Hoodoo Voodoo Jam

While many of our friends are gearing up for the trek to Minneapolis, I thought I'd start somethin' to keep the rest of us busy while we wait for the reports to come in!

The recent "Videos of YOU!" thread has inspired me. One of the many cool things about the internet is all of the amazing relationships and collaborations that can come out of a place of common interest like this one. Technology makes it possible for all of us that are musicians (or just have musical aspirations, like me) to play together! So let's have a jam session! Level of experience or instrument doesn't matter - everybody's got something to contribute, and we might get some awesome results. I'll post this at the Gretschpages too to see if anyone else wants in, they have a large pool of players of all sorts of instruments.

To get the ball rolling, I've laid down vocal tracks for "Sweet Love on My Mind" (of course) and "Stray Cat Strut" (following on from the videos thread.) Now all I need is you!

What you need to participate:

1. An instrument or singing voice (and any necessary amplification)
2. A microphone
3. A computer
4. A software audio recorder/editor - you can get a very good free one here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
(I use Adobe Audition, but that's cause I always have. I haven't used Audacity in many years, so if you get stuck, best to consult the online help.)

How it works:

Download, upload your own, or make a request.
- Download one of my tracks and record your accompaniment (see links below). I'll add more vocal tracks for other songs if this takes off.
- Or, upload your own recording for the rest of us to play/sing along with. You'll need somewhere to host files, such as rapidshare or similar. Or you can email them to me and I'll host them - ahazelwood at gmail dot com
- Or, post a request in this thread if there's a particular song you want to play/sing or someone in particular you want to jam with.

If you download an existing track, be sure to record your accompaniment as a completely separate track, so that it can be mixed and matched with others. In other words, don't mix my vocal and your guitar into one track, because then nobody else can sing along with your guitar if they want to! (instructions on multitrack recording in Audacity here) Another simple way to do it is just to listen to the existing track on an iPod or mp3 player through headphones while recording your accompaniment directly into your computer - just make sure the mic doesn't pick up any bleed through from your headphones.

If you record the "first" track for a song (as opposed to accompanying an existing track), PLEASE BE SURE TO USE A METRONOME! (or as I did, sing/play with the original recording in your headphones to provide timing cues). Also, please count us in, and let us know the key if it isn't the same as the original!

For the sake of ease, please post all audio as mp3, preferably high quality (44.1kHz, 128kbps mono or 44.1kHz, 256kbps or higher stereo)

Feel free to create your own final mixes from all the tracks I'm hoping will be posted here. We may have 6 different guitar, 3 vocals, two basses, a sax and 3 drum tracks for "Stray Cat Strut" that any of us can mix, match and combine however we like! Cool, eh?

I am totally new at this music and singin' business, so any pointers from the local musos on ways we can make this work even smoother would be most appreciated!

As far as I'm concerned, this is just all of us having fun and the audio is available for our own uses, not to be used for any commercial purposes if someone posts something really stellar. I don't know all the legalities behind this though, so feel free to provide input on this side of it!!

So, let's get started!!

Files for download:

Sweet Love On My Mind
same key/tempo as Johnny Burnette version (here, if you're unfamiliar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkyYf7XlmXk)
vocal/clap
vocal only

Stray Cat Strut
same key/tempo as the original
vocal/clap
vocal only

Let the games begin, can't wait to hear what we all come up with!

.....

Sounds good! But I'll have ta wait until after the week end as I'm participating in the GT Falcon Nationals.

Andi very cool Idea now this could end up being brilliant
you've got a nice singin voice by the way , Iam lookin forward to this

Thanks Matt, I'm looking forward to hearing what we can come up with too! I've gotten a bit of interest at the Gretschpages as well... methinks this is gonna end up being pretty guitar-heavy

Just a little bump for anyone that might've forgotten...

andi wrote:

Just a little bump for anyone that might've forgotten...

btw.. not a metronome, a click track.. necessary when all tracks are
combined so whatever software you are using can quantize the
whole deal.

Whomever starts it, needs to use a click track and try to specify both
BPM(beats per minute), time signature(4/4,3/4,6/8,etc)and
Tonic Key (key of C,D,E,F,G,etc). This will keep things in a general
synchronicity hopefully.

I personally hate jamming of any kind but love to see others creative streaks run wild, this can never be a bad thing..ever! I really hope there
are takers.

hope this helps.

Hi Andi,

Sorry for the slow response - I think this is an excellent idea

I think TV is right a click track would probably make it easier for people to work to - thats not to say what you have done wont work

I am happy to lay down a guitar track for Stray Cat Strut if you want to get the ball rolling

I will see if I can give Sweet Love On My Mind a go as well - that will take longer because I will need to learn it to see if I can do the track any semblance of justice.

We could also have a go at that original tune you sang not so long ago - if you let me know what key you sing it in and an idea of tempo I can get a click track sorted and then maybe see about getting some guitar down??

Thanks Jon, I love that idea! A few months back I wrote another verse for my original tune, so I'll re-record the updated version before I post it here - might be able to do it tomorrow. Seeing as I'm learning guitar and all one would think I could at least play the chords myself but I've been spending too much time on covers

Can't wait to hear what you come up with for SCS and Sweet Love!

andi wrote:

Thanks Jon, I love that idea! A few months back I wrote another verse for my original tune, so I'll re-record the updated version before I post it here - might be able to do it tomorrow. Seeing as I'm learning guitar and all one would think I could at least play the chords myself but I've been spending too much time on covers

Can't wait to hear what you come up with for SCS and Sweet Love!

OK - for Andi (and everyone else) here are my tracks:

Sweet Love On My Mind:

Guitar track

Stray Cat Strut:

Guitar track

Backing vocals

Or if you want higher quality mp3's of these files you can download them here

Just to confirm that if you want to add them to Andi's vocal tracks then you will need to download the mp3 files


Have Fun

Downloading them now (at an impossibly slow rate!) Jon, thanks!! I cannot wait to hear! This is exciting, you're the first to jump in...

OHMYGOSH WE'RE AWESOME!!!

Well okay we're not the Stray Cats but it's certainly not too bad!! Here are a couple mixdowns of me and Jon - I added a little more echo to my voice and some to Jon's backing vocals on SCS to try to better match the guitar slap, then mixed and normalized the whole shebang. Not too bloody shabby for a first go 'round, eh???

Sweet Love on My Mind - Andi & Jonathan

Stray Cat Strut - Andi & Jonathan


I can't wait to get some bass and drums on these!!! As Jon said, if you want to jump in, download our original tracks further upthread to work with, these mixes are just the fun interim results!!

Ha! This is fantastic!! Thanks Jon!

andi wrote:

OHMYGOSH WE'RE AWESOME!!!

Well okay we're not the Stray Cats but it's certainly not too bad!! Here are a couple mixdowns of me and Jon - I added a little more echo to my voice and some to Jon's backing vocals on SCS to try to better match the guitar slap, then mixed and normalized the whole shebang. Not too bloody shabby for a first go 'round, eh???

Sweet Love on My Mind - Andi & Jonathan

Stray Cat Strut - Andi & Jonathan


I can't wait to get some bass and drums on these!!! As Jon said, if you want to jump in, download our original tracks further upthread to work with, these mixes are just the fun interim results!!

Ha! This is fantastic!! Thanks Jon!

you have any compression features to your software?.. if so hit it with just a tad of squish and everything will tighten up, and be slightly more crisp.. just a thought.

Yeah, forgot to mention I ran the mix through a compander before normalization. Since this is just an interim mix I'm not too worried about it yet

andi wrote:

Yeah, forgot to mention I ran the mix through a compander before normalization. Since this is just an interim mix I'm not too worried about it yet

a compander works more like an excited limiter... do you have the choice
of compression? I would die if I had to sing without compression.

All the raw files are in this thread TV, you're welcome to mix them together however you see fit!

andi wrote:

All the raw files are in this thread TV, you're welcome to mix them together however you see fit!

lemme know when you've got em all compiled! But be warned, I
might throw in a smidge of my percussion.. JK

andi wrote:

OHMYGOSH WE'RE AWESOME!!!

Well okay we're not the Stray Cats but it's certainly not too bad!! Here are a couple mixdowns of me and Jon - I added a little more echo to my voice and some to Jon's backing vocals on SCS to try to better match the guitar slap, then mixed and normalized the whole shebang. Not too bloody shabby for a first go 'round, eh???

Sweet Love on My Mind - Andi & Jonathan

Stray Cat Strut - Andi & Jonathan


I can't wait to get some bass and drums on these!!! As Jon said, if you want to jump in, download our original tracks further upthread to work with, these mixes are just the fun interim results!!

Ha! This is fantastic!! Thanks Jon!

Hi Andi,

Thats cool - you're very welcome

One of the great things about your idea is that anyone can take the raw tracks and do their own mixes adding whatever effects they like to individual tracks or the whole mix

Hopefully we will get some more participants - alternative guitar takes, acoustic guitar rhythm tracks and maybe some percussion as TV suggested.

These are only two songs to get us started - there is no reason why we cant expand the number of songs - either sticking with a Setzer theme or including other artists

Hi Andi & Jon, great work folks!

Here's a quick contribution from me.
Stray Cat Strut (guitar)
Stray Cat Strut (vocals & guitar)

steb74 wrote:

Stray Cat Strut (guitar)
Stray Cat Strut (vocals & guitar)

Steb, I finally was just able to download both files - those are seriously cool!! I love the mix with the vocals and clap!!

Cool, thanks alot Andi
It was a good idea to make this thread, let's hope we get to hear from more players.

Definitely need that bass solo on SCS. Tavo, what about your lovely wife!?!?

This is fantastic , lovin this ,there are some mean guitar players on the boards,
well done guys