Mini-epiphany

[Cornflake]

I've been a little stalled on my current recording project. I just didn't much like what I'd been recording recently. I wasn't sure why.

Tonight I tried something different. To start with, I realized that when playing live, I pitch everything in the upper range of my voice. Mine's not a strong voice and I need to be as high as possible to project. That's not really the best part of my vocal range. So I moved a couple of songs two steps down from where I'd pitch them if playing live. The microphone can handle it.

And I recorded those two "live," i.e., no multitracking, no click track, with a somewhat free-form tempo. The guitar parts were very, very spare.

I like the results a lot. The price for the live approach is that there are a few minor guitar glitches that I could cure if we'd been multi-tracking...nothing glaring, but slight string buzzes and the like.

But it has FEEL. I realized when playing these back at home that part of what I hadn't liked about my recent effort was that it was clean but lifeless. I'd been ironing all the humanity out of the recordings. In these, there's a human being playing.

I wouldn't do everything this way but it gave me two tracks I like a lot.

[gbacklin]

One of the reasons I really like to record live, is for that reason. There are some moments in overdubbed multitracked sessions; however, that you can really tell when the vibe is there, and those are special moments....

I'm glad to hear that you tried this, experimentation is the best, and will sometimes in itself bring a special feel to the recording....mainly because it is something new and fresh...


Congratulations on the tracks !

Take Care,
Gene

[billhammond]

Flake -- Congrats! Leave the buzzes in there -- there are all kinds of them on my CDs and I don't mind them a bit and no one has ever complained about them to me! They are part and parcel of playing with gusto, they are part of the sound of the guitar, and we should celebrate that!


Technical question -- you lowered the keys two steps, you said -- do you mean you went like from the key of A to the key of F, or did you go two half-steps, like from A to G? Just curious.

[Cornflake]

Bill, one went from A to F and one went from D to Bb.

Little buzzes are ordinarily no concern but, like I said, these were very spare arrangements. I consciously played as few notes as I thought I could get away with. When you're doing that, the glitches stand out a little more. I'm still not losing any sleep over them.

And Gene, something new and fresh does help add variety. I plan to put these quiet, spare tracks right next to some of the busier tracks as palate cleansers.

[Deleted]

Cornflake, have you uploaded these anywhere? I'd really like to hear them.

I know very well what you are talking about with the 'feel' thing. It's not hard to tell the difference when someone is just singing a song and when they are trying to communicate a mood or feeling or story.

I have no experience with the engineering technology used today but it's easy to imagine how technology could sterilize the emotion right out of the music.

[Cornflake]

Fred, I don't really have the ability to put songs up on the internet. Gene Backlin was kind enough to put up a few some time back, but they weren't the ones I was describing here.

Yeah, it's exceedingly easy for musicians who are trying to iron the mistakes out of a song during a recording session to iron the life out as well.