One Takes

[chrisharris]

The mission today was to record as many songs as possible in 3 hours. I used 3 mics (2 on the guitar and one for the vocal) and all of the songs were recorded as a single take with the guitar and vocal recorded at the same time.

These were meant to be scratch tracks for a larger session, and I'm not thrilled with the guitar sound, but I enjoyed the challenge.

Anyway, I won't subject you to all of the songs, but here's one.

Pretty Mouth

 

[Manslick]

Good, a little off putting at the onset, a bit angry, or am I saying strident?

Clever turn on the hook.

Is this Jamie?

 

[chrisharris]

Good, a little off putting at the onset, a bit angry, or am I saying strident?

Clever turn on the hook.

Is this Jamie?

Yeah...if this song has a chorus, I don't know what it is, lol. It's Jaimee...she's in town for a couple of days. Makes me happy. Thanks for listening.

 

[Manslick]

Third heard.

This is really good.

Mellow the more.

The chorus is the change.

 

[maximusbs]

Dude! That was awesome! I've had a few beers, so I might be easily impressed right now, but damn there was a lot of good vibe in that!! I usually don't listen to this kinda stuff...but....You got the give n take with the guitar and vocal; you got the emotion right out there, the immediacy, the vulnerability in her voice. I wasn't thrilled with the guitar tone either, but you get that fixed w/ a few magic tweaks, and I'd say wrap that shiz and slap a bow on it! It's done!

 

[chrisharris]

Third heard.

This is really good.

Mellow the more.

I really appreciate it. The tune has grown on me over time.

Dude! That was awesome! I've had a few beers, so I might be easily impressed right now, but damn there was a lot of good vibe in that!! I usually don't listen to this kinda stuff...but....You got the give n take with the guitar and vocal; you got the emotion right out there, the immediacy, the vulnerability in her voice. I wasn't thrilled with the guitar tone either, but you get that fixed w/ a few magic tweaks, and I'd say wrap that shiz and slap a bow on it! It's done!

Thanks max...I know she'll get a good recording of this tune soon, but I'm glad I got this version. I'll probably end up liking it better than the polished version. I always like live recordings. Downside is there's not much I can do with the guitar; she just played it super soft and without a pick, and one of the mics was really bad and I should have placed it a lot better than I did. Anyway, I appreciate the listen a lot.

 

[Chili]

So good to hear one of Jaimee's songs again.

yeah, I've heard you capture the guitar better before. This one is a little dark, but kind of fits the storyline. Dial back on the the vox reverb and this one is good to go.

Is she still in town? Does she play out? I should go see her perform some time.

 

[chrisharris]

Dial back on the the vox reverb and this one is good to go.

Is she still in town? Does she play out? I should go see her perform some time.

Yeah, that reverb...I think it's because I went with a plate...I've got it at less than 10%, but it still jumps out in the gaps. Thanks for the listen...I was on the fence about it, so I think I'll dial it back.

She's playing a lot, man...and she's still in Austin. If you have the guts to follow her on twitter, she'll dutifully spam you with every gig she's got in Texas, lol. @jaimeeharris

Thanks again...you're a good egg.

 

[joeym]

Such a beautiful voice!
Yeah, the only thing is guitar level but if there's nothing you can do to fix it....maybe you could play another on top of it?
Still a great performance!

 

[chrisharris]

Such a beautiful voice!
Yeah, the only thing is guitar level but if there's nothing you can do to fix it....maybe you could play another on top of it?
Still a great performance!

Thanks, man. I thought about putting another guitar in there, but then I wouldn't be able to say that it's 100% single take recordings. And truthfully, the only people who will ever hear these recordings are my immediate family and anybody who clicks on a link in here, lol.

Some of the others turned out better...some worse. But we have to do ten more next week, and I think they'll be better. My biggest problem is that I used the wrong mic on the body of the guitar, and then I made it worse by not really listening to that mic isolated before we started recording, so the placement was shit too.

I appreciate the listen.

 

[heatmiser]

She sounds tremendous.

I like the reverb a lot on this actually and the not-overly-bright guitar would sound great to me were it not juxtiposed against such crisp clarity in the capture of her voice.

 

[chrisharris]

She sounds tremendous.

I like the reverb a lot on this actually and the not-overly-bright guitar would sound great to me were it not juxtiposed against such crisp clarity in the capture of her voice.

Thanks for listening. I actually changed the verb from when Chilli commented. I appreciate the ears. I think I'll do better next time...I'm furiously trying to locate some matched condensers, because as much as I've recorded acoustic guitars, I'm just now getting into the stereo mic'ing thing, and I think I can do it a lot better with a little more time and a couple of decent mics.

If anybody cares, here's another one.
CLEMENTINE

 

[PoeticIntensity]

Wow.... Haven't heard Jaimee's voice since Penny Lane. She really can sing very well! ... and are you insane? How many songs did you write and record in 3 hours???

Thanks for sharing, Chris!

 

[clong89]

Great songwriter. Getting somewhat of a Joni Mitchell vibe from both songs.

 

[fatstrat]

What a beautiful voice. Very nice.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[chrisharris]

Wow.... Haven't heard Jaimee's voice since Penny Lane. She really can sing very well! ... and are you insane? How many songs did you write and record in 3 hours???

Thanks for sharing, Chris!

Ok, first of all...that's pretty cool that you actually remember Penny Lane. If somebody had asked me the last song I posted with Jaimee in it, I would have gotten it wrong. Thank you for listening. We tracked ten songs in 3 hours, but they were all all like these, so she just had to play/sing ten songs. Sort of like a really slow gig, lol.

Great songwriter. Getting somewhat of a Joni Mitchell vibe from both songs.

What a beautiful voice. Very nice.

Thanks for sharing.

I appreciate the listens and the comments, guys. Thanks.

 

[Puma81]

Wow, Jamie has a fantastic voice. The lyrics are incredible as well. It's honest and beautiful, got a little wet in the eyes over here, won't lie. Also, nice recording quality. You must have a good set-up.

 

[chrisharris]

Wow, Jamie has a fantastic voice. The lyrics are incredible as well. It's honest and beautiful, got a little wet in the eyes over here, won't lie. Also, nice recording quality. You must have a good set-up.

Thanks for listening...I wanted you to hear it because my setup is really meager. The guitar was recorded with 2 unmatched mics that probably cost $120 combined. The vocal was done on a decent mic...(Audio Technica 4050). The rest is just a Tascam interface and Reaper and a bunch of free plugins for compression and EQ.

 

[heatmiser]

here's another one.
CLEMENTINE

That one was even better I think. The guitar was a little further back sounding and that left all this room for the subtlety of her delivery to be captured clearly. It's kind of uncanny how she can control her voice like that. These aren't really my kind of tunes by any stretch, but the performances and recordings are quite good to my ears.

 

[chrisharris]

That one was even better I think. The guitar was a little further back sounding and that left all this room for the subtlety of her delivery to be captured clearly. It's kind of uncanny how she can control her voice like that. These aren't really my kind of tunes by any stretch, but the performances and recordings are quite good to my ears.

I really appreciate you listening. I liked that recording better, too. Funny thing is, even though we sat down and recorded all ten songs on the same 3 tracks, they all came out somewhat different. Something as minor as using a pick or moving back 3 inches from the mics totally changed everything.