Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Recording Some Kind Of Blues, track 5 Mean Streak

Mean Streak is my take on the sentiment expressed in Stevie Ray's
Pride And Joy.  I guess you could say that song was its inspiration.

I made this recording of Mean Streak backwards, or rather in
reverse order from the way it would normally be done.
I had a previous recording on 4 track tape, so I recorded the bass
and rhythm guitar tracks from it onto my computer.  As I recall,
it was not all that easy to get them synced with each other.

Then I recorded a MIDI drum track by playing along with the bass
and guitar.   The drum track has the kick, snare, toms, and high hat.
Another MIDI track was created for crash and ride cymbals. 

The lead guitar track was played on my Fender Strat Plus.
One thing I really like about Ableton Live is the ability to use
envelopes to control the parameters of a track, including volume,
panning, and effects.  For instance, I recorded the lead guitar at a
constant volume, then used a volume envelope to bring down the
volume during the vocals.

There you have it.  Mean Streak is a fairly simple recording.
Just 6 tracks:  bass, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, vocal, drums, and cymbals.

Still, it's a lot of work getting all the tracks mixed properly, using EQ to
to remove rattles and string squeaks on the bass guitar, for example,
and then mastering the resulting stereo mix.

Listen at PWCarr Music
http://pwcarrmusic.com/

Mean Streak by Patrick W. Carr
Personnel:
Pat Carr - all instruments, vocals