Lunch Report- Monday- 4-25-2011

[darwinohm]

Muleya, It is an honor to be the lunch reporter again. Thank you!

I am meeting some friends for lunch today. I will have a Reuben with chips, one of my faves. It will be joined with Iced Tea.

I am a retired dude and as many of you know our band is older than dirt. Almost all are retired although if we use 6 people one is still employed. Thanks to those of you who are employed for keeping some of my retirement funds coming. I spent 37 years in the computer industry and am a techie. I'm sure some of you are sick of technical info by now. This week I will share some of my passion for recording with you and some more techie BS.

Three years ago I announced to Ginny that I wanted to do my own recording. She asked, how much will it cost to get setup? My reply was 7 to 800 bucks.Right!! By the time I turned the computer on, it was 5 to 6 times that. I decided to do it right, up front, as I knew that once I tried it, it would be an expensive upgrade. She didn't blink and kept pretty quiet. That is a sign that I had better produce some results and BS won't cut it. I purchased a DIgi 002 rack, a Mac and monitors, and Pro Tools LE. This resulted in purchasing a subwoofer a week later. Keep in mind that I was not trained in Pro Tools. I had a sick feeling in my stomach when I first loaded Pro Tools. The screen went blank and back to the get started manual. It is 135 pages long . That is a long way to get started. The next night I figured out how to open a session. Now I get a screen with all kinds of things. Ginny went shopping one evening and I had the guitar and bass tracks down when she got home. It actually sounded great and she was impressed and it probably meant that we would be together in retirement. So I go from nobody, to recording engineer in less than a week. We were cooking! Just one more thing, The first songs I recorded I had to play perfectly as I didn't know how to edit. I finally figured out how to edit and it got easier by the minute.

So with that, the recording began. I did my first CD doing all the guitar work myself and our drummer did the percussion. When I was finished I sent a copy to each of the band members and I think the general reaction was "How in the H-ll did he do that????

Don't be afraid to do this folks. It is fun. I am playing the tracks this week from the second CD I did which is of our band. I did the recording, engineering, editing, mixing and mastering right here in our garage where I have my studio setup. I paid royalties and had copies made professionally. Our lead player, is a terrific arranger, and he and I did the arrangements. We are a cover band and do not necessarily want to sound like the original but, do our own thing. I do the bass work, some lead and some backup vocals.

This is a song that I first heard about 4 years ago. I was smitten and knew that I wanted to record it. I did it on my first CD and we added a rhythm track by Steve for this CD.
A Duane Eddy classic form the early 60s, Dance With The Guitar Man. A friend of mine, Jo Klein, does the vocals.
06 Dance With The Guitar Man.mp3

We change the pace with a Buddy Holly song, with Steve doing a harmony lead with me. Jerry, our singer does the vocals.
Its So Easy.
02 Its So Easy.mp3

Final song for today is Under The Boardwalk. The vocals on this are done by Mike who does some gigs with us.
01 Under The Boardwalk.mp3

G&L content today is my project this weekend. I received my Roland Guitar Synth on Thursday evening. I had a chance to install it Friday afternoon and it is a well thought out product as it is non invasive and mounts under the strap button. The tricky part is installing the pickup and CGT posted some great advice and pictures to my question last week. Here it is:


Some may think it is a kluge but I am okay with it as it is out of the way and intuitive to use. It can be straight guitar, blended with Synth, and Synth only. Here is a picture of the GK 3 pickup control assy.


After calibrating the pickup, I tested it and it does a mean Sax and many other things. It is a blast and I will probably use it for some recording but also for Sax while gigging. It is on one of my favorite Legacys and is going to stay there. The ultimate solution is to have a Roland ready guitar for the GR-20 but this is next best.

Finally, a question for today. Does your band do cover songs or are you really into performing original songs. If you are doing originals, what kind of an audience are you performing to? Sorry for such a long post today, but I wanted to give some background on the recording venture. Ginny wouldn't let me ramble this long, but would put me to work!-- Darwin

[BadJaxx]

that sounds like a lot of work, lol...
i'm not in a band...but had been playing live over the web...but the broadcast site started inserting commercials over the content so i've been unsuccessfully looking for a new broadcasting site...i mostly play along with backing tracks or songs i've loaded into the computer...
i haven't recorded anything in over a year...

[zombywoof]

The analog mind wobbles.

Retirement? I have heard folks do that. They will have to drag my dried up corpse outta here.

Back in the days when I gigged regulalry we played a few originals but bar owners wanted covers. I never really cared as long as I liked the tune and the arrangement was interesting.

[brianr0131]

Nice work Darwin. I used to have a Brian Moore iguitar years ago and the synth was pretty cool. I never bothered getting more equipment for it though, because we has Keys anyway. I actually sold the guitar and made about $400 profit on it because I got a great deal.

I don't gig anymore but I used to do the cover thing 7-10 times a month. We also did an original CD. Lately, we've been working on new original material, but it's been tough because we all pretty much have young kids at home.

[sirmyghin]

Good production and playing on the tunes Darwin. You should try your hand at originals though, break some walls down.

I have been tinkering with the midi thing too, but no moneys for it right now so it can wait. I would need another guitar to mount it on anyway.

[Muleya]

Nice work on installing the synth pickup...if you ever record some of that, be sure to post it.

Good job on the recordings...they sound very good. I bought a Boss digital 8-track several years ago and laid down about a CD worth of songs I had written up to that point. It had built-in drums that I just programmed (which is a real pain!). But I played the guitars and bass and sang on a couple of them, even though I'm far from a lead vocalist!! But it was fun and I gave copies to my friends. But in the past couple of years, I've really slowed down and I've only laid down a couple of instrumentals...not very prolific at all!

My 8-track is starting to have issues, so I'm thinking about whether or not to replace it. But just this weekend, I realized I don't use it enough to justify a new one, yet. It still mostly works, so I'll hold off for now. And I do have a Line 6 interface I can use with my PC, too, along with a minimal version of Ableton Live I got for free...if I ever get desparate!

It's been several years since I gigged. Then we did a mix of originals and covers, mostly covers. At the time, I really wanted to do more originals, but when you go to a bar, folks mostly just want to hear covers. These days, I'd be fine doing mainly covers, though would probably want to throw in a few original instrumentals here and there.

[Kit]

I enjoyed the tunes you posted. They take me back to a time when I was young, my older sisters would have the radio on and these kinds of songs would come on. It was my first introduction to the magic of pop radio. Your recordings are high quality. It is not easy to record all those instruments and vocals and get such clean results.

My first attempt at home recording was in the early 1980s when I was playing music with a amateur band. One guy was particularly talented and he wrote songs and got into recording. I played guitar on some of the songs and the results were encouraging enough that I went and bought a Tascam 4-track cassette recorder and started recording myself. It was really actually quite hard to do it as one person attempting to run the recorder and play and record, so after a while the recorder just set there and gathered dust.

Around 1992 I decided to try recording again since I have some musical ideas and it was not possible to know how they can come together unless I try to record them. I went and bought a Fostex 8-track digital recorder and a recording/mixing program for under a $100 to run on my PC. I already had a J-Station amp simulator that I can record guitar and bass through, and a couple of microphones. I also bought a software drum program for about $50, and that was all the equipment I needed. The digital recorder is much easier to control than the cassette recorder so it is possible to do recording as a one-man operation, although there are times when I wished I had 4 arms.

I have since recorded a number of things, from covers of old songs to a few originals. I have posted them on here before, so there is no point in putting them up here again. Overall I'm very pleased with the sound quality I can achieve. Sounds like you spend thousands of dollars on your setup; mine cost me under $500 total. But then I'm not set up to recording an entire band.

For the last couple of years I have been playing with a hobby cover band. We are happy just to play covers. Since we don't really play out except for a few occasions we can pick songs that are as obscure as we want. But I guess if we managed to write a song that is deemed good enough we would play it. Of the 50 or so songs that we've learned we have songs spanning from early 70's to songs that are 2, 3 years old. Essentially we just play what we like for fun. We played an open mic 3 weekends ago where we ran through 10 songs in 35 minutes.

Kit

[sam]

Nice work Darwin, love the female vocals on the Duane Eddy tune. What guitar are you using to get that Duane Gretsch tone?

Recording? I am pretty low tech, may have a radio shack tape recorder around here somewhere. I really need to move into the digital age.

The synth is pretty cool. As much I like guitar mods I could see that happening someday.

[westsideduck]

Very Nice job on the recordings! I've got to find some time to do some recording soon, about a month ago I was at GC looking for an 8 track recorder for my nephew and I ended up buying him a new Tascam 8 track and while looking it over deceided to get the new Tascam 4 track for myself and haven't even turned the damn thing on yet. I record our jam sessions with a M-Audio micro track and the recordings are surprisingly nice sounding. Our sound man used to set up a reel to reel tape recorder next to the mixing board at most of our live shows so I've still got a bunch of reel to reel tapes from the late 70's but no tape player to play them back on, What I would reallly like is a nice old professional 4 track reel to reel recorder.

The Roland is cool, The closest I've come to synth is the Casio guitar my wife bought me for my birthday back in the 80's when they came out, I remember getting some decent Sax tones out of it.

I've got a long liast of origionals and am still writing quite a bit but like others have said out in the bar scene everybody just wants to hear covers, When we did do the cover band thing we always snuck a few origionals into every set.

gary

[Boogie Bill]

One of the things I've always been interested in that the Roland VG-8, now the 88. I've heard the Roland guys demo them and I always walk away with the feeling that it is such a great deal, to have all these amp and guitar models at my fingertips. There's a lot to tinker with, so it might not be great for live use. And besides, nothing beats a real guitar. Still, it's a lot cheaper than 88 guitars!

A few years back I wanted to do some recording, and bought a Korg D1600 that has basically never been used. Kind of a sore subject--I've got really no room to set it up with Leslie using three rooms of the house for her office. So it sits, and I'm CD-less.

My band does mostly covers. We do about four of my original tunes. I'm the only writer.

Bill

[Ahryn]

Love the look of the Roland on your legacy, looks kinda elegant. Even though I haven't gotten into recording yet I love hearing about it especially the history of it, well the more analog side of it I guess.

[BadJaxx]

just got to hear the recordings...cool stuff, Darwin...
couldn't pull them up at work so had to wait till was home...

[blargfromouterspace]

Nice to hear your band finally, Darwin! Some nice pickin' on there

I had a go on one of those Roland guit-synths about 10 years ago, it was great fun.

I don't have a particularly good recording setup at home. I use GarageBand, which was free with the computer, and an M-Audio interface. It's fine for what I need - to get ideas down. It's much simpler to use than the 4-track cassette recorder I used in the '90s. I've recorded with both of the bands I play in (see my signature). They're poles apart in their approach. The country stuff is all done on computer, using a million tracks, programmed drums and plenty of editing and effects. The bass player is nuts for all that stuff. The soul band was recorded in live takes to a 1/2" tape Tascam thing. I prefer the latter, it tends to capture the feel much, much better.

Both bands play covers with a few originals thrown in. If I were capable of writing good songs I'd do originals but as it is my writing sucks so I leave it to other people to provide the material and we interpret it.

[darwinohm]

Thanks to all of you that have responded today. Some of you have made some observations especially on the cover / originals question and that is why I asked, who is your audience. Most bars want cover songs that people dance to , sing along with, and drink to. I was in Nashville a few years back and went into some of the cafes that people performed free to promote themselves. One was a young lady, a songwriter. Her songs all sounded the same and we stayed less than a half hour. There is nothing that beats a good songwriter and I bet that most of you have a good one or two. I confess that I studied music in college. I was exposed to so many different things/types of music. I would still go back to the dorm at night and listen to the KIngston Trio, or good old rock and roll. Unfortunately, I haven't changed very much. Most of us still like what we have always liked and don't stray too far away. I suppose that I am a product of my time and probably haven't moved a great deal.

Some thoughts on recording. Zap, you mentioned Analog. It gave a great sound. Having said that, the tools today allow us to do unbelievable things that couldn't be done even 10 years ago. The editing capabilities are unlimited. The actual recording sessions were not that long. I use a click track for timing and would record the bass and drum tracks with scratch vocals. The vocalist would come in alone and do vocals. I like to get two or three tracks of each. That is when I start putting things together. Steve and I spent many hours listening and I spent many hours editing. There is no point in wasting a lot of time to get everything perfect as you can do it so easily with an edit. The new tools are fantastic. I always tell the musicians that you can make good musicians sound great but you will not make poor musicians sound good.

Sirmy, I will have an original song on Friday written by two of the guys in the band.

Muleya, keep up the recording and most of us get comfortable doing covers.

Kit, you certainly have some time spent recording and thanks for your comments

Sam, Jo has perfect pitch and she is great to work with. She did the vocal tracks in about an hour and a half including the harmony tracks that we did. Jo doesn't need any fixing. You asked about the guitar for the DE sound. I used an American Deluxe Strat and my Vox Tone Lab. I did all direct recording for my guitar and bass work. We used an amp only on Steves dirty guitar work.

Duck, thanks for your comments. I still have things that are new in the box. I bought a Harmony Man and still have not really used it. Post some of your originals one of these days. It is hard to find good reel to reel equipment nowadays.
.
Boogie, the Roland is very quick and sounds very well. If you had you sounds programmed in you can use a midi foot controller and get to whatever you have set up quickly.
Recording space is always an issue. I have a heated garage finished off and that is my man cave. I mostly rule the garage.

Brian, Ahryn, recording is not for everyone. It is very time consuming, but most of you guys are young and could very well do so sometime in the future. Who knows what technology will bring.

Jaxx, the boss will appreciate you not listening to this stuff at work! Thanks for the comments.

Blarg, you are probably going to be extaordinaire at all this stuff some day. You are a young dude in you prime and I hope that you reach my age, still prime. Most of the songs this week will be something your parents or grandparents listened to. its not easy to be in my prime at my age, but I'm giving it my best shot.

Thanks everyone--Darwin

[gitman001]

Hey Darwin,

Just had a chance to listen to the recordings this morning - they sounded great! I am always amazed at what can be done by talented people in their own homes. It always blows my mind to think about where we would be if the innovators like Hendrix or the Beatles could have had that kind of quality and relative ease at their disposal, maybe we'd have another 10 beatles albums!
I was born in 1975 but grew up listening to the "oldies" on the radio (thanks Dad) and have a great appreciation for early rock and roll - it was fun to sing along to some tunes a had not heard in a while. Anyway, i do play in a working party/cover band that plays about twice a month... we mostly do tunes that our audience has grown up with, which now happens to be a lot of 80's tunes. For me i love playing my G&L's loud so anytime i can get on stage for covers or originals i am a happy camper!
I hope there are some tunes included in each days lunch report, i am sure i am not the only one who would like to hear more.
Scott

[darwinohm]

Thank you Scott, I am glad you grew up listening to some of the oldies. You are right on about playing what the audience likes. That will keep the gigs coming. I will be posting three songs each day from our CD. Thanks again-- Darwin

[yowhatsshakin]

Howdy Darwin,

Great to read an LR from you again. Some great tunes and very tasty guitar work my friend! Great vocals too! Compliments!

Have fun with the Roland. For me this is still the master of the Roland guitar synthesizer. There is an interesting piece somewhere around the 1:30 mark where her conjured up some 'ass-enine' sound from a synth (I believe a Synclavier in this case).
[youtube]DhQEuyitCUc[/youtube]
And find yourself any version of 'Are You Going With Me' by the Pat Metheny with or without Group and you can find out what trumpet like sound one can make with a Roland.

- Jos

[Brock]

I'm digging the whole home recording theme for the week. Your recordings are far more polished than mine. I've scrapped out really rough demos under the title "Sketchpad" for the last couple years. I'm probably 2-3 more from having a whole release of songs I want, and when I get there it'll be re-record time. Not sure what I'll do then. I still haven't managed to get the dual amp sound I run often dialed in at the recordings.

I have a new TV show called TV Cycle, and it needed a theme song. Since I was available and cheap, I hired myself. As a bonus, I knew what I wanted, which was obnoxiousness. Here's the theme song:
[youtube]AF2R_LubbnY[/youtube]

There's an episode where the ride ends at Karaoke, and I did a Karaoke build DVD for that, with the vocals stripped:
[youtube]aUA0m9ldWZM[/youtube]

All of that is recorded on an old Zoom MRS-1044. The drums are from the MRS-1044, as are the amp models for the bass and guitars. The bass was recorded on my L-5000, but then I used the Martin EB-28 for the video. Lame, I know.

I get killed on recording percussion. I can't play it. I don't really understand it. The TV Cycle theme song is the same beat beginning to end, but I mixed in breaks (I understand those). That beat was from the MRS-1044's drum section.

Just one more thing, The first songs I recorded I had to play perfectly as I didn't know how to edit. I finally figured out how to edit and it got easier by the minute.

I intentionally try to run at least a section when I record. I've never, and don't feel inclined to, micro-splice sections.

Does your band do cover songs or are you really into performing original songs.

All original all the time. I have multiple projects running currently (including "Traveler" with my friend Matt Long, who is using Pro Tools) and there's no covers never ever. For me, the question is why? I can bust out music when I need to, and I actually have a knack for lyrics. Why copy when you can build?

Here's a couple demos he's re-recording. These originals were done on Pro Tools. The finals will also be done on Pro Tools.
Thirty Eight Steps
By Myself

[yowhatsshakin]

Hey Brock,
That is one darn catchy tune that will stay stuck in my head all day now. Thanks?!

- Jos

[darwinohm]

Yow, thanks for checking in and I appreciate your comments. The video on Pat Metheny should be a national treasure. It is fantastic to see the mechanical instruments that he has assembled together. When my kids were young we used to go to a pizza chain in the cities called Circus Circus. The had organists playing these huge pipe organs with the horns and percussion. I was always intrigued by them and the kids loved it. Thanks again, Jos, for sharing.

Brock, thanks for checking in as I believe that we have not seen you in a while. I am glad you are enjoying the music this week. It was kind of a test and we will see how it goes.

Good luck in your TV production. The videos are great. They are attention getting and the young folks love that. Even some of the old folks will be tapping their foot.That is when you know that you have them. You are definitely into the recording. Did you do the graphics in the intros? The demo clips that you shared are very nice, clean, and well done. I love Pro Tools and I only use a small portion of what Pro Tools can do. I have level 7.3 and rev 8 has a lot of music production capabilities that I would never use. I use it for recording and use several of the plugins. Recording is huge discussion in itself. Thanks for sharing Brock.-- -- Darwin

[Brock]

Did you do the graphics in the intros?

Yup. The whole thing minus the TV Cycle logo bike. My friend Bob and I put that together, and he's riding it.

The demo clips that you shared are very nice, clean, and well done.

That's all Matt Long. He knows what he's doing! I wrote the lyrics and he wrote, played, and recorded everything. I make no noise on "Traveler" whatsoever.

I also enjoyed the Pat Metheny video.