Working on a new track

zambizzi

Platinum Member
I had a little garage band w/ my friend and guitarist last year. He's since moved out of town but we're going to do some recording next week when he's in town for a visit.

He writes some fairly silly stuff but it's fun to work up drum tracks for it.

Here is the guitar/vocal track he sent me (acoustic)

Here's my play-along drum track.

When I figure out how to layer them in Audacity, I'll post a single, combined track. Also, I've only worked on it for a couple of days so it's rough. He didn't play to a click so it forces me to adjust my time when he pushes and pulls on his recording. The fills are lame...it still needs refinement but it's a start.

Let me know what y'all think.

EDIT:

Here's the best I could do in 2 hrs. w/ Audacity. You can definitely feel where he's hitting the gas and stomping on the brakes...and where I was just plain asleep at the wheel. It's a start, anyhow.
 
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Audacity is a pain in the you know what. Where half the song syncs, another part will be way off. It's almost like it stretches the file.

I spent about 10 minutes trying to sync those two files, no luck.

The song itself sounds fantastic! I'm looking forward to the finished product.
 
Audacity is a pain in the you know what. Where half the song syncs, another part will be way off. It's almost like it stretches the file.

I spent about 10 minutes trying to sync those two files, no luck.

The song itself sounds fantastic! I'm looking forward to the finished product.

Thanks! I appreciate the effort, anyhow. I haven't even tried yet. It's hard to place the one on his track and I haven't counted it out yet...so I don't necessarily start in the right spot. That makes it hard to line the tracks up.

It's called "Spider on the Wall", BTW.
 
What i suggest you do is maybe get your drum track sorted, then ask him to do his parts again along to your drum track? It's pretty easy to layer the 2 tracks on audacity. I would have thought you would've just recorded the drum track onto audacity as a new track then you wouldn't have to import it. What i don't like about recording onto audacity though is the latency of the recording, it makes the track sound really out of time, like your playing is really "loose". What you have to do is shave about 20-30ms off the beginning of the track that you've just recorded and that should bring it back into line.
 
What i suggest you do is maybe get your drum track sorted, then ask him to do his parts again along to your drum track? It's pretty easy to layer the 2 tracks on audacity. I would have thought you would've just recorded the drum track onto audacity as a new track then you wouldn't have to import it. What i don't like about recording onto audacity though is the latency of the recording, it makes the track sound really out of time, like your playing is really "loose". What you have to do is shave about 20-30ms off the beginning of the track that you've just recorded and that should bring it back into line.

Yes, I quit recording w/ Audacity a while back. I didn't notice a time issue but I didn't like the way it captured the drum sound...it wasn't very authentic.

I recorded this w/ Sony Soundforge, which is a simple, single-track wav recorder. It softens the edges a little and really picks up a nice sound.

Yeah, that's the idea - have him record a new track on top of mine using an electric guitar.
 
I really suggest shedding with a click track, very very very slowly to make sure all your subdivisions are dead on. Theres a time issue with the sixteenth notes on the hat that Im hearing, its just not consistent and its throwing everything. Keep shedding though, song has a nice sound to it.
 
I really suggest shedding with a click track, very very very slowly to make sure all your subdivisions are dead on. Theres a time issue with the sixteenth notes on the hat that Im hearing, its just not consistent and its throwing everything. Keep shedding though, song has a nice sound to it.

Thanks for checking it out - I definitely will (and do). I work with a click pretty much every night and am able to play that groove better when not playing along to this track. It seems to have a strange pocket and is hard for me to lock in with.

We're going to be playing this together and recording next week so hopefully I can turn out a cleaner track that way.
 
Great stuff, Vin. I personally prefer the half time feel to your playing this song, so if it was me I'd do away with the hats.

Really nice song and I like your approach to it.
 
The song is really good. Offcourse Radiohead comes to mind directly when listening to it. And the Crash Test Dummies when he puts up his low voice :p.
I like how you drum. Should be a pain in the bum to record to something without click. Good job!
 
Thanks guys, glad you like it. The vocals are sort of an Axl Rose parody. He's working hard on his "faux Axl" lately. He's written something like 10 originals, maybe half of which I helped on arrangements when we were playing together. I'll post a bunch after next week.

Abe, which part do you mean - the open hats? The song begged for a mix of 8th and 16th notes while grooving, at least it did to my ears. I do it on both the ride and the hats throughout the first half of the song. The second half, where the tempo picks up, it's all 8th notes, switching between the hats and ride to build and release tension. He writes very drummer-friendly songs, lots of fun to work on!

I'm always up for suggestions though. It's always interesting to get another drummer's creative perspective on building drum parts...we all hear different things.
 
Abe, which part do you mean - the open hats? The song begged for a mix of 8th and 16th notes while grooving, at least it did to my ears. I do it on both the ride and the hats throughout the first half of the song. The second half, where the tempo picks up, it's all 8th notes, switching between the hats and ride to build and release tension. He writes very drummer-friendly songs, lots of fun to work on!

Ha, my ugly producer side sticking its ugly neck out?

No, the open hats sound great. My take on it is that the 16th note pulse at the head of the intro and on the turn around is too strong for this vibe. This song really grooves in an 8th note space with perhaps some softer 16th note suggestiveness.

Just how I hear it.

PS- You guys really are working on some very nice material.
 
Ha, my ugly producer side sticking its ugly neck out?

No, the open hats sound great. My take on it is that the 16th note pulse at the head of the intro and on the turn around is too strong for this vibe. This song really grooves in an 8th note space with perhaps some softer 16th note suggestiveness.

Just how I hear it.

PS- You guys really are working on some very nice material.

You make a good point, it might sound better w/ a base 8th note groove w/ maybe some 16ths sprinkled in there. The tempo on that part is about 65 bpm, which feels kind of borderline w/ me on whether or not to groove it at 8ths or 16ths, maybe mixing them would be cool if I can pull it off w/o sounding "busy".

Maybe if I still played 16ths on the hats but ghost every-other note so as to imply 8th notes? Hmm...the possibilities...

I'll try it out, thanks Abe. And, thanks for the compliments!
 
Maybe if I still played 16ths on the hats but ghost every-other note so as to imply 8th notes? Hmm...the possibilities...
!

Thats exactly where I'd go with it, Vin. Mess with the dynamics of 16ths a little. If you approach it on the same principles of say, the Purdie shuffle, which is essentially an 8th note groove with a lot more going on as sub text/ghostnotes/triplets etc, it works really well.
 
It's sounding like a really nice song so far. Some bass parts will probably go a long way towards holding it together a bit tighter (or at least covering up the bits where it sounds less than spot-on). My only criticism would be the glaring similarity between this song and Space Oddity by David Bowie (only in the main verses though !!), not that sounding like Bowie is a bad thing !!

Keep up the great work guys :)
 
Thanks guys...and Marty, you're right! The chords are similar on the first part of the song. I doubt it's intentional, he's not a big Bowie fan (that I'm aware of). Space Oddity might just be so ingrained in his psyche that it came out while writing this. Too funny!
 
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