Blanketfort Studio Journal: DIY Recording for fun and, uh... fun?

I'm doing some bare-bones acoustic recordings of my songs to get rich and famous, I was looking around at my setup laughing and thought maybe others might find this funny and/or useful


8:00 am PST


Step1 build giant blanket fort in living room, assure wife it will just be for a few days and make sure nobody is coming over.

Step 2 Make sure Audrey Hepburn can see inside to provide spiritual guidance and retro-mojo

 Step 3 Re-confiscate the macbook from kids and spend the usual countless hours hooking stuff up and trying to remember how to make Pro-Tools work.
--attn gear geeks top to bottom: RNC 1773 compressor, digi 003 rack, lexicon MX400 reverb, vintech x73i mic preamp (neve clone), empirical labs EL8 distressor, AT 8441 condenser mic, CAD pencil condenser mic

Step 4 a couple of mics on the guitar and a comfy pillow because your gonna be there awhile. Notebook of all the lyrics you forgot.

Step 5 run a feed out to the entryway and through a 65 fender champ, it's important to counter all that sterile sounding digital recording equipment with some good-old fashioned tubes and noise.

--attn gear geeks top to bottom: 65' fender champ hot-rodded by amp guru Mike Lull in Seattle. Shure SM57, art tube MP mic preamp and fender "65 reverb deluxe" stompbox for reverb and tremelo. 

Step 6 remove collar from dog and pray for no cats/mailmen/solicitors

Step 7 Overhead room mic to capture that glorious, wood-floored, vaulted-ceiling entryway sound. Open adjacent bathroom door to capture a little porcelain resonance.

Step 8 Blanket that noisy thermostat that keeps buzzing in a non-musical way (now if it was a tube-driven thermo we might have some lo-fi magic there!)

1 pm PST Congratulations, you are now ready to make musical history! Better do it in 1 take though, the kids will be home in 2 hours.

  

I'll follow up this post with a link to the resultant recording which hopefully should come out simultaneously crystal clear and warm/fuzzy.

Say Hello to my Ghost.m4v

The Grail of the Sultan

Now that I've got a couple of solo acoustic shows behind me I'm setting sights on:
1. Memorizing some covers for my PlanB gig this weekend
2. getting ready for the Eagertones reunion
3. Recording some base tracks for some new acoustic demos

The covers I find are a great way to just stay practiced on guitar-manship and vocals.
Many of the songs I will interpret the solos in my own way.
But some of them I am trying to reproduce note-for-note as a kind of academic exercise.
And I'm learning a lot from doing "brown-eyed girl" "allright now" and cake's "I will survive" by the book.
The holy grail though, is Dire Straits "sultans of swing"
This song is a bit like a video game where the first few verses are easy, by the time you get to the 4th verse,  you've unlocked the next level (first solo)
and it just gets harder right up until the second solo (boss level)

Justin Vandercoe's youtube tutorials have been immensely helpful as I have little patience for sheet music and tabs.

Another challenge with trying to do it perfectly is all the little mini riffs and how they respond to what's going on in the lyrics, and the tricky arrangement with it's shortened verses and stuff.

So I came up with a color-coded cheat sheet to accompany Jusin's videos and tabs that may be of some use to those of you also trying to nail "The Grail of the Sultan" (see below)

If you really want to hear something that will make you want to throw your guitar away listen to the live version of "sultans"    Knopfler is ridiculous!!!!

sultans cheat sheet:

bos blues riff? bos = Don Henley "Boys of summer"  learn that one for this basic form.

 

intro - 2x double str slide + bos blues + flamenco arpeggio up/down

VERSE ONE - south of the river (outside)

get a shiver in the dark

get your rainin in the part but meantime

*single bend*

south of the river you stop and you hold everything

*6th single double stop*

a band is blowin dixie double four time 

*riff one*

You feel alright when you hear the music ring

*bos blues riff* *riff two*

*bos blues slide up sub*  - abbreviated verse lead in

VERSE TWO -  faces (inside)

and now you step inside but you don't see too many faces

* 6th double stop descending*

comin' in out of the rain you hear the jazz go down

*descending arpeggio variation 1*

competition in other places

*riff one*

but the horns, they blowin' that sound

*high two string variation*

*riff two*

way on down south

* riff two*

way on down south, london town

*riff one* *high answer* *riff one* *blues out*

VERSE THREE - meet george

check out guitar george, he knows all the chords

*slide up rockabilly jazz chords*

but it's strictly rhythym he doesn't wanna make it cry or sing

*tricky bend*

they say an all guitar is all he can afford

*sad spaniard*

when he gets up under the lights to play his thing

*high single string variation 2*

*riff two* *bos blues sub* - abbreviated verse again

VERSE FOUR - meet harry

and harry doesn't mind if he doesn't make the scene

*train bend*

he's got a day time job he's doin alright

*arpeggio variation 2 medium-high*

he can play the honky tonk like anything

*riff one*

savin it up for friday night

*bos blues descending trail*

*riff 2*

with the sultans 

*riff  2*

with the sultans of swing

*riff 1* *high answer* *riff 1* *blues out*

VERSE FIVE - the boys in the corner

then a crowd of young boys their foolin around in the corner

*weeping bend*

drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies and their platform soles

*arpeggio variation 3 highest* *train bend*

they don't give a damn about any trumpet playin' band

*sad spaniard*

it ain't what they call rock and roll

*bos blues variation 3*

*riff 2*

then the sultans

*riff 2*

then the sultans play creole

*riff 1*  *high answer*  creole baby *riff 1* *blues out*

solo 1 (easier)

VERSE SIX - closing time

*riff 1* *high answer* *riff 1* *blues out*

then the man he steps right up to the microphone

*6th double stop ascending*

says at last he says the time bell ring

*alarm riff*

goodnight now it's time to go home

*sad spaniard*

then they say fast just one more thing

*bos blues variation 4*

*riff 2*

we are the sultans

*riff 2*

we are the sultans of swing

*riff one* *high answer* *riff one* *blues out*

solo 2 (super hard)

out