Vote for the next festival.

[Gritter]

betterdayitnooaforeembdaybeatsmaetaeitinawratt

...even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious!

[launched]

mark i am doing a gospel song and thats that no debate.

Maybe the fine gospel of the Reverend Horton Heat?

[Sir Harry Flashman]

No acoustic instruments?
No wooden spoons?
No pans?

What's this eh?

[launched]

No acoustic instruments?
No wooden spoons?
No pans?

What's this eh?

You actually came up with a cool idea. If you don't have an acoustic guitar, there are all kinds of alternatives. Even an electric guitar mic'ed up sounds cool if you do it right - I've done that when I wanted to get a "strummy" sound.

[oldrottenhead]

recording it now, my wife has her girlfriends round so please excuse the laughter in the background

[oldrottenhead]

naw i have used pots and pans and background noise of wummin drinking spiced rum n coke 




THUR NO HUVVIN MA BRANDY

rums ok

[T.C. Elliott (Pig)]

Launched... I love me some Rev. I had a bumper sticker for a while that read "I was a sinner till I saw the Reverend Horton Heat." Had a racing team T-shirt. That song is back when Taz was drumming. Cool stuff.

[64Guitars]

Okay, I get the feeling that everybody's chomping at the bit to get started. Hell, oldrottenhead bolted out of the starting gate and crossed the finish line hours ago.    Although, I'm not sure if a gospel song qualifies as unplugged, but more on that later.

Anyway, we'll go with the "Unplugged" theme this time. The Beatles was a close second and will likely be the theme of our next festival, although I'll post the poll again next time anyway. You never know - some people might have had a change of heart by then, and some people who didn't vote this time might the next time and swing the vote to a different theme.

There seems to be a lot of confusion and disagreement about what "unplugged" means, so I'll post some guidelines so that people can get started. I'll provide more details during the weekend in a new topic announcing the festival.

For the purpose of this festival, "unplugged" means covering a song that was originally electric, but doing it entirely acoustic. So, covering Bob Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind" would not qualify since it was recorded entirely acoustic to begin with. But you could do a cover of Dylan's "Positively 4th Street" without the electric guitar and organ, for example - just an acoustic guitar and your vocals. Although, a better example would be doing an acoustic version of Green day's "Basket Case". That would be more in the spirit of "unplugged" since you're going from distorted electric guitar power chords to clean acoustic guitar - probably with open chords (maybe even fingerpicked if you like).

The reason that I'm not sure about oldrottenhead's gospel song is that, to my mind, gospel is usually just vocals to start with, possibly accompanied by a church organ, so singing it a cappella isn't really going from electric to acoustic since it was basically acoustic to start with. But I'm not familiar with the particular gospel song that ORH covered, so I guess I should check it out. Who knows, it might have originally been done with some distorted electric guitars and synthesisers. In that case, it would definitely qualify. And I guess it could be argued that a church organ is often electric.

As with all of our festivals, I want this to be accessible to all members, so we'll go with a very loose definition of "acoustic". Obviously, you can use an acoustic guitar, but there are many other possibilities. A traditional piano is an acoustic instrument, so that would be perfectly acceptable. And most electronic keyboards have pretty good patches of acoustic piano, woodwinds, strings, and other acoustic instruments. But don't go overboard - it shouldn't sound like a symphony orchestra or big band. The basic idea of "unplugged" is to keep it simple and pure. Emphasize the basic song - not a bunch of gadgetry and tricks. No distortion effects, phasers, flangers, and the like. Reverb is okay since that simulates a natural acoustic phenomenon. A bit of delay might be acceptable if you wanted to simulate the acoustics of a large empty hall or cavern but it should be used sparingly. Multitracking is allowed. Afterall, that's the foundation of this site. So, if you want to double-track your vocals or guitar, for example, that's fine. But don't go too crazy. Again, think simple and pure. A cappella is definitely okay, if it's a cover of a song that was originally electric. If anyone's up to simulating instruments with their voice à la Bobby McFerrin, I think that would be awesome!

For those guitarists who, like myself, only have electric guitars, there are a few possibilities. My Godin electric has piezo transducers in the bridge which give a reasonably good acoustic sound. I can further improve it with the acoustic effects in my BR-864. If you don't have piezos, you can use the ordinary magnetic pickups with a clean amp patch. You may be able to make it sound a bit more natural by fiddling with the EQ. And as others have mentioned, you might try unplugging your electric and recording it with a microphone positioned fairly close to the strings. Again, EQ might improve the sound. And you might find that mixing that track with another recorded through a clean amp patch will sound a bit better. Experiment!

I'll leave bass and drums to your discretion. Purists will want to exclude them and just go with acoustic guitar and voice. That's fine. But, if you want to include bass and drums feel free. Afterall, drums are acoustic instruments anyway. And you may have effects that allow you to simulate an upright acoustic bass with your electric. Roger Miller's "King of the Road" is a good example of a song that includes both upright bass and drums, yet it's definitely a very acoustic song. Of course, it wouldn't qualify as an "unplugged" song since it's already acoustic to begin with. But it illustrates that you can have bass and drums in an acoustic song if it's done right. I think the trick is to keep the drums soft and simple. You don't want pounding, crashing, rock-style drumming in your "unplugged" song.

For those who didn't vote for "unplugged", you can probably fit your preferred theme into this one. For example, you could do an unplugged version of one of The Beatles' more electric songs. The same goes for Bowie, Zappa, Creedence, and a few others. I think a Punk Rock song could be an excellent choice for an unplugged version. Some of the other themes might work as unplugged covers too. Use your imagination. The idea of covering each other's songs could also work. Just choose an original rocker by any member and do an acoustic cover of it. It would probably be a good idea to ask for the songwriter's permission first, but I don't think most members will mind. Still, it's best to check just in case.

If anyone has any questions or comments, post them here.

[Tony W]

recording it now, my wife has her girlfriends round so please excuse the laughter in the background

You really should record with your pants on Jim. It keeps the laughter at a minimum.

[Tony W]

64, you did not make any mention about originals being included into this festival.....

Since we are songcrafters now.... I suppose allowing them isn't a bad thing?

[64Guitars]

64, you did not make any mention about originals being included into this festival.....

Since we are songcrafters now.... I suppose allowing them isn't a bad thing?

No, I think the whole idea of "unplugged" is to cover a song that was originally electric but do it acoustically. So creating a new original song wouldn't qualify - it would just be an original acoustic song, which isn't the same thing as "unplugged". It must be a cover by definition.

However, as I said, you can definitely do a cover of another member's electric original. For that matter, you could cover one of your own original songs, as long as it was originally recorded with electric instruments, effects, etc. and you redo it all acoustic.

The challenge of "unplugged" is to take an existing song that relies heavily on electric instruments and effects (especially overdriven guitars or synths) and simplify it to the basic song done acoustically. The idea is that, if the song is good, it should stand on its own without the need for effects and lots of tracks.

I suppose that if anyone really wants to do a new original song, they could do two versions of their song. First as a fancy electric version, then as a simplified acoustic version. That way it would qualify as unplugged since you're doing an acoustic cover of an electric song, even if it is a new original. See what I mean?

[T.C. Elliott (Pig)]

I have a cover picked out. But I also have an original that was erm.. post punk probably originally that I might do just me and guitar. Should I post the original first if I do it so people can hear the difference? Or does it really matter?

[oldrottenhead]

i was covering the nick cave and bad seeds version which has leccy guitar

[Bluesberry]

There we have it, I'm convinced, ORH's wonderful song needs to go in the Fest jukebox.  Lets get it in there. 

[64Guitars]

i was covering the nick cave and bad seeds version which has leccy guitar

Ah! I hadn't heard this before. That's good enough for me. I've added your wonderful unplugged version to the jukebox. Sorry for any misunderstanding.