The Challlenge 24/5/2010

Renesongs

Alan has chosen the following topic for this weeks challenge:

Harmonics
There are many ways to use natural and artificial harmonics in your playing: tapped, pinch, harp, pick, slapped, etc. Lots of ways to approach using them: from Tommy Emmanuel's chords made entirely of harp harmonics, Michael Hedges' tapped harmonics, Billy Gibbons' squeaky soloing, Dimebag's metal squealing or Mattias Eklundh's dissonant harmonics. So this week's challenge is to make a piece of music that features harmonics in abundance.

Warren

Oof...

Another one out of left field for me ? Will have to see if I can develop some skillz here. ?

Cool challenge!

Squonk

Excellent challenge especially after the Alternate tuning challenge.

This is the thing, These challenges not only test your recording and creative skills, but also your ability to go beyond your ability and discover new guitar skills, techniques etc.

Good stuff ?

Jacquesg4j

ooooooh i'm in on this one... some alternative tuning combined with harmonics! Now just have to find a way to record!

AlanRatcliffe

Here's Mattias Eklundh on harmonics:

And Justinguitar:

guitarboy2828

Ok, this one I am definitely getting in on! ?

When do these challenges have to be submitted by?

Squonk

Should be Monday @ sunset, The Capies always get a bit extra ?

AlanRatcliffe

He'res Mattias Eklundh playing La Bamba at a workshop, using harmonics (and some... uhh... devices!) to spice up the melody line. Also note he is playing through a 10W Gorilla amp via a Rocktek distortion pedal - proving that cheap equipment is no obstacle if you put your mind to it.

AlanRatcliffe

Even better... Studio version of his rendition of Smoke on the Water:

NorioDS

Mattias for GFSA president! ?

guitarboy2828

My track is in. ? First time entering the weekly competitions, about time I got in on this fun game! ?

Bob-Dubery

Mine is in.

These competitions lead one to stretching oneself in all kinds of ways.

This is my 3rd entry.

The first one was one track, no overdubs (OK... two tracks because I played in stereo). Sat down, recorded, entered.

The 2nd was mixed down from 5 mono tracks. I synchronised by means of the time honored foot tap method.

This one.... well 15 tracks including the click track. At some point the click track became part of the composition. There was one passage that I harmonised. To get the harmonised part done in harmonics I had to play the melody then use alternate tunings to give me the notes I needed as harmonics and over dub those.

Etc etc....

Then last night I got the last part laid down, mixed down to stereo.... and found that some noise had leaked onto some tracks. Sounds like it was noise from a cell phone that somehow got into the signal path.

So I noted the timings where I heard the noise and muted all tracks that actually had something in that time frame. It boiled down to two tracks. One was so badly corrupted that I had to re-record (after having moved my cell phone away from all the cables and the computer). On the second track the noise leaked in before I started playing so I was able to just fade the track right down for that period of time.

So there was a lot more for me to control in this project. Things I learned (some of which fall into the category of "duh")
1) Keep cell phones away from your recording gear
2) Give all the tracks a name that identifies what they are (I figured this one out after I had 10 tracks down and started looking for specific pieces of playing)
3) Tune all the guitars to the same tuner and check tuning before each take
4) Save at regular intervals
5) Double check before deleting a track (I lost one track towards the end and had to play and record it over again)
6) Having double checked, DONT delete it. Just rename it and mute it.
7) Be careful! EVERYTHING gets recorded. There were a couple of tracks I had to tidy up because my hands on the strings made a noise that was picked up. On another I had uttered an oath and this got picked up by the internal mic in the Morgan - faint, and perhaps you couldn't make out exactly what was said but it was audible and was a distraction.

Stitching it together in this fashion was a very interesting experience, though a time consuming one. What it did do was allow me to make things up as I went along. Previously I had the composition mapped out in my head, this time things suggested or revealed themselves at different times and I was able to follow those paths EG the click track which started out as a guide, then got faded out and faded back in again for one passage, and ultimately became a component of the composition.

guitarboy2828

??? Bob, I just recorded 3 tracks right over each other.. So, i think I may get totally annihilated with your 15 tracks! ? It was a great learning curve for me though. Recording is terribly hard, a lot harder than jamming in your bedroom or even playing live with a band. One has to be SO tight and precise. Will definitely be trying to enter more of these compo's to try and get my playing up to scratch.

I need an interface pretty soon though, the 2 seconds of latency is pretty fail! ?

Squonk

the rules state s maximum of 4 tracks ...

DonovanB

4 instruments not tracks.

Only four instruments. Added voice is usually allowed as a "freebie" (in an effort to get our members out of their singing shells), unless specifically disallowed.

Bob-Dubery

Squonk wrote: the rules state s maximum of 4 tracks ...

Ja. I mix down to stereo (or mono for the previous competition) so I don't know if I am falling foul of the rules here or not.

If I am (somebody rule please) then I will withdraw.

In some cases a "track" would have been a "drop in" in a recording studio with tapes. Maybe even using Audacity (which I do) if there was a way to trigger a track into record mode in real time AND play your part (say with a foot pedal) so that you add to an existing track rather than add a new track.

So, ja, if I'm in foul territory here then I'll withdraw. But then I hope that everybody else will be similarly honest and confine themselves to 1 minute, stick to the actual challenge and so on. Last competition we had one entry that polled a lot of votes that was clearly in contravention of the rules. I remember another challenge were the theme was "celtic". PeteM made a good job of putting something together that was clearly celtic, informed by that mode of music, but a piece of distinctly non-celtic shredding won the day. Yes... it was good and well done and clearly a lot of people liked it, but it wasn't what had been asked for.

Sorry to gaan aan so. Maybe it would be a good thing if the rules were applied a little more rigorously.

Alan, Rene, Evo... if I'm in default here then
a) please let me know
b) please exclude my entry when it comes to voting time

PeteM

X-rated Bob wrote:
Squonk wrote: the rules state s maximum of 4 tracks ...
Ja. I mix down to stereo (or mono for the previous competition) so I don't know if I am falling foul of the rules here or not.

If I am (somebody rule please) then I will withdraw.

The rules don't talk about track restriction only instrument restriction - four only.

PeteM

X-rated Bob wrote:
Squonk wrote: the rules state s maximum of 4 tracks ...
Last competition we had one entry that polled a lot of votes that was clearly in contravention of the rules. I remember another challenge were the theme was "celtic". PeteM made a good job of putting something together that was clearly celtic, informed by that mode of music, but a piece of distinctly non-celtic shredding won the day. Yes... it was good and well done and clearly a lot of people liked it, but it wasn't what had been asked for.

Sorry to gaan aan so. Maybe it would be a good thing if the rules were applied a little more rigorously.

I don't think these Weekly Challenges are about winning, they're about growth and participation.

Bob-Dubery

PeteM wrote: I don't think these Weekly Challenges are about winning, they're about growth and participation.

That is the real value. I enter when I don't think I've a snowball's chance of winning because it stretches me and makes me think about different things and because it's just plain fun.

But I'm also an anal, literal type and I get the mutters when the challenge is, say, "appalachian squaredance" and the entries are anything but.

Bob-Dubery

guitarboy2828 wrote: ??? Bob, I just recorded 3 tracks right over each other.. So, i think I may get totally annihilated with your 15 tracks! ?

Well size ain't everything. More tracks don't necessarily mean better music. I feel a bit guilty about it because maybe if I were a better player then I wouldn't need to break the thing up into so many pieces. I could have saved a couple of tracks if I backed myself more. The harmonised passage - I ain't going to lose much sleep over that. I can't see how else I could have done it (watch somebody come along now and say "oh that, let me show you."). There was no way that this was ever going to be done in one take, but I did end up with more than I'd imagine.

It was a great learning curve for me though. Recording is terribly hard, a lot harder than jamming in your bedroom or even playing live with a band. One has to be SO tight and precise. Will definitely be trying to enter more of these compo's to try and get my playing up to scratch.

That's the real value. Winning is nice, but the participation and what it does for your playing and your confidence in your playing is where the real value lies.

I need an interface pretty soon though, the 2 seconds of latency is pretty fail! ?

Huh? I don't have that, and I have a fairly primitive sound card (or drivers for the sound card). None of that ASwotchermacallit stuff. I had a latency problem with Ableton, but the help files told me how to deal with that (and it worked). With Audacity I have no latency issues at all.