Journeyman James

Ain’t Too Bright

Jul 20, 2025

It's happened to me more than once -- I am trying to work on developing a new song, and instead I end up developing an old song. It's so enticing! After all, the old song is no doubt farther along than the new one, why not just work on it instead?

Anyway, that's how I arrived at re-releasing "Ain't Too Bright", one of my earlier songs (the first one I ever posted to Sound Cloud as it turns out). I was listening to it a while back and just really couldn't take the sound of the bass part. The playing was OK (history has forgotten who actually played it), but the sound was horrible! I am sort of amazed that I felt that it was an acceptable tone at any point in the past, but evidently I did. Maybe I had my hands full trying to get the recording down. Maybe I figured I'd "fix it in post".

I figured that what I was hearing was probably a MIDI bass, because I had done MIDI bass on a few other things around the same time. I figured it would be relatively easy to just open the project, find a better sounding MIDI bass, and bounce. Easy.

Well, I opened the project only to find that the bass part was an actual audio file of an actual bass, so I was limited to conventional tools to modify the sound. Although I'm getting better at sound engineering all the time, it is way beyond my abilities to take a bad sound and make a good one out of it. I tried a few things to improve the sound of the bass, but pretty soon concluded that I needed a new plan.

Just then I happened to learn about pitch correction in my DAW, and figured that since the software could tell the pitch of sounds in an audio file, it should be possible to work backward and create a MIDI file of the bass part, and then I would have free control over the sound. This turns out to be one of those cases where you discover something can be done, and then soon after discover that not only has someone actually done it, it's basically a menu item in the software.

Wave form with pitch detection on. The pitch information can be exported as MIDI data.

So, I created a MIDI file from the bass, and hey, I don't mean to complain because it's a miracle that you can do any of this stuff on a home computer, but unfortunately what I ended up with wasn't usable. The notes were more or less correct, but the precise timing as well as some of the humanity of the audio file was literally lost in translation. To be honest, I'd be OK losing the humanity for the sake of getting this thing done, but to restore the timing of the performance would require so much tweaking that it was hardly easier than just re-recording the bass.

So, that's what you have, a brand-new bass part. I'm pretty happy with it, though the actual bassist has asked not to be named, so it's just Mystery Bassist from here on out. I did record the opening bass riff myself, so I'll take credit (or blame) for it.

Ain't Too Bright is as close as I've come to a love song, but it is what it is. The inspiration came from a terrific line from The Matrix:

Oracle: You're cuter than I thought. I can see why she likes you.
Neo: Who?
Oracle: Not too bright, though.

After that, well, they tell you to write what you know, right?

So I hope you will enjoy this slightly revised version of "Ain't Too Bright", complete with a new bass part (and I took another pass at the percussion, too!)

Compared to some other gear-repair posts I’ve done, this one is really pretty basic, but as someone who is often trying to repair something for the very first time, I always appreciate if I can find out ahead of time what’s involved and how difficult it is. So in that spirit, here’s a very short how-to.

The good news is that this is a very simple fix: it will take you less than fifteen minutes. All you need is a small-ish Phillips-head screwdriver and some WD-40.

Step 1 (of 3) is to open the case. You do this by unfastening all of the screws on the bottom side of the keyboard. Actually, you probably only need to remove the screws along the perimeter. there are a half-dozen or so screws more in the center of the keyboard, but it doesn’t seem that they connect to the upper housing. I did remove all of the screws and didn’t have a problem, but I’d try just starting with the perimeter screws because I think that’s all you need.

All of the screws are of the same size and length, so you do not need to keep track of which came out of which hole.

Once the screws are removed, lift the housing from the front. Pay attention to the two ribbon cables that connect the lower housing to the upper housing. You do not need to disconnect the cables; they are long enough that you can lift the upper housing with the cables in place.

The squeaking sound you hear when you press your problem key is caused by friction between the key and the spring that provides resistance to your playing (and, of course, returning the key to its starting position). A tiny bit of WD-40 sprayed on the spring should quickly resolve the issue.

Play each key repeatedly and check to make sure it’s not squeaking. If it is, give it a shot of WD-40. Do not overuse the spray.

When all the keys are quiet, lower the upper housing and replace all of the screws you removed in step 1. That’s it. I did have a squeak return after about a year, but this process is so easy I did not really mind repeating it. I suppose you could consider other lubricants if this fix doesn’t last long enough for you, but I have no specific recommendation.

Best of luck!