Season #376 ~ Ukin’ Together

Mezcalero

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So this week, what I am primarily looking for is collaborations. They can come in many forms. You can record yourself live with family/friend/fellow UU members, you can do long distance collaborations with friends/fellow UU members. Also, as I’ve done with Joo, one of you can do all of the audio and another member can put together the video, and that would qualify. I’m even open to collaborations on songwriting. If you do the music and a friend writes the words or visa versa this will also qualify.

I realize that this may seem overwhelming for some of you. So if for any reason you are not comfortable or don’t feel capable etc, I am going to offer a few more options.

Option 1 - It turns out my birthday is this week. So in that spirit, I will accept any song that was written or performed by someone whose birthday falls on any day of this weeks theme which is April 28th - May 5th.

Option 2 - The Kentucky Derby is happening this week, so I will accept any songs about horse racing, or horses, which could include the rodeo. I’m pretty flexible here so; any song on any soundtrack from any movie whose story revolves primarily around horse racing and or horses would be acceptable.

Option 3 - I will accept songs whose primary theme is about collaborating, working together etc.

Original songs are very welcome. You can do non collaborations as long as they somehow fit the 3 options above.

I’d like to hear ukuleles somewhere in the mix, but I am going to be very flexible on some of the non traditional instruments a lot of us ask about such as ~ Tenor guitar, guitar, banjos, mandolins basically any thing with strings is welcome this week, and it can even be the most prominent instrument, as long as I can hear ukulele somewhere in the mix.

To start I am going to place a one song a day limit on non collaborations. There will be no limits on collaborations of any kind.

Many of you probably know that I regularly collaborate with some fellow UU members who have become my friends. Myself, Jon and Joo are all willing to collaborate with fellow members this week who are collaborating for the first time as long as time allows. Reach out early, as we will accept as many offers as we can before making note that we are fully committed due to volume. If any of you who are experienced with collaborating have some advice or are willing to collaborate with other first timers, Please make a note on the thread.

The song should be finalized between April 28th and May 5th in whatever part of the world you find yourself in, and submitted between midnight April 28th and midnight May 5th, Hawaiian time. If you can, please take time to listen to others videos and offer comments. And if you’ve never hosted before, I’d encourage you to consider trying it :)

Playlist Link ~ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5FgrFq3aYVfPyzSgtTEZQRMycfQ2Mjqx

Cheers,
kev
 
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Great idea, Kevin. Now who's up for a collaboration with me? Have any of you got a tune you'd like words too, or lyrics you'd like to have put to a melody?
 
Great idea for the week, Kevin! I feel like a real cop-out but I am going to have to opt for an option. Even if anyone was bonkers enough to want to do a collaboration with me, I am nearing the end of my monthly Internet "allowance" and have only 5 Gigas to last me till next Sunday. (For those of you who do not have to concern yourselves with such matters, this is NOT MUCH, and simply wouldn't allow for the time involved in doing a collab.) With some judicious juggling, I can, hopefully, manage to do one or two solo vids, but that is all! I feel like a real party pooper ... there are times when I don't enjoy living in deepest France! I don't doubt that you and those wonderful Woodpeckers will have a great time working on your joint projects ... indeed, I look forward to seeing what everyone will bring.
 
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I'm not sure I'll be able to do any electronic collaborations.Rough week here.I wouldn't like to commit and not deliver.
I could probably turn a lyric into a song and sing it for someone.So if you have a lyric...or even a couple of verses.Most people know my general taste.But open to any lyrics really.
Also I'm interested in the mechanics of how you guys share files.I have a vague knowledge of dropbox but have never really shared anything.How do you do your collaborations? Basic procedures?
 
I'm not sure I'll be able to do any electronic collaborations.Rough week here.I wouldn't like to commit and not deliver.
I could probably turn a lyric into a song and sing it for someone.So if you have a lyric...or even a couple of verses.Most people know my general taste.But open to any lyrics really.
Also I'm interested in the mechanics of how you guys share files.I have a vague knowledge of dropbox but have never really shared anything.How do you do your collaborations? Basic procedures?
basic is my middle name, i do everything in the lowest possible tech!

one handy way to share an audio is simply to email it, the files are usually easily small enough to go as an attachment to an email, so once you connect with someone to collab with, swapping email addresses is all you need to do to swap audio tracks

also you can make a vid - mebbe just the audio over a simple blank screen or song title, or just you playing the song - and upload it to youtube, set it to "unlisted", so only the person you send the link of it to, can see it. i can only do really simple collab adds to songs, so often just that vid on youtube, or the audio file, is enough for me to play it through my stereo or whatever, and literally play and sing along and record that - not necessarily the cleanest sound or cleverest method, but it's very straightforward for me

i'm sure other people will fill in details on more advanced ways to share stuff!
 
I'm not sure I'll be able to do any electronic collaborations.Rough week here.I wouldn't like to commit and not deliver.
I could probably turn a lyric into a song and sing it for someone.So if you have a lyric...or even a couple of verses.Most people know my general taste.But open to any lyrics really.
Also I'm interested in the mechanics of how you guys share files.I have a vague knowledge of dropbox but have never really shared anything.How do you do your collaborations? Basic procedures?

Hey John, I use something called wetransfer which is free and can send any size audio or video file i've ever thrown at it. So as an example, if you recorded yourself live, singing and playing, you could send the file this way, and I could play/sing over it and send it back mixed and ready to turn into a video. I've never tried it, but I've seen folks who can a live video with audio of you playing and singing, and then take a live video of themselves playing and singing over it, and make a collage video of the two the of you doing your parts. That's something I'd love to learn how to do
 
I'm game for any collabs. I've done the video editing for some in the past but have always been bad at getting them to sync. Quite happy to send my stuff to someone more skilled though.

Another method I used once to finally finish a 4 year-old collab was take a video Lynda had sent me unlisted and play it through the YouTube app on my telly and then play along with that. Unless you've got a good mic set up I probably wouldn't recommend it though because I lost a lot of quality doing it through my phone.

I have a feeling we're going to get some very special stuff this week Kevin.
 
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i really do love to do that play-along-to-someone-else's-vid thing that ryan just described - it's a primitive method, and you do inevitably compromise on sound quality a bit, but it's actually alot of fun, and a really super-accessible way in to this collab lark, for anyone taking their first steps this week. ryan actually did a great job with that vid he describes doing, the great thing was you could see my vid in shot, and you could see him playing in front of that screen, you could see everything really happening in real time, and i thought it all sounded great! :rock: the great and very sadly missed ukeydave did a similar thing where he played a rather bad vid of mine on his telly, and went back and forth in front of the screen, playing tambourine, and making the song brilliant! a magic moment and a great memory - and proof this is actually a super method and loads of fun
 
howdy all.
wanted quickly to mention that for some reason unbeknownst to me
i am neither able to send or receive pm's on the forum.
if anyone would like a co-collaborator or any sort of help in mixing, editing, recording
and putting together a clip you can contact me here:
singtomeofautumnleaves at gmail dot com
easiest way to get me a raw file is to just send via email or, as kev said, through wetransfer.
i can then download your recording onto my laptop and do any overdubs
through my recording system; joo and i use a very basic program called audacity
and an expensive though serviceable USB mic.
i would then mix a final recording down and email it back to you.
we could then decide what ideas for a video we have and go from there.
alternatively, just make a live recording to camera and send me either the youtube link or raw mp4 file
and i can convert it to audio - then simply go through the same steps as above.
have an awesome week everyone, it's going to be a beauty.
 
howdy all.
wanted quickly to mention that for some reason unbeknownst to me
i am neither able to send or receive pm's on the forum.
if anyone would like a co-collaborator or any sort of help in mixing, editing, recording
and putting together a clip you can contact me here:
singtomeofautumnleaves at gmail dot com
easiest way to get me a raw file is to just send via email or, as kev said, through wetransfer.
i can then download your recording onto my laptop and do any overdubs
through my recording system; joo and i use a very basic program called audacity
and an expensive though serviceable USB mic.
i would then mix a final recording down and email it back to you.
we could then decide what ideas for a video we have and go from there.
alternatively, just make a live recording to camera and send me either the youtube link or raw mp4 file
and i can convert it to audio - then simply go through the same steps as above.
have an awesome week everyone, it's going to be a beauty.
I have a collaborator right by my side here, but would love to play one with you guys. Call the tune.
 
I have a collaborator right by my side here, but would love to play one with you guys. Call the tune.

Lefty, let's do one by Townes or Mr Tod for old timers sake. :) sound ok?
you guys lead off if you like and we'll carry the torch...
if you reckon it could do with an instrumental break maybe just leave some space to play in
love you mate
- Pancho
 
As some of you will know, I play keyboards. Of late I’ve started to add some accompaniment on the keys to my uke songs - nothing too complex, just enough to (hopefully) add some depth to the sound (eg https://youtu.be/BR1Yy96RIp8 ). The keyboard I use for this isn’t high tech but does have a whole load of preset tones that sound reasonably authentic across a whole range of instrument sounds.

Anyway - rather than do anything on ukulele this week, I’d be happy to offer my keyboard services to anyone that wants to email me an audio of their uke song (ideally mp3 or m4a format) with an idea of the instrument sound you’d like added, along with lyrics and uke chords and I’ll see what I can do with it. I’ll keep it pretty simple so the uke is prominent. I’ll then email the result back for you to do with as you please (if you don’t like what I’ve done you shouldn’t feel under any obligation to use it!).

If you have something in mind please PM me first, then we can exchange email addresses and go from there.

EDIT: You could even get your finished vid over to me via Dropbox - I could then add keyboards and Dropbox it back for you to post. In retrospect this would probably be the easiest option!
 
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