It's collab time again

[BluesLicksMaster]

Erm .. Unless something odd is going on with my PC I think this upload is just the original track BLM?

Whoops! Let's try that again:

download/file.php?id=338

[VikingBlues]

Whoops! Let's try that again:

That was worth waiting for. Atmosperic and melodic and I admire the way it built.

So four versions to date and how different they all are while still fitting in - shows there's a huge panorama of possibilities - getting to hear all these visions on how a piece can work is one of the things I really like about this forums blues room.

[HalfBlindLefty]

OOPS! Loaded the wrong thing
Try this one. Sorry about that, I have a couple of files with similar names.

Sweet ! BB, you got me carried away while listening, Beautiful phrasing. Good choice of notes.

[HalfBlindLefty]

Erm .. Unless something odd is going on with my PC I think this upload is just the original track BLM?

Whoops! Let's try that again:

That is some damn good playing, great build up and great melody lines there Mr. Blm.
Thanks for joining this and sharing. Awesome playing

[HalfBlindLefty]

While I was listening to all the collabs that have been uploaded, I suddenly heard the sound of someone softly crying coming from the corner of my room.
I turned and to my amazement it wasn't my daugther that -without me noticing- had entered my room and was sad.
No, it was my Epi Dot... spilling tears all over her leather strap.

I had forgotten about her with all the new toys that have come in lately.
She wanted to be played to

Well I fetched her from her stand and to my amazement (again) I could skip tuning her strings. I fired up the soul blues collab track and played my version of the 2nd part.

Mhh... she still has that certain something..... I guess I missed her to

download/file.php?id=339

We are friends again now

[VikingBlues]

While I was listening to all the collabs that have been uploaded, I suddenly heard the sound of someone softly crying coming from the corner of my room.
I turned and to my amazement it wasn't my daugther that -without me noticing- had entered my room and was sad.
No, it was my Epi Dot... spilling tears all over her leather strap.

I had forgotten about her with all the new toys that have come in lately.
She wanted to be played to

Well I fetched her from her stand and to my amazement (again) I could skip tuning her strings. I fired up the soul blues collab track and played my version of the 2nd part.

Mhh... she still has that certain something..... I guess I missed her to

We are friends again now

Such sweet tears from your dear friend - glad you're reunited. Beautifull second part there.

[VikingBlues]

Fantastic! Maybe HBL can mix it all together for the album?

This thought of yours rattled around my head today. I couldn't resist - for my own interest.

I've not got got HBLs editing and recording skills but I put a string of these renditions together with HBLs opening and closing statements and ElMano, myself, Blindboy and BluesLicksMaster's contributions in full. It makes rather a long 16 minutes but it works very well and the different styles and ideas make it seem much shorter. I've just cobbled it together so the timing just about works at the changeovers between players and so that the volume settings of each person are compatible.

Oh, and I'm a bit worried Hans will have a fit at this - for my own listening pleasure I've added a bit of reverb to my contribution - I'm afraid it's the only way it is able to sit in there with the others without seeming out of its depth - I have tried both versions and it was no contest. Sorry HBL, but you have to realise I'm a reverb addict and I need my fix!

It's a pretty hefty 14.5 Mb by the time it's all in there though. Anyway, it's going on CD to play in the car tomorrow. I can then listen to my friends and hear their great music to compensate for my going to work.

If you want me to post it up to the thread I can (or do a link if it's too big?), but as I said I'm little skilled in record engineering skills.

[12bar]

I had forgotten about her with all the new toys that have come in lately.

Shame on you! Such a beautiful guitar!

Again great playing and that wonderful DOT tone
Kudos to BLM, too - good choice of notes!

I thought of HBL mixing it because he has opened this thing - but whoever does it, it should be done. 14,5 MB is a bit too much for the script, but if it really needs this length we can upload via ftp, no problem.

[VikingBlues]

I thought of HBL mixing it because he has opened this thing - but whoever does it, it should be done. 14,5 MB is a bit too much for the script, but if it really needs this length we can upload via ftp, no problem.

12bar - I agree wholeheartedly that it should be done - put on a CD and played on a proper hi-fi it sounds very, very good to me.

I think it needs to be done with proper skill to get all the joins and balancing right - I was struggling to do much more than a basic patch with some of the joins (called not knowing what you're doing!). I'm glad I did it though as the end result is something I'd just as soon listen to as a commercial CD. The 15 minutes just flies by listening to it. (I can get my amateur attempt direct to HBL if it's any help).

So VB - to reverb or not reverb? Here's reverb added to my guitar on the version I first posted.
download/file.php?id=340
I was fairly OK on my no reverb version till I burned to CD in this experiment and played the CD through a proper sound system and found that to my ears it didn't work. I think when the reverb version is used I'm much less aware of the flaws and mistakes, and it feels like it's got more depth, and so feels a bit more like it belongs in the same stable as the other contributors. Ho hum.

[HalfBlindLefty]

Thanks a lot guys :)

Mixing/joining the tracks won't be a problem.
I'll contact Gerd about it :)

VB, I don't mind the reverb to much :) you should have noticed I use it myself to.
Downside of much reverb is in my opinion it distracts to much from the tone and played notes. When I want to judge a guitars sound I rather hove no or just a little reverb.

[VikingBlues]

Thanks a lot guys :)

Mixing/joining the tracks won't be a problem.
I'll contact Gerd about it :)

VB, I don't mind the reverb to much :) you should have noticed I use it myself to.
Downside of much reverb is in my opinion it distracts to much from the tone and played notes. When I want to judge a guitars sound I rather hove no or just a little reverb.

I've been sort of unhappy with myself really for my over-reliance on reverb and trying to hide my insecurity by joking that you would be annoyed by the inclusion of reverb. I agree that if overdone reverb is not a benefit at all. Getting the balance right isn't always easy - the more mistakes I'm aware of in anything I've played makes it more likely that my application of reverb goes too far in a futile attempt to cloak the errors.

One think I would recommend on your mixing of the tracks is that the last post you made with the epi dot is a great way to finish the piece. It balances it nicely as you've started it, but it's more because there's such strong emotional playing. Your epi's tears were transformed into tears of music.

[BluesLicksMaster]

I've been sort of unhappy with myself really for my over-reliance on reverb and trying to hide my insecurity by joking that you would be annoyed by the inclusion of reverb. I agree that if overdone reverb is not a benefit at all. Getting the balance right isn't always easy - the more mistakes I'm aware of in anything I've played makes it more likely that my application of reverb goes too far in a futile attempt to cloak the errors.

Hey man, it takes a lot of guts to put your playing on the web for the world to hear it, especially when you may not be happy about the performance! It seems to me that you are your own worst critic, I heard nothing on that take you should be ashamed of. In fact I think it shows a lot of soul, and I really like the melodic sense of the whole thing.

There are a couple of things I learned a long time ago:

1. Mistakes are unavoidable.
2. If I freak out about them the audience will get uncomfortable, If I laugh them off the audience will usually laugh with me.

Sometimes the little mistakes give the performance a more human quality...they aren't perceived by the listener as mistakes at all. Music that is too perfect sucks anyhow. That's one reason so many modern recordings are so boring. They've been tweaked and fixed and computerized til the human quality is gone. At least that's my opinion My favorites are the ones from the days when they set up a couple mics, did 2 takes of each tune and picked the best one.

So don't sweat what you hear as mistakes. From what I'm hearing you're doing just fine. Just keep at it!

(And btw, you'll notice I choked hard on a note in my take on this one...when I started to play the single notes. I liked the rest of the recording so I figured I'd put it up anyhow. What the hell, right?!)

[Bluez2move]

That's some sweet playing by
all involved ... very nice

[VikingBlues]

Sometimes the little mistakes give the performance a more human quality...they aren't perceived by the listener as mistakes at all. Music that is too perfect sucks anyhow. That's one reason so many modern recordings are so boring. They've been tweaked and fixed and computerized til the human quality is gone. At least that's my opinion My favorites are the ones from the days when they set up a couple mics, did 2 takes of each tune and picked the best one.

I agree so much with this. I've always preferred a good live recording to even a good studio recording even if the live version has mistakes. I suppose I should apply that principle listening to myself.

Even with a song like Need Your Love So Bad with Fleetwood Mac (way back in Peter Green days) where the recording technique was pretty basic and the published version was a good one I find myself preferring some of the earlier takes included on the remastered Pious Bird of Good Omen CD. To my ears, despite some mistakes (and one or two quite big mistakes) the earlier takes have an extra emotional quality in the playing that's not so noticable in the final version. Cries of "Oh no - Viking's banging on about Peter Green again"!

Thank you for your encouraging words. I'm fairly new to all this (posted my first on-line work ever last December encouraged by seeing how friendly the members here were to the "newbies") and I've been learning a lot over the last 12 months+ since I got a proper interest in blues. I'm one of these people that played when young - stopped - and came back to it after family had grown up. I would like to get to a stage where I can manage to build a solo and manage the structured ebb and flow of the piece in a way so many of the very good players here like yourself do - that quality was very evident in your version posted on this thread. I've started to get my hands hearing my head singing notes and playing the right ones for me - now all I've got to do (!) is make my head more musically intelligent!

[Pena]

Really nice playing, from everyone of you gents
Didn't have the courage to even try it
Pena

[HalfBlindLefty]

Really nice playing, from everyone of you gents
Didn't have the courage to even try it
Pena

In that case my friend you have more reason to ashamed of the fact that you didn't give it a try.
We @ 12bar will never put a persons playing down, we encourage and try to give some good advise.

So, now into your playing room, fire up the Bt and play a couple of lines.

Remember we all started our life needing diapers the only difference is our real age and the number of years we play, no shame in that

[Pena]

you maybe right HBL

[vancouverois]

What an excellent job you guys did
I'm just back from a few days off, so here is my take.
It's recorded straight to the computer soundcard thru a Pod 2.0 and it contains all the mistakes

download/file.php?id=345

[HalfBlindLefty]

Very well done
You got some sweet sounds there.

[12bar]

Sweeeeet! Wonderful - this BT seems to get superb playing out of everyone...