Some of Pat's Tunes for You

P

Pat Anderson

New member
Absolutely nothing to do with C-Dorys except some of you have heard me playing my ocarina across the water at Friday Harbor!

Friday afternoon I recorded a new (old) tune, Si Beagh Si Mhor, by Turlough O'Carolan (1670 - 1738), not on the ocarina but on my high D whistle and guitar. To me, Si Beagh Si Mohr is one of the most perfect melodies ever composted. I honestly think this is the best recording I have ever made, I would love to hear what you folks think! Listen on Soundcloud.

Here is a link to all my tracks on Soundcloud. I am having a blast playing and recording these tunes! Galway Girl, a Steve Earle - Sharon Shannon tune, was the most fun for me, because I attempted to (gulp) sing as well as playing whistle, guitar and mandolin, and well, listening to it, I was not embarrassed!

You really need to use headphones or a decent speaker because laptop speaker don't reproduce the guitar part well at all.
 
Pat Anderson":1ytgmmub said:
Absolutely nothing to do with C-Dorys except some of you have heard me playing my ocarina across the water at Friday Harbor!
You really need to use headphones or a decent speaker because laptop speaker don't reproduce the guitar part well at all.
Click to expand...

Well, you're wrong about that. I think the composition, the ocarina, and your playing fit the C-Dory exactly. It's beautifully simple and a joy to the senses. I kind of wish it were in a forum other than "That's Life" so all who pass this way could enjoy it.
 
Pat, I enjoyed all of the tracks--was that you singing on Galway Girl? If so, I have to disagree with Bill. The "hangers on" enjoyed several concerts by Pat at Powell mostly on his ocarina.

Did you lay down the guitar track first? What recording instrument are your using?

You inspired me to try some of those type songs on my hammered dulcimers. I suspect that the hammer dulcimer was probably used to play many of Turlough O'Carolan's compositions in the Isles.

It is always fun to see the many other talents of the C Brat community!
 
So, maybe DaNag can change "composted" to "composed"! Dang! On the other hand, I imagine ole Turlough probably is pretty well composted by now...

Yes, it was me singing on Galway Girl. Just for fun, not a regular thing!

Technical aspects of my recordings: I record on a 2011 MacBook Pro using Audacity recording software for the multitracking, and a Sampson GO mic, which is a slick little USB condenser mic. I always lay down a count-in track that gets muted in the end so I know where the pickup notes and downbeats are. I listen to the recorded track(s) while recording the next track(s) through Sampson headphones, inexpensive but much better than earbuds. The first musical track is almost always some kind of fairly simple guitar strum, whjich helps with both rhythm and pitch. After that I add whatever other instruments are involved, usually an ocarina or Irish whistle. I frequently add a second guitar track as the last musical track, usually some kind of finger picking or flat picking. I'm waiting for the right vehicle to use my washboard!

Sometimes I do a backing track in MuseScore, a music notation program that has audio playback that I capture in Audacity. The Dark Island has a MuseScore backing track. Sometimes I add a guitar track to the MuseScore track. Simple Gifts has a MuseScore backing track and a guitar track.

The next step is to listen and adjust the relative volume of each track, making sure the melody is the most prominent track and turning the first guitar track down, then adjusting any other tracks as seems appropriate. I usually also add some mild reverb or other effects, for which I use Reaper. I have to watch out not to over-do the effects. I have already been told the reverb was too heavy in Si Beagh Si Mhor. Effects can be done in Audacity but I understand how to control the effects in Reaper better than Audacity. The final step is to render to a WAV file, could be an MP3 as well, but I like WAV files for uploads to SoundCloud.

So that is pretty much it! I enjoy it a lot!

thataway":2oosrtrr said:
Pat, I enjoyed all of the tracks--was that you singing on Galway Girl? If so, I have to disagree with Bill. The "hangers on" enjoyed several concerts by Pat at Powell mostly on his ocarina.

Did you lay down the guitar track first? What recording instrument are your using?

You inspired me to try some of those type songs on my hammered dulcimers. I suspect that the hammer dulcimer was probably used to play many of Turlough O'Carolan's compositions in the Isles.

It is always fun to see the many other talents of the C Brat community!
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Pat. A lot more to it that is apparent on the surface--just sit down and turn the recorder on…not! I can see that a lot of thought (and fun) went into the production!

Certainly some food for thought, and great ideas.
 
Thanks, Marty! Get your bench at Snoqualmie Point while you can still enjoy it! I will come down for the installation / dedication! You are just one of my all-time favorite people! I love the pix of us in our 16s at Coulon Park!

dotnmarty":2y6acbwl said:
Pat Anderson":2y6acbwl said:
Absolutely nothing to do with C-Dorys except some of you have heard me playing my ocarina across the water at Friday Harbor!
You really need to use headphones or a decent speaker because laptop speaker don't reproduce the guitar part well at all.
Click to expand...

Well, you're wrong about that. I think the composition, the ocarina, and your playing fit the C-Dory exactly. It's beautifully simple and a joy to the senses. I kind of wish it were in a forum other than "That's Life" so all who pass this way could enjoy it.
Click to expand...
 
Like a lot of things, this is actually more difficult to describe than to do! The hard part is getting the playing right, Patty remembers one particularly difficult session, don't recall the tune, when I said something like "Take three thousand four hundred twenty-eight." I was exaggerating of course!

thataway":2rtn0pb6 said:
Thanks Pat. A lot more to it that is apparent on the surface--just sit down and turn the recorder on…not! I can see that a lot of thought (and fun) went into the production!

Certainly some food for thought, and great ideas.
Click to expand...
 
I actually made a YouTube of The Dark Island with photos of Scotland from the internet. The photo permissions said allowed for any purpose with attribution. Great photos! The apparent motion is the Ken Burns effect added with Final Cut Pro.

I wish C-Brats had the [flash][/flash] tags for embedding YouTube videos!

See it here.
 
Hi Pat,

Very nice playing and singing!

I am not sure what happened with the link to all your posts on Soundcloud but I just got some rap music. The other links worked fine.

I am envious of your multiple talents - several instruments and singing - and it all sounds great. I have been taking Blues harmonica lessons for a couple of years and it takes a lot of practice. I understand when you say take 3876.

Keep having fun,
Steve
 
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