Botched Fiddle Recording Sounds Better Than Original

I’ve made an amazing discovery! So, I was mixing a new recording of Worried Man Blues for a CD. Sometimes I record extra instruments on after and “fill in the holes,” so to speak. In this case, the mandolin and guitar and all voices were done in one take, banjo and fiddle were added on separately after.

What’s the discovery? My audio equipment has the nasty habit of recording overdubs out of sync, usually ‘late’. The fiddle track on this particular recording was clearly late and off-sync, but it happened to be exactly the distance between the on and off beats in the measure (about 0.3 seconds, I think). You’d think it wouldn’t fit so well — the backup chops certainly didn’t — but listen to my break (first the normal version, then the out-of-sync):

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Cool, eh? I think it actually sounds better the “wrong” way! More old-timey. I especially like the part around the 4 chord. I gotta learn to play like that! :-P

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  • Scott Forbes
    I hear it Luke. Sounds a little like that laying back style of Zydeko music, but with less shuffle.

    Sorry I missed you at Grass Valley. Wayne (from Lloyd's camp, sans Lloyd this year) said you were there, but I never did see you. I was around a couple years ago for a short time and then moved back to Missouri, but got to play with you guys a few times at Wolf Mountain and Plymouth. Glad to see you're still at it...

    There are very few young folks back here that are interested in Bluegrss and old-time from what I can see. I miss that part of California - all the young folks that could play circles around me!

    Keep up the good work.
  • I guess the moral of this story is... I am a total music nerd.

    Luke

    p.s. - Patsy: take a look at http://www.playingbyear.com/products
  • Pat Daily
    Hi! Sorry, I couldn't hear it either. You must have perfect pitch and timing. Mine is not. Love your gospel bluegrass. I help sing at a lot of small churches and many still like the old music as well as the new stuff. So I am listening to the tunes and enjoying them very much. I used to hear some of these in the old Holiness churches back here. Keep up the good work. Send me a brochure on your songbooks if you have one. We have a community singing group here and I will pass the info on. to our song leader. We sing on the bandstand some.(We are old fashioned here!) Thanks for an enjoyable time. Patsy Daily.
  • Um... they both sound the same to me.
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