n-Track Studio's Featured Artist of the Month





The Five W

Artist Web Page: http://myspace.com/ps333b


Where:
Washington, DC USA

Who: William Neal (Bass, Guitar, Keyboards), Gerry Brown (Drum Programming)

When: I started playing bass guitar around 1979. As the years went on, I learned how to play guitar and keyboards so I can lay all my own tracks.

Why:
[..] "
I get frequent comments about how quiet I am. Music is the best avenue for me to get out everything that's going on inside better than I can say with words. Wanna know me better? Everything you want to know is in my music."

What: [..] "I love all types of music but my primary categories would be Gospel, Jazz, and R&B"

In Short:

Influences are many from all genres of music from Blues, Gospel, Jazz, Rock, R&B, Contemporary Christian

Gear: Customized 1975 Fender Jazz Bass, Fender Statacaster, Tescam 688, 800 MHz PC, n-Track Studio (A life saver for a small budget), n-Track DirectX pluggins.
Yamaha RX-11, Roland D20.

Thanks: STAGE2 was inspired by a drum loop created by Gerry Brown. He wanted me to lay a bass line on the pattern but I liked it so much, I ended up writing a whole song around the pattern. Turns out to be the best song I have every recorded. Thanks to Skip from Third City who turned me on to Digital Audio recording. He also gave me help with Direct X pluggins and Mastering. His help has been as instrumental in the recording realm as all the musicians that inspired me musically.

William
by Alessandro De Murtas

songsListen to William songs


[..] "I was born in Washington, DC. I got a late start playing an instrument compared to other members of my family. I remember as a young boy taking rubber bands and putting them around a book and strumming them like a guitar. I never thought that one day I would play a guitar. My first influences were from members of my family. On my mother's side I have an uncle that played bass, his son who played guitar every since I can remember, and later his daughter took up bass after him when he became a minister. All his son's and daughters after the two oldest either sing and or play an instrument. My mother sings in a choir. I have an uncle on my mother's side who is a farley well know blues guitarist and harmonica player. I have a cousin on my father's side who played piano and sing gospel music with Willie Banks and the Messengers. All my aunts on my father's side and my grandmother sang together in a gospel group. One of which I toured with October 2001. Somewhere around 1975 or so, I went to a recreation center and there happened to be a group playing there. I was inspired by the drummer and wanted I to learn how to play. I didn't take any steps at that time to pursue it. Most people in their teens are looking for a way to express themselves. I started drawing pictures around 1978. In 1979, there was a bass player that lived next door. He had a Fender Jazz bass exactly the same color as the one I have now. I had always wanted a Fender Jazz. I didn't get mine till 1999. That was a long wait for an instrument I had always loved. I watched my friend play for hours before he taught me my first song. I didn't have a bass to practice on. I could only find a friend that let me borrow his lead guitar. I used it to practice bass lines. About a year later, my father bought me my first bass (KAY P-Bass) and my mother sent me to bass guitar lessons. I played the KAY P-Bass for about 3 years until it fell apart. I then purchased my first bass (Used Fender P-Bass). I drew pictures until around 1984. I then stopped drawing to focus on becoming a better bass player. I played in many groups from age 17 and up. My influences are many from Blues, Gospel, Jazz, Rock, R&B, Contemporary Christian ... You get the idea. It's a big melting pot. The song that inspired me to play drums in 1975 was Sarah Smile by Hall and Oates. I feel like I have always had an ear for music. There has always been certain songs and sounds I never would forget from a young age. The earliest songs I remember that made an impression years before I thought about playing an instrument were Batman (The original Theme song), Edgar Winter (Frankenstein), George Benson (Breezin'), Eric Clapton (I Shot the Sheriff), Motown (All of them), Andre Crouch (Soon and Very Soon), Walter and Tramaine Hawkins (Going Up Yonder), Marvin Gaye (What's Going On), Isaac Hays (Cafe Regio's), Graham Central Station (The Jam), Sly Stone (Thank You for Letting Me Be Myself), Rufus and Chaka (Tell Me Something Good and You've Got the Love). These are just a few from the earlier to late 70's. Later influences from the Late 70's on were Brother's Johnson, Mother's Finest, Slave, Aura,Confunction, Chic, Heart, Yes, Paul Jackson Jr, Ray Parker Jr, Lenny White, Jaco, Will Lee, Hiram Bullouck, Lee Ritenour, Oleta Adams, Commisioned, Grover Washington, Johnathan Butler, Anita Baker, Earth Wind and Fire, George Howard, Dave Grusin, Joe Sample, Omar Hakim, Sting, Bernard Edwards, Tony Thompson, Edwin Hawkins, Kim Stone, Luther Vandross, Bobby Caldwell, Ashford and Simpson, Algia Mae Hinton, Me'Shell, Roberta Flack, David Sanborn, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Stanley Clarke, Wes Montgomery, R Kelly, The Jackson 5, Leon Sylvers III, Staples Singers, Prince, Brown Mark, Terry Lewis & Jimmy Jam, Stanley Clark, Stan "Pounds", "Gabby", Lavant, Sherman, Victor Wooten, David Benoit, Robbie,SKIP,Gary,Janet Jackson, America, Bootsy, Nathan East, Jermaine Jackson, Power Station, Robert Palmer, Whitney Houston, Cameo, Stacey Lattisaw, Kevin Jackson, Jeff Lober, Jack Bruce, Paul Mc Cartney, Quincy Jones, Susan Ashton, Cindy Morgan, Tommy Simms, Steven Curtis Chapman, Rebeca St James,Tim Bowman, Fred Hammond, Kirk Franklin, 4HIM, Billy and Sarah Gaines, Jeff Majors, Brian Duncan, Vicki Winans, The Winans, Yalonda Adams, Witness, Whitney Houston, David Blamires, Sheila E, Bee Bee and Cee Cee, Vaness Bell Armstrong, Venessa Mitchell, Chris Squire, Rhonda Smith, Dan Huff, Margaret Becker, Michael English, and most notably Marcus Miller who is on the cutting edge of musicianship today. He played on a lot of songs I loved before I descovered who he was. He has had the most influence on me musically especially in recent years. His bass playing open up ideas to me that were perfect for me to say the things I want to say with my instrument. I am constantly challenged by his musical genius. Special thanks to my mentor and technical advisor in the recording area SKIP of Third City. He turned me on to technologies that allowed me to record STAGE2. If it were not for his advice, I would still be recording to analog tape. Digital is the way to go. The advise he has given has been instrumental in leading me in a direction to record better music, easier, and in a shorter period of time. Forgive me if I didn't mention other influences but it would take a book to name them all. I have been afforded the great opportunity to tour Europe (France) with my Aunt and Uncle just past October 2001. The group was Pat Brockington & Vision. After all my years of playing bass guitar, touring France made all the hard work worth while. The French people love Gospel music and I am glad to have had the opportunity to be able to share it in a very spiritual way. I am currently working on my first CD to hopefully be finished by spring or summer 2002. Thank God for all His Wisdom, Love, and Grace. Without Him none of this would be possible. The first thing he did was plucked me up out of the world and gave me a new direction. He is the one who through his providence, orchestrated the circumstances that gave me an opportunity to do all the things I love with music."

Tips and Tricks from Layman using n-Track Studio.


[..]
"
Stage 2 is the best song I have recorded in n-Track. The drums in STAGE2 are samples. This was my first recording using drum samples. I chose this because I like to have all my drums on separate tracks. I had no way to get all my keyboards parts and drum pieces on separate tracks MIDI synching to tape. Using a loop program, I can create the drum pattern and export each part to a separate WAV file. The wave files were imported into n-Track. Drum samples are generally already processed. I used no processing on the BD, SD (The snare sample already had a gated like reverb on it), RS, BD2 (808 bass drum). The HH does have a little n-Track Ambient 1 and Parametric EQ. All of the percussion pieces were recorded directly into n-Track manually from my keyboard. The electric piano and other keyboard parts were also recorded manually into n-Track too. This was first for me. I usually use a sequencer. From there, I laid all my bass and lead guitar parts. I mainly used n-Tract DirectX pluggins (Compression, reverb, and parametric EQ). I used an external Direct X noise reduction on each track. I applied different amounts of compression and parametric EQ to each track to bring out each sound's unique qualities and to give them more punch. I enhanced that by using Ambient 1 Reverb on AUX Send 1 to supply small amounts to each track's Return. Just a little touch of Ambient 1 Reverb on each track, to me, almost has an exciter type affect. I then destructively processed all the effects to each individual track to decrease the load on the computer microprocessor. On my Master Channel, I put Compression Noise Gate, and a small amount of Hall Reverb to mix down to one track stereo. My plan before mixing down was to use a graphic equalizer to add final touches to the whole mix but it wasn't needed. The key to getting a good master is using the EQ on each track individually to enhance each instrument's natural sound. If you do that well enough, you may not need any EQ on the final mix. If needed, I would use a Graphical EQ only to touch up the over all sound on the Master Channel. Most of the EQ should be done on the individual tracks using the Parametric EQ. Sometimes after applying effects, you may need to Normalize the track to either increase or decrease the track output. When you put the Hall reverb on the Master channel, this will bring out the Ambient 1 Reverb on each individual track. You will have to constantly adjust your volumes through the whole process of mastering. You are now ready to mix the tracks down to a stereo WAV or MP3. Make sure you have enough time when mastering. You don't want to rush through this process. It may take a couple days to a week to get the right mix depending on time and experience. Practice makes perfect. Thank God for His Wisdom. DON'T LET YOUR EARS GO WITHOUT HEARING THIS GREAT SONG."

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"I am currently working on my first CD to hopefully be finished by 2007."