Four Strings

Well, after a bit of work we have a couple of tracks together – here’s a live recorded track to listen to Let me know what you think – it’s a couple of Irish reels called Paddy Fahy’s No1 and Gravel Walk… more like a run really!

[I have removed the recording so it doesn't clog up slower servers - hope you enjoyed it while it was there. I'll be uploading some MP3s of the band on our soon-to-be-established web page - JE]

Cheers
Jerry

Finally found the music to a tune that has been driving me nuts for months – Green Gates reel – I keep hearing it in my head to the point where I have been able to pick out the broad shape of the first part of the tune, but not close enough to be able to do a pattern search among the ABC notation sites and some great Irish music collections online, such as O’Neills Music of Ireland and Allens Irish Fiddler And my favourite tune finding site: The Session.org And last night i found the tune – with the sheet music. Big learning binge this weekend with me learning “The Musical Priest” and “Star of Munster” reels.

Must get back to recording tomorrow. Today was the garden – I’ve been extending the garden watering system so that the whole garden gets watered.
Cheers
Jerry

Well, recording is coming along – very happy with the results so far. Here are a couple of images from our preliminary recording session live at the National Folk Festival in Canberra, Australia:

and a more intense moment

Cheers
Jerry (Canberra, Australia)

Okay recording prelims begin tomorrow – this time we’ll get a CD out!

I have bought Tracktion software to run on the mac and I’ve found I can get reasonable levels from the band’s yamaha 8 track mixing desk and using the stereo out from the desk into a Y adapter and stereo input. Still getting used to the Tracktion interface – it’s simple but different from anything I’ve encountered elsewhere. But it’s still logical.

Did some levels testing by playing a duet with my daughter on mandoline and me on fiddle – seems to work okay, although mike-ing the mandoline seems to give rise to a fair bit of extraneous noise – including feedback when I’m not careful. I reckon using direct inputs for both instruments should improve things dramatically. I’ll test that setup tomorow when our guitar play comes over. When I start getting some good results I’ll upload some samples here

Cheers
Jerry