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"

Friday, November 26, 2004

I got up really early this morning, not to shop, but because I went to bed early. I sat at my music computer and one by one listened to all of my "non-Generation" songs. That is, all the songs that I've started recording, but won't be a part of the "One United Generation" CD.

I started making a list of all the steps I had to go through to finish each song. And I started thinking of my 2005 goals. How many songs do I want to put out in '05? When do I want to shoot for my next CD?

Let's see. If I do a song a month, I could have it done by the end of '05. Well, I'm thinking a song a month might be too much. How about a song every 2 months? I dunno about that, either. That would be two full years to finish.

Another thought: How many tunes should I put on it? 12? 14? If I shoot for 12 (I have currently started 14), and I shot for 18 months (Summer of '06), then I would be doing about 2 songs quarter. I could do that...

Monday, November 22, 2004

OK! I'm very excited. I think that with just a few adjustments, I can call the mix for "The Taker" complete. I'll burn off the various files, and submit them to be weedified today.

And, then, later today when I get to work, I'll install "One United Generation" on my website. It has been all ready, waiting for the songs to be weedified. That's done, now, so I just have to post it up.

And all that is very exciting because that means that there's only one song left to finish. That's "Out of the Chapel", my home teaching song... Yes, I'm embarrassed, because I'm only partially diligent as a home teacher.


Friday, November 19, 2004

I woke up really early this morning. I mean REALLY early. Like 3:00 early. So, I fixed myself a snack and padded around a bit. Finally, I found myself down in the studio comping the vocals for "The Taker".

Considering that singing this song is about a difficulty of 9, and I've got skillz like a 2, I thought I did pretty well.

The computer kept freezing up on me though. That was really frustrating. Troy, my boss said that he has some RAM cards at home he might give me. that might help.

But anyway I thought I'd attempt a mix, because I was too awake to sleep, and, well, why not?

I did a couple of things different on this tune. First off, I did the mix in headphones. Not usually a good idea. But then, at four in the morning, I'm not gonna be ripping out a tune. Still, that means the bass will probably be off, and I'll have to be careful to check it well.

This is such a vocal tune, especially at the end. I set up the lead and harmony vocals as one submix at the start, and then balanced that against the bass and the kick drum. The rest of the parts really are little more than spacial and rythmic pads. Normally, the harmony vocals are one of the last things I add to the mix, because they're pretty much just sparkle.

Well time and testing will tell if this tune will cut it.

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Tonight my wife took the boys with her mom to see Disney on Ice. They left after I got home from work, so I stayed home and worked on some vocals. I cut the tracks for "The Taker". That one's been scaring me ever since I wrote it. It's soooo vocally focused. I hope the tracks I cut do it justice. Even still, they're the best I can do at this point in my life, and they turned out way better than what I had before, cut almost a year ago.

I kept having some frustrations with my computer. I don't think my system can handle SX v3 very well. I might have to get more RAM. It crackles and jumps a lot on playback, which can effect the recording part as well.

Oh! And by the way, I was excited to find out the other day that I have sold a few more weedshare songs! And--I sold a few songs by that Christian group Chozen, so I made a few coins on that deal as well.

Sunday, November 14, 2004

I got to spend a little time in my studio tonight, so I comped up the newer vocals for "Generation" and did a mix. It's sounding much much better than it did before, that's for sure. I'll be taking this mix around various places to check it out, now, and see how it all holds up.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Wow!

I was feeling a bit more like I could sing tonight, so, after some debate I decided to try and redo "Generation". I'd been working on the mix, see, and I'd decided I didn't like the vocals. I'd actually been quite down about it. Feeling like I couldn't sing and all...

But I decided to try again. I also tried some different configurations of Cubase, so that I could hear the output of the Cubase mixer instead of just the vocals fed back through the sound card. The upshot of that is that I could hear the vocals nestled very nicely in the mix and with reverb, too. It sound rich and sweet. And the latency added a bit of chorus to thicken it up, too.

So, all that added a lot ot my confidence, and I just rocked the part! I think I went a little hard because I was getting pretty fatigued after only 6 tracks or so. But then, that could've just been because of today, too.

And when I played the tracks back, it was sooooo sooooo sooo much clearer. Sooo much stronger. Much less strain-y. When I heard myself that way, I was able to correct my tone much easier. It was like I was hearing the final result, instead of hoping.

So, I'm very excited!



Monday, November 08, 2004

Well, I've got the "Generation" vocals comped. I was having a devil of a time doing it last night, though. It seems that v3 is running really slow on my system. I think I'll need to upgrade! Yeah, right...

But I've also been prepping for mix. We'll see how it all comes out!


Saturday, November 06, 2004

This morning was the monthly Club Cubase meeting. We covered version 3 in our meeting. It was all great fun. I learned a lot.

I learned a lot of simple basic things that I had missed in my piecemeal self-teaching progress in the program.

I also learned how to use a lot of cool features of v3 that I'd only heard about, like "Time Warping", or being able to shift the locations of timed musical events, stretching the waves around it. It essentially allows you to "quantize" audio, which you could previously only do with MIDI commands.

Then, I also learned some stuff that I had no idea existed to begin with!

And afterward, I grabbed lunch with Ron Hill. He's the guy that's helped me a lot with my tunes. He set me up with his brother with the drum tracks for "He's Out There", "Here in Me", and "Generation". Great stuff. I really like Ron's music. It's very innovative, based in the synth pop of the '80's but very thoughtful.

Last night was kinda nice. Jodi's gone with her friend for a scrapbooking, relaxing weekend (which she desparately deserves), and the kids were wreaking havoc upstairs with a sleepover.

So, I went downstairs and started comping the vocals for "Generation". I think I might actually be able to keep these vocals. I'd not been to sure. But I think it will work.

And today, I get to go to Club Cubase (here in a couple of hours) and learn more about v3. I've sure been enjoying it, so far. I'd really like to learn how to use the time warping features. Then I could clean up some of the drum parts on John's "Desert Flower" and present him with a mix.

+++++++

And it seems that somehow my post about the Project rehearsal didn't take. Sometimes Blogger can be quite frustrating. But we had a great practice. Our first few times through "Flower" really stank, but by the end of the night we were clipping right along. "BookaMo" really cooks, now.

Thursday, November 04, 2004

Tonight, I spent some time cutting the vocals for "One United Generation". It took me, like, about 6 takes to get "in the zone". That's relative, too. I'm not sure how really zoned I was. I could tell, though, that the first takes were definitely unzoned....

But after about 8 takes, we had a brown out that shut down my computer! I lost a couple of takes and had to recut them. :-(

Sometime this weekend, I'll listen to them and see if anything's worth keeping.


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