My $0 Recording Studio

J

JimT

New Member
Hi, I'm a newbie. You can get a little background on me from my post on "Introductions."

I don't see any threads here about seniors making their own music recordings. If you are a good musician who has always dreamed of making your own recordings, and if you have the time to devote to it, you can live that dream. You don't need money. I started with $0, using GarageBand and the built-in microphone on the Apple laptop they gave me at work.

My "studio" was the front seat of my SUV, inside my garage. My wife didn't want me disturbing the neighbors, with whom we shared walls on either side of our townhouse. I simply held the laptop near my mouth and sang. Then I used GarageBand to overdub the 7 parts on top of each other.

I chose the beautiful, 7-part "Ave Maria," written by Franz Biebl. The Cornell University Men's Glee Club, in which I sang, brought it to the US and it has become a staple of men's choral music in the US.

https://soundcloud.com/user-850441443/biebls-ave-maria

Tell me what you think of it, and if you have any interest in trying this yourself.
 

bluebreezes said:
Yeah GarageBand is a lot of fun! I love to play around with it.
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Cool! Do you have any recordings posted anywhere? I just got up the nerve to get started on soundcloud...

Thanks for your post. Good to know that other folks are giving it a whirl. I got started when a fellow singer in a church choir told me about it.
 

No, I don't post my stuff online, but I know about soundcloud. I've been using GarageBand since it came out, and its predecessor Sountrack since its initial release back in 2003 as part of Final Cut Pro. I have Logic Pro X too, but I'm not using it that much these days. Fun stuff to play with and the possibiities are pretty limitless.

Edited to add: one of the really fun things is using GarageBand on the iPhone. It's pretty cool.
 
JimT said:
Thanks for the compliment Gemma. You might like my Eric Clapton covers, which have instruments as well as voice. I programmed all the virtual instruments myself, as well as the vocals.

"River Runs Deep"
https://soundcloud.com/user-850441443/river-runs-deep

"Ride the River"
https://soundcloud.com/user-850441443/ride-the-river
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I don't know if you're still coming to the forums but I got a message on Soundcloud that your tracks have been removed. Have you added any other tracks?
 
OneEyedDiva said:
I don't know if you're still coming to the forums but I got a message on Soundcloud that your tracks have been removed. Have you added any other tracks?
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I've reactivated my Soundcloud account and have added a cover of Stevie Winwood's "Dear Mr. Fantasy," originally recorded in the 1960's when he was with the band "Traffic."
 
Gemma said:
Hi Jim, what a lovely, soothing voice you have.

Yes, another member here, Hazy Davey uses soundcloud and has done recording.

https://soundcloud.com/partly-banded
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Thanks Gemma for the mention.. :)


Hi JimT, Yes we have been using and posting on SoundCloud for a while now. I've been playing music since High School. A few years ago I started looking into home recording, bought an interface for the computer and the program called Reaper, for our D.A.W. (Digital Audio Workstation) the recording program.

Then we just settled in here at the house on Saturday nights and see what comes up. We wrote all the tunes posted and had a lot of fun doing them. We know the tunes aren't the greatest and we're not going to be senior rock stars. But that's ok, it's just for fun and much easier than dragging our gear all around back when we were gigging.

I listened to you song, very nice!
I wish I had your voice.
Good Luck and Have Fun with you music.. :encouragement:

p.s. I'm sorry but I missed this thread when it was first posted.
 
Reaper Collaboration Interest?

Hazy Davey said:
A few years ago I started looking into home recording, bought an interface for the computer and the program called Reaper, for our D.A.W. (Digital Audio Workstation) the recording program.
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I started with GarageBand about 4 years ago, following up on a dream I had to make my own recordings like my grandfather did in the 1950's and 1960's. He had a two track recorder and used it to record a distant cousin of mine playing piano and singing on one track, then singing harmony on the other. From the first time I heard it, when I was about 12 years old in 1967, I wanted to do multi-track recording. I finally did it about 3 years ago, using Garage Band to record my voice on all 7 men's parts to Biebl's "Ave Maria," which we sang in the Cornell University Men's Glee Club in the early 1970's.

Bielbl's 7-part Men's Choral Piece "Ave Maria" (a trio singing with a quartet, me covering all 7 parts in GarageBand)
https://soundcloud.com/user-850441443/biebls-ave-maria

Last year, I was laid off from my job at age 61 and considered early retirement. On the recommendation of a life-long friend of mine who is a serious jazz musician, I upgraded from GarageBand to Reaper and was able to complete my multitrack recording dream by playing 22 instrumental tracks and 3 vocal tracks in a tribute to Eric Clapton's "River Runs Deep."

Clapton's "River Runs Deep" (22 tracks of virtual instruments, 3 tracks of live vocal, me covering all 25 tracks in Reaper)
https://soundcloud.com/user-850441443/river-runs-deep

Hazy Davey said:
Then we just settled in here at the house on Saturday nights and see what comes up. We wrote all the tunes posted and had a lot of fun doing them. We know the tunes aren't the greatest and we're not going to be senior rock stars. But that's ok, it's just for fun and much easier than dragging our gear all around back when we were gigging.
Click to expand...

I've started doing a similar thing in cyberspace instead of "real life." While networking to get a job I discovered that one of my colleagues is a serious rock guitarist, and proposed that we collaborate virtually, since he lives in Corvallis, Oregon and I live in a small town outside of Sacramento California. He recently sent me a three track recording of him on bass, electric guitars, and drums, and asked me to add a vocal to it. What fun!

"Statesboro Blues" (Variant of The Allman Brothers versions, a friend on instrumentals, me on vocal, long distance Reaper collaboration)
https://soundcloud.com/user-850441443/statesboroblues-cover-inspired-by-allman-brothers-versions

Your original song "Road Crossing" is a tune that I would love to collaborate on using Reaper.

"Road Crossing" (Hazy Davey original on SoundCloud)
https://soundcloud.com/partly-banded/road-crossing

If you are interested in having me re-record the vocal tracks, let me know and you can either send me a rendering of the instruments with the vocals muted, and I can lay down some new vocals. Then either or both of us could re-record, remix, and remaster to our own taste using Reaper.

Interested?

Nice meeting you!
 
Jim, it is nice to meet you also and I'm flattered with your offer to collaborate on our song. You have a wonderful voice and I'm sure you could greatly improve the vocals in the tune. I've never done any online collaborating but heard of a few around town who have done it with great success.

But this song is not mine to offer, it's ours, or the band's. All of us contributed to the creation of these tunes with equal say. And I don't think it would go over very well if "I" suddenly wanted to replace all their vocals on a finished song. I guess it'd be kind of like them wanting to replace my guitar work for another guitar player, yike! :eek:

I've known and have been playing with these guys for many many years. And although they might say they don't mind, I know they won't mean it. I can't do that to them, I love them, they're family.

I've enjoyed listening to your tracks and believe you should have no problem finding a virtual cyberband. I've seen musicians on SoundCloud looking for other players to collaborate with. Maybe start there or find someone closer to home if you're lucky. If you like, I can give you a head's up if I see or hear of someone to check out, either here or on SoundCloud messaging.

Either way I wish you the best with your music.
Thanks again and have fun.
 
Hazy Davey said:
...this song is not mine to offer, it's ours, or the band's.
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I understand completely. All cool.

Thanks for the chat and good luck to you and your band as well. I'll add that I think the Nature sounds you all sprinkle into your tracks are nice, and the one about working out in the gym is hilarious. I'm going to the gym right now to try to get down to 183, just like the song says. I won't tell you how far I have to go, I'll only say that I'm glad this is a text-only exchange. :)
 

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