"In My Time of Dying" - Rough Cut

[chefrusso]

Hello everyone,

I've been working on some slide guitar lately, and whenever I think of that style, this song comes to mind. It's a song that I've wanted to be able to play for a long, long time. I can get through most of it at this point, but there's still a few sticking points that I'd like to work on. One thing I know for certain, I wouldn't have even gotten this far without the Principles and Jamie's guidance.

Again, I know this song is far to long to give it the amount of scrutiny it deserves, but I figured I'd record a "base line" (not a bass line ) for me to work from. I'd love to hear what you think about it at this point either way. I've been forcing myself to go with the music, even if it's not "perfect", so when I screw something up, I just keep right on playing!

After listening to this take I realize I get out of time at a few spots, but I'm also getting used to playing along with this backing track. By the way, anyone that needs a backing track of a song they're working on should visit this site. They have tons of free songs there that are recorded without the guitar track that you can play along with them. I think they all are very well produced; especially for the price - FREE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weXqR_mf3jk

[jules]

Hey Christian.

Being a big Zeppelin fan myself I know this tune vey well.... and.... you've done a pretty good shot at it there mate!

You say yourself that your a bit out of time in places but it aint to bad, just keep working at it.

One thing I did notice is that during the more overdriven sound sections when you slide up to the 7th fret this always seemed slightly out of tune. It's just a small point but I thought I'd mention it.

BTW you're alot better than me at slide playing so I can't complain too much !

Well done

jules.

[chefrusso]

Thanks Jules!

I know I miss the mark on a few of those slides, especially when the tempo is kicked up! That's the difficulty of the slide - you don't have the frame of reference of the frets and you have to hit the mark with your ears. I can usually hear it as soon as it happens, but I usually can't fix it until the next measure. I'll double check the ones at the 7th fret though, thanks. I am still taking a microscopic approach with many of the sections of this song, that's for sure! I've only worked through the first few measures of the solo also. The rest I improvised.

Again thanks for your comments and support!

[ShirleyIplay]

Chef, I really, really enjoy listening to this. I have all Led Zeps albums and love the stuff. Keep it up.

[shanejur]

Chefman! that was pretty cool. I can't wait to see your finished one, which I know you like a book. I have a long way to go before giving that a whirl. Shane

[chefrusso]

Thanks Shane and Shirley! I really enjoy playing this song, even in the state it's in now. I'm such a huge Zeppelin fan that to be able to play a little of this makes me real happy. I also figured out how to record the full track on my webcam through my UX2. Before I was only getting my guitar track and it was really frustrating! It ended up being a simple workaround, of course. I recorded this video to test the setup, and it came out good so I figured I'd share it here. Now I've just got to tweak the settings so I can get a better picture quality.

[tiffany]

that. was. so. cool. wow really awesome. It's really interesting to see what you're taking on now after finishing the rock and stairway course, and not to mention really inspiring as well. jules's comments seem on point from what little I can tell. btw, did you learn the song from tabs/sheetmusic?

[N E Y]

I like it Christian!

Ney






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ney_mello
2011 going on 2012? We know it is time to care about cool music seriously again!...and Your guitar is part of the scene!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KMH8FM/?ta ... ppv63sgm_b

[chefrusso]

that. was. so. cool. wow really awesome. It's really interesting to see what you're taking on now after finishing the rock and stairway course, and not to mention really inspiring as well. jules's comments seem on point from what little I can tell. btw, did you learn the song from tabs/sheetmusic?

Thanks Tiffany! I started on the song with sheet music to build the foundation, but I've since tweaked how I play it by listening to Jimmy Page play it on the original recording and I'm still modifying it based on the backing track I'm using now. The sheet music only tells part of the story, especially with this style of music, and the artist really determines the expression of how it's played. Not that I'm trying to play it exactly like Jimmy - that would be impossible - but I am trying to achieve that same style of expression.

Since slide guitar always uses open tunings, it saves a lot of time and effort knowing exactly what that tuning is with the sheet music. In this case, the guitar is tuned in A, but G and D are also popular. At this point in my "career" I think it would have taken me quite a while to figure this out on my own!

Thanks, Ney. That means a great deal coming from you! I think you'd appreciate how I got the full signal to record on my webcam. I've been using the Line 6 TonePort UX2 for effects modeling and recording on my computer lately because it gives me a lot of tonal choices at my fingertips and it records without distorting or diminishing the signal coming from my guitar (I can even record the guitar signal cleanly so that I can add or tweak effects later on through a DAW). The problem I was having was that when I would use the UX2 as the source for recording on my webcam, it would only record my guitar track and would leave out the backing track that I was playing along with. I was trying to figure out a software setting that I needed to change, and consequently beating my head against the wall in the process. I had been using my Micro Cube as a monitor, so then it dawned on me - why not feed the line out of the Micro Cube into the line in on the computer and use that as the source? Worked like a charm! So now I listen to the music through the UX2's headphone jack and I send the recording signal through the Micro Cube. Gotta love how versatile that little cube is huh?

Here's my setup:


My Guitar Setup by chefrusso, on Flickr

I just started playing around with the Ableton Live recording software and the Propellerhead Reason Adapted that came along with the UX2 and it's some pretty exciting and fun stuff. I'm hoping to record an entire song with it at some point for fun and practice. I don't know if you're familiar with either of these programs, but if you have any insights or suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated!

[N E Y]

Hi Christian,

The sound you are getting is really good. There are always several ways to go about it and in the end it is like cooking....an art-form... much better served by a constantly open mind. Which is a bit rare. So you are lucky to have one.

I see that you are in the right track in terms of conceptual mindset for maximum quality and artistic fluidity.

SOMETHING TO TWEAK:
What is of a more clear-cut nature is the "digital overs" which means the signal going into your converters is too hot and you are going in the red somewhere in the digital path which is very nasty and painful to the ear... specially after all the nice tone you got from the analog signal chain...So watch you digital DAW meters very carefully and keep the peaks at -6dBfs dBfs no higher.

Digital has ZERO headroom. Analog has from 10 to 40 dBfs of headroom.... So while you can go in the red with gradually controlled distortion in any analog circuit...you can't do that once you are in the digital domain or when you are ENTERING the digital domain (at AD conversion stage).

Unlike in the analog domain; There is no gradual distortion in AD conversion...just nasty noise.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ney_mello
2011 going on 2012? We know it is time to care about cool music seriously again!...and Your guitar is part of the scene!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KMH8FM/?ta ... ppv63sgm_b