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Post by Tom on May 14, 2015 15:58:45 GMT
When starting up again after a long absence from any serious recording I figure it is appropriate to start with the unfinished project from longest ago. This song, on which Chris and I collaborated, dates to 2009, not too long after Chris got his Yamaha home keys. He experimented with the keys and put together the backing tracks for this song. Those tracks include one stereo track of Yamaha auto accompaniment and other tracks of recorded Yamaha “instruments” (horns and such), as well as some guitar tracks from Chris. He then sent a set of WAVs to me to which I and I added lyrics and did a little cutting to shorten the intro, an artifact of which is audible. Fast forward to the present, I pointed up the lyrics and redid the vocals, then added the guitar solos at the beginning and end of the song. All recording and mixing was done on our Korg D3200s, with conversion to MP3 done with good old Audacity. The song is on my TC and Friends Soundclick page: www.soundclick.com/TCandFriendsThe direct link to it is: Don't Run Away
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Post by latmat on May 14, 2015 17:51:09 GMT
Well, welcome back! Good to see someone else other than three of us here Nice recording, love the guitar and horns. Are the drums from the korg unit? They sound pretty decent. Vocals sound real nice... They do feel a touch too dry in my opinion, I'd add in just bit to give the centre some depth. Excellent work Tom, hope to hear more from you... Cameron
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Post by mcarp555 on May 15, 2015 9:52:44 GMT
Once more unto the fray then, eh Tom? Good to hear from you again. Fantastic recording - Bass, vocals, guitar all excellent. Drums are passable - playing is good, but the dynamics are slightly flat. The horns have that 80's synth sound to them, but these minor quibbles don't detract from a good piece of work. More, please!
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sgulley
Superstar
If you really like music and recording it then never stop trying to get better at it.
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Post by sgulley on May 15, 2015 15:57:45 GMT
Always loved your voice Tom. Very nice compilation of work. I really like harmony vocals for the good majority of the song but you might want to automate them off in small sections as just a single lead voice; kind of like a question & then answer with harmony; if that makes sense. It might add to the dynamics just a bit. No complaints at all.
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Post by Tom on May 16, 2015 13:25:40 GMT
thanks for the listen and comments guys. Yeah the horns do sound kinda synthetic, as IMO is usually the case with inexpensive Yamaha keys. As I recall Chris paid around a hundred buck for the one used here. I wonder if some EQ and/or individual effect treatment on the horn tracks (reverb?) might make them more realistic. The drums are also the Yamaha, and are part of the Yamahas auto accompaniment output, which is a single stereo track comprising the drums, bass, a synthetic guitar and a low volume organ track typically. The original auto accompaniment track was boomy bass wise so I tried rolling off the low end. Other than that I did no EQing. The vocals are somewhat dry on purpose actually, as others have said I use too much effects on my voice, which others think better of than I. For vocals these days I record dry and then from that create an additional effected track which I mix with the dry on mixdown. Stan - you are not the only one who thinks I sometimes overdo it with the vocal harmonies.
Anyway ... thanks again for the listen. I hope to post more soon, as I am determined to get more use out of all the gear I have accumulated since joining the reecording fray.
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sgulley
Superstar
If you really like music and recording it then never stop trying to get better at it.
Posts: 2,994
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Post by sgulley on May 17, 2015 23:27:24 GMT
Hey Tom I'd be happy to attempt a stereo drum track for you if needed that you can either use or throw away. Just send the song's tempo and a mix w/o the drums. I use to do this all the time on the Kompoz forum that I belonged to. Sometimes it was like magic and the group would use mine, and sometimes things didn't fit that well. It's good studio practice for me. I could even use imperfect beats to sound a little more natural if needed.
Anyway, just thought I would offer if you don't want to use Yamaha loops.
Stan
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Post by Tom on May 27, 2015 13:04:53 GMT
Thanks for the offer Stan. But in this case the drums, bass and some of the other instruments are all on a single stereo track, so there is no single drum track that can be replaced. Also, this old project predates my having a handle on tempo synchronization. These days everything I originate is fully synchronized at a given tempo, something that that is easy to do when one uses PC software but was more difficult (and expensive) to accomplish using a hardware DAW.
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sgulley
Superstar
If you really like music and recording it then never stop trying to get better at it.
Posts: 2,994
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Post by sgulley on May 27, 2015 15:13:10 GMT
I fully understand that Tom. When I go back to an old project that I did on the 2488, to improve something, I see a few stereo mixes and only a standalone track or two.
No doubt, things at home are now a lot closer to the way current pro digital studios do it.
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