Since I have bad grounding issues in this room for plugging in my guitar to record, for now, I’ll just play and record unplugged. I recorded guitar parts with the microphone pointing toward the sound hole of the acoustic. Listened to the playback and it sounds alright. A little background hiss but that’s because I’m using the Shure SM58 mic but the hissing is not that bad.. Someday I’ll figure out a way to get phantom power so I can use the condenser mic — the Shure SM86 — that way the background hiss will be gone. I do like recording unplugged acoustic. It’s a more true acoustic sound. Started recording vocals for a song today as well.

Feels great to be recording and writing songs again, though.

These new songs will be a different sound than my earlier stuff. Trying to change my style of music a little bit. I think performing family friendly acoustic music could possibly get me a slightly bigger audience.

Kev

So this morning, I decided to take my guitar amp to another room that has a three prong outlet into the wall. So I took my Fender Frontman 212R amp into another room plugged it in and played guitar through it, and guess what? I don’t hear any hum at all. When I brought the amp back to this room and tested it out here, I hear the hum again. So I believe it’s definitely a ground loop issue! My Ibanez guitar is perfectly fine, the hum is not coming from that… it’s just that this room has nothing but two prong plugs. I’ll have to figure out how to lift the ground somehow. I refuse to use those three prong plug adapters ’cause I read that those aren’t safe and they could kill you when trying to lift the ground with those. I might have to get some kind of ground loop isolator and that will for sure take care of the problem. I gotta google to see what kind of ground isolator i’m gonna need. I’m gonna do more research on that today.

Kev

You know what, since I’m still having humming issues on my Ibanez acoustic/electric… I think starting this week, I’ll start recording songs with the guitar unplugged. I’ll just use the microphone and point that to the sound hole — it’ll pick up pretty good, then. I’ll record guitar and vocals that way… there will be no humming sounds. I would like to record plugged in but until I get the technical issues fixed, I’ll just record acoustic songs unplugged for now. I find that acoustic music sounds better unplugged, anyways.

I’m planning on bringing both of my guitars to the guitar shop soon to have them look at it. I’m sure repairs on both of these guitars should be quick and easy so it shouldn’t cost all that much. I’ve been doing a lot of research and reading on technical issues of humming sounds/ground loop stuff but it’s just a bunch of assumptions and try this/try that. I think I’m better off bringing these two guitars to a guitar tech. I don’t want to make things worse by trying to fix things myself, ya know? Maybe this week, I’ll try to send these two guitars to Parkway. They are really great repair people. Last time I brought my Ibanez acoustic/electric to fix a broken guitar jack, it only took ’em a little bit to repair.

I’ll still try to investigate things, though.

Kev

Okay, I’m still having guitar humming issues. On my Ibanez acoustic/electric. It’s not a ground loop issue. It has nothing to do with the cables. It has more to do with the pickup inside the acoustic/electric. You only hear the hum when you turn the bass on the guitar way up. When you turn it way down, it’s gone. I tried playing my acoustic/electric through my Fender Frontman 212R amplifier. Turn up the volume and turn up the bass a little bit, I still hear the hum through the amp. So the humming sound is definitely coming from my guitar. I need to find a way to shield it to eliminate that humming sound when I turn up the bass on it. I might have to use shielded guitar cables and that might do the trick? Either that or I would just have to take my guitar to Parkway Music and have them take a look at it. I’m pretty sure this is where the humming is coming from, the pickup from my guitar. It should be an easy and cheap fix so maybe it’s a good idea to take it to a guitar shop and have them look at it.

I could use my electric Hollow body guitar instead for recording but that needs a little bit of repairs as well as I broke off the input jack by mistake. That should be easy to repair myself, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet, maybe I will today.

I love music and guitar playing and all but it’s frustrating with the repairs and stuff when things go wrong. All musicians go through it.

Kev

Well, after spending most of the day trying to figure out where the annoying humming sound was coming from… turns out it wasn’t a ground loop issue at all. It wasn’t coming from the M-Audio interface. It was coming from the piece of shit guitar cable I was using. So I switched guitar cables and the humming sound was gone! Both the guitar and the mic should sound perfectly clean now! So I’ll get back to recording ’cause I just started writing lyrics for the 5 song ideas I just recorded. I’m planning to start adding vocals to those songs. I’m glad I discovered that before I decided  to do some serious electrical work and go through all that trouble! My bad. Back to recording tomorrow.

I really am psyched for these new songs. I believe I have what it takes to sing and I’m about to prove it with these new songs.

Kev

I almost didn’t want to write love/romantic kind of songs but I think I’m definitely going to give it a try for my next batch of songs. I’ll never forget that all the positive feedback of my Whitney Houston cover came from mostly women and that was pretty awesome. It was mostly guys who supported my music over the years… I never really had too many female supporters. I have a few women who stayed loyal to my music over the years but I would like to get some more. To do that, I have to write songs that will drive the women crazy. I am learning that they like lyrics that can relate to them. Love songs, heartbreak songs, etc. That’s why a lot of women like artists such as John Mayer and Adele… stuff like that. Writing good love songs, also requires good singing which I’m gonna try too. I’ll have to think of a plan to attract more females to my music. Would be pretty awesome. I think I need to try and write lyrics that can change their life. If I can somehow attract more women to my music that could help bring out more women to my live performances, lol. Women go crazy over a lot of their favorite music artists and I would love it if they would go crazy over me. I gotta do a little more research and stuff on the kind of lyrics they like. Maybe I’ll start listening to some of the stuff that the women like to listen to and that’ll give me an idea.

That’s part of why I’m trying to change my direction to songwriting. I don’t wanna write too many negative and controversial songs anymore. I wanna try to write more positive stuff. Stuff that everyone can listen to. I’ll write about a variety of topics in poetic form. Love songs, political songs, protest songs, songs about me, etc. I got tons of ideas spinning in my head.

All the dark & controversial stuff will be going to my poetry instead.

That Whitney Houston cover of mine really inspired me. I know, can’t stop talking about it. That cover got a huge response and that’s the kind of response I hope to get with my original songs. I didn’t think people would like it that much either. I just quickly recorded myself performing it, threw it online… and it suddenly went viral. I didn’t think I was that great at it but people thought differently.

Kev

I’ve had my M-Audio interface for a long while now. When I record audio on this thing, I always hear this strange humming sound and I always kept thinking it was either coming from the guitar or microphone but turns out it’s neither. I just found out that the electric humming sound has something to do with a ground loop issue… from the website:
Hum/Ground Loop/Electrical Noise

If you experience a constant humming or low frequency buzzing you probably have a ground loop.  Try connecting all devices to the same power outlet on the wall.  If you have a laptop, disconnect its power supply to see if the hum/buzz disappears.  Please see this guide for assistance with troubleshooting ground loops.

If I figure out the ground loop which should be easy, I should be able to get rid of that annoying humming sound and I’ll be able to record perfectly clean then. Can’t believe I just figured this out after all this time!

I may not have to buy a better Audio interface at all!

Kev

I don’t need to get a better microphone ’cause I already have one. In fact, I already have two professional sounding mics. I have the Shure SM58 and I also have the Shure SM86. I can’t use the Shure SM86 ’cause this mic requires Phantom Power. I just found that out. I bought these two mics years ago. Even though, I’ve never used the SM86, I still kept it ’cause that mic costed at least $180.00. SM86,, the Phantom Powered mic. I would like to use it but I would need to hook it up to something that has phantom power.

So, what I would need to use this microphone is that I would need an M-Audio interface that has Phantom Power. I think I have found the one. I would need the M-Audio Fast Track Pro.  I’m dying to use this microphone the SM86 ’cause it’s a condenser microphone which helps make the sound studio perfect. The condenser helps eliminate unwanted noises like hissing sounds and other background noises.

Other than buying better DAW software, I think I should buy a better MAudio interface down the road too. If I use the SM86 microphone, then my recorded demos would sound so much better. I almost forgot that I had two Shure microphones. When I first bought the Shure SM86 mic, and tried to use it… no sound was coming out of it. I was at first like, “Did I just buy a microphone that didn’t work?”. I almost was going to send it back to the company but I realized that it’s a special microphone that needed something and that’s why I kept it ’cause I figure it might be a really good mic. I’ve had this mic for several years and never used it, the SM86. I didn’t know much about the mic and now I’m realizing that the mic was worth the purchase.

I think I should focus on getting M-Audio Fast Track Pro first. Can’t afford it now but it’s something I’m going to start saving for sometime in the future.

Kev

Edit to add: Well to hell with the M-Audio Fast Track Pro. If I feel that is way too pricey, I could find other brands that has phantom power and other USB units that would be much cheaper. I just gotta do a little more googling.

Edit to add #2: I think I just found what I needed, and it’s very cheap! What I would need to use the SM86 mic is this thing called, the Icicle. You can plug that thing into any Audio interface and you have phantom power! If I get that, I won’t need to buy any audio interface at all, I’ll just keep the M-Audio that I have now. I’ll have to order that Icicle plug since it’s only $40.00. I’m probably gonna end up ordering it next week. Bookmark it for now.

The truth is, I don’t know yet. Not sure if I will add guitar solos to these upcoming new songs. Admittedly, I’m still not the best at lead guitar and I’m still trying to improve myself on that too. I feel that I’m way better at rhythm guitar than lead. I think I know how to stay in the pocket with the metronome well-enough.

I’m still trying to teach myself lead guitar a lot, though. Maybe I will try to put guitar solos on these new songs ’cause it’ll be good practice for me. I do know a few scales and know some music theory. I’m no virtuoso at lead guitar yet but I certainly would love to get there someday! Maybe people will like my lead guitar solos, never know, ya know? Again, I can be my own worst critic. Can never tell if I’m good or not. I just let the people do the judging of my tunes.

Learning lead guitar is a lot of fun. I’m just trying my best to improve my improvisation and ear training so soloing over my own songs would be good practice. Maybe I will give the solos a go. I’m also trying to improve my techniques like vibrato, hammer on/pull offs, string bending, slides, etc. I’m also trying my best with the phrasing so I can sound musical and not sound like I’m playing random notes.

I refuse to have someone else to play guitar solos for my songs ’cause I want the songs to be mine, ya know? I’ve always felt that if you wanna be a guitar player you gotta be good at both rhythm and lead. I think guitar solos are my favorite part of music to begin with. That’s why I love Led Zep, Hendrix, Satriani, etc. Any musician or band who plays a lot of guitar solos, I would probably end up liking.

I would like to get better at lead guitar so I can one day make a badass guitar driven rock album on my own. Lead guitar is pretty much the only reason I picked up the guitar. Wanted to be like Jimmy Page who is a guitar solo master! I’ve been trying to figure out how to become a great lead guitarist ever since I picked it up 18 years ago and still not the best at it. It’s a lot of learning and memorizing. Pretty tough!

Kev