mark skinner

Hello , here's a pretty short one just trying to find my way around on my lap steel. It's a sparce mix with 2 lap steel tracks, bass and drums. I'm trying to figure out how to get a pedal steel sound without having any string benders . I think I got it in a couple of passages. I think the next one I build will be short scale so I can slant the slide bar. Thanks for the listen and any suggestions or comments. mark https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=15002022

Powerful song and production ! Great lyrics Ed .. Enjoyed it .. ms

Waves just offered a free bundle with a convolution reverb included. No idea if it is Jaws compatable though. Good Luck .. mark

Fantastic song Barry. Very honest. It sure is nice to hear your unmistakable and intimate voice again. Your ballads always sound like you are singing directly to the listener. I really liked the remix. It seems the harmony really came through and boosted the parts. Nice cello and guitar as well. Loved it .. on a side note , it was nice to have you and @Kevin Walsh back on the same page .. ms

Kevin , your hearing may have degraded some , but your voice sure hasn't ! Great job on the vocals. I love the way you hold notes out without using much vibrato. Very nice guitar tone as well . I thought it fit nicely. Enjoyed it . ms

This used to happen to me if I got "too fast" at stopping the recording then hitting the space bar again to play the take. ??

@T Boog , Thanks for the compliments and Great suggestions. I probably will try another "Swampy" one later. My biggest problem right now is just playing the thing. That was my first attempt and don't know the neck yet , ecpecially in an open tuning. I believe it's my first song not using a standard guitar in a song at all. I'll probably use the lap steel for backing against a standard guitar in the next one. I have relatives in Lafayette and have spent some time there in vodoo country. Before he passed my uncle was a chiropractor there and sometimes traded work for learning voodoo practices from some of the older patients. He had some interesting stories. ms

Thanks to "Everyone" who listened and commented on this one. Sorry to @garybrun, @hsmusic , @treesha , @Larry T. , @Marshall , @Mr No Name , @freddy j. I thought I had responded back , but apparently I didn't. I'm calling this one done but.. I've been working on it All week playing with my own mastering . I'm normally happy with mine until I get an impressive one from Gary. Always a Lot to learn. Thanx , mark

Very Interesting thread .. I too am in the habit of cleaning my hands with Dawn dish liquid every morning before I leave my house to go to my barn studio. It does seem to help. I remember when I was doing duo acoustic gigs , I would completely kill a set of strings after a weekend gig. I didn't like the coated strings as they already sounded dull to me but probably would have held up better. I played D'Adarrio forever , but I have recently changed to Martins that have Really improved the sound of a few of my less than steller instruments. Not able to give a string description at the moment. Regardless of what strings you use , wipe them down with a string cleaner . Back them off one at a time until they flop. Leave them for there for about 10 sec , wipe them back down again . tune back up and they will come back to life. ms

This sounds Great. I Love the laid back feel of this one. Nice reverb on the vox. Enjoyed it .. mark

Try selecting your Melodyne "rendered" clip and bounce it to "clips" first , before further editing.

Not sure about how to correct your situation . You could always duplicate your guitar track without the previous guitar takes and leave melodyne out of the fx bin. Use melodyne as a "region effect" instead. Do your new take , render it , bounce it to clips and drag it to your original track. I've found using melodyne as a region effect is always the better option. Using "sound on sound" also speeds things up for me having to do so many re-takes. ms

Hello , I recently finished building a cigarbox style lap steel. This is my first attempt at playing and recording it. I'm pretty slow with it and not used to using a slide. Hopefully some trickier stuff will come later.. Regardless of how you feel about the lyrics , feedback and suggestions for improvement would be nice . I'm getting pretty fed up .. https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=14974880

Peter , I always get excited when you post a new one. I Love the way you "sing" with your guitars.. Fantastic production. ms

Loved it ! Yes , that sounded like it was a "blast" to play . You kept the energy up and had some really cool changes. Nice chicken pickin .. Fantastic Job ! ms

Thanks , @David Baay I'll give that a try. I've actually never worked with channel tools . My mixes are normally so busy I don't do stereo guitars. I get the results I want using seperate L/R mono tracks. I keep planning on doing a simple single guitar/vocal song but , it always eludes me not knowing how to properly treat the guitar. I used to do a lot of solo gigs. I hope it didn't sound as bad as it does now when I attempt one .. ms

tdehan , If you want the mono track to actually "sound" like a stereo track , check out "converting any mono track to stereo" in the tutorials section. I rececntly tried it with Fantastic results. ms

@T Boog, @equality , @Bajan Blue , @Paul Bush Thanks guys for the listen and further comments. I Really appreciate it. @Wookiee , Thanks .. It sure is nice to have you back ! The link now reflects a new master by Gary Brun. To me it's Very solid and glued together nicely. Thanks Gary .. Moving on .. I just finished building a lap steel. All I have to do now is learn how to play it.. Thank You All .. ms

Hey , SubVibe I Really like this one. I Love the thickness of the lead vox and the range she's singing in. Take a look at 041 , 058 , and 2:49. Sounds like the very beginning of her words are cut off. At 058 it's more feeling it rather than hearing it but , the other two are pretty glitchy. Enjoyed it .. ms

That was pretty cool Michael. I've been wondering how you could use an AI program like this to generate just a female harmony vocal ?

@treesha , @KSband , @equality , @T Boog Thank You for the listens and comments and suggestions. The link now reflects a remix trying to address the issues in your comments. I've tried to settle the guitars down some with automation and a few cuts and fades. I also side chained them to the piano getting them out of the way a little more. I slightly boosted the piano and cleaned some notes up. Bass guitar was boosted and crash cymbol replaced. I also backed all the reverbs off. I still feel as if it's missing "something" and is a little too contemporary . I'll get away from it for a few days and see what hits me afterwards. Let me know what I missed . Thanks .. mark

Hello , here's an instrumental (for now) I'm finishing up. The guitar parts have been written for a Long time but I've never gotten around to finishing the song. I pecked around on a piano synth to get some of the melody going and may address vocals later if I think it's worth the effort. Any suggestions would be helpful at this point. Thanks for the listen .. mark -remix 1- https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=14961392

Bruce , Fantastic ! I Love the rhythm of the intro guitar and also the one in the break. Perfect timing and just the right amount of FX. It sounds like it would be pretty easy to replicate but .. I sure have'nt been able to lock it in that tight. Well written and and the "perfect" time to release it. There's sure been a lot of Smoke and Lies lately from my side of the border. Enjoyed it .. ms

If you do a remix at some point , I think I would treat the guitar differently. Maybe just a reverb ? I built an adaptor to hook the bagpipes to an air tank. I had trouble with the pressure release valve and almost exploded them. Now they are just wall art with the other things I can't play. ms

Thanks everybody for the listens and Great comments and suggestions. It took a while to get it to the point where I'm ready to surrender. Special thanks to @garybrun for another Great mastering job. Later .. mark