Capo'd waaaaaay up on this one

[rp911]

I recorded this original this week. I like to use a C voicing around the 5th fret when I write but my vocal range is more like E to G ... so I find I have to rewrite the guitar parts to play them lower to fit my vocals. I tried this capo'd up at the 9th fret, which was right in my vocal range, but man it's cramped up there, especially with a short scale guitar -- Gibson CJ -165. But it worked out. I have another one to do in the same position.

I guess Lyle Lovett does this fairly frequently. Fun to play lead up there, too. I dislike cutaway acoustics and I guess the cutaway doesn't matter, it's the heel that I'm up against.

Ever had a relationship where the other person keeps breaking it up and you keep trying? You probably have. It's called "My Heart's a Little Dented." Heck, whose isn't?



Why Youtube chose 5 seconds of keyboards as the thumbnail is a mystery to me.

BTW, I run a guitar store, it's not like I'm hoarding all these lefty guitars or anything :shock:

Terrific! Very nicely produced as well.

[Tahitijack]

I'm with you on that. I play rhythm guitar in my band and capo on the 7th for Telstar. I usually play Hotel California with capo at the 7th.

[reeve21]

I really like everything about this, rp!

Hope to hear more from you 🎶🎶

[richnrbq]

Super sweet, all the way around. Great tune, beautifully arranged, played and produced. I'm curious about process- which tracks did you lay down first? Great playing, strong vocal too. Some harmonies at some point??

Rich

[TBman]

That was great!

Not bad for playing the guitar upside down.

[rp911]

Originally Posted by richnrbq

Super sweet, all the way around. Great tune, beautifully arranged, played and produced. I'm curious about process- which tracks did you lay down first? Great playing, strong vocal too. Some harmonies at some point??

Rich

Thanks for the kind words! Sure, I'd be happy to run down how I record.

1) Write the song -- sometimes this takes years ; )

2) I work in Logic Pro X. I set the tempo, then sit with the guitar and put together the arrangement track -- intro (2 bars), verse (8 bars), chorus, bridge, etc -- this helps me keep my place recording and to set the overall length for loop recording. Also helpful for putting down the solo as I know where to start and end the recording on that. It's just a visual way to see where you are recording. I'm not actually recording anything, just timing it out.

3) I set up a very sparse drum track -- usually just a cross stick and high hat -- this serves as a click track. Logic's Drummer feature is really good for this but there are various other ways to accomplish it. It's important to do this now because you may want to use some subtle delays later and they will subdivide to the tempo if you keep everything in time with the click. On this track, there is a very subtle 16th note triplet slap delay on the drums. Nothing obvious but it adds a little depth.

4) i do a scratch vocal/acoustic track, playing it through once, not being too careful about it, just to get the basics down. Sometimes, if I play it well, and if I don't mind having the vocal and acoustic bleeding together, the scratch track survives to the finished track. Sometimes I will use an earbud in one ear while I'm playing to hear the click, other times, if I know I'm going to redo the vocal and acoustic separately, I will just have it playing quietly in the background while I record.

5) Now the real work starts ... I will play through the primary acoustic part and, using the loop record feature, do at least two passes. If you make a small mistake or a note doesn't ring just right you can "comp" these versions into one perfect track. I kind of know when I have it right, of course.

6) Vocals are next -- I will usually do at least 3 passes -- same idea as before to edit together. This is more vital as sometimes you want to be able to get a certain inflection or annunciation. Much easier to do it a few times in a row as the levels, mic position, etc. stays the same and it's easy to comp in and out. Much harder to go back and fix it later with levels and so forth.

7) Bass.

8) Keyboards or second acoustic/electric if I'm using them. Probably 2 passes each. Harmony vocals, if any.

9) Solo if there is one -- guitar or keys -- 2-3 passes.

9) Drums -- I usually get these in one take, or know when I screw it up and start over. I also have a bit of a shaker habit, so I will just do that into a tom mike if I think I might want it later. Or you can get that using the Drummer track in Logic, too. You'd be surprised how much your hand aches playing a shaker into a mic for a few minutes if you're not a drummer who does it all the time.

10) Mix to taste. This is when I'm doing the work with comping the individual tracks into a good finished take.

Works for me!

Almost always, when I'm working with the scratch track and adding to it, I'm thinking, this is not really working, it's not good, I'm wasting my time here ... and then, invariably, suddenly it all comes together and sounds just like I pictured it.

[richnrbq]

Fantastic description of the process- the high quality of your production shows the care, experience, forethought and patient work that go into it. Thanks for sharing this!

Rich

Originally Posted by rp911

Thanks for the kind words! Sure, I'd be happy to run down how I record.

1) Write the song -- sometimes this takes years ; )

2) I work in Logic Pro X. I set the tempo, then sit with the guitar and put together the arrangement track -- intro (2 bars), verse (8 bars), chorus, bridge, etc -- this helps me keep my place recording and to set the overall length for loop recording. Also helpful for putting down the solo as I know where to start and end the recording on that. It's just a visual way to see where you are recording. I'm not actually recording anything, just timing it out.

3) I set up a very sparse drum track -- usually just a cross stick and high hat -- this serves as a click track. Logic's Drummer feature is really good for this but there are various other ways to accomplish it. It's important to do this now because you may want to use some subtle delays later and they will subdivide to the tempo if you keep everything in time with the click. On this track, there is a very subtle 16th note triplet slap delay on the drums. Nothing obvious but it adds a little depth.

4) i do a scratch vocal/acoustic track, playing it through once, not being too careful about it, just to get the basics down. Sometimes, if I play it well, and if I don't mind having the vocal and acoustic bleeding together, the scratch track survives to the finished track. Sometimes I will use an earbud in one ear while I'm playing to hear the click, other times, if I know I'm going to redo the vocal and acoustic separately, I will just have it playing quietly in the background while I record.

5) Now the real work starts ... I will play through the primary acoustic part and, using the loop record feature, do at least two passes. If you make a small mistake or a note doesn't ring just right you can "comp" these versions into one perfect track. I kind of know when I have it right, of course.

6) Vocals are next -- I will usually do at least 3 passes -- same idea as before to edit together. This is more vital as sometimes you want to be able to get a certain inflection or annunciation. Much easier to do it a few times in a row as the levels, mic position, etc. stays the same and it's easy to comp in and out. Much harder to go back and fix it later with levels and so forth.

7) Bass.

8) Keyboards or second acoustic/electric if I'm using them. Probably 2 passes each. Harmony vocals, if any.

9) Solo if there is one -- guitar or keys -- 2-3 passes.

9) Drums -- I usually get these in one take, or know when I screw it up and start over. I also have a bit of a shaker habit, so I will just do that into a tom mike if I think I might want it later. Or you can get that using the Drummer track in Logic, too. You'd be surprised how much your hand aches playing a shaker into a mic for a few minutes if you're not a drummer who does it all the time.

10) Mix to taste. This is when I'm doing the work with comping the individual tracks into a good finished take.

Works for me!

Almost always, when I'm working with the scratch track and adding to it, I'm thinking, this is not really working, it's not good, I'm wasting my time here ... and then, invariably, suddenly it all comes together and sounds just like I pictured it.

[FrankHudson]

Yes, a tip of the hat all the way around on this. The song, the playing, the singing, the production, the work-flow explanation.

As to the topic title: I find that I rarely capo less than 4 frets up. There's a lot of interesting sonics when you capo up the neck. You mention Lyle Lovett does high capo placement a lot, maybe that's why I like his playing/sound so much--well that and good songwriting probably helps a bit.

[rp911]

You know, once you have the workflow down it doesn't really take that long ... I did this one in about 3 days, and that's working around the times when it's quiet enough here to record. I think of it like a template for each instrument that gets recorded. This is how we do the bass, this is how we do the vocal, etc.

Eventually I learned to stop worrying about trying to make everything sound perfect and just to concentrate on the playing. You can get really distracted with different mics and obsessing over preamps, EQ and room acoustics, and the latest plug-ins and mic placement and reflection filters, but in the end, it's better to use what you have around that works and stop thinking that any of that is going to help you play or sound better. I'm a big fan of Ryan Adams and some of my favorite stuff of his was done on inexpensive guitars with lots of background noise and analog hiss -- heck, "These Girls" off Easy Tiger sounds like it was recorded on a 4-track Tascam with a Shure SM-57 (maybe it was) and it's a great tune and performance.

[Glennwillow]

Very nice job on this RP. Not many guitar players can play the drums -- very cool! Very nicely arranged song and well recorded, too!

- Glenn

[rp911]

Thanks! Ironically, I play drums right handed. I am pretty much righthanded all around but do write with my left hand. My first instrument as a kid was piano and I think that's why guitar felt correct to me lefthanded, because on a piano your right hand is playing the more complicated material while your left hand is more about keeping time with bass notes, and that translated pretty easily to fretting for me.

[Organic Sounds Select Guitars]

This is a great song, really pleasant, easy feel to it. Nice vocals, instruments, lyrics. I like it a lot! Really good guitar playing, not easy when you only have about three inches of fretboard to work with
Thanks for sharing your tune with us!

[KDepew]

I loved all of this! Great job!

I use a capo all the time because my voice is so low. I will have to try it up high like this.

Thanks again!