for all the lost dogs and children of the world

[Walter Tore]

Hi All: I am still on my playing the drums in a standard kit set up. I did this one tonight and is my third song playing the drums this way! We found a stray hound dog a couple summers ago. A long story short we have been trying to find him a home to no avail. He attacked the neighbors cat the other day. This coupled with his need to follow his nose, makes keeping such a dog in the village is a bad set up. We gave him up to the humane society yesterday. Today Judy, our other 2 dogs, cat and me, were missing Emmie real bad. He is a sweet dog that was raised on 45 acre farm. He is use to running all day and coming home when he is tired out. He had a micro chip in him when we found him The farmer lost his farm and kind of had a mental breakdown. He just turned the dog loose and we found him. Living on a 60'x60' city lot, with car traffic all around was going to get him killed. The humane society said they have a potential person to adopt him. He has a big farm and he could run. We are praying he makes it there. We never gave up a dog before. I have been involved in collie rescue for 10 years. We are the ones that take in all the strays, but we never had a hound dog before. Please spay and nueter your pets. Walter

For all the lost dogs and children of the world

 

[adamvelvetu]

Hi All: I am still on my playing the drums in a standard kit set up. I did this one tonight and is my third song playing the drums this way! We found a stray hound dog a couple summers ago. A long story short we have been trying to find him a home to no avail.

Dig it man, sorry to hear about the dog but hope that he finds a home! On to the recording: you're getting a really cool guitar song there...it completely takes me back to exile on main street 'i just want to see his face' and the mix between your vocal and harmonica have a total sonny rollins vibe. i think the way you recorded the drums works well for this song but i could only faintly hear the bass drum in the background or my ears were playing a trick and there was no bass drum. if you brought that up you'd have an all around nice mix.

 

[Walter Tore]

Dig it man, sorry to hear about the dog but hope that he finds a home! On to the recording: you're getting a really cool guitar song there...it completely takes me back to exile on main street 'i just want to see his face' and the mix between your vocal and harmonica have a total sonny rollins vibe. i think the way you recorded the drums works well for this song but i could only faintly hear the bass drum in the background or my ears were playing a trick and there was no bass drum. if you brought that up you'd have an all around nice mix.

thanks adamvevetu for listening and giving me that feedback. Since I started learning how to record about 5 years ago, it has pretty much been one take 1 man band (everything played at once) or solo harp/acoustic guitar. In the 1 man band context, the bass drum dominates the sound so bad I have to use a low cut eq on it. On this song I recorded all the drums at once and again, the bass drum dominated the sound. This is only my third time playing drums with my hands and feet at the same time. I will have to listen to the bass drum and see if it is time with the beat. I was pretty much locked on the snare and ride cymbal. I guess I need to listen to some stones and rock music. I mainly listen to the 50's blues and Sinatra like stuff. Neither has a bass drum presence in it.

I spent about 20 minutes mixing this song. My brain is pretty is rutted in not hearing a bass drum. I am going to pandora radio and listen to some exile on main street stuff. Bobby keys their sax player use to frequent my austin gigs. Any suggestions would be welcomed on the bass drum thing. Walter

 

[adamvelvetu]

I mainly listen to the 50's blues and Sinatra like stuff. Neither has a bass drum presence in it.

I spent about 20 minutes mixing this song. My brain is pretty is rutted in not hearing a bass drum. I am going to pandora radio and listen to some exile on main street stuff. Bobby keys their sax player use to frequent my austin gigs. Any suggestions would be welcomed on the bass drum thing. Walter

That's true...drums in general just weren't a part of the mixing equation during that time period (hell they weren't really even present in the early beatles stuff) and so stylistically you're right, you can go without. While chess records artists didn't have that element, their predecessors (like leadbelly) did use that backbeat a lot but instead of using a bass drum its literally just their foot stomping on the ground ala the lomax field recordings. if you want to go super authentic you could just overdub something like that and have something pretty sweet?

 

[Walter Tore]

thanks! I guess growing up during the beatles and stones era, with just a cheap transitor radio and funky record player, you never heard a bass drum. Then when I started playing music I hooked up with the old blues guys and they never mic'd anything but the vocals in the small clubs we played. there was usually a small PA of sorts with no monitors. The drum kit always just blended in, with the snare and cymbals coming through. I followed this approach and to date still have a small 2 speaker PA with 1 mic and no monitors. When I do festivals and bigger clubs with sound systems, they always want to make the bass drum kaboom over everything. I try to explain my mix but often it goes on deaf ears. What I do control is the stage mix. I do this by usually having no monitors turned on. I go with acoustic levels and it works fine. I figure at least if I am feeling good that vibe will show. Walter