How to record yourself playing several instruments

[Eric Renshaw]

Those of you who follow Nigel’s “Tune of the Week” will have doubtless been listening to John Kelly’s superb multi-track recordings in which he plays several instruments, e.g. tenor banjo, acoustic guitar and mandolin. As an example check out
http://soundcloud.com/user9128887/the-banks-of-esk
Although I have tried this myself (much more simply by using mando 1 and mando 2 duets) I have found it extremely difficult to achieve decent results, not only because of my mando playing but also because I employ very basic recording equipment, viz: H2 Zoom, Audacity, headphones and a click-track! In an earlier post John briefly described the equipment and techniques that he uses and very kindly offered to drive across from the far West in order to share them with us. I mentioned this at last Monday’s Kirkliston session and there was certainly an expression of interest. The idea is if that we could get enough folks wishing to hear how John achieves such notable success, then provided the Kirky host, Martin McQueen, gets the thumbs up from the bar we’d run a brief demo from say 8.00-9.00 with the usual session following on straightaway in its usual slot from 9.00-11.00ish. Please let me know if you would be interested in coming along, and if there are enough folk to run a small gathering John, Martin and I can sort out likely dates. Thanks.

Cheers,
Eric

[Trish Santer]

Thanks Eric, I would be interested: there are some Mondays I can't do, i.e. pretty consistently either of the first 2 in each month. OK with 3rd, 4th (or if there is one, 5th!).