Monthly Archives: October 2007

Subscribe to Songwriter Jim Fusco’s Covers’ “Laptop Sessions” as a YouTube rss feed!

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Hello all, Jim here. Well, there are PLENTY of ways to keep up with the latest updates from Fusco-Moore Productions.

You can register for our podcast series, you can subscribe to the “Laptop Sessions” on YouTube, you can subscribe to the blog by e-mail or rss– plus many other ways.

But, here’s a neat way to keep up with my YouTube videos! Just paste this link into an RSS reader (for instance, your iGoogle, your Mac Mail program, Yahoo! mail and widgets, and others) and you’ll instantly be updated once a new video comes online.

Here’s the link:

feed://www.youtube.com/rss/user/jimfusco/videos.rss

It’s just one more way to keep in touch! Also, please register to comment on our Blog here, as we’d LOVE to see your comments and requests! Jeff and Chris will soon be starting their own versions of the “Laptop Sessions” with songs from Bob Dylan, Stone Temple Pilots, and the Wallflowers.

As for me, I know it’s been a couple days. I have a BIG post about my night on Friday that I can’t wait to write. Plus, I’ll be posting a NEW “Laptop Session” tomorrow, another one on Monday, and ANOTHER one on Tuesday!! That’s right, I have three ready to go, and Chris is helping me out on two of them!!

Just check the stats on YouTube and see all the nice comments people have left for me. A big shoutout to everyone over at Brian Wilson’s website and their message board for all of their encouragement!! Until tomorrow…

~Jim

My New Amp…For More Than Acoustic Rock!

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By Jim Fusco:

Hi folks, Jim here. I just made a big purchase, so I wanted to share it with everyone, especially because it will re-shape the way my guitar sounds.

I’m so excited to get my Fender Blues Junior amplifier!! It’s pretty small in size, no more than a foot and a half or so each way, but man, does it pack a punch. My old amp, a HUGE Fender one, was way too powerful for anything I used it for. I could never turn it up past 2.5 on the dial!

Plus, my old amp was a solid-state amp. With solid state amps, you need to add your own effects. For instance, I always like using an “overdrive effect” to get my distortion sound. I even bought a guitar pedal called the “Tube Screamer” to get the tone I wanted. A solid-state amp just means, you plug in your guitar and the sound comes out of the speakers. Simple. It reproduces whatever you put into it, just louder.

Fender Blues Junior Amp

But, the new amp is called a tube amp. This particular one is ALL TUBES because it has a tube pre-amp and tube driver.

What does that all mean?

Well, I’m new to this, too, but here’s my explanation. Think of the tubes as those old TV tubes people used to use. Actually, this is the SAME EXACT THING! Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Why would you want to go back to that old technology?” Well, there’s many resons:

  1. The tubes take time to “warm up” when you turn the amp on. This tells us that the sound from my guitar is going through the tubes for amplification, and thus “warming up” the sound. With a solid state amp, it goes directly to the speaker. Going through the tubes naturally processes the sound. Think of talking into a hollow tube. It makes your voice more “warm” sounding because it’s bouncing around in there.
  2. The tubes create a natural “compression” effect. This is really great for me because it makes individual notes sound as loud as when I play chords. So, I have better control over the volume of my solos when I’m playing rhythm guitar most of the time and a solo for 30 seconds!
  3. It’s real “overdrive”. All those guitar pedals I own (and it’s quite a few) try to emulate the sound of an overdriven amplifier. “Overdrive” means that you’re pushing too much sound through the tubes and the signal starts breaking up. It goes from “clean” to “dirty” sounding. With a tube amp, I can naturally overdrive my guitar to get the real sound out of it. It’s what makes some guitars cost more and others cost less. Since I have some really nice guitars, I’ll be looking forward to how they “really” sound when overdriven.
  4. It just sounds amazing. I plugged into this thing at the music store and I felt like a rock star. The notes seem to organically “grow” from the speakers, rather than just explode. It makes the chords sound better. It makes my playing sound better because you actually hear things like 7th chords. Plus, it makes things like those crazy back and forth solos possible, too.
  5. It’s a heck of a lot smaller, and therefore more portable. My old amp weighed more than Chris.
  6. It’s still got power. This new amp is only 15 watts of power. Doesn’t sound like much. My old amp is about 150 watts. Too much power! But, 5 watts of tube amp power are equal to 40 watts of solid-state amp power! So, really, we’re talking about an amp that’s got the equivalent of 120 watts here. But, I might just be able to turn this one up a bit and experiment with more sounds without waking the neighbors!

Hopefully this shows you how passionate I am about this purchase, and that I really do my homework when I’m getting something new. I’m so excited to take my guitar sound to the next level and you’ll LOVE it, too!! I’m going to be posting different articles on ALL of my equipment (guitars, etc) and I hope Jeff and Chris will, too. Now I gotta check my front porch when I get home…

Songwriters Know – It takes how many takes?

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Finally was able to get a solid session in today. With a schedule like mine, it is very difficult to find an hour or two at a time.

Between teaching, marriage, and a running addiction to Final Fantasy XI, recording time is hard to come by all at once.

Thankfully, Final Fantasy XI was down for maintenance, my wife was at work, and school was over for the day.

So I got down to the studio and finished the guitars for the song i’m working on now.

And those who have recorded before know how much it takes to lay down one track you are happy with. I ended up with five guitar tracks. The song is about 4 1/2 minutes long. That’s 22 1/2 minutes of guitar recording. That is assuming of course I get each one right on the first try.

Good thing nobody under the age of 27 lives in my house. When you mess up what was a terrific guitar track by missing the string or the chord, it is usually followed by a four letter word that isn’t “love”.

Multiply that by 40.

While three of the five guitar tracks were done in 4 takes or less, the fourth one went through creative changes. Do I want it distorted? Let’s try it clean – nah, screw that lets get that distortion back – wait, is that how I had it? 9 takes later, I had a track that i’m somewhat happy with – i’ll probably end up recording it again. If anyone listened to me talking while recording they’d think i’m nuts.

It’s weird when you know you’re nuts as well.

That’s not even considering the guitar solo, which only happens for 1 minute of the song.

I must’ve played the same solo for the 1st half of this time span about 24 times before I got one perfect.

Then I did the 2nd half on the first take.

When I listened back to it expecting to have to record it again, I surprised myself with it. Recording is like that. Once in a while you nail an entire song in an hour. Other times the song nails you. Or gets you nailed…

No, just kidding. I have yet to have the need to throw throngs of fans off my legs so I could get in my tour bus.

But as you can see. It is a fickle hobby that we are involved in. Good thing you get to hear the end result. It takes hours of recording to get one 4 1/2 minute song for you to enjoy. Imagine how long it takes to record an entire EP or album. Good thing we’re allowed to sleep in between.

Well, more updates to come when they happen.

Until then…

“I’m So Lonely” (A Beach Boys Cover)

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Okay, so now for a REALLY obscure one!

This song is from the Beach Boys self-titled 1985 album. It’s called “I’m So Lonely” and was Brian Wilson’s only solo lead on the album.  Why would I pick such an obscure song? Well, for one thing, my roomate dared me to figure it out on my own, and this is also the way I’ve been feeling lately (bust out the violins).  But can you blame me?  I mean, living away from home is tough.  Factor that in with just starting to work full-time for the first time.  Plus, add in running a condo for the first time.  When all of those things combine, you find that you don’t have a lot of time for yourself.  But that’s where music comes in.  Singing, playing and recording these cover song music videos for the Laptop Sessions music blog is a great way to keep the passion of music in my life without taking up too much time.  Honestly, I don’t have that much time to take up anymore!

Most people don’t like the Beach Boys’ 1985 self-titled album.  But, I don’t understand why.  To me, this album has just about everything.  It’s not without its flaws, but I’d love to hear a redone version of this album with real instruments.  I think people would have a much different take on the album.  But, it was 1985 and the Beach Boys were using cutting-edge technology to record their songs.  They wanted to do all of their new songs digitally, so they went over to England.  There, they found one of the only studios in the world with the equipment to pull off such a task.  Maybe the Boys wanted to sound “hip” and not like they were a bunch of guys in their 40s.  The result was one of the first albums released on compact disc- a revolution, but not well-received.

For one, the fans definitely noticed the change in style (except for “California’s Calling”, featuring real drums by Ringo Starr- the only person worthy enough to take Dennis Wilson’s place on a Beach Boys record).  But, I like the style.  Sure, I was born in 1984, but honestly, I love the style of these songs- especially Carl’s contributions.  “Maybe I Don’t Know” is one of my all-time favorite songs.  It features great lead vocals and an amazing mid-80s guitar solo.  I’ll agree- it’s hard to believe it’s from a Beach Boys song.

With “I’m So Lonely”, the Beach Boys got Brian Wilson to contribute a song.  You know, I think Brian sounds pretty good on the recording.  He sounds passionate (unlike his lackluster performance in “Crack At Your Love”).  The song is simple, but it’s great to hear Brian’s falsetto once again.  If you haven’t listened to this album for a while, I strongly suggest you give it another chance.

This video is EXACTLY what the Laptop Sessions are all about.  These acoustic cover song videos are meant to take songs and strip-down their production (in this case, the synthesizers of the mid-80s).  I want to make videos where people say, “Wow, I never liked the studio version of that song, but since you just made it an acoustic version, it’s actually a really good tune!”  I think I do the song justice and I hope you enjoy!