Old dog writes new tune!

[teb]

I just spent the better part of three days writing this one and recording all the parts. It's kind of a "roots" song that shows where my musical head has been for the last 40 years or so. It's simple, old folk/country/rock with a lot of Rickenbacker tossed in. I started the music recording without much of a plan and finally wrote the lyrics last night at 3:00 AM so that I wouldn't have to keep singing temporary versions with "La...La...La" or "Dee...dee...dee". I kind'a like it.

Techno particulars:

- Rickenbacker 370/12-string WB run mono as a 360/12 (neck/bridge only) with a JangleBox, but double-tracked, with one right and one left. Run through my Traynor YBA 200 bass head and into the recorder.

- Takamine TAN16C acoustic 6-string with the cool-tube preamp, run direct with some very light strumming.

- Rickenbacker 340/12-string for the little lead solo - no real reason, just wanted to use it. (Don't make fun of my one-string lead - remember, I've been a bass player for 45 years and hardly ever even sing when playing with my cohorts. Lead guitar phrasing just isn't my thing).

- Hofner V63 Beatle Bass. Through the Traynor head and into the board.

- Percussion: All done note-by-note with individual key taps on my old Alesis QS7 synthesizer using one of the pre-sets that turns the keyboard keys into individual drum and percussion sounds. Run straight into the recorder (can you say carpel-tunnel syndrome). It took about six hours to lay down the drums as I had about ten tracks of percussion sounds going and had to keep mixing them down. The tom-tom fills were really fun! Not a real drummer, but not bad and didn't ask to borrow money or try to pick up my wife....

- Vocals: Shure SM58 microphone into my TC Helicon "Voicetone Harmony G" vocal processor. Two tracks of lead vocal and four harmony tracks.

- Recorder: Korg D1200 Mk II (twelve-track). Worked fine, but I need more tracks for this type of stuff . I had to mix down several times and whenever you mix tracks down it eliminates the ability to tweak that little something that will later be bugging you when you do the final mix.

So that's the official rundown. Here is the tune:

http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/M ... %20Mix.mp3

[kiramdear]

Todd, I can't listen right now but I'll be getting back to you on your new song. I invite you to hear the latest mix of my first computer recording. It's a good basic mix minus lead guitar and ? which I hope to finish tomorrow. I enjoyed your other recent song and hope you can find time to hear mine

http://www.filefactory.com/file/a4535d/ ... sic_11_mp3

[lcjones]

Todd,

This is one of those songs I would have loved to pop in the 8-track of my 65 Dodge Coronet convertible. (wish I had that back too!) Nice lyrics and harmonies. Easy on the ears. Great guitar playing. Almost a cross between the Eagles and Jimmy Buffet melody wise. The music world moguls really do have much to fear with all the talent that is on the loose!

[winston]

Todd,

Thanks for sharing your music. The ending just capped off the feel to the song. I love the song obviously. I won't try to describe who it sounds like because at the end of the day despite the obvious influences it sounds like you.

Very well done my friend. I would love to have a copy of it some day I enjoyed it that much. I am a fan.

[melibreits]

Wonderful stuff, Todd!

I love the sound--it has a sort of Byrds-meet-Crosby, Stills & Nash kind of vibe--I love the clarity of your 12-string jangle.

It's great to hear what good things can be recorded on a Korg unit just like mine, in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing.... In a way it gives me hope!

[teb]

Believe me, I'm still way down on the curve for the Korg, but I'm learning with every new recording. The biggest problems are running out of tracks when doing all the parts one by one and having a decent mixing environment. Having something like 176 available virtual tracks helps, but in the end it still requires mixing segments down and essentially "locking them in" long before I'd really like to. You're essentially mixing while allowing for, and trying to blend properly with, a bunch of additional sounds and parts that you haven't played or recorded yet. Reminds me of the old days when we recorded in studios on four-track machines and had to constantly be mixing tracks down as well as sticking little extra bits anywhere we could find a little bit of unused track space. Sometimes we actually used to have to draw a map of the tracks for use during the final mixes.

I can record in my office, but would really like a good mixing room. I used an SM58 for the vocals because my wife was mowing the lawn while I was recording the vocals and my condenser mic would have picked up the lawnmower outside . When it comes to mixing though, my monitors, computer speakers and various pairs of headphones all disagree on what it really sounds like. A dedicated space that's tested for good sound and bigger/better monitors would really help. One of the guys in the band has a studio and I may mail him a WAV copy and have him EQ it for me.

It is really fun to build something from the ground up though, and hear it develop as you add stuff. This is the first one where I've double-tracked the twelve-string, just like a voice-double, playing basically the same part on a different track. If you want maximum jangle, it's a trick that is well worth remembering.

[teb]

New (and hopefully final) mix posted. Seems to work reasonably well on all of my various audio devices and I think I've beat this poor mixing horse pretty much to death by now.

http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/M ... %20Mix.mp3

[lcjones]

I just listened to the tune via my less than amazingly inexpensive speakers at work. (if it sounds good through these, it'll be exceptional when I get home ) Running the tune through Winamp and a 50/50 turn on the Treble knob on the speakers. With a dead dry EQ, this mix is most delightful. Just a tad on the low end side for these speakers. Especially on the main vocal. I got a nice even keel on the harmonies. But that really didn't detract from the tune. The Ric is perfect right here for me.

Essentially the tune sounded just fine on my work rig.

**

[winston]

That's a way better mix Todd. I love the song. Congrats.

[beatlefreak]

Cool song, Todd.

[bitzerguy]

Great song Todd. What a cool vibe and tone. I listened to it at several volume levels through my AR monitors. It sounds great at all levels but really came alive with a lot of definition when I turned up. Are all the harmonies generated by your Harmony G? Or is it used to enhance harmony tracks you sang yourself?

[walker]

Great job, Todd! Love the harmony vocals. Puts me in the mind of Seals & Crofts meets CSNY.

[teb]

Dean, the harmonies are mostly just generated by the box - sort of. I'm thoroughly impressed with the "Harmony G" and for somebody with a rather non-melodic voice who has never enjoyed singing much and always avoided it as much as possible, it's really fun! It is a little bit annoying though, when you notice that the other singers on the track are better than you are .

Here is what I did. The main vocal on verses is just me (obviously) though I did use the "tone" button on the HG (a sort of built-in EQ mixture) to sweeten the sound (my voice can use all the sweetening I can get). For the choruses, I used the "doubler" (voice mult) button, so it doubles my voice and both additional harmonies. I also had the unit set on manual with the key of C specified, rather than having it follow my guitar. The signal is in stereo, which pans the three voices, spreading them out a bit from left to right and it's recorded on two tracks. I really wanted the chorus to be full, so I took two more tracks and sang it again, also with two harmonies and doubled. This gave me two stereo tracks of doubled vocals on the choruses with a little but of difference between the two versions (a true voice mult). There is even one spot near the end of the chorus after the last verse (the final "Rain is Falling" before the fade chorus starts) where I threw in one more track, singing a different part to really fill it out.

In some ways, I guess this type of voice processing to help a bad singer is sort of "cheating". I'll freely admit that at my age, I couldn't hit some of those high harmonies without putting a clamp on certain delicate parts of my anatomy and even then, the sound wouldn't be pleasant.... On the other hand, I'm making the best solo music I've ever made with it and making the best possible music is the real goal.

In this case, without the Harmony G, I never would have even written the song. I had been playing the chord progression for about a week as a possible chorus for a different song with a completely different melody and the tune just wasn't looking like it would ever come together and amount to anything. The melody, like most of my stuff, was just a bunch of quarter-notes, because when I sing longer notes it usually sounds like ****. Anyway, last Thursday afternoon I was supposed to be designing a new front hall closet, so naturally I was sitting around playing my twelve-string. I had the harmony gizmo hooked up and was trying to get something done on the song. It's been really dry here for he past month and I looked out the window and suddenly it was raining like crazy. Somehow when the chord progression came around the drawn-out "Amazing rain" thing just came out and in three-part harmony it was REALLY cool!

I Immediately dumped the rest of the song and started filling in the blanks with random mumbling. Within about an hour I had the melody and chorus music more or less figured out, but still had no words. So, I decided to cut a track so that I wouldn't forget what it sounded like. This, however, brought up the question "How the hell can you make a decent song when the same little chord progression just repeats over and over and over and really never changes?" I figured I'd risk it, since I couldn't find a bridge that I thought added much of anything. So the rest of Thursday and most of Friday were spent recording all the instruments. Still no words and the "amazing rain" thing just seemed to be a good example of what type of phrase I could use that would eventually work well on the chorus.

Not feeling particularly rejected, neglected, persecuted or ******, I really didn't have much to say of a personal nature, so I tried to decide what type of theme might be commercially viable (I've never really thought much about being commercial with a song before). I considered the protest song arena since modern kids don't seem to care enough to write them, but when the war is over, so is the song, so I ditched that idea. Both my wife and I really liked the way the rain lyrics sounded, so next, I wondered about keeping it and doing some sort of "John Denver/nature theme". It seemed like a pretty limited market of people who would truly relate to it though. I wanted something with a little bit of a story line and finally decided to go with the old and always popular "hot country babe runs away to a new life" theme - only I didn't want her to get screwed-up and die a homeless runaway at the end - more like something they could play at the end of a TV show as the hot chick drives into the sunset to begin a new life. Now I just had to relate it to the rain lyrics. Finally at about 3:00 AM Friday night I sat down, wrote the other lines for the chorus and the verses in about half an hour. I cut the vocals on Saturday. Despite the constantly repeating progression it seems to work. I e-mailed it to the boys in our extended band and my favorite comment was from our lead guitarist who is a Nashville studio musician:
"It's just so relentless. The melody is patient and easygoing, but the guitars and the groove just never stop. It's one of those songs where if you listen in your car you're going eighty by the time it's done-- even if it's in your driveway."
I like that.

[melibreits]

Todd, this is just incredibly cool... it's a great song, and I loved reading all of the details behind its creation!

I am feeling inspired, and have started recording some new tracks again last night, and plan to do quite a bit more in the coming weeks.... as I said before, the quality of your recordings is great, and gives me hope that I can someday achieve the same standard on my Korg unit.... And I still want one of those harmonizing gadgets--that's so cool!

[kiramdear]

The mix sounds good to me, man. It doesn't sound like just one part over and over, you found the differing melodies in verse and cho to create a sense that the parts are structured differently. Not that repetition is a bad thing, mind you, especially when seeking a wide audience.

I, too, am looking for ways to make the most of my vocal limitations, but my best effort has been to do it the old-fashioned way and double or triple myself. Not to steal your thunder but it's interesting how we have answered the same problem. Of course, yours sounds smooth and professional while mine sounds like a bunch of mini-me's fell off the hemp truck. But they're both appropriate to their respective intentions. I couldn't do what your vocal box does without a LOT of time and work. At some point I may find one and save myself a big headache when the time comes to do something more refined sounding.

Your individual sounds are beautiful which is the big problem for me right now, recording basics. I went with miking to tape for the second round of vocal sessions after the first results (directly in) were something even John Cage would have hated. Taping the lead guitar amp gave good results, too.

I respectfully offer up this morning's 4AM mix for your perusal, Todd:
http://web.me.com/kiramdear/Galerie_Kiramdear/Song.html