phpied.com

(if you see this in a RSS reader, come to the page to hear the music)

(Now that I got this Starcaster and also completed the first 5 chapters of the new book) Yesterday, I was wondering how I can record some music, so I searched for open-source sound recorder and came across this beautiful application called Audacity (French word for "courage", didn't know it existed in English).

Anyway, last time I've tried music editing software was yeeeears ago and they looked pretty intimidating. Audacity is nothing like this, it's so easy to get started. I just started the program, hit the big red "record" button and recorded away. Just as easy as Windows Sound Recorder. But! When I wasn't happy with what I recorder and hit "record" again, it played my previous junk but was recording on another track. How cool is that?! So easy to mix. Now I record something, then record again while listening with headphones to the previous thing.

I don't have any special equipment, so I just use the laptop's built-in microphone. Since those microphones amplify and therefore distort, I do a little trick. I play load (take that, neighbors!) and set the microphone level in Audacity to almost zero. The result is not too shabby for an amateur recording if you ask me. I do have an amp, no bigger than any average self-respected Java book, it was in the same package with the guitar.

So here goes. My take on Stevie Ray Vaughan's take on Jimi Hendrix' Little Wing intro - about 40 seconds.

Little Wing

Now if you feel brave, try the next piece. The theme is somewhat distantly loosely based on what I remember of a song called "Que Que Ha?" by Joe Pass. In this case I recorder the rhythm first then tried improvising some sort of a - for a lack of a better word, let's call it - solo on top. Didn't like the result, so tried again. Thought first time was definitely better. At this point the kids were finishing their bath so I had to forget about further recordings. Later on I tried playing both solos together - horrible, horrible idea. But then I moved (it's trivial with Audacity) the first solo to the left speaker and the second to the right. And here's the result. I suggest that if, for whatever unhealthy reason, you decide to listen to the next piece, do use the headphones. Otherwise it really is a handful, er, earful. Plus people around you will appreciate it, I assure you. Good luck!

Que Que Ha?

Ah, yeah and the nice player you use to hear these MP3s is the Yahoo! Media Player, which you can integrate on every page.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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