May 17, 2007 04:53 pm Welcome aboard, McMerkin
Recording in a barn, sounds like my history =).
Nice work though, you've got a good voice.
New member, two new songs...
Posted on May 17, 2007 04:31 pm
McMerkin
Hobbyist musician,pro recorder
Member Since: May 15, 2007
Hi there, new to the site, a great little place this is too...I look forward to reading and hearing everything.
I just created a profile and uploaded two songs (one a cover, the other original). I would guess this is how one might let others know they exist, should they want to hear them.
I've recorded many songs over the years purely for my own amusement, many with clear flaws but overall ok performances for one reason or another. I digitally cleaned these up from old cassettes and jokingly burned them to a "Best" of CD. Friends and family were thrilled and yawning. :)
Basically a 60's sort of rock-pop mentality, and as I am no great musician all my stuff is pretty basic. But I always loved building a whole song myself out of nothing (once I got over the sheer experimental phase).
Anywho, there it is. When I get a chance I will be checking out as many other's work as possible.
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May 17, 2007 04:53 pm Welcome aboard, McMerkin
Recording in a barn, sounds like my history =).
Nice work though, you've got a good voice.
May 17, 2007 05:06 pm How cool. Somebody that remembers tape. McMerkin, I suspect you may even remember the tube testers at Woolworths (?)
Welcome to the Home Recording Connection, and as Neil Young once said... "More barn!"
edit: For those who haven't heard it -
Quoting Graham Nash: "I once went down to Neil's ranch and he rowed me out into the middle of the lake -- putting my life in his hands once again. He waved at someone invisible and music started to play, in the countryside. I realized Neil had his house wired as the left speaker, and his barn wired as the right speaker. And Elliot Mazer, his engineer, said 'How is it?' And Neil shouted back..."
"More Barn!"
May 17, 2007 06:34 pm LOL! That's GREAT! That's the way to enjoy one's fame, for sure! Good Old Neil...
Thanks for the welcomes and the compliment. Yes, I do remember the tube testers, as a matter of fact. My earliest recordings were done sound on sound bouncing (ultimately having a mono end product), then literally moving a reel from one stereo tape machine to the next (which resulted in a very audible tuning/pitch/tape speed problem!) before figuring out how to do it through the mixing board and leaving the reels on the machines they were already on. I never claimed to be bright.
Then I got the TEAC 4 channel and life went from Kansas black and white to Oz color. :)
May 17, 2007 06:46 pm Welcome to the site!
I really dug "Come Quickly". Had a real groovy Donovan feel to it. Very Cool tune!
May 17, 2007 10:12 pm Hey McMekin, nice handle by the way. Wlecome to HRC from here as well. Hope you enjoy your stay.
Yep, tubes were a way of life for sure. And indeed, double deck dubbing was the way a lot of us started. I wonder just how many here really did start that way.
But the songs, indeed are interesting. Vagabond Shoes, did you use the Casio for the key parts? And interesting fun tune for sure with an interesting sound you just don't hear much at all these days.
I have to agree with Rob though, Come Quickly is pretty cool and would surely be worth a revisit with modern technology, and you can still get that kind of sound with it since that is kind of what gives it the feeling it has. I also agree on the Donovan feel to it as well. Loved the layered vocal part, that was killer. You did a great job on that one for sure.
Cant wait to hear more.
Noize
May 18, 2007 02:06 am Thanks much!
Yes, I used the Casio for everything but the 12 string guitar parts...basically a tuba (bass), trumpets and at the very end for just the hell of it about 10 electric piano notes. Oh yes, and the 'drum' track. I was being lazy, my drums are in my living room and the computer setup was in my bedroom, so I went with the keyboard drums. In retrospect I kind of wish I had done the real ones but, what the heck, this was really more of an experiment to see what I could do with the new technology.
Being my first software recording I had to work some things out but the ease with which I could just add a bunch of tracks and subtract the takes or pieces of the takes I didn't need/like was a luxury I'd never had before. As well as the unlimited tracks available with no generational tape noise and effects easily inserted that I'd never had access to in the old amp/stomp pedal or rack unit days.
On tape I always pretty much had to do every take all the way through perfectly, or start all over again. One song could take a whole 8 hour day of playing and button pushing...hard work but still a labor of love, especially if the outcome was something I can still listen to 25 years later and think...ok, not bad...
I have tried and tried to re-record Come Quickly better many times over the decades, and I have never been able to recapture that lightning in a bottle....the 'feel' is just not there even though I am trying to emulate what I think are the best bits on this version.
Thanks again for all the positive comments; even negative ones are welcome...although I think that after all these years I could identify the flaws more completely than anyone else. :)
May 18, 2007 10:50 am I forgot to mention that I really enjoyed the drum sound on Come Quickly. I believe I owned that exact kit at the same time you did!
May 18, 2007 11:51 am Heck, I still have it, old Ziljian cymbals and all!
(In fact I forgot to mention on Vagabond Shoes that I did drag in the ride cymbal and add that to the 'drum' track, at least giving it a semblance of crediblity. :))
May 18, 2007 03:36 pm I was going to say the ride sounded too real to have been the Casio. But indeed, digital on the PC really gives you the ability to do things in short quick order. I remember taking days to finish one track. Now I can do it in a couple of hours. That is if I were not so dang picky.
May 18, 2007 05:22 pm I usually got anxious to finish a track that day (hence the eight hour straight sessions) but on tape I had to play a take all the way through (since on most all my songs I was the only performer as well as engineer) so at many points in order to move on I would use what would normally be an unacceptable take (with a boo boo or glaring error somewhere in playing or singing or electronics).
So a lot of my stuff was ok (or downright unusable) but might have been very good to great except that I had already overdubbed on the bad basic track and was now forever stuck with it. It took me decades to learn to NOT do that anymore! :-)
I was able digitally to smoothe out and remove a lot of that stuff, thankfully, but obviously not all.
What I loved about the digital though was that I could do a vocal take, think...hmm, I can do it better, and instead of wiping it I could just do another virtual track, as many times as I thought it took to do it well enough to keep. Then I could combine, double track, drop out, etc. any of the vocals I wanted to. That was an AMAZING freedom!
In fact, on Vagabond shoes the keyboard trumpet was really simple pieces blended together, since I suck as a keyboard player and I had just figured out the solo line, and it was too difficult to play all at once (as I used to have to do in the old tape days) so I played a segment at a time, shifted them into place and voila. It sounds like I know what I'm doing!
Heh...
I really look forward to getting into more recording digitally...I fear my natural laziness and usual need to be 'in the mood' keeps me from doing a lot more, but it is an exciting new way to play.
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