Wonderful Land

[mick hearn]

I seem to be hogging the show of late so this is the last one. I've posted it at the request of Jiff as he said he would like to hear it.

There must be many steel players out there and yet we hear from very few of them. Come on lads - please post some. I for one am interested in how others would interpret various tunes. Come to think of it I have posted some crap, and the more I listen to them the more I am tempted to take them off YouTube - but having said that I did give it a go. Dave Hartley made a similar plea over a year ago. It does not matter how bad as there are some very talented and experienced players out there who could possibly give some tips. I for one have found where some of my technique is very bad and have hopefully improved on it. One is where I cut notes short lifting the bar and also applying a softer touch to picking. I've even found my old dunlop .15 picks and will probably stick to them.

I remember at Dave's last get together at Barnham and we were going through "Together Again". Derek Thurlby called out about my vibrato. It was too strong. I have to make an effort to watch for this all the time until I reach a stage where I don't have to think about it any more but it doe's take some concentration.

So - Come on lads.

Anyway back to the music

[Will C]

Nice choice, Mick. I love the old Shadows stuff. I'd almost be brave enough to post something if I could work out what to do about the sound because the camera sound is crap. Perhaps I should invest some time doing what DH suggested a while back, delete the camera sound in edit and dub over a better recording taken off the line out, or mike up the speaker. So much new stuff to learn...

[mick hearn]

Agree with you there mate. I wonder if you can take a line out from your recording system straight into the camera.

I must get a camera though Need one with a pull out screen so I can see whats going on. Got a camera that will do it but everything is behind the camera so cannot see the controls. Would have to start recording then sit down and play and hope it comes out. This is why at the moment I do everything as audio.

You are right about the amount of material out there - difficult to know what to do next.

I had to grin to myself - when the Youtube video finished, the selection of other videos comes up and I hit Zane King playing "I'll Fly Away." Think I'll give up now!!!!. I should think that fact alone would put a lot of newbies off rather than build up their confidence.

[David Hartley]

I liked that Mick.

Guys, just try recording the steel on a separate device while making the camcorder video, save as an .mp3 and if it sounds good, then when you import the video on the computer, delete the audio track that the camcorder made, and replace it with your .mp3 file. It's sometimes best to zoom in on the video timeline to exactly match your playing, or match it with the camcorder audio .wav. (Before you delete it). You don't need leads, inputs or outputs from the camera. Give it a go.

[Jif]

Love it Mick, sounds great

I was wondering how you were going to get the staccato bit but you've covered that with some nice harmonies. Think I might have a go at Atlantis.

Yeah, I get the same thing with a Zane King number coming on as the next movie, same reaction as you, why am I bothering but I tell myself that it doesn't really matter where you are in the pecking order, it's what you get out of it yourself that matters. Having said that, I wish I could play like that

My grand kids destroyed the pull out screen on my video camera, so I'm having to use the viewfinder to set it up then just go with it. I record the pedal steel into the PC, I use Cubase but any multi-track audio recorder program would do it. I mix the backing and the PS into a master file, then edit the video replacing the camera audio with the master audio file. Takes a wee bit of synchronising to get audio & video right, also worth making sure that the master file is the same specifications as the video audio, i.e. 48Khz 16 bit.

I guess you could record the whole mix into the ext. input on the camera, just need to get levels right. Also there is usually some sort of compression/expansion circuit on video cameras which will alter the dynamics but hey if it works, why not

[mick hearn]

Thanks Jiff. Definately have a go at Atlantis - It should work a treat.

As for Dave's idea - Why didn't I think of that. May daughter has already done that with a live gig for the Air Ambulance that was recorded. She got the noise in the club at the start of the number and then panned across to the recording and back again for the ending. As a duo we were using a backing track from the original recording that's why it worked. I'll give you the link which is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbVpmdFiiYo. Not country but that Gretsch guitar always sounds good.