Saturday afternoon rock n roll

After three weeks of the 321 Guitar Challenge (worth a look at this if you are getting into some improvisation) I thought it was time for something a little different. I had my Play Room available so spent the afternoon producing this project.

In addition to the playing, I also wanted to experiment with using only Reaper in the post-production, both audio and video.

So this was produced using OBS to record the videos while the audio tracks were being recorded into Reaper (my DAW). I used my monitor speakers to play over first drums and then over the backing as it was laid down track by track before a final lead jam. I set up a mic to capture the audio from the monitor speakers and be the source for the video recorded in OBS, so as to be able to sync video in Reaper.

All the tones generated in Reaper using Waves GTR.

It turned it was quite possible though a couple of things a little finicky in Reaper, easier in a proper video editor.

But overall I am happy with the days effort. I had a lot of fun and hope you enjoy the results.

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Just about to turn but had to crank the handle on this one.

Mr Pā€™s in the house, mooching and moseying around a soulful blues. :clap: :clap:

Nicely put together David, great the way you stacked the video. Assume you created a Scene with each video added as a source, which Iā€™d think was hard to sync in OBS but they all fit like a glove.

A fitting end to the day.

:sunglasses:

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As always very cool and very chilled out David. You are certainly able to get some great sounds out of that guitar. Really fun to listen to! :sunglasses:

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Excellent David. Set me up for a spicy beef stew supper. Keep it up.

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Nicely done David. Iā€™m curious on more about what you were playing, what were your rhythm guitarists doing and what scale were you using for your lead etc?

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Cool recording David finally got some nice tone out of your axe, really enjoyed it and that was a missing piece for me so well done :grinning: as for constructive criticism goes I think when drums had this sort of quick transition around 1:54 your rhythm guitars got slightly lost, although this got quickly rectified after a few seconds so you did the most important thing - kept going :slight_smile: all the best David!

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Haha! Good times. Donā€™t bother knockinā€™ when DP is rockinā€™! Thatā€™s a fine band youā€™ve assembled and some pretty tasty chops in there. Having a ton of rollicking fun as well. Well done sir!

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Really enjoyed the nice flow and chilled vibe of this one David. Great job at putting it all together.

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@TheMadman_tobyjenner
Thanks Toby. I intended to title this ā€˜Saturday Afternoon Bluesā€™ but then it didnā€™t sound all that bluesy to me. I guess I have an archetypal blues sound and vibe in my head, that to date Iā€™ve yet to be able to produce, my lines, feel, and tone. So depsite it being a slow blues 12BB progression, I ended up more blues-rock with the emphasis on the the rock.

"But did it roll, baby?ā€™ is what Keef would ask :joy:

Actually all the video production was done in Reaper. I recorded the video of myself playing each part in OBS while the audio was recorded in Reaper. I used a dynamic mic to pick up the backing and part being played from the monitor speakers. So on my Scarlett 2i2 input one had the bass or guitar plugged in and fed to Reaper and input 2 had the dynamic mic fed into OBS as an audio source.

Once the audio was all done in Reaper then I dropped the four videos into Reaper and produced the final video as you saw it. Needless to say, all I needed to be able to do was explained in two KeenyG videos on the Reaper site.

There was some sound/video latency so the idea I had to just sync on the intro drum hits didnā€™t work, so had to use ears and eyes to get it syncā€™ed up adequately.

That was another production experiment, just to see what can be done using Reaper as a Digital Audio-visual Workbench. And as you say, I got the job done, although it would be easier to create the video in a video editor.

@Eddie_09
Thanks Eddie.

I have to say, the quality of the pickups and electronics on the PRS are impressing me. Certainly better than I had on my Epiphone LP, though I must add that isnā€™t a fair comparison as the guitars are not a match from a price-point position perspective. From my personal experience and some hearsay, I think it is worth considering PRS and G&L when out shopping for an electric. I think their affordable ranges are good quality and represent value-for-money.

The final sounds on all the guitar parts were dialed in using Waves GTR. Perhaps not the best product of its kind but still delivers a good result. I recorded the rhythm parts just direct through the interface and heard dry in the monitors, adding the tone afterwards. The lead I picked the tone upfront as I think it can aid the lead playing to have all the sustain and growl at your finger-tips. I feel it influenced how I played.

@TheOldGuy
Thanks Scott. Appreciate the feedback and encouragement.

@jkahn
Thanks JK. The progression was intended to be a minor 12BB blues in A.

That said, the one rhythm part is two-finger A D E power chords, which would have neither major nor minor feel without the third.

The other was stabs on the minor chords. The Am played as the E shape barre chord and the Dm and Em played as A shape barre chord. And I canā€™t remember if the Dm and Em were played as such or Am7 or Em7.

The lead was mostly just good old Am pentatonic. In one cycle I added a couple of extra notes that are in one of the minor scales. I know there are three minor scale flavours and not sure which one. But those notes sound naturally good to my ears and gave the jam something different at the end that sounded good to my ears.

@adi_mrok
Thanks Adrian. My physical amp is certainly a little limited in what tones I can produce. In hindsight perhaps I should have dug deeper into the pocket for a BK50 or even BK100 (for the Fx loop). But for my use cases, it felt like more money than I could really justify. I am not likely to get into a band situation with an electric and enjoy the flexibility for original song production of tone shaping in the DAW (as you heard in this production). I think for practice purposes and noodles/loodles the tone with the overdrive pedal does an adequate job. Iā€™m not sure if you watched my third 321 Challenge video as I donā€™t recall a comment. That attempt had much more drive in the tone, perhaps closer to what was missing for you.

You are so right to pick up on some moments where one might say ā€˜loose became sloppyā€™. It is the first time I have played to drums in a while. My last original song was recorded about a year ago, and I forget when I did the Blues Lead study, I suspect Dec last year as a JGversary project. I definitely felt that I was rusty in that regard after this year with more focus on lead technique plus noodles/loodles (looper play does help timing) and singing with acoustic accompaniment. There were quite a few takes before I could consider I had one from start to finish that was good enough, all things considered.

As for the bass, that was probably the hardest part to record of all. While it is nothing fancy or difficult, playing the bass (my first time trying to record a bass part by playing it rather than composing in MIDI and using a digital bass) was a challenge and a relatively flub-free take took the longest time.

@CT
Thanks Clint. Yes indeed. When we just plug in and turn it up, just for fun, no pressure, one sure can have a lot of fun.

@Dro_1
Thanks Sandro, Iā€™m glad you enjoyed it. I am one who gets as much enjoyment from the engineering/recording side as the playing, so really made for a great day to take an idea that came to me on my morning walk and post before the day was done.

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That sounded ace, David, right on. Loved the tone. Very bluesy to my ears, laid back and chill. Nicely played through the different rounds, and a good ending. Nice way to start my Sunday morning! :sunglasses:

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@Mari63 Thanks Mari.

Clearly I have to go on a blues binge and re-calibrate my ears, at least broaden my mental sense of ā€˜bluesynessā€™. :laughing: As I said above I was intending bluesy but again felt it lacked something in the feel and licks/phrases.

I was keeping a close eye on Reaper to make sure I didnā€™t get lost at any point which did help with being more ready for the ending.

I also think the three rounds of 321 made a difference in this jam. And once keeping it simple, it became easier to target the chord tones.

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Good to watch all four of you having fun. That sounded like a really good blues blast. Iā€™ve only just started looking at exploring 12bb blues using power chords, so was good to see it in action.

I donā€™t recall seeing that one, though my memory isnā€™t as sharp as it used to be. If you can point me in the direction it would be good to have a watch of that one too.

Way beyond my play grade to give any meaningful feedback so will leave all four of you with a huge round of applause.

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@Socio
Thanks James. It was a blast and the band all worked well together, no bickering and fighting :laughing:

Hereā€™s a link to my project based on that blues lead study: My First Beginner Blues Study - YouTube

Youā€™ll see a more bluesy use of the power chords in this project. I used MIDI for the drums and bass in this one plus the two rhythm tracks. Again was a lot of fun producing this.

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That was fantastic David. I loved how you took the various lessons and created a band project. It was very well played. It a project which I think should have a challenge or a link included in the grade 2 consolidation topic to give inspiration to those currently completing Grade 2.

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Good stuff there David,
Tone is great. I think your lead play is on an upward trajectory and that your bends are showing much improvement. I likes that the PRS and Tone setup started to feedback a couple of times and I think that indicated playing on what I call the ā€œedge of breakupā€. Or something like thatā€¦ Us old farts get to plead the 5th at times, when memory is lacking!

I agree with you that much can be done in Reaper. I still find that at $60 for years of use, it is nearly the swiss army knife of production. Even for those on a Mac, as it can be had there as wellā€¦

Thanks for laying out some of how you did this one. Hopefully others will learn more from it as well!

All the best and good to see you doing well!
LB

@Socio
Thanks James. Glad you enjoyed it. A link on the website in Gr2 Consolidation to a GC Topic is an interesting idea. Of course, first weā€™d have to create the GC Topic :grin:

We are circumspect in creating a GC Topic, perhaps overly so. Usually we wait for some significant uptake, like we had on the 321 GC we recently created.

Am I correct that you posted a play through of the study, or were your posts all your own improvisations?

Can you recall if thereā€™ve been other attempts. I know a couple of people have posted playing the Licks n Riffs study, which could also be a good GC.

Iā€™ll check in with the other Mods.

@LBro
Thanks LBro.

I was pretty chuffed with how this one turned out. I think the work on bends plus those 321 sessions have paid off. Still a long way to go before I can deliver note for note solos from the likes of say Slash but hey, we all start at the beginning.

The hint of feedback when I held a couple of notes, one in particular that had some ā€˜vibratoā€™ on it. The recording was made in the DAW without a mic involved so have no idea how that comes about. But it does sound good when it happens. Now to be able to get that on demand rather than by happy accident.

I was amazed by how much video editing could be done in Reaper with the Video Processor plugin. And the fact that one can render an mp4 from Reaper. Given my needs of a video editor I could probably do it all in Reaper.

The one that I did a play through with some improvisation at the end was from the classic course bonus material. The other electric one was my own improvisation.

Iā€™m pretty sure @Notter @Rumil did a recording of the solo piece at the end of the blues module and I think @jsgreen did a mix of it with some improv over a 12 bar blues. I only recall those one as it was at a time I was just going through or had finished that module. I was just thinking when watching it that itā€™s a good example on consolidating what you have learned in grade 2 blues lessons.

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Very nice piece of work David. Good respecting of the chord changes and I liked the way you changed up the timing at around the 2:00 mark. Thatā€™s the cool thing about a slow blues, you can do free form timing provided you bring it back in check at the end of the bar, which you did perfectly!

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Hi David,

Blues with a bit of two tone thrown in - you even have the hat. :slight_smile:

Nicely put together.
Wouldnā€™t know where to begin with syncing video and audio - so think iā€™ll stick to being invisible.

Digger

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Very nice, I love the production! I have never tried OBS for video capture, only windows camera. I curious about the advantages of OBS? Great job David.

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