Out on the Western Plains - Cover with Video

[sbrennan970]

Hi all!

I spent some time yesterday recording a cover of 'Out on the Western Plains'. I took a look at the Rory Gallagher version because he uses DADGAD tuning - this is a tuning that is really popular in traditional Irish music, but not so often seen in Blues! I was also unaware of any other songs that use DADGAD on the resonator, so that was an experience!



I wanted to focus on getting a good resonator sound from a blend of a microphone and my K&K biscuit pickup - I don't have an SM57 so I was using a cheap MXL990 perched atop a stack of books (I only have a single mic stand!) - not ideal, but I find that having the mic a little further away from the resonator gives a nice balance with the glassy qualities of the K&K. You might also hear some rattling in the intro - this is because the pickup Velcro is not adhering, so I had it wedged in behind the tailpiece to keep it in place!

I think the MM Lightning is sounding fabulous as usual; I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's one of my favourite instruments, and I'm inspired every time I pick it up!

For the other instruments - the Cajon is mic'd at the back with the MXL990, the mandolin is Mic'd with the vocal mic (SE X1) with a high shelf filter and the Bass is straight into the DI with Waves CLA Bass.

In terms of production- I recently got a good deal on some Waves CLA plugins and Izotope Ozone + Neutron. Other than that and some Ableton stock reverb + delay that's basically all there is to it.

This took the guts of a full afternoon to put together - you can tell the order of recording from the light in the video! To create a 'live in the room feel' I usually record in the following order:
1) Demo guitar+vocal+click
2) cajon
3) bass
4) mandolin
5) vocal guide track (basically a count in for when the drums come in for the intro)
6) mute the original demo guitar track and re-record guitar+vocal using the cajon/bass in place of the click as rhythm


I'd love to hear your thoughts on this - hoping to record some more stuff very soon

Thanks all
Stephen

[mrstrellisofnwales]

Loved that! Thank you. All that technical stuff went right over my head but the playing and singing were superb. Saw Rory perform this on his Stella 12 string at Newcastle City Hall when I was a poor student but ticket prices were cheap enough for us to afford. Rory was magnificent. Such a loss. 
Mrs T

[zimmharpo23]

Very good, enjoyed that 👍

Cheers

Andy

[Chuck H.]

Wow! That's fantastic, you're a very talented young man, thanks for sharing.