Hello Gmc friends,

I have been really busy lately, doing an internship in politics and working part time on the weekend. I have worked 60 hours per week for the last 3 months. I finally finished my internship last friday and I found out that my guitar skills had decreased and that my guitar really need to be fix since it buzz almost everywhere.

Yesterday, the weather was terrible (perfect time to play the blues )one of my friend and I start jamming with a few beers and we decided to record something. The lyrics and the lead part where pretty much improvised. The rythm guitar was written in 2 minutes and it was just jammed, without a metronome or a click, plain feeling.

The lyrics are in french (with a strong slang from where I live)

We did a few comp here and there and I think the result is ok. It is not perfect but it was a hell lot of fun. Furthermore, it was the first time that I recorded a tube amp instead of digital modeling. It sounds great but it is hard to modify your sound at the end. I found that I didn't like the rythm guitar sound in the first part, it seems to lack some tone.

Anyway here is the link, I'm waiting for some feedback on this but don't expect anything professional only plain fun while jamming.

There is 2 parts. The second one is in B minor and the first one ..... well I don't know I just jammed in E blues .

 No_time_blues.mp3 ( 2.43MB ) Number of downloads: 1029


The gear:
Epiphone Sherraton
Fender Stratocaster
Fender Blues Junior
SM57

Everything was recorded in Logic and the only effect that were used are in the DAW.

The lyrics aren't important since we do not say anything important, just messing around.
In the middle of the two parts here is the dialogue translated
- No time to live in B minor
- Can we play in E instead ?
- Man, man. Just play !
- Allright then


IMO, a few things are bugging in the track. The rythm guitar lack a lot of mid, wich the eq on the amp wasn't adjust properly. The lead guitar was also done on my stratocaster wich have dead notes, buzz and some bends get cut. Had trouble mixing the vocals also. Another thing is that since the wall in my appartment are thick has paper we couldn't crank the amp at all so I found that the lead lack of sustain in some parts.


I will like to hear your comments and advice on this !!!
Thanks and enjoy the No time Blues


Edit: Forgot to mention that I play the lead part and my friend the rythm and vocal

This post has been edited by Crazy_Diamond: Dec 13 2010, 07:06 PM

I really like the part that starts at 1:00. Nice one.

hey man, it sounds very good, I like it a lot. I like the fact that you played based on a pure feeling, and I think it shows. It doesn't matter if it is raw, if it has good emotion in it, people can feel that!

Regarding your mix, I'm not sure what do you have on channels, and if you have vocals on separate channel, but if you do, it would be cool to raise up the vocals just a bit. They seem a bit quiet. Everything else is pretty good.

I like your lead playing a lot, less is more, and pauses between the notes are just as important as the notes themselves. I think you managed to play a very good solo that is pleasant for listening and something I can relate to in terms of emotions. Great job.

I hope you will do some more jams like this, 5-6 more and you are on the way of creating enough songs for a small blues album. Why not!

Thanks for the comment Ivan. I'm glad you like my blues playing it means a lot man.

I had the vocal on a separate track so I raised the volume a bit on the vocal !

There is the second mix with the vocal a bit louder
 Pus_l_temps_de_rien_faire_b.mp3 ( 2.52MB ) Number of downloads: 163

I really like the feeling of this tune! I can feel that you were having a great time drinking beers there.
The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear your solo is what a tasteful playing! The music & specially the solo remembers me to John Frusciante solo albums. I like how the recording and mix sounds!
Keep on the great job man!

I like it a lot, RAW blues, that's the spirit of blues.
i really like your tone, reminds of clapton, and that's a very nice thing!

one thing that i'm working on that maybe you can work on too is.. look sometimes in music and specially in blues music, less is more, so try to squeeze all the juice from every single note instead of playing more notes, i like your level of repetition, but this is different, FIGHT every note, try to keep it alive until your fingers hurt, that's my advice!

keep rocking man

I'm so glad you like my solo man. I never been really good with improvisation and earing that from a talented guitarist as you gives motivation to record some other songs. And if I sound a bit like Frusciante that make my day since I appreciate that guitarist style so much.

As for the mixing I'm glad that Mister Leopardi studio appreciate my work

Thanks for the input man !!!



So funny you mention Clapton Adrian.... I did a long drive that day not too long before recording and I have listened to 2 albums in my car:
1. Riding with the King (Clapton & B.B. King)
2. From the Craddle (Clapton)

Not sure if those listening had influence on my playing but anyway I'm glad you like my recording.

And you are right about the less is more, I should focus more on that but I have to admit that it was hard to record that way for 2 reason. The first one is that my Strat is in awful condition and lot of bends get cut by uneven frets. Also I could'nt crank the amp as loud has I would have like to get more sustain. Maybe in different condition it would have sound different but anyways. I'll keep your advices in mind.

Thanks for you feedback man, I really appreciate it

Just a few suggestions on the mix based on the 1st version.

Like Ivan I think he vocals need to come up relative to the rest. The main vocal is generally the focal point and so benefits from sitting up in the mix.

A couple of other suggestions:

I'd look at the low mid range (around 100-400Hz) as to me it sounds a bit muddy.
Bass (@80Hz) may benefit from some attenuation.
High mid (2.5-4 kHz) sounds a little sharp, not sure from the mp3 if this is a mix issue or due to the vst effects/daw that you might be using. Again some wide bell EQ attenuation may help.
Seems like there is quite a bit of high end noise from 5k all the way up to Nyquist, might be any idea to LPF it out.
Track would benefit from reducing the overall gain as it clips. I'd suggest that you consider recording with your peak about 3dB lower then this.

Mix overall is ok just needs a little fine tuning so good job

Thanks for the info Tony !!!

I have to admit that your explanation goes byond my knowledge in mixing.

I have no basics in mixing I just eq everything by ear (without any references) and set-up a Bus track with a Reverb on it (not even sure it was added properly).

In your explanation should I adjust the EQ on the master track or on the rythm guitar ??
And I don't understand de Nyquist and LPF. What does it mean ?

I think I need to read a bit more on this subject since I had so much fun last time I am going to do other type of recording like this.

That's a great jam with a very nice feeling in your playing!
The Blues is a spontaneous thing and you captured it very well. The vocals are great too and I agree with the lyrics!

Nyquist refers to the Nyquist frequency. The technical explanation is that the Nyquist is 1/2 the sampling frequency of a discrete signal processing system and relates to how you reduce aliasing effects in digital audio. Theoretically if Nyquist is larger than the signal bandwidth then we should achieve a perfect reconstruction of the signal from the samples taken. This doesn't happen in practice as the filters used are non-ideal so some aliasing still occurs. Sgnal frequencies just above Nyquist fold back around the Nyquist to a sort of mirror image. So with a Nyquist at 22kHz a signal at 23kHz will fold back to form one at 21kHz. This folding back is the alias. (You can also fold up i.e a frequency at 21kHz can also fold up around a Nyquist at 22.k to produce an alias at 23kHz.)

The non-technical explanation is that the Nyquis frequency is 1/2 the sample rate that your daw etc is set at. Most are at 44.1 kHz so the Nyquist is 22.05 kHz. As the human audible range is 20 - 20kHz the Nyquist frequency of 20kHz for a 44.1kHz system sits just above the human range i.e. aliasing will not be heard.

What I can hear at a low level is high frequency noise that runs up from 5kHz in your signal and I'm assuming that it will run up to and beyond the Nyquist and thus you will have aliasing effects. (I can hear some in the audio.)

An LPF is a low pass filter - it's a type of EQ setting. What it does is it lets through all the frequencies below the point you set it at and reduces all those above it. If you set an LPF at say 15kHz it could help reduce some of the low level high frequency noise. At 15kHz you should get a transition down to about 13kHz, that will leave your high mids untouched and most of the high frequency as well. The transition though depends on how linear and how tight the LP filter is - some are better than others. If the LPF is taking out too much of the high end then increase the frequency of the cut off point.

If you EQ only the rhythm guitar then the EQ alteration you do will only affect that track/instrument. If you EQ the stereo mix [master track] then the EQ will affect everything. To some extent you have to do some of both in mixing. You have to get each individual track sorted out and then you mix them together and adjust to make sure that they work well together to produce a good stereo mix.

One of the reasons why mastering engineers often use the phrase, 'fix it in the mix' is because an issue is often with a single instrument and it is easier and better to deal with the single instrument rather than try and change the entire mix.

Very nice explanations tony, didn't know about Nyquist frequency!

Great blues man!

The only comment about the music is to avoid those bends on the rhythm guitar, doesn't fit (maybe you could try to intonate them better or to supress them).
About the recording listen to Tony that he's the man, I agree with his comments.

Keep the good work!