@J.W.C Jason, great arrangement, performance and recording of this hymn. It brought to mind a Nashville session, without the twang or overproduction, just the professionalism. The vocal performance really added to the mix. I enjoyed it.
Hi Jason,
Nice production. Thanks for spelling out what you did in some detail. Great song and fully appreciative of the power it has when sung in the congregation with the pipe organ thundering underneath… or maybe at times on top. LOL
I tried both formats and expected to hear more of a difference between SC and the DB wav. Maybe the difference is there and my bionic ears just don’t convey it. It could also be you know how to finesse SC to get the best out of it…
Nice touch here. Another idea on getting into “one space” is more compression on the master track possibly. It can help glue everything together. Maybe both is worth a shot or something to try differing amounts of…
I think the guitars came out good. Though if you were after the pipe organ effect/experience, maybe more low end on guitars and bass could project that. Not sure, it would be something maybe to try.
I think the highlights here are the guitars, overall mix and your vox. In the vox we have the power that captures the spirit of the song. Just a great job all around mate!
Please take any ideas on the mix as just my thoughts as I listened. All you did was wonderful just the way it was done. My input is not meant to be critical. More so the feedback is offered in hopes of sharing to consider and get better, or just plain something to try. I think that is also in the spirit of the Justinguitar site and the forum/community.
Thanks for sharing and great timing at this time of the year! Happy holidays and a merry Christmas to you and yours.
LB
@J.W.C Jason, you mentioned sublime, so I wanted to share this video. I was blown away a few years back by this classical guitar rendition of the traditional Irish hymn “Be Thou My Vision” online:
There are more recent videos, but this made me want to pull my classical guitar out of the closet and see if my pudgy stubby fingers could handle these chords. The recording quality is pretty good.
Just listened to it. A very nice arrangement. I particularly enjoyed the vocal harmonies during the refrain.
Heck yeah!
I don’t do anything special with SoundCloud uploads, although I do make a point of uploading high quality WAV files to SoundCloud, which I think they convert to something else. But starting with high quality WAVs might help.
I haven’t tried using compression in that manner. I’ll give it a shot. I tend to be “light” with my use of compression because I don’t really like the idea of reducing the effective dynamic range. But I know compression can make a big difference in the sound. Definitely still learning about all this stuff!
In an earlier mix I tried EQing with more low end, but it was coming out kind of “boomy” and not capturing the sound I wanted. I didn’t spend much time on it, though. Experimenting some more with that (and “notching” out offensive frequencies) would be a worthwhile learning exercise, I think.
Absolutely. I appreciate feedback, suggestions, and criticism: positive or negative and everything in between. Feedback that gives me something to consider, try out, or work on is especially welcome!
Thank you for sharing that; it’s a beautiful piece, exceptionally well played.
@dobleA In the spirit of Justin’s Song Facts that he includes in his recent free songbook for Christmas, “How Great Thou Art” started out as a Swedish hymn “O Store Gut”. I was surprised to discover in Wikipedia that it was translated to German and Russian 13 years before it was translated into English, where it has become the 2nd most popular hymn in the English speaking world. The Spanish version is “Cuan grande es El”
Good point on dynamics. Though I have experimented with compression and even limiters on the master track. To my poor ears I can’t really hear it when using a even a large amount of compression Though with limiters I do tend to use as little as possible. Point was just to try it and see how it works for you.
At least you tried and that is good. Probably not worth fooling with it after that if you did not like it the first time around.
Great,
Glad you took it as it was intended and that was my hope!
Take good care, keep rocking and go big in 2023! Looking forward to new offerings from you!
LB
Beautifully played, produced, and, especially, sung. You have a marvelous voice reminiscent of Elvis singing gospel. For a smokin’ devil, you play a mean hymn.
Having grown up as the preacher’s step-kid, I’m ambivalent about worship music, though the music was the only good thing about compulsory church attendance. I got ample chance to play grand pianos & pipe organs.
Hi Jason
Really nicely worked out version and great vocal
I could swear I can hear there’s some kind of keyboard sound there in the arrangement too - must be the “choir invisible” playing along
The sacred/ secular use of guitar and lyrics in songs is an interesting seam to mine. I’ve found it fascinating looking at the history of rural and urban blues in the USA intertwining with church and gospel and country music.
A good way to go further with your How Great Thou Art version might be to take some nuggets from @Richard_close2u current lesson on chord borrowing and substitution and see if there’s anything in there that resonates for you to really make it your own
I’m mentioning that last bit because I’d been looking at an old hymn with an interesting history - Here is Love Vast As The Ocean - regarding the evolution of the lyric being used with different English, Welsh and American tunes over the years.
Then I made my own discovery that the usual tune used in the UK these days for that hymn, formerly used for the American hymn “Jesus Only” works very well with the backbone of the chords for Who Knows Where the Time Goes by Sandy Denny, giving me some “readymade” chord borrowings
Happy Strumming!
Cheers
Ruaridh
Hah! Definitely no keyboard sounds on this. I think what you’re hearing are overtones from the guitars combined with the stereo reverb setup. Both these guitars are pretty nice instruments that produce beautiful overtones. (You can really hear the Martin’s overtones on this recording, which is just solo guitar and nothing else.) I also have the two guitars capo’d differently: the strummed Martin is capo’d on III, and the fingerstyle Yairi is capo’d on I. So even when they’re playing the same chords they’re using different voicings and have different timbres that blend together in the recording. The strummed guitar (the Martin) is also doubled and sent L and R, and the Martin-L track gets sent to a room-style reverb that is panned Right, and the Martin-R track gets sent to a room-style reverb that is panned Left. The master track applies a big hall reverb to everything.
Yes, I think it would be fun to play with the arrangement and the harmonies.
Nothing wrong with that (i.e., recording a take with an iPad or phone). Getting into recording with a DAW (and using multiple tracks/instruments) is fun and satisfying, though. And you can still do single take stuff with the DAW, if you want to. I like doing that, sometimes; it gives a very “live” feel.
