Ed plays the guitar!!!

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sonusman

sonusman

Banned
I was looking through some CD's, and lo and behold, I found a gem.

The first link is for a song called Superhero, which was written by a local band (Portland Or. local that is) Love Lode. It appeared on their Colorful Expressions CD that released about 2 years ago.

Anyway, after the guitars were tracked, I popped in another ADAT tape and recorded my own rythem and lead guitar tracks for the song. This is that version. Please excuse the mastering job as I spent, oh, about 5 minutes in GoldWave to maximize it, and do a touch of EQ.

Anyway, enjoy. This is probably one of the few times that you will actually hear me play something that I will share with people.

Also, the other song link provided is by the same band, but was recorded at another studio about a year before. What a change in song writing!!! "Changes", the name of the song, was probably about the only usable song out of 13 they tracked. Anyway, I mixed it for the fun of it.

The third link is especially dedicated to Slackmaster 2000. It is a band called Mirror Mirror (would I have to keep copying that for it to make sence??) They I guess never quite got into the 90's with the song writing, but at least they don't have mustaches!!!!! Hey the drummer even showed up to the rythem track session with driving gloves to wear while playing. The chains around his waist proved to be troublesome while tracking........

Here are the links. They should download for you without you leaving here.




Be aware!!! Changes is a little over 6MB, Superhero is just over 4MB, and The Dream is a bit over 4MB also as sonusman just doesn't care for 128kbs conversions on MP3's, so he uses 192kbs for a much better fidelity..... :) But be patient. I usually don't upload junk here guys..... :) So the download is probably worth the wait.

Ed Rei
Echo Star Studio www.echostarstudio.com



[This message has been edited by sonusman (edited 12-13-1999).]
 
Be patient drstawl. I forgot to upload before I posted. I started uploading at about 10:30pm PST. So, it should all be there by midnight. Sorry. I don't have a snazzy DSL connection out here in the boonies that I moved to recently, so my upload times are kind of slow.

Ed
 
I guess post and test first, then publicize the URL is just too inconvenient with a 56K connect. With those slower connects, it seems that you can wait an hour or two and then find out that nothing has transpired. A very frustrating turn of events.
I just wanna hear Ed pickin' and grinnin'.
:)
 
I see you and S8-N have more in common than I thought. Those were some together guitar tracks. I was more partial to Superhero than Changes, but both were good tunes. I didn't think they were as "crisp" as those tunes you posted by a client including the tune, "I Can't Find It" or "Wanna Get Next To You" from back in september and they were 192Kbps as well. Maybe it's just the style of music providing more opportunity for crisp tones or
more twiddling after the fact.
 
Well drstawl, there are a few fundamental differences between the recordings that would account for the "crispness" that you mention is not quite there.

First, "I Can't Find It" and "Wanna Get Next To You" where souly tracked, co-produced, and mixed by me. Also, the budget on those recordings where quite significant in comparison. Also, they where mixed through a DDA console with Uptown automation, as well as some other "goodies" that the studio had to offer.

Superhero had the guitars, bass, and vocals tracked at Echo Star right after we opened. Love Lode was our first client. So, I was still figuring things out, as well as the fact that the drum tracks where done at another studio, and the attention to details in the tracking stage by the other engineer was less than standard for the stuff I record. Also, his equipment list wasn't really all that. So, with a foundation (the drums) that was seriously flawed, the house (the other tracks) just don't really worked out all that well.

Changes was exclusively tracked at the other studio. That should be obvious from the lack of detail in the sound. Also, those tracks where recorded at -10, so a lot of headroom was lost. I just had the tapes, and kind of liked the song, so I decided to try mixing it.

Check out "The Dream" now. That was something I recorded last March. It was a 4 song demo that was recorded in one day, and mixed in one day. I feel the Bass tracks are a bit mushy (due to the fact that his setup just didn't really record well), and the keyboard patches are mostly garbage. But, for only spending a grand total of 5 hours to track and mix the song (that is taking the 20 hours total and dividing by 4 songs) I think that it mixed out quite well. Sort of fits the 80's type sound that the band has.

Thanks for the compliment on my guitar work on Superhero. Maybe soon here I might actually get to work on some of my own material to record..... :)

Ed
 
I only listened to Superhero strictly for your guitar work. I play guitar and am currently trying to learn how to get good tone down when recording to pc, especially that warm, thick rhythm guitar sound. I know that you are a purist so you probably frown on this but I often hear people talk about layering up offset copies of one guitar track to get that sound. How would you rate that technique against mixing seperately done takes (of the same line of course). When doing the multiple take thingy, how should you vary the tones to add up fat and tasty?
It also seems that some 'heavy' bands (Pantera etc.) duplicate that studio sound in a live environment by running multiple rigs with different tone setups at the same time. What do you think?
Dug your ax work, what inspired your effort? Your playing is the kind that I refer to as in the pocket, actually, I thought it was a bright spot on an otherwise slightly dull song.
Ever get any closer to realizing that band and a four-track idea?
And I almost forgot, what kind of gear did you play the gtr lines on?
Also :), I know of your fondness for high Kbps mp3s, is there a reason you stop at 192k? I just got a program that goes up to 320Kbps although I'm starting to wonder how much compression is even occuring at that rate. What mp3 encoder do you use?
What's your favorite color? Ever watch any Menudo videos? I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 50, what is it? Sorry, I know I go overboard but dammit, you're the man!!!
 
Let's see, my favorite color is purple, and I have never heard of Menudo,I am thinking number 34..... :)

Okay, I use Blade Encoder with the Blade Helper front end. I stop at 192 because it is was the lowest compression that you couldn't hear the difference between it and the .wav file at. Through studio monitors, you can still hear some of the lack of detail, but studio monitors are not what people normally listen to MP3's through.

Anyway, for the rythem and lead tracks I used a Marshall JCM 900 through the 1960 cabinet. I have a very nice and very sweet sounding G&L SR-500 guitar. This axe has been used on just about every bands recording that I have worked on in Echo Star. It is truely a classic sounding instrument. I mic'ed using a SM-57 about 6 inches from the cabinet on the outer side of the cone with just a bit of angle towards the coil. Pretty straight forward micing approach.

Guitars are a funny thing to track. Don't play well, well, go for the best take you can get and track double. If you have your chops together, well, play that rythem track again!!! Truely that is the most natural and best way to thicken rythem tracks. Track doubleing has a way of making the track kind of get lost in the mix. A little to perfect sounding. The same track performed twice will have enough varience between the two to really make the guitar stick out.

I usually when tracking two seperate takes will move the mic about one inch in some direction just to give a slightly different tone. Be careful though, sometimes it is just better to record it again and do a bit of eq'ing at mix to give the tracks a bit of tonal emphasis.

As far as using multiple setups and micing them all, well, if you have the bucks, well, go for it!!! What can it hurt. I like Pantera, but I wouldn't rate their guitars tones in the top of the league. Try listening to some old Heart records if you are looking for guitar tones to try to emulate. Man, that shit had some fat guitar sounds!!!

Good luck, and keep recording.

Ed
 
AS I claw my way up the mountain, I take these pebbles you cast down upon my still-not-worthy head and hold them close to my heart.
 
crazyhorse:

Most of your guitar tone is dependent upon the equipment you record with....guitar, pickup(s), amp, and mic. Multiple tracks of the same part will definitely give you a larger sound, but if your equipment is crap, the result will just be a larger version of a crappy sound.

sonusman:

Nice guitar work and tone, and the mix is probably the smoothest, most polished sound I've heard on this BBS. You've got the knowledge. Keep sharing.

Thanx,
dmc

[This message has been edited by dmcsilva (edited 12-15-1999).]
 
Slackman,

It was probably my server. I couldn't even log on this morning. Try again.

The rest of you all. Please, my girlfriend already thinks that I think too highly of myself..... :) (maybe I do.. :) ) But thanks for the compliments and all. I have been doing this for quite some time so I sometimes forget that the stuff I do actually invokes emotional responces from people, and it still blows me away how intense those responces can be.

Keep recording.

Ed
 
Sorry for this late post, only been able to visit since two days ago...Sonusman, you took an otherwise ok song and made it sound important! You can PLAY.... I take it that the band didn't use your add-ons for Superhero, but they should have...your guitar work matured and filled the sound...
(oh and by the way, on a previous post you were right about the BOSTON hype I was complaining about, however, when I was in Austin during that time, the dj's were constantly referring to Scholz/multi-tracking/one man band/genius etc..which certainly couldn't have hurt sales...and the walrus was Paul....gibs
 
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