Music Update

SillyOctpuss

Well-known member
After my gig update a few months ago I was asked to post some videos or clips and unfortunately I haven't done either mainly because Oran our drummer has been rather useless at sending them over. I've been spending some time over Christmas and new year working on some new original material with our singer Greeny and thought I'd at least post a few of the demos we've been working on to send to the other guys. These are pretty rough but get the idea across, these are usually just to give to the Bo and Oran so they can work on bass and drum parts before we get together as a band to go over them.

Here's three of the songs we've been working on in various stages of our process, usually Greeny and I record an acoustic version using one of our phones so he can work on lyrics and I can work on guitar parts, then I'll record some better quality parts, throw some bass lines down and get Greeny to put down some vocals. This then goes over to Oran and Bo then we work on them as a band.

Just a quick note these are demos that we would normally just share amongst ourselves until we recorded a version as a band that was worth giving to other people so you'll hear some rough playing and dodgy notes but as this is a friendly place I thought I'd share.

In the Cut - This is the barebones phone version


Reach Down - basically a finished song minus the drums ( I really suck at programming drums so need Oran to work on that then we'll record some over at his "studio" - basically a converted Barn. Oh and before anyone points it out MrsOctpuss already did that and I'll need to rerecord this to make the c#m7 in the intro sound less like a Weezer song. I really like the intro and was a bit annoyed when she played it for me.


I will Rise - not sure what we're going to do with this one at the mo but I quite like it



For anyone who remembers my rather depressing life update when we first moved back to N Ireland I can honestly say shit gets a lot better and sometimes things just work out in the end. I didn't realise how much I missed jamming, songwriting and gigging with other musicians until I got it back again. I'll never make that mistake ever again. It's also wonderful to be back amongst friends having a good time and just making music.
 
Well I had the house to myself tonight for the first time in a few years so thought I'd test out some recording in my new music room. I've got Greeny's acoustic on loan until I get a new one for myself so I worked on some mic placement and recorded a few tunes to see what the room sounds like.

I was quite happy with this one for the minimal amount of faffing about I had to do to get setup. It's a reworking of Ocean Colour Scene's Riverboat Song. I used to play it when I would do solo acoustic gigs. It's basically just me and an acoustic into an AKG condenser mic.

Any comments/criticisms welcome.

Also I'll keep uploading new tracks to this thread is there's any interest in me doing so? The glacial pace at which I'll be able to get any recording done with my current toddler circumstances means it probably wont be updated much.

It's bloody nice to be able to be recording again though. :cool:

 
You're in a band with an out-of-phase guitar, Bo Derek and Oran Juice Jones? Wow! Good stuff too!

Glad things are working out for you. I miss playing music.
I quit my Beatles tribute band because the other guys were more interested in the rock n roll aspect of the band than the actual playing of the music and the drummer I'd been jamming with on my originals moved out of the city so no real prospects at the moment.
 
Good stuff!
Thanks @Barry

Looking forward to more updates.
Look very far forward into the mists of the future. It takes me and Greeny a while to get going now and find a weekend when we're both free. Fingers crossed we'll have some new stuff soon and some proper recorded versions of the tracks above.

You're in a band with an out-of-phase guitar, Bo Derek and Oran Juice Jones? Wow! Good stuff too!

Glad things are working out for you. I miss playing music.
I quit my Beatles tribute band because the other guys were more interested in the rock n roll aspect of the band than the actual playing of the music and the drummer I'd been jamming with on my originals moved out of the city so no real prospects at the moment.

I read this when I woke up this morning and tbh it took me an embarrassingly long time to get it. 🤣

Sorry your music endeavours have fallen by the wayside. It'll happen again though if you keep looking. I went years without playing with other people and I have two different bands happening now. There's some overlap with the people but one is a covers band and the other will be doing original material.

Fingers crossed you find something soon @andare
 
Well I had the house to myself tonight for the first time in a few years so thought I'd test out some recording in my new music room. I've got Greeny's acoustic on loan until I get a new one for myself so I worked on some mic placement and recorded a few tunes to see what the room sounds like.

I was quite happy with this one for the minimal amount of faffing about I had to do to get setup. It's a reworking of Ocean Colour Scene's Riverboat Song. I used to play it when I would do solo acoustic gigs. It's basically just me and an acoustic into an AKG condenser mic.

Any comments/criticisms welcome.

Also I'll keep uploading new tracks to this thread is there's any interest in me doing so? The glacial pace at which I'll be able to get any recording done with my current toddler circumstances means it probably wont be updated much.

It's bloody nice to be able to be recording again though. :cool:

Dang, Mr. @SillyOctpuss has a set of pipes!
 
Just one mic for both guitar and vocals? Or separate vocal mic? Sounds really good dude.

Just an AKG condenser mic setup in front of me. Years ago I found I could get away with 1 mic for basic demos by sitting sort of off to one side so the mic isn't get blasted by the guitar but I'm still aiming my vocals in the direction of the mic. Once I find a good spot it works really well.

This time the Taylor acoustic I borrowed was a little boomy. I could have cut some of that out with an EQ but I quickly mixed it on my studio headphones and didn't notice it until I listened back on my monitors or regular music headphones which hype the bass a little.

I just added some reverb and a little compression and that was it.
 
Just an AKG condenser mic setup in front of me. Years ago I found I could get away with 1 mic for basic demos by sitting sort of off to one side so the mic isn't get blasted by the guitar but I'm still aiming my vocals in the direction of the mic. Once I find a good spot it works really well.

This time the Taylor acoustic I borrowed was a little boomy. I could have cut some of that out with an EQ but I quickly mixed it on my studio headphones and didn't notice it until I listened back on my monitors or regular music headphones which hype the bass a little.

I just added some reverb and a little compression and that was it.

That sounds really good for one mic. I used to try to record like that in to my Portastudio and could never get it to sound even halfway decent, so I'm going to have to do some experimenting when I get the house to myself. It was either all vox or all guitar and considering I can't sing or play as well as you, neither were particularly pleasant :ROFLMAO:.
 
That sounds really good for one mic. I used to try to record like that in to my Portastudio and could never get it to sound even halfway decent, so I'm going to have to do some experimenting when I get the house to myself. It was either all vox or all guitar and considering I can't sing or play as well as you, neither were particularly pleasant :ROFLMAO:.

Basically the way it works for me is to setup a mic in front of where I'm sitting then either turn the guitar so the soundhole is pointing approx 90 degrees to the right or I'll sit at a 90 degree angle and turn my head to point to the mic. It's a bit weird but it works.

If I have the guitar and my voice going direct on the mic then I end up with the scenario you faced before. Usually the guitar wins out because I'm normally playing a dreadnought style acoustic.

I'll spend ages in a new room working out mic and guitar placement, input gain levels on my interface while recording clips playing and singing to find a good balance. Once you know what works for the room is pretty repeatable and you can just get down to recording.

I find a condenser placed pretty far out works for me and helps to get a good 'live room' kind of sound. If I'm recording tracks that will involve other singers, bass or drums then I'll track everything separately.

I record direct into Reaper and then add a little compression and reverb to add some space and even it out a little.

Try it out and let us know how you get on.
 
Basically the way it works for me is to setup a mic in front of where I'm sitting then either turn the guitar so the soundhole is pointing approx 90 degrees to the right or I'll sit at a 90 degree angle and turn my head to point to the mic. It's a bit weird but it works.

If I have the guitar and my voice going direct on the mic then I end up with the scenario you faced before. Usually the guitar wins out because I'm normally playing a dreadnought style acoustic.

I'll spend ages in a new room working out mic and guitar placement, input gain levels on my interface while recording clips playing and singing to find a good balance. Once you know what works for the room is pretty repeatable and you can just get down to recording.

I find a condenser placed pretty far out works for me and helps to get a good 'live room' kind of sound. If I'm recording tracks that will involve other singers, bass or drums then I'll track everything separately.

I record direct into Reaper and then add a little compression and reverb to add some space and even it out a little.

Try it out and let us know how you get on.
Thank you for the info, I really appreciate it. I'll actually have the house to myself for a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday and was planning on playing with some music stuff and I may give that a shot. I've been thinking about getting my mic setup lately so that'll be a good excuse.

And great music, by the way. You're obviously having a great time and that's really awesome after what you shared here before. Great stuff, man.
 
Thank you for the info, I really appreciate it. I'll actually have the house to myself for a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday and was planning on playing with some music stuff and I may give that a shot. I've been thinking about getting my mic setup lately so that'll be a good excuse.

Sweet let us know how you get on.

And great music, by the way. You're obviously having a great time and that's really awesome after what you shared here before. Great stuff, man.

Thankyou very much. Moving back, while painful was completely the right thing to do. Having a support network for help with Thomas or MrsOctpuss, having friends, playing music and being able to write songs again have really helped me start to rediscover me.

I'm not trying to be that other guy who was trying to keep it together at home while being super professional at work.
 
Sweet let us know how you get on.



Thankyou very much. Moving back, while painful was completely the right thing to do. Having a support network for help with Thomas or MrsOctpuss, having friends, playing music and being able to write songs again have really helped me start to rediscover me.

I'm not trying to be that other guy who was trying to keep it together at home while being super professional at work.
Music is the best. Let's all remember to make some between pedals. It's good for the soul.
 
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