Another Lamb for Mary's flock plus Hideaway Blues

Cynicure

Blues Newbie
Okay, here are links to my latest couple of efforts; again played on Genevieve, my Ibanez Lonestar series accoustic.

I think I'm learning a bit about how to get a better sound with Audacity now too... it sounds a bit more like the 'Genevieve' I hear when I play her than the tinny versions you've had thus far... a bit of amplifying; a bit of bassboost and equalization set at 'accoustic'. (If anyone has any further suggestions on how to get a better sound, please don't hesitate to post 'em here!)

http://www.4shared.com/audio/LFsYaCE6/Hideaway_Blues_1p_BBG_Cynicure.html

http://www.4shared.com/audio/rYlIsA6E/Marys_Little_Lamb__BBG_Cynicur.html


Oh and would someone please tell Mary to get the flock outa here!

;)
 

Ray_UK

Blues Newbie
Very nice job Dave, I found the recording level quite a bit lower on Mary's Flock of Sheep but both  are played great.

You deserve a cold one!   [smiley=beer.gif]
 

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
Your playing is really great. You might want to turn it down a bit though. I'm hearing some clipping on Hideaway (but not on Mary). Watch the meters and try to keep them out of the red. Also look at the finished product. You will probably see a bunch of red lines. That's where the clipping is happening.
 

Cynicure

Blues Newbie
Your playing is really great. You might want to turn it down a bit though. I'm hearing some clipping on Hideaway (but not on Mary). Watch the meters and try to keep them out of the red. Also look at the finished product. You will probably see a bunch of red lines. That's where the clipping is happening.

Thanks for the tips Mike; Audacity is a bit of a mountain for a technophobe and neo-Lluddite like myself... I think I may have 'over-amplified' Hideaway... Wonder if hitting the 'normalize' button would help?

Am glad you like the playing though; I must say I put a LOT of effort into learning these two... SO tricky! And the hardest bit of Mary is getting the timing right on the repeat! And the B7s on Hideaway gave me an AWFUL lot of gyp! And I must have bored the neighbours witless with these two songs and little else coming from my flat throughout my whole practice sessions...

Still... the only feedback I get from them about my music is all positive; so I won't worry too much for the time being! ;)

Here Mike, I think we could both use one of these:

[smiley=beer.gif]  [smiley=beer.gif]
 

Cynicure

Blues Newbie
Very nice job Dave, I found the recording level quite a bit lower on Mary's Flock of Sheep but both  are played great.

You deserve a cold one!   [smiley=beer.gif]

Thanks Ray... Do you think the recording level was too high on Hideaway? Or too low on 'Mary's Lamb'?

:)
 

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
Wonder if hitting the 'normalize' button would help?
Absolutely! ALWAYS normalize before exporting to MP3. Dave taught me that a long time ago.
 

DesmoDog

Desmo was my dog. RIP big guy
...And the B7s on Hideaway gave me an AWFUL lot of gyp!

So it's not just me then?  ;D  I spent a lot of time working on the B7 sections on that and still messed it up when I recorded it!

I think both songs sound pretty good, only thing I might try to do is play along with the dvd version a little more to work on the timing. I'll put the songs on iTunes and then set it to repeat. That way I can play through it a few times without having to reset anything. (Did I say "a few" times? The play counter on some of these songs gets over 70 before I feel it's time to start trying to record it!)

Sound quality of the recordings is improving too. Sorry I haven't got any info on how to make it even better, I have zero experience recording acoustic guitars.
 

Cynicure

Blues Newbie
...And the B7s on Hideaway gave me an AWFUL lot of gyp!

So it's not just me then?  ;D  I spent a lot of time working on the B7 sections on that and still messed it up when I recorded it!

I think both songs sound pretty good, only thing I might try to do is play along with the dvd version a little more to work on the timing. I'll put the songs on iTunes and then set it to repeat. That way I can play through it a few times without having to reset anything. (Did I say "a few" times? The play counter on some of these songs gets over 70 before I feel it's time to start trying to record it!)

Sound quality of the recordings is improving too. Sorry I haven't got any info on how to make it even better, I have zero experience recording acoustic guitars.

No Desmo, it's not just you! And you might like to know that I must have played (and simultaneously recorded) both of those songs at least 70 times each before I found a handful that were good enough to choose from... And I still stuff up more often than I manage to get 'em right!

But next week it's time to start looking at the next lesson! Onward and upward! "Per ardua, ad astra!"

Cheers mate!

[smiley=beer.gif]
 
P

pornsuda

Guest
Liked those a lot Cynicure, especially Marys Little Lamb - fair tripping of your fingers. The sound is improving - maybe some more tweeking with the EQ - Mid or Presence a bit more possibly.
                                      GI.
 

Cynicure

Blues Newbie
Liked those a lot Cynicure, especially Marys Little Lamb - fair tripping of your fingers. The sound is improving - maybe some more tweeking with the EQ - Mid or Presence a bit more possibly.
                                      GI.

Thanks GI... any tips on how to use Audacity are more than welcome!

Look out for my version of 'City of New Orleans' by the weekend; I spend a good hour last night just listening to Arlo's version... and I plan to learn it for Wayne's challenge by midnight Sunday next (17/10/10) Takes me back a long way, I can tell you!

I also found a 'how to play' vid of 'Alice's Restaurant; it might take me a while to learn the chords and fingerpicking, but it's gonna take a LOOOOOONNNNNGGGG time to learn how to memorize the 45-minute-long story; indeed, I don't think memorizing this story is really a viable project; it's too personal to Arlo... but maybe the original 'Motorcycle Song' story is more adaptable... Now, if only I can find a 'how to play the Motorcycle Song' vid...

And I have a feeling that if I could fingerpick a little blues like Arlo, maybe I could write stories like Arlo too... eventually! Man, that guy had so much talent, so young! (of course, it ran in his family; having Woody for a 'dad' must've helped some!)

Anyway, I'm waffling now... so I'd better just leave you a beer and say 'Thanks' again, and 'Cheers!'

[smiley=beer.gif]
 

Alexander Blue

Surfers Rule !!!
Hey C,
   Great job ! ... Wayne and MikeS pretty much covered the critique ... I especially liked "Mary's Little Poke Chop" ... just had a little difficulty with the volume ... all-in-all :
                           Great Job !!!   :cool:
 

Cynicure

Blues Newbie
"I think both songs sound pretty good, only thing I might try to do is play along with the dvd version a little more to work on the timing."

Desmo, thanks very much; you're the only one who picked me up on three timing errors that I was making on 'Hideaway'...

I took your advice, played along with Griff and have corrected the first two errors thus far, and am working on the third (which is that tricky little treble a few bars from the end); I'll post my corrections by the weekend if I can... or shortly after, perhaps.

This week apart from learning 'City of New Orleans' for Wayne's 'Learn a Song' challenge, I'm not even looking at the next BBG lesson; instead I'm just consolidating what I have learned and correcting any timing errors such as I made on 'Hideaway'... Next week will be soon enough for the next lesson!

Thanks for your constructive criticism, Desmo; it's far more useful than flattery, pleasant though the latter be... (and thanks too to everyone who gave me advice on recording; if it doesn't mean anything to me now, I'm sure it will soon!)

Here, you've earned one of these:

[smiley=beer.gif]
 
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