Here is my latest mix September 2009

Never Let A Good Thing Slip Away (mixed by Gordon Adams)

Never Let A Good Thing Slip Away – Instrumental

Here’s my first mix.

Never Let A Good Thing Slip Away (cybergord mix1)

Never Let A Good Thing Slip Away (mart[1001]final mix)

Here we have the lyrics and chord guide for all those participating in the homerecording.com project

A
I’ve worked the land of opportunity
G
I see the flies settle down on me
A
I turn to face the unreality
G
And I see the curtain fall
A
I fall apart so very easily
G
Everybody wants a peice of me
A
I am the dreamer and I see it in my stars
G
I’m gonna make a bad dream come true

A           G            D                      A
I’m broken, disconnected and I’m blowing in the wind
A               G
I’m Downgraded, relegated
D                           A
Never let a good thing slip away

C                                                   G
Never let a good thing, Never let a good thing slip away
C                                                   D
Never let a good thing, Never let a good thing slip away

A
I held the rose of my fidelity
G
She was the spirit of my destiny
A
I watched the bubble burst and disappear
G
I’m gonna dread that empty space

A          G             D                  A
I’m broken disconnected, planets leading me astray
A               G
I’m Downgraded, relegated
D                           A
Never let a good thing slip away
A                   G
And I feel it in my bones
D
It filters out in to my soul….
A

A
Never let a good thing slip
G
Never let a good thing slip
D
Never let a good thing slip
A
Never let a good thing slip away

C                                                   G
Never let a good thing, Never let a good thing slip away
C                                                   D   (C) (B) (Bb)  G
Never let a good thing, Never let a good thing slip away

Before that… I was rooted in a plain live band that was borrowing that old rocknroll sound from the Fifties and churning out the same Chuck Berry come New York Dolls style riffs. Recording cost money in the studio and I was never impressed with our local studio that often even gave us free rehearsals, but they seemed disinterested in producing anything of qulaity with us and only existed because of local grants I believe.

Aside from having a good time playing gigs, I was keen to learn to write songs and I wasnt’ getting inspired with the basic sounds I was getting with my cheap guitar. The only tool I began with was one of the first Portable Amstrad Hi Fi’s that had a dubbing system built in, it was the first way to overdub tunes and mix onto one cassette tape.

When I eventually afforded a four track recorder I opted for the sleek Fostex X30 and i stuck with it for many years.
There began my experimenting with songs, sounds and creativity (in the comfort of the home). Of course a bunch of musician friends and our weekly £5 HiFi supplies (if you know what I mean) helped enormously.

I collected an array of cheap microphones and sound equipment and produced some odd disjointed compositions. The onus then was on dub music and also rigging up a number of microphones in rehearsals for my regular band. I soon put my first home made album together and I called it ‘Doomed for Destruction’ dedicated to the place where i lived which was a small bedsit that was part of a derelict and blighted block of houses. I was lucky at that time. The only neighbours were my drummers Mum and Dad and they didnt mind a bit about the racket that was coming from my yard in fact they encouraged musical creativity, for they were a down to earth Irish family and music was a big part of their life.

I soon exploited the empty block to my advantage and opened up some of the rooms for rehearsing and storing our gear without the landlady knowing what was going on, bands (Tenderman, DJF, Bandwagon, New Blood) came and went and parties were common. It was about that time i formed my own band for my own songs and welcomed my old friend Alfred Waight to be the lead guitarist, although these days an accomplished recorder,singer, songwriter and composer (DJF). He was happy to take the role of creative guitar solely to exploit his huge passion for everything guitar.

My best friends were drummers Dave McFarland and Gaz Muldoon and we knew a Saxaphone player Mick Penney and we recruited him too. I dropped my bass role and we found John Muldoon brother of Gaz to play bass. Now all my friends were a moments notice away and the creative forces began. As I said earlier most of my songs were an extension of my jam tunes that I crafted freely and shaped them up using my four track cassette recorder, sometimes experimenting with drum machines and delay pedals, old keyboards and whatever guitar foot pedals I could get my hands on.

Some of my first four track compositions were Deadpan Days, (It’s getting hard to be) The Life and Soul, Digging your own Grave, Take me for a ride and Pure and Godless. They became completed songs but there was many crazy dub and instrumental tunes that kept us amused at weekends.

I remember working with Fred Waight a lot and we enjoyed making odd and interesting tunes together, usually in Dub mode or psycheadelic guitar mode. Checkout Crossing Bridges we arranged together over my dub style drum mix.

During those times I enrolled in a local grant based Music and Media Course at the ‘Stoker’ in Coventry and they had computers, so I took advantage and used their free services to  make some drum based backing tracks to take home to my recorder and pile on the overdubs. You can see that in Melancholy Boy, Are you doing alright?, Confusion and Magic table of Dreams.

There was also many opportunities to capture my band live in rehearsals although it was very difficult to moniter levels due to the loudness and the dynamics of my creative friends. There were occasions when we got some great takes like You’re Killing Me, We Love Our Children, Starlights and Cities and The Blood of Arabia, which incidently is my most favourite  and magic live capture, all thanks for Mick Dolan who monitered the levels that evening.

There you have an overview of my home recording experience and the history of the long forgotten and possibly unnoticed ‘Those Cucumber Shades’. Only 10 gigs and the recordings that i made are the only proof of our existance in the Eighties and early Nineties and in the suburbs of Coventry, England when the only musical association to the city…’after the demise of the early Specials’ was their fine track ‘Ghost Town’.

I usually visit my best friend Michael at the weekends and we always just jam with our guitars and watch ‘youtube’. One of our favourite website is www.projectcamelot.org. Watching and listening to the many interviews helps us figure out what is really going on in the world. A passion we have shared for over 20 years.

Back in February 2009 Mick stumbled upon a tune, that immediately inspired me to write a song and the theme quickly transpired into a track dedicated to the coming ‘Ascension of 2012′. Mick (who claims to be enlightened) has always known something wonderful is going to happen, since his brush with death many years ago and also a self- realization experience a few years later.

Working quickly and a few hours at weekends we finally recorded the track using our copy of Acid 5 Music Recording Software. Mick has never recorded guitar and fancies himself as a lead guitarist, so we took a little time to bring that about. Can you imagine how excited he was when I finally captured his ‘lead break’?

It was only ever a sketch but by April 2009 we had what we thought was a decent song and parody of 2012. Now this is no dreamy spiritual music….no, we are of the streets of England and have grown up listening to guitar music inspired by Neil Young, Oasis, Sex Pistols, Clash, Ruts, U2, and all the rest….you get the picture.

I’m quite a prolific songwriter in my own right, yet unknown and unpublished and have already a huge collection of recordings from many years ago, when I was a keen home recordist. I also have many unrecorded songs that i play on my acoustic just wishing I had the time to finish them all and publish them across the net. Of course it’s all possible now with all the new digital software and mp3 music sites and stores.

I don’t have much time or money so when I completed the song and the tracks recorded, my mix just wasn’t enough. So I went searching for an online mixer/sound engineer willing to finish the mix. Unsuccessful with independent mixers in a Google search, I suddenly stumbled upon the forums at www.homerecording.com and duly wrote a post ‘Can anyone mix my track?‘.

The response was amazing and what was only a request for a decent mix turned into a contest between the members at the forum. Guys from all over the world wanted a shot at mixing the track and what better company to be with. Most of these guys really know their stuff but talk in a language I don’t really understand at times lol.

I didn’t expect such a good response and such good mixes and i appreciate their enthusiasm and professionalism very much. I’ve since offered a prize for the winner. And the winner….will be chosen by my good friend Mick on May 4th 2009 and we will use the mix for a simple video on youtube.

May the 4th be with you!

Here are the final mixes as of midnight May 4nd 2009. Please feel free to vote for your favourite mix.

Winner of the ‘Mix Contest’ is revealed at our youtube.com channel AscensionTime2012

Which is the best mix?

• Lo-Fi Mike
• Noisewreck
• Mart[1001]
• Fishmed
• nzausrec
• Dastrick
• Jugband
• cybergord

View Results

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• Polls Archive

Lo-Fi Mike

Noisewreck

Mart[1001]

Fishmed

nzausrec

Dastrick

Jugband

cybergord

Killthepixelnow

About the recording:
Briefly …we found a decent Drum Live Rocknroll break from a CD I purchased from the USA. I quickly recorded a bass track with my headless Hohner (Steinberg Copy) which unfortunately has not  had a string change for 5 years. Guitars were sloppily recorded using a small practice amp through our only working microphone an old flat PZM.

I purchased a second hand Samson USB microphone off Ebay because I wanted something to work with my laptop and not just for singing but for future voiceovers in my work as a webmaster. A few days before I posted my request, i finally nailed my lyrics and recorded the vocal dry into my laptop. Now I could feel there was enough for a possible mix. Nothing really professional here but in the spirit of home recording, we have something alive and kicking.