If you like to record your own music and want feedback please read.
I started recording my own music 7 years ago in my basement usually late at night 11pm to 3am while everyone else is sleeping. I received a CBG kit and CB amp kit from my wife this Christmas. Once I got the guitar together and played it I was amazed by its cool sound. I recorded " I Got A CBG for Christmas" shortly after. Its not a great song but I just wanted to get something down with that guitar. It was recorded on using a small Fender amp and a Tascam 8 track digital recorder. (I use the Tascam 8 track for all of my recordings).
Then the other day I heard "Pumped Up Kicks" on the radio and thought it might sound cool on the CBG. I used the CB amp for that one. It is a bit high pitched and tingy but I like the sound overall. I added both of the recordings to my page on this website.
I also put on some of my other songs recorded before I got the CBG. What Guns are Made For is about anger and what it can do to you and how it can control you if you let it. It is not a pro or anti gun song, that lyric just popped into my head and I thought it sounded cool.
"Hitcher" is a dark song in the line of the Rolling Stones "Midnight Rambler" .
"Rolling Roloe" was written when my wife (veterinarian) rescued this little dog. Not sure where the lyrics came from. I have some Dobro slide guitar in there and I think Ukulele.
Barstool Prophet was written after one friend sent a text " I don't have much going for me" . Another friend answered " You got me as a friend and that's a Fuckload going for you". I replied " that sounds like a great song and I sent them both a copy of Barstool Prophet the next morning.
If interested give them a listen, let me know what you think. If you really think they suck try not to be too harsh on me. Otherwise please give me some feedback and share any songs you may have recorded.
There is so much music out there now and so much has no feel to it (synthetic voices, over produced heavy metal voice)..... I much prefer music with feeling (old Muddy Waters, Rolling Stones, early Metallica anything before the Black album, Willie Nelson, Nick Drake, Early Dylan......, David Allen Coe, Many times the less produced the music is the better it sounds. Thats partly why I dig the CBG nation.
My friends were talking about the current music scene and we all agree nothing coming out today compares to music coming out in the 60's, 70's, 80's and even 90's. I started on Metal when I was young and remember first hearing Black Sabbath's first Album " Black Sabbath" , Kill Em All, High Voltage, Holy Diver and just thinking " Fuck an A this is the shit. " I occasionally listen to new releases on Amazon music and have yet to find anything that has even come close to blowing me away like those albums.
Later I started getting into the blues: Muddy Waters, All the Fat Possum stuff, Stevie Ray Vaughn ... and again thinking " F n A ". I got a slide guitar and attempted to re create Muddy's stuff: Rollin and Tumblin, Honey Bee, Im Ready, Rolling Stone....
Then got into Folky stuff and country. Again blown away by Bob Dylan's first album and Free Wheelin. Greg Brown.. Willie Nelson "Red Headed Stranger", " Stardust" .... (saw him live at Red Rocks F n A). Johnny Cash Live at San Quentin and Folsom. and so much more.
Any way not sure where I'm going with all of this.
I am 47, live in Evergreen Colorado. I started recording my own music 7 years ago. I have about 40-50 originals and another 40-50 cover songs. If you want to hear more I have two albums on Soundcloud.
https://soundcloud.com/user-273017232/sets/where-does-the-road-go
and
https://soundcloud.com/user-273017232/sets/what-gunsaremade-for
If you have self recorded music you would like to share please do.
Thanks for listening.
Jason Kutz, DVM
Replies
Thanks That exspains a bunch! im like a time traveler exsploring the stuff, verry selfaware how you aproche your input and you set your path, quit the other way around from me, early BS was in there for me to but never as Heavy Metal, but those where otherday's ,but that maybee because im from "53 and 66 now ,but you meet lots of vibes and pieces of mind walking the musical road of live, and if you reflex on that in a musical way, that a interesting listen, your skilled whit that digital 8 track , i started of whit reel to reel went to 4 track cassette masterd on digital CD recording ,but the stuff is now opsolite no repare posseble i mostly record stereo Roland handheld MP3 digital. i have a Boss 8 track but i still have not used it cant get no new disck for it ,i was in bands ,collectifs, duo,s ,but the last 10 years back to the Solo Blues. ill have a listen what you got on Soundcloud, most of my stuff you will find on Youtube just type A.D.Eker and see what you get, i do not controll in what order it is presented the first ones are from round 2013 and i started playing instruments at 7-8 playing accordion but thats a real real long time ago ! Greeeetts to ye for now !
I really like Where Does the Road Go, but I think Mud & Tears is my favorite. It has a way cool, Tom Waits vibe that I've been into for a long time. Couldn't help but listen to Dick Ed (who wouldn't), and of course Hitcher ('cause I'm a big Stones fan).
You are a talented son-of-a-mother.
The only constructive criticism I might add is that (in my headphones) some of your vocals do not stand above the mix. Maybe subtly dial up the vocals a bit?
But that's the problem I also have--I get some comments about my sound quality from people who are listening through the crappy mono speaker on their phone. So, they ain't really hearing what I hear when I painstakingly recorded the damn song in the first place. I kinda suck anyway, but damn, I suck a lot worse without a decent speaker. I wanna scream to them to buy some 'effin headphones!
Anyway, I also found that if I don't make a crappy video of me actually playing the song nobody will take the time to listen. That in itself makes all my recordings essentially live takes full of lots of mistakes. I only got one "studio" style recording (Preachin' Blues) on my YouTube page and, although it's my best effort, nobody really listened to it because it ain't a live recording.
That's my $.02 worth. If you wanna hear my much less talented efforts than your own, I'm on YouTube at Road Rash Roy. PUT YOUR 'EFFIN HEADPHONES ON!
I checked out your U tube stuff with head phones. Sounds good. You got that good deep voice I wish I had. What microphone do you use? I cant get mine to sound that good..
I like the RL cover. nice guitar work. You keep that good raw sound. Hell Yeah! I love Fat Possum : Robert Belfour, Paul Wine Jones... Good Stuff.
Thanks for checking it out. I really appreciate the compliments. Fat Possum is where it's at!
The condenser mic is a Sterling SP150 I got on sale pretty cheap at Guitar Center. I really like it for vocals. Luckily, the free Reaper DAW has a basic reverb effect. I think a very small amount of reverb helps my voice tremendously.
I use a cheap Sennheiser dynamic mic for the amp since I don't have any guitar plug-ins and I don't use any effects anyway. Not sure if a dynamic mic is what I'm supposed to use there; I haven't tried a condenser mic for the amp. I dunno, maybe I'll google it.
With the banjo player I use a Blue Yeti podcasting mic because it has a bi-directional mode. It's kinda like having two mic's . I don't use Reaper with that one; we just plug it straight into the computer and record straight to video. Old school.
And finally, the beer can mic... It's literally a telephone mouthpiece with a 9volt battery preamp. Unusable in a live setting due to feedback. Sounds cool plugged straight into the interface though.
Really not sure if I'm doing any of this correctly. I'm just having fun playing with my toys!
Cheers!
Thanks for listening to my songs. Ill check your stuff out as well. Yeah Dick Ed came about when I went to a Christmas concert with my family and mother in law. Everyone at the show was quiet an listening to the carolers, it was a mellow, fun Christmas thing we do every year. There was one table of 50 somethings that was loud and talking during the performance. To the point of complete distraction. After the show was over my 75 year old mother in law was the only one with enough cahones to confront them. Shortly there after the "leader" of the group comes over and yells at my mother in law and tells her to go "F" herself. I got in his face and was one more drink away from enough common sense not to punch him. Luckily I did not, he was a lawyer. So I wrote a song about it.
Mud and Tears wow comparison to Tom (the fucking master of super cool off the wall odd songs), I appreciate that. I am a huge Tom Waits fan. That song just jumped into my head one night. I have no idea where it came from. I have never been in a flood. It has some atheist undertones so my mom has never heard it. But you know how some musicians say they are just a receiver and the song just somehow comes to them. Mud and Tears was like that.
Ill have to look at making a lame video as well.
If you haven't checked out F-load its one of my favorites.
I agree with the headphone comment. If your planning on just listening with a phone the don't even bother putting bass in the song. The song can sound completely different with good audio. I usually mix and master the song then listen to it with my car stereo 5-10 times then re mix it until I have the levels where I want them. Even then it does'nt always come out the way I want it. I don't think my voice is that great so I tend to have the levels lower then I should. I appreciate the input.
JRK
I haven't listened because I'm at work, bookmarked!
I have been recording my own stuff as well since 1996. But I began in the Hip Hop realm. It got me into listening to a lot of records from 1920's to 1980 just to sample and make beats. One thing that stood out in my style of sampling was the use of guitars. I always sampled guitar. Then one day, I heard Catfish Blues by Jimi Hendrix. I was blown away by the fuzz-wah sound and wanted to pick up a guitar for real to try my hand at it. So here I am, a convert on a quest to create an album using guitars and bass I built/building. Nothing on tape yet but its coming.
Thanks for the inspiration. I will listen at a later time.
P.S. You should try Bandcamp.com I like it better than soundcloud. Also, you get paid 95% of the profits you make from your music ;)
I dig the hendrix blues stuff but if you want to learn how to make a guitar sound like that start with Muddy Waters and get a tab book with his early stuff especially "Rolling Stone" which is a version of Catfish Blues. Then get a cheap but good sounding classical nylon string guitar and learn how to finger pick. Then listen to Muddy over and over and try to mimic him.
"Drink Her Up (Bottle of Wine) on soundcloud the main riff is with a nylon string guitar and borrowing from Muddy. Hvy I'll Be Your Man is electric guitar using that Muddy style.
I am attaching a copy of acoustic Catfish Blues I recorded several years ago, to my home page. I wasn't great at timing as you will hear.
JRK
Thanks for that J! I am a very big fan of Muddy Waters and I dig the fact that you like the early stuff. When it comes to digging for artists in the record bin, I always search for the first albums, the energy almost pure before the stardom kicks in if you know what I mean.
Will definitely try that, I need all the practice, though I can play a mean tune, I need to get technical solos down.
Btw, I listened to your music. Bravo on your recording skills. The acoustic sounds rich. Nice balance and harmony of sound. Excellent work man. I commend your one-man-band talent :)