Today I uploaded the latest single, “Another ‘Somebody Done Somebody’s Monkey Wrong’ Song,” intended for the rock album, “What We Were Missing.” My previous songs have been rather serious and often dark, so when I received the suggestion to write something humorous, it seemed like a fun challenge. I ended up going for a compromise – a breakup song with a goofy twist.

You can listen here: http://grooveexpedition.com

Or read the lyrics here: http://grooveexpedition.com/lyricsMonkey.aspx

The music is a little different on this one as well. I’m using my newly acquired drum pads to mimic hand percussion instruments as a test to see if I can abandon conventional drum kit rhythms altogether. The bass, rhythm, and lead guitars are all the Fernandes Dragonfly Sustainer, featured for the first time in this song. And I added an arpeggiated synth using the Korg microKorg XL, which I’ve used in electronic works, but appears in a rock song for the first time here. I’m considering giving it a role in the rest of my songs as well.

The post-production was also changed to include compression. For those of you unfamiliar with the process, when you record a song, the range from the quietest parts to the loudest parts is normally pretty high. This would be the “high fidelity,” highest quality version of the song, where all the subtle sounds are heard, and the volume can rise and fall for effect.

Then came compression, where you essentially reduce the volume of the loudest parts, increase the volume of the quiet parts, and then raise the volume of the resulting whole to the highest level you can without causing distortion. It makes the audio seem louder. If you’ve ever noticed how TV commercials are much louder than the show you’re watching, it’s because the audio in the commercials has been compressed so that it yells to get your attention.

In the music industry, compression crept in as bands wanted to make their music seem louder. Other artists followed suit out of competition. And still others did it just to sound “normal.” If you play a mix of songs, sometimes you’ll hear one that suddenly seems quieter than the others. That’s most likely because all the songs but that one have used compression. And often, that one artist will break down and use compression so that their song won’t seem quiet when played with other music.

The down side is that you lose all the quality of the original recording. Of course, if someone’s listening to 128-bit mp3s on a portable player through earbuds, they would probably never hear the quality in the original anyway. So at this point I’ve thrown up my hands and fired up the compressor. Rock on!

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