View source for The Cheap Imitation

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==Navigation==
[[Woozle]]: [[Woozle's audio projects|audio]]: [[The Cheap Imitation]]
==Introductape==
[[The Cheap Imitation]] was the name I used for my original musical recordings from approximately 1983 up to 1994 or so. (The idea is that the recordings are mostly just me, overdubbed, and not a real band at all -- just a ''cheap imitation'' of one.)

In [[:category:2005|2005]], I decided to start using the name "Woozalia" for solo recording, and set up [[woozalia:Main Page|woozalia.com]]. Most of this stuff has been moved over there, though not all of it.

==Recordings==
These tracks are freely redistributable under the Creative Commons [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike] license. Permission may be given for ''small-scale'' paid reproduction (as in listening clubs), but do ask first.[[File:2005-06-05 teac A-2340 SX.550px wide.jpg|thumb|My recording studio. ...well, ''most'' of my recording studio.]]
{|
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| '''Track Title''' || '''Type''' || '''Downloads'''
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| colspan=3 |
===2007===
|-
| [[woozalia:Your Brilliant Career|Your Brilliant Career]] || song w/words; demo || {{cimedia|YBC-2007-01-23-mix.mp3|MP3}}
|-
| colspan=3 |
===2003===
|-
| colspan=3 | <big>2003 remixes of old stuff</big>
|-
| [[woozalia:Not Your Chameleon|Not Your Chameleon]] || song with words || {{cimedia|ci-cham.q05.ogg|OGG}} {{cimedia|ci-cham.vbr-hi.mp3|MP3}}
|-
| [[woozalia:All The Beautiful Girls|All The Beautiful Girls]] || song with words || {{cimedia|ci-atbg-v1.0.mp3|MP3}}
|-
| [[woozalia:Don't Call the Doctor|Don't Call the Doctor]] || song w/words; demo || {{cimedia|ci-dctd-demo.mp3|MP3}}
|-
| [[woozalia:Going Through the Motions|Going Through the Motions]] || song w/words; demo || {{cimedia|ci-gttm-demo.mp3|MP3}}
|-
| [[#Time For You|Time For You]] || song w/words; short || {{cimedia|ci-tfy-v1.mp3|MP3}}
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| colspan=3 |
===1991===
|-
| colspan=3 | <big>Analog mixes circa 1991</big>
|-
| [[woozalia:You or a Reasonable Facsimile|You or a Reasonable Facsimile]] || song w/words; demo || {{cimedia|ci-fax.mp3|MP3}}
|}
====Time For You====
* '''Type''': song with words (short)
* '''Version''': demo
* '''Download''': {{cimedia|ci-tfy-v1.mp3|MP3}}
* '''Posted''': 2003.12.22
* '''Comments''': Anna wrote this spontaneously when she was seven; the tracks were recorded in late October of 2001. We did one take of about one and a half verses, I think, and then she decided that her voice sounded too horrible and she wouldn't record anymore. So I had to patch together what I had.
* '''Credits''':
** '''Words, Music, Vocals''': [[Anna Nikola|A. Staddon]]
** '''Arrangement''': N. Staddon
===2003 remixes of old stuff===
These were all originally done on a [[TEAC A-2340SX|quarter-inch 4-track reel deck]] from roughly 1983-1991 and then remixed digitally in 2003. (Currently only one track; others are in progress.)
====Dana Auditorium 3AM====
* '''Type''': Instrumental (piano)
* '''Download''': {{cimedia|cheap-d3am.mp3|MP3}}
* '''Comments''': There was this enormous Steinway concert grand sitting in Dana Auditorium at Guilford College for a few days, and I just had to do something with it. So I sat down and improvised this bit. Turned out rather better than expected.

===Analog mixes circa 1991===
These were also done on the quarter-inch 4-track reel deck, but mixed using a hand-wired patch-bay thingy made from a cigar box.
====Daydream of the Psychoanalyst====
* '''Type''': Instrumental with weird speaking parts
* '''Download''': {{cimedia|ci-psych.mp3|MP3}}
* '''Comments''': This was originally part of a sequence of tracks; I've decided I don't like the first two, at least not as they are currently recorded. The second track blends into this one; you can hear the fade-out at the beginning. The music starts after about a minute and a half if you want to skip the weird stuff. My-sister-the-mathematician does the psychiatrist bit at the end. (She's quoting "[[Wikipedia:ELIZA|Eliza]]", an early attempt to fake verbal interaction with a computer. The machine pretended to be a shrink by asking leading questions without really understanding what you were saying to it. It ran on an [[Wikipedia:Osborne 1|Osborne portable]].)
: The song happened mainly because of the really short sequencer on my [[Wikipedia:Ensoniq|Ensoniq]] [[Wikipedia:Ensoniq Mirage|Mirage]]; the darn thing only had about 128k and its sequencer had an upper limit of about 15 seconds. The Mirage died in 1995 and I got an EPS-M (rackmount version of the [[Wikipedia:Ensoniq EPS|EPS]]), which is still very cool even if it is now also out of date. I expect I will be using the EPS for future recordings (it was used on one track of the [[Xmas CD Project]], 2001).

====Interlude #1====
* '''Type''': Instrumental (short)
* '''Download''': {{cimedia|ci-int1.mp3|MP3}}
====Monorail to Nowhere====
* '''Type''': Instrumental with weird noises and effects
* '''Download''': {{cimedia|ci-rail.mp3|MP3}}
* '''Comments''': Another track that emerged from the very short Mirage sequencer (as did "Daydream" and "Interlude #1"). I like all the weird sounds in this one, but after listening to it about 500 times over the last few years I can't tell if it succeeds artistically. Digital remix is in progress.
====Hell's Hotel====
* '''Type''': Song (well, sort of) with words
* '''Download''': [[woozalia:File:Ci-hh.mp3|MP3]]
* '''Comments''': The guitar is acoustic, distorted by a very advanced technical process called "turning up the gain too high". (Can you tell this was recorded in the 1980s?) I have an idea for this song which might make it really "kick arse", but I don't know if it will work... I have to locate a certain MoG recording.
* '''Credits''':
** '''Words & vocal''': [[Woozle/Shannon|S. Talton]] (but give her a break; she was only 15 at the time.)

====Distortion====
* '''Type''': Instrumental (piano, solo guitar)
* '''Download''': {{cimedia|ci-0-distort.mp3|MP3}}
* '''Comments''': Mixed circa 1983
====Pineapple====
* '''Type''': Original audio weirdness
* '''Download''':  [[woozalia:file:Ci-0-pine.mp3|MP3]]
* '''Comments''': This should probably also be in the Top 10 Weirdest Things I've Ever Recorded (along with "Summer Nights in White Satin" -- see [[Woozle's Audio Weirdness]]). It started innocently enough when I was trying to get an interesting rhythmic [[Wikipedia:Moog|Moog]] noise against which to play something, and then someone who didn't know I was recording started noodling around on the other Moog (an Opus 3), and there was already some odd stuff on some of the other tracks, and it seemed like a good excuse to assemble a bunch of odd sounds and try to make them go somewhere. ("Said fed head" is my paternal parental unit, from a recording presumably made for a psychology experiment sometime in the 1960s.)

==License==
All the audio on this page is released under the Creative Commons license (same as the wiki, even though the files are off-site). For the purposes of the license, the author is Woozle Staddon; attribution should include a link back to http://woozalia.org (or to this page if you prefer). If anyone does want to produce any derivative work, I'd be interested in hearing about it -- and I'd probably be willing to share source files so you have a higher-quality original to work from.