Conference napalm::guitar

    Here's mine, since my submission tape is on it's way to Tom.
    Thanks Tom !!
     
    
    

- Obligatory Message - Ripped off from Iron Maiden...Kinda...
    Produced and engineered by Moi.

Recorded using a Yamaha MT100 II, Roland R5 Human Rhythm Composer, 
Shure SM58 Mic and DSP128+ set on a "custom" Gated Reverb/Delay
preset.  This is more of a joke than anything.

- Take A Chance - Written, played, engineered and produced by Moi.

This is a relatively serious (but rushed - see disclaimer) effort recorded on
the MT100 II.  Percussion and bass provided by the Roland  R5.  The guitar
tracks (double tracked) are done with a 76 Les Paul Deluxe with SD Baby
Humbuckers (rhythm) and an Ibanez RG550 for lead work. Amplification provided
by my ADA/Metaltronix rack.  The ADA preset  is the default "Marshall" preset
with the presense back off just a little. I stuck a mic between two 2x12
cabs...about three feet away. Vocals are single tracked with plenty of DSP128+
"ultimate stereo reverb". My wife helped out with the harmony in the chorus -
Thanks babe ! Guitar work, drums and bass were all done in one take...Because
I'm no singer, the vox track was more than one take...Due to cracks, burps and
spilt beer.  There are no fancy tricks done here (no ping-ponging, or  some
such).

    - MIDI Rack Puke Rap - Written by Cindi and Jeff Cooper, produced and
    engineer (badly!) by Moi'

This is not serious.  Please don't take offense to the lyrical content. It's
done in the vein of Anthrax "I'm The Man". My wife and I wrote the lyrics.  Mrs
Cooper also programmed the R5 and gave me some guidance on Rap (I'm definately
not a RAP fan!).  The lead is pure noise done with my Charvel Model 4, more
specifically, the Jackson trem unit on it ;). Mrs Cooper did the lead vox, I
added a few nasty comments.  The whole project, from start to finish took one
hour.   Keep in mind that I experimented with bouncing (Or "ping pong")
so some of the levels are totally out of wack.  Sometimes you can't hear
th lead VOX track.  If you'd like a copy of these ridiculous lyrics, shoot me
mail - they aren't real appropriate for post here.

DISCLAIMER!

My MT100II, which was brand new, had to go to the manufacturer to be repaired.
The local dealer, Rice Music here in Co. Springs was gracious enough to 
loan me a unit late Saturday afternoon so that I could do this project.
Basically, I had one day to do the whole thing on a rather unfamiliar unit.
Keep this in mind when/if you hear imperfections.  Thanks - I'll make a much
better tape when I'm not rushed...Volume 3?

Finally, thanks to:

Mrs Cooper - For putting up with me spending our weekend in my studio,
	     and for helping with MIDI Rack Puke RAP.

Jerry "Scary" White - For helping me get the kinks out of "Take A Chance 
                      during it's infancy.  This TAPS for YOU dude !

Greg House - For his honest inputs and advise.

Bill Buckley - For selling me a most bodacious axe - The RG550.

Steve Dandrea and Pat Blair - For talking me into a Gibson.

ADA and Metaltronix  - for selling me the worlds most bad-assed guitar rig.

Walt at Rice Music - For loaning me a 4 track when I was bummin'.

Mike Heiser - For giving me the confidence to attempt vocals again.  ;)

Roland - For providing a drum machine that plays bass.

Ross Inc. - For providing a 4 track that I could learn on...I'll never forget
       you. 

    re: talking you into a Gibson....yer welcome!
    
    It's been a while since I read any notes....the first one up was 11/90
    
    yikes!
    
    Steve

    
    
    Alan Starr and I have three songs on the tape, here's the 
    notes for them.
    
    I played guitar and bass on all three tracks. 
    
    The guitar (les paul) was recorded live thru a digitech RDS3600
    for chorus to a Kitty Hawk Msomething_or_other head to a Lab
    series 4x12 cab. 
    
    Bass was recorded direct through a PV MKVIII bass head's direct
    output.
    
    Drums were played my Bill Brown (Non-DECcie) and were recorded live.
    
    The tape deck was a Yamaha MTX44 4 tracker with dolby "b". 
    
    
    The songs are:
    
    "Wait For You" - Words & Music by Alan Starr
    	
    	Vocal: Alan
    
    "Sara Lovely" - Words by Alan Starr, Music by Tom Gallo
    
    	Vocal: Alan
    
    "Tori, Sweet Tori" - Words by Alan Starr, Music by Tom Gallo
    
    	Vocal: Tom
    
    
    

    
    Sent in 2 pieces. I recorded these on my Fostex X-15 right after
    Christmas. Personally, I wasn't totally pleased with either of them,
    but I figured if I waited I wouldn't get it done anytime soon. So
    it's a "B" job rather than an "A", but it's done. 
    
    Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Solo guitar. Partly my arrangement.
    
    When Johnny Comes Marching Home - Duet. Was meant to sound melancholy,
    				      but came out plodding. Those funny
    				      notes are dissonances, not wrong
                                      notes. I got this arrangement from
    	                              a book of guitar duets.
    
    	Bob
    
    

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (G. Harrison)
 massacred....errr....performed by Alan Starr  8^)

I originally decided to record this song in order to familiarize myself 
with my newly purchased Roland R5 drum machine. I thought if I had a 
project to work on, it would make learning that much more interesting,
and a lot less tedious. In actuality, not only did I learn about drum
machines (and a little about drumming), but also about home recording and
other related topics. It paid off all around!

Since I was working on it anyways, it seemed like a good idea to include
it for submission to the GUITARnotes tape. I mean, what the hell, right???
So keep in mind that this was not nearly a finished product, but more just 
a side-show. (Jeez, he's already apologizing - it must be *really* bad! 8^)

Before I go any further, I just want to thank Len Fehskens for his excellent
treatise on drumming and drum machines, and to Tom Gallo for the loan of the
bass guitar (and for the compilation of the GUITARnotes tape!).

The rhythm parts were done on a 4-track in my attic:

Track 1: The drum track, programmed by myself on the Roland R5. Its pretty
         close to the original, although maybe not perfect. Pretty simple,
         but still time-consuming to program (especially the first time).
Track 2: Ovation Celebrity acoustic recorded directly from guitar to 4-track.
         In hindsight, this is buried way too far down in the mix (the biggest 
         problem with the overall song, IMO).
Track 3: Rhythm guitar - my 1970 Les Paul Deluxe recorded straight from the
         guitar into the 4-track. No effects or amplification at all.
Track 4: Tom's Fender bass. Again, recorded straight from the guitar to the
         4-track. This was a real mistake, as I sort of the lost the bass in
         the mix over time. I think a better bass tone with compression would
         have stood out more in the long run. Live and learn.....

I mixed these down to two tracks, then went back to the 4-track to add on the
lead parts on tracks 3 and 4, now empty.

Track 3: The vocal line. Recorded live with an Audio Technica 818 mike into
         the 4-track. This was my Hamer guitar, played through the Kitty
         Kawk Quattro, the Yamaha GEP-50 for reverb, into a Marshall 1x12
         cab (via the QSC power amp).
Track 4: Lacking a real piano, the opening part was done by the Ovation, again
         straight into the 4-track. The leads are my Les Paul via the same
         rack setup, but with the Yamaha set to a flange effect. The solos
         were pretty much off the cuff, as I was running short of time, so
         they're not perfect. But they're there.....

That's about it. I mixed all that down to the 2-track cassette mix. The 
4-track is a Yamaha MT100 with patch bay and mixer (with built-in 7-band EQ).
It was mixed down to your basic home Sony deck. Dolby-B was used throughout
the process, and the tapes were Maxell XLII-90's. 

More than ever really wanted to know about this project, huh????  8^)

alan

    
    
    This is an update to .3.
    
    Basically, I re-recorded "Tori, Sweet Tori" at home on my 4 track.
    All in all it took maybe an hour to do the basic tracks. I find
    doing the mix the hardest part. 
    
    
    "Tori, Sweet Tori" - Words: Alan Starr, Music: Tom Gallo
    
    
    All parts were done by myself, so there is no one else to blame. :-)
    
    Here's the rundown:
    
    Guitar track: Fender Telecaster thru a MIDIverb II for a light chorus
    effect. For those with a MVII it's preset #60. 
    
    Bass Track: Fender ("Squier") Bullet Bass thru a DBX 163X compressor
    to a Radio Shack EQ. The eq was set flat on the lowest three bands
    and full cut on all the rest (10 bands total). No annoying midrange
    here. ;-)
    
    Drum Track: A Roland TR-505 drum machine, programmed by me. Thanks
    to Jens Moller (or was it Karl?) for his excellent article in 
    COMMUSIC on drum patterns. It really helped a lot. The '505 was
    reverbed thru the MIDIverb 2 on preset #2. The dry/wet mix was set
    to mostly dry, since reverbed cymbals sound like doo-doo and the
    '505 doesn't have separate outputs for each voice.
    
    Vocal: This "weak" part was recorded thru and El-Cheapo Radio Shack
    Mic thru the MIDIverb II again. This time I used reverb preset #3.
    I admit that I have no confidence in my singing, so I don't really
    like this track.
    
    You'll notice that there are two guitar parts, one panned left 
    and one panned right. This is actually only one guitar part. What
    I did was take the direct tape output for the recorded guitar track
    fed it thru a delay (again MVII) and fed it back into the deck into
    a direct assign mixer channel. The effect of this was to have two
    more or less "synced" guitar parts from only one source. It's seems
    to be pretty effective. 
    
    Here's the equipment list again:
    
    Fender Telecaster 
    Fender Bullet Bass
    MIDIverb II     
    DBX 163X Compressor
    Tascam Porta-2 4 Track. 
    

    I submitted 2 songs.
    
    "It's OK" is a 3 Many Daves original. Dave West wrote the basic tune,
    then the rest of us helped to flesh it out. This version was recorded
    live at the 1990 Sterling Town Fair. Jose Ramirez sat in on congas and
    added a nice touch. My signal chain was something like
    
    Strat -> Rat -> Analog Delay -> Peavey Special 130 (probably in clean
    channel)
    
    I put this on because lately I've been getting into playing parts which
    FIT a song really well, and this (to me) is a good example. Also I like
    the tone I was getting that day.
    
    "The Roumanian Boogie" chord progression I've been playing with for 
    years, but it took Dave Russo to put a little melody over it. We spent
    a long time one very weird night jamming on this, then went back a few
    days later and tried to re-capture the essence of the song. This is
    what resulted. Not sure what I used (probably Tube Screamer -> Delay).
    Bonus points for those who can 'name that chord progression'!.
    
    - Dave
    

Dave Bottom/LA East Rhythm and Blues Band

These two pieces come from what's probably our last session. Both were recorded
on a Tascam 38 through a Tascam 320 board, using an ART proverb for effects, a
yamaha (I forget the model) compressor limiter and a bunch of mikes, none of
which were among the best money can buy.

Don't shut the door: Written by Doug Brosuis and Ross Timberlake

The song is a sort of tribute to Paul Butterfield written after his death.

Doug Brosuis: Vocals  and harp
Steve Brooks: Bass
Ray "the count" Corliss: Drums
Steve Ives: Guitar (second solo and fills)
Dave Bottom: Guitar (first solo)

Break Down and Cry: Written by Dave Bottom

I dunno who this is really for...it just came out one night.

Doug Brosuis: harp
Steve Brooks: Bass
Ray "the count" Corliss: Drums
Steve Ives: Guitar (first solo and fills)
Dave Bottom: Vocals, Guitar (second solo)
The players:


The gear:

Doug: the 'ole blues harp, shure green bullet and super reverb
Steve Brooks: Musicman bass direct into the board	
Ray: cheapo drums
Steve Ives: Vintage gibson explorer through a Semour Duncan 100w Convertible
	    ART proverb for effects
Dave Bottom: Rivera TRB-1M, Alesis Quadraverb 
	fender strat w/hot Duncan stacks (on Don't shut the door)
	fender lead 1 w/jeff beck humbucker and two hot stacks on breakdown
    

I entered three pieces with my favorite musicians, Alternate Routes or
sometimes known as The Alternate Quartet.   Two of three I penned.  One
from the Weather Report album of the same name.  Here's the line up.


Just For Kicks		(P. Cummings)
	
	Rick Calcagni - bass
        Ed Conley - drums
        Jim Scarsdale - tenor sax, percussion
        Terry Reilly - congas
        Paul Cummings - guitar


Mr. Gone		(Josef Zawinul)

	Rick Calcagni - bass
        Ed Conley - drums
        Jim Scarsdale - soprano sax
        Paul Cummings - guitar


Unknown Idiots		(P. Cummings)

 	Rick Calcagni - bass
        Ed Conley - drums
        Terry Reilly - keys (briefly), DX7 drums/percussion
        Paul Cummings - guitar



Equipment I'm using:
	
 	1987 Gibson ES335
        Boss Turbo Overdrive
	Boss CE2 Chorus
        Roland RE150 Space Echo
        Fender Super 60 amp

(Note: I wrote this last week, but Tom has since re-recorded "Sara Lovely", 
so some of these notes about the recording process don't apply to that song.)

I though I'd put in a more detailed Liner Notes than what Tom posted earlier. 
Not that anyone is really interested, but its the first chance I've ever
had to write liner notes to something I've written/recorded, and I can't
pass up the opportunity!!! 

All three songs were recorded in one 6 hour stretch, in the attic at my
house (which doubles as our practice space). Sorry!'s drummer, Billy Brown,
came up and was nice enough to put down all the drum tracks for us. Many
thanks to him!!!

First step was to record the songs live, with all three of us playing and/or
singing. We then fed this tape to Billy via headphones, and he played along
while I recorded just the drum parts. They were recorded onto all four 
tracks - one mike on the snare and one on the bass drum, and two area mikes 
for the rest. We then mixed this down to one track on another deck, leaving
us three to work with (we didn't want to chance more than two mixdowns).
(We then thanked Billy and sent him on his merry way!)

On Track 2, Tom added all the guitar parts. All three were recorded with my 
1970 Les Paul Deluxe, going into a Digitech RDS-3600 rack effects, then into 
a Kitty Hawk M3 head, piped through a LabSeries 4x12 cab. Captured by the 
Audio-Technica mike (the best of the bunch), and fed straight into the 
4-track.

Tom then used his Fender bass to add the bass parts onto Track 3, going 
direct from his Peavey MKVIII head into the 4-track. 

Lastly, I added vocals onto the "Sara Lovely" and "Wait For You", while
Tom added the vocals to "Tori Sweet Tori". Mixdown onto a home Sony cassette 
deck, and we were done! Started at 11:30am, and done before dinnertime!

Again, Dolby-B was used throughout, and the tapes were Maxell XL-II's.    

"Wait For You" - Words & Music by Alan Starr
--------------    
This is still my favorite song out of all that I've written so far. Written
for a girl I went to college with, and dedicated to her (Janice, wherever
you may be....). I always wanted to write an 'epic' song, like Bruce 
Springsteen's "Point Blank". It ended up coming out more like the early 
Eagles, but I'm real happy with it! 

"Sara Lovely" - Words by Alan Starr, Music by Tom Gallo
-------------
Written about a girl I met in a blues bar in Lowell (of all places!) called
the Downtown Lounge. A real dive, but a pretty cool place! I gave the words
to Tom, and told him that I heard the music to be something in the pop-metal
vein, ala Winger. Well, it started out that way, but ended up being more
like us (which is good, I think!). Sorta Smithereen-ish. I wasn't thrilled 
with it at first, but Tom persevered, and it grew on me, until now I love it!
Special mention to Billy for some fine drumming! Craziness!!!!!

"Tori, Sweet Tori" - Words by Alan Starr, Music by Tom Gallo
------------------    
The return of the 2� minute pop song!!!!!! You can just think of us as
the CCR of the Nineties!  (Boy, what an insult to Fogerty! 8^)  Anyways,
this was a lyric that was supposed to be longer, but I never could come up
with anything else, so it just ended up as a short song. Originally I was
going to sing this, but I wasn't getting the phrasing down the way Tom wanted 
it to be. He did a take so I could learn from it, but he ended up doing it
so well that it's now his for good!!! (And he though he couldn't sing - HA!)


With more tracks, all the songs could use some more arranging. "Wait For
You" is just screaming for a vocal harmony part. "Sara Lovely" still needs
a solo thrown into the middle. And "Tori Sweet Tori" needs another guitar
line, and some vocal harmony. But we're pretty damn happy with the songs,
I (and I think Tom) was real pleased with my 'production/engineering' of
the project, and it was fun! What more could you ask for, eh????

alan

Here's my liner notes for my two entries, "Hippie's Tune", and
"The Lost Porpoise".

"The Lost Porpoise" was a little melody (guess you'd call it that) that I
came up with in 1989, about the time that I got my Tascam.  So, it was one
of the first multi-track recordings that I've made.  I came up with the
song with an Irish melody in mind, don't really know if I accomplished that.
First I recorded the lead on my 6-string Takamine acoustic guitar, then
recorded the strummed 2 Epiphone 12-string guitar parts.  Then I decided
that the lead guitar part sounded really muddy, so I recorded over it with
my (formerly mine) Les Paul using the odd acoustic pickup (see note 681). 

The effects I used were:

	Les Paul -> phaser -> Roland JC77 (w/chorus)

At the time I was going direct from the JC77 to the Tascam with my recordings,
so I think thats what I did on that particular occasion.  The tricky part
was timing the start of the new lead part with the background guitars which
I had already recorded and which started on the 4th note of the lead!!


"Hippie's Tune" is a little riff that my friend Jeff "Hippie" Mason showed me 
in the spring of 1985.  I asked him to show me the riff (I'd been playing
less than a year at the time), and he said "I'll show it to you, but you have
to tell people that it's Hippie's Tune."  He often comes up with little
songs like this, plays them for a day or so, and forgets them forever....
after he showed it to me I kept playing it and giving it some structure (?)
until one day he heard it and said "it's your tune now!."  Actually, the
introduction to the song is mine, its hard to actually describe when it
becomes "Hippie's Tune".  I recorded it miking my Epiphone 12-string twice
(thus the left and right guitars!) sending the mike through a Boss
Digital Reverb pedal.  I recorded this in spring 1990.


Both of my submissions were recorded using a Tascam 246 4-track recorder,
(double speed) using DBX.

Dave

    A little late, but at least I showed up :-)
    
    My contributions to the tape were
    
    Sor Etude in C Major.
    	
    	This was recorded in 1977 ( ouch... ) when I was young (21) and wild.
    	 What this means to me is I thought I was the gnads, went into
     	a real ( bad ) professional enviroinment, and recorded a few
    	of the classics.  The reason I now chide myself for youthful
    	arrogance now is... I didn't bring the Music!! What an Idiot!
    	Now , as I'm working on 90 minute recitals, I often record it-
    	but mostly looking at the music on the page.
    	Once in a great while I'll sit down and play my recital
    	through from memory just to see how it goes.  
    	 It was done at the defunct Sound Thinking Associates in Worcester,
    	MA and remains the only time I ever was recorded by pros.
    
    
    	Bad Dog
    
    	 It was a dark and stormy night. Mr Peter Cook, Famous Local Band
    	drummer, had consented to my repeated requests and arranged a
    	session where I couls see how well I did with the elektric machine.
    
    	 We met in the basement of a local morgue, and set up the
    equipment.  I had a couple of experimental 3x12's, in see thru pink,
    and my BC rich bich. I also had brought a bunch of equipment to record
    with, but, well, just got so excited I forgot how to use any of it.
    BUT, as a strasy stroke of Bad Luck , one of Mr. Cook's brother's
    band members strayed by on the way out of the state. He mention a
    4-track he had, so I bribed him into getting it.
    It would have been a better recording if I had only remembered the mike
    really should be facing the amp. I sent it to GN Tapes II because
    it's the best of the few pieces we did thier, and this was the only
    time I ever recorded with another musician in any environment.
    
    As for the music, I wrote it as a vehicle for improvisation,
    fast noodleing. I appended the Prelude #1 from the Well-Tempered
    Clavier, written by Bach and transcribed by Christopher Parkening
    to the end. The 6th string for Bad Dog is tuned to D, or Re, 
    as it is for the Bach. Mr Cook had no preconception of what I was going
    to play.
    
    Thanks