These mp3’s were recorded in an empty gymnasium, late Friday night after our band, “RalûGerri” had played for a three hour Contra. We were dead tired, and the young sound guy was just learning his way around the board. (I was not the whistler, BTW… I’m on bass fiddle ) I can’t wait till we can get some time in a good location and not all be dragging arse tired!
I like the Paddy on the railway set (I know the tune as The Merry Blacksmith) .
The bass and guitar are a bit ‘heavy’.
It sounds like you were having fun and that’s all that matters.
MP3 review:
I have no idea how your young sound man mixed the mike/pick-up inputs, but the results are nothing to be ashamed of. The guitar and bass provided very capable harmonic support and good rhythm, too, especially necessary for a dance band; so I’m not sure I am ready to declare them “too heavy” yet. Although one does wish at times that he could hear the melody voices more distinctly.
These clips have the feel of good old-fashioned Old Time Music recorded in the old fashioned way !! I liked them and listened to them all the way through.
There was no drop off in the quality of listening experience during any part of the two MP3’s. Good strong material was chosen, and executed by good capable musicians. The fatigue from playing a three hour dance session was not evident to my ear.
The whistle work was pretty good. Does he/she have a name? By the way, what were the instruments played on these clips. Whistle, fiddle, guitar, bass are heard. Anything else ?
Nice music altogether. If the quality, sophistication of the recording techniques were lacking in fidelity, separation, EQ-ing, effects treatments, etc. the music material and playing made up for it. Good lisiening.
Review by Lloyd (Tunescopes)
P.S. Maybe you’d like to review my recordings sometime.
Thanks for your comments, folks! It was definitely fun. The recording levels were not very well balanced, but then, it was just a test drive. We had to have a clip for the radio station, and they never have a realistic time frame.
I’m not sure I am ready to declare them “too heavy” yet. Although one does wish at times that he could hear the melody voices more distinctly.
I listened to the Paddy clip first of all through my headphones. (It was almost midnight for me) I got a lot of heavy end bass and could hardly hear the melody instruments. So I am with you when you say you wish you could hear the melody voices more distinctly, so the mix is heavy on the bass side of things.
So anyway… I unplugged my headphones and listened through my amp. I run my computer line out into a 100 watt amplifier with 700mm tall speaker boxes holding 300mm bass speakers, so plenty of grunt there. I had to back off the bass to just above ‘1’ to get any sort of dynamic balance. Don’t get me wrong, it is really good feel good, foot tapping music, it only needed to have a better balanced mix. anniemcu, is it possible to remix the original recordings?
Nah… just not enough leeway in the original … they are what they are, which is just a quick ‘snap shot’ … we’ll go for more composition and balance soon. I had to adjust the balance on my playback, to get a pretty good sound on them. They promise some good stuff, though, I think.
Good fun stuff - I enjoyed them despite the acknowledged recording deficiencies (not too bad on my cheapo computer speakers, actually. It’d be great to hear a better take in better acoustics.
BTW, at last, someone else who knows The Merry Blacksmith as Paddy on the Railroad. It is far more commonly known by the first title, but I first learnt it by the latter and have never (so far as I recall) come across anyone else who had even heard of it by that title save the person I learnt it from! I have a “silly set” I sometimes do as a party piece on flute where I try to project an image of a steam-train journey, starting off with Paddy, going through Miss McCleod and finishing with The Gravel Walk, complete with guard’s whistle, wheel spin, chuffing, speeding up, train whistle, swooshing through cuttings and under bridges, slowing down to the next station and coming in to a halt with squealing brakes and let-off steam! (I know that Gravel Walk is actually about a path in a park, but it could just as well be railroad ballast!)
I’d love to hear that! One of the guys in the band is a RR fanatic… built some astounding miniatures, he’s decided to give up a lot of his RR activities to play music now… lucky us!
) I can’t wait till we can get some time in a good location and not all be dragging arse tired!
liked the band