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Slejhamer's Blues
#1

Okay, this is quite raw, and there are several missed notes and some sloppy bends, but keep in mind I've been doing this for less than a year! (Excuses, excuses ...)

So here is yours truly, playing the rhythm and lead guitar tracks through my Pandora into my PC, mixed with Audacity freeware. The bass/drum track is the Pandora's 8-beat shuffle pattern at 96bpm. The "song" is the blues lesson from the Fender / Keith Wyatt "How to Play Electric Guitar" DVD.

Other than more practice practice practice, any obvious areas for improvement?

Here's the link:
http://members.cox.net/mschlesinger/blue...-30-05.mp3

(P.S. Next time I'll edit out the cheesy Audacity click track at the beginning.) Smile

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#2

Right on Mitch! Big Grin Way to go Slejhamer. For less than a year, I'm impressed.

Sit, stay, ok, hold it! Awww, no drooling! :O
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#3

Thanks dude!

Now I need a better soundcard, better pc speakers ... uh, better playing skills ... Big Grin

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#4

Well Slej, that's quite an achievement!! We haven't heard much of your guitar antics recently, what new?

Cave canem
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#5

Thanks Ruf.

Rufus Wrote:what new?

Well I started taking lessons, so I'm working quite a bit on scales and arepeggios which really aren't much fun to write about. And that darned B-diminished chord! :o

Now that I've figured out how to record electric guitar, I am going to try to hook up my acoustic and finally get some sound clips up. Hope I don't blow the soundcard! Big Grin

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#6

Oh, and I'm going to try to participate in an "online blues jam" over at GN, though I am very nervous about it.

Tell Gino. Wink

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#7

slejhamer Wrote:Oh, and I'm going to try to participate in an "online blues jam" over at GN, though I am very nervous about it.

Tell Gino. Wink


Ok Slej, thanks.
I told Gino, but I think he's too busy sampling some foreign foods at present.
You know what these Italians are like!!

Cave canem
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#8

Awesome slej! Walkin' the blues... Big Grin

slejhamer Wrote:Oh, and I'm going to try to participate in an "online blues jam" over at GN, though I am very nervous about it.

Online blues jam? Tell me more! How does it work?
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#9

shuttertalk Wrote:Online blues jam? Tell me more! How does it work?

Thanks Jules.

Blues jam: one person (the "host") comes up with a backing track mp3 and posts it for download. To participate, you are assigned a time slot which seems to equate to a 12-bar segment of the bt over which you play lead. You record yourself in Audacity (or whichever program the host is using to mix), send your segment to the host, and he or she mixes everyone's segments together to come up with the final collaborative work.

Get over to guitarnoise.com (friendliest guitar site on the web!), register for the forums, and go to the Online Jams forum for more info.

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#10

Wow cool... sounds awesome.

When you said online jam, I was thinking more of a real-time jam using some conferencing software... but what you mentioned sounds cool too.
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#11

slej, that is really well-phrased for under a year, and a nice 60's feel to the mix! A couple of nifty position changes..and unafraid to post it too! Heck mate, it took me 4 years to get outa my bedroom when I started.
Quite a few sites have these sort of jams; glad you've found a friendly one. I got quite miffed when I used to post some of my best stuff on some places only to get ignored as I didn't seem part of the in-crowd.
Is that the onboard soundcard there? Any ideas what you want to upgrade to?

All my stuff is here: www.doverow.com
(Just click on the TOP RIGHT buttons to take you to my Image Galleries or Music Rooms!)
My band TRASHVILLE, in which I'm lead guitarist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6mU6qaNx08
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#12

Thanks Zig. Yes, I got over the fear of posting after hearing a few newbies over at guitarnoise.

Yes, I used the onboard soundcard. Never thought I'd use the pc for this! No idea what to upgrade to; I'd imagine that anything is better than the stock card. The recorded sound is very muddy compared to what comes out of the speakers (or amp). If you have any suggestions I'd be happy to hear them.

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#13

Well, surely there'll be as many opinions as hairs on a, er, very hairy thing...but I have found that even a bog-standard Soundblaster Live was a good upgrade. You'll hear it being slated for "only" being 16-bit, but so is CD quality. Cheap as chips; my first CD was on SBLive, and still sells(another one today as it happens). Just slap it in a PCI slot and you are away.
Even for my 24bit silky stuff I only use an M-Audio Delta66...so, if you wanted "next-step-up from SBLive", either the Terratec DMX6Fire or the M-Audio2496: both 24bit, duplex and cost about the same(about £65 GBP(...$100??) Am deliberately not confusing you by going on about midi, as I'm guessing you're working in audio.
Any of the clips I've posted here were all done on my home pc and recorded on my M-Audio card. Online knowledge base for all these is considerable too. By all means pick my brains either on here or by pm if you think i can be of help Slej.

All my stuff is here: www.doverow.com
(Just click on the TOP RIGHT buttons to take you to my Image Galleries or Music Rooms!)
My band TRASHVILLE, in which I'm lead guitarist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6mU6qaNx08
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#14

Thanks Zig. I've heard good things about M-audio; they have a 4-port version of the Delta which is a little cheaper, but still expensive for my needs and skill level. I'll take a look at the SBLive and the SB-Audigy cards though.

Do you use a mixer before connecting to the sound card?

Also the M-Audio 2496 has only RCA inputs? Not even a mini plug input? Seems odd.


EDIT: Well it looks like the M-Audio Delta 44 can be bought for US$150 and gets consistently strong reviews. I'm putting it on my wishlist!

P.S. What setup do you recommend for recording acoustic guitar? I've tried the line-out from my acoustic amp but it is VERY noisy. The guitar has an under-saddle piezo pickup - can I plug it straight into the Delta? Or would I need a DI box or some other interface? Or - gasp - an actual microphone??? Big Grin Thanks!

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#15

I like to double-track my acoustic guitar - one track straight from my guitar into an Aphex Acoustic DI to the soundcard, and the other track with a Shure SM57 mic'd to the guitar.

I use an Edirol UA-5 USB interface (basically an external soundcard).

I agree with Zig though - even the most basic 16 bit sound card should do in terms of sound quality - it's more the other features of a sound card like available inputs/outputs, etc that would be of interest to me if I were to shop for a new soundcard.

If you think about it, even the minimal technology we have at our disposal surpasses that which was avalable to musos twenty years ago, and yet their music still sounds great today.

God has placed me on earth to accomplish certain things.
Right now, I am so far behind that I will never die.
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#16

de_axeman Wrote:I use an Edirol UA-5 USB interface (basically an external soundcard).

That's got me thinking ... If you use an external soundcard, does it then bypass the computer's own soundcard to record? But then for playback, it's still the same lousy internal card, right? Do the cheapo internal cards play back better than they record? That's the way mine seems to function.

M-Audio also has one of these (MobilePre, I think it's called) that I've seen good reviews on.

Ah, well, now that I've bought the '51, I may have to wait on the computer upgrades... at least until Christmas. Wink

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#17

Sorry Slej, been absent!
That Delta 44 will be superdoops...and yes, once inserted into a spare PCI slot, it does "bypass" the onboard one by default.
Yes, guitars and all will have to be brought up to "line level".
Practically, this means a pre-amp. I use an M-Audio Audiobuddy for acoustic(pht-oough!..sorry) and vox.
I use either a Behringer V-Amp2(ideal... cheap and very good...most of my snippets on here will feature this) for electric.
In both cases: guitar-preamp-input of soundcard.
Ideal Christmas fodder, as all these are very cost effective(now, lemme look at that 51...)

All my stuff is here: www.doverow.com
(Just click on the TOP RIGHT buttons to take you to my Image Galleries or Music Rooms!)
My band TRASHVILLE, in which I'm lead guitarist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6mU6qaNx08
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#18

The Edirol UA-5 I'm using has outputs for monitors and headphones, so I'm by passing the internal soundcard and normal speakers.

The generic PC soundcards & speakers are usually voiced for gaming (uneven frequency response and too bassy) and I don't use them for recording/mixing purposes.

God has placed me on earth to accomplish certain things.
Right now, I am so far behind that I will never die.
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