Post Your Analog Recordings Here...

Okay, here's some more stuff from me.



I wanted to write a song about some medieval fantasy kingdom for a while, but got a bit stuck with the lyrics. Not entirely happy with how they came out, but it'll do.
I also wanted to try messing around with odd time signatures and ended up channelling both Threshold and Van Der Graaf Generator, and ended up with a bassline I couldn't actually play.
It was so far beyond my skill level that I slowed down the recorder during the takes, but even that wasn't enough to make it feasible so I ended up splitting it into two parts, recorded on two channels which simplified things a bit and also allowed me to play stereo tricks. Conversely, I speeded up the recorder slightly for the end of the song, allowing me to end the song on a note which is impossible to play on a 4-string bass with standard tuning.

I should go back and redo some of the bass, partly because the first tricky part is still kind of messy, and also because some of it is off-tune enough to produce a chorusing effect that I'm not sure I want to keep.
This would be trivial to fix on a DAW, but that would be very boring. This way is more fun.
The random organ notes in the middle were originally a marker to say "tape collage to go here" but I kind of liked it, especially after I ran a screwdriver down the bass and got that to make some weird noises as well. For this demo I spliced in a section of backwards pipe organ music but I don't really like how that turned out to be honest so it might not be there in future takes of the song.

The song was recorded on my trust Otari MX80, with help from a TASCAM TSR-8, on which I recorded the vocals, bass and also the reverse cymbal before dubbing them onto the 24-track machine. Mixing was done to a Studer A807 which I also used to do things like the tape loops of the word 'Saludora' about halfway through, reverse pipe-organ and a clip of alternate ending from my 'Tears of Joy' song which I ended up not using anyway. Some tape editing was also used to fix fluffs in the mix.
 
Stogie_D said:
Along The Watchtower - acoustic version - just me & my MSR16 -

https://myspace.com/davidahancock/music/song/all-along-the-watchtower-96482267-107520710
Click to expand...

Does MySpace always make you watch a 1 minute ad before hearing a song now? Holy crap! After waiting through that ad, I'd decided I was going to comment on this regardless, even if I didn't have anything nice to say, because I'd invested in it. :)

But that's not the case at all. It's a very nice job. Great vocals, and the guitar work reminds me of Knopfler a lot in places. The vocals sounded a little boomy and lacked a bit of clarity, but the performance was really nice.

The drum machine I thought sounded a bit odd. The kick was massive, but I could barely hear the hat. And ... was there a bass guitar at all? I couldn't make it out if it was there.

I almost think this would work better without drums ... maybe just some auxiliary percussion type stuff.

Anyway, thanks for posting .. I enjoyed it.

And screw you MySpace! :)
 
jpmorris said:
Okay, here's some more stuff from me.



I wanted to write a song about some medieval fantasy kingdom for a while, but got a bit stuck with the lyrics. Not entirely happy with how they came out, but it'll do.
I also wanted to try messing around with odd time signatures and ended up channelling both Threshold and Van Der Graaf Generator, and ended up with a bassline I couldn't actually play.
It was so far beyond my skill level that I slowed down the recorder during the takes, but even that wasn't enough to make it feasible so I ended up splitting it into two parts, recorded on two channels which simplified things a bit and also allowed me to play stereo tricks. Conversely, I speeded up the recorder slightly for the end of the song, allowing me to end the song on a note which is impossible to play on a 4-string bass with standard tuning.

I should go back and redo some of the bass, partly because the first tricky part is still kind of messy, and also because some of it is off-tune enough to produce a chorusing effect that I'm not sure I want to keep.
This would be trivial to fix on a DAW, but that would be very boring. This way is more fun.
The random organ notes in the middle were originally a marker to say "tape collage to go here" but I kind of liked it, especially after I ran a screwdriver down the bass and got that to make some weird noises as well. For this demo I spliced in a section of backwards pipe organ music but I don't really like how that turned out to be honest so it might not be there in future takes of the song.

The song was recorded on my trust Otari MX80, with help from a TASCAM TSR-8, on which I recorded the vocals, bass and also the reverse cymbal before dubbing them onto the 24-track machine. Mixing was done to a Studer A807 which I also used to do things like the tape loops of the word 'Saludora' about halfway through, reverse pipe-organ and a clip of alternate ending from my 'Tears of Joy' song which I ended up not using anyway. Some tape editing was also used to fix fluffs in the mix.
Click to expand...


Cool! I really like the odd time part around the 2:30 mark. Alternating between a bar of 4 and 2 ???
I like the bass tone too. Has some bite to it. That organ at 5min is pretty powerful when it come in. Nice!
 
RFR said:
Cool. :) Very different version of a familiar song. Care to share any recording details? How about the artist?
Click to expand...

Thanks RFR - I know it's quite a departure from the original. One of my favorite Hendrix songs that I have been doing on acoustic guitar forever, mostly true to the original. I was dinkin around with a keyboard one day (I am by no means a keyboard player) & this version happened. The piano / Korg N5 & vocals / AKG 414B-ULS were recorded through a Ramsa T-820 console to a Tascam MSR 16. Then to a Alesis Masterlink to burn a disc. The vocals were squeezed a little, eq'd slightly & some reverb added on the way to the Masterlink. Piano was straight on & off the R2R. Both tracks were outtakes as I was just getting it figured out. I sent the tracks to my buddy Mike, out of state, to get his opinion. He liked it so much he asked if he could add some guitar & other stuff. All good by me, they're outtakes, have fun. I planned on recording good tracks later & going from there. Well he just kept going & you heard / saw the results. I was stunned when he sent me the video. I never got a clear answer to what they recorded on out there - digital something. It was Mike's first time recording anything track by track, he knows nothing about recording equipment. The artist is the famous speed painter Denny Dent (may he rest in peace) Mike thought the video would go well with the music so he put them together. The video was slowed down to match the timeframe of the music. That's about it. Glad you think it's cool. Out of the bazillion covers of that song, this is the furthest away from the original that I have ever heard - but that's the way I heard it in my head. D.
 
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