Ceevro's Singalong Collab is back baby! Hopping on the sea-shanty bandwagon while the hopping is good! This time...Barrett's Privateers!!!

Come add your talents to the project!

FORUM THREAD BE HERE!!!

HEY ALL!

Ceevro is doing another Singalong Collab! We are doing "Drive" by Incubus!

If y'all want in on this...

JOIN THE MADNESS RIGHT HERE!!!

Hey wonderful peoples of the Newgroundsverse! After a hiatus of...well...way too long, I have finally gotten myself back up and running as a recording artist. I'll be able to do the full range of stuffs that I once did, with a good deal more processing power, from here on out!

Just to prove I still got it...I've posted two new tracks, so swing by and lemme know y'all haven't forgotten about little old me!

So it may be that one or two of you may have noticed that I haven't posted anything new for almost a year now...

Well, what a year.  Suffice it to say that I left my marriage...no need to sugar-coat it.  Things were bad, so I left after 15 years.  

What has followed was a year of legal battles, couch-surfing, fighting for my home, my finances, my children, my sanity.  My ex was kind enough to sell all my instruments and any of my personal affects that had value, and keep the money, which I appreciate.  It proved to me that I made the right choice.

But that has left me unable to participate in the NG community for an extended period of time.

WHICH ENDS VERY SOON!  

I have managed to get my hands on one hell of a baller computer, which will need a small tweak or two to make it suitable to record, and I have now got to learn a new DAW.  But I have a guitar.  And I have a mic.  And I have my house still.  And I have a life that is much better for recording than I have ever had before.

I am happy now.  Couldn't say that before.  And as such, I can't wait to spread the joy around here on NG once again!

Here's to cutting out toxic relationships!  If you're in one, get out now!  Escape only becomes harder with time!

Now, let's get back to making music, shall we?

So...I wanna expand the list of people I work with, gain some experience, and get my name out a bit more!  To do that, I figure I should make an offer to people out there in NG land.  I am an experienced acoustic guitarist who plays several styles, can follow a lead-sheet, and has no trouble with tough chords, picking, etc.  I also know, most importantly, how to set and deliver by a deadline - you work with me, I WILL deliver what I say I will, when I say I will.

You might know some of my work from the recent Singalongs I've hosted (and continue to host).

As such, here is my offer:  If you need a normal chord pattern/loop for your track, I will do one for you for free, provided it's a track to be released here on NG, and you include me on your project page.  It's time to step up muh game!

 

So this year I'm going to be doing more gigging, and making my recordings more professional.  Already got a gig for Valentines Day, and I'm just mastering a digital EP for sale...for those of you following me on NG, you guys will get everything I put out free of charge, as always.  The community here has been invaluable for boosting my confidence, and helping along with turning my amuzing strummings into more professional content, and my thanks will be to never ask anyone here for money. 

In the meantime, had a rather special opportunity to play a Gibson Acoustic...from 1942.  Nothing gives of the sound of that guitar!  So here you can see me perform and sing with no effects, no loops, nothing.  Raw.

 

Awright, peoples!  It's time to talk gear, right?  I don't know if it is, seeing as I don't get many comments on my news posts...but I assume that SOMEBODY will eventually read one of them, and that somebody might be wondering how I get a specific effect, or get my recordings done so quickly, or for so incredibly cheap. 

And to them I say...uh...I use a mic.  And acoustic instruments.  And GarageBand.  To be specific....I use a Samson Meteor Mic (about $100), which is an excellent USB mic for podcasting/musical performance, because it picks up sounds from a bit of a distance.  I ordinarily place it about 3 feet from where I'm performing, which is important, because I use a variety of guitar techniques that require a bit of space to keep me from hitting the mic.  The difficult part of recording is actually my MacBook Pro - it has this fan that kicks on when I use a lot of processing power (like when recording), and it can screw up a recording pretty badly.  My answer has been to place a foam mattress between the mic and the Mac, and perform at an angle on the mic side, so I can see what I need to on the Mac side.  Other than that, I'd need an actual sound guy to be operating the software in a separate room.  I'm too poor for that. 

For guitars, I currently use a Godin classical, an Ibanez 12-string, and a Cort 6-string, all acoustic/electric, and the latter two being jumbo-body with cutaway.  For those instances when I need to plug in, I use a very simple Larivee electric, with a single EMG humbucker.  I plug that right into the Mac, and mix my FX with software.

I also utilize a Roland digital piano, which is far beyond my capabilities to play well, but was a gift, and so I'm eternally grateful for it. 

Other than that, I make my percussion mainly by hand.  Clearly, I have use premade-loops for various projects, but recently, with the addition of a good mic, I can utilize my own percussion background.  My rule:  If it makes a sound, it's percussion.  I have used beatbox, hambone, tapping fingers on my mic, even foley-type percussion, like breaking celery in a wet towel, or drumming with a couple full pencil cases.  It's all valid percussion, in my opinion.

So, in all honesty, this wasn't cheap to make happen, but the more I've done, the more I notice that there's help out there for musicians who have shown that they won't just go away with a toy ukelele.  Stores are willing to barter on prices, everyone has a guitar in their house that they never play.  Drummers who move out of their parent's houses have to give up their sets when they get an apartment.  And there has never been a shortage of celery.

 

Hey peeps!

I've been keeping up on my 'Song a week for a year' promise, and I still need some people to give me projects! As long as you have a project that is gunna get done, and a need for tunes, I'm yer guy!

-Ceevro

Well, the song that's been most popular for me finally has a video! Give it a watch, share it with EVERYONE!

Well peoples! I'm bustin' my butt again! This time, my aim was to show that the skillz aren't a one-shot deal. So this is three tunes in one take. They are from Sean Gordon, and if you don't know who that is, and you love a good guitar, look him up! These are some tough songs to play, but so very worth getting down. I can't remember when I had so much fun learning to play a song for a month!