So I got my Boomerang Plus in the mail yesterday and it's everything I expected- simple layout, good sound quality, no permanent storage, etc. It's been a lot of fun, but it's also been quite humbling/eye opening to be immediately faced with my somewhat sloppy playing when I press the "play" button. It's one thing to hear a little slop in a recording and do it over; It's another to be smacked across the face with the not-so-hotness of your playing coming out of your amp in a split second.
After a half hour or so, I could already hear my timing getting better, but there's still a way to go. It's a good thing that I'm finally facing up to these issues in my playing. Anybody else had this sort of experience with looping stuff?
King Harvest has surely come.
Nope - I've always known I was a sloppy player :)
A friend of mine has just gone through it though. It was a bit of a shock for him to find that my rough estimate of 1 take in 20 being good enough was fairly accurate for what we were doing. He was counting on 1 or 2, and had scheduled accordingly :shock:
I have been taping myself and friends jamming for years. I am used to hearing how bad I am.
now that I am recording tracks it is even worse. hearing oneself so 'bareneaked' is humbling.
however, as soon as I start adding drums, another guitar, bass, thingas sound much much better.
in the end ...not too bad.
it is good to be self critical, but a good length of slack helps too.
He was counting on 1 or 2, and had scheduled accordingly :shock:
Whoops! When I first started recording, it was the same thing. I'd just lay it down, come up with another part, lay it down, then bass... and by that point I'd start to hear how gross my basic track was that I'd get discouraged and have to quite a while.
it is good to be self critical, but a good length of slack helps too.
Indeed. I usually get that slack through some reverb, delay, and other effects out of my Boss ME-50 and was really looking forward to using it in tandem with the Boomerang. But alas, its power supply was being tempermental and I didn't feel like springing for 6 AAs at the moment. So until that's fixed, it's ugly, "bare naked" playin' for me.
King Harvest has surely come.
Same experiences. I have about a 3 dozen songs that I wanted to record. Figured it would take me a week or so. HA!
After I heard how truly terrible I play, that "week" turned into about three weeks for one good take, for one part of a song.
And then...I recorded myself singing.... Holy crap. I've redefined the humility. Did you ever say to yourself, "Hey, I can sing that!" or " Wow, I didn't sound half bad" (whilst driving your car with the radio volume on 11) I know I have. And man, what a rude awakening I had once I heard how gawd awful I sounded. But ya know what?? I'm still trying and still having fun with it. The neighbors want to kill me but too bad for them. :wink:
Teamwork- A few harmless flakes working together can unleash an avalanche of destruction.
I always was pretty sure that I couldn't sing. Then I got a microphone and recorded myself. Now I'm absolutely sure I can't sing. In fact I sing worse than I thought I did.
I'm pretty sloppy on guitar as well. It can be frustrating getting a good take. I particularly hate the ones where you are almost to the end and bam! you screw up. I was recording a drum track a few weeks ago w/ my keyboard and had failed I don't know how many times. I finally had a take that was staying in time and sounded right, I only had about 45 seconds to not screw up and I'd have it nailed. So of course, my phone starts ringing and it's turned all the way up. No big deal, I can ignore it and finish. I had headphones on, but the volume was down so I could hear the phone and normal conversation just fine. I guess my son assumed I couldn't hear because he says "Daddy, your phone is ringing." Louder, "Daddy! Phone!" I was trying to nod cause I knew if I said anything or changed anything I would lose the beat. "DADDY! YOUR PHONE IS RINGING!" As I started to say "I know," I, of course, lost the beat. So I just cut 15 seconds off the end of the song :D
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, you guys are no different than most of us or at least me.
When I do the GN on line Jams.....you have no idea how many hours go into those. How many (literally) hundreds of takes. Start, stop, start again, stop. It goes on and on for days. There may be 5 to 6 takes for one song that I've kept out of those hundred takes so that I don't forget the basics or maybe accidentally recorded something accidentally that I liked. Then I have to go back and learn that part and make it fit. When I finally have something keepable then I'll go back and delete all the wannabee tracks to clean things up.
This is no cake walk for us learners but it sure is challenging and fun.
Bish
"I play live as playing dead is harder than it sounds!"
I never think I sound good when I record my playing or singing. People will tell me different about the playing but concur on the singing. :lol: I wish I could work as hard to get stuff right as you do Bish. I tend to just whip off a take and say, "Thats good enough". It's funny too because if I'm building or repairing something, I am meticulous, but my playing is sloppy. :?
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
Sorry to hijack the thread, but I have a couple of questions and the discussion that has erupted here seems like a good place to get some answers.
1. When recording with vocals, do you record the guitar part simultaneously with the vocals, or do you record the guitar, and then record vocals? I feel like it's cheating to do the latter, mostly because I know I cannot really sing and play at the same time (heck, i can't really play at all). I've wanted to try recording Tangled up in Blue and it would be much easier to record the two parts seperatly.
2. IF you are recording a song with a repetitive rythm guitar section. Would you play the whole song through, or just the rythm part once and then loop in for the rest of the song? Again the latter would be easier, but seems like cheating to me.
Sorry again for the blatant hijacking and thanks in advance for the assist.
"A working class hero is something to be..." -J. Lennon
Recording usually lays bare any mistakes that you practice. What I find is that friends and family are often not the best critics. They want to support you so they tell you what you want to hear. It's good to hear encouragement but it's also good to get an honest opinion lest we get a bloated point of view of ourselves(I've been down that road many times before.). I find the best way to get an honest opinion from a friend is not to tell what they are listening to. Let them make their comment first. Then you can choose to tell them or not if it's too embarassing. Just say it's some guy from the web. It's good to hear someone trash your playing once in a while.
When recording with vocals, do you record the guitar part simultaneously with the vocals, or do you record the guitar, and then record vocals? I feel like it's cheating to do the latter, mostly because I know I cannot really sing and play at the same time (heck, i can't really play at all). I've wanted to try recording Tangled up in Blue and it would be much easier to record the two parts seperatly.
Cheating who? You want the best recording you can make, right? and you want to be able to mix the EQ/volume/effects/etc on each track seperately, right? So record them seperately :) If you can manage them together, you have everything just how you want it and it all stays how you hear it as you record, then by all means do it in one go... but don't go changing your mind about EQ or relative volume afterwards ;)
IF you are recording a song with a repetitive rythm guitar section. Would you play the whole song through, or just the rythm part once and then loop in for the rest of the song? Again the latter would be easier, but seems like cheating to me.
This one's a little different - if it's too short a loop played too many times, you'll be able to tell no matter how perfect the loop is. A few different takes mixed up at random is better, better still is a few slight variations of the basic loop and best of all the whole track played seperately, even if it takes a few goes to get it right :)
I usually sing seperately ...... but Idon't like to use loops. I like to play the song throuugh.
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
Sorry to hijack the thread, but I have a couple of questions and the discussion that has erupted here seems like a good place to get some answers.
1. When recording with vocals, do you record the guitar part simultaneously with the vocals, or do you record the guitar, and then record vocals? I feel like it's cheating to do the latter, mostly because I know I cannot really sing and play at the same time (heck, i can't really play at all). I've wanted to try recording Tangled up in Blue and it would be much easier to record the two parts seperatly.
2. IF you are recording a song with a repetitive rythm guitar section. Would you play the whole song through, or just the rythm part once and then loop in for the rest of the song? Again the latter would be easier, but seems like cheating to me.
Sorry again for the blatant hijacking and thanks in advance for the assist.
there is no cheating in recording. it is not a matter of singing and playing at the same time. it is doing what needs to be done to get a proper recording.
I play the parts first, then add the voice.
once, to get the pacing of the song, I laid down a talk track...some call it a whisper track...either way. I simply sang spoke into the recording mike.
then opened another track and laid down an instrument. I sang out of key but it did not matter , as I was able to get the crucial parts down. later I deleted the talk track and sang.
many times I grab my acoustic and lay down the rhythm of the song when there is a rhythm guitar throughout. then I sing over that and add other guitars, drums etc.
I find I am more relaxed when I create the tempo and feel of the song. then sing. I dont like the click track.
so whatever helps you feel more confident ion the studio, I'd say is very correct.
cheating in the studio...haha...the pros use autotune for the voices.
a recording is not a gig. unless its a recording of a gig, but then you probably wouldn't be asking these questions, would you? its okay to record things seperately and its okay to use loops if thats what works for you. its a totally different thing if you make a record in this way, become really famous, then refuse to gig on the basis that you can't perform your own songs. as dogbite pointed out, there's a ton of tricks used in pro studios, e.g. comping a vocal track by cut n pasting from several different takes. sorry to pull the 4th wall down and all, but most famous musicians can't just fire off album takes as they appear on the album, at best that's achieved by a nice big tour to consolidate the new songs (with the dvd filming obv scheduled for the end of said tour).
