Stephen C. Shapiro

How to Play the Drum Intro to Led Zeppelin’s “Rock & Roll”

Stephen — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:12:48 +0000

I have always been confused by the drum intro on Led Zeppelin’s “Rock & Roll”. I loved the song anyway, so it never bothered me too much. I would like to throw it into some cover sets, so I finally brought it into ProTools to hear it in context. Here are my results.

As you see, the first drum hit is actually on a pickup eighth not (the 3 AND beat). I mixed it down too.

Here’s the MP3: “Rock & Roll” by Led Zeppelin with 2 Bar Click.

Let me know if it helps.

Buffalo Gun – Coming Soon to Rock Band 2

Stephen — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:28:26 +0000

I have devoted the past week or so to getting myself familiar with the upcoming Rock Band Network. RBN is still in beta, and not open to the public, but I am already comfortable with the developing process. Here’s a sample for a track I authored for Buffalo Gun.

Buffalo Gun – Expert – Rock Band Network from Stephen Shapiro on Vimeo.

BuffaloGun.net 1.0

Stephen — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:12:43 +0000

I haven’t made a web site in quite a while, but I recently decided to design one for my brother’s band (in which I play drums), Buffalo Gun. I used the Wordpress CMS and created theme from scratch, with the help of WPDesigner.com. The new site also implements many of the helpful widgets provided by Reverb Nation.

We are still putting the finishing touches on The Bad, and finally have a proper place to promote it when it is released.

Real World Placement 2

Stephen — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:54:03 +0000

Alexander got a second music placement on the Real World Cancun. It aired back on July 15, I just finally got around to putting it up here. This time the placement was for for “Sing, All You People” instrumental.

You can see the clip below or download the Quicktime file here. Note: I do not claim ownership or rights to this clip, which belong to MTV Networks/Viacom/Paramount.

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Project Updates

Stephen — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:14:44 +0000

This week I finished up mixing and mastering Before You Exit’s debut album A Short Story Long. The final product is a very strong first release for any band, but especially for a band so young. The album will be released on August 22 at the band’s Hard Rock Live performance.

Buffalo Gun is still in the tracking process for The Bad EP. Bass and drums are complete, and guitar is well on the way. At this point, it’s looking like a September release.

Also, 360ed has released a demo of Conspiracy Code for PC. This is an educational game I scored with Dave Burleson of Poverty Branch.

I have a handful new mixing projects coming up that I am excited about.

Buffalo Gun is still in the tracking process for The Bad. Drums and bass are complete and guitar is well on the way. At this point, it’s looking like a September release.

Also, 360ed has released a demo of Conspiracy Code for PC. This is an educational game I scored with David Burleson of Poverty Branch.

Instrumental Production Music at AudioJungle

Stephen — Sun, 17 May 2009 15:42:57 +0000

For the past two weeks or so, I’ve been working on some instrumental production music . I’m putting them up on lots of different sites, but you can check them out at my AudioJungle portfolio here: http://audiojungle.net/user/randomgong/portfolio.

Battling Songwriter’s Block? Revisit Old Songs

Stephen — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 03:18:23 +0000

Brian Casel from Serve The Song posted a great little reminder to musicians: dig through your old material and try a new approach. This past week I reorganized my iTunes library, making sure I kept all of my own recordings. It was really fun seeing how far I have come in terms of writing and production and it really got me in a good mood for the entire week. Please check out the post.