# Song and Tune Projects > Song and Tune Projects >  Midnight on the water

## Chip Booth

Since Midnight on the Water is the song for the month on the MandoJam page I thought I'd try my hand at it. #I found a few written versions of it this evening and then mangled the melody to fit my taste. #You can find the Tabledit file I created here.

I decided to give recording it a shot. #I had literally never tried to play the song on any instrument, I had only been working with the melody on the computer. #I just ran the tape three times and got these tracks. #(OK, I admit it, I fixed one out of tune bass note, but otherwise it is live and untouched.) #I think it turned out ok under the circumstances.

You can listen to the recording here.

In case you are interested in technical stuff I used a Neumann KM184 straight to the ProTools Mbox. #No EQ or compression, just some reverb on the mandolin. #The Mandolin is an '85 Flatiron F5 (tone bar braced), the guitar is a '67 D21 (brazillian), and the bass is a 60's Kay M1 (plywood  ).


Chip

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## Ken Sager

Great tone, Chip, all the way around. Very nice arrangement, too.

Best,
Ken

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## James P

Beautifully played too. Thanks!

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## bradeinhorn

very nice

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## Milan Christi

Darned pretty! Lots of feeling and warmth. Guitar and mandolin both sound stellar.

p.s. - thanks for the TAB!

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## Mike Bunting

That is very pretty indeed. Did you load it up to the mandozine site by chance? I'm on Mac and can't download it from here.

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## Chip Booth

Thanks for the nice comments everyone. 

Mike, I have not uploaded it to MandoZine, but if you want it I can email it to you. PM me with your address.

Chip

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## Mike Buesseler

Might be my all-time favorite rendition of that tune, Chip. Splendid!

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## Steve Cantrell

Excellent work, Chip. Just great tone--very impressive.

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## Adam Tracksler

nice job!

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## AlanN

Perfect.

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## El Greco

Very nice tune, perfectly arranged and played. Great job.

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## sgarrity

One of my favorite tunes to play. very nice job! Try it in Drop-D tuning on the guitar. Adds a whole new dimension.

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## Chip Booth

Shaun, I can't imagine why I didn't think to do that. It seems incredibly obvious now that you say it out loud.

Again, I appreciate the comments. Let's hear some of your recordings!

Chip

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## sgarrity

I played that tune for years and never thought of it either. I'm a mando picker that plays a little guitar. So alt-tunings has never been my thing. But Drop-D is very easy to do. And the sound you get.....just amazing. If I can get my mic working in the next few days I'll record it and post the results

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## PaulD

Very nice version of one of my favorite tunes. Great tremolo... very smooth, and as others have stated: great arrangement and phrasing.

The Fiddle Fakebook recommends playing it with a drop-D tuning on the fiddle... I've not tried it because the G tuner on my fiddle is finicky so once it's tuned I leave it alone. I played through this tune several times last night on the Mix A5... the sustain of that mando is wonderful on this tune. I've been wanting to try some more multi-track recording with my Zoom H4 so maybe I can have something to post this weekend.

pd

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## bigdaddyguitar

So beautiful.

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## David M.

> Try it in Drop-D tuning on the guitar. Adds a whole new dimension.


"drop-d" is how it's played on the fiddle, too. DDAD tuning, so the G string goes ALL the way down to a D. Very cool fiddle tuning, also known as "dead man's tuning". don't think i'd try that on mando unless i had stout G strings on it.

Chipbooth, very nice stuff. very nice indeed.

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## dan@kins

A gorgeous tune.

Very nice job on the instrument parts.

Very nice job on the recording.

Well done all the way around.

I especially like the tempo and you have a good sense of timing.

Keep up the good work!

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## djidaho

Nice, & I'll bet the cat was asleep & not chewing on you or the intruments during that.
Dave

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## ellisppi

A nice variation is to play the A part on the G string 7th, 9th, & 11th fret and strum the D & A open while playing the melody

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## Chip Booth

Thanks again for the comments all. #

Tom, I will try your variation, it sounds like a great idea, thanks!

Dave,  . #See you this weekend? #

Chip

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## Ken Olmstead

I love the sound and the playing is fabulous! On the technical side, would you share the mike placement that you used? How much experimenting did you do before you were happy with that beautiful mando tone you got?

Thanks, Ken

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## Chip Booth

Ken, glad you like the recording. #As for mic placement I had it about a foot from the mandolin, pointed roughly at the treble F hole. #The mandolin is about the easiest instrument I know to get a good mic sound from, unlike guitar which is about the hardest. #A good mandolin seems to sound fine miced anywhere as long as it's not too close, the only thing being when close micing I usually go for the treble side rather than bass. #On this recording mic placement was hardly even a thought in my head. #I was just trying to read through the parts and see what the song sounded like. 

Chip

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## Ken Olmstead

It is amazing how it happens that way sometimes. Thanks for sharing it, I'm going to have to check out that CD you've worked so hard on! Thanks again, Ken.

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