The Linear Canvas

I bought a used Tommy Tutone LP in the early 1990’s just to get a recording of 867-5309/Jenny. I remember being very impressed that I had found a copy of the record in such good shape at such a low price. I also remember the clerk at the used record store in Lima, Ohio was not as impressed as I was. It was just one of those songs that I had liked a lot that I just never bought when it was new. Later I recorded my version of the song.

I occasionally recorded cover songs then that I was playing, to give myself more practice at recording in general. Sometimes I destroyed the recording after I made it, sometimes not.

The problem with this recording 867-5309/Jenny was that I recorded it in my normal fashion, for back then. I would record four tracks, mix them down to a second cassette deck (with dbx noise reduction) and then record that mix to the original tape past the point where I had recorded the first four tracks. Then I would overlay more instruments on that mix, mix it down again and keep repeating until I was done or the tape ran out. It worked pretty well, but that technique made it hard to go back once you mixed it all down.

As soon as I started to edit audio digitally, I had the notion that someday I could take the individual tracks from the tapes, arrange them to start at the same time and end up with a complete recording. I understood the physical problems involved. The tape moved at the same general speed while it played, but because of sight fluctuations in speed caused by the mechanics of the playback and recording, changing tape tension as the tape ran, and the use of another tape deck that I mixed it all down to that was also doing the very same things, my work was cut out for me.

My Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) featured the ability to stretch or compress audio in time that would fit the pitch and tempo of the base tracks. I could get the tracks close enough to start them at the same time by dragging them around, but because of minor differences in the length of the track regardless of what I did, eventually they would be playing off beat to the others, resulting in an out of sync mess.

Luckily my DAW can detect beats and line them up from one track to another. It is a wonderful tool and does a very good job of bringing it all back together, but it isn’t perfect. I still hear a few parts that it was a little “loose” with, but all things considered, it does much better than I can do by trial and error.

 

867-5309 (Jenny Jenny)

[audio:http://www.linearcanvas.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/8675309 Jenny Jenny 20091225_1624.mp3]

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I sang, and played all of the instruments. I think the guitars are an Ibanez Les Paul and a Fender Stratocaster electric. The bass was a Rickenbacker 4001. The drums sounds are from a Boss Dr. Rhythm drum machine and were played on Yamaha MIDI drum pads. I originally recorded the song on my analog Yamaha MT-1000 4 track recorder. Recently I transferred it to my Fostex VF-16 digital multi-track and processed it with Cakewalk Sonar 7 Producer and Sony Sound Forge 9.