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Blue Thunder

richardyotrichardyot
edited January 2015 in Creations

This is a cover of an old song by Galaxie 500, a live performance warts and all that is really just intended as a record of my progress.

I have been singing for just over a year, and this time last year I was very much still at the strangled cat stage. I used a great app called Erol's Singers Studio which taught me to sing in tune, and while my performances are still very scrappy I now generally notice more mistakes in my guitar playing than in my singing, so I definitely count that as positive progress.

The song was recorded in one take, no overdubs, and then mixed in Auria with some EQ, compression and probably too much reverb. The mix is pretty thin sounding though, I only have one decent mic, which is used for the vocals, so the guitar is recorded with a cheap and nasty one. I need to negotiate the purchase of a second condenser with the powers that be...

Comments

  • WMWMWMWM
    edited January 2015

    Honest and sober, keep It up!

  • JohnnyGoodyearJohnnyGoodyear

    @WMWM said:

    Honest and sober, keep up the good work.

    Now this is getting TOO close to those other meetings... :)

    @richardyot Interesting and great that you feel you've figured out a way to make good progress with the singing. Too may of us think we can either sing or can't. Confidence plays such a part. Although this is a 'gentle' tune I would like to hear you sing with a little more fierceness (technical term).

    Ever done a cover of 'For the turnstiles'? Might be interesting....

  • pangolinpangolin

    Definitely a Neil Young vibe going here, as @JohnnyGoodyear noted.

  • richardyotrichardyot

    @JohnnyGoodyear The idea that you have it or you don't is what put me off singing in the past, and I think it's a poisonous one. Singing is a skill like any other, it has to to be learned and practised. I've still got plenty of practising to do, but there's been audible progress in the last year.

    I'm a fan of Neil Young, don't know if I could play that one on the guitar though :) I can do a couple of his songs already (Harvest, and Four Strong Winds), and I can play The Needle and the Damage done but I can't sing high enough to cover it, unless I detune the guitar about four steps or put a capo on the eighth fret, neither of which are ideal.

    Anyway, thanks for listening to my scrappy performance and for the comments.

  • JohnnyGoodyearJohnnyGoodyear

    "...a little part of it in everyone."

  • WillWill

    Long one of my favorite songs. Nice work! There can never be enough reverb when doing a G500 cover.

  • richardyotrichardyot

    @syrupcore said:

    Long one of my favorite songs. Nice work! There can never be enough reverb when doing a G500 cover.

    You have great taste - and your username makes a lot more sense now :)

    Maybe one day I should try and do a cover that does it justice. The sound engineering and production on that album is one of my references, it sounds incredible, especially considering it was recorded in a tiny New York apartment, and Kramer mixed the whole album in six hours.

  • WillWill

    and Kramer mixed the whole album in six hours

    Really? Dayum, that is humbling.

  • JohnnyGoodyearJohnnyGoodyear

    Well, yes. Sometimes it's wise for a man to have a back up career..

    image

  • eustressoreustressor

    @richardyot Really nice performance! I'm unfamiliar with the original, but I agree too much is made about singing being some mystic art. 90% confidence, 10% tricks you learn along the way.

    I found the vocals relaxing and of a piece with the composition. Thanks for sharing :)

  • richardyotrichardyot

    Thanks eustressor.

    And Johnny, although there is actually a passing resemblance between the two, it's a different Kramer. I've never watched Seinfeld, but I did discover Shimmy Disc in my late teens, so in my little world Kramer from Noise New York is infinitely more famous than that other guy.

    There's a really nice oral history of Galaxie 500 on Pitchfork:

    http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/7792-temperatures-rising-galaxie-500/

    My two favourite quotes from it:

    Kramer: On the first day of recording, I'll tell you what I thought. I thought Dean was just adequate as a guitar player. I wondered if he could play more than two or three chords. Damon? I thought, this takes guts to play almost nothing.

    Dean Wareham: I remember Carney asking Kramer what key "Blue Thunder" was in, but Kramer wouldn't tell him. "You'll know," he said.

  • WillWill

    @richardyot said:

    There's a really nice oral history of Galaxie 500 on Pitchfork:

    http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/7792-temperatures-rising-galaxie-500/

    Can I have your email? Need to give it to my boss when she wonders what I did for the last hour. That was so good and so heartbreaking. I knew the breakup wasn't good but didn't know it was so bad. Third album also makes more sense now.

  • richardyotrichardyot

    Lol :)

    You might also want to read Dean Wareham's book, Black Postcards, it's a very good read if you you are into the indie scene from that period, and the whole Galaxie/Luna story.

  • supanortonsupanorton

    Nice! I enjoyed it. I like the reverb and I like your strumming work. Did you try a low cut/high pass on the acoustic? Might be able to tame some of the boominess. I'm looking forward to hearing more of your stuff.

  • richardyotrichardyot

    @supanorton said:

    Nice! I enjoyed it. I like the reverb and I like your strumming work. Did you try a low cut/high pass on the acoustic? Might be able to tame some of the boominess. I'm looking forward to hearing more of your stuff.

    Thanks - although the strumming in that performance is actually pretty terrible :) Good to hear that it might not be so obvious to others as it is to me, but it was intended as a raw performance rather than a polished recording.

    Thanks for the tip about the high pass filter, the guitar is a jumbo so it is a bit boomy. I've just bought a second condenser mic to record the guitar with, and I also really need to address my monitoring.

    I'm recording another cover at the moment, and an original song as well, I haven't posted much music as I really am still learning the ropes, but hopefully I can increase my output in 2015. I'm very far from being even a decent performer or mixing engineer, but recording more stuff is definitely going to help me learn both.

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