What if we recorded something all together?

[zorrow]

I've talked about this before but there's new blood around, times also change for some of us, so... What if we recorded something like the "HFC collab album"?

I might have a couple of original backing tracks I'd be willing to share for you to shred over them... Some of us might have original songs for which you wouldn't mind sharing the solo spot with some others, and I'm also thinking about a couple of obscure bands I know which maybe would cede some original tracks for us to "complete" them with our solos and stuff -- you know, there are zillions of variants to make this work!

So, if we arrive to 12 or 14 tracks, that would be perfect! Then we can collect a certain amount of money to run a print of 1000 copies or so, and then sell them on the HFC site, as well as on CDBaby.

I also wanted to mention this idea to Nick (long time no see, my friend!), so we could create something together and that would be "our song" on the album. Some other people who are geographically near could do the same.

I'm willing to take the lead of this "project" if you want someone "responsible and with drive" to steer the bus. I'm also willing to provide an FTP host for us to share our stuff.

BTW, I would love if guys like Greg, Jettster and Kevin embarked on this as well. You bet they've got skills!

Any follower? Say YES, please!

PS: Of course, any genre, skill level and style is welcome. The only prerequisites are: a Hamer guitar must be on the track and the track should be an original.

[LadyScary]

That sounds like fun! but it also sounds like ALOT of work for you!!

[cmatthes]

That does sound like a cool idea. Don't forget that there are some very talented songwriters, vocalists, bassists and drummers here as well. It might be possible to do something with 100% of the parts "live", so to speak.

[unfun 75]

That does sound like a cool idea. Don't forget that there are some very talented songwriters, vocalists, bassists and drummers here as well. It might be possible to do something with 100% of the parts "live", so to speak.

True dat! I play drums, bass, and guitar. My friend/bandmate has a Hamer bass and maybe he and I could do some live rhythm tracks.

[zorrow]

That would be amazing! I second and third that... We might record something with a "live" feeling here in Montreal as well -- with a Vector at one side and a Monaco at another.

[atquinn]

I think this is a cool idea, but I think it would be best to start very small, so all the kinks could be worked out. For example maybe just one backing track on an FTP site for people to work with. See what the response is like and then take it from there.

-Austin

[veatch]

I agree with Austin.

Grab a track and make it available. Let people noodle with it and see what shakes loose.

As long as the backing track you pick ain't "Beat It", i'd be more than happy to contribute guitar or bass tracks down as time permits.

The biggest challenge will be how to mix and produce a virtual band with 120 lead guitarists...

[zorrow]

Yeah, well... you got me thinking... Instead of having 120 lead guitar players struggling for one track I think we better do it this way:

1- Create or choose a track of your own (or your band's) with some room for someone else to solo over. This way you become "the owner" of that track.

2- PM someone you would like to work with to be your "guest soloist" from the HFC -- you may invite more than one HFC guest to play on your track, of course.

3- Once a "pre-deal" made with your HFC guest(s), publish the credits here for the backing track and the guest soloist(s) -- including the Hamer guitars used.

4- Work on the track until it is mixed down and pre-mastered -- you are responsible of coordinating the work with your guest(s).

5- Upload the mixed track (with solos and everything) to the FTP site -- I'll provide one soon.

Constraints:

1- You may use existing tracks from your respective bands (or preferably HFC jams -- either live or not), provided they are original and don't violate any copyright rule, and at least two HFC members play Hamers on it.

2- You may use tracks from your friends' bands (or any band you might want to "promote" which is not your band) if they are original and don't violate any copyright rule and at least one HFC member (either you or another person from here) plays a Hamer bass or guitar on it as a guest -- which means that HFC member is not a permanent member of that band, or else constraint 1 above applies.

3- You cannot use tracks from previous HFC albums.

4- In the case of too many tracks, tracks with more HFC members playing on them will have a higher priority to be included in the final release.

5- You (or whoever else has them) keep the rights of the tracks used here.

About the mix and the mastering:

The very nature of this project voids us from doing a single, homogeneous mix. You, as the owner of your tracks, are responsible of mixing the tracks you "own".

However, a final mastering (normalizing and final EQ) could be done at the end. We'll ask for help about this, right before the production of the CD.

The CD:

A run of 1000 printed copies shouldn't be hard to afford if we all contribute to it. At a given moment we'll talk about how to collect the money, how to distribute some free copies to the participants and how to share the (very improbable) profits -- from selling the CD to our friends and relatives.

Well, I guess I've said all I had to say... for now.

[cmatthes]

The CD:

A run of 1000 printed copies shouldn't be hard to afford if we all contribute to it. At a given moment we'll talk about how to collect the money, how to distribute some free copies to the participants and how to share the (very improbable) profits -- from selling the CD to our friends and relatives.

How does something like a Cafe Press work with CDs? Don't they handle that stuff?

HFC Stuff for sale here

[jettster]

I’d be honored to participate in a collaboration project. I have a bunch of projects that are in various states of disarray lol that could use a kick in the @ss. I would also be willing to write some new backings or collaborate on those as well. I have a meager recording setup but can provide complete backings or work with others in any form or fashion. I have access to a synth, bass, drum machine and might also have a couple of guitars lying around. My bass and synth playing aren’t great by any stretch but can be passable.

It might be worthwhile to divide people up into groups with similar interest for each tune? Maybe have a Blues style, Jazz, Rock, Shred, etc. That might keep it more interesting for the people involved.

Anyway I haven’t been playing as much for a while now so anything like this might kick start my interest again. As said before I’d be glad to work with anyone in any capacity. I’ve been involved in a few of these types of projects over at Guitarwar years ago and they are usually fun although sometimes difficult to coordinate through to completion.

Hats off to you Zorrow for getting the ball rolling on this, just let me know how I can contribute.

[formula73]

I have Cubase LE I can reinstall...I never really did figure out how it works. I'd like to get in on this-sounds fun!

[shredmeister]

I already have some tracks. Let me know.

Here is an example - I would have a couple different ones cause I already have this one up on myspace with the lead........

Example Tune

But I have one in mind.

[mathman]

I'd like to do this. Do we make request collab threads or keep them all in this one thread.

[zorrow]

I already have some tracks. Let me know.

Here is an example - I would have a couple different ones cause I already have this one up on myspace with the lead........

Example Tune

But I have one in mind.

That's awesome! Welll, keep reading... I think here below I'll say something that could help us to better organize this.

I'd like to do this. Do we make request collab threads or keep them all in this one thread.

Just to get started I think we can form small "teams" via PM'ing. Some suggestions:

1- The more backing tracks available (with vocals or not), the better. So, those who already have backing tracks to share, please post links to them on this thread. You'll get PM's from interested players. Pick your preferred ones for every track you own and move on from there -- but please, don't forget being polite to those players whose services you'll refuse.

2- I guess we all have some closer friends around we might want to play on our tracks. We also have people we "secretly" admire here... If you want, PM them first to get them playing on your tracks. You may send them samples or private links to your tracks. Just one thing: once a deal made between you and some player(s), please just publish it here so we all will know this or that player is already taken for one track.

NOTE: Naturally, we are allowed to play on as many tracks as we want. However, let's try to be fair and get as many participants as we can. This should be a common HFC effort, not "a few men project". So, whilst I know some people here are killer players (I personally love the way Greg plays, as well as the exceptional skills of Kevin and Rodney) I would make an effort to leave enough room for several other players on my backing tracks. I strongly encourage the whole team to behave the same.

[Mindseyes]

Sounds really cool!!!

I can add some feedback to a rocken track....lol!!!

Fo reall tho, i have some recording, mixing/mastering apps that i can use pretty well so i might be able to help in that depo!!

[zorrow]

BTW, if we get enough momentum I'll ask the admin board to "pin" this thread up there, so it will be very visible and at the same time we won't have to "bump" it constantly.

So please, put links to your backing tracks here including a brief description (e.g. genre, sections to play over... and anything else you might find useful) and let's keep the flame alive!

PS: If you need to host your backing track somewhere, www.putfile.com can be a good place to start.

[licksville]

Please pardon my recording ignorance, is there a preference for the format of the posted backing tracks ? For instance .wav, .mp3, or something proprietary like cakewalk project file ? Can the backing track be 'naked', for instance just guitar with click track ?

[zorrow]

We can use mp3 files to listen to the backing tracks and start soloing over.

Of course, the final solo parts will have to be rendered as single, isolated tracks in .WAV (anything else should be muted), so the owner of the track could do a proper mix later on, using whatever software he/she might have -- I guess we can discuss about the details later, but we'll also welcome any advice from the HFC experts at any time, so start shooting if you want.

IMPORTANT: We must find a simple and free recording software for those who want to contribute and don't have yet anything to record.

However, for now it would be enough having links to the mp3 backing tracks.

Let's move on then! Who's the first one to post a link to one of his backing tracks in mp3?

[shredmeister]

OK I have a couple in mind already on my Akai DSP. I will have to record them onto a CD and then put them on the web.

So you want just the guitar part correct - no drum part ?

[Mindseyes]

We can use mp3 files to listen to the backing tracks and start soloing over.

Of course, the final solo parts will have to be rendered as single, isolated tracks in .WAV (anything else should be muted), so the owner of the track could do a proper mix later on, using whatever software he/she might have -- I guess we can discuss about the details later, but we'll also welcome any advice from the HFC experts at any time, so start shooting if you want.

IMPORTANT: We must find a simple and free recording software for those who want to contribute and don't have yet anything to record.

However, for now it would be enough having links to the mp3 backing tracks.

Let's move on then! Who's the first one to post a link to one of his backing tracks in mp3?

reaper would be a good choice for a free app to use!

[jettster]

Here are a few backings I made up. I can pull out drums, bass or whatever if needed. I figured it might be good to stay a little generic as far as changes etc to keep things simple.

Heavy

Pink Floydish

80's reject

Generic Rock

Acoustic

BTW I also noticed that putfile will only allow 25mb .wav files so we might have to stick with mp3's when using them.

[mathman]

Here is a somewhat long Pink Floydish style song called Going Digital. The lyrics are a play on words about going digital to "Clean" up your life and fix mistakes that you've made and comparing the warmth and flaws of older recording and of a normal person to the digital pure of digital recording but at the price of one humaness. Sounds profound I guess, too bad my lyrics are always weak.

Going Digital

Anyway, there is a place for a long guitar solo in the Gilmore style at the end.

This is a song I made about three years ago. I took out my attempt at a solo and in doing so noticed some noise in the bass track during the solo. I will have to re-record that but this should be enough to see if anyone has an interest in adding to the song. Hamer Cruise bass, Hamer XT explorer (import) guitar.

Thanks, Kirk

[zorrow]

That's great! I'll check this stuff tomorrow.

Any takers so far? Or any candidates you guys might already have in mind?

I'm planning to work on this stuff during the weekend. Yesterday was a very busy day.

[BlueRedWhite]

Great idea Ionel

For those interested, i've done a few collabs in the past, as a vocalist.

So i'm avalaible for it as well

lets see what happens

[zorrow]

Still nothing? No demos from your bands either?

Well, I'm working on a couple of tracks on my side. More news here very soon.