Results 1 to 20 of 20

Thread: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

  1. #1
    Registered User DougC's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Minneapolis, MN
    Posts
    1,870
    Blog Entries
    2

    Default All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

    Looking at my stack of instrument cases, I've often wondered how they would sound together.

    Have you noticed how more people are producing their own videos where it enables them to play all the parts themselves with their own 'arsenal' of instruments?

    Ben Bosco is one that comes to mind. (I'll find that one later.)

    Joe Gore does a fine job here.

    Do you have a favorite?


  2. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to DougC For This Useful Post:


  3. #2
    Notary Sojac Paul Kotapish's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Alameda, California
    Posts
    2,484

    Default Re: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

    Quote Originally Posted by DougC View Post
    Looking at my stack of instrument cases, I've often wondered how they would sound together.

    Joe Gore does a fine job here.
    Great arrangement of perhaps my favorite Brian Wilson/ Van Dyke Parks song. All it needs is a mandolin, although that high-strung Veillette Avant Gryphon 12-string does the job pretty nicely.
    Just one guy's opinion
    www.guitarfish.net

  4. #3

    Default Re: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

    Quote Originally Posted by DougC View Post
    Looking at my stack of instrument cases, I've often wondered how they would sound together. ...
    I got that bug early, but didn't have the right recording equipment, and my impromptu attempts at multi-track recordings were usually pretty awful such as this 1980s drunk example, 2 tracks, mandolin and mandola, I actually *did* have some good-quality *instruments* back then but mostly completely inadequate recording situations. As to my above video, I put it on YouTube just for kicks and because I think it has some potential if I ever get around to remaking it for some unknown reason.

    Quote Originally Posted by DougC View Post
    ... Have you noticed how more people are producing their own videos where it enables them to play all the parts themselves with their own 'arsenal' of instruments? ...
    Yep, agree.

    One would imagine that a lot of people probably wanted to do that all along, from the early days of recording technology, but it seems that the technology hadn't caught up back then, to make it possible for the average person to do (marginally-acceptable) home multi-track without spending tons of money on studio gear or other expensive gadgets.

    Quote Originally Posted by DougC View Post
    ... Do you have a favorite?
    Hmm, well... at this point in my life I've mostly lost track of other people's actual formal studio recording examples (I have never much listened to commercial music because it often sounds too scripted and formal which is a complete turn-off to me, plus I dislike the idea that some engineer might have secretly went in and selectively 'edited' individual notes or done other after-the-fact editing (which I find to be completely unconsciounable even though it's apparently common), so at the risk of sounding arrogant, in my old age I've discovered that there are a lot of tunes that *I* have definite ideas for how I want them to sound, or at least ideas for how I want them to *not* sound (chord choices etc), and it's sometimes easier to get a better sound by turning my recorder on and letting it run for a long time while I attempt to play various backing parts myself - instead of trying to communicate all the nuances to another musician who might not like my ideas anyway (sometimes rightly so). And I often discover ideas that I didn't even know existed, just plunking around for fun - and once in a while, stuff that starts out as a 'mistake' ends up being something I like the sound of after listening to a recording later... and other times, not so much.

    FWIW - so people can see that just about anyone can get into this stuff nowdays (even me! lol), two of what I suppose are my better examples of lo-fi totally amateur multi-track recorded just for fun to see what might happen - a 2 track Irish tune on $50 Rogue mandolin (also, for more-capable versions by other people, see MandolinCafe Song-A-Week 412 which also has an attempt at tab), sound via cheap Dean Markley stick-on piezo pickup and Roland MicroCube "acoustic" knob setting with a little reverb and some EQ on the mixer to knock down the shrill piezo higher frequencies, fed into the freebie Audacity (where the multi-track happens) via line-on on my laptop.

    And my longstanding favorite is this old Favilla mandolin and octave GDAEB-tuned electric guitar and high-capo'd GDAE electric guitar in mandolin range (I've posted that video probably 50 times before, it's one of my few recordings I still actually like lol) - note that the backing is *not* intended to sound like a stereotypical electric guitar, I was just using what I already had in the house and trying to give it a sweeter sound via knob twiddling on the Roland amp). The Favilla had a lo-fi clip-on piezo pickup that's only supposed to be used for tuning, (it's what I had at that time), plugged into the same Roland MicroCube's "acoustic" tone modeling and similar Audacity/computer recording setup (different/older non-USB mixer, but it served the same job).

    I still don't have a clue what I'm doing, but I will say this much, that the reason I finally bought a mixer (little box with a bunch of knobs that sort of sits between the recording device and the computer, with various wires running back and forth in confusing patterns I figured out only by trial and error), was so I could listen to one track on playback, while recording another track, but still keeping the two tracks separate without sound from one track getting into the other track. I find that immensely useful for turning down the volume on the accompaniment in the final merged mix, because I like to have the backing turned up higher to hear it while playing (probably not pro, dunno), but it wouldn't sound good with too-loud backup like that. I also do all my practicing and recording through a set of $14 earphones (I can't tell the difference between those and my old $100 Sony studio monitors, and the cheapies are more comfortable) plugged into my little amp, that automatically disconnects the amp's built-in speaker. The earphones make it a whole lot easier to hear what I'm doing for more precise recordings. And in the case of the solid-body electric, earphones are a godsend for greatly reducing annoyances to nearby people who might grow weary of hearing someone's electric instrument speaker play the same riff + variations for 30+ minutes solid every day.

    So anyway, any of my Youtube stuff is obviously amateur attempts and wouldn't be the thing for audiophiles who value recording quality itself, but I had fun putting them together, experimenting with different types of accompaniment (I prefer minimalist backup notes anyway), and on a very low budget with gadgets that are mostly highly portable (not locked down to any particular location such as quiet-room home studio or something).

    The older I get, the more I downsize, and having a small number of instruments that serve multiple purposes, appeals to me. I also dig the heck out of the *huge* variety of sounds possible with electric instruments, even when 'just' playing through headphones. I still don't have any pedals aside from a seldom-used $29 Behringer thing which is supposed to make piezo pickups sound like regular acoustic instruments (not impressed with its functionality, maybe I'm just not using it right, I don't even know where it is right now to look up the model number and instructions), but the little Roland MicroCube amp provides plenty of different sounds to keep from getting bored with one's own playing, and to discover new things even at 7 am when your musician friends might all be asleep or otherwise unavailable.
    Last edited by Jess L.; Jan-14-2019 at 10:15pm. Reason: Fix identification of instruments in video.

  5. #4
    Registered User DougC's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Minneapolis, MN
    Posts
    1,870
    Blog Entries
    2

    Default Re: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

    JL277z
    Could you go into a little more detail?
    Ha, ha (Just kidding).

    I know how much work these video productions require. So I'll help boost this one. I love this tune.

    Decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile

  6. The following members say thank you to DougC for this post:


  7. #5

    Default Re: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

    Quote Originally Posted by DougC View Post
    JL277z
    Could you go into a little more detail?
    Ha, ha (Just kidding).

    I know how much work these video productions require. So I'll help boost this one. I love this tune.

    Thanks Doug! It's definitely a fun tune to play.

  8. #6
    Registered User DougC's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Minneapolis, MN
    Posts
    1,870
    Blog Entries
    2

    Default Re: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

    This guy is one of my "online instructors" that I've admired for years. Now there are captions in English. Yes!


  9. #7
    Registered User foldedpath's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Pacific Northwest, USA
    Posts
    5,292

    Default Re: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

    The first skill to learn, which doesn't require video, is learning how to play along with a pre-recorded track so you are perfectly in time with yourself and nailing the groove.

    This is not easy. It has to be learned through hard practice, and it's nothing like the skills you learn to play with other live musicians where there is an active feedback loop about timing. It's the skill studio musicians learn, when playing to previously recorded material. Not everyone can do it. If you *can* do it, then what's available now with video tools makes it easy to create a cloned performance. But you have to nail that timing skill first. Because it really sounds awful if you are not in sync.

    All due respect to the individual musicianship displayed in that "Mandolin Lesson #7 clip" above, with music I'll never be able to play, but I think you might be able to hear what I'm talking about in that "cloning" clip. The timing between the different videos is all over the place. It does not sound like a tight string quartet, and there is no point in presenting this kind of thing online if you can't do that (IMO).
    Last edited by foldedpath; Jan-15-2019 at 12:22am.

  10. #8
    Registered User DougC's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Minneapolis, MN
    Posts
    1,870
    Blog Entries
    2

    Default Re: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

    Quote Originally Posted by foldedpath View Post
    ... The timing between the different videos is all over the place. It does not sound like a tight string quartet, and there is no point in presenting this kind of thing online if you can't do that (IMO).
    FoldedPath (I can't find your real name.)

    I totally agree that playing in time with the groove is important.

    The topic of this discussion is about video productions that involve the same musician playing his or her own collection of instruments. The video presented included this. "Mandolin Lesson #7" is part of an online example of breathing technique. However my intent in showing it here did not endorse or support the quality of his video performance. As in the other videos I offered here show, it is an example of one person 'multi-tracking' video.

    For musicians, this presents another new skill to accomplish. And that is, How to produce a good multi-track video with precision?
    Last edited by DougC; Jan-15-2019 at 11:45am.
    Decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile

  11. #9
    Registered User foldedpath's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Pacific Northwest, USA
    Posts
    5,292

    Default Re: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

    Quote Originally Posted by DougC View Post
    How do all of your instruments sound together?
    I don't multitrack, I prefer the live players together in a room approach to recording. But as a thought experiment, "all my instruments" would be a difficult arrangement, because even after a big purge a few years ago, I still have too many guitars. Steel string acoustic, nylon string, and Dobro. And an octave mandolin that sits in almost the same pitch range.

    Too many instruments with similar timbres and pitch. My mandolin and "Irish" flute could ride on top of all that guitar/OM noise, and I have a djembe I could thump for the bottom end. But it would require some careful arranging to avoid instruments stepping on each other in that busy mid-range. Like too many guitar players showing up at an OldTime jam or Irish session.

  12. The following members say thank you to foldedpath for this post:

    DougC 

  13. #10

    Default Re: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

    I have made two albums of original music using many of my instruments, including multiple mandolin family instruments. On some tunes I mix them up so you can hear the individual timbres. Others have sections with a homogenous mandolin quartet sound.

    Here is the instrument list for the last album: voice, mandolin, mandola, mandocello, octofone, banjolin, tenor banjo, tenor guitar, guitar, electric guitar, dobro, melodica, electric piano, bass, kazoo, wind whistle, glockenspiel, vibraphone, wind chimes, finger cymbals, claves, shakers, vibraslap, tympani, drums.

  14. The following members say thank you to David L for this post:

    DougC 

  15. #11
    The Amateur Mandolinist Mark Gunter's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    South of Cleburne, North of Hillsboro, Texas
    Posts
    5,083

    Default Re: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

    DougC, I find the single artist multi-track work pretty interesting myself, and have tried it on several occasions with pretty limited success. I usually post my efforts in the videos & pictures forum, also sometimes in the song-a-week social group and sometimes in the Newbies social group.

    As far as a favorite, though, I don't have one single favorite person who does this. Rather, I have many favorite performances by various cafe members who post in the Song-A-Week social group. We have some very talented performers here who have been doing this for years. In that group, you can find very well produced multi-track performances as well as simple performances by newbies.

    Here is one of my own attempts, playing a 1949 Harmony Patrician and layering a Collings MT over it.



    There are many reasons that mine and so many others' attempts leave a lot to be desired. The ability to play with some precision and life is needed first, the ability to play in time with the recorded track is another, already alluded to. Then, there is the skill to overcome any latency in the multi-track system which also can mess up the timing and synchrony, and finally the skill to get a good mix. I enjoy working on these things and learning about them.
    WWW.THEAMATEURMANDOLINIST.COM
    ----------------------------------
    "Life is short. Play hard." - AlanN

    ----------------------------------
    HEY! The Cafe has Social Groups, check 'em out. I'm in these groups:
    Newbies Social Group | The Song-A-Week Social
    The Woodshed Study Group | Blues Mando
    - Advice For Mandolin Beginners
    - YouTube Stuff

  16. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Mark Gunter For This Useful Post:


  17. #12
    Registered User Kevin Stueve's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    Kansas
    Posts
    475

    Default Re: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

    guitar, mandolin and trombone, okay I'm going to need help with an arrangement :D
    2012 Weber Bitterroot F5.

  18. The following members say thank you to Kevin Stueve for this post:


  19. #13
    Registered User Gabriel Wiseman's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Marion NC
    Posts
    123

    Default Re: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?



    With today's equipment it's not too difficult to play around with stuff like this. Here are three of my instruments being played together. Basically used a Zoom H6 to capture the sound and a Zoom Q2n Video recorder to record the sound and video. Ran Headphone out from H6 into the aux in on the Q2n and just stacked the tracks on at a time.... by the time I recorded the last track (bass) the final video take (again bass) was catching all the audio from the other previously recorded tracks so i was done.... no mixing, editing at all on the audio side of things... just used iMovie to stack various video parts to make it a little more interesting.
    Gabriel Wiseman
    https://poplme.co/pmywrpAD
    www.jtrband.com
    Curt Mangan Strings

    2021 Duff 2 Point, 1947 Gibson J-50

  20. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Gabriel Wiseman For This Useful Post:

    DougCJess L. 

  21. #14
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    0.8 mpc from NGC224, upstairs
    Posts
    10,052

    Default Re: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

    I do this kind of virtual orchestra every now and then...

    the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world

  22. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Bertram Henze For This Useful Post:


  23. #15
    Registered User DougC's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Minneapolis, MN
    Posts
    1,870
    Blog Entries
    2

    Default Re: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

    Now after seeing how many instruments some of you have I guess I should say how do SOME of your instruments sound together?

    And now I don't feel so guilty for owing two mandolins, two violins, a mandola and a guitar. I don't think my wife will allow a new Octave Mandolin purchase with this new information. Ha, ha.

    I did find Ben Bosco's video. He really has the stuff synchronized. I wonder how he does it?

    Decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile

  24. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to DougC For This Useful Post:


  25. #16

    Default Re: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

    Quote Originally Posted by DougC View Post
    ... I did find Ben Bosco's video. He really has the stuff synchronized. I wonder how he does it?

    Nice tune. Seems like very precise playing, and also a good job of lining up the tracks.

    An aside though, I'm curious, for this tune - are all those instrument parts really necessary, or are some of the instruments playing a same or similar part? I can't tell without further study, but just a first impression, some of the bass hand-movements and guitar hand-movements look a little similar (would that be an octave apart or ??). I could be all wrong. If I were to ever try multi-tracking that, I'd be inclined to see if I could distill it down to fewer instruments... if that were possible and still have a similar sound. I found a listing on IMSLP, dunno if that's the same piece and/or which one of those (if any) would be the most applicable... will study up on it later if I can remember. Nice music, in any case.

  26. #17
    Registered User DougC's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Minneapolis, MN
    Posts
    1,870
    Blog Entries
    2

    Default Re: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

    Quote Originally Posted by JL277z View Post
    Nice tune. Seems like very precise playing, and also a good job of lining up the tracks.

    An aside though, I'm curious, for this tune - are all those instrument parts really necessary, or are some of the instruments playing a same or similar part? I can't tell without further study, but just a first impression, some of the bass hand-movements and guitar hand-movements look a little similar (would that be an octave apart or ??). I could be all wrong. If I were to ever try multi-tracking that, I'd be inclined to see if I could distill it down to fewer instruments... if that were possible and still have a similar sound. I found a listing on IMSLP, dunno if that's the same piece and/or which one of those (if any) would be the most applicable... will study up on it later if I can remember. Nice music, in any case.

    1. Let's see, I should know since our community orchestra played that piece last year. Without looking at the score for sure, there is first violin
    2. second violin
    3. violas
    4. cellos
    5. a bass

    And as you say, the guitar is doubling the bass part an octave up. And it looks like he just doubled some first and second mandolins to make it sound like an orchestra.

    In any case I think Ben Bosco really is good at computers as well as instruments. Amazing huh!

    He does some Bach as well as that Handel piece.


  27. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to DougC For This Useful Post:


  28. #18

    Default Re: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

    I don't any of them any more, but the Hillbilly Chamber Music link below will give you an idea of how they sounded together.
    2010 Heiden A5, 2020 Pomeroy oval A, 2013 Kentucky KM1000 F5, 2012 Girouard A Mandola w ff holes, 2001 Old Wave A oval octave
    http://HillbillyChamberMusic.bandcamp.com
    Videos: https://www.youtube.com/@hillbillychambermusic

  29. The following members say thank you to Don Grieser for this post:


  30. #19
    Registered User DougC's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Minneapolis, MN
    Posts
    1,870
    Blog Entries
    2

    Default Re: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

    Quote Originally Posted by Don Grieser View Post
    I don't {have} any of them any more, but the Hillbilly Chamber Music link below will give you an idea of how they sounded together.
    "It don't mean nothin, if I ain't got youuuuuu." Yea, nice sounding guitar and mandolin on that cut.
    Decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile

  31. #20

    Default Re: All of your instruments - how do they sound together?

    I did this recording of Dirty Old Town that involves a fairly large assortment of my instruments:
    Bruno Royal Artist electric mandola, Hora Irish bouzouki, Kentucky KM-156 mandolin, Ibanez SR506 bass, Thomann / Hora M1087P octave mandolin. I tried to match a picture of whatever instrument is taking the lead more or less at the point in the song.


Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •