I bought a PS-02 to fiddle with and since it looks like there aren't a ton of mp3's out there, I've made a quickie after playing with it for an hour or so. Its called 'Whats wrong with the Key of A?' for reasons that will be obvious.
Technical details: The guitar is an Ibanez S-540 which is plugged directly into the PS-02. I don't have a bass handy, which is why you get the bassline you get.
So far, I'm pretty amused with the little unit. Its a lot of fun and fairly easy to use. I'm not wild about the punch in and out, but its only been a couple of hours. I just rerecorded entire tracks until I got something (barely) tolerable. I recorded the output of the PS-02 directly into my soundcard with CoolEdit 96 for Windows and used CDEX with the LAME mp3 encoder which is the best thing I've found for this sort of thing.
Sounds great. Can you share more of your recording technique with us? How many tracks did you lay down? What sort of panning did you use? Is this one of the native rhythm tracks? What patch did you use to record the guitar part -- preset or if you modified it, how? I don't mean to be nosey. I'm sort of new at this and I'm trying to get better at playing and recording with the PS-02. Your comments would be helpful.
Thanks for posting the MP3. It truly does sound really good.
More recording details, per request
October 23 2001, 2:07 PM
More details, 'eh? OK. I listen to it today and its busier than it was last night, but it was just a goof so it is what it is.
There are 3 total guitar tracks and the included bass+drums. You'll notice the bass is constantly 'A', as I've not yet fiddled with how to change it. I fudged the walk thing at the end of the first figure with the guitar and the bass is hopefully buried, cause its still in 'A'.
I recorded a half dozen or so rhythm guitar tracks before I got an arrangement that I could fool with. It ended up being panned slightly left. The second guitar part is panned slightly right and was probably rerecorded from scratch around 15-20 times before I arrived at whats there. The third guitar part is panned slightly left and has delay and added reverb where the other two were slightly reverb'ed but no delay or chorus. track 3 took around 10 or so takes. In all cases, I just hit the erase sequence before rerecording. I wasn't comfortable with the punch-in/out mechanism so I didn't use it yet.
The guitar effect patch was one of the 'UK drive' patches that I adjusted the EQ around a little bit to be tolerable. Nothing extensive, just scratching the surface of the effects edit menu. I think the drive may be full-on, or close to it.
MP3
October 23 2001, 3:16 PM
Thanks for the details. That really helps me. Like I said, I'm trying to learn more about the process of recording in general and specifically how to better use this great tool. The first time I tried it, I was surprised at how hard it is to play one part all the way through without messing up. What I find to be most challenging is recording a vocal. I guess when I sing and play at the same time, I tend to add a measure if I miss a cue. I'm learning you gotta hit the cues on exactly the right measure. That can be hard to do if there is an instrumental break followed by another verse.
Chris Hurley
Untitled
October 23 2001, 3:27 PM
I haven't recorded with the mic, but I was surprised at how good it sounded through the headphones. It was very lively and sounded nothing like it looks. (dinky and silly)
I would expect that I'd sing the vocals after recording the instrumentation, but if you could do them simultaneously and reasonably without error, why not. I'm not sure I'll be able to keep the unit now that I have it due to the amount of money I have tied up in it, but it won't be because it isn't neat. I certainly is.
Your part about playing all the way through without error is a good one. The unit has a punch-in feature, but I'm not really familiar with it yet, so I can't say how well it works.
U da Man!!
November 11 2001, 12:22 AM
Hey Chris -
I just listened to your little ditty, and it's way cool!! It would be really good to know how you came up with the lead patch (ie. where'd you put the eq?). Anyway, back to the song... It's a great example of what fresh pearls can fall out of an impromptu session. I'd love to see you finish it up and post a final. My vote (not that I should have one!) would be to keep the solid 'A' bassline. Its a cool drone thing that creates a tasty backdrop to showcase yur flashy chops! In short, I think it's a groovy motif that deserves further attention!!
Chris Hurley
Which patch?
November 11 2001, 11:57 AM
When I get my new PS02, I'll see which patch it was based on. I forget offhand, but I made it several times and should be able to find it again. I wasn't sure I was keeping the unit at the time, so I wasn't that concerned about saving the patches. This time around, I'll be saving them (and posting if anyone is interested)
I'd really like to see the support for our little gem swell up a bit. It really is the best of the bunch.
