Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Netgrass: Lost Highway

I never thought of that… I guess a dobro takes special strings. I am back from shopping and gonna go do some work on Ozzie’s processing and I might throw mine in there for a trial. Feel free to laugh or cry as appropriate.

BTW, you asked for a harmonica… I got blues harmonicas in the proper keys now. It doesn’t mean I can play them, but I have them… I might sneak it in there somewhere.

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Is that a question of volume - ie does that mean I recorded it too softly? If so how much higher should the level be?

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Hey Ozzie,
You were posting while I was posting. It could have something to do with the mp3 format as opposed to wavs. A couple tracks have been real soft (including Phoephus’s Phake Guitar). I generally record as loud (as much signal) as I can without clipping to get the best signal to noise ratio. I don’t know that it should be written in stone to do that, but it generally works out well for me.

I have been playing around with the processing on the vocals. I got a delay on your VOX track. My controls are delay time (right and left) both set at 100 ms or 0.1 sec, feedback (as opposed to decay) set at 20%, and dry/wet % set at 25% (meaning 25% wet, 75% dry). I removed the preamp boost and put an eq to more selectively boost certain frequencies (basically low mid and high boost). I think you have a nice smooth baritone voice, my thoughts on the high boost was to improve the clarity so it can cut through the mix a bit more. I put my VOX on the first verse just so you weren’t the only one sticking your neck out there.

I’ll upload that track, let me know if it’s a step in the right direction with your processing. If not we’ll try again. Also, if you wanted to A) send a processed VOX file or B) you could do the mix there we could get the processing you were using on your end.

kompoz.com/compose-collabora … kId=232469

Take 2 is up.

I mixed in the vocal track that Ozzie sent processed. I think the delay sounds good Ozzie.
kompoz.com/compose-collabora … kId=232549

Just listened to Larry’s vox. He’s in for 4! I’ll settle for backups.

I just listened and liked it as well. Nice job Larry! I mean this 100% as a compliment, but Larry’s voice is believable for the song. THAT’s a good country voice. Personally, I liked Ozzie’s version as well, but he and I sound a bit more like tourists who got lost while looking for a highway while on vacation as opposed to a couple guys who have been down the lost highway. If Larry wants to do all 4, that’s great by me. I’m still wondering what happened to Hugo. I hope all is well with him.

I’ve been playing with the harmonica a bit. They are kind of fun. The weird thing is that you sometimes use one that’s not in the correct key. It’s called playing “cross-harp.” For example, the D blues harp works with D, but you seem to get more blue notes playing in G (the cross-harp for D). I haven’t actually sat down and figured out what notes are on the things, but it’s kind of fun to fiddle with it.

Playing crossharp (using a harp that is the 4th of the key played) gives you a flatted 7th, I believe.


Thanks for the vote of confidence, guys, but if we’re stuck with me as vocalist, I fear our project is in sad shape. Hopefully, Hugo will jump in.

If we accomplish nothing more than having fun making it, then I consider it a success. Last time I checked, we weren’t trying to get a grammy :slight_smile: Along that line of thought, I have an idea… Not sure when I’ll find time to do it, but I think I might drop a Christmas carol or two out on Kompoz and make an open invitation for anyone to submit a vocal track. I’ll just pile up all the voices and make it like a virtual Christmas carol group. I think that would be fun. I might be the only one who thinks so, but it’s worth a shot. And if Larry gets a new string, I’ll leave a black verse for him to showcase his recently dusted off Dobro!

Nice thought Mike - just not in the key of D huh? Otherwise you might just get Larry :stuck_out_tongue:

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If we accomplish nothing more than having fun making it, then I consider it a success. Last time I checked, we weren’t trying to get a grammy

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It’s funny, when I’m recording by myself, I’m not so particular about getting things just right, but when I record with any of you guys, the pressure ratchets up. I feel like I have to up my game just to keep up with everyone else. Not that I’m complaining; it’s good to push myself to get better.

YeeHaw! My dobro strings arrived today. Now, I can get back to trying to figure this song out.

Get down! I saw where you put up a vox track. Sorry I haven’t gotten to mixing it, I’ve been busy for a few days. Hopefully tomorrow or Wed.

Hey Larry, nice job!
Even with a rough mix and my meager mixing skills, the vocals sound groovy.
Hopefully later this week I can spend some quality time with it.

kompoz.com/compose-collabora … kId=234465

Even though I’m not engineering this project, it seems I’ve still managed to bigfoot it. I’ve hogged up all the vocals and the lone break. Somebody add something so I don’t feel so guilty.

Sounding good.

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Somebody add something so I don’t feel so guilty.

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Hey, it already has Mike’s dulcimer on the intro, we’re all waiting for you with the dobro newstringband :slight_smile:
No pressure …

Larry keeps calling for more instruments… we’ll see what we can come up with :slight_smile:
What is a nose flute anyway? Does guitar center carry them?

Didge maybe?

Mike, this should answer your question :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nose_flute
It is an instrument used for courting and as you can see in the illustration it makes the player look highly desirable :sunglasses:
As you knows GC has all kinds of paraphernalia to make guitarists look desirable, though rarely successful …