So ive been playing around with a few guys in town and we decided to possibly start a band. One of the guys has some amazing recording equipment and while visiting him today the two of us thought why not play around with it. Its just him on guitar and myself on the low whistle. Its quite a daunting thing getting involved to this level. Before its been just on stage a few times and mostly sessions. Anyway we had fun and i thought i would like to share it with the board members. The only other player that is missing is the fiddle player who is really fantastic. Were trying to decide what else should accompany us…any thoughts?
Here is my homepage and i just posted them there but they will also be going to “clips and snips” as ive had problems with tripod.
nice whistlin, amigo! Guitar could use a bit more bottom end I think, but it might just be the conversion… What whistle were you playin? And what tuning does the guitarist use?
i will be meeting with the guys again on tuesday when we will start seriously recording the tracks. Jude is the guitar player im not sure how he tunes his instrument but will find out. As for the recording gear i know its a “Roland” something mixer and has 18 seperate track capabilities but again can find that out on tuesday. We already have a fiddler but he just wasnt available yesterday.
Hey! Nice playing. Kind of reminds me of the LE McCullough tutor with the hard panned whistle and guitar.
I think you could get by with just the trio if you mix it well enough. That kind of minimalist sound can be quite compelling and effective if done right.
As for the technical aspects of the recording, there are some things to watch for. With a small group you can easily get away with recording with a simple stereo pair for a really authentic sound… BUT you will have to pay close attention to the mic placement and the balance (while playing) to get a nice recording. Or you could just do a simultaneous multi-track like you did with the guitar and whistle… just adding the fiddle should be no big deal, but with such a small group, each instrument has plenty of exposure so hard panning any of the three will sound a bit un-natural and could betray the acoustic nature of the group. I’m sure your buddy will fix that in the mix. Also might be nice with just a bit of room reverb on the whistle (and probably the violin too) and a touch of chorus on the guitar to fatten it up a bit.
Sounds good!.. Don’t let the process freak you out. You’re on to something here.
Very nice sound. I can’t believe your guitarist can keep up with some of those
runs, when he switches to playing melody. If your fiddler is as good as you say,
should be some great music! From which part of the world do you hail? (Knowing
my luck, way too far for me to come and hear you.)
I like the bird sounds on “January Snows”. But carrying the bird onstage would
probably be a hastle…
Jason, the recordings are great!
Just put the name on the band an that’s all
And after the fiddler, I believe that a some bodhran sound would be a nice touch, too
I really liked the “January Snows” tune, do you know where can I find the music sheet of that? I searched my usual sites buy didn’t find it, maybe it has another name?
chrysophylax, im playing a chieftain low d whistle on those recordings.
I love this low d. Usually on most whistles i find a thing or two that isnt to my liking or that is doesnt let me do but this seems to suit me really well.
Scott, i will definately pass on your input about recording to Jude. He’s really well versed in all this but is always open to input. By the way Jude is also the guy that plays guitar. If you think that sounds nice you should hear him on the mandolin. He always seems to add to the music in amazing and varied ways. He plays guitar, mandolin, banjo, and a host of other instruments. I do enjoy how he can switch between rhythm and melody at any given time. We live in Victoria,Bc, Canada but once we get our little group established we would not mind doing a bit of travelling and playing in a few places outside of our local area. The recordings were all done in one take but i noticed in critiqueing myself that i would hope to have more polished playing on the cd. It was basically just the two of us playing around as Jude was showing me the ropes on his recording equipment. Its interesting how much you can learn when you listen to yourself play. There’s a few things i do that started to make me cringe a bit by the time i was done listening to what we did. I think its good to have a certain style but also to maybe vary that style a bit throughout a recordings. (Maybe to attack some tunes but others to relax and flow a bit more.) Its all good stuff and i guess evolving is half the fun
p.s feadin, i just learnt January Snows from the lunasa album but changed the timing a bit.
p.p.s we might just administer a slight sedative to the bird so it stays calm on stage.
Wow. I would have sworn that was a flute on Flowers of Edinburgh.
Word has it that Jude can take a sad song and make it better.
I had a band director who once said the best way to catch and correct your
timing mistakes (and cringe often) was to record yourself and slow it down.
It’s easier to catch them that way. I’ve been afraid to try it, myself.
Ok You asked for it…
Not a critisism but an observation,
The banshee and the sally gardens…
Love these tunes and play them regularly myself,
Your playing style…is good, no doubt, but you are tonguing a lot of notes,
not a critisism, you are able to pull it off, and very well at that.
it allows for a clean approach in many phrases, and i also do the same, I have also been accused of tonguing too much, and taken that advice on board, its a good thing to have constructive critisism,
its the only way to improve.
Your interpretation of the tunes is great, and compliments your playing style, and to do all that on a low d is very special.
However i would look a little more at phrasing, by all means dont lose your style, but at the same time let a few more of your phrases flow, and tongue where appropriate for emphasis only, i feel it may turn
a great performance into an excellant performance,
I may be wrong,
and the choice is all yours,
the important thing is what you are comfortable playing,
dont worry… it still sounds good regardless of my opinion,
regards
David
boomerang, thanks for the advice i will definately take that into account. It was one of the things i really noticed when listening to myself. I think it might create a better dynamic to the music by not attacking with the whole tonguing thing all the time. I really like getting feedback like this as i find it extremely helpful to get perspective from other players.
Geez, after Boomerang’s post I was expecting some horrible beginner’s playing, but the sound sample I just listened to (Edinburgh to Banshee) was actually very nice. I wouldn’t worry about the tonguing at all – it might be atrocious on a high whistle, but on a low whistle like this what you’re doing is nice.
Very nice playing - wish I could do half as well on either guitar or whistle! I especially liked the banjo rolls on the guitar - when I heard that I figured your guy had to be a banjo player!
The instruments panned hard and right is good for a practice tool - you can use the balance control to mute the part you’re learning to play. But, when you get ready to produce a CD I’d do a lot more balanced mix. Hard-panned mixes are really hard to listen to - especially if you’re using headphones.
I too noticed that the guitar didn’t have much bottom end. Bottom end isn’t usually lost in MP3 compression (usually it’s the high end that suffers) so he may need to look at mic placement. Acoustic guitar is actually one of the hardest instruments to mic really well. Lots of guys use a large or medium diaphram (sp?) condensor mic near the bottom of the soundboard and just behind the bridge. This gives you more sound off the soundboard and less of the direct sound of the vibrating strings. If overdone it can be boomy though.
Did he use noise reduction processing on the guitar channel? There were just a couple of times I thought I heard the metallic “whinge” of typical software noise removal artifacts, but it may have been my imagination.
All in all I was very impressed, let me know when your first CD is ready!
