Zoom Gear & Home Recording Forum

Zoomers,

One of the groups I play in, Cedarhill, was playing live at a local coffee house, when we were overheard by the president of the local Buddy Walk organization.

As a result, we have the honor of being the musicians to play at the upcoming Buds of the Redwoods Buddy Walk here in Eureka, California, on October 7. The Buddy Walk is sponsored by the local chapter of the National Down Syndrome Society. I wrote this song to commemorate the event. Hundreds of Buddy Walks take place in October each year. You can go to the ndss.org site or the buddywalk.org site for more information.

"Buddy" was recorded entirely on the PC, using Audiograbber line input to record the tracks and Acid for the mixdown.

You will find it on my "Other Recordings" site.

Your comments are welcome.

Howard

Edit: The event went well, and the song was well-received.

I nice recording job. A tune for the occasion, but the repetitive, walk walk walk started to sound a little like a duck, quack quack quack.

But nicely recorded, I liked it (except for the duck walk part )

Good job.

Daryl

The melody is great, but I agree, the hook is a bit over used. Cool instrumentation.

Woah,busy day here today.
I like it,considering the target audience I dont think the hook is overdone.

Daryl, Spark, <-- edit: this should be: Daryl, Cracks,

Monty's post says it all, says it all:

Thanks for listening, for listening.

Howard

I don't see a Spark post. Do you mean me?

I've listened to the song again, and while it's a bit too much repetition for me, I have to agree that it serves it's purpose well. I mean it is a walk-a-thon with many steps after steps...very repetitive.

Gets the point across in a fun tune!
&

Probably, yes. Of course, Tonto2 is half fire fighter, so could be referred to as "sparky", but I've heard others refer to you as Spark... <-- edit: my mistake, see below*
It's supposed to be. I've never attended one, but they have a website somewhere.

Thanks.

Thank you all for listening, and for your kind words.

Howard

*Mistake #1 (Ok, all right, so I've made one before this, but who's counting?):
It's easy to see how I mistook "The Cracks" for Spark, who's nickname is "kraps". It was the whole kraps-cracks thing. My apology.

Howard,

That's good of you to contribute your musical talents to this event. Nice job.

Hello Howard,
There's something of a Burl Ives quality to your stuff. Midi aside, this is another chirpy hit for the kids ... maybe you should be a guest teacher, entertaining classes! Kids love this, especially if they can dance to it, as they can with this one ...

Bravo

pete

It will be my pleasure.

Wow. Now I need to work on my goatee. Not that I've ever worn one...
Yes, the midi is now annoying, even to me.
That's what we've found when we play out. Sometimes, we have to cut songs short if they get too disruptive. My partner in this duo is a music teacher, and has a good handle on how to handle groups of kids.

Thanks to all who continue to listen and comment.

Howard

Howard, you did it again with another winner for the kids!

Two minor suggestions that would really help (I think). I hear noise at the start and end of the song. If you pull the mixed wav into Audactiy and trim off both ends that would help. Also, once in Audacity you could look for volume peaks to be flattened so as to buy some headroom for amplifying the whole song because the mix is a little quiet. Just highlight the peak and use the “Amplify” effect with a negative number to flatten things -or- if you're familiar with using filters for this kind of thing. Once you’re done you should be able to select the whole song and amplify it.

* There are nice presets in Sound Forge and other apps that would do this for you to some degree, but similar results can be obtained through Audacity with a little elbow grease.

So when is the CD going to be released?

* = I wish I had time to map things from expensive apps to free ones so everyone could leverage presets and not have to reinvent the wheel so often.

You are quite right. I didn't do my usual trimming of the raw track, I just posted it - I claim lack of time at that moment.
I can do this in my editor as well. I'll look into it. If I post an updated version, it will be with these two points in mind. Edit: I did clean up the start and ending and re-uploaded the song. Thanks, Lee.
Actually, I've done some thinking on that. I do have a master of my 12 songs for kids, ready to make some artwork for and send to my grandkids. When I've got that done, I may consider putting it up somewhere like cafepress or cdbaby. Stay tuned...

Thanks for listening and for reviewing.

Howard

That would be cool. The only thing left, or you may have it covered and haven't unveiled it yet, is a persona that will attract the attention of kids and parents alike; some kind of character that is half real and half stage. Do you have any names in mind? Like “Papa H” or something? Seriously. Some catchy name and a story like… uh, you and your songs appear through a magic radio (that the kids found) to cheer them up and help them out. A little story on the web page and CD cover may go a long way! One of those old-fashioned looking radios would be super neat! It may also fill the void for a lot of kids that don’t have a grandfather figure in their lives. I’m sure many parents would appreciate that.

Just some things to think about…

PS
The old-fashioned radio fits with the semi lo-fi sound perfectly. It's to be expected. I'm liking it... so do you have a manager? (bustin')

I had been thinking of using "Grandpa Howard", rather than "Howard Lang", so your suggestion validates that idea for me, as does the suggestion of name/story for the liner notes. The grandpa figure and old-timey radio might work. I'll think on it. Thanks for the inspiration.

Howard

Grandpa Howard works for me.

I've run out of things to say on these songs. Very simplistic, I don't really like the "home keyboard" background, especially on this one. The mix is definitely cleaner on this one than your other recent one's.