Mechanoid-Alien-Munny

This 4" little creature has a X-Mini Speaker in his head. Left eye shines in blue or red. Made with a vinyl 4" Munny, X-Mini Speaker, sculping clay, hot glue and acrylic paint. And yes, it really works!

Recording Workshop II - Register your CD ID

Image via WikipediaAfter recording and mastering your songs, you shouldn't forget to register your CD. Old CDs have no ID's. Most amateur recordings have no ID. You have probably already put some CD's on your computer. You get mostly all infos in your music player: Name of the artist, name of the album, the titles of the songs, the genre, year of release etc. The record company put the infos on the CD's and register the infos to a data base.
It's not only annoying for the listener not to get the infos, it's necessary these days for the radio stations, for iTunes, song relising programmes etc.

If you're recording and mastering yourself you should register your songs. If there's a record company or a professional recording studio behind the recordings they will do it for you.
Windows (Media Player) has it's own register data base. And as I know you have to pay for the registrations but I'm not really sure. But it's really not very necessary to register to Windows.

With your mastering programme you have to give an ID to your songs.
Go to freedb.org and register your album for free. But that's not all, cause not every player will recognise your album or your songs. There are other data bases, but as I can see feedb.org is the most important, and biggest data base.

Go to quinnware.com and download their player for free. Burn your CD to a CD-R or a CD-RW. Open the "qmp" player, put your burned CD into the slot. qmp will ask: "Do you want to register the CD" push "yes"
all infos should be seen on most music player now. I tried 6 player and the Windows Media Player was the only one what couldn't read the infos.
New CD-player that show the track and album infos should read your CD infos, too.
But don't forget to burn the infos to your tracks.

WaveLab from Steinberg is the best known audio editing and mastering programme. It's often used with the Cubase studio programme. It's really professional and highly recommended. But very expensive.
Most musicians are anyway skint like I am. In this case I'd recommend to try out the much cheaper audio editing and mastering programme from Magix. The Music Cleaning Lab. I've got the 2007 deluxe edition but I guess the recent versions are a bit better. In my opinion the Cleaning Lab is the best substitute if you cannot afford the WaveLab.
Of course there are other great programmes out there, but I haven't try. So I ca't tell anything about these programmes. Your local dealer will help you out.

Recording Workshop I - Remove Lead

Image via Wikipedia
You have a song where you'd like to remove the vocals or the lead guitar. It doesn't work on every song. It depends on how it's recorded or mixed. It doesn't work mostly on old songs or amateur recordings. But you can try.
First download Audacity, it's a free audio engin. You also have to download ASIO4ALL. You need ASIO (Audio Stream Input Output) for all recording programs for your PC. ASIO is a professional audio standard that provides for a low-latency audio stream from the computer. ASIO bypasses the KMixer entirely. ASIO is used by the recording industry as a standard.

Follow the instructions and install your ASIO4ALL.

Open your song. Split the stereo line and reset both lines to mono! Mark the part where you'd like to remove the lead. Look under Effect: set -> intervene.
Now you only have to highlight the basses.

That's all. No magic. It should work on most newer songs. You can remove vocals or lead instruments.

Good luck, and have fun. And remember! Using songs of other artists without their permission is illegal! So stay clean!

GUITAR WORKSHOP II - Floyd Rose II: How to block

Image via WikipediaWell, actually I don't understand people who buy a guitar with a locking tremolo, and want to block the trem. Or a tremolo guitar anyway. That's bollocks! Or does it look cool? ...as you could use it...
Anyway, if you want to lock your Floyd-Rose-like tremolo you better follow this blog:

There are different ways to block your tremolo. You can bring your guitar to an expert, who's gonna put a black-box into your guitar, but you can't change it back afterwards.


Or you do it yourself:
Adjust your whammy to the exact position! The Tremolo should be parallel with the guitar body! It's very important! (see picture ^) Open your back of your guitar.

There are actually two options for you. If you'd still like to use the trem in one way, you can put a piece of a harder wood into the gap between the vibrato-lock and the body milling groove (under the springs). The wood's size should be around 4.5 cm long and 1-1.5 cm wide. Sand your wood to the perfect size. Test sometimes if it really fits. After you're shure it's perfect put the wood vertical in the gap. Put a bit glue into the gap, take out the springs and lay the wood down. The vibrato-block shouldn't move.

The other way is to put another harder-wood behind the vibrato lock, too. but you cannot uce the trem afterwards anymore!
You could also use a tremolo stabiliser from Tremol-No. They have dealers in the US, Japan, in most European countries, and some countries in South America. Check their page out. I think that's the best way to block your tremolo if you want to block it, for whatever reason...

If you don't have the money, try my version, but take care. If you destroy your guitar it costs you more as an expert or a Temol-No. ;)
Or at best: DO NOT BUY A LOCKING TREMOLO GUITAR IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT!

I found a good picture in the German guitar magazine: "Solo 3/98"

GUITAR WORKSHOP I - Floyd Rose I: tuning & restring

There are too many guitar-player with a locking trems out there who have no idea how to tune their guitar, far less how to adjust their whammy. I have much phone calls to do it. Believe it or not, but there are two guitarplayer who bring their guitar around to restring them.
Now that I'm moving, I thought I could write a little blog. I also tune up and fix guitars.
I know a lot guitarrists who say: "I hate Floyd Rose/locking tremolo guitars, cause it's too difficult to tune them!"
What? I love locking trems. A well adjusted whammy is the best thing you can get. No more off-tune sound, no everyday tuning, a lot more sound capabilities etc. It's easy to restring them or tune them. It doesn't take more time as a fixed bridge guitar.

1st rule: do not change the string thickness much. Take if possible always the same strings.
Ernie Ball and ghs are my faves. I guess your local dealer will approve that they are one of the best strings for locking trems.
Okay, put a thin iron plate under the whammy like that:

Some people take wood, but there's a lot tension on the trem, so the wood could break and probably harm your neck. The plate should fit exactly in the gap between the tremolo and the body. If not, never mind, we'll fix this later! ;)
2nd rule: do not let ever the whammy relapre or to drop back fast!
Now change one string after the other. (first the thick E-string, tune it, than the A string... and so on...)
Let's see: Is you guitar tuned and does the tremolo lay softly on the iron plate. So you can pull the plate easily out? Perfect. Your whammy is well adjusted!


No? No problem. Let's continue until it's fine.
The tremolo is too high/in the air: First, let the strings a bit lose till the trem lies on the plate. Now open the back of your guitar. The tremolo is attached to 3 springs. The springs are too tighten, we have to relieve them a bit. Now try to tune your guitar. If it's still too high, you have to relieve the screws again, until it's fine. If you do it the first time or if the whammy's already very misaligned, it takes some time. But when it's done, you'll be very happy with your whammy bar.

tighten or release both bolts

I take a flat spoon :)

Can't put the plate easily out: You have to tighten the strings. Open the back of your guitar. There are three springs. Tighten the screws a little bit and tune your guitar. Is the plate going out easy? well done! If not do it again untill it's fine!

3rd rule: Guitar mechanics are very sensitive. You don't have to screw on or relieve any screws to much or too heavy. Try a little bit before ruin anything on your beloved guitar!

If your locking tremolo's adjusted once, you don't have that much efford. Use always the bolt for EVERY tuning (rule 4!). You won't have any problems with tuning. And if you see ther's a little change you can fix it fast.

5th rule: Change one string after the other. If you take the whole set down, it'll take much more time to tune the guitar.

If you want to polish and clean every corner of your guitar, take the string set down. (Don't forget the iron plate!) But you don't have to do it every time! Really not! That says someone who has been blamed to be a fussy guitar cleaner and polisher!

AXES: X-Calibur - Ibanez RG

An Ibanez was one of my big dreams I had. I actually wanted a RG-350 but couldn't afford it. I know they only cost $ 450 in the US. But the double in Switzerland.
Someone told me about this guy who bought a RG-370. Actually the same guiar but without a pickguard, and black hardware. That's all. But I like chrome hardware and guitars with pickguards. Well, the guy bought this guitar and hated the black finish. He also hates locking trems. He screw around the bolts and the guitar was totaly out of tune. You couldn't tune it properly. However. He told me on the phone he'll sell it for 500 bucks. (Brand new guitar only used one time). Well I told him, the new price is around 800 and it's used... I told him I'll pay 450 and not more. Okay, we made a date and he told me later on the phone, he'll give it to me for 350 cause he can't find the guard for the back. 
The day I was there to test and buy it he said, he'll give it for 200 cash, cause, he played around with the trem bolts, and it doesn't work anymore. lol
Yeah, so I get an 800 $ guitar for 200.

Body: basswood
Neck/Fretboard: Wizard II, 3pc maple neck and rosewood fretboard with jumbo frets. Sharktooth inlays
Bridge: Edge III locking tremolo
Pickups: neck: INF3 hams, mid: INFs3 single coil, bridge: INF4
Black finish. Serial No. I060522337
I want to change the pickups later for some Evolutions (DiMarzio). Or maybe an Evo for the bridge and a Blaze (or a PAFF) for the neck. Let's see. 
Oh and this guitar had an accident, too. It was during the recordings to Immortalised. I was sooo irritated. 
I am one of the most careful person with my guitars. I do polish them all the time. Nobody's allowed to touch them. One of my former boyfriends was jealous for my guitars. And non of my guitars is in one piece. Shame on me! 

This axe is a dream to play. I really love it a lot. It is always nicely in tune, no matter  what you do. I used it as main guitar at my instrumental album: Immortalised.

AXES: 'Black Pearl' - Cort bass

It was in 2006. I sat in the cinema watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. After the film there was a short message on my mobile phone: 'I need some help could you call me please?'
It was from a musician mate. We already played together and our kids were good friends. Well, as helpful as I am I called the bloke. It turned out, that they needed a new band member. But the clue was... they needed a bass player. I never played bass before.
At August the 1st. we had a band meeting, and I said; I can't promise anything, but I'll borrow a bass from somewhere, and I'll tell them in a few weeks.
I called an old band mate. He borrowed me his bloody old bass and it was horrible to play. I tried to learn these two songs, but I hated to play this bass. I called my mate up, and said: 'No, can't do it. I hate playing bass.' A day or two later I had this mail with a picture of this beauty of a five string bass. We drove to this young lad, with this 6 months old bass, and it was like heaven. I really fell in love with this axe.
I bought it, and as we sat in the car, with a brand new bass on my legs, I said: I call it Black Pearl.
My buddy laughed, cause he knew I'm really in love with this bass, and I'll join the band. And so I did. A few month later in spring 2007 we had our first gig, me playing bass.
Well, in the beginning I had my problems, but then I thought, it's a guitar with only 5 strings. People thought I had a special style to play. One guy, a bass player from a quite known band said to me: "You where born with a bass in your hands, aren't you." I laughed and said: no I started to play 8 month ago... but he didn't believe me.

Anyway, I always wanted to play bass on my solo projects.

To the details: A 5-string Cort action bass V. Serial Number: 040106726. Made in Indonesia.
But believe me this bass has power as hell. A very dark, deep tone.
Body: Agathis (bolt on)
Neck: Maple with rosewood Fretboard (Modern C shape)
Frets: 24/Large, white dot inlays
Pickups: PSJC-F & PSJC-R - 2 volume, 1 tone knobs
chrome hardware, bridge EB5(5)

AXES: 'Hell Machine' - Epiphone SG

My problem child. I bought this guitar during the CD recordings for my 'Raven' album in 2001. I needed a badass hot guitar sound but I had not much money to spend. The producer of the album said he could borrow me a bit money, but I don't wanted any money.
Anyway, we went to a few guitar shops, and suddenly I heard someone playing this guitar. Remind me on Black Sabbath. There he was; a long haired guy, with an ugly olive-green SG.
I tested the guitar and it was beautiful to play, but the shop owner said, I'd have to take the green one. He won't order a new SG until this one's sold.
I went to the next guitar-shop and ordered this SG-Special. The owner said it's a crap guitar, because it's cheap. He called me on a Tuesday that my guitar arrived, but I had no time to fetch it until saturday. Next saturday, the same guy was so excited about the sound of my new SG.

My big fault was, I put some Zakk Wylde ghs strings on it and tuned it down to C. That was in 2009. And the guitar couldn't keep the thik heavy strings. The neck broke. I had always a few probs with my cheap Epiphone. Now I know why it was so cheap. But it sounds really great, and I will fix it again, but real. I probabl need a new neck or something. And if I only use it as decoration. I love this guitar. Actually I should buy a real good Gibson SG. (Or ask Tony Iommi to give me one of his.)

How ever, here are the guitar details:
Epiphone SG Special
Body: alder/mapl, black
Neck: bolt-on maple, rosewood 22 fretboard, dot inlays
2x open coil humbuckers

AXES: 'William' - Ovation

It's funny cause when I bought my Ovation only country guitarists and singer played them. Everybody laught when they've seen my Ovation for the first time.
In my mind, they are the most beautiful acoustic guitars of all time. I had western guitars before but I hate the huge bodies. Ovations have 4 different bows, and I love the slim, shallow bodies.
Mine is the celebrity deluxe cc 257 cutaway. As far as I know they were just sold until the late 90's.
I love the cherry red finish, and the peculiar Ovation multi-soundholes. It reminds me of autumn. I also adore the curved head with the well designed Ovation logo. The diamond/dot inlays are pretty cool. A very well designed guitar.
You really have to love them or hate them. A lot people do not like the Ovation sound and the "plastic" back of the body.
But the coolest thing is the pickups and the equaliser, bass boost and volume. It's not Ovations invention, but one of the first guitars with an integrated EQ. Gorgeous!



The neck broke in 1998 in our bandroom. I went to spend a penny... and when I came back the guitar was in two pieces. (In the guitar rack...) The boys havent seen or heard anything... I was quite sad about it, cause I really love my William. I brought it to a local guitar maker, but he said it's a 50-50 job. He could glue it, but wood and plasic is a bit difficult, but he gave me an address of a company who do repair such guitars a lot more as he do. I'm still afraid, but it's still in one! I'm very thankful for that. (Knock on wood.)

AXES: 'Blackie' - Mex-Tele

I don't know why, but I like Telecasters. They should be in a natural wood-tone or sunburst. I've got a black one, but that's because the Mex-Tele's sound like the old Telecasters, and they only come in black.
The new Mex-Tele's are of alder but mine has a poplar body. That gives them the 'old' sound. I wanted to grind off the old finish and varnish the body clear, but people said poplar is an ugly wood... How ever...
One piece maple neck with a C-shape 21 jumbo-frets. 2-Fender standard singlecoils; Six Saddle bridge, and chrome hardware.
And the whole thing is wornout to death. That's because; my students used it, my friends used it, some other bands used it... oh and I used it too... Sometimes!
No, I really love it. I actually like the shape of the head more as the Fender-Strat heads. It's just a cool axe.

My Blackie has a very beautiful clear sound. I used it on: Dead Black and for most of the clear parts at my 'Raven' album. I tuned it in an open G-tuning. You can hear it on 'Dead Black'.

AXES: 'Richie' - Fender Strat

This is my first self earned non cheap "I want THIS"-guitar. A self tuned US Standard Fender Stratocaster.

It's quite a funny story, cause it was exactly like in Waynes World. There was this new sunburst strat, and I fell in love with it from the first sight. I asked the salesman to trying it out, and it was even more love. I worked near the music store and I couldn't keep the hands off this beauty. The stuff already knew: Oh she's here again to "try" it out; once again.

After a few weeks, the boss of the store told me to buy it or leave it. I told him I had already 1000.- $ saved. The new price was 1650.- $! I didn't want an other Fender Strat. I wanted particularly THIS guitar. After dashing to and fro for a whil he said: "We have a special offer next week anyway." He gave me the giuitar for 650.- $ cheaper! Actually I got every of my guitars a bit cheaper as the selling price.

But now to my baby:
Name: Richie, or Richard I (for non-friends)
The serial number: N7228809
N7 stands for the build year: 1997 - The same year I bought it! :) (plus 6 digits)
Body and neck were also build in 1997 (can't remember what month.)
Neck: 22 frets, dot inlays,  one piece maple
Body:  alder 3-tone sunburst
Hardware: chrome, Schaller tremolo

I used the guitar on my album 'Time Switch' and 'Raven' as main guitar.
This series comes in a 3-tone sunburst. I changed the original tremolo with a Schaller locking tremolo (a Floyd Rose like whammy bar). It's one of the best whammies I've ever played. You really can't kill it!
I also changed two of the original pickups.
A DiMarzio HS-1 stacked humbucker (black) at the neck. (I wished I bought the HS-2 insted or an other coil) It's actually nice but it could be a bit hotter. The double wired middle US-standard single-coile. (No buzz and no noise). And a Noisless Fender pickup at the bridge, to keep the typical Fender sound but without any disturbing noises.

Social Networks and Pages for musicians and bands

Most of you know howmuch I hate facebook. For me it's absolutely useless. Yes I tried it out for a year or something. I made a test because so many people said how cool an artist facebook-page is and how easy it is to achieve new fans.

Well, I had as I remember 29 fans and most if them were personal friends of mine. I made a lot promotion for that page, but no one cared.

I have way more luck with MySpace, but MySpace is making very bad changes. A lot people are leaving MySpace. I'm losing around 5-10 friends a week. No one is comming to have a listen and no one's care about the other artist anymore. Well, with the exception of a few user!

I have a ReverbNation account since 2009, I think. It's a quiet good network, but a bit of a mess. They made a lot changes through the years, good and bad. More good than bad, but there are too many informations! A lot musicians and bands are defecting to ReverbNation.

I get a lot invitations to new Networks at the moment. I thought it's time to collect them and compare them. Please send me every social network for musicians you know! (Not like Twitter etc.) I'd be very curious to hear from other musicians what they prefer and why!

• MySpace
• Facebook
• ReverbNation
• iLike
• Soundcloud
• Soundclick
• Purevolume
• ThePublicRecord
• IndabaMusic
• Grooveshark
• YouLicense

Okay, for my part: I'm on MySpace, but they really have to think about their renewals. Facebook, no thank you. ReverbNation is pretty cool, but we need more bands and bit less mess. iLike is good, but nothing happens at my page. It's like ReverbNation two years ago. YouLicense is quiet good, but especially for composer. Soundcloud is useless for me...

I'm still looking for a for me good network, as MySpace was a year ago. I really miss the old MySpace and the chats with a lot bands, musicians and music fans. I've got already three pages in sight, but I'll wait for the right time. I don't need a dozen accounds.
It's the same with art, it took me 3 years till I signd up at deviantART and two or three years till I decided to make a behance account. 

Immortalised CD review I

My dear friend from Germany wrote a review to me after he get his copy of Immortalised. It was very touching, and I asked him to write a public review. I translated it in English, here's the engl. version. You'll find the german original version at my german page.
Thanks to Wolfgang!

PS: There are other reviews comming soon.

"Hi all you music freaks out there, somewhere, worldwide, with the insatiably desire and greed for good and new music. If you feel addressed, I have a hot tip for you.

It's a matter of the CD „Immortalised“ by Raven Mackay!!!
First things first. For me there's no weak or bad song on the album. I only like one more than the other, but they are all good!
I like the cover and all artwork a lot, too. The CD looks already fine............
but now to the songs:
1. Immortalised: it is really the perfect opener...no other song would pass as good for the first song
2.Tunes of War: one of my favourites out of three......my first thought was....the song would be mega-cool for a western soundtrack, and I still think so.... close your eyes turn up LOUD, and imagine all the mountains and the scenarios of the old wild west... fits perfect
3.Viktor: is also one of my three faves....epic song, and now even more throught the awesome video. Cool, wicked Thin Lizzy and Maiden guitars....
4. the pain in me .... really hot......with terrific rhythm-changes
5. Crying Whales – just GREAT....has a very special ambience....
6. Reproach: great song, strong ballade
7. Soundtack of your Life: beautiful guitar melodies, wicked change in tempo
8. Welcome to your funeral: commences like a childrens song, and developes as a cool metal song. Aaaawesome
9. Something in the dark: thriiiiillller
10. Farewell: fantastic orchestral sound, would suite as a great soundtack
11. Shot in the Dark: Cool song, but the sound isn't very good, the guitar is to silent to me.

It's important to say, there's no vocals on this CD.... it's absolutelly instrumental, but Raven's guitar repaces the vocal-parts.... give a listen, to make short work.... buy it, and you'll enjoy Raven's songs for sure!
Keep on rocking with heart and soul!!!!!!!!"

Wolfgang Gürster; www.rock-shot.com

The Making Of "Viktor"

This is my first music video ever. I made this collaboration song with Mindmovie, and people really liked the song. So, I thought; how about a video? Well, it was not really easy, cause the Song is based on the Underworld movie character "Viktor". Well, as we all know movie clips are under copyright, so I had this idea of an animation thing. I always wanted to do an animation short-film. I didn't want to make a comic style thing. It was a lot of work and it took ages and donno how many hours to draw and animate and build the whole thing. First I drew the detailed pictures, but bloody hell it took days for one picture, and I really worked almost day and night. I decided to stop torturing myself and started to draw these shadowy black and white pictures. The technique has a name, but I have no idea how they call it. Sorry...
Well, some are a bit faked, because I took one picture and just redesigned or transformed it. The fasterparts look really realistic, I think that's becaue it's fast, and our brains cannot handle the details. So that's why it looks like a movie.
By the way, I watched all Viktor's scenes in slow motion of all tree movies to study Bill Nighy's face, movings and mimic. Jesus, this man has an incredible facial expression.
Here are a few exaples of the houndrets of pictures. Well it sounds a lot but as I said before, some pictures are actually one and the same...

Sword scene: I used the diffuser tool to make the transitions smoother.

This is a great example to show how undetailed a lot pictures are, but you cannot see it in the fast moving.

These two scenes are an exampe for one and the same picture. Well, I didn't changed anything, just zoomed in to one eye. (picture below) This was one of the pictures I worked a few days on.