Fun Day Recording at Studio 16

My good friend Kenny Innis was up to visit me on Sunday afternoon (March 9) and we had a good time playing around with the new recording software (Adobe Audition) and M-Audio Delta 44 sound cards that I purchased shortly after Christmas.

The purpose of this session was to give the software its first test drive and to determine the sound quality I could expect. I used an MXL 2003 large diaphram condenser microphone and Kenny used my Martin HD28P guitar to play an instrumental tune that he wrote.

I experimented a bit by placing the microphone at various distances and angles from the guitar to determine what effect each would have on the final sound quality. We did the recording in my living room. Although not a perfect studio setup, I think the room was fairly well suited (acoustically) for the task with its 12 foot cathedral ceiling and open end on one wall.

I was extremely pleased with the results we obtained and I'm looking forward to recording a jam session similar to the way the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band recorded their third Will The Circle Be Unbroken CD in an open environment with everyone in the same room. I've got some ideas as to how I might (for the most part) isolate the instruments from one another so as to be able to mix the various instruments at the proper levels on the mixdown track. I guess we'll see how that works out in the future. Right now, it's just one big experiment.

During our visit we played around with another tune we've been working on called I Corinthians 1:18 written by Ricky Skaggs. I really like this medium tempo tune that Ricky says came to him while he was reading his bible. I'll give you one guess as to which book, chapter and verse he may have been reading when the melody came to him?

Kenny has put in a considerable amount of time on this tune, ensuring every slide, hammer-on and choke is in the right place on the mandolin parts. Truth be told, when I first asked Kenny to learn the tune with me, I didn't think he would put the required amount of time in, but he certainly did and I know he has learned a lot from mastering this tune. Thanks Kenny, and I'm sorry that I had doubts regarding your commitment level. Experience has shown me that the majority of people talk a lot, but seldom follow through with any action. And you know the old saying - actions speak louder than words.

In fact, this time it was me that was delaying the action part. After Kenny learned his parts, I knew I had to follow through with the banjo parts. The first few times I tried to learn the banjo parts were very disappointing for me; it seemed like it would be a near impossible task learning the new hand movements required. For any normal person, I think the hand movements are simple, but I don't have the best left hand dexterity in the world. Anyway, one day last week I tackled the job again and the pieces started to fall in place for me. I Corinthians 1:18 is one of those tunes that is full of emotion and it must be played with a lot of feeling in order to get it to sound good.

The Bluegrass Widow witnessed Kenny and I playing I Corinthians 1:18 and gave us a thumbs up. No doubt she is a little biased, but for the most part I trust and appreciate her comments. She knows what I'm about regarding my desire to hear the truth - I can handle it. I'm not implying we've got it down perfect - we don't, but it's coming along quite nicely and I'm pleased with our progress. We now have to seek out a fiddle player and a guitar player to round out this tune.

As for the tune that Kenny recorded, my job is to learn the chord progression and come up with a banjo break. I have an idea of what I'd like to do, but just how many months it will take to conquer the task remains to be seen. The tune is in A minor - oh, the perfect banjo key - NOT!

I hope your musical endeavors are proving to be as much fun as mine are at this time. Of course, I'm hot and cold with my musical undertakings; it was just two weeks ago that I was part of a jam session that I'm sure was delivered straight from Hell. That wasn't fun.

Keep pickin' and keep it Bluegrass!