Play (or sing) something!

[Guybrush]

So I had promised myself and everyone that I would try to post something in this thread. I'm pleased that we finally did our first semi-improv recordings! (This is jsut audio but maybe we'll try to do some video in the future if we can get hold of the tech).

Just like the Workout thread, we all have to start somewhere. This is my 11 year old son on the drums doing well trying to keep it tight, with me on bass basically running up and down the bottom E string trying to give him something punky funky to drum along to. The recording is raw directly from a phone so enjoy the racket and congrats if you make it to the end.

And we liked those riffs a lot so we did a second take:

Nice, @Saulaac 🙂 it's the school of rock!!

How cool that you two play together like that. I used to play drums way back and would love to have a kit, but I don't think we have space, unfortunately.

[Saulaac]

True that a drum kit takes up half a room. But at the moment the kids are OK to sleep in the same room in order to keep the other one free for drums and bass and xylophone, so I'm like well yeah let's see how this works out.

I've peaked, but they can only get better 

Try and get back on the drums GB!

[Guybrush]

True that a drum kit takes up half a room. But at the moment the kids are OK to sleep in the same room in order to keep the other one free for drums and bass and xylophone, so I'm like well yeah let's see how this works out.

I've peaked, but they can only get better 

Try and get back on the drums GB!

I've thought about buying a midi kit because they take up less space and record easily (I'd probably just use the midi out to control drum VSTis), but then I never played one that I actually liked the feel of.

With an acoustic set, I'd probably lose what little hearing I have left 😄

I do slap my thighs a lot, though.

[Saulaac]

You're right about the hearing aspect. For the younger ones it could be wise for them to wear ear plugs or something. I'll speak to his drum teacher about it.

Here's another improv we did a couple of weeks ago. A bit grungy morphing into light rock. I felt we were getting possessed by the spirit of Gordon Sumner at one point, as there's no way I could play those sliding octaves again like I did  .   Glad we recorded it.

Also I'd just like to mention that as/when we get better, I'd like to have a go at adding basslines to the other live posts by other members of the community. When I listen to them I often wonder what kind of harmonies could fit. We could have a virtual joint performance in a few years!

[tristan_geoff]

Just made this

[Saulaac]

I was asked to join the local choir at their carol concert yesterday, for which I happily obliged. I'm one of the basses in the back row, sixth from the right. Enjoyed belting out those harmonies and the organ was surprisingly proggy at times too.

I haven't sung in a group for years and it did me a lot of good to rehearse with them over the last couple of months. It wasn't perfect but it was pretty damn good.

These are two of the more heavy ones:

Sir Christemas - Mathias

And the Glory of the Lord, Messiah - Handel

Joyeux Noël to all, and keep making music, whatever the season!

[Guybrush]

Nice @Saulaac 🙂 I've thought about joining a choir too, only my voice sounds like shit. It does look fun, though 🙂

Sixth from the right.. are you the guy standing roughly where the two walls meet?

[Saulaac]

^Yep, that's me. If you have the opportunity to join any sort of singing group then I'd highly recommend it. I'm sure your voice and breathing would improve quickly. Or maybe your band could team up with a choir. That could be funky.

[Lexi Darling]

I haven't shared music on here in quite a while, so here's me playing a fairly sloppy rendition of Changes by David Bowie on piano.

[Guybrush]

I haven't shared music on here in quite a while, so here's me playing a fairly sloppy rendition of Changes by David Bowie on piano.

Hmmmmmmm.. I feel like something fishy might be going on because this sounds more like a midi file to me 😅 f.ex. the keys making up the chords all strike simultaneously and chords also change very fast on a couple of occasions.

[Lexi Darling]

Hmmmmmmm.. I feel like something fishy might be going on because this sounds more like a midi file to me 😅 f.ex. the keys making up the chords all strike simultaneously and chords also change very fast on a couple of occasions.

lol you got me haha. Not a midi file, I did play it live but I quantized the left hand parts in Ableton (probably quantized a little too much now that you mention it lol) and did a lil bit of editing to fix some of the chords I messed up. Good ear haha

I can definitely be overly self conscious about my playing so I over-correct sometimes.

[Guybrush]

Ah, okay that's good 😄 I didn't want to be rude, but I could definitely hear it wasn't an entirely human performance.

I also record midi live into my DAW at times, but more often I just draw midi (I draw quickly anyways) and then do the opposite of quantizing which is called humanize in Reaper 🙂 Ableton probably has this too so you probably know already, but it randomizes timing of notes and velocity. Adding a bit of manual tweaking as well where needed, I can usually quickly dial in fairly lifelike sounding performances this way.

[Lexi Darling]

Ah, okay that's good 😄 I didn't want to be rude, but I could definitely hear it wasn't an entirely human performance.

I also record midi live into my DAW at times, but more often I just draw midi (I draw quickly anyways) and then do the opposite of quantizing which is called humanize in Reaper 🙂 Ableton probably has this too so you probably know already, but it randomizes timing of notes and velocity. Adding a bit of manual tweaking as well where needed, I can usually quickly dial in fairly lifelike sounding performances this way.

Yeah, for sure. I did also record and edit it all in like 30 minutes at like 2am, my ears weren't picking up on how rigid the rhythm sounded. But yeah fine tuning the randomness amount should make it sound a lot better. It's tough when it sounds too sloppy with no quantization but too robotic with it. Curse my mediocre piano skills I guess, lol.