I had this idea to play a melody to a rain recording, as if I was sitting in a room with the windows open, listening to rain hitting different surfaces on the porch. Just a guitar player creating a little rain melody, not composing a song.
I don’t know whether this is something anyone else would enjoy, but I quite love the unadorned quality of this. It’s not composed, the way I am considering and selecting these words, it’s simply a conversation with the rain, an improvisation born of a moment, in an, albeit imagined, environment.
I picked a rain recording I hadn’t yet listened to and set up the microphone. As before, I used the Earthworks SR40, plugged into the MixPre-6, which was connected to my laptop via USB-C. I am really pleased with the sound of the guitar. The mic was pointed at the end of the fretboard diagonally and from a little less than a foot a way.
Ottmar, I love this – what a great idea.
How do you record the rain?
Looking forward very much to this release
I mentioned the rain recordings here:
https://ottmarliebert.com/2022/04/15/the-rhythms-of-rain/
The rain was recorded by a very good sound recordist in New Zealand. His website for recordings and sound effects is called HISS and a ROAR:
https://hissandaroar.com/v3/
The rain recordings are a perfect marriage with your music.
Thanks for the info
Ian
The sound of the guitar is so warm and rich, but I found myself focusing back and forth between the guitar and rain sounds, which made me anxious.
This is very interesting. I can imagine many different reasons for your reaction:
1. volume: the rain is simply too loud for you against the guitar and a mix that adjusts the rain down would sound better
2. rhythm: rain isn’t as steady as a good drummer, or a drum machine, and as a result the melody goes in and out of sync with the rhythm. That creates tension, which we can either enjoy or which can turn into anxiety
3. the left side of the rain rhythm sounds slower, to me, than the right side. That creates a tension between the sides. This could feel interesting or disturbing, depending on your POV.
4. in the 80s I lived in a leaky loft in Boston and became sensitive to drop sounds. To this day a slow drip-drop will wake me from deepest sleep and I wake up looking for the source
This also brings up an idea: when I no longer work to create an album for streaming, which has to reach as large of an audience as possible, I can release several different versions of the music I create for the members of Backstage. This would be a good example – different levels of the rain background.
The melody is beautiful, comforting in a way.
Sunday morning kind of music, before the day takes over.
Thank you.
I’ve listened to this 13 times since discovering it today. It just resonated with me exactly!
I even pulled out my long-ignored guitar so I could try to pick out what you were playing.
Thank you for sharing, this is so beautiful (and I’m damn sorry I missed you at Yoshi’s – I got to see you last time you were through)