Members garthman Posted October 20, 2018 Members Share Posted October 20, 2018 Time to hear some music again, folks. It's a while since I posted a Leonard Cohen song so my submission this month is: "Famous Blue Raincoat" by Leonard Cohen https://app.box.com/shared/u71ufdh9ab Played on my first guitar - a 1968 BM Espana classical - tuned down two semitones to standard D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members catscurlyear Posted October 20, 2018 Members Share Posted October 20, 2018 Hi Howard lovely choice of song and great perfomance from you. here`s my choice this month, it`s my attempt at Mystery Train hope you all like it, thanks sorry forgot to mention done on my Tanglewood Evolution Koa electro acoustic also tuned down a full tone to D with a set of vintage strings lol (over a year old) and recorded through my noisy tascam us- 2x2 interface, mic (sm58) and direct into cubase 8.5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted October 21, 2018 Members Share Posted October 21, 2018 Here's mine, an original Country song titled "Heart to Heart, Hand in Hand": http://kiwi6.com/file/zed5aaiyuj. I've also attached a low-fi version for Etienne. I'll have to listen to everyone else's contributions later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MrHarryReems Posted October 21, 2018 Members Share Posted October 21, 2018 Time to hear some music again, folks. It's a while since I posted a Leonard Cohen song so my submission this month is: "Famous Blue Raincoat" by Leonard Cohen https://app.box.com/shared/u71ufdh9ab Played on my first guitar - a 1968 BM Espana classical - tuned down two semitones to standard D. Very nice, Howard! I've not heard this song before, but I really like the sound of the nylon string on this, and your voice treats this song perfectly. Here`s my choice this month, it`s my attempt at Mystery Train hope you all like it, thanks sorry forgot to mention done on my Tanglewood Evolution Koa electro acoustic also tuned down a full tone to D with a set of vintage strings lol (over a year old) and recorded through my noisy tascam us- 2x2 interface, mic (sm58) and direct into cubase 8.5 https://soundcloud.com/user-282584942/mystery-train Nice honkytonk! Very well played. Digging your voice on this one, too. Very enjoyable listen. The high noise floor is coming from your interface? Here's mine' date=' an original Country song titled "Heart to Heart, Hand in Hand": http://kiwi6.com/file/zed5aaiyuj. I've also attached a low-fi version for Etienne. I'll have to listen to everyone else's contributions later.[/quote'] This is proving to be a great month for VOM1T.. Great submissions thus far. If I haven't mentioned it before, I really appreciate your original pieces. I was somewhat productive this past month, so I hope everyone is prepared for a wall of text and a few tunes... In chronological order: No huge story behind this one, I've just always liked the song and meant to do it, so here it is. Spancil Hill Next is a song that was originally a poem by Rudyard Kipling entitled, 'A Tree Song'. It was put to music by Peter Bellamy in 1970, and has become a widely sung folk classic. What I love about this song is that it shows that regional beliefs and culture still survived despite the attempt by modern religion to eradicate it. The people still held to and practiced their beliefs, suggesting they just don't tell the priest, as surely he'd call it a sin... A Tree Song The next one tells the tale of Mary Queen of Scots imprisonment and subsequent escape from Lochleven Castle. She was captured and forced to abdicate to her infant son. After being held captive for a year by Sir William Douglas, she was assisted in her escape by William's son, Willie Douglas who became infatuated with Mary's beauty. He rowed her across the lake into the hands of 200 waiting horsemen. I have a very good friend that my brother and I used to gig with back on the mainland. He's recently become a part time resident of the island, and my neighbor. He played the banjo and the bass guitar on this one. Queen Mary's Escape The last one is one I've been sitting on for a few weeks, as I've been struggling in vain with the mix on this one. It's the product of the political situation in Ireland following the Easter Rising. 210,000 Irishmen joined the British army to fight in WWI. While they supported the British war effort, they also felt that the justification for the war 'Freedom for small nations' should also be applied to Ireland. When Canon O'Neill wrote the song in 1919, it spoke of the thoughts of Irish nationalists who felt that the Irishmen who fought for Britain should have stayed home and fought for their own independence instead. The Foggy Dew Pretty much everything was recorded with the same gear. Spancil Hill was recorded with a Rode NT1a, but everything else was recorded with my new Avantone CV-12 tube mic. Guitar: Taylor 814ce Flute: Muramatsu EX Bass: Squier Jazz->Carvin BX500->Hartke 410XL-> GLS Audio ES57 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted October 21, 2018 Members Share Posted October 21, 2018 garthman - Well done. I wasn't familiar with that one but it sounds very much like the YouTube vid of him.catscurlyear - Hard to go wrong with the King. You did him proud. Good job.MrHarryReems - Wow. Both quantity and quality. I'm impressed. Seriously, a good job all around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted October 21, 2018 Members Share Posted October 21, 2018 . . . Great submissions thus far. If I haven't mentioned it before' date=' I really appreciate your original pieces. . . .[/quote'] You have. Thanks again for the kind words. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members catscurlyear Posted October 22, 2018 Members Share Posted October 22, 2018 Wow you never fail great songwriting . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members catscurlyear Posted October 22, 2018 Members Share Posted October 22, 2018 just listened to them all ,excellent performances and great quality recording by you ,also enjoyed your neighbours banjo it added another colour to the mix ,The mix on Foggy Dew sounded fine to me i thought i could maybe hear some voices talking in the backgound lol from about halfway to the end just in a couple of places,but can`t be sure . i`ve got a Squier Jazz bass i do like it.Overall lovely recordings and a nice tonal balance ,well done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members catscurlyear Posted October 22, 2018 Members Share Posted October 22, 2018 thanks DeepEnd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members catscurlyear Posted October 22, 2018 Members Share Posted October 22, 2018 Nice honkytonk! Very well played. Digging your voice on this one' date=' too. Very enjoyable listen. The high noise floor is coming from your interface?[/quote'] Thanks for the nice comments ,yes the hissing is from the miced guitar channel ,i`m only recording about 1 time a month at the moment and forgetting basic stuff plus since moving i have no real privacy so i have to knock em out quick and have had run ins with neighbours over noise issue ,ironic thing is it was me moaning at them fo r playing radio too loud on too many occasions with the bass thumping like water torture through the walls ,i am missing my studio from my previous house.ah well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Etienne Rambert Posted October 23, 2018 Members Share Posted October 23, 2018 I have nothing this month - maybe next month one last Jerry Lee Lewis Honky Tonk ballad before I go back to my synth-based composing. So here are my reviews. I listened through my new HD380 headphones. They are good for acoustic guitarsbecause they are harsh & very unforgiving. So here goes: Garthman: Your classical sounds true through these headphones - congratulations. There is small phase shiftbetween your voice & your guitar. But it adds to the ambience of this mysterious masterpiece. You do Cohenwell. Catscurlyear: Keep the rockabilly coming. Your playing technique is spot-on. I haven't heard this song playedbetter on an acoustic. Your voice was good too. I hoped for a little slap back on it though. Now for the bad news: Your playing was great but these headphones really revealed the sound of your pickup --the piezo quack. Your technique is better than your pick-up. If you could mic this or blend it between pick-up &mic. But that's a tiny point. I've never heard it played better on an acoustic flat-top. Ignore that quibble. It'sprobably just the cans. DeepEnd: I was able for some reason to play your file. I was traveling so maybe it was the different ISP?You're a good songwriter. I don't think this song is up to the level of the ones I heard in previous months.But that's just me. I'm a nobody. Others like it. So just ignore me on this. Mr. Harry Reems: Your recordings are always really good. The guitars sound great even through theseunforgiving HD380's . Spancil Hill: The flutes are overwhelming in the mix. Dunno if that is just my headphones. Drums seem loud too.I don't really like the percussion on this track. There is a lot of it. Everything else is wonderful. Drum ending iskind of a flop - but you know that already I bet. Tree Song: Flutes overwhelming on intro but not so bad on later parts. Very nice song. Queen Mary's Escape: Seems like a well-mixed recording. I like it that you mixed the drums down. On the firsttwo songs, the drums were too loud -- at least through these headphones. Foggy Dew: Great intro. Great song. Great recording. This one's a real pleasure. You got everything exactlyright. It's an exciting recording - an exciting song. Remember -- these are very UNFORGIVING headphones. I hope I didn't forget anyone. I'll check back later to see if I did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MrHarryReems Posted October 23, 2018 Members Share Posted October 23, 2018 Thanks for the kind words! The voices you heard were actually a spot where I had the decay on the vox delay set a little long for that section of the song. I had a real struggle mixing this one. I used delays to thicken the vox a bit, but really should have put a bit of automation on that FX track to tone it back in a few places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MrHarryReems Posted October 23, 2018 Members Share Posted October 23, 2018 Thank you, sir! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MrHarryReems Posted October 23, 2018 Members Share Posted October 23, 2018 Seems like it might just be a gain staging problem. Try to set the gain on your preamp so that your peaks sit at -12dbfs in your DAW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members catscurlyear Posted October 23, 2018 Members Share Posted October 23, 2018 So here are my reviews. I listened through my new HD380 headphones. They are good for acoustic guitars because they are harsh & very unforgiving. Catscurlyear: Keep the rockabilly coming. Your playing technique is spot-on. I haven't heard this song played better on an acoustic. Your voice was good too. I hoped for a little slap back on it though. Now for the bad news: Your playing was great but these headphones really revealed the sound of your pickup -- the piezo quack. Your technique is better than your pick-up. If you could mic this or blend it between pick-up & mic. But that's a tiny point. I've never heard it played better on an acoustic flat-top. Ignore that quibble. It's probably just the cans. Remember -- these are very UNFORGIVING headphones. thanks for the listen and the kind reveiw and pointers Etienne ,yes sorry about the quaky direct channel i couldn`t get the volume up on the miced channel cause of all the hiss(could you hear it in your headphones ?) and the overall recording wasn`t biting so i wacked up the direct channel. it didn`t sound that bad on my hi fi,but anyway i`m gonna re record this one when i get the chance. thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members catscurlyear Posted October 23, 2018 Members Share Posted October 23, 2018 thanks for the tip ,i don`t want to give up on this interface cause the pre amps sound so good i think i will have to get a balanced xlr jack on the mic lead ,i`m just using a bog standard 1/4 inch mono jack at the moment see if that helps as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MrHarryReems Posted October 23, 2018 Members Share Posted October 23, 2018 If you're not using a balanced XLR cable, that can definitely cause some noise. The impedance doesn't match between XLR and 1/4 without a line leveling transformer. Sounds like a cable and setting your preamp gain correctly might fix quite a bit, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted October 23, 2018 Members Share Posted October 23, 2018 . . . DeepEnd: I was able for some reason to play your file. I was traveling so maybe it was the different ISP? You're a good songwriter. I don't think this song is up to the level of the ones I heard in previous months. But that's just me. I'm a nobody. Others like it. So just ignore me on this. . . . You're entitled to your opinion as always. No, it's probably not one of my best efforts. They can't all be. I had mentioned in one of the Off Topic Forums that, while I'm not a big Country fan I seem to have a certain affinity for it. I jokingly posted that I seem to have a "Country heart" and that was the inspiration for the song, which I banged out fairly quickly. Anyway, I'm glad you were able to listen. My only audience for non-Christian stuff is pretty much this Forum so I'll take whatever response I can get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members catscurlyear Posted October 25, 2018 Members Share Posted October 25, 2018 Here`s a revised version of Mystery Train ,sound quality is much better on this one i used all the same gear as before .Thank you Mr Harry Reems i did what you said -12 db on the input i also used a proper balanced xlr mic lead ,.when i mixed the track down I also made sure that no more than -18 db came into my output channal (bus) because this is apparently the optimum volume that vst effects work at, so all the final effects on this channel are working as they should.hopefully Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MrHarryReems Posted October 25, 2018 Members Share Posted October 25, 2018 Fantastic! From the sound of this recording, you've licked the noise floor issue! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members catscurlyear Posted October 25, 2018 Members Share Posted October 25, 2018 thanks for the help, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MrHarryReems Posted October 25, 2018 Members Share Posted October 25, 2018 Anytime! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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