The Audio Thread

[Dave]

Wow, I screwed up at first and put this on the General Discussion board. :P

Now work with me on this...

Record yourself playing a song on your instrument of choice. I would suggest covers, as putting original material on the net is a bad idea unless you've copyrighted it.

It doesn't matter the quality. Hell, my recordings will be done by turning on my amp into the bedroom, turning off my computer speakers and cranking the mic volume all the way up.

It sounds silly, but my idea is (especially with such a passionate music crowd) we can give each other critique/input/advice on different riffs we do.

Also, try not to pretty it up. Make it as close to unedited as you possibly can, if not completely so. I want this to be a taste of RPGFan's musicians live accesible right here on the boards.

Hopefully we can make this an ongoing thing like SOTM and Recent Purchases! I'll edit this post with a link for my first song tomorrow. If anyone needs file hosting, send me a message.

[Degolas]

I have a joke one...but I'm reluctant to post it because it has me singing like a twat :P

[Nemmet]

Hmm...

I recorded a little something for this but I ended up getting a 50 meg .wav file. Is there any way I can make it smaller without rerecording?

[Sazabirules]

Save it as a different format?

[Nemmet]

I threw this one together upon seeing this thread... Dryad of the Woods by Pain of Salvation with me on acoustic guitar, and with MIDI bass and piano through the miracle of Power Tab Editor. A very emotional and mellow instrumental, and one of my favorite tracks off of Remedy Lane.

I'm really working on playing this as smoothly as I can and letting everything ring out for as long as it should, so it doesn't sound rushed. As you'll probably hear, I'm having a lot of trouble with that and was wondering what I could do to make it better. There are some mistakes (really stupid ones at that, like in the solo), and I had to put the microphone into my acoustic's soundhole in order for it to be heard over the MIDI.

Listening to the actual song again, I notice Daniel's using delay and reverb through it, and I obviously wasn't able to capture the strong atmosphere of this amazing song. I'm thinking maybe the abrupt finger position switches might be less noticeable with the use of those effects.

I have several more songs I want to record, but this one is probably the only one where I'll use any MIDI assistance. There's also some distortion since I had to lower the quality in order to make it smaller.

Here it is. You'll need Winrar.

Edit: smaller, better quality mp3 file.

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=FA33B36E4528CC2C

[Dave]

Note: You guys can go get SCMPX to convert files from WAV to MP3.

You can also use Audacity for wav recording/editing.

They're both free.

LOL, this isn't what I had in mind for my first contribution, but here:

Me playing "Hallowed Be Thy Name" while half drunk, and not knowing I was being recorded.

I screw up very, very badly in several places. I had just gotten finished playing The Trooper and Dance of Death when my friend Adam turns on the mic as I'm playing Hallowed and I find out afterward. :P

[Nemmet]

LOL, this isn't what I had in mind for my first contribution, but here:

Me playing "Hallowed Be Thy Name" while half drunk, and not knowing I was being recorded.

I screw up very, very badly in several places. I had just gotten finished playing The Trooper and Dance of Death when my friend Adam turns on the mic as I'm playing Hallowed and I find out afterward. :P

I'm getting an 'access forbidden' page. :/

[Dave]

Link fixed.

Also, should be getting a new one up in a bit.

[D-Rider]

I like the way you combined the guitar and bass parts there at the beginning, Dave.  I'd love to hear a non-drunk rendition sometime. :P

As soon as I find a suitable place to put it up, I've got a version of "Wrathchild" I'll share.  Just as soon as I take off the vocals, because I'm no singer. :P

EDIT:  Nemmet, you've got balls to tackle a Pain of Salvation tune. :P  Unfortunately, as far as as tips for making it sound smoother go, the only thing you can do is keep practicing.  Finger picking is the most difficult thing in the world to me; the only way I can get the hang of it is if I practice a part at about half speed until it sounds fluid, then gradually increase the tempo.

[Dave]

This one I just have to put on because it sounds that awesome.

My friend Adam going berserk on my new amp.

And here's me doing Fear of the Dark (truncated due to him calling me, lol) It's far from perfect, but I'm getting there! Also, more guitar-and-bass combination love for DR. The solo, again, is improvised (this time I'm under the effects of a vicodin for my neck...it's pretty bad...)

[Dave]

Figured I'd go ahead and celebrate Superman Returns.

I get to see it tonight at 10:00pm. :D