On a Night Like This
February 27, 2023 7:46 AM
Got inspired by hearing the Los Lobos cover of the song on KUVO and liked it so much I cut a demo.
I tracked everything into Ableton Live, guitar and voice through a Tascam Model 12. No quantization.
I started with rhythm guitar, DIed from a Catalyst 60. I only did one good take. I would usually double it, but just didn't.
Next was vocals. I did five takes, got a couple of decent ones. Comped them into the main vocal, then duped the good takes and panned them left and right with a bit of delay. Then through all three into a group and put a glue compressor on them.
Played in the drums on the Push, the old reliable Brush Sizzle kit. Laid down kick and snare first, then went back over it for cymbals. Didn't have to edit the MIDI at all. I guess it's kind of a New Orleans beat? I set the metronome to 132, but tapping it out on all8 just now, it comes up as 133. Practice with a metronome instead of playing by ear for decades, kids.
Had a hard time finding a bass sound that I liked, but settled on the Tension preset "Catgut Bass." Played around with the line a little bit, but eventually got what I was looking for. Only a couple of mistakes needed to be fixed in the MIDI. Panned left a little.
I left room in the arrangement for a lead part because after 35 years of rhythm playing, I finally started learning about leads. Set it all up to do multiple takes, but the first one, entirely improvised, was only marginally terrible, so I decided to just keep it. I used the bridge pickup on my Yamaha Revstar Element with the Dry switch on and the "Clean" preset on the Catalyst. Panned right a little.
I wanted something else, so I pulled up a Bandoneon Kontakt instrument and played in some fifths. Panned it right some.
Didn't really mess with the EQs, even though my default tracks have an EQ8 on them. I did run the bass shelf all the way down on the bass track. Left the rest at 100Hz which is my default.
I did throw Blyss on the master and used the "Classic for a reason" preset.
I also made an MP4 by taking the WAV and running it through my Hit Film Express process to create a spectrum visualization over some stock video, mostly to try and maintain the memory of how to do that.
I guess I spent about 4 hours tracking, a couple hours comping and editing, then another hour or so making a video. I ran out of steam, or I would have printed to WAV and put it through Ozone first. Regardless, this was a much better use of a Sunday than doomscrolling.
I tracked everything into Ableton Live, guitar and voice through a Tascam Model 12. No quantization.
I started with rhythm guitar, DIed from a Catalyst 60. I only did one good take. I would usually double it, but just didn't.
Next was vocals. I did five takes, got a couple of decent ones. Comped them into the main vocal, then duped the good takes and panned them left and right with a bit of delay. Then through all three into a group and put a glue compressor on them.
Played in the drums on the Push, the old reliable Brush Sizzle kit. Laid down kick and snare first, then went back over it for cymbals. Didn't have to edit the MIDI at all. I guess it's kind of a New Orleans beat? I set the metronome to 132, but tapping it out on all8 just now, it comes up as 133. Practice with a metronome instead of playing by ear for decades, kids.
Had a hard time finding a bass sound that I liked, but settled on the Tension preset "Catgut Bass." Played around with the line a little bit, but eventually got what I was looking for. Only a couple of mistakes needed to be fixed in the MIDI. Panned left a little.
I left room in the arrangement for a lead part because after 35 years of rhythm playing, I finally started learning about leads. Set it all up to do multiple takes, but the first one, entirely improvised, was only marginally terrible, so I decided to just keep it. I used the bridge pickup on my Yamaha Revstar Element with the Dry switch on and the "Clean" preset on the Catalyst. Panned right a little.
I wanted something else, so I pulled up a Bandoneon Kontakt instrument and played in some fifths. Panned it right some.
Didn't really mess with the EQs, even though my default tracks have an EQ8 on them. I did run the bass shelf all the way down on the bass track. Left the rest at 100Hz which is my default.
I did throw Blyss on the master and used the "Classic for a reason" preset.
I also made an MP4 by taking the WAV and running it through my Hit Film Express process to create a spectrum visualization over some stock video, mostly to try and maintain the memory of how to do that.
I guess I spent about 4 hours tracking, a couple hours comping and editing, then another hour or so making a video. I ran out of steam, or I would have printed to WAV and put it through Ozone first. Regardless, this was a much better use of a Sunday than doomscrolling.
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posted by thatwhichfalls at 7:04 PM on March 16, 2023 [1 favorite]