Blame (Tribute to Stu)

  • Thread starter Thread starter K-dub
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K-dub

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Stu Gort, who used to haunt these very pages w/ us years ago, passed on (I recently discovered). For those that knew him, he was an immensely talented fellow who had an exacting personality. It was his precise nature that made him an excellent guitarist - and guitar maker. It was his guitar making that I sought to share w/ a local luthier (here in Maine) where I discovered he was gone.

I'd been working on this mix with my most recent assembly of musical folks (Who We Are). WWA was a project meant to bring the works I present here to the live stage. They had one caveat in agreement: They got to play the songs the way they wanted to play them, not necessarily the way I'd recorded them.

I'd worked w/ Stu for decades trading files online. When I started the live project (in 2015) I kind of gravitated offline into 3D land again - working with local musicians. I sold my business in 2016, enabling me to gig live late nights again. The unit lasted until 2021, with live music dying a covid death in 2020. This was one of the last works we recorded.

Stu and I had worked on the original together YEARS ago, and with the band's parts tracked, the piece was still missing what I wanted to hear - which was ... Stu. His parts were a signature sound to the piece, forever etched in my musical mind as a seminal ingredient. There are few who can send me parts that are entirely unexpected and extremely musical at once. That was Stu's unique genius.

Although the new group had slowed the rhumba (it's kind of one) down in the tempo, the key was identical to the original. So I decided to pay tribute and take Stu's tracks, slow them down to match the BPM of the new recording and see if they fit as if they were intended to be played there in the revision. He does the jangly guitars, the e-bow, and the background vocals.

What do you think?
 
I like the track - but everything is out of time with each other - nothing quite lands on the beat.
 
Papanate said:
I like the track - but everything is out of time with each other - nothing quite lands on the beat.
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Most of this (bass/drums/rhythm git) - outside of Stu's parts - were recorded live. Which parts strike you as off-beat? The jangly guitars? The ebow would be hard to define as "on-beat" and the BGVs align w/ the main vocal (to my ears).
 
K-dub said:
Most of this (bass/drums/rhythm git) - outside of Stu's parts - were recorded live. Which parts strike you as off-beat? The jangly guitars? The ebow would be hard to define as "on-beat" and the BGVs align w/ the main vocal (to my ears).
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The BGVs are somewhat aligned with the Main Vocals but they are off time with everything - the Bass and Drums are out time with each other and the vocals and the guitars - the Guitar are somewhat aligned with each other - but are out of time wtih the vocals - drums - and bass - at least that’s what is playing on my computer.
 
Papanate said:
The BGVs are somewhat aligned with the Main Vocals but they are off time with everything - the Bass and Drums are out time with each other and the vocals and the guitars - the Guitar are somewhat aligned with each other - but are out of time wtih the vocals - drums - and bass - at least that’s what is playing on my computer.
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Okay - I'll check to see if somehow in my attempt to align everything, I knocked the bass track out of sync. That's been the trick of the track. Thanks for the extra ears, P!
 
I agree with Papanate on everything.
But the song is good, you just have to align everything.
 
Sorry to hear about Stu, Kev. I know he was a hell of a guitar builder. And I remember listening to a bunch of his stuff at RP back in the day.
 
Manslick said:
Sorry to hear about Stu, Kev. I know he was a hell of a guitar builder. And I remember listening to a bunch of his stuff at RP back in the day.
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It came as a bit of a shock. He was only 65 years old. He was multi-talented, and a very smart fellow.
 
K-dub said:
It came as a bit of a shock. He was only 65 years old. He was multi-talented, and a very smart fellow.
Click to expand...
It’s kind of a reminder to live each day to the fullest you can - there’s no guarantee you’ll wake up tomorrow.
 
Kev, your description of Stu is bang on. 👍

The song: I'd be trying to record a new drum track - there's no groove with the present parts. Maybe new bass part, too. This one needs a light touch which is also tight as a tight thing.
 
dobro said:
Kev, your description of Stu is bang on. 👍

The song: I'd be trying to record a new drum track - there's no groove with the present parts. Maybe new bass part, too. This one needs a light touch which is also tight as a tight thing.
Click to expand...
The drums were "recorded" on a Roland TD-9 kit - so they're midi. I can not only tighten them, I can change the sound if I wish. I can't remember (as I write) whether I supplemented this with bongos and other rhythm percussion tracks. I may have. I know I did w/ one of the versions we tracked.

I AGREE that the drums lack an organic push. I think part of that was Frank's uncertainty on the e-Kit. He's tentative, not in a comfortable groove. I might be able to harvest a prior version's recording of live drums as well - but again - I'd need to adjust for the tempo grid.

Thanks for the point in the right direction, bud.
 
Song is cool and yah im with everyone else. There is fine line between loose and sloppy and distracting. The rhythm is the later
 


I listened, heard where the issue was, and tried to fix it. Better?
 
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