station…her eyes popped out! It was YOU?!!! YEAH, DAMN IT! IT WAS ME!!!

I should tell you that everybody around us didn’t quite understand the story, of course, after we explained it everybody made fun of us because for 8 months we didn’t recognize each other but because of a song we did…For many months this story was told to our friends who were not there the first time and of course, for for a long time everybody made fun of us.

I should tell you that I would really love to hear this song again and I think I am going to ask this (girl)friend of mine,when I will see her next time, to record it for me and send it because it seems that really marked a moment in my life.

So, how is that for a real guitar story? Huh?

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These last days we tried to put up a couple of songs for tomorrow’s show. Once a year there is this show in our city, Retro Rock 70, where people who used to play in a band 20-30(?) years ago meet again and play for a big public.

While it is not our case (I mean the part with 20-30 years ago), we are invited there every year to be part of it. I remember one year I was also the hired gun for the show, because, as you may imagine, it is difficult to have all the members of 30 years ago meet together, in the same shape, so a solo guitar player is almost all the time needed, so, depending on the situation of the moment, one of the guitar players available is asked to fill in for here and there. A couple of years ago I was the one and I can tell you I had a lot of fun playing songs like All right now or Get back along with guys of the same age with my parents.

I remember what somebody (70 years old), told me once: it is just the body that gets old, not the spirit! Inside we are the same! Man, how right he was! This line stayed in my head till now and each time I see these guys on stage I remember it.

These guys make me laugh, really! Not in a bad way! I respect them because I see myself in about 20-30 years. It is fun to look at them and see how they joke with each other, like one guy trying to nail a song and playing a lot of flat notes, saying to the others, wait, I will figure it out, I will remember it, and one of the band members saying back yeah, like you ever did while everybody laughs!

Drinking a beer, that position with their eyes on the guitar neck, bend over the guitar cause they don’t remember too well where’s the damn fret!! And then one week later, after a couple of rehearsals, they are beasts released on stage! Man, I love this! This happens every year here since 7 years I think and tomorrow will be that day, again.

We put up a couple of songs because ourselves we took a break and we’ve got together after a while, this time with a new band mate, a long time friend, and we needed to work a bit together.

But tomorrow evening everything will work as a charm and we will have a lot of fun, I have no doubt about that! In the end, isn’t this the idea when making music ?

PS: The picture is taken at one of those shows, like 2 years back, I think. And yes, it’s us!

Later edit: I have just received a call that the show is postponed until next month due to the fact that local elections take place. Well, let’s wait until next month.

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Believe it or not, today I need to modify my About page because I am not 30 years old anymore! Starting today, I am 31! For real! No freaking joke! I am born on 1st of April, doh!

On the left you see a part of my identity card, the red spot shows I am not joking: born on 01. April 1977!There!(Usually nobody believes me so I have my papers ready. )

To feel important, here’s “other” famous people born on April Fool’s Day (what do you know? I am born on the same day with Sergei Rachmaninoff!Man!):

1981 Hannah Louise Spearitt - singer (S Club 7)
1980 Bijou Phillips - singer, actress
1967 - Phil Demmel, American musician
1961 Mark White - guitarist (ABC)
1954 Jeff Porcaro - drummer (Toto)
1952 Billy Currie - keyboardist (Ultravox)
1949 Gil Scott-Heron - jazz musician
1948 Jimmy Cliff - Jamaican singer
1947 Norm Van Lier - basketball player
1945 John Barbata - rock drummer (The Turtles; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Jefferson Starship)
1942 Phil Margo - singer (The Tokens)
1942 Alan Blakley - guitarist (Brian Poole and The Tremeloes)
1939 Rudolph Isley - R&B singer (Isley Brothers)
1934 Jim Ed Brown - country singer
1873 Sergei Rachmaninoff - Russian composer

For today, I asked the Beatles to sing a tune for me so…

And yes, I am ready to face your jokes!

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