Six Ribbons

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GuitarLegend

GuitarLegend

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This is my recording of the Jon English song, Six Ribbons (1979)

I recorded this on a classical guitar which I no longer own, so modifications will be a bit tough, lol

The background singer is my girlfriend who also helped with the arrangement of the song

Six Ribbons
 
There's something very endearing about this song, man. The vocals seem almost low-fi... The room comes through loud and clear on the vocal track. The thing is, it really works well with this song, intended or not. Great singing, and playing, too.

The strings, when they come in, are very wide, whereas the rest of the instruments are pretty narrow. Seems slightly out of place.

Good song! Thanks for sharing.
 
Thanks for that, I am glad you could listen. The vocal reverb was added at a time when I was self-conscious of my voice and I thought that reverb would drown any imperfections. I also liked the sound of classical guitar reverb when I heard it on professional recordings and tried to match it with the vocals. If it sounds roomy, its entirely by accident. I didn't like the original strings that I used, these are a late alteration. Will check out the reason for the apparent width. Thanks for listening :)
 
Not my cup of tea but the production is superb. Well done.
 
Thanks Murders, there are not many songs I sing for myself, mostly they are requested by someone else. That usually means an interesting range of styles. I did this one for the classical guitar piece and someone said it might suit my voice. I dont often play this one but I enjoyed recording it
 
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The reverb etc on the voice makes a good match for Jon's voice. Mario Milo co wrote this didn't he? THe flute/recorder bit is a little lou for me.
The song si SSSOOOO much better than the TV series (my missus has it on DVD & replayes it often).
Jon & the Sebastian Hady crew were a approximate Cabramatta boys!
Good playing & singing. What synth patches did you use for strings et al?
Good work! Just don't do anything from his Pirates canon!
 
Thanks Rayc, the pan flute was from Cakewalk's built-in fx, the strings are from Dimension Pro 1.5
The rest is a classical guitar and a Fender precision bass

Thanks PDP, enjoyed playing it :D
 
Very nice, but the voice swimming in reverb is a bit distracting. If it was closer to the front, it would give the piece a nice intimate touch, which would go well with the traditional feel. Great performance though.
 
Thanks Joeym, I didn't think it had any more vocal reverb than the original by Jon English. If it comes across like that, maybe I should change it but I think everyone at that time was playing with vocal reverb. I will try a new dry vocal track on that one and play with the reverb level. Hope I still have my voice :/
 
Ok, re-recorded the vocal dry and added reverb later but less than the previous version (which is still up for comparison). I cut back on the panflute just a touch. Um, thats about it. Hope its still good :)

Six Ribbons (new vocal)
 
God, I never thought I'd be listening to that song again, let alone twice in a row.

Think the less reverby second version is better...

Are you do some other processing on your voice is it just me? Seems a bit strange on extended words... hair, care... etc.

The pan flute sound is awful, sorry... and I'm not liking the string samples much either... Buy a $10 tin whistle and learn to play it - easy as pie... or a school recorder even... that would sound better.

Let me know when you cover Hollywood 7... :drunk:
 
The usual suspects, Armistice, compression, equalizer and reverb. And 6 takes to get the one I liked... its just my rough voice, if you have any polite suggestions on what I can do with that, I am all ears.

I am not much liking the strings either but only because I think they are bit loud in the mix.

Hollywood 7 - well, I usually sing what someone requests... :)

Thanks for the feedback
 
GuitarLegend said:
The usual suspects, Armistice, compression, equalizer and reverb. And 6 takes to get the one I liked... its just my rough voice, if you have any polite suggestions on what I can do with that, I am all ears.

I am not much liking the strings either but only because I think they are bit loud in the mix.

Hollywood 7 - well, I usually sing what someone requests... :)

Thanks for the feedback
Click to expand...

Not really sure GL... I'm only listening on small headphones at work and it's a compressed sample so prolly just artifacts from that... yeah, turn the strings down a touch and they might sit better... try the tin whistle thing though, really easy to play and sound much better than pan pipe samples..

Keep it up!
 
Never know how people are going to be listening to it. I just listened to it on my iPhone with Sony earphones. I can hear my own croaky voice but no artifacts as such. Try listening to it on speakers. Admittedly I am short of mastering skills and I stop at my final mix. But all feedback is appreciated
 
And thank you for taking to time to comment. I really appreciate that :)
 
Maybe Turn the Page or Three!
The reverb reduced version is better -
There's is something giving the strings some grief - what are you using to compress the track & what sized rate of MP3?
You really should try to drop a 320 if possible.
Are those clunks background noise or guitar thumping?
I just checked & it is a 320 so the artifacts are creeping in somehwere. What's your signal path?
Oh, generally cool version.
Hey, three Australian comments in a row!!!
 
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