Not original, but I recorded a quick set of percussive vocal sounds - kick, snare, hat, toms, etc - with my voice right into laptop's built-in mic, and pitched and trimmed them in Peak before importing them into Live's drum machine to lay down the rhythm track.

I'm working on a version of "Listening Wind" by Talking Heads for our 80s cover night next week, to play with Myshkin, and the snare sound I made vocally sounds a bit like the side stick (or similar) sound the Heads use on their version, so I am going to split off this session into a rhythm bed for that project as well.

Hmm, how about slide banjo? Well, banjo anyway. Played a line in, effects added, let that go 16 bars, then pitched it down an octave and now it's a baseline! Played a strum part over it. Building piece by piece.

End of the week. 5 banjo tracks, 4 percussion tracks and two acoustic guitar tracks in now, and I think I will stop. I could layer for another week, easy - but I'm calling it.

I had originally envisioned this completely differently, but once the thing started going in a certain direction, I followed it. It is not all acoustic, but I did take the banjo out of context, a little. And the song takes a complete left turn at 2:48, and becomes something else entirely. But I like that. You really don't see/hear it coming.

Also? The "Listening Wind" arrangement for next weeks' show will probably not use any of these sounds or motifs, we're going another direction on that, too. I love shifting gears! Hope you do too.

Enjoy!

Contact Heather:

Email