HMHS 216 - Not Famous Dave the Gear Head (8/31/14)

[tonyoci]

http://www.homemadehitshow.com

Dave returns !!!!

Discussion of plugins and tools:

Songs from

• The Actor - Les Cotton and Pete Rand
  Won't Ever Run - David Cooper
  Home - Dave Criddle
  Home - Grandma Melonhead
  I Got the Sun Shining Down on Me - Dave King

Some Links (check http://www.homemadehitshow.com for the links)

• Home Recording Weekly
  Sampletron - Mellotron Sampler
  Elektrostuio Free Arp Synth
  Free Arppe2600va Arp Synth
  Seymour Duncan Phat Cat replacement Pickup
  Rondo Isis Guitar

Please note that all the songs played so far were sent prior to the recent request. If you've sent something in then please be patient.

[Zoetrope]

The Actor - Les Cotton and Pete Rand
Wow, great show opener. I love the energy, the mix, and the song. Firing on all cylinders.

Guest host Dave Criddle is almost as good as that guy who used to do the show.

The iPad? Underpowered? Imagine that.


Synths. Love 'em, but I find the real deal more fun than the virtual versions, even with an interface. Nothing like the real thing.

Won't Ever Run - David Cooper
Won't Ever Run? I was expecting a song about my old Pinto.

More gear talk. Plugins. Singing with a tablet and glasses. And yes, it's true, I will never be as famous as Famous Patrick.

Home - Dave Criddle
Recording a song is the second best thing you can do in the back seat of a minivan.
Great bluesy song

Home - Grandma Melonhead
I love this version too. No surprise there, I'm a long time Melonhead fan. I love that he cut and pasted the solo.

Dave joined AARP? And so did Devo. Cool.
Dave imitates the sound of his organ at home.

I Got the Sun Shining Down on Me - Dave King
Motown sound. Real horns definitely make a difference. Sounds great.

Great show as always gents. Nice to have you both back in the saddle.

[Jeffster]

Great show. Enjoyed all the gear talk in-between the songs.
Song reviews:
1. Good sound. I think the vocal could use a little boost with a doubling of the last note of a phrase.
2. A good one to flow with.
3. Can I say, Rolling Stones meets Beatles - sort of a Mick sounding singing style with a Beatles style arrangement?
4. Sounded good, but they had me at #3.
5. The horns are totally cool and professional sounding (Sort of an "Ain't too proud to beg, sweet darling..." sound going on here). So, this one is missing the background singers...otherwise, radio ready.

[famouspatrick]

The Actor - Les Cotton and Pete Rand: Nice minor key tune, well sung, well recorded, and liked the guitar tone. Very pleasant listen.

Nice to hear Dave back in the saddle. And I’m glad to hear that you’re talking about continuing the show.

IOS recording: I like playing around with music on the iPad, but I just can’t get into trying to record on the damn thing. Dave does a lot of good stuff on it.

Rondo guitars: I absolutely love that Rondo Tele – way better than my Squier Strat. I still mostly use Gibsons and I like the humbuckers, but when I want a single coil sound, that Rondo Tele is great! Lotsa jangle, and plays well. It needed a bit of setup, but nothing radical, so I could handle it myself.

Won't Ever Run - David Cooper: I like the song and the arrangement. The recording is a bit muddy and mushy, but I like the vocal being out front.

Dave’s toys: He’s always got cool plugins and toys, and he knows how to use them.
It’s good to hear that more people are playing live. I’m getting the itch to do it again, but I’m thinking more of house concerts.

Home - Dave Criddle: Being alone in the backseat of a minivan will tend to make one feel a bit down. Definitely channeling the Stones there-got that lo fi vibe going. Bass could be up a little more, but I did the RPM this year, and I know that getting the mixes perfect is pretty much impossible, at least for me.

Home - Grandma Melonhead: Interesting take, as usual from da GM. Nice bass & dig the delay; recording quality is super!

Dave digs the Arp: The music store I worked at in the late 70’s / early 80's carried Arp products. They had the best string synth (the Omni) & their guitar synth, the Avatar, was used a lot by Todd Rundgren on Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell album. For me, Sonar comes with a lot of synths that seem to work just fine, so I use them.

I Got the Sun Shining Down on Me - Dave King: Nice Motown vibe there – some BG VOX and you could be the Temps! Great voice, and great recording.

[Rocles]

Good to have HMHS back...and thanks for the Play, guys Thanks to for all comments...Tony mentioned my Guitar tone...its a "virtual" AC30, bit of Reverb, on an Epiphone Les Paul, thru the Toneport...thats it. Tone attached for those who want to try it

[tonyoci]

I'll try it, bet it doesn't sound the same with me playing it though

[The Cracks]

Listening now...

I'm just going to listen to the shows without much comment as I used to. Making long comments became a chore and it started taking away from enjoying the show.

Good to have HMHS back.

(It is an honor and fun having one of your songs covered and, in my case at least, it is always an improvement over the original. )

[GeeJay]

Really enjoying the return of the HMHS guys, I hope you are enthused enough to keep going I've been listening to the show whilst running and it takes some of the pain away

As I said to Tony I'm not really doing anything musical at the moment but listening to the show is starting to make my fingers twitch, if you know what I mean.....

Great to hear Dave again - but don't take any s**t from Tony about your gear and plugin lust - I for one enjoying hearing about that stuff

Look forward to next show.

Gary

[lucas]

Good show. Nice to see the dynamic duo return.

I spent some time a couple of years back changing pickups in my Squire strats.
It does change the sound. I bought crunchy humbuckers from Guitar Fetish for the first strat and some American Strat single coils, pots and 5-way switch from eBay for the second strat.

Going from 3 single coils to two humbuckers was an obvious change in sound for the first guitar. It won't make it sound like a Les Paul or an SG, but it was good sound with a lot of choices for tone.
On the second guitar, l like I said, it does change the sound, but the thing I noticed with this upgrade was that the guitar was easier and more fun to play. I could get close to the same tone with the stock single coils, but it felt like a bit of a struggle compared to the better pickups.
If you don't like to solder or have a friend who does, you're better off just comparing in music store.

Thanks for the show!

[Dave King]

:-)

[voclizr]

The Actor-Cotton & Rand-
Great tune. Love the intensity. Congrats to both parties.

Sounding good, Dave! Great to hear you back.

Won't Ever Run-Dave Cooper-
Nice tune and great flow. Vocal track could use some enhancement of some kind.

Home-Dave Criddle:
You sound a bit like Jagger on the vocs, Dave!

Home-Granny Melonhead
Granny sounds even more like Jagger!

Thanks for the Arp link!!

I Got The Sun Shining Down On Me-Dave King:
Neat tune! Love the horns and the Motown feel. Captured that great! I use Garritan JABB 3 for my horns. Really love 'um! That fadeout is very pro!! Nice work!

[Wolfini]

Yup, I listened too and thoroughly enjoyed it!

Great songs. I was especially impressed how that cover version of "home" took it into a new direction while still staying true to the original. Which - considering the topic - worked very well in that lo fi version as well.

Since I am also a gearhead and constantly on the lookout for new cool gadgets and plugins I liked that part too, though I can't imagine recording on an Ipad (or wanting to...). Well, I am more of an Android guy anyways, but still. ;-)

Looking forward to the next one,

Bye Wolfi

[Grandma Melonhead]

I'm very pleased that HMHS is back. Please keep it up guys.
Lots of really strong songs in these 2 episodes.

Nice energy on "the Actor".
"Won't Ever Run" reminded me of a tones song somehow. The melody?
Great horns on "I Got the Sun Shining Down on Me"! Fantastic recording and song.

I hadn't heard the original version of "Home" since I recorded my version over 2 years ago. Really nice! The thing that attracted me to the song originally was Dave's singing on it. I realize this was recorded and mixed really quickly, but one piece of mix advice I would offer would be to restore the dynamics to the guitars. Its too sparse of a mix to have that much compression on the them, and it flattens it a bit.

For my version I went as far as I could go to make it sonically radio friendly. When I finished I was both proud and ashamed.

To address the mystery of the Santa Cruz Rondo:
I ordered the tele online from ireland and had it sent to a california address. This is a common trick for us europeans.

I as well love my rondo tele. I got one with a P90 in the back. I love that sound.
I'm gonna put a 4 way switch on it so I can have the 2 pickups in series. Its kinda half way to a humbucker. I'm also gonna put on a phase switch. With the pickups in series, out-of-phase sounds great. (in parallel it sounds too plinky for me).

I agree about the ipad. I've never understood the appeal of the things. To me, they are just low power/low ability laptops that are missing the keyboard and are awkward to prop up. But I understand I am well in the minority on this!

--Grandma Melonhead

[fastcakes]

Welcome back guys!

I have sent a song over to you (under Fast Cakes).

Look forward to many more episodes of HMHS!