They are having a 'best undiscovered blues guitar player' contest and put up 30 , count em 30, decent backing tracks for free download. http://gc.guitarcenter.com/kingoftheblues/tracks/?track=16
Perhaps we whould pick one or two and do our own 'lets see what ya can do with em' thing here. ----------
Thanks for the heads up bonedog. I found about 15 I will use. I just loaded them on my iPhone. It's tough to find good free backing tracks and these are some of the better ones I have seen.
thanks for that lead bonedog! I checked the 16 out and found 1 that felt loose enough for me to mess with. I will have to check the rest out today. I am hell bent on learning to make decent sounding recordings and these tracks let me learn more. Here are a couple versions of the slow blues. I did them 1 take blowing/singing so as to keep them spontaneous sort of..... I might add some guitar to them today. More learning to be had with that! Walter
---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Glad to see / hear some of you making good use of these. I like the country playing Jodanchudan - and Walter , you sound sweet as usual.
I haven't had time to play on top of them yet - but they are good enough that I know I want to.
Compared to dealing with actual musicians: they keep steady time they don't argue about arangements they are much easier to clean up after there is still booze left in my liquor cabinet
thanks bonedog. Here is one raw amped one, reminisent of my younger days when I had the big amped rig and a kicking band behind me.
It is the chicago beat or something like that. I used a stock delta frost, shure 57, princeton reverb reissue. I have held a harp and mic in my hands probably less than a hour over the past 25 years. I had fun with this one. It reminded me of my younger days with full blown amped sound and a real band behind me. Walter
---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Walter - I enjoyed those. Every now and then, I still play the track you recorded the last time you jammed to a jam track and posted it here on the forum. I believe you used both a low and regular C harp on that cut. I'm working on (trying to) getting some of your tone and vibrato...
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Last Edited by on Apr 10, 2011 10:51 AM
@ arzajac You're quite welcome - I liked what you did with the track. I wouldn't call it 'beginner-rish' . It's tastetul, you follow the changes , (which are a teeny bit tricky here) you don't try to overplay. Are you playing with other (live) musicians at all ? You should be. You have your basic blues chops together - you just need to keep doing it - you will develop more confidence as you go. I think your tone and vibrato are quite nice already - as you get more sure of your own playing they will get stronger too. ----------
Last Edited by on Apr 10, 2011 12:13 PM
arazajc: Thanks for the compliment! I listened to your song. How long have you been playing? Were you thinking of what notes were coming up in relation to the beat of the song? I won't comment till I hear back. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Bonedog - Thanks very much. I appreciate your comments and will take that to heart.
Walter - I listened to the track twice and then played along with it a few times. That recording is the third attempt. On the first attempt, the fact that it's a 14-bar blues hit me and I didn't know what to do with it on the spot. I got more comfortable after that. I wasn't thinking any more than that.
I couldn't play it again exactly the same way - it was all in the moment.
Oh and I have been playing for two years - I started on my 38th birthday and just turned 40 on Friday!
I finally got around to doing one - on top of Minor Affair. It's was done with a couple of takes, with a brief section of cross and 3'd position harp doubled a bit into it. Minor Affair backtrack & bonedog by bonedog ----------
arzajac: For 2 years you are doing great. I have nothing to suggest. You dig that reverb and delay or what? I thought I was a reverb nut but you got it on me. Todays music is moving away from noticable reverb/delay. I like to hear some of it. The fine points of playing is an ongoing journey that really can't be rushed. It just takes time, time, time, and more time. You are on the right road!
sounds like BB on the harp Bonedog! Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Here are a few of them - I just did this really quickly so there may be some errors:
Am - A_Minor_Affair.mp3 C - slow_blues.mp3 A - Austin_Skyline_Shuffle.mp3 D -Train_Beat_Blues.mp3 A - Whiteys_Blues.mp3 G - Chicago_Blues.mp3 Bb - Slow_Down_Blues.mp3 G -Little_Girl_Shuffle.mp3 C -Funky_Rock_Blues.mp3 G -Rockin_Blues_with_Back_Beat.mp3
These are really great backing tracks, in fact, I've been using them for a few years, even sometimes for live performances. The "Slow Down Blues" and "A Minor Affair" tracks are two of my favorites, and you, arzajac and bonedog569, both did a great job with them. Here's a YouTube clip where I used "A Minor Affair," but you'll need to skip ahead to 6:42 to hear the song.
I did these with the guitar center backing tracks. I got into working with all the tremelo going on with the guitar. I did these with only listening to a few seconds of the track and then set 3 copies down on the recording program and went one right after the other. I think I have run my fun with this backing track stuff. Tomorrow it is back to the 1 man band. Walter
---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Todd - I thought that backing track sounded familliar - besides it's kind of generic minor groove thang. I'd watched your video before.
Is your down-tuned 7 draw the same as what I get with a 6 hole OB? It sounds like it.
@Walter - what mic, pre-amp and reverb are you using? You are getting a really fine sounding acoustic recording of your very sweet harp tone. ----------
Last Edited by on Apr 11, 2011 6:31 PM
thanks bonedog! Do you know about Michael Joly? He runs Oktava Mod and takes mics apart and rebuilds them to his specs. He has an extensive sound backround and luckily for me, is a big supporter of my music. He modified an oktava MK-219 that I sing/blow harp through. It stacks up fairly close to a U87. I run it through a universal audio 610 preamp and a fmr rnc set to very gentle compression ratios. That goes into a delta 1010 soundcard(piece of crap but the only one at the time that was affordable that record up to 8 tracks at once) and samplitude 11 recording software. I use universal audio plugins also. The EMT plate reverb is a killer. On the vocal/harp track I used the EMT plate on plate #3, pultec pro eq, neve 1081 eq. I was lucky to play in lots of top studios around the world over the years. I sort of picked up stuff through osmosis. The ears don't lie and I just turn dials until they like what they hear. On these tracks I did very little eq'ng. I cut back the highs a bit and added a hair of mids. I have learned to find a balance between the harp and vocals through the same mic. It is a lot easier to do with a bass guitar in the mix on these tracks. Thanks for the compliment. teaching myself to record keeps me playing music because if I ain't playing, there ain't no music to record. If it wasn't for the recording passion, that keeps the playing passion alive, I would probably quit playing. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
@bonedog569 - Yep, that's the same note. But I like how you used 3rd position too. That was cool.
@waltertore - You can definitely tell you are using good gear. You do some great recordings with a great sound, and have a really neat thing going there. Pretty cool that your friend can do that mic work for you too!
I dont know Michael Joly Walter. I do have a few Okavas in my drawer. I love the mk-319 - it's my favorite mike for a lot things, especially my own voice when recording alone. Nice with acoustic harp too. I have one that's died as well - Maybe Michael is who I should send it to when I have the money to repair it. I have two small capsule mk-012's too. I don't have a pre-amp channel even close to your Universal audio. No ua reverb plugins either. I had a presonus blue tube preamp that I really liked till it fried. - for a cheapy it added something sweet.
I found it enlightening to hear your really good mic and pre-amp - fed into the working man's dleta 1010 (I had one of those for quite a while). You can really hear the quallity upgrade - the delta doesn't get in the way - I don't know if it would show , should I hear it A/B'd when you get your Apogee or PT HD system - then again - you don't really need to upgrade given the sound you are getting with what you have. ----------
thanks Todd! I made low budget recordings on my own for decades when I was playing full time. I would use a cheap cassette deck and my pa vocal mic. They always sounded terrible. Since quiting full time and getting a good day gig I have been able to build(am building) my dream recording studio. I have the space all built and now am working on the gear/have been for the past 10 years. I figure in another 5-10 years I will have as good a rig as many decent studios. This is a good thing with the technology boom.
The good thing with a good recording is it accurately reproduces what you play. It can make you shine or stink depending on your skill level. These low quality sounding videos that have flooded the net cover up way too much IMO. The hd video part is nice but the audio hurts my ears. I don't comment on many of them because in reality who knows what it really sounded like as it was played.
bonedog: Definetly send your mics to Michael and tell him I sent you. Check out his website. The 319 is similar to the 219. The delta 1010 is junk. I record so much that it keeps frying capacitors and those push buttons on it keep failing. I am on my second one now and it will be my last. It sounds good when it works. It is currently starting to pop again- sure sign the capacitors are going and I am not a repairman so I have to bring it to the shop and be without for a couple weeks. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
I'd like to get enough backing tracks to arrange them like Dennis Gruenling does. He had them sorted in playlist by keys at least...and he might have even broken it down more after that...like shuffles, etc. I couldn't see well enough to know for sure. He used those when teaching at SPAH... it worked well. -John
I've been checking out Todd's above sample of using one of his 7draw retuned harps for playing minor in 2nd position. After using Todd's tuning in 3rd, 12th and regular cross harp, I thought it was great for 3rd and 12th. For 2nd, it let me play some different licks but I missed other commonly used licks, and the 7,8,9 draw chord. Not enough plusses to make me switch over any other harps. But for 2nd position minor...in the example above Todd uses a D harp in Am. This could be really useful for this key as using a G harp in 3rd...well the G doesn't cut through the mix as well as the D in 2nd will. Really like this. Having a D harp on hand with Todds tuning could be real useful for a lot of thing. -John
