Loch Erroch Side

[John Kelly]

Have just recorded this tune, got from Maudlin Mandolin of this parish, and used my octave rather than the mandolin version MM has posted elsewhere.

[xiledscot]

Thanks for that John.I certainly prefer this tune played on an Octave rather than a Mandolin.It also raises an important point.
As one multi- instrumentalist to another,which tunes to play on which instruments?I suppose at the end of the day it comes down to personal taste,but there are certain tunes that sound better on e.g. TB than on Mandolin,and vice versa.Octave sounds much better when playing many Scottish and Irish tunes because of the tone produced..........room for everything? Of course!
What system are you using to record?It sounds like you are double tracking with guitar.Can you e.g. four track with you playing all of the instruments? Where is the video?

[luthierseye]

Great piece! And you did a great job of it. BTW, what is your instrument? I know it's an OM, but who built it. It sounds marvelous!

[Niall Anderson]

Great piece! And you did a great job of it. BTW, what is your instrument? I know it's an OM, but who built it. It sounds marvelous!

Chances are it's an instrument John built himself - he's a rather talented luthier - http://www.luthierjohn.co.uk/

[John Kelly]

Thanks for all the comments, guys.
To deal with each in turn: I absolutely agree with you, D Mac, that some instruments are better than others at interpreting a specific tune; I like the octave, and indeed the bouzouki , for the better sustain but also it lets me try to get the snap into Scottish tunes and especially pipe tunes where I try to get some sort of ornamentation to simulate the pipe ornaments.

As far as recording, I use Reaper software which I have on my laptop and record via an Edirol UA25 which allows me to use condenser mics (a big part of getting a good sound with the acoustic instruments). I usually record the melody first on 1 track then put on headphones and set up a 2nd track to record backing chords, then add tracks as I want with the other instruments. FOr the final mix I may add in a bit of reverb or other effect but I keep them to a minimum. I pan the tracks with the melody in the centre and the other tracks panned right or left in varying degrees to give me better separation. Final job is to render to mp3 format for posting here or as YouTube background. No video for this tune at present!

Luthierseye, the octave is one of my own builds, as Niall has suggested. I have been building for the past 8/9 years since I retired from gainful employment as a teacher of English. Wanted to do something different!

I have posted over on the SAW group under Lovers Waltz my version of this tune by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, played on bouzouki then tenor, with mandolin added in to the second parts of each. All the instruments are my own builds.