Been suffering from yet another cold and took a couple of days rest from work etc. But, rather than take to my bed, I couldn't resist playing around with another song resurrection from the previously mentioned "Bringing It All Back Up" album produced in 1970 on reel to reel tape. Listening to the original of "Circular Peter" the words were clearly a bit of doggerel that had not really been completed properly and it only lasted a minute and a half? However, I thought the tune was interesting and some of the words were relevant to the new work "The Garon's Daughter", so I thought I would add the extra verses and make a full song of it.
The ambition remained to produce to demo standard in Cakewalk Sonar - I wouldn't be spending too much time tracking the backing.
I started with an acoustic guitar track - once again on the Takamine. I recorded this to a click track so the timing was available for added midi tracks.
Then I added bass using Dan's 1970's Jazz bass. I played this live and it is a bit on the loose side despite several takes at it.
The hardest bit was doing the strange drumming. I tried various techniques playing live but they all suffered from lack of consistency and my limited drumming ability. In the end I settled for laying down the key percussion phrases in midi using Yamaha DD65 drum machine pads and quantizing for tight feel - too tight really but it adds character against the loose bass line!
I then added various guitar parts using my PRS and Rickenbacker 12 strings. I am trying to limit guitar parts in the resurrection project to 12 string only to build a characteristic style to the project.
Then, using a guitar driving my EHX Mel 9, I was able to add Mellotron type string parts played on guitar. This worked better than I expected giving the slow attack and quick release character of a Mellotron. Playing it live into the track no keyboard skills and midi needed on this occasion.
I did several sessions to track the vocals and post process them for a weird choral sound in the choruses. I took a decision early on to build the song from a basic band with one voice start to a full sounding finale. The only problem with this is the first 3 minutes are relatively simple - telling a story of unrequited love of sorts and most of the sound production is in the last minute. I did toy with the idea of starting it with just guitar and vocal to give even more dynamic contrast between beginning and end but couldn't find a way of convincingly bringing in bass and drums without re-recording the start of those instruments. Might well do that on a properly produced version however.
So its well worth listening to the end even if you don't care for the beginning blogateers! Final mix of the demo was mono and set at a conservative level. If you are up for it, follow the link below and have a listen - wishing a merry Xmas to all you Blogettes and Blogateers out there (not with this song though!)
Circular Peter Mono Demo
The ambition remained to produce to demo standard in Cakewalk Sonar - I wouldn't be spending too much time tracking the backing.
I started with an acoustic guitar track - once again on the Takamine. I recorded this to a click track so the timing was available for added midi tracks.
Then I added bass using Dan's 1970's Jazz bass. I played this live and it is a bit on the loose side despite several takes at it.
The hardest bit was doing the strange drumming. I tried various techniques playing live but they all suffered from lack of consistency and my limited drumming ability. In the end I settled for laying down the key percussion phrases in midi using Yamaha DD65 drum machine pads and quantizing for tight feel - too tight really but it adds character against the loose bass line!
I then added various guitar parts using my PRS and Rickenbacker 12 strings. I am trying to limit guitar parts in the resurrection project to 12 string only to build a characteristic style to the project.
Then, using a guitar driving my EHX Mel 9, I was able to add Mellotron type string parts played on guitar. This worked better than I expected giving the slow attack and quick release character of a Mellotron. Playing it live into the track no keyboard skills and midi needed on this occasion.
I did several sessions to track the vocals and post process them for a weird choral sound in the choruses. I took a decision early on to build the song from a basic band with one voice start to a full sounding finale. The only problem with this is the first 3 minutes are relatively simple - telling a story of unrequited love of sorts and most of the sound production is in the last minute. I did toy with the idea of starting it with just guitar and vocal to give even more dynamic contrast between beginning and end but couldn't find a way of convincingly bringing in bass and drums without re-recording the start of those instruments. Might well do that on a properly produced version however.
So its well worth listening to the end even if you don't care for the beginning blogateers! Final mix of the demo was mono and set at a conservative level. If you are up for it, follow the link below and have a listen - wishing a merry Xmas to all you Blogettes and Blogateers out there (not with this song though!)
Circular Peter Mono Demo
