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I've got Willie and Wynton (the Marsallis and Nelson duet album) on my desk right now.

Smithsonian, absolutely.  It's a treasure, as is Willie.  He said when the hole makes the guitar  unplayable, he'll retire.

I don't refer to strings by number.  I call them out by note.

"Fret the D string on the 3rd fret...."

I think it's a better way to learn music.

Well said, Zurf.

And Ken, to your point, you're absolutely right.   While America bore the brunt of the carnage on 9/11, the impact was, and still is, felt globally.   I remember the people that died in London, and in Spain as an aftermath of all of this.  It is a common American failing to forget that we're only 5% of the world's population, and there is life outside our own borders.  It may be due to the two oceans on our borders, but it's there.

So did they set him free?

So go schedule an appointment with the counselor.

If this is as bad as your life ever gets, you've got it easy.

I had that bass walk stuck in my head for weeks. 

Anyway, couple of notes.  Selso provided two tracks,  one "vocal" and one "bass/guitar."  But because the vocal was recorded with a live mike and the bass track playing, there was serious bleed over from one track to the next.  That is, you could hear the vocals clear as day on the bass track, and you could hear the bass and guitar clear as day on the vocal track.

I did the mix on this using Reaper, which is now my most favorite tool ever.

This is what I did to the mix.   I ran the vocal track through a highpass filter to remove as much of the bass from that track as I could, and then used an EQ to bring out the frequencies of Selso's voice, and then added just a touch of reverb for effect.     I ran the bass track through an EQ to bring out as much bass as possible, and then ran it through a compressor to get a little bit of pop, and give it that "fretless" feel.   The problem is that any time I touched the bass track, it effected the vocals as well, due to the bleed.

Because the track was recorded live, there is just a hair's bit of tempo drift in the song.  It rumbles between 104 and 108 beats per minute.  It's enough to make using a drum machine harder than using a live drummer. I have a live drummer, so he was conscripted for the job.  We recorded him on two microphones using our Fostex MR-8.  We pulled his kick mic out a bit to pick up the entire bottom end, and used a condenser directional mic up high to pick up the high hat and cymbals.  There was a small glitch in the recording, though.  A fault of the MR-8 caused a few microseconds of squeal and pop.  I was able to pull it out and substitute in another section of the track.  I don't think I did a good job of it, though.  If you pay close attention right around the 1:27 mark you can pick it up.    Anyway, we're thinking of doing a couple more drum tracks the next time we get some spare time.

Here's a shot of Jeff, live in Studio A, recording the drum track for this. 

As far as the lots of bass/no bass sound goes, I've learned that there is no way to satisfy every speaker system.  I mixed this up using a pair of KRK 5" powered studio monitors, and the bass really comes out on them.  If I plug in my crappy PC speakers, you naturally lose some of that.   

Anyway it was very fun, and I learned a whole lot.  Many thanks to Selso for not only writing this nifty little tune, but for giving me the opportunity to play with it.  If you're ever up Seattle way, we should bring you into the basement and record some good quality tracks.  It really is a good song.

Good article about how to record guitar using Record.

http://www.propellerheads.se/substance/ … t=E65279D4

I'm going to second this one.   The best thing you can do is practice, and the best way to ensure you practice a lot is to make sure the guitar is easy to access.

Keep it out of the case, on a stand, right next to wherever you sit your butt down at the end of the day.

Certainly.  Walk into an emergency room and ask for a prostrate exam.  Tell them you have no money, and no insurance.

Let us know when the exam is complete.

Emergency room care is not health care.

Yes, you'd pay for everything.  Or you'd pay for insurance, which may or may not pay for everything.

The US system is Pay or Die.   We have very few programs for health care, and those only cover the elderly and the handicapped.

Regular people get bupkis.

We have pretty varied tastes overall, which is why we're all over the map stylistically.   We all write, so whatever someone brings to the table is going to be OK.   We've got straight punk and country songs in our songbook, too.

Al and I have very similar styles and tastes, in that we're both somewhat minimalists, and we like Americana, folk, and bluegrass.   Al likes "story" songs while I prefer to write "vignettes,"  and he's a lot more particular about a song being "done" than I am.  But overall, it works out well.