A Quiet Collaboration - Part II

[MojoJim]

Well, we're back. Last November Strummer07 posted an collaboration put together by Strummer07, Golfxzq and MojoJim as our first beginner's posting to the 12bar Blues Room (see "A Quiet Collaboration").

Since then we have continued to work together. Strummer07 and Golfxzq have each posted music to 12bar individually and from time to time one of us will post a question to the forum when we need the input and help of the broader community.

We've worked with each other and with the 12bar community on playing (lots of work on playing), on theory (even a bit on modes), gear (we each have different setups), recording technique (we now all use the same DAW and are developing mixing skills) - and every other aspect of playing Blues music. It's a very enriching process. We put a lot of time into it and, so far, our wives are tolerant and a bit amused at what the boys are up to. We also exchange a lot of humorous emails and have a great time in general.

With two of us in the United States and one in the United Kingdom (and because we are united in the collaboration) it was a natural to title this piece "Blues United". We are all accustomed to waking each day to find the latest messages from the other side of the pond. Fortunately, there's enough overlap in waking hours to be able to do real time stuff during the day.

This recording is six iterations over a nice backing track we found. It's divided as follows:

Iterations 1 & 2 ------ 0:00 to 1:48 secs ------ Golfxzq
Iterations 3 & 4 ------ 1:49 to 3:25 secs ------ MojoJim
Iterations 5 & 6 ------ 3:26 to 5:10 secs ------ Strummer07

We believe we have improved since last November and we look forward to your comments and constructive criticism.

download/file.php?id=859

Best regards - MojoJIm. Golfxzq and Strummer07

[MikeJackal]

Three similar yet uniquely individual takes on the same track. Hearing the different tones was also good, what are the three axes being used on the song?
All in all great progress and even greater that you are having fun, making friends and learning something new. Because that's all that truly matters in life.

[VikingBlues]

We believe we have improved since last November and we look forward to your comments and constructive criticism.

You are ABSOLUTELY right. The thing that is most immediately obvious to me is the very much improved in phrasing by all three of the players. The three of you have been able to put together very individual performances but they are all connected enough in style to live comfortably side by side. I can hear that you are all paying attention to the backing track and trying to play notes that complement it - not something that is always easy to achieve. I also hear double notes particularly in the Golfxzq section, some very tasty bends in MojoJims section, two very contrasting and effectively contrasting tones and a few judicious chords in Strummers section. Like LynyrdS I am interested to know what gear / settings / recording techniques were involved.

We've worked with each other and with the 12bar community on playing (lots of work on playing), on theory (even a bit on modes), gear (we each have different setups), recording technique (we now all use the same DAW and are developing mixing skills) - and every other aspect of playing Blues music.

It is very nicely and effectively recorded too - the collective knowledge with all of you using the same DAW is showing iself to be a great idea.

One thing that is pretty obvious - you've all been working very hard at this in the last few months. VERY WELL DONE - all of you.

[Golfxzq]

Thanks guys...

what are the three axes being used on the song?

I was using "Black Cat", a Les Paul that I salvaged from a garage sale for $25 and my grandson, Aggiefan, and I brought back to life. It is a work in progress... this weekend we worked on the frets and installed a new set of Grover tuners. Here is a link that will show you more than you would ever want to know about this guitar...

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=299

I used a Line 6 UX1 interface and Pod Farm with the "Ace Lick" tone. This tone consists of a 4X12 Green 25s amp and a few other effects. I recorded using Cakewalk Sonar Home Studio 7.

I'll leave it up to MoJoJim and Strummer07 to describe their own gear and setup. We all use different gear except for the fact that we now all three have the same DAW... Cakewalk's Sonar Home Studio 7. The only difference being that MoJo and Strummer each have the XL upgrade and I do not. MoJoJim, our "Mix Master", used Sonar Home Studio 7XL to do the final mixing. He did a great job, don't you think?

...you are having fun, making friends and learning something new.

You are absolutely right... it's much more fun to learn how to play when you have friends to share your ups and downs with. Also, it really helps your learning process. The encouragement and critique of other fellow players helps tremendously.

The thing that is most immediately obvious to me is the very much improved in phrasing by all three of the players. The three of you have been able to put together very individual performances but they are all connected enough in style to live comfortably side by side. I can hear that you are all paying attention to the backing track and trying to play notes that complement it - not something that is always easy to achieve.

For me... that's a very BIG thank you, VB... this is one thing that we have striven to do... match our phrasing with the backing track and trying to match each others phrasing at the same time. I have discovered that there are a lot of difficult tasks in learning to play guitar.... notes, tone, timing, phrasing.... and then there is recording, effects, mixing... on and on. It is a continuous learning curve.

[Blindboy]

Good job, guys! I can hear definite growth on all of your parts. Nice phrasing and killer tones.
I feel kind of dumb, but what is a DAW?

[MikeJackal]

Digital Audio Workstation
You know theres this great website that answers those sorts of questions, it's called Google.com

[Golfxzq]

Sorry, Blindboy... I should have explained that a bit better. I am so used to using acronyms... I guess it's a carry over from my work days. It's ridiculous, isn't it? Why do we have to reduce everything to letters? Must be laziness. Our little colab is certainly not competent enough to play "Live and On Stage" like you do (maybe someday), so we record everything. The Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) that we use to record is Cakewalk Sonar Home Studio 7.

Later...

[vancouverois]

Well, it sounds quite good !
Congrats !

[2WheelsOfBlues]

For all. great job

[HalfBlindLefty]

Yup, you guy's are improving that's all to obvious.
I love the way this song came out, 3 voices that fit together well.
Keep the good work going.

[Strummer07]

Many thanks for listening fella's and thanks also for the comments ............very encouraging !! and very much appreciated.

Its certainly kept us out of mischief over the last month or so !! and we've had a lot of fun

Somebody , Lynrd77Skynrrrd I think .....asked about equipment
My Choice for this was my trusty and very lovely Gibson ES-339 neck pick up , usually with a bit of the treble rolled off
Via the Cakewalk V-studio 20 as an interface and into Guitar tracks 4...( I am only upgrading to HS7 now ........but its all compatible )

I've used effects from the V- Studio Editor ( which gives amazing choice and is based on the Boss GT10 )
Iteration 5 -I chose a Clean lead ......which is a JC20 Amp with a bit of Compression / tempo delay / and reverb
Iteration 6 - seemed to need something different as the BT seems to ratchet up .. So I chose a Clean Chorus setting - which is a Clean Twin Amp with Chorus and a touch of single delay plus reverb.
So that is my gear ............... Plan for the next project to amp up the Blackstar HT5 and see how we go with that .

Talking about The next Project !!......we plan to go again and crank up the Collab ..........

Having listened .....What and where would you focus our attention in terms of playing and techniques ??

[MojoJim]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

I played my part on an American Standard Strat that I picked up on Ebay a couple of years ago. I used the neck pickup.

Recorded through a Presonus Firestudio Mobile audio interface box. Tracked dry into the Presonus Studio One DAW.

When we settled on the SONAR Home Studio 7 DAW I moved the .wav file over to that DAW. Added a little reverb and compressor then mixed with the other member's playing and the backing track.

Blind Boy - if you are truly unacquainted with DAWs then I say ignorance is bliss. We are suffering through either culture clash or culture shock as we try to learn the DAW that we selected. More computer and software gorp than you can imagine - but moderately essential if you plan to generate drum tracks, do multi-track recording, use MIDI, perform sound editing, mix collaborations or any of the many other home recording techniques in play today.

[VikingBlues]

Interesting that - Lynyrd, HBL and I all mentioned how well the three voices fit together. And it turns out its a "Les Paul", Strat, and ES-339. Nice to hear the "Black Cat" can give such a good account of itself in the company of it's more famous relatives too! The way the sounds fit together shows how much the players can dictate the tone!

if you are truly unacquainted with DAWs then I say ignorance is bliss. We are suffering through either culture clash or culture shock as we try to learn the DAW that we selected. More computer and software gorp than you can imagine - but moderately essential if you plan to generate drum tracks, do multi-track recording, use MIDI, perform sound editing, mix collaborations or any of the many other home recording techniques in play today.

Can't disagree with this - and when I got to MIDI I know I was thrashing about at random hoping something might happen. The further it moves away from the DAW just being an on-screen version of what you'd do with a multi-track recorder the more I get baffled. As for creating drum tracks I've given up on it - thank goodness for backing tracks.

Having listened .....What and where would you focus our attention in terms of playing and techniques ??

The multi-million dollar question! I'm a great believer in keeping trying playing along with a big variety of backing tracks - getting your ear trained is a big step forward and the more you do this the more the brain-muscle memory thing gets going. Keeping on working at integrating those hammer-ons, pulls offs, slides and vibrato. That endless quest to get a good vibrato. You can also pick up a lot listening to the real blues players on this site - I hear what the likes of HBL, Blindboy et al post here and know I've got a huge amount to learn so who's to say how good my advice might be.