Tag: guitar

Today was the last day of recording.  I methodically went through each song, checking to see whether there was anything else that needed recording or re-recording, and generally listening to the result of my hard work this past week.  I re-did the vocal part for Jesus your name is higher, and put some solo guitar bits into Father God you reign – that was the hardest part actually, since solo electric guitar is arguably the musical discipline I’m least proficient at, that being the most recent string added to my already-brimming bow.  As a result, I had to do a lot of practice to get a solo riff I was happy with, and even then it took at least 4 takes to get a clean recording of it.  A little frustrating, to be honest, and clearly the area I need to work on most.

Once that was done, it was time to pack up camp.  To start with, everything was unplugged.  Then cables were coiled and separated into groups depending on which part of the house they needed to end up in.  Then the computer was taken upstairs, followed by all its related peripherals and cabling.  The guitars and keyboard were put back in their corner, in cases where appropriate.  The microphone was put back in its case, the pre-amp was put back in its bag, and all the remaining cables put back in their respective homes.

(more…)

First up today was the re-recording of Father God you reign, which actually appeared on the Rooted album In the beginning.  I remember being pretty pleased with the original recording back when I did it, but the more I listened to it the more I thought there was more that could have be done with it.  It needed to be louder.  It needed to be more rocky.  It needed better electric guitar sounds.  It needed better guitar solos.  So I decided to re-record the song from scratch to appear on this album as well.

I started off with a drum track, using drum loops, and then added guitars, bass and vocals.  I’ve given it a slightly edgier feel, and hopefully a more mature interpretation too.  It took a while to get right though.  A younger version of myself would have dismissed most rock music as being unsophisticated and requiring very little intelligence – after all, it’s just a case of turning the guitars up too loud and playing three chords…  But I’ve learnt in recent years that there is a definite art to creating a convincing ‘rock’ sound, and getting just the right sound from the guitar and amp combination is tricky stuff.  And of course if you then add in complex guitar solos as well, you can take it to a whole new level again.

Now, I’m not saying that my recording of Father God you reign would compare to a version recorded by Brian May, for instance, but it is pretty rocky, and I reckon it’s much better than the version I did for the Rooted album.  We’ll see once it’s been edited.

(more…)

I began today by picking up where I’d left off yesterday with Stranger than fiction, having had to leave it where it was to go and play badminton.  Turns out this song is a lot of fun indeed, with plenty of scope for some quirky and funny moments in the music.  I got a pretty groovy bass riff going, which sounds pretty awesome played on my custom Aria recorded clean so you just get the natural tone of the instrument, which I absolutely love.  I also put in some electric guitar solo riffs too, and some vocal effects (and even a bit of scat singing…).  And once again I recorded the drums by hitting my keyboard and using a software instrument, and I’m pretty pleased with the results.  Far better, in fact, than if I had found myself a real drum kit and recorded myself playing that, if only because I could go in and adjust the timing and edit out the mistakes!  It still needs a lot of work to edit it into something decent, but it’s a promising start.

I spent a fair amount of time on that, so it was a while before I got to start on the second song of the day, which was Too tired.  This song is written from the perspective of someone who has become disillusioned with the church, who has maybe been when they were younger but stopped going in their teens.  It tells a story of how the church doesn’t seem to hold anything of interest for them, and that God in general doesn’t seem to make much sense, so why bother believing at all.  I guess that’s something a lot of people can relate to.  However it then goes on to talk about how empty their life actually is, that something is missing, and finishes with an element of wonder and guilt that despite all the running, God is still there waiting.

(more…)

Today’s recording went pretty well.  First up was Come holy fire, which is a song I wrote last year and introduced at camp.  It’s a fairly reflective, quiet song, so it was a good opportunity for some ethereal guitar and piano bits.  I even recorded a drum track, which actually sounds pretty decent – playing on a keyboard isn’t quite ‘natural’ in terms of drumming position, but using the Jazz Kit software instrument in Logic actually sounds very realistic in this case, and I was very pleased with the result.  I have yet to quantise the MIDI track, and if I have time later in the week I’ll probably re-record a few other bits as well, but this is a good start.

The ‘ethereal’ aspect was provided mainly by the piano, with the sustain pedal held down the whole time.  That adds a very interesting suspended sound to the notes, with them all merging into one another, but it works well in this case.  I also recorded some solo guitar bits too, which with the right settings sounds a bit like the music Marks & Spencer used in their sexy food adverts!

(more…)

After a brief spat of… erm… what’s that thing called… oh yes, work… I popped round to Tesco to pick up a few necessities.  Alongside the loaf of bread and take-away Indian, I also bought a couple of cables.  Not my proudest purchase, I have to admit.  Especially because they’d run out of the usual brand and I had to make do with – brace yourself – Tesco Value.  Yep, a Tesco Value 1.2m phono to phono, and a Tesco Value 1.2m phono to 3.5mm jack.  Oh the professionalism.

So after lunch I finished plugging all my rough-shod studio equipment together, warmed up the vocal cords, and started on the recording.  The first song I turned my attention to was Amazing Grace.  Now, I know what you’re thinking, Amazing Grace isn’t exactly a song I can claim complete authorship for; a certain John Newton is famous for that one.  However, not long ago I wrote a new tune for it, and since the original is well out of copyright, I’m all clear to record my own version.  I had recorded the piano part already, and put in some string parts (though at the moment they’re playing through a tinny software instrument until I can find some actual string players), so I just had to add the vocal parts.  I was deliberately keeping it fairly acoustic, so the arrangement was very simple, but it was a good place to start.

(more…)

“If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing properly.”

“If you find a pair of shoes that fits, buy it in every colour.”

“One biscuit is never enough.”

All three of those phrases is in some way related to the way I spent yesterday evening.  You see, a couple of years or so ago I was mulling over which electric guitar to buy, and when my wife eventually stepped in and told me which one I’d chosen (she knows my mind better than I do most of the time) I ordered a shiny new Line 6 Variax 300.  What’s special about that guitar (and all the others that Line 6 do, in fairness) is electronically model a whole load of real guitars and pack them all into one all-singing-all-dancing guitar, with each guitar selectable from a handy volume-type knob.  The result is that I effectively have 25 guitars instead of just one.

Thankfully, restringing only needs doing once, and it takes regular strings too despite its complicated wizardry.  I did a little research and found which strings the guitar had from the factory, and ordered a set on the internet a couple of days ago.  Now, this is where I hang my head in shame and hope there are no ‘proper’ guitarists reading – this is the first time I’ve replaced the strings since I bought the guitar, almost two years ago.  Ouch.  Sure, I’ve not been playing it every day since then, but even so the strings were sure to be corroded and mucky and dead-sounding by now.  And they were.

(more…)

G is for Guitar and “Get a life”

Many of you will know that I am a keen musician.  I blame this partly on my parents, who insisted on taking me to a brass band concert before I was even born.  I didn’t stand a chance.  Church helps too, there’s always music there.  And so it was that I started taking up musical instruments left right and centre, starting with the piano, moving on to cello, and not stopping thereafter.  The list isn’t exactly endless, but it’s fairly sizeable.  The main problem with this, though, is being able to afford the instruments themselves, which don’t come cheap, especially if you want something decent.  So for many years I have had to get by without certain things, in some cases just the accessories, but in some cases the instruments themselves.  I’ve never owned a saxophone, for instance, much as I’d love to.

My first bass guitar was a pink (probably used to be red, but faded in the sun) Squier with a warped neck, which made playing anything but open strings uncomfortable and bone-jarringly out of tune.  Still, for £100 it wasn’t bad, considering it came with a whopping 80 watt amp.  The bass was replaced several years ago, thankfully, with a wood body Aria (I’d give the actual model, but since it’s a “Research and Development” model I think it’s more of a one-off, so comparing it to the mass-produced model that resulted from it might not actually be particularly useful).  The Aria is a dream to play, and has a lovely warm tone to it.  The amp, however, was always pretty ropey, so it wasn’t a huge tragedy when it stopped working.  It was something electric, I know that much, and it just played a very loud humming noise while it was turned on.  So I left it turned off, gathering dust in the garage.  Until just before we moved, when I took it to the dump.  Sad, but somehow very therapeutic at the same time.

(more…)

Where to start… there’s just so much to say, and squeezing it all into one post is going to be a challenge and a half!  Let’s see, how about we start with an introduction…

Introduction

This year Ellie and I were both leaders on a Christian youth camp (a CYFA Ventures camp) for 14-18 year olds, at a boarding school near Southampton called Stanbridge Earls.  We’ve both been before, but this was the first time we’d been as a married couple, so that was a nice novelty!

Our week was actually started off a few days earlier than everyone else, as we went to Southampton University for my brother’s graduation.  It was lovely to see him, and all our family, and generally hang out in Soton for a bit.  Photos will be up on a gallery somewhere in due course I expect.  Ellie and I then stayed a couple of nights at a guest house in Soton, visiting the New Forest on the Friday before going off to camp on the Saturday morning.

(more…)

Yesterday my new Variax 300 arrived in the post, ordered last weekend from Dolphin Music (they never did tell me when it was going to arrive). I’ve been playing it quite a bit since then, getting to grips with what it can do, and playing with the Line 6 Spider III 15 amp I got at the same time. I may not have had much experience with electric guitars (this is the first I’ve owned), but so far things are looking rosy.

For those who have not heard me raving about this guitar before, allow me to quickly explain what makes this guitar so different from most others you may have seen. At first glance it looks like any other electric guitar, with the red body and white pick-guard and traditional cutaway body shape. But take a second look and you’ll find something missing – the pickups. Rather than it being one guitar, this is lots of guitars in one, thanks to some clever modelling and a selector knob. Think of it a bit like the voices on a keyboard – hit the right setting and you’ll create a completely different sound. The Variax 300 has several guitars built-in, including a variety of electric guitars, some semi-acoustics, a handful of acoustics, and some fun instruments too (banjo and sitar, to name but two). It truly is one of the most versatile guitars I’ve come across.

(more…)

Those of you who know me will know that making decisions is a long and hard process at the best of times, even with something as simple as deciding what to have for breakfast (not a problem when there’s only one cereal on offer, but present me with a choice of six different cereals and it could easily take me a couple of minutes to decide which I want). So coming to a decision on something as important as which guitar to spend money on has turned out to be quite a monolithic challenge for me. Thankfully, I think the decision has been made. And I think it’s the right one.

Until this morning I had my heart set on the Yamaha RGX A2, which is a futuristic looking white guitar with some fantastic design elements and quirky features, including an LED in the volume knob and tuning pegs that are round rather than flat. In terms of looks, this guitar is awesome, right up my street. However, it is about £250, and having played it in the shop this morning it didn’t quite feel that much. Sure, it was fun to play, and allowed me to create some really cool rocky tones, but because it only has two humbucker pickups it’s rather limited in tonal variety, which is a shame.

(more…)