Reggae recording adventures this weekend

[SweetDan]

In honor of hurricane season, here's some Reggae (or at least an attempt to create a Reggae groove):

gmReggaeIdea.mp3

All recorded live, in my office/music room here at home in Colorado, nowhere near the ocean.

Drums - same 2-mic setup I've been playing around with for a few months now - mono LDC overhead (more like over my right shoulder and angled to point at the snare), and kick mic.

Bass - p-bass, pre-amp with the lows boosted a bit and the highs cut a bit, then straight into the interface.

Rhythm gtr - tele-clonester, bridge pickup, through a clean-ish overdrive pedal, a bit of chorus, a not-too-long delay, into a clean amp model on my Vox "Valvetronix" amp, with a little bit of reverb, and into an SM57.

Solo guitar - the tele again, but using the neck pickup, a bit more grit dialed in, and without the chorus and delay.

[WhiskeyJack]

Thats a good start sd!!! Curious to hear where the rest of it goes. I am only listening on my phone before bed but i am hearing some timing issues. There could be a missing element i am not hearing from my phone so ill give it a good listen on the monitors tomorrow to be fair!!!!

[JD01]

Hey Dan,

I thought I'd responded to this when you posted it.
This sounds really quite tidy to me. The sounds you have on your guitars, bass and drums work fine and your levels are generally all good.

Problems - OK, you're learning to drum and your timing isn't quite on the money yet. More practice, you'll get there. The kick drum seems pretty non-existent though - can you just bring it up in the mix if you've got a mic on it.

[rayc]

Nice bit of white boy reggae.
Bass & drums are always going to be an issue just becasue of the nature of the music but you're getting there.
The shanking guitar wasn't too shabby at all.
I enjoyed the listen.

[vomitHatSteve]

Nice bit of white boy reggae.

You mean the Police album?


Seems pretty decent. To echo everyone else, the drums could use some tightening up (in the sense of playing in time) as well as some loosening (in terms of having a relaxed, comfortable groove)

[musicturtle]

Seems pretty decent. To echo everyone else, the drums could use some tightening up (in the sense of playing in time) as well as some loosening (in terms of having a relaxed, comfortable groove)

I agree with this. It is kind of stiff as far as the groove goes, but man if I were to play the drums for you it would be very painful.

[Greg_L]

Yup. Just clean up the drumming. What do you mean recorded "live"? You had a band in your office?

[SweetDan]

...white boy reggae...

I like that characterization.

...What do you mean recorded "live"? You had a band in your office?

No band, just me, multi-tracking. By "live" I meant real, acoustic drums, not programmed.

...the drums could use some tightening up (in the sense of playing in time) as well as some loosening (in terms of having a relaxed, comfortable groove)

Oh, oh, yes.