OK ... help me! So the new "beta-4" is an operating system for APPLE .... right? I'm in Vermont going nuts trying to set up my small studio. I have a PC laptop that I am going to load with "Studio One Professional" in a couple of months .... once I get things organized. I'll start out with that

I hear great things about Studio One.

I was talking about the DU4 beta test.
I'm not very knowledgeable about tech and gear.
Is this studio a new endeavor or is this an upgrade?
And is it exclusively for your own projects?

Singer and poor guitar/keys player. So rusty! I admit to having a crisis in confidence right now because it has been so long.

Love the idea of the thread!

Covid did interrupt a lot of creative projects. What genre/style of music do you prefer?
Open mics are great. I understand having a confidence crisis but unless yer working on a career
as a musician, feeding yer soul is the point. Let it rip.

Last edited Thu Sep 7, 2023, 08:05 PM - Edit history (1)

I like pop all the way to metal. The set I am working on has covers of The Chainsmokers, Roy Orbison, Lewis Capaldi, The Killers, Stone Temple Pilots, Stone Temple Pilots.

Appreciate the thread, very good to hear about what everyone’s doing.

What are you working on? (on edit: I saw below 😀

I did a lot of recording during COVID and the following surges.
We should keep a thread like this going.

I am an old guy. I am retired. I play quite a lot in my "living room." When I was younger and played in a group in HS. I never practiced enough; I sounded it. We would would play at Vermont ski night clubs et al during that period (late 60's). Anyway, I have been getting back into it over the last several years and am putting together some equipment that I can record ideas and songs on. Mostly, I have been doing a whole bunch of "noodling" on my couch. I have never enjoyed practicing this much in life. nice and easy; mostly acoustic guitar. Leave that for now.

But like you, I mostly play acoustic these days.
I still play some gigs every year. I have played in Vermont a couple of times. Montpelier and Burlington.
That's been a number of years ago tho.

What's yer preferred musical style?

I guess to answer that I would just give a quick review of the background in which I grew. My father was a classically trained opera singer, big band jazz would be played as well as classical when younger; a little Brubeck as well.
The first popular group was the Beach Boys. I can remember how much my fingers hurt trying to play "In My Room" on a $60 Kay single pickup guitar - OUCH! Then I picked up on the Beatles - "Meet the Beatles"; I was the first 'kid' in my town to have that album ..... it was all over then. I was hooked! I met up with a fellow "paper boy" on route and formed a band called the "Daze of Thyme" and we started working out all of those "British Invasion" guys. I worked my way into a Rickenbacker 330 and a Fender Bandmaster amp (tube). Later on when I was stationed in Germany, I picked up on a lot of Joni Mitchell and James Taylor ("Court and Spark" & "Gorilla" in particular); not that I could play any of it, but, it certainly went well with a tin of camembert and nice bottle of German white wine on a Saturday afternoon).
Anyway, to more directly answer your question! (Tangentialism can be real fun except when someone else has to listen to it.) NOW! I am playing around with more liberal variations of things from the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, very acoustic versions of "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You"/"Stairway to Heaven", "Lighthouse/Fire and Rain" -Taylor, a little Winwood, "John Barleycorn/Can't Find My Way Home" .... pretty much everything in an acoustic environment. I am pretty much working on a bare flesh finger style.
I probably WAYYYY over answered your question.... Oh well!
And .... what sort of interests do you have?

I play in a couple of bands.
I like country flavored rock music.
Stones, Byrds

I have a Rickenbacker 360. Haven't played it in years.
I mostly play an acoustic now.
I have Gibson J-45 but my main guitar is a 00 sized acoustic built by Ithaca Stringed Instruments.

Just started writing originals and am so impressed w you. Hard work!

Post some of yer stuff.

With me in Europe and the rest of the band in Atlanta, and the videographers in Atlanta and the Pacific Northwest, we are by necessity a studio band only. Still, we do like to have our fun, and our studio in Atlanta is the same CNN used/uses to record much of its background music, so they are pros. We like to do different styles, so we do all our music

Here are some of our more recently completed projects:

These are great. I had seen some of these already.
I understand ya'lls issue with distance. I have a trio that still gigs around the Northeast
but our "real" band is spread out over 5 states and 3 timezones.
The 5-piece still plays 5-6 gigs a year and the trio plays a few times a month from June thru October.

Unfortunately the logistics of putting together the show are too great. My day job is, for between 9 and 10 months out of the year, anyway, in Europe, and I’m lucky if I know what country I’ll be in three days from now. There’s no way I could commit to a gig months in advance that would require ten days of live rehearsal. A former incarnation put on an off-Broadway show in 2008 to great critical acclaim, but I put it into cold storage when Obama won in 2008. It’s a different world now.

Since we mostly play originals it's not usually difficult to put a set together.
of course, we play together 5-6 times a year and that helps.

I haven't been in the studio with TFT in ten years. Even the tracks I'm on, my part was sometimes recorded in a studio here in Germany and mixed with the rest back in Atlanta.

One time, I got a request from The Guardian in England to do a satirical track about one of their politicians. I had to look up the guy, since I had never heard of him. But I found him, grabbed an old 12 string track I had laid down in Atlanta, had it sent over to a studio here, added some vocals here in Germany (trying my best to sound like a pub full of drunken British sailors), sent it back to Atlanta, where they added some more string tracks and a concertina. Atlanta mixed it, and sent it over to the Guardian, and they did a primitive video to it. We were able to track it, and it turned out that 90% of the British parliament saw it. My friends in the UK saw it, and said they couldn't stop singing it for a year. This guy must have been REALLY unpopular! LOL.

Unfortunately, the guy finally died, and the Guardian took it off their website. Otherwise, I could have sent you a link.

How do you like the remote recording?
Of course, Covid really necessitated that, but we had already been
doing many of our tracks remotely for a few years.

I'm hot and cold on it. It's certainly cost-effective. And there are things that wouldn't
be possible (logistically) without it. But for things like vocal tracks, I prefer being in the same room as the producer.
I tried cutting a couple of vocal tracks remotely. I was never able to just relax and get the part.
I ended up going to California to finish the vox. That was in 2021 after the first Covid lull.

Obviously, I can't just fly 4500 miles to Atlanta every time there's a track to be recorded, but I just miss the spontaneity of last minute ideas and tweaks that go into a recording. Remotely, once you do a track and send it off, that's it. When I did the Casey At The Bat parody, I went into a studio here in Düsseldorf dry, and did the vocal track first. I sent it to Atlanta, and they did the musical background, and then the video was done last. Well, actually, the video is always done last, come to think of it. But our keyboard player is a genius, and was able to put the music to my vocal track seamlessly.

With Talking TSA Blues, I was actually there, because the rest of the group had never heard my idea before. But they are all pros, and it was a simple tune. I did the background guitar with the harmonica, bass and drums, and put on the lead guitar (not exactly rocket science) and vocal later while the others went out for lunch. It was a wrap within 4 hours. Not bad for a tune that was only in my head that morning, and none of the others had the slightest idea what they were in the studio for.

Intermediate Classical guitarist. Finishing up memorizing a fingerstyle version of "Girl" by the Beatles, "Elenore" by the Turtles and sinking my teeth into Opus 9, no 2 by Chopin.

I like the idea of rock/pop songs interpreted for classical guitar.
You said yer level is intermediate, do you still study?
Do you have any clips of yerself playing the pop/rock material?

What do you play?

But, don't perform any longer. Did that 2,000 times already.
I recorded some stuff a couple years ago and put it on Soundcloud.
For the last year I've been playing a lot of acoustic, both 6 & 12, exploring open voicings up & down the neck, using open strings as 4th & 5th tones. Also, finding better ways to fill space on the guitar between vocal lines
On electric, been working on legato & on arpeggios as I've always been a scalar or modal player.
On piano, for a few years I've been working on jazzing up simple classical tunes. Things like Fur Elise, but with 4 tone chords & arpeggios.
I don't record on the computer. I've got a 20 year old Tascam 16 track console that records direct to hard drive. Good mikes, though.
I'm always willing to jam, but I live in the exurbs of Chicago. So, that isn't going to work.

The stuff yer working on sounds pretty cool. Can you post a link to yer SoundCloud stuff?

If you've played 2000 gigs, well that's a pretty serious career. Was that as a guitarist? Roadwork, mostly?

Last edited Wed Sep 6, 2023, 12:03 PM - Edit history (1)

Although quite lucrative.
I played 19 years with the same 3 other guys, plus the soundman who was a full member. Had the same light guy the whole time too, but he ran spotlight the 1st three years. The light guys split a share.
I was mostly a keyboardist who played guitar, but I'm a pretty good guitar player.
Here's my online stuff. It's just my own versions of famous rock tunes. I'm playing & singing everything. It's all first take, so there are some warts.
https://SoundCloud.com/user-134084288

It has a jangle rock element to it. Great rhythm work

For the creative stuff I write originals...
http://jamesmlarocque.com/

with stupid and cheesy videos.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2bOB89ZbTku6HjtLHc5XkQ



For money and fun. I play in a trio doing covers as Fromage du Jour.

http://thecheesebots.com/

I loved the clips. Which one are you.
That's an interesting ensemble. No set drummer or bass player.
I like the "Use what ya have" method.
You guys stay pretty busy, that's great.

Taking a break and using that time to do many needed repairs. Restoring a modded MIA Strat so I can donate it this fall. Restringing my Rainsong to a heavy gauge p-bronze as an experiment. Only practicing an hour or two a week.

Are you a luthier?

Too picky (and cheap!) to let others near my instruments.

I understand.
But since I play an acoustic, it's more prudent for me to let a luthier keep mine in shape.

We've accumulated about a dozen or so originals (most of which are included on our youtube page), and we have some friends with a studio. Hoping we can start recording them this year...

https://www.youtube.com/@theconnorsproject5686/videos

Old time music