Weirdest/funniest session anyone has ever done.

Eminentbass · #1 07-07-2010, 02:27 AM

Yesterday I got called into the studio to ghost on a bands recording which involved me having to subtly replace the original bassist's part. It was a punk band(The Ramones was the comparison I was given in the brief) and the bassist didn't understand the concept of a shuffle/triplet groove and had recorded straight 8ths over a song that had a slight swing to it. The funny part is that I was called in by the producer and the singer to mimic the original line but add the right feel and then the bassist would be told that his timing had been edited to fit. I must admit to feeling rather odd being in on this conspiracy because the bassist was young and inexperienced but had potential from what I heard on some of the other tracks.

Anyone else have any unconventional experiences worth mentioning?

addylewis · #2 07-07-2010, 08:50 AM

Does an attempted vuvuzela solo count? (nah not really - but I'd LOVE to have a go just for the hell of it...)

MyWifeBoris · #3 07-07-2010, 09:23 AM

We ended up doing a medley of Boris the Spider, Bogey Man And Tommy's Holiday Camp once.

This was supposed to be practice. Nonetheless, it's good to do things differently once in a while. :D

trunkshope6 · #4 07-07-2010, 09:26 AM

haha ahh im pretty sure hell wonder how u can edit time,ha well if hes that inexperienced...maybe

coreyfyfe · #5 07-07-2010, 09:27 AM

I had a friend who was MP&E at berklee a few years ago, so I got to participate in a lot of his sessions. Among all the classes he had to take, they have you do many different types of recordings to really cover all situations. We did a sound replacement where you had to take a movie clip and do every sound that should be there, background music, sound effects, voices, etc. We did a clip from office space, I played Michael Bolton. He did a guerrilla session (6 or 8 inputs, single track, record as much as possible) where we did a dirty blues type song, had two acoustic guitars, acoustic bass, harmonica and a bunch of people playing whatever (chains, bottle of coins, etc). That was interesting. He took a class in remixing, basically find a vocal track and remix the song around it. We did a metal sean kingston and a hiphop remix of one of my old bands songs (actually really liked this one). Other than that, usually just the standard type of stuff.

JoeDeF · #6 07-08-2010, 03:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trunkshope6

haha ahh im pretty sure hell wonder how u can edit time,ha well if hes that inexperienced...maybe

It's pretty straightforward to edit time with Celemony Melodyne (as well as pitch). The results can be pretty impressive.

Eminentbass · #7 07-08-2010, 04:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeDeF

It's pretty straightforward to edit time with Celemony Melodyne (as well as pitch). The results can be pretty impressive.

Yup, although in this case it was just cheaper and easier to get in another player rather than sit shifting every single straight 8th note to give it the shuffle feel. I'd hate to be the engineer who has the patience and time to do that

St Drogo · #8 07-08-2010, 04:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeDeF

It's pretty straightforward to edit time with Celemony Melodyne (as well as pitch). The results can be pretty impressive.

If you have a program that can edit both time and pitch, could you in theory create all music with a short sample of one sound?

In theory?

oerk · #9 07-08-2010, 05:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by St Drogo

If you have a program that can edit both time and pitch, could you in theory create all music with a short sample of one sound?

In theory?

Of course. The tool you would use to do this is called a "sampler"

Beginner Bass · #10 07-08-2010, 11:05 AM

Simply ask Vanilla Ice.

Anyways, if your bassist can play straight and not even notice that the rest of the band is swinging, they need a new bassist who will actually listen to the band. Though it can build tension when used right, I doubt that was the case.

thobbinghotrod · #11 07-08-2010, 01:18 PM

Can you give me an example of the rhythem your talking about. I want to know If I can do it, if not, I better learn how.

JoeDeF · #12 07-08-2010, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by St Drogo

If you have a program that can edit both time and pitch, could you in theory create all music with a short sample of one sound?

In theory?

In theory, yes. Every sound can be shown mathematically to be indistinguishable from a (large) collection of sine waves that mimic the pitch and amplitude (loudness) of the components of the sound - both the partials (pure sine-wave overtones, basically) and the noise-like components. Look up FFT analysis or spectral modeling synthesis for more details.

So, you could take any sound and filter it so that it contained just one partial (sine wave), and then replicate and time/pitch stretch many copies of that one partial in such a way that you end up with any other sound. Given an infinite number of partials to work with, if needed, and some reasonable thresholds for the abilities of a human listener to be able to hear whether sounds are alike or different, it has been mathematically proven that any sound can be morphed into any other sound in this manner. Sorry I don't have a link to the proof or its author, but it is based on the mathematical work of Fourier.

I believe that it has also been shown that any sound can be broken up into very short snippets, called grains, and then recombined into any other sound. Look up granular synthesis for more info on that.
--
If you are interested in hearing music that is made up of the manipulation of one or a small number of sounds, look up musique concrete. This is creative music not intended to morph one sound into a predetermined other, but rather the sonic exploration of the creative manipulation and reuse of an existing sound.
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OK, so I realize that this is not the weirdest/funniest session anyone has ever done, so, please, back to the general merriment, folks.

Eminentbass · #13 07-09-2010, 03:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thobbinghotrod

Can you give me an example of the rhythem your talking about. I want to know If I can do it, if not, I better learn how.

The song could be written in 12/8 time, so each beat is a triplet. He bounced on the beat for the verses which was fine but when the chorus hit he went straight 8ths e.g 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and when the rhythm should've been 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 and a, with the first two notes of each beat tied. The best comparison I can draw is that he played ac/dc when he should've played a blues shuffle. I don't know how the band actually managed to do a steady drum/guide track with that going on

Interestingly enough, I've heard straight rhythms over a swing working well in one case, which was Nina Simone playing a straight, baroque contrapuntal piano solo in a jazz tune.

Beginner Bass · #14 07-09-2010, 05:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eminentbass

I don't know how the band actually managed to do a steady drum/guide track with that going on.

It's not so hard if you think in beats instead of 8ths. For that kind of stuff, you have to find the "LCM," so to speak. FInd the smallest pulse that the band shares.