I had no choice. My father was a musician in bar bands in the 30's and then was inducted into a Navy band in WW2. He played clarinet and Tenor sax. When I was about 8 he introduced me to an accordian. I remember 8 because of the Cuban missle crisis year. Polish tradition dictated one had to exist in the family. I soon tried drums and he stopped that after a week of relentless practice. Then the epiphomy! I heard John Entwhisle, Jack Cassidy and further appreciated Paul McCartney. At age 13 the journey began. I am a bassist. Guitar soon followed but bass is the instrument I always enjoyed. I played in a number of local bands. Once I learned the CAGED chords and numerous scales, guitar became a highlight and continues on along with the bass. Trumpet was a long stay right through high school. I was dedicated as its' hard to play trumpet in a marching band with braces. I had to use bees wax. I actually could play second trumpet parts along with Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass recoprds. I played the Tenor sax my father used and still do. Unfortunately I never picked up a cowbell. The best cowbell song ever is Low Rider by War. Probably Sly got the lead on that tune
Thanks man, its fun for me and at the same time I get to hone in on my engineering skills. I had no Idea how complicated it would be to try to build a room that is can be set for recording decent track, but also be able to be a live practice pad and get decent live captures as well. Still very much a work in progress. I just rearranged the room yesterday to help with sound wave flow... or lack of. Also installing a 4x8 baffle on the ceiling above the drums. After that is working on baffling up the corners and random wall placements. Hopefully next time ill have more notice and some people can make it. We sure could have used another drummer, At any rate, skill level is not a factor, as we want it to be fun for all. I don't know if you notice, but a few of the later tracks, my buddy John was teaching Cree how to play bass by using numbers for frets and singing the numbers for changes while they played. She had never picked an instrument up before. She had a blast. But then there's some quality jams with some talented folks as well... so point is, room and time for all, no one discouraged. And yeah, that's me on most of the vocals, but it was a rough day. We had an extended rehearsal with my band the night before and I had gone all out belting it out for almost 4 hours, so my throat was thrashed. John Wise, my buddy and musical mentor is the other main vocalist.
Sounds like a challenge, but a fun challenge. Hope it turns out how you want. It's a long shot, but it's feasible for me to make a northwest visit next summer and I do have relatives in Salem. Yes, music should always be about fun above all! Awesome. Still sounded great, man!
I want it. Keith Richards discovered and loved open G. This device is excellent for those "bad" days.
I have pretty much completed mixing down most of Swil's new album and have posted new recordings of old songs plus a couple new songs. I'm leaving a few songs offline for now until I'm happier with their mixes. (I don't know if I will ever be happy/content...) I'd love to hear some feedback from anyone/everyone before we hit the mastering phase. This is my first real attempt at doing this by myself and my only schooling was playing the trombone all through school. So I don't know what I'm doing really other than what my ears tell me. Also, reformatting to MP3 to post online has deteriorated the tracks a bit I have noticed. Not quite as full and one big sound. A little thinner and more segregated, but maybe mastering helps with that. All instruments were recorded by me with exception to the lead guitars. The lead guitar player also sings lead on a couple tracks and backing on a few more. Other than that I did everything else and I programmed all the drums. I know there are some serious musicians that are also Zeros on this board. A lot more than I would have thought honestly based on most of my musician friends not giving a shit about sports. Anyhow, love some feed back good or bad. Just please provide content if so. I don't mind hearing it sucks, but would like to know why. Thanks in advance. https://www.reverbnation.com/swilnation/songs
One more thing in case anyone here is interested or might know someone. We are now shopping for a Bass Player and a Drummer. Possibly Rhythm guitar player, but i'm covering that for now. Eventually might want to move to strictly front man. http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/muc/5741649569.html
Thanks for sharing you music OB ...I listened to the first song and my advice is to lower the drum and rhythm guitar volumes and crank the bass and vocals...I have the hardest time getting a good vocal mix and bass mix on my home demos...to my ears, drum and guitar tracks should frame the vocals and never be louder than them. Dust off a copy of the Pretenders first album and check the mix out...it's a great recording.
Played guitar pretty decently until I fell and fucked up my hand royally. Don't feel bad. If there's one thing the world doesn't need it's another frustrated guitar player riffing the opening lines to Whole Lotta Love. (Don't let this discourage from picking one up. It's a lot of fun.)
I was the bass player in a band in 6th grade. Our name was "Escape from Nowhere," we had two terrible songs and we were all emo and shit. I didn't actually know how to play bass (or any instrument) so I'm pretty sure we just copied a couple Fall Out Boy songs and made up our own lyrics for them. But we had a MySpace page so you know we were legit.
Okay, some notes: Your vocals are about 3db too low; crank that shit up a bit! Don't be afraid of mid tones (like 700-1000Hz); the whole mix sounds really scooped, which can sound powerless. On the bass guitar, don't try to focus on the super-low frequencies; focus on 300-500Hz instead... that's where the body of the bass is. You've got some weird phasing issues with your guitars; don't try to use weird plug-ins to "place them" in a mix. Just pan that shit left and right like a grown-up. Record two rhythm tracks and let the lead sit in the center. The drum can be more in front in the mix, but don't compress them too much; their impacts can and should be loud, because they aren't sustained sounds. Kick, snare, and cymbal hits should be about the same loudness. Don't focus on super low kick drum sounds on a rock track; 80-100Hz is where it's at for a classic sound. I'd love a lossless file of a track to get into the nitty gritty more. PM me?
I couldn't get sound on any other songs I tried to listen to...could've just been Windows 10 updating or some shit..will try again later.
