While we travel these United States it can be hard to keep up with all things Lennon Bus as we are constantly, and quite literally, “always on the move.” “I sit here watchin’ the wheels go round and round… I really love to watch them roll…” But don’t worry my John Lennon loving, peace craving, music education awareness spreading friends, there’s now an app for that. Check out this link below to download our FREE John Lennon Educational Tour Bus App and keep up with all the latest photos, videos, blogs, and your chance to win prizes from some of our lovely sponsors.
Following her sold-out-in-minutes and critically-acclaimed concerts at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Yoko Ono will reprise “WE ARE PLASTIC ONO BAND” at downtown LA’s Orpheum Theater on October 1st and 2nd.
For the first time, Los Angeles audiences will be treated to a performance by Ms. Ono that The New York Times called “…ghostly, furious, dreamy, caustic, urgent, exultant, orgasmic.”
Under the musical direction of Sean Ono Lennon and backed by Yuka Honda and Cornelius (Keigo Oyamada, Shimmy Hirotaka Shimizu and Yuko Araki) with some very special guests: Iggy Pop (10/1), Lady Gaga (10/2), The RZA, Perry Farrell, Carrie Fisher, Vincent Gallo, Haruomi Hosono, Harper Simon, Tune-Yards, Nels Cline (10/1), Mike Watt (10/2), Kim Gordon (10/2) and Thurston Moore (10/2). “WE ARE PLASTIC ONO BAND” will certainly leave its mark on the City of Angels!
The Lennon Bus crew will be there to document the experience for Yoko and friends. We are delighted to get the opportunity to film such a special event.
Tickets for the “WE ARE PLASTIC ONO BAND” event went on sale to the general public on Saturday, AUGUST 7th at 9AM.
The Lennon Bus has many contributors and sponsors to help keep it rolling through these Untied States and hopefully soon around the world. The Roland Corporation has been with the bus for 7 years now helping keep the dream alive. Roland is known for their innovation and technology and has changed music as we know it throughout the years. Thanks to their groundbreaking technology the Lennon Bus is able to record live drums and keys anywhere at anytime with the push of a few buttons. On board we have the TD-20 V-Drum Kit, The RD700 GX Piano, and The Fantom G6 to complete the musical task for any situation. Students and artists alike gravitate to the V-Drums immediately upon entering the Lennon Bus. I’d say it’s everyone’s favorite piece of gear on board…. It’s mine too. The other engineers get annoyed with me because I play them so much. What can I say, they are addicting!! They allow you to play drums anywhere at anytime and not get noise complaints by neighbors. You can simply play with headphones. What I like best about the V-Drums is their MIDI functionality, you can play any software instrument with the V-Drums and take the sound possibilities to whole new levels…. literally. Any who to get your fix on music technology and create your own music easily and expand your creative soul visit http://www.rolandus.com to find out about the latest products.
“A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.” - John Lennon
“All we are saying is give peace a chance.” - John Lennon
“All you need is love.” - John Lennon
“As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.” - John Lennon
“Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first - rock and roll or Christianity.” - John Lennon
“Everybody loves you when you’re six foot in the ground.” - John Lennon
“Everything is clearer when you’re in love.” - John Lennon
“God is a concept by which we measure our pain.” - John Lennon
“Guilt for being rich, and guilt thinking that perhaps love and peace isn’t enough and you have to go and get shot or something.” - John Lennon
“He didn’t come out of my belly, but my God, I’ve made his bones, because I’ve attended to every meal, and how he sleeps, and the fact that he swims like a fish because I took him to the ocean. I’m so proud of all those things. But he is my biggest pride.” - John Lennon
“I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now?” - John Lennon
“I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.” - John Lennon
“I don’t believe in killing whatever the reason!” - John Lennon
“I’m not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I’ve always been a freak. So I’ve been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I’m one of those people.” - John Lennon
“If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that… I believe in what I do, and I’ll say it.” - John Lennon
“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.” - John Lennon
“If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that’s his problem. Love and peace are eternal.” - John Lennon
“If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’.” - John Lennon
“Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.” - John Lennon
This year is dedicated to John Lennon, who would be 70 if he were still with us. We will be creating many more multimedia projects dedicated to his memory.
This summer Seamus Harte, myself and former crew member Doug Larsen will be teaching “Come Together,” a 5-day music and video production course for teenagers offered at the Digital Media Academy. It’s modeled after a typical day on the Lennon bus, but spread out over 5-days. In those 5-days students will learn how to create their own music projects in Logic Pro 9, shoot their own music videos on Sony cameras, and edit them in Final Cut Pro 7. Sounds pretty neato huh! YEAH. If you’re interested in signing up to take this course this summer visit the link below!
We have been working with the students for the past few months in efforts to get them certified as Logic Pro 9 users. This is a great opportunity for them because not only are they all extremely talented musicians who will use the software to record lots of their own projects and get them heard, but they will also have this certification displayed on their resumes for their future. I personally feel great teaching these amazing students Logic pro because I can only imagine what great music and other projects they will be creating with it. I can’t wait to see them all again.
Wish them all luck as they prepare for the Logic certification exam to be held on Wednesday afternoon.
I’ll be checking in with their progress this week and looking forward to hearing some of the music they will be creating in Logic Pro 9.
Something that comes up a lot these days with creating music and recording is the question of, what DAW program do I use? DAW stands for Digital Audio Workstation. There are so many DAW’s out there, but which one should you choose?
For this I am going to give the most basic rundown of which DAW’s I like and the benefits of each. Keep in mind though that they are all very cool, just the fact that you can create music and record audio on a computer for relatively cheap and have complete control is just plain amazing.
Logic Studio is the go to audio software I choose to use on a daily basis. Reason being is that I have used it for so many years and I’m used to the work flow but there are also lots of other reasons.
The Basic Pros:
A. It’s fairly inexpensive and comes with tons of features, instruments, loops, sound effects, and plug-ins. It’s all included right out of the box.
B. You can use any audio interface hardware you wish with it.
C. The GUI, or graphic user interface, is really easy to get along with and navigate.
D. Composing music and making beats is extremely easy and fun.
E. MIDI is unmatched in Logic, it’s easy, fun and extremely powerful.
The Basic Cons:
A. Recording audio can be tricky for some, there are little rules and guidelines to follow when recording. Don’t get me wrong though, Logic is great for recording, but some prefer other solution’s.
B. Recording audio and MIDI at the same time is also a bit tricky.
C. Only works on a Mac, not on PC.
In conclusion, Logic is great for those looking to produce their own music, compose music, do basic recording, and edit sound for video. I might suggest better solution’s for those looking to be recording big bands with lots of tracks or put on live sound events.
Pro-Tools is the industry standard DAW used in most all recording studios around the world. It is extremely powerful, reliable, and simply amazing. I like using Pro-Tools for recording live bands in the studio or for live sound applications. There are many other reasons I’d say to go with Pro-Tools as well.
The Basic Pros:
A. It’s everywhere, meaning if you’re a beast on Pro-Tools, you can work in almost any recording studio.
B. With the new version 8, MIDI has gotten a lot easier, plus, instruments and plug-ins are included.
C. It’s versatile, meaning you can record music, make beats, run live sound, and edit audio for picture.
D. The new GUI is great. Very user friendly, customizable, and easy to look at.
E. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, Pro-Tools offers solution’s for both. This means that if you just want to mess around on your laptop, you can. But if you want to record huge bands with 64 channels at once in HD you can.
F. It’s cross platform, meaning it works on Mac and PC.
The Basic Cons:
A. You can only run Pro-Tools if you have an audio interface made by Avid. Meaning you can’t run Pro-Tools with just any interface, or just your computer sound card.
B. MIDI isn’t the easiest of things, Logic beats Pro-Tools in this department.
In conclusion, Pro-Tools rocks for most all applications, I’d recommend it to those who are looking to record bands, in large studio applications, or for live sound.
If you are a DJ, this is the program for you! It’s great for putting on “live” shows, creating loop based music, and can be used within other DAW Hosts as a rewire slave.
The Basic Pros:
A. Relatively inexpensive
B. Easy to use and fun
C. Has a unique way of working that isn’t found in other DAW’s.
D. Great for on the spot remixes and on the fly performances.
E. Has some cool effects and methods not found in other DAW’s.
F. Can easily manipulate tempo and feel of songs.
G. Cross Platform, works on Mac and PC
The Basic Cons:
A. Not very efficient for recording multiple tracks or large bands.
B. MIDI isn’t very easy to work with in Ableton as far as editing it, but recording it is really cool.
C. Isn’t the end all be all solution for a DAW.
In conclusion, Ableton is a great program for DJ’s and those who like to create remixes and beats. It’s is amazing when hosted by Logic or Pro-Tools because you can take advantage of the interface and work flow within a more well rounded application. I wouldn’t recommend it for large scale productions.
After these reviews it’s safe to say that all these programs are great! But it’s also a matter of what you are going to be using them for. My best advice is that if you can afford to get all of them, do it! They all rock!
For the 70th Graphic Teaser I first created the graphics in motion and then I wanted to add sound to them.
For this I used logic to open the movie and create sound effects and add music.
It’s really easy and fun!
Here are the basic steps:
1. Launch Logic.
2. Create a new project, name it, and save it.
3. Pull down the global tracks menu by clicking the disclosure triangle:
4. Right click and Check Video:
5. Click the disclorure triangle nest to the video lane. Then click the open movie button:
6. Then navigate to find the video you want to open in Logic.
Now you will see a floating window of your video and you are able to add sound effects, foley, ADR, add music, and score right in Logic and see it in real time. It’s fun and easy.
Once completed export your audio to be contained in the movie by navigating to the Logic file menu and choosing “Export Audio To Movie.” Choose the desire settings and location. Done and done! Enjoy.
About Tyler Winick
knocking heads with a pair of drumsticks. (He’s a drummer.) With a new, untraditional approach to music, he began creating tracks using computers and technology, and pursued his passion to become a recording producer and sound engineer. Tyler attended Ex’pression College in Emeryville, CA where he received his BAS (Bachelor of Applied Science) in Sound Arts. His creative energy finally had an outlet. He began collaborating with many different artists and found his niche working with others. Shortly after graduation, Tyler met up with the Lennon Bus at a local Apple store and began working on board. He’s been around ever since.
Keeping Up With The Bus… There’s an App for that!
While we travel these United States it can be hard to keep up with all things Lennon Bus as we are constantly, and quite literally, “always on the move.” “I sit here watchin’ the wheels go round and round… I really love to watch them roll…” But don’t worry my …
We Are Plastic Ono Band Live At The Orpheum In LA
Following her sold-out-in-minutes and critically-acclaimed concerts at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Yoko Ono will reprise “WE ARE PLASTIC ONO BAND” at downtown LA’s Orpheum Theater on October 1st and 2nd. For the first time, Los Angeles audiences will be treated to a performance by Ms. Ono that The New …
Roland and The Lennon Bus…AWESOME!
The Lennon Bus has many contributors and sponsors to help keep it rolling through these Untied States and hopefully soon around the world. The Roland Corporation has been with the bus for 7 years now helping keep the dream alive. Roland is known for their innovation and technology and has …
The Man Was A Genius! We All Miss You John.
“A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.” - John Lennon “All we are saying is give peace a chance.” - John Lennon “All you need is love.” - John Lennon “As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.” - …
We’ve only just begun….
This year is dedicated to John Lennon, who would be 70 if he were still with us. We will be creating many more multimedia projects dedicated to his memory. Check out some of what we’ve done so far: http://www.youtube.com/user/johnlennonbus#p/c/072382D781701A15 read more
Come Together and Create Music Videos Like the Pros
This summer Seamus Harte, myself and former crew member Doug Larsen will be teaching “Come Together,” a 5-day music and video production course for teenagers offered at the Digital Media Academy. It’s modeled after a typical day on the Lennon bus, but spread out over 5-days. In those 5-days students …
Logic 101 Day 1 At Fernando Pullum High School
Hey All, Today is day one of the three day Apple Logic Pro certification course for the students of Fernando Pullum High School in South Central LA. Logic Pro is professional audio recording software from Apple. We have been working with the students for the past few months in efforts …
What Would John Do?
Hey All, If John Lennon were still alive, what else do you think he would have accomplished in the past 30 years? Hmmmm, that’s an interesting thought. Would he be on the front lines of today’s war, which has now lasted longer than the Vietnam war? There seem to be …
What DAW Should I Use?
Hey All, Something that comes up a lot these days with creating music and recording is the question of, what DAW program do I use? DAW stands for Digital Audio Workstation. There are so many DAW’s out there, but which one should you choose? For this I am going to …
Editing Audio To Picture
For the 70th Graphic Teaser I first created the graphics in motion and then I wanted to add sound to them. For this I used logic to open the movie and create sound effects and add music. It’s really easy and fun! Here are the basic steps: 1. Launch Logic. …
“Lennon” and “John Lennon” are trademarks of Yoko Ono Lennon.
