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| Music and Recording |
| INSTRUMENTS, EQUIPMENT: Instruments: - Kimball Baby Grand (c 1925) - Alesis full keyboard/synth/midi - Fender American Deluxe V-Neck Stratocaster - Martin D16RGTE Acoustic - Takemine Acoustic - Fender Mandolin - Full pack of Hohner blues harps Equipment: - Digi-Tech GNX4, - Zoom H4N, - Zoom H2 - Fender tube amp - Peavey amp - Roland cube - Some decent microphones - Laptop and mixing computers Software used: - Pro-tracks - Adobe Auditions |
| Playing music and recently recording it became a competitive hobby to RC for me in 2008 or so. As a kid, I was forced to take piano lessons and, after a 20 year break, I took it up again in the mid-90's as a way to relax. Despite hating lessons then, I am glad I took them and I highly recommend trying to get your kids to take them or doing it yourself. It helped me subsequently teach myself guitar and I have even been experimenting with a mandolin and harmonicas as well. Unlike those of us that struggle with music, however, my wife was born with a beautiful voice. Despite being modest about her vocals and protesting my requests for her to sing, it was her accompaniment to my random playing over the years that made me want to record it for no other reason other than I like messing with Adobe applications (Adobe Auditions processed these tracks). Bottom line, we started this joint 'hobby' and, regardless of the quality of the results, it is a one that doesn't take me away from the house and her, and it is one we can enjoy together. I don't listen to the original song before I try it, so excuse my arrangements from memory. At least they put a different spin on the tunes, which are typically done in an improvised take or two per instrument. Cathy usually does one take to humor me. After recording the tracks, I go about the madness that is production and mixing, which in and of itself is an art I have yet to master, and finish each song in the same day it was recorded. Anyway, enough on the excuses, all in fun so who cares. Good, bad or indifferent, I post this 'work' as a tribute to the fun we have had doing it and to the voice I have heard and loved for so many years that I often hear it in my dreams. |
| Here are a few of the 20 or so tunes we have fooled around with since we started hobby recording years ago. MP3's - file size range from 2-10 mb. Genesis is my favorite and yet was one of our first attempts. |
| "Genesis" - Jorma Kaukonen Cathy - Vocals Mike - Takemine x 2, Keyboards |
| "Today" - Jefferson Airplane Cathy - Vocals Mike - Fender, Martin acoustic, lame ass tamborine on synthesizer |
| "Bunker Studios" - build in progress at the farm... |
| "If I Could Have Her Tonight" - Neil Young Cathy - Vocals Mike - Martin acoustic, Piano, Synthesizer |
| "Expecting to Fly" - Buffalo Springfield Cathy - Vocals Mike - Piano, Organ/Synth |