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#11533 by Paleopete
Sun Aug 19, 2007 12:51 pm
Hi folks, I'm pretty new to the site, and have been surfing through the forums for a few days trying to get a feel for the crew here, and maybe make a halfway intelligent comment now and then.

Finally managed to remember to get the LAME encoder and get Audacity to see it so I can convert a plain audio file to mp3 and upload it. Last night I uploaded a tune to my profile and would like to know what people think of it. If you have suggestions, constructive criticism, or just an opinion, I'd appreciate it.

This is an acoustic instrumental, one guitar and a bit of light delay, an EQ tweak or two and that's it. Nothing fancy...pretty laid back tune, that I wrote in 2005. I'm not a prolific writer, and gave up on lyrics long ago, it's just not there, but I do come up with music now and then and thought this one was pretty good. Took me till about 2 months ago to finally think up a name for it, I have even more trouble with lyrics...sheesh...

I'd like to get a couple more recorded but the house I'm in right now has paper thin walls and I can hear you talk if you walk down the street. (seriously, I hear people talk all the time out on the street 100 feet away.) The dog next door has been barking literally non-stop all night, and still is, (driving me absolutely NUTZ). I haven't been able to get to sleep before 3AM in weeks as a result, so recording here is impossible, even at 2AM. On the rare occasion the dogs stop for 5 minutes, (2 next door to that one that decide to go at it now and then too) I still have the idiots with their boom boxes driving by every few minutes. Why do they think I really have to hear heir extremely loud bass drum at 1AM??? [/end rant] :D

Anyway, this was recorded at a friend's place out in the sticks, quiet there but I'm not able to pack up all the gear and cruise over there any day of the week to record, plus that ties friends up for several hours while they'd probably much rather be doing a dozen other things.

Guitar is a Takamine EGS-330SC run straight into a Tascam 4 track cassette mixer then into my computer and edited with Audacity. Next chance I get I'd like to mic it and get a better take, and hopefully be able to warm up a bit more first. We didn't have a lot of time so I played for maybe 5 minutes to get warmed up and hit the record button.

It's not the best playing I've ever done by any means, nor the best recording quality, this I'm already aware of, and there is a very minor mistake or two but nothing bad enough to make me ditch it entirely. A finger slipped and muffled one of the notes that is supposed to ring and create dissonance, that kind of thing.

Sorry to be so long winded, one of my worst faults. Let me know what you think, I'm my own worst critic, so you probably won't spot much I haven't already noticed myself, but if you do see an improvement or mistake I missed I'd love to know about it. If you just want to berate people, I guess that's your prerogative, but I'll ignore it. My main thought is that it might be too long. I haven't decided yet.

This is just one of the styles I play, I'm into rock and blues mostly, but a lot of my acoustic doodles turn out to be more laid back such as this one.

And finally, if anyone within 2 hours or so of northeast louisiana is looking for a decent guitar player/singer, old bald fart hard to get along with, but able to play almost anything...

paleopete at usawide dot net

take out the spaces, add the symbols, you know the drill...

Thanks, now I get to go be a carpenter and sweat all day...

#11550 by The KIDD
Mon Aug 20, 2007 1:31 am
Hey Guy,

Welcome to the board!..Its alittle slow right now but was hoppin a few months ago..It will pick up ..Alotta good people on here..Oldtimers too (over 45...LOL).Enjoyed your tune..Kinda put my in the mind of that doobie bros instrumental...I used to play down in your neck of the woods quite a bit in the mid 80s'... Rustin,Monroe, Alexandria, Vicksburg etc.Is Jimmy Saaka still working for Delta ENT angency?. He handled us when we were in the SE...Lots of nice clubs down your way....Man , 4 trk cassette to computer...I didnt know you could do that?? Maybe theres hope for ME..LOL...My whole life is on cassette and an 80's sequencer.(3.5in floppy).LOL
How bout Jackson MS? Is it still hoppin?...Like it was in 84?..Gotta over look me , I dont getta chance to reminise with too many of US oldtimers..

Dont get too hot out there.Heck, it hit 103 in WV the other day.


Later ,
john

#11551 by Paleopete
Mon Aug 20, 2007 1:46 am
Glad you enjoyed the tune, thanks. Never played those places much, more down south..Baton Rouge, Morgan City, that area and a few times in Miss. some small town.

I'm just learning the Tascam, so I can't offer instructions right off the top of my head, but it has a stereo Line Out that can be plugged into the sound card line in with a stereo mini to double RCA jack cable. Record it into Audacity and there ya go. As I learn the equipment I'm hoping the recording quality goes way up, this is a very rough 1st attempt reading the hookup out of the manual.

Last time out it was an Akai reel to reel and double CD burner ping pong recording...lotsa fun. :D CD was one play, one record so we burned up 4 or 5 reels on the tape deck and at least 25 CD's.

EDIT: The Doobie Bros comment...The idea behind this song once it started to develop was to be that style of acoustic thing done by the Doobies, Peter Frampton, Allman Brothers, and so forth. ("Penny for Your Thoughts, Little Martha) My earliest "performances" were at lunch during high school playing Cat Stevens, Harry Chapin, Mason Proffitt, Eagles, America, Joe Walsh etc. So acoustic in that general style has always been right up my alley. Intro to "Maggie May" for instance...Zeppelin's "Bron 'Y Aur Stomp"... did I speel that rihgt? "Thick As A Brick"...

#11836 by Paleopete
Sun Aug 26, 2007 3:57 am
Bumped this one rather than start a whole new thread.

Had a bit of quiet a couple of days ago and decided to mic the Takamine and try recording Silhouette Of A Daydream again. Got a much better recording, lots better sound on this one and I also shortened it to 2:18. This was run through the Tascam to let me use a real mic and get a bit of EQ, then line out to my computer and recorded straight into Audacity, bypassing the cassette tape entirely. The original had too much treble, pulled that back some and added a bit of light delay, no other adulterations.

I think the treble is still a bit high, but I may be just being too picky. See what you think about this take.

#11846 by The KIDD
Sun Aug 26, 2007 9:03 am
Hey Guy,

I had a feeling that the doobies slat key rag was an influence...Yeah , this recording is "cleaner", more presence, but the output (vol) is much lower?..AND , it could be this windows 68 computer I use too :lol: Youve kinda given me hope that I can maybe enter the 21st century...Enjoyed hearin about the reel to reel story..Takes me back when we used to do all kinds of enovative stuff with analog tape. Im like rip van winkle just wakin up after 20yrs, sayin what happened to MY world.. :lol: Glad to hear your progressing.

John

#11847 by Paleopete
Sun Aug 26, 2007 11:33 am
I think the volume is a little lower too, I'm working on that one. Have to get the record level on the Tascam right so it gets a clean signal then get it set within Audacity for both a clean signal and a strong volume level overall. That's gonna take a bit of tinkering. The one take I got that was a good volume level was clipping, I had to ditch it. Audacity record level was way too high.

As far as the physical hookup I mentioned above, it's pretty easy. Most tape or mixer decks have a "Line Out" that can be wired straight into the sound card by a patch cable with 2 RCA jacks on one end and a mini-stereo jack on the other. A regular home stereo cassette deck will work, but it's a bit more difficult to get stereo input with one mic. (I use a stereo/mono Arion Analog Delay pedal for that.) With recording software like Audacity you just pause the tape deck and let the software handle the actual recording, no tape hiss. For this I found I don't even have to involve the tape at all, it still sends a line signal even if no tape is in the machine.

The reel-to-reel "ping pong" method is a lot more tedious, but works pretty well. I had a part of a song posted for a few days, did it that way in about 1999 or 2000, took it down before posting this one again. Sounded pretty good actually, I did the guitar, bass and keyboards myself and used a drum machine, bounced it back and forth from the reel-to-reel to a CD burner and back. I might put it back up later, no telling. It's one of the best recordings I have so far...

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