SonicMonkey

SonicMonkey is the online musical playground of Michael Hacker, an Arizona-based guitarist, songwriter, recording geek, and techie. Michael is the owner of SonicMonkey Studios (a.k.a. the spare bedroom in his house) and likes Pro Tools, Line 6, and other stuff that he wishes would give him a sponsorship. Michael occasionally talks about stuff. Sometimes, he posts musical sketches (read: filler). Even more rarely, he finishes a song.

subscribe now!

Archive for the 'podcast' Category

Song-a-Week #18 – Am Thing

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

I’m noticing a disturbing trend of naming songs after the key (I think) they’re in. Hmmm. I might have to do something about that. Anyhoo, this week’s itty bitty ditty is a chord progression I’ve been playing with while teaching myself to play piano. It’s quite simple, but my fingers are still more accustomed to [...]

Read the rest of this entry »

Song-a-Week #17 – B#

Monday, April 27th, 2009

Get it? B#? B sharp? No? OK. See… B# is really C. But the song isn’t even IN the key of C. It’s in Bb (B flat). Or maybe it’s G-something. Possibly C-ish. I really have no idea. Still no? Nothing? Oh well. Enjoy anyway.

Read the rest of this entry »

Song-a-Week #16 – Don’t Say (Demo)

Monday, April 20th, 2009

This song was originally written for piano by my friend Karen Waxler. We tried to record her playing and singing it while she was visiting last week but, unfortunately, it didn’t work out (we had better things to do). Someday soon, I hope to finish it with her and release it to the world. This [...]

Read the rest of this entry »

Song-a-Week #15 – Final Hoedown

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

This is your brain. This is your brain on MIDI and Hair Metal…

Read the rest of this entry »

Song-a-Week #14 – SlumDog

Monday, April 6th, 2009

So, I finally watched “Slumdog Millionaire” and was inspired to see if I could put together something Indian-y. This is what I get for watching movies.

Read the rest of this entry »

Song-a-Week #13 – PTB

Monday, March 30th, 2009

Speak and Spell is evil. That’s all I’m going to say.

Read the rest of this entry »

Song-a-Week #12 – Plop

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

I worked on this one in Sea-Tac airport in Seattle on my MacBook while waiting for my flight back to Phoenix after a very tiring, very cold, very rainy, very overcast weekend. Read into that what you will. Oh, and would you like to hear all about the 16 year old girl who sat next [...]

Read the rest of this entry »

Well, Tanager Audioworks has FINALLY released SongFrame for MacOS X. Needless to say, I’m going to be playing with it a lot, as I have promised Big Al I’d give him a software review for PSN. I just got Pro Tools 8, which is (so far) pretty amazing. This week, I’m experimenting with software more [...]

Read the rest of this entry »

Song-a-Week #10 – Thursday

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

This is another thing I wrote years ago, but I didn’t quite know what to do with it. Guess what? I still don’t know what to do with it. Other than record and upload it, that is. Which, as you can see/hear, I have done. There may be room for lyrics in there somewhere, but [...]

Read the rest of this entry »

Song-a-Week #9 – Cognitive Dissidents

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

Just a sketch again this time. This project is proving to be more and more difficult with each passing week. Life, and other projects, just keep getting in the way. If I don’t start using a more systematic (if not downright mechanical) process to accomplish this more methodically, I may fail. Another thing I’m learning [...]

Read the rest of this entry »