@TheMadman_tobyjenner
Thanks Toby. I intended to title this āSaturday Afternoon Bluesā but then it didnāt sound all that bluesy to me. I guess I have an archetypal blues sound and vibe in my head, that to date Iāve 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
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 didnāt work, so had to use ears and eyes to get it syncāed 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 isnāt 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 canāt 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. Iām not sure if you watched my third 321 Challenge video as I donāt 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 āloose 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, Iām 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.