Mark Hansen Music - LDS Rock Music - Free Downloads

Mark Hansen Music - LDS Rock Music - Free Downloads
Get the new CD, "The Third Time" HERE




WARNING: Listening to this music doesn't require parental approval. It's a bit of clean rebellion. It keeps your outlook up and your hope alive. It's got strong drums and screaming guitars. It pumps you up and drives your life. It's a hunger for exploration. It chooses the right and returns with honor. It's music you don't have to confess to your bishop.

It's not your parents' "Saturday’s Warrior".

It's "A Joyful Noise"

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Last night I did a "setup" mix of Millstones, and I was pretty excited about it. Things were sounding clear, and It was rockin'...

Then I listened to it this morning, and compared it to a professional model, and it needs LOTS more work. The strings are clogging the mix, the Guitars aren't beefy enough...

:-P

Monday, September 27, 2004

More work on Millstones. I'm pretty stoked about it. I was prepping it for mixing (freezing the MIDI tracks as audio, setting up the group tracks, making sure all the tracks are named right and in the right order...), when I noticed that I still had the MIDI synth bass track. Now, for some tunes, like "First Step" that's OK. But not for a heavy tune like "stones".

So, I pulled out my bass and cut the track. I had to relearn it, though, and fix a lot of mistakes along the way. My memory is shot in my old age, and so once I've recorded a track I erase how to play it. It frees up more short-term memory for more important things, like my wife's birthday or something like that!

Words of Wisdom: NEVER forget your wife's birthday!


Sunday, September 26, 2004

Ok, there's this guy at work named Diego, he's from Bolivia. He's our graphic designer, and we've been talking a lot about our various artistic and creative endeavors. He's said he's interested in creating some flash animations for my songs to add to the CD, as well as design the CD covers and sleeves as well. I'm pretty stoked about it.

So, in trade, I'm going to do some work for him. The other day he came to me and said he had an idea for what he wanted for a musical loop for his website. So, I started working on it tonight. He wants it to be simple, and like a kids melody, but gone horribly wrong. He suggested a sort of merry-go-round calliope sort of sound. I think I've got what he's looking for, but it's still pretty raw.


Saturday, September 25, 2004

I got up this morning and started working on cleaning up the drum tracks on Millstones. Since Morey adds the fills, there's a lot of overlap with the basic track. If I don't clean up the extra drum hits, sometimes there's more drums playing than a human can possibly smack. Plus, since it's all MIDI, I get to clean up the timing a smidge, too. It's all sounding pretty great, now!

While I was doing it, Brendon wakes up and starts crawling over me. Finally he settles down and just sits on my lap and hit's the "delete" key when I ask him to. But it doesn't take long to get bored with that, and he starts asking to play with my paints.

So, I set him up with that, and Jacob starts screaming from the other room... :-) It's a wonder I get anything done, innit?

But then, after I was finished, we all climbed into our big bed and snuggled and tickled and giggled and ended up with a pillow fight. I love mornings like this...


Friday, September 24, 2004

So, John and Morey came over last night, and Morey cut the tom fills for "Millstones". We didn't get much else DONE, but we had a lot of fun anyway!

John brought over his Lord of the Rings miniatures, and some terrain pieces (castles) he was making. It reminded me so much of the times when we were playing Vendetta and Warhammer all these many years ago. That, of course, is what "Toy Soldiers" was all about.


Wednesday, September 22, 2004

I got up early this morning and tabbed out "The First Step". It's on the site, now. I'm getting more and more fluent with that program, and it's getting to be fun to use.

Of course, I haven't tried to tab out a solo, either... :-)

I tried to import the bass line from the original MIDI, and it didn't translate well at all, so I ended up recreating it.


Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Got more done on Millstones. Over the last couple of days, I've been comping the lead vocals. At the risk of bragging, I'm pretty pleased with the tracks. I mean, the tune is right there in my range, and not a lot of tricky bridge-crossing or anything. Not hard to sing at all, so it ends up sounding pretty good for the most part.

And Morey's gonna come and sparkle up the drums on Thursday...


Friday, September 17, 2004

Another quick note:

I just logged into my site and installed two songs (with karaoke versions) from Hangar 3 (that's John and Sherri Garrett and myself). "Take a Stand", and "Sunshine". Those are also the songs that she performed at my summer showcase.


It's kinda funny, writing this. I usually write here about making music. Either in the studio, or in a performance, or writing, or something.

So, last night, I didn't make an music.

But, what I did do was get together with John, Morey, and Matt and we all cleaned out Morey's basement for a rehearsal space. I'm quite stoked about it. It'll be nice.

Then we sat around until 2:00 in the morning talking about music, songs we're going to do, shows we've got planned, righteousness, politics, priesthood, how to raise kids, the nature of the universe, all while eating Trudy's (Morey's wife) incredible cheese dip and lime bars.

What a lot of fun!

And now, I'm hammered.


Monday, September 13, 2004

OK, Finally!

I've got "Thank You" and "First Step" on the web! It took me long enough, didn't it? And I also posted the new tabs for "Here in Me". Lotsa quick changes at the site.

Last night was also fun, too. I wanted to have some kid shouting "Daddy!" in the background in the instrumental break in "Millstones", so I got Brendon to oblige me. He did a pretty good job. I get to choose exactly which sample and where it will go, now. The only thing left is the drums and the mix.


Sunday, September 12, 2004

I've got a second song tabbed out, now. I finished "Here in Me" (without the solo) this afternoon. Tabs are pretty fun to do. I really hope that whoever is out there wanting to learn them can have some fun with them!


Got some things done over the last coupla days. I finally got another music night last friday. But it was short and late. Still, I cut a bunch of vocal tracks for "Millstones". That one's getting close. I have to edit the MIDI lines of the orchestra, and get Morey out to sparkle up the drums, and then it's mixdown time.

I've also been working more on the tabs. I've got the rhythm guitar parts to "Here in Me" almost completely done, and I've just got to do the bass, and I'll be able to post that.

And, I've become a weedshare ICP! That means I can now weedify my own songs! I don't have to wait. In fact, "Thank You" and "First Step" are done. I'll have them on the site probably tomorrow afternoon.

Thinks keep moving forward!


Thursday, September 09, 2004


OK, I just posted the "He's Out There" tabs. And I'll probably finish the rhythm and bass parts to "Here in Me" sometime this week.

If there is someone out there that loves playing guitar and wants to help me transcribe my solos, I'd LOVE to hear from you!


Wednesday, September 08, 2004


No more recording done, but I finished the "He's Out There" tab for bass and guitar. With any luck I'll have it posted to my site tomorrow. I did both the guitars and bass parts, but not the solo. I listened to myself and I have no idea what I played!

So, then I was all excited, so I worked out the basic rhythm guitar for "Here in Me". There are some other layers of guitar to work out, and I also have to do the bass, so it won't get published for a while yet.

Bill Dent, who played the solo on that tune, might even tab out the solo for me. So, young guitarists, watch and learn, 'cause Bill's the monster!


Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Since the festival ended, I've been taking a breather as far as new recording work goes. I'll be back at it this week, though.

Still, I got a few emails from fellow guitar players requesting that I post tabs of my songs on my site. To me, this is really exciting, because it means that there are people that want to play my tunes! That's also why I post karaoke versions of my songs, too.

It's also a bit daunting to me, though, because that means I also need to prepare tabs of my songs! And it also means that I have to remember what on earth I played!

:-)

But a friend of mine turned me on to a freeware program called powertabs that helps you to prepare professional looking tabs of your songs. Of course, you still have to manually enter the numbers and the notes, so it's a bit time-consuming, but it looks great.

I worked up a basic tab of "He's Out There", mainly because it was so simple. Rhythm Guitar only, so far. I'll get the bass done and then post it to the site. I don't know if I'll ever tab out the solo, because I have no idea what I played! Maybe if some other guitar player wanted to learn the solo and tab it out, I could enter it into the program and it'd work great. I'd even give him/her credit!

LDS Musicians - Shop here!