Do You Ever Add to Old Recordings ?

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 2 Aug 2007 4:10 pm

I have a lot of old tapes of jam sessions from the 60s. I'm thinking of adding tracks to some of them. For instance, on most recordings we didn't have a bass player. On several there's no steel player. Is it cheating to add one on 40 years later ?

How many of you have dug up old recordings and added to them ? (Keeping the original, of course.)

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 2 Aug 2007 6:24 pm

That might be a fun thing to do, adding tracks. Mostly I listen to old tapes and say, "How did I do that."

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 2 Aug 2007 6:51 pm

I don't think it is in the best interest of the spirit of the recording to do that.

Jon Moen · Post by **Jon Moen** » 2 Aug 2007 7:31 pm

Natalie Cole did have an Unforgetable success adding to her Dad's recordings.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 3 Aug 2007 7:52 am

Bill Hatcher wrote:I don't think it is in the best interest of the spirit of the recording to do that.

On jam sessions you're probably right.

They dubbed strings onto some of Hank Williams's recordings to come up with the "Hank Williams and Strings" album, which I didn't like. On the other hand, they added a band to a lot of Buddy Holly's demo tapes which just had him singing with an acoustic guitar. In those cases I could understand, because Buddy intended to have more instruments added when he eventually got into the recording studio, but it led to some of his numbers where you can buy three or four versions of the same recording, with other people's ideas of what the background should be.

I have some multiple-track recordings of my own where there's a gap of many years between each track being added. In those cases I just think of them as works-in-progress which took a long time to complete !

Don Sulesky · Post by **Don Sulesky** » 3 Aug 2007 1:52 pm

I've added steel to some old recordings I did in the early 70's before I played steel.
I also felt I could not duplicate what I did back then because of the old analog devices I used which I no longer have.
Don

Johnny Thomasson · Post by **Johnny Thomasson** » 2 Sep 2007 11:53 am

Ken Lang wrote:That might be a fun thing to do, adding tracks. Mostly I listen to old tapes and say, "How did I do that."

Hmm... most of the time I listen to old recordings I say, why did I do that?

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 5 Sep 2007 8:18 am

If it's your stuff do what you want.
As long as the original remains un molested,
trying something else shouldn't be ruled out.

If there was no bass player, that seems a quite appropo addition.
If you now play steel and really hear the steel missing, why not give it a try.

Worse thing happens you say;
Oh I don't like it better.

Dana Erlandson · Post by **Dana Erlandson** » 10 Sep 2007 8:37 pm

Hey, It's not like you're painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa......Go ahead have fun with it. We had a reunion of the band I played in during high school. We got alot of it down on tape... All of the players chops were quite good...All have been playing all along...except the bass player. His memories of the band were better than his playing. Needless to say I "cleaned up" a few mistakes here and there. The whole things sounds pretty cool now!!! Happy Ending

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 12 Sep 2007 12:09 pm

...and, unlike a moustache on the Mona Lisa, you still have the original available.

james sluder · Post by **james sluder** » 29 Sep 2007 8:48 pm

i have some cassett songs that our group did about 15 years ago and i was playing lead guitar with no other lead insturment.now im adding psg on them for fun & my own use.i enjoy it..

Terry Wood · Post by **Terry Wood** » 1 Oct 2007 12:23 pm

Alan,

My dad passed away the summer 1976. He was a really great old time fiddle player but never did nothing in a real recording studio.

Next, this guy during the mid 1980s brought my brother and I a copy of a cassette tape with about 15 songs that had our dad playing fiddle on it. We were blown away because it's the only recording we have of him and it wasn't the best but is okay. It had his fiddle, some rhythm guitar and that was it. I recut the bass in a analog studio with that and glad I did.

It turned out to be a real special thing for me. It's the only chance I had to really play and record music with my dad and I think it added something to the music as well. Of course we still have the original tape too. My dad would have liked it. I say have fun and go for it if you want too.

Terry Wood

Tony Palmer · Post by **Tony Palmer** » 13 Oct 2007 8:12 am

Now that that's been settled (!), could someone sugget a simple way to do this, as in with what equipment.
I don't have a digital recorder but I do have an anaolg to digital converter (i guess that is a recorder of sorts, isn't it?) and of course i have a laptop with basic recording software.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 13 Oct 2007 10:22 pm

Tony Palmer wrote:Now that that's been settled (!), could someone sugget a simple way to do this, as in with what equipment.
I don't have a digital recorder but I do have an anaolg to digital converter (i guess that is a recorder of sorts, isn't it?) and of course i have a laptop with basic recording software.

You need a recorder, whether it's an old tape recorder or a modern digital recorder, or something in-between. A laptop is not ideal for recording music. You either need a high quality soundcard, which you can't put into a laptop, or an external USBII or Firewall mixer. Only recently have computers reached the stage where they can record audio properly without dropout.
The first question you have to ask is what medium are the original recordings recorded on. Whatever that medium is you need one of those to play back your original recordings. Then you copy those recordings onto tracks on your recorder, and record the additional backing on free tracks. By far the cheapest way of doing this is to buy a used Portastudio of some sort. You can pick them up cheaply nowadays since everyone is throwing the equipment out and going digital.

The problem is that you're asking for a simple method of adding tracks, when what you really need to do is invest in a dedicated hard disk recorder. A dedicated hard disk recorder works in a similar way to your computer but it's designed specifically for music, without wasting computing power on other programs.

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 14 Oct 2007 5:44 pm

Back when I was about 16, my now brother in law and I recorded in my bedroom. I had a tape recorder with a cheap mike and I recorded us for fun. He strummed a banjo and I played guitar with a little lead work. We taped a song he wrote, and I found it among my collection of tapes. I made a CD and sent it to him. Good for a few laughs.

Now I'm buying some software that will pull out the voice by itself. Then I'll add new tracks with drums, bass, guitar and the like. He knows I'm doing it. Sounds like great fun to have him singing with a new band and a vocal track thats 45 years old.

Lavelle Pierce · Post by **Lavelle Pierce** » 22 Oct 2007 6:55 am

i use it the name www.spin it again.com i put my old records and casetts transfer to cd . every thing is on internet. you get 3 free then you will have to buy i think $35.00.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 10 Jun 2009 5:05 pm

http://www.7161.com/css_track.cfm?track ... k_id=17934

This started out as an ad lib instrumental that I made up on the spot about 15 years ago. Unfortunately I recorded it on a Vestax Portastudio at double speed, and the machine stopped working, so I haven't been able to listen to it for years. Then, two weeks ago, I repaired the machine and transferred the recording onto a Data MiniDisc. It occured to me that it would make a good song, so I wrote the lyrics, with the idea of people boogying in the back room with our old cat, Max.

Nothing special about the recording. It has a vocal and two harmonies, rhythm, lead and bass guitars, and a Guyatone D8 Non-Pedal Steel.

It's long...

It's a great number for those who are chord challenged, as you will hear.

Bob Martin · Post by **Bob Martin** » 15 Jun 2009 9:51 pm

Hey Alan it sounds like you had fun both times and that's what music is all about!! If you have more I'd go ahead and work on them too. You never know some of your kids might find them when you're long gone and really cherish them or if no children maybe other family members! Way to go music is about fun unless you are getting paid for it then it becomes a job perhaps a fun job maybe not

but none the less a paid job

Big Bob

Clete Ritta · Post by **Clete Ritta** » 15 Jun 2009 11:04 pm

Ive a few DAT tapes from long ago, wait... it wasnt that long ago DAT went passe was it? I dont have a deck though. But Id certainly not hesitate to overdub tracks digitally. Heck Keith Richards recorded the beginning guitar of Street Fighting Man on a crappy portable cassette, liked the way it sounded and transfered it to the multitrack. Its almost like a cool effect: crappy cassette tape with wow flutter and garble controls heh.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 16 Jun 2009 7:11 am

Clete: if you no longer have a DAT recorder and would like to have them transferred to another format I would be glad to burn them onto CD or DVD for you.

Clete Ritta · Post by **Clete Ritta** » 17 Jun 2009 9:23 am

Thanks Alan, I appreciate the gesture. Ive got so many though, and most are poorly labeled I wouldnt know where to start! Besides, they've been in the garage in this Texas heat for over three years, so I'd be surprised if they would even play back properly.

The Steel Guitar Forum

Do You Ever Add to Old Recordings ?

Do You Ever Add to Old Recordings ?

adding to a song.

spin it again