The Frog Galliard by John Dowland - from Lute to Uke

[jackofall]

Although I've been horribly distracted again, this forum, with all its great characters and talents is never far from my mind. Here's a lute tune by John Dowland - it's the hardest thing I've ever played on the uke! I pressed the AB button more times than I care to admit! - but there was a good reason for this. I sent off a CD of early music for ukulele to a publisher in the USA. To my amazement, they are interested and want me to do all my pieces in a studio because they thought the recording on the BMR was a bit harsh - in reality, it's just my lack of ability to use it correctly! If anyone knows how to put this recording through some system to warm it up and make it sound really mellow, I'd be really grateful. A studio is going to make me play like a complete twat, I'm sure!

[Oldrottenhead]

bloody magic get henny up tae yer hoose right away at the first posible opportunity he will show you.

that said it still sounds fab.

fmgwabp

[Oldrottenhead]

you couldnt play like a twat if you tried.

[cuthbert]

Beautiful piece, jackofall! Amazing just how versatile a ukulele can be in the right hands.

[Spiritsong]

Beautiful..took me right into the renaissance era. Well done good Sir!

[Ferryman_1957]

Lovely job! Sounds great - can't believe it's a uke. More fab stuff.

Re your recording and the CD, two choices - either get to grips more with the MBR (understand a bit about mastering effects and compression etc) and perhaps add to that some tweaking in Audacity on the PC, or go to a studio and let them worry about all that. It all depends on the economics here - if you are paying, it would be best to learn more about the MBR and use it to its fullest extent, if you aren't, leave it to the professionals! You won;t play (any more) like a twat in the studio. I can guarantee it doesn;t matter if you are in a studio or in your bedroom, as soon as you press record your fingers go to mush...... 

Cheers,

Nigel

[Gnasty]

I can guarantee it doesn;t matter if you are in a studio or in your bedroom, as soon as you press record your fingers go to mush...... 

...Amen to that, i have the same disease and so do the pros..I don`t care if you used the A/B button
100 times to this. This is incredible Uke playing. You sound like you are playing a nylon classical to me.

Congrats to you on somone loving your stuff and you getting to record..You deserve it!! You are damn talented!!

[Greeny]

What talent. So very fine. I can't even comprehend how tricky this piece was to play, but it sounds wonderful. You deserve to be recognised and applauded!

[henwrench]

If you'd like any help/advice with the MBR, please PM and I'll e-mail you parts of my brain, so as not to bore the poor souls who read these pages. The MBR is a tricky little bugger, but with a lot of time and effort I've found the recordings to be of a satisfactory standard. There are also a couple of great things you can do in Audacity to 'smooth out' the sound and make it almost more analogue sounding. But yeah, if you are gonna go to a studio, go to a good one and you'll have a ball... always remember...Don't Worry!! Play!! Let the engineer worry!! It's his Job!! You PLAY!! He RECORDS!!.....PLAY!!

                                                                 henwrench

[jackofall]

Thanks everyone for your encouraging and uplifting comments. I must admit that the thought of recording with other people standing around seems impossible. I spoke to an engineer today and he laughed out loud when I said I could do 21 tracks in a few hours. He reckoned it would take days + hundreds of quid. I probably need a contract or something before taking this  risk. What if I cock it all up and they don't want the recording? ...I've asked the publishers to consider putting my CD through Audacity to warm up the sound and save themselves a shed load!