Jimi Hendrix "Fire" Isolated Guitar Track

When it comes to modern rock guitar players no one is more revered than Jimi Hendrix. Here's an inside look at his playing on one of the most popular songs from his first Are You Experienced album - "Fire." In this isolated track, you'll hear Jimi's guitars like you've never heard them before.

Here are some things to listen for.

1. Jimi was a great rhythm player and you can hear him push along the groove of the track really well here with the lower mellow guitar part.

2. There are a lot more guitars on this track than what seems apparent on the record. In fact, there's usually at least 2 and sometimes as many as 4. When there's 2 playing, Jimi keeps them separated by having one playing in a higher register while the other is in a lower register.

3. Listen to the double on the guitar solo at 1:23, but also check out the rhythm guitar underneath.

4. The reverb on the guitar sounds very much like a spring reverb.

5. Play it all the way to the end to hear the ending that's not on the record.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

How About Headphone Implants?

Many of us have a love/hate relationship with headphones when we use them. Earbuds usually don't sound that great and they tend to pop out at the most inopportune times. Full over-the-ear headphones sound a lot better, but are bulky and difficult to wear for long periods of time. Has the time come for surgically implanted earphones?

Rich Lee actually had magnet implants in the tragus of his ears that work like headphones, so he has none of these problems. He never mentions what they actually sound like in the video though.

The crazy thing is that he says you can actually buy a kit on ebay to do this, although I couldn't find one. Check out his explanation.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

Top 10 Most Misquoted Song Lyrics

Most songwriters take their lyrics very seriously, so it's painful when a listener hears them differently from the way they're written. Spotify recently came out with a list of their top 10 misquoted song lyrics after a fan survey. Here they are:

1. Manfred Mann's "Blinded By The Light" - 56%
What they hear: "Blinded by the light..wrapped up like a douche when you're rollin in the night."
The real lyric: "Blinded by the light.....revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night."

2. Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" - 19%
What they hear: "Scuse me, while I kiss this guy."
The real lyric: "Scuse me, while I kiss the sky."

3. The Clash's "Rock The Casbah" - 14%
What they hear: "Rock the cat box."
The real lyric: "Rock the Casbah."

4. Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" - 13%
What they hear: "Hold me closer Tony Danza."
The real lyric: "Hold me closer tiny dancer."

5. Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising" - 12%
What they hear: "There's a bathroom on the right."
The real lyric: "There's a bad moon on the rise."

6. Guns n' Roses' "Paradise City" - 10%
What they hear: "Take me down to a very nice city."
The real lyric: "Take me down to Paradise City."

7. Van Halen's "Panama" - 9%
What they hear: "Animal."
The real lyric: "Panama."

8. Far East Movement's "Like A G6" - 8%
What they hear: "Like a cheese stick."
The real lyric: "Like a G6."

9. TLC's "Waterfalls" - 7%
What they hear: "Don't go Jason Waterfalls."
The real lyric: "Don't go chasing waterfalls."

10. Macy Gray's "I Try" - 4%
What they hear: "I blow bubbles when you're not there."
The real lyric: "My world crumbles when you're not near."

So the next time you write a lyric, remember that someone might be hearing something different, even if it's in the title!

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

2 Tips For Bigger Sounding Background Vocals

It doesn't take much to make background vocals sound a lot bigger that just doing a double. Here's a couple of tricks from The Music Producer's Handbook to give those BGs the big sound they deserve.

"An offshoot to doubling is vocal stacking, a technique normally used on harmony background vocals. Like doubling, stacking can make a harmony vocal part sound stronger while smoothing out any tuning inconsistencies.

An example of vocal stacking would be a three piece vocal group singing a three part harmony part. After their first pass is complete, they’d double the exact parts singing it exactly the same way, then even triple track it or more, all in an effort to get a bigger fuller sound. One little trick that makes a stack sound bigger is to have the vocalists take a step back from the mic with every vocal pass while the engineer increases the mic gain to compensate for the distance. The increased ambience of the room will naturally enhance the sound without artificial means.

Another trick would be to have the vocalists change parts with every pass. In other words, the vocalist on the highest part of the 3 part harmony would move to the lowest, the one on the mid part would move to the highest, and the low part would move to the mid part. Of course, this assumes that the vocalists are pros and capable of changing vocal parts without too much of a problem, and that their voices are actually capable of performing the new parts."

You can read over 60 additional excerpts from The Music Producer's Handbook and my other books at bobbyowsinski.com.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

New Music Gear Monday: Radial Gold Digger

Radial Engineering is a company that concentrates on useful tools that audio professionals and musicians need every day. No matter what they come out with, you can be sure that it's both rugged and will work better than you expected it to. A new box they've introduced called the Gold Digger solves a problem that we've all had at some point; easily comparing different mics.

The Gold Digger is a mic switcher that allows instant comparison between 4 different mics or direct boxes. Once upon a time in the days of the big consoles with lots of inputs this wasn't too much of an issue, since you probably had 50 other identical input channels. But in todays world of the home studio with a limited number of great mic preamps, the Gold Digger is perfect for those times when you want to find the best mic for a vocalist (or anything else for that matter) with the least mount of hassle.

Each mic input supplies phantom power and has a trim control so you get a true level comparison quickly and easily. The Gold Digger retails for $349.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.