Blues with a Groove

  • Thread starter Thread starter Buck62
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Buck62

Buck62

噛んでくれ
Okay guys, it's been awhile since I've posted any new material, so here's a new one for y'all.
This song is a collaborative effort of my partner and I, (a.k.a. "The Mac Brothers") with Teddie (SmartApple) Tapawan.
Our sincerest gratitude to Teddie for the killer vocals that really brings this song to life! ;)
The song is called "Doin' Nothin", and will be on Teddie's next CD, as well as our own.
This was such a fun song and we're looking forward to hooking up with Teddie on another collaboration in the future.

Let us know what you think.... Thanx!

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/102/smart_apple.html
 
Another one that got Marilyn going... She must be smoking something tonight.
 
uh, guys... maybe y'all need to collaborate on a whole album! That was awesome!!! I would write more, but I gotta crank this sucker again!

Great work guys! I would like to know what equipment you guys used. Also, did you guys actually physically get together, or was this an email collab?

Brad
 
Everything worked on this tune...guitars, bass, harmonica, and natch, the vocals....great stuff....gibs
 
Congratulations...you get to be the first test of our DSL upgrade here at work! A good excuse to waste some time!

Man I'm very impressed here guys. The recording is absolutely excellent. Great vocals Teddie! Cool guitar work as well.

The only thing I don't like are the drums. Are they real? The kick and hat sound canned to me.

Anyway, nice! Did you guys actually get together or was it a mail thing?

Slackmaster 2000
 
drstawl, brad, gibs, slackmaster: Thanks for listening AND the positive reviews!! The instuments were all recorded at Buck62's studio on an AKAI DPS16. We sent out the song to Teddie and he recorded the vocal(s) and then sent (snail mail) them back to us. We then put it all together and mixed it on the AKAI. BIG thanks to Teddie for doin' the song AND posting it!!! I'll defer to Buck62 to fill ya all in on any more details.
 
Great stuff Buck. It all works. I had fun. Lost myself in the song. The rhythm section drives it beautifully. Tasteful harp fill-ins.

Fine vocal, although I might let it out a little more towards the end. I also might work with the guitar a little in supporting the vocal. Loved it though.
 
:) that was fun.

I'm actually headin' out to Chicago for my father-in-law's wedding in the Summer, so me and the Mac Bros are gonna hang out and jam in Buck's "killer-shining-potatos-studio" one of those days/nights that I'm out there. :D

... fun stuff! It was an honor to work with the Mac Bros.

Thanks for listening to it, folks.
I've been away from the bbs too long.

Teddie
(Smart Apple) http://mp3.com/smartapple
 
wow!

Holy smokes!
I just got home from work and saw all the great responses to "Doin' Nothin".... and WOW!!! :)

Doc: Glad to hear that Marilyn was inspired! :)

Brad: "A whole album?"... Man, that would be great if we could do it! Thanx, bro!

gibs: To say that "everything" worked in this song is a helluva compliment, man.... thanx!

Slack: You've got damned good ears! Since you and Brad both asked, I'll list the instruments and mics below. And thanx for the thumbs-up on this one... we're finally getting a handle on all the new equipment, and slowly getting better at our mixes.

Slim: We actually did a remix last night that makes the acoustic guitar a bit crisper and the talk-box guitar a bit louder during the break. We'll definitely give it another listen on the vocals to make sure it's tweaked properly.
Thanx you, sir!! :)

Teddie: We definitely, absolutely have to do this again! We've got more songs waiting to be recorded, and we're hoping to co-write with you some time soon. Thanx again for putting your creative genius into "Doin' Nothin". We're looking forward to seeing you in June! ;)

Here's what we used:

(Recorded on an Akai DPS-16)

An old Yamaha FG-150 acoustic: Mic'd with an AKG C3000 and run through a Mindprint Envoice, and we also used a Dean Markley acoustic pick-up. (Two tracks panned out opposite)

Godin Acousticaster: Played clean, panned left.

72 'Tele Thinline: Played clean, panned right.
This guitar was also played through the POD and a Heil Talk-Box for the instrumental break.

62 Fender P-Bass: Plugged into the Envoice, then straight in to the Akai.

Yamaha DTXpress E-Drum kit: Like I said, Slack... you've got good ears!

Hohner Harmonica: AKG C3000, Envoice.

I believe Teddie used a Shure SM57 for vocals, but I'm not positive.... and yes, this was a collaboration by mail.

My partner, Bob (a.k.a. MAC2) did a great job doing ALL the guitarwork on this one.
Thanx again for all the positive comments! :)








[Edited by Buck62 on 01-09-2001 at 17:07]
 
Buck & Teddie,

Great song, great playing, and great mix. Mac2 on acoustic, beautifull!! Song fit Teddie's voice like a glove. You guys sound like you've been playing together forever, or should be.

Two nit pics, I was getting a lot of flutter, as if song was encoded at 96kbps, I have never heard this much flutter at 128kbps, maybe your encoder? Also song should have ended on the next note, I was waiting and it didn't come.

Buck you didn't list which headphones you used. I will have to assume they were Koss. Good choice!!

You guys have to stick together, just great!!

GT
 
Muchas Gracias, GT. :)
When we finished the instrument tracks, we knew that we had a song that would sound good with Teddie's vocals.
Hell... EVERYTHING sounds good with Teddie's vocals!
I didn't notice the flutter you talked about. Hmmmm...
As far as the ending goes, we ended it at the break where the acoustic does that little run a couple of times during the song. It just seemed like the right spot to us.

BTW, We now have THREE pairs of Sony MDR7506's!!! Sorry to disappoint, bro. ;)

Thanx again, dude.
 
Tons of interesting things goin' here, how about that wah filter guitar thing goin' in the middle. Excellent recording and use guitars and other instrumentation. At times one of the guitars sounds like a rhodes, (or is it a rhodes?) that is always magical. The introduction and subsequent turn-arounds keep the listener on his/her feet.
 
Damn! I was meaning to listen to this the other day. Hey Buck & Teddie and Mac2, man this sounds really great! I really dig that guitar and harp going at it. I liked the way it's mixed too. Man you guy's need to do more stuff together, this was fab!!!!!!!!!!
 
Thanx much, guys!

bball: That filtered guitar is a Tele and an old Heil TalkBox. Nobody uses 'em much today, so we brought one out of retirement.

David: We're definitely gonna do another song or two with Teddie. It would be nice if that song gets some FM airplay! Thanx for the mix comments, too... we spent a few hours to get it right. It's nice to hear that the effort was worth it. :)

Buck
 
nice work!

i really like the guitar work, especially the stuff that has them cool timing changes....

my only critique would be the e-drums...just would sound better with a real kit. but i have the same problem with my stuff!

man that akai is one nice sounding unit! it sounds like you really got a handle on getting some nice clean warm guitar and vocal sounds...i'm sure the envoice was crucial in that department!
 
Thanks, drew... :)

We used the Envoice on the acoustic guitar, but Teddie did the vocals through a SM57 with no preamp (as far as I know).
I actually like playing the e-drums more than an acoustic set for recording. That way, we don't have to use all the extra channels for each seperate mic and it lets us make the most out of the 24-bit mode... which, as you know, only allows you ten tracks to work with.

GOOD NEWS!!!!
"Doin' Nothin" hit #12 on the 'General Blues' chart on MP3.com yesterday!!!!

YESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!! :)
 
Big thumbs up. Teddy does sound great on the vox, but the whole thing grabbed me. The recording sounds good too, especially the kick. love it

Ray J
 
Hi Buck62 – further to our *popup chat* as promised I downloaded the song. Firstly may I say I loved it, great song, vocal, guitar etc.

But at your request here is a full rundown of my impressions. I’ll cover the four elements of a pop song:

The singer
The song
The feel, groove
The fiddley bits – i.e. countermelody, parts and riffs etc.

So..The Singer. Yo Teddie Yeah he grabbed me straight away. Nice voice, good expression of the lyric and groove, I reckon the vocal was great. Great harmony vox as well. As has been mentioned before I felt he could have done more at the end yet considering the conditions under which it was recorded and the fact that I felt the groove from the drums was throwing him a bit, you should be very pleased with his performance. I think I can hear teddie muttering – HEY I can do it better than that! ;)

The Song……. LOVE IT, great words that setup pictures in your head, in fact I’ve got to get rid of the one in my head regarding the female version of the song with a tall sassy hooker in 4” heels telling us about how she gets paid by the hour :D If only I could find one…….. but being from Chicago Police I’m sure you could get me 20 phone numbers in 5mins. Maybe Shakey wants to try an image change ;)
I felt maybe the song title could have appeared more by repeating the “I don’t feel like doing nothing blues” line at the end of each chorus.. Also Teddie could have done the chorus thing at the end by repeating “feel like doing nothing” as a vox group which he then scats over like he did.

The feel/groove…here I had problems with the drums and the feel, I liked the kick in the intro as it helped setup the song but it should have sunk back behind the bass that was playing the groove better, mainly in the verses. The drum machine was too stilted for me. Machine drums need to be programmed by a drummer, or keyboard player at least.

The fiddley bits etc…LOVED THE GUITAR INTRO, great playing Mac2 and great lines, I thought we were going into swampy Tull, yeah, nice interesting guitar parts. I was pleased to read you were going to brighten it a bit, maybe take out some 250-300hz instead. I liked the stereo spread using the 2 sounds, direct/miked. The harp was neat the way it sat in behind center and floated through the song, very tasteful. The instrumental sections were great, that effected tele guitar worked really well and created interest.

Can’t wait to hear your other songs McBrothers, great songs and sounds, if this is an indication of the rest of it…… it’s going to be a good album, and a real drummer could make it excellent.

Cheers
John
 
Woah!... John... You've got some good ears, my friend!
That's an interesting idea about backing off the volume on the drums during the verses. You're right-on about the bass player having a better groove.
As for the vocals, we gave Teddie a couple of ideas for the melody and such, but we left it open for him to let his creativity flow... and flow it did! But, I know what you're saying about a chorus-thing at the end. Pop-tunes tend to be a bit more repetetive on chorus parts, but we didn't want it to be "over-popped", just catchy.
Getting back to the drums... I'm not quite sure what you mean. That wasn't a drum machine playing, it was ME playing a full size electronic kit (Yamaha DTX).
Actually, I'm a guitar player, but I play a good, steady back-beat... without a lot of rolls or variation. I guess that's why people think it's a drum machine... I'm a bit stiff. ;)
You nailed the rest of it... the acoustic guitar, the harp, etc.
Many, many Thanx for the detailed critique and the thumbs-up! :) We really appreciate it!
I couldn't find that address of yours, so I'll hit you with an e-mail for the info.
Thanx again!

Buck
 
Hi folks.

The Mac Bros (Buck and Mac2) sent me an updated mix of "Doin' Nothin'". I'll have it up on the Smart Apple site http://mp3.com/smartapple within a couple of days... it might take a little longer than that for it to go through the update queue, but it'll be updated soon.

Ask Mac2 about the changes to the mix as he would know better.

The Mac Bros ROCK!

Teddie
(Smart Apple) http://mp3.com/smartapple
 
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