Musicians check in here. If you play, tell us about it!

[bassnut]

So...you are doing all the guitar solos? The double tracked ones too?

 

[Mac]

I am impressed. You rock, Dave!

 

[DaveP]

So...you are doing all the guitar solos? The double tracked ones too?

Robert had the left track and I was on the right. He did some fills from time to time, but was basically a rhythm player who sang lots of lead vocals and left the guitar solo work to me. If it was a break solo and I was singing, I'd take it and then go back to singing. Where you hear guitar on the left track, including the harmony guitar part on Hello, that was Robert.

Robert did all the fills and leads in "Talking in Your Sleep". I was too busy singing on that one to do all the guitar work, so he took over and you can hear him in the left channel. When I sang, he generally took over the fill parts. If it's in the right channel, it's me on guitar. The engineer had me slightly center sometimes with an echo doubling that made my guitar bounce into the left channel and back to right and center here and there.

On the Motown medley, I sang "My Girl" and Robert was doing the guitar lead work. Robert sang "Poppa Was a Rolling Stone" and I'm doing the guitar work in the right channel on that one. We flipped guitar roles to free each other up to sing.

I only sang about 6 or 8 lead vocals a night and was happy to be able to concentrate on my guitar work. Larry kept pushing me to do more lead vocal work and so I did a few here and there. With four people who could sing lead vocals, we shared the limelight. When we hit the studio, he had a set list for the demo session and I had several songs ... surprise! I didn't know what we were doing until I got there. We were so well rehearsed that we knew each others style and what was going to happen next by the looks on their faces.

After going back and listening with an ear toward my guitar work, it's apparent that Robert had more solo and fill time in the recordings than I did! On a gig, it was mostly me doing solos because Robert was singing a large part of the time. We did a lot more rock style music normally, but the demo was intended to be a mix of the types of music we did. Our set list would generally contain a mix of standards, new rock and country, and some oldies like the Motown Medley. We played for crowds that were mixed from 20 to 50 year olds.

We did a lot of corporate parties, social clubs like the Moose, Elks, Shriners, Parents Without Partners, Robins AFB Officers' Club, Civic dances put on by the city and county, festivals, ballroom events at the Hilton and other hotels. We did typical gigs that most other bands played, but almost no bar gigs. We made better money on one nighters and we all had day jobs. My favorites were the hotel ballroom parties where we played easy listening stuff while people ate dinner and then rocked for three hours while they drank and danced! Some gigs had several hundred people present. We always got a free meal on those and with that many people partying, it was a hoot all night.

 

[DaveP]

I am impressed. You rock, Dave!

Thanks, Mac!

 

[DaveP]

BTW, there were 10 cuts on the demo. If anyone wants to hear more, I'll post them.

 

[Mac]

Hells yeah I wanna hear more.

 

[DaveP]

Ok, here's three more. Of the two left that I didn't upload, one is just a 17 second intro that was going to be used on the tape and the other would not give me a link after I uploaded it. I tried re-ripping it and still it would not provide a link. I'll work on that.

The 1st and 3rd ones, "Just another Woman in Love" and "Rocky Top" were sung by Chickie Hill, our female vocalist. The 2nd one was sung by Robert Rodgers, our other guitar player.

We sometimes did a beach music or fifties set of old tunes. Surfing USA and Rocky Top were things we learned to satisfy those who wanted to hear that type of music.

http://www.filedropper.com/05-justanotherwomaninlove
http://www.filedropper.com/09-surfingusa
http://www.filedropper.com/10-rockytop

 

[DaveP]

Here's the last MP3 link. The problem was that I had an apostrophe in the title (file name). It would upload and never give me a link. It just went back to the upload prompt. You'd think it would give me an "illegal filename" error or something. I just had to figure it out by trial and error.

http://www.filedropper.com/07-beenlovingyoutoolong

 

[DaveP]

I went back and tried to play the previous links I posted and they don't work. The terms and conditions say that uploaded files stay available as long as they are downloaded once in 30 days. The last one I posted works. I may have to find another upload site other than filedropper.

 

[DaveP]

Ok, I've dumped File Dropper and opened an account with Dropbox. Here are the links to all the songs. Sorry for the confusion.

New York, New York
Dropbox - 01-New York, New York.mp3 - Simplify your life

Hello
Dropbox - 02-Hello.mp3 - Simplify your life

Hard for the Money
Dropbox - 03-Hard for the Money.mp3 - Simplify your life

Talking in Your Sleep
Dropbox - 04-Talking in Your Sleep.mp3 - Simplify your life

Just Another woman in Love
Dropbox - 05-Just Another Woman in Love.mp3 - Simplify your life

Motown Medley
Dropbox - 06-Motown Medley.mp3 - Simplify your life

I've Been Loving You Too Long
Dropbox - 07- Been Loving You Too Long.mp3 - Simplify your life

Surfing USA
Dropbox - 09-Surfing USA.mp3 - Simplify your life

Rocky Top
Dropbox - 10-Rocky Top.mp3 - Simplify your life

 

[bassnut]

Check.
All links working, Dave.
Thanks for posting them.
Thanks for sharing them.
People need to understand that this is a piece of your history.
The next challenge would be to post something more current.
Which is the bigger challenge? Interesting risk the way I look at it from my own perspective.

Anyway, I like this format better - no codes to type.
I'll use it in the future.

I'm thinking about posting some of the really old stuff I've come across that I but I'm afraid it wont be received as well.
It's raaaaaaw! Non commercial as well. artsy-fartsy-folkie-stuff. I was 18 and still playing bass with a pick then.
Let me think about it some more.

 

[sharkey]

I play an acoustic/electic guitar. I have adobe audition, and I use the G-Track USB microphone. My dream is to one day record something halfway decent.

 

[DaveP]

I play an acoustic/electic guitar. I have adobe audition, and I use the G-Track USB microphone. My dream is to one day record something halfway decent.

The key to doing that starts with a home studio. You can pick up used home studio equipment from various sources on the internet or new stuff at modest prices. One of the 8, 16, or 32 track units or a DAW (digital audio workstation software) can produce amazing results. Multitracking gives you the freedom to go back and record additional tracks and edit or re-record the originals. Once you complete and mix the tracks, you can arrange songs and write them our to your own CD.

I have a 32 track Korg D3200 that I like. I sold my Tascam digital 8 track recorder a couple of years ago when I bought the Korg. I keep saying that I will get back into doing some sessions, but tend to let other tasks get in the way. Being in NYC gives you an edge on equipment. B&H Photo and others in NYC are huge studio recording discount retailers.

 

[DaveP]

Check.
All links working, Dave.
Thanks for posting them.
Thanks for sharing them.
People need to understand that this is a piece of your history.
The next challenge would be to post something more current.
Which is the bigger challenge? Interesting risk the way I look at it from my own perspective.

Anyway, I like this format better - no codes to type.
I'll use it in the future.

I'm thinking about posting some of the really old stuff I've come across that I but I'm afraid it wont be received as well.
It's raaaaaaw! Non commercial as well. artsy-fartsy-folkie-stuff. I was 18 and still playing bass with a pick then.
Let me think about it some more.

Dropbox is much better than File dropper, after using both. You download a small application that sits in your taskbar. When you want to upload, you open windows explorer to the folder where the files reside and drag and drop to the icon. Each time, you get a link to past into notepad for future reference. All you have to do is title them and save the notepad file. When you need to post a link, it's just a cut and paste into the forum.

When I listen to those old tracks, I realize how stiff the solo work sounds on my side of the recording. I'm much more fluid and creative these days, not to mention the things I've learned from a musical theory standpoint. Back then, I was all about learning solos note for note and inserting phrases where I thought they'd work. There's a big difference in playing and thinking you nailed it vs listening with a critical ear.

I think one of the most helpful tactics is to carry a small tape machine with you and record performances just to be able to listen to yourself and critique your playing. It's amazing what you hear from the recording as opposed to what you think you did.

 

[sharkey]

B and H is expensive though. I usually go the Craigslist route.

I'd like to someday soundproof my apartment.

 

[bassnut]

When I listen to those old tracks, I realize how stiff the solo work sounds on my side of the recording. I'm much more fluid and creative these days, not to mention the things I've learned from a musical theory standpoint. Back then, I was all about learning solos note for note and inserting phrases where I thought they'd work. There's a big difference in playing and thinking you nailed it vs listening with a critical ear.

I think it's important just to appreciate who you were and where you were at musically back then.
No need to criticize yourself too much. I suppose a little bit of wincing is unavoidable but...please go easy on young Dave.
He was doing just fine.

 

[DaveP]

I think it's important just to appreciate who you were and where you were at musically back then.
No need to criticize yourself too much. I suppose a little bit of wincing is unavoidable but...please go easy on young Dave.
He was doing just fine.

I was just fine back then ... really happy with what I was doing and enjoying playing for good sized crowds. I can hear how, although I had good speed (no chance to demonstrate that in the tracks we recorded), I was still wet behind the ears in musicality. Most of what we played was 3 and 4 chord turnovers. Even the heavier rock stuff was much simpler than today in some respects. They were good years, though, and I remember them as some of the golden years of music for me.

 

[DaveP]

B and H is expensive though. I usually go the Craigslist route.

I'd like to someday soundproof my apartment.

The nice part about recording is that most of what you do can be monitored with headphones. You don't disturb your neighbors until you start singing! The rest of it can be silent until that point. That's when you find a way to do it while they are at work or out working in the yard.

I live in a neighborhood where the houses on both sides of me are 100-200 feet away and the one across the street is more like 300 feet off. Still, when I crank my guitar up loud, I wonder who's cringing at the DB level.

It's also possible to build a cubicle made of thick foam rubber for a vocal booth. I've seen home studios where people lined a closet with foam and used that for singing. You just run a remote footswitch over to it so that you can start and stop recording without running back and forth.

 

[bassnut]

I was just fine back then ...

I didn't mean otherwise.
I guess was projecting my own memory of myself in the days of yore.
You'll see soon enough....once I get the courage.

 

[Pipeous]

Sorry guys, I kind of disappeared for a while. I wasn't on the forum. I was playing and jamming with multiple bands. Now I have a 24 track digital recording setup... I am in love with mandolin right now. I started with an Epiphone A style which I bought selling all my vaping gear(in my videos I only have when I started playing mostly). I bought an F style, a Maestro, off ebay and had to learn to be a luthier to get it playable. I bought a The Loar 600 F style. Then traded the Maestro for my Epiphone back (had sold it to a friend). This Loar is sweet. I have an Octave Mandolin kit coming any day now. I get to build it... and I got a fiddle for Christmas I am attempting to play...

Here's a video I wrote the music for. I hadn't been playing mandolin for long. I was using too light of a pick and playing too close to the bridge. but I hadn't even played a month at this time. I have been playing harmonica about 3 months now as well. cool toys. now I own 4 and the neck holder thingy. The rc guy is a buddy that does a ton of videos. I asked him about writing some music for a video. he wanted to do a better forklift video as he dropped crap... so that's the story I worked with
http://youtu.be/byZwRpjKniM

Here's a month later. Tom popped by and we jammed out an old Led Zep tune and he's playing on my Fender (he's so talented man, he just learned it minutes before this). I am reading the words off the screen and my glasses aren't on hehe
http://youtu.be/ichLtVNEetA