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Topic: Anyone want to steel this song? |
Bill Llewellyn
From:
San Jose, CA
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Posted 12 Apr 2003 5:05 pm |
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One of my all time favorite rock ballads is "I Want to Know What Love Is" by Foreigner. I've got a reasonably nice MIDI studio at home, so I made an accompaniment track for the song so a lead instrument can play along. (The track is not an exact chord-for-chord copy, I've taken my own tack to some degree.) I've uploaded an MP3 copy of the track for y'all to tinker with. My challenge to anyone here who's interested and has the necessary audio gear is to play steel along with the track, record it, MP3 it, and put it online for us all to hear.
Any takers? Here's the MP3 file (about 6MB):
http://www.rahul.net/thinker/audio/mp3/I_Want_to_Know.mp3
Go for it! 
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Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?
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Niklas Widen
From:
Uppsala, Sweden
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Posted 13 Apr 2003 11:21 am
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Yeah, I'll give it a try as soon as I've made some adjustments and fixed up my steel! I've just begun fooling around with recording and I'm currently working on a steel arrengement of Eric Johnson's "Cliffs of Dover"...Great backing track by the way!
/Nicke Widén |
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Bobby Lee
From:
Cloverdale, California, USA
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Posted 13 Apr 2003 11:35 am
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| Hey Bill, do you have a chart or MIDI file of the melody? That would really help. |
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Bill Llewellyn
From:
San Jose, CA
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Posted 13 Apr 2003 6:22 pm
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b0b,
Let me work on that. I'm not sure how the track will sound using general MIDI patches instead of the select patches from my outboard gear that I used for the MP3 (I think a lot might be lost). Still, I'll try and come up with a good MIDI file and post the link here. It may take a few days. |
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Bill Llewellyn
From:
San Jose, CA
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Posted 15 Apr 2003 6:51 am
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| Bob, I've tried making up a general MIDI file but I'm having problems. First, the general midi instruments in my Mac (Quicktime Musical Instruments) sound quite different from the samples in my outboard MIDI gear. I had to make a lot of compromises. As a result, the reworked track sounds cheesier than a Brie fondue. Then when I exported the file to a general MIDI file and played it, the instrument selection re-did itself and sounded even worse. I might be able to coax the MIDI file into sounding better, but it will take some work. Maybe this coming weekend.... Thanks for your patience. |
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Bill Terry
From:
Bastrop, TX
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Posted 15 Apr 2003 7:28 am
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Bill, I may be wrong, but I think it's the melody b0b needs, not necessarily a general midi file.
Maybe you could just put a synth line or something on what you have so the folks could hear what the melody does? |
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Jim Phelps
From:
Mexico City, Mexico
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Posted 15 Apr 2003 1:28 pm
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| Just wanted to say the mp3 file sounds good, you did a nice job. |
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Bill Llewellyn
From:
San Jose, CA
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Posted 15 Apr 2003 1:34 pm
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Thanks, Jim!
Bill Terry, that's a good idea. Here's someone else's complete rendition of the song. The vocal line is played on a sampled sax. Nice work, really. (Incidentally, my MP3 is in the key of E, while the MIDI link below--and the original song--are in Eb. Sorry about that).
http://www.jamesness.com/iwannaknow.html
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Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?[This message was edited by Bill Llewellyn on 15 April 2003 at 02:38 PM.] |
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Bill Llewellyn
From:
San Jose, CA
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Posted 20 Apr 2003 7:25 pm
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I've updated the above MP3.... I realized I left out a very important swell early in the song, got the drum/bass rhythm a little wrong in the verses, left out some synth fills, and I tracked it in the wrong key originally (a half step sharp). All that has been fixed. It don't eggsactly sound like the real Foreigner version, but it's playable. All of this probably won't matter a lot to those who don't know the song, but here it is anyway....
http://www.rahul.net/thinker/audio/mp3/I_Want_to_Know.mp3
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Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?
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Bill Llewellyn
From:
San Jose, CA
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Posted 28 Apr 2003 8:13 am
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I think somebody just emailed me an MP3 of their steel work with this track, and I accidentally deleted it!  I don't even know who the sender was! It was a message entitled "I Wanna Know" with a 6.7MB attachment. So if that person reads this, please accept my apologies and resend the MP3. Thanks!!
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Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?
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Bill Llewellyn
From:
San Jose, CA
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Posted 14 May 2003 1:05 pm
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Ok, so far I have had one respondent email me an mp3 of their efforts. A great piece of work, though the contributor wishes to keep the recording and their name private. I've got a week off (between jobs) and got a chance to hack at a steel track myself. It's kind of a first-pass with only a few small cut/paste repairs to prevent listener nausea. I tried to avoid that kind of artificial fix-up stuff so y'all could hear my unadulterated and relatively unrehearsed playing. This is all from one take (after a few dry runs). I recorded my MSA direct. I do plan on redoing the track later with more refinement (fancy edits included) but this time around gives the jist of me at the PSG with no real embellishments. The vamp at the end of the song is really long and I apologize that my licks got boring--that's where most of the improvement is needed. I'll flag you down when a "better" version is available. Have a listen:
http://www.rahul.net/thinker/audio/mp3/What_Love_Is_demo1.mp3
Comments are welcome!! |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 14 May 2003 5:32 pm
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| I'd like to comment, but the MP3's "blank"? |
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Jim Smith
From:
Midlothian, TX, USA
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Posted 14 May 2003 5:46 pm
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| The MP3 works for me, and it sounds great! |
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