dasilvaplays Aston "Family Man" Barrett, 3 little birds

[dasilvasings]

Never been the greatest fun of Reggae per se, although I really like its derivatives like dub or ska.
Of course I don't resist "reggaesizing" a rock song, and for me, it always sounds good.

But Aston's basslines in most Bob Marley songs are simply amazing, and I didn't want to end this festival without paying my homage to this great groover!

So... the technicities...

As probably most of you know, I have been using the ipad for music making for long, but I am growing tired of Apple more and more, and decided to go back to the PC.

I tried a couple of DAW and settled (again) with Reaper. All the others DAWs install so much bloatware that really made me gave up despite all the fancy plugins, drums, etc.

So I was stuck with a clean install of Reaper, and now what? I looked for free drums, to try to replicate my old (Boss BR) method of finding decent drums and start playing along, and I was lucky enough to find MTPowerDrumkit2 which does exactly that and more.

Then I moved to create the backing guitar (as always, my Risa Electric Tenor Ukulele), the bass (back to my faithful Fender Jazz Bass) and then I started the nightmare of recording the vocals. More on that later.

I found some of the old plugins / VST that I had kept and installed them. I was on the process of trying them, when, by accident, I used a Leslie simulator (MRDonald) and some mild distortion (Ampkit Free) on the ukulele. I was intending  to rerecord the ukulele track later because the staccato (or lack of it) was a bit sloppy, but I liked so much how it sounded with the Leslie that I kept (it is more noticeable in the end. It almost sounds like a flanger).

I also used a software synth (Impulse) and recorded the lead line with a midi keyboard. I started with a sound bank "vibraphone" but ended with a "electronic harp" because it sounded weirder but at the same time, reminded me a tropical steelpan.

The attentive listener may also notice a mellotron ahh choir starting at 2nd chorus. It was recorder with the Risa Ukulele and the EHX Mel9. Mellotrons are like milk cream in food. You add it to your cooks and they immediately get good.

Yes, the vocals... There were so many takes and experiments, but to make things shorter I ended with 2 tracks - dasilvasings high singing the song's melody, and dasilvasings low, singing an alternate harmonization.
Both vocal tracks were recorded with my EHX Voice Box that I used in other songs as vocoder. Both tracks have processed harmonizations, but it is not really noticeable. What was critical for the voices was adding a little echo (slapback) and reverb (live) both using Reaper's plugins which made them feel a lot more alive.

Last but not least, the birds singings are Atlantic Shearwaters (Cagarra-do-atlântico in portuguese)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shearwater

I heard them for the first time in the Azores, where they come to breed, and I find the singing so weird that I decided to add it to the 3 little birds song, because... yes.

And that's it.

Nevermind the bollocks, here's dashearsings,

[Pete C]

Great to hear you again Miguel ! I've always enjoyed a bit of reggae music and you've done a nice cover of this classic. I was planning on a Bob Marley number in honour of Aston Barret myself but not sure if I'll have time before the Fest ends.

Pete

[StephenM]

interesting that Pete was first to comment because this immediately made me think of him... and to be very honest I think your vocals remind me of his... and I like that alot.
I have heard some of your songs, you don't post much but I pretty much listen to just about everything posted the last 4 years and then some. 

this track is very interesting.  sure enough it is toward reggae.. but I don't much care about genre labels and could not tell ska or reggae etc... i like it or I don't... kind of how I roll.
this has fun things in it... yes that mellotron chorus of ahhs being one.

the birds ... i do like the organ leslie.  you can't go wrong with a Fender Jazz.  the drums work
the bells sort of sound I dig alot.

this gets over quick... also I enjoyed reading about your process change.. I personally think that is a good idea once in a while to totally record in a different way and get out of your comfort zones.  I am certain Reaper is a good DAW... I use Audacity mostly and some Bandlab.
If nothing else you dig around and figure out new tricks that will work for you and you took all of the above and made a real nice cover.

[Jean Pierre]

beautifully constructed, I love the effect on the uke...thanks for the technical details, always interesting.   

[BerryPatch]

Great one DaSilva! Nice recording and  a sweet vocal. Can't go wrong with this classic of a track!

[ODH]

Another one I didn't recognise from the title but knew immediately when it started.

Enjoyed your take on this,  still reggae but with a rocky vibe.

I'm with you on not caring much for reggae but liking dub and ska.