Robben Ford Discussion

spatzi · Senior Member Joined: 27 Oct 2005 Posts: 65

Finally, 'Rugged road' gets some good vocals from Sandy, and a polished recording. Did this at home with guitar tracks pro. I played guitar and bass, added a bit of 'wah'. I only had drum loops, so the drums are not going to be quite as exciting as played live with a good drummer.

Vocals recorded with my new Apex condensor mic. I must say it came out well, and has nice mellow, acoustic vibe during the vocal sections. Took forever to get everything balanced properly and panned. The solos were recorded direct with only the zen drive. As tempting as it was to just play Robben's solos, I did my own.

Sandy is going to be singing at least another 6 Ford songs, and I will post them as soon as I get them.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=587982

Sweet_emotion16 · Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 2:59 pm Post subject:

uhhh as hard vocally as rugged road is to nail, your version vocally is a mess.. your singer is struggling throughout the whole thing to stay on key.. definitly not the song to do live .. cuz it doesn't fit her... at all!!!
id say stick to something a little more straight up blues until she gets a feel for robbens singing style then maybe try it again.. but the guitar playing is top notch .. keep it up!!!
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Ron S · Senior Member Joined: 05 Feb 2005 Posts: 116 Location: UK

Yep I'm with sweet on that, but I would add that I think the reason for the slightly wavering vocal is that Rugged Road has a major(ish) feel and Spatzi is playing Bm when the original plays in a dominant 7th tonality.

This could be the reason for the vocalist sounding a little weird because our 'Robben ears' are hearing minor thirds where there should be major thirds.

I'm not that keen on her tone, but as Sweet said some nice lead work though.

spatzi · Senior Member Joined: 27 Oct 2005 Posts: 65

Thanks for feedback on this. Sandy wasn't crazy about this vocal either. She's actually really 'mellow' compared to the way she sings live. But it was the only one I had to work with.

I'll post some of the latest 'live' versions of 'Rugged road', 'Strong will to live', 'Help the poor', 'hand in hand with the blues' and 'Think twice' in the next day or so. I would appreciate feedback. The set list is being built, and I need to know what works and what doesn't. The present band lineup has only played together for 3 sessions, so it's getting better as we go.