How Sweet It Is (to play a G70!)

[Diki]

Been a while for me... 

I've been talking about bender work, brass layers and the like, so here's a tune with a solo and some sax layer work towards the end.

Track is an unknown source SMF, heavily edited! All that is the track is the bass, drums, the guitar 'chick-chick' (you'll hear it!) and a sax harmony on the vocal chorus (in the background). Acoustic guitar and harmonies are my regular partner, Richard Paris.

Played parts are LH Rhodes and string layer, RH piano, sax solo, and sax section solo at the end (no Melody Intell, just playing!)

BTW, taken straight from yesterday's gig in Gulf Shores AL, recorded on a Zoom H2 at 256mp3 rate, sorry, no time to master, so straight off the board. Bump up the bass a bit while you listen (I've got a big sub, so board mixes tend to be a hair light at the bottom), should do the trick...

I hope you enjoy...

[rshotbolt]

Love it Diki

Cheered me up after a miserable day today - my best (and only ) pair of headphones which I use on the G-70 gave up the ghost.

Richard

[adi matis]

diki, nice, very nice! i enjoyed it very much!
 

[Ironhill]

Wonderful played, thanks a lot Diki 
Hanspeter

[Erland]

Hey Diki.

Whow -  nice 

Erland Thomsen

[Bert]

All members can hear your music Diki except me, my Media Player tells me
your Mp3 has a different extension and can not play your song.
What am I doing wrong or is it just the wheater, it is raining here today.

[Ironhill]

Yes Bert, it's not possible to play back it with the Windows Medis Player, I used the Apple Quick Time player. You can download it free of charge from the net, I think.
Regards
Hanspeter   

[Ironhill]

Hello E-80 User,
the Song can be played by your Version 2 System, it sounds very, very good. 
Copy it to the folder 'mp3', best on a card ! 
Regards
Hanspeter 

[rshotbolt]

I use RealPlayer to play MP3's, and Diki's worked fine.

Plus you get to watch Annabelle the Sheep doing a funny little dance

Richard

[adi matis]

bert,
just use the old good winamp...

that is what i've ever used for audio player.

[Wim]

Hey Diki,

How can I book you for a gig in Europe?

Greetings
Wim

[Ironhill]

Hi,
I converted the song. So it can be played by the Media Player.
Regards
Hanspeter

[Duo-Keyboarder]

I noticed, that iTunes will not play the original file.
The only thing I could do, is to import it to Audacity, to export it as wave and then to reconvert to MP3.
About the song: Very well, but the tambourine...
Ok, this tambourine sound was usual in late 1960's recordings but today?
Would I record something with G70 I would play a tambourine live.

[Ironhill]

Would I record something with G70 I would play a tambourine live.

Oh yes, Duo, last month in Berlin I saw a man with a tambourine on his head and
drums on his back, both playing by foot with a rope. Now I know: this man has been YOU.  Good idea. 
Regards
Hanspeter   

[cassp]

Nice job, Diki. That voice of yours just doesn't seem to match your picture, though   Nice recording straight off the H2; it gives me encouragement to try mine off the board.  Keep up the good work.

[Duo-Keyboarder]

Would I record something with G70 I would play a tambourine live.

Oh yes, Duo, last month in Berlin I saw a man with a tambourine on his head and
drums on his back, both playing by foot with a rope. Now I know: this man has been YOU.  Good idea. 
Regards
Hanspeter   

Hm, I use to do records at home.
And I doesn't own G70. 

[Bert]

First thanks to Hans Peter for the conversion of the MP3.
Now I could hear a very pofessional and very good song.
Highclass music and the tambourine.....excellent !

[Diki]

Thanks guys.

Sorry about the mp3 problem. I don't usually record as mp3, but I was running out of room on the SD card (had the previous day's gig on there as well at 44/16), so I had to edit the take out of the long file for the whole set. Obviously, Quicktime does something strange here. I'll look into it, but probably next one will just be my usual mastered up .aif, so hopefully this is the last time this happens (we need a red-faced smiley! )

I've got to agree with you about the poor Canvas era tambourine in the G70. It's WAY overdue for an update. In fact, to do tambourine well you ned a tambourine hit, AND a 'back' and a 'forth' shake before it starts to sound realistic. But this is live, at the gig, so the G70 is all I've got!

I would encourage everyone to record 'straight off the board' every chance you get. This IS, after all, exactly what the audience hears unless you have amps and monitors to mess up the balance, so you get a quick reality check on how your style and sequence mixes are, and whether you are succumbing to the dreaded 'more ME ' syndrome we so often fall into. It really takes a LOT of practice and constant recording off the board to get used to hearing yourself (either your playing, OR your voice) 'in the mix', rather than 'ON the mix'.

Listen to any CD, and see how hard it is to sometimes hear a rhythm piano part or guitar part. If you listen to main mix (which arrangers basically force you to, as there is no separate 'monitor' feed with your own parts bumped higher), you've got to get used to hearing yourself this poorly. And still playing well...

Anyway, thanks for the patience with the file, and thank you Hanspeter for fixing my error. It played fine on my Mac so I just 'ass'umed! And thanks again for the kind words.

[Diki]

I just checked Hanspeter's conversion, and somehow it got converted to mono, and the balance pushed a bit to the right, so if you can get the original to play (try winamp if you have it if you don't want to download Quicktime), it's a bit closer to the what I intended.

Thanks for trying, Hanspeter, though... What software did you use to do this with? It seems there are some issues

Problem solved. Thank you, Hanspeter.

[Duo-Keyboarder]

I did it too with audacity and iTunes

[Diki]

Thanks, Duo...

This one did the trick.

[Ironhill]

It seems there are some issues

You're Right, Diki,
I did it once more. This time I used my normal equipment to have a better control. That means:
I played back your song with the E-80, recorded it with the CD-Recorder and converted this using the MS Media Player. May be I had a bad connection with the computer socket before. I hope it's OK now.

http://roland-arranger.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=38&topic=845.msg5033#msg5033

Regards
Hanspeter

[Diki]

Thanks, everyone, for working so hard on my file. One of these days I've GOT to learn how to use a Windows machine, so I can fix this stuff myself...

It seems strange, though, that you can't simply go into the file itself and edit it's properties, rather than having to go through the hoops of completely re-recording the file (with the ensuing quality loss as it goes through an A/D/A conversion and another mp3 encoding). All I had to do on the Mac was manually change the extension, and Quicktime played it fine. Would that life were always that easy!

[vismus]

Diki:
Very Slick!  You sound great, both on piano and "sax!"  Being first a sax player, I'm very fussy about both sax samples/sounds and they way they are played.  You nailed it!

Take the Europe gig...that would be great fun! ;-)

Tom

[Bebop]

YO DIKI,
This is fine work. I really enjoyed this arrangement, and the vocal. You are a first class musician and set the standard for many who have the opportunity to avail them selves not only of your music but also your wisdom that you freely share on this forum and our other main forum.
You are appreciated by the masses although some of them don't get the M in Masses, when they try to one up you. I find your comments to usually be right on target and your music speaks for itself. It is FINE:)
Thanks for sharing this fine talent you have developed over the years.
I bought the Zoom H2 on your reccomendation but haven't hooked it into the ports on the E 80 yet, and tried it out. It is a great little machine.
Bebop