mrcoaster's Homely Online Band

[Shatna]

The other night at a DC BBS meetup (see Misc for pics and details! ) I broached with mrcoaster something I've been thinking about for months. He agreed that it was a good idea, and so crazy that it just might work!

The idea is to put together an online band featuring TrekBBS members performing an original song which mrcoaster and I will attempt to write . The idea is that each interested member will record his or her part and send a sound file to a central mixer/engineer, whose job it will be to put everything together.

Figuring out how we're gonna do this is half the fun. I will lay down a vocal track and supervise the lead and backup singing (but not sing on the final product). mrcoaster will supervise the guitar parts, and we'll organize the rhythm and backup instruments as we go. We'll also figure out a way to choose the band members - probably via online "audtions" - and find a way to include everyone who wants to be a part of this.

Egos are very fragile things (I should know, ha ha), and when we decide which musicians and singers to use it will be based on compatibility and ability above all else. We will choose participants as fairly and reasonably as we can. If it helps, I have 25 years of experience playing and recording in bands, and coaster is a talented guitarist of professional caliber. So we're not exactly know-nothin' screw-ups here (not musically, anyway ).

Post your interest in the project and any ideas here, and meanwhile I will get with coaster to conceive and compose the song. Hopefully in a week or two we'll have something ready to go, but of course a lot depends on both our schedules.

Here's a probably lineup of what we'll need:

- Lead singer (male or female)
- Backup singers
- Rhythm guitar (electric)
- Rhythm guitar (acoustic)
- 1st lead guitar (electric)
- 2nd lead guitar (electric)
- 2 Keyboards (piano and electric or organ)
- Horns (trumpet, sax)
- Harmonica
- Strings
- Percussion and drums

We'll also need someone who has mixing software, a high speed connection and plenty of HHD space to act as our engineer.

Conceptually and instrumentally, what I'm thinking in terms of style is something like Counting Crows' version of "Big Yellow Taxi", because the production is rich with variety of instruments and vocals. Our song won't be a copy of it, but it's an idea of what I'd like to go for. You can give the song a listen here. This isn't written in stone, but it is something to start with.

Think it over and start discussing what you'd like to do and how. Let's see if we can pull this off!

 

[mrcoaster]

Oh, dear Lord - I thought you were drunk and wouldn't remember that!

I'm not sure about the professional caliber stuff. Hell, I need to remember how to strum that E chord. Heh, heh. The more distortion in the song though, the less accurate I may have to play.

This is probably the time when everybody will remember loving the BBS band before it was cool to do so. Don't be a poser!

 

[Shatna]

Posted by mrcoaster:
Don't be a poser!

Too late for me.

 

[Aurian]

id love to join.. some sort of singing part. lol, i cant do anything else.

 

[Shatna]

Guess who's singing lead, then?

 

[Angry Angel]

Me?

 

[Aurian]

Posted by Shatna:
Guess who's singing lead, then?

lol, thanks, but lets see if i can manage it first lol

 

[eline]

hey, this sounds a great idea, :thumbsup: fraid i cant sing (flat as a pancake) or play any musical instrument, but if this gets off the ground, i'll nominate myself as official 1st fan

 

[Worf412]

I play a mean kazoo and jaw harp.

 

[Neeka Keet]

I play bass and guitar badly. I barely know two chords. But I can whistle and play the bongos.

 

[mrcoaster]

Two chords? No problem. All you need to do is learn one more and you'll be able to play most songs the band knows and 100% of the ones we'll write. You didn't think we were going to write something complex, did you?

 

[doubleohfive]

Once I get my trumpet back I might be able to power up my chops for ya. :thumbsup:

Worst case scenario: I'll just use the mouthpiece and play along with Worf on kazoo.

 

[Trek Terp]

yeah, my trumpet is currently on the other side of the country.

 

[Pingfah]

I would be very interested in playing rhythm electric or lead electric. I have 21 years of playing experience, many hours of live performance under my belt and access to professional recording facilities.

I'm no EVH technically wise, but i can certainly hold my own with good players.

 

[Hofner]

Shatna, ya forgot bass in your list. I've played bass and guitar for over 30 years. Can sing unless I'm drunk. Oh wait I HAVE sang drunk at bars but luckily the audience is also too drunk and can't notice the difference.

It's theoretically possible to record a song on the internet. Someone records for example a basic rhythm guitar track on their PC and then sends the sound file to whoever the sound engineer is. The SE sends an e-mail to the rhythm guitar player telling her/him to try again only try it sober this time, the tempo is all over the landscape.

In a rare moment of sobriety the rhythm guitarist manages to record a halfway decent take. The engineer now sends the rhythm guitar soundfile to a drummer who'll listen to the track and record self playing drums with it. No need to have the rhythm guitar be on that drum track, the engineer can combine the rhythm guitar and drum tracks together after many e-mails to the drummer asking for a non-drunk recording.

So next you get the bass and so on until voila! You've got your first hit song.

Umm... On second thought trying to find THAT many TrekBBSers in a moment of non-drunkeness is a practical impossibility. The only hope is if the drunk TrekBBSer can accidentally get their track done halfway decent.

Robert

 

[Pingfah]

Wouldn''t it be easier for the writers to record a basic version to a click track, and then everyone else works over that and then removes the click track/rough version and sends their part back?

 

[Shatna]

Pingfah: good enough for me, you're in.

hofner: You're in, too. And you're right, I did forget bass - something I only remembered hours later when it was too late to edit the post. Of course, I could fake it and claim that I included bass in the rhythm section, ha ha...

The method you describe above is exactly what I had in mind, including the drunk part.

Pingfah, the only glitch in your method is that not everyone involved may have the know-how or tools with which to eliminate the click track, but if you have an idea how that's done let us know!

 

[jkladis]

I'm all over that cowbell.

 

[Pingfah]

Posted by Shatna:

Pingfah, the only glitch in your method is that not everyone involved may have the know-how or tools with which to eliminate the click track, but if you have an idea how that's done let us know!

The person doing the recording need only have the click track playing in headphones while they record their part. So it doesn't have to appear on their final recording at all.

It would just be to ensure everyone is playing at the same tempo. You might have to insist people only record to digital formats (PC, hard disc multi-tracker) because tape has a nasty habit of being inconsistent tempo wise.

But anyone should be able to achieve this using a fairly standard sound card, just need to find a way of plugging a microphone into it.

The "pass it on" method would work as well though.

 

[Hofner]

Posted by Pingfah:

Posted by Shatna:

Pingfah, the only glitch in your method is that not everyone involved may have the know-how or tools with which to eliminate the click track, but if you have an idea how that's done let us know!

The person doing the recording need only have the click track playing in headphones while they record their part. So it doesn't have to appear on their final recording at all.

It would just be to ensure everyone is playing at the same tempo. You might have to insist people only record to digital formats (PC, hard disc multi-tracker) because tape has a nasty habit of being inconsistent tempo wise.

But anyone should be able to achieve this using a fairly standard sound card, just need to find a way of plugging a microphone into it.

The "pass it on" method would work as well though.

That'd work. The "pass it on" method isn't REALLY necessary for everything but you get better results if the next person can hear everything that's been done so far. An extreme example is it'd be hard for a harmonizing vocalist to coordinate with the main vocals if they have only a basic rhythm track and no main vocals to sing to.

Robert