Long story.

Since getting BIAB (last year) I have wondered if I could use it to "enhance" some older recordings I have.
Most of the time, it's best to start over and re-record songs completely using BIAB.
But there are a handful of old recordings that have some little bit of magic that I would hate to lose.
Stuff that I cannot necessarily recreate. But, I have new ideas for them..

Such is the case with this song. It was recorded in 1980 in a studio in Philadelphia. (Ah... the good ol' days)
It has an organ part that I like and the BIAB organs don't have the "bite" that this does. (would love to see some like this in BIAB!)
And the guitar can't be found here either (ditto!).
It is a bit different than what you may have heard from me before.

I have the original 24-track tape and a 1/4" master mixdown (15ips) - and nowhere to play either.
Which leaves me a very worn and terribly "hissy" cassette tape. I wanted to bring it back to life.
And I wanted to add a sax - thought it needed "something more" than what was there originally.

I recorded the cassette to my computer and did my best to remove some hiss.
I loaded it into ACW in BIAB to capture the chords and tempo/timing the best I could.
The original recording was done "live" with drums, bass, guitar and organ and my acoustic. So the timing was "iffy".
I managed to get it into BIAB to generate the sax parts (We'll fix it in the mix...)

To brighten the vocal I doubled it (singing with myself from 33 years ago!).
I added some harmonies - the original had none.
Then added sax parts - snippets here and there - building parts from the sax generated by BIAB.

I thought it would be nice to have some "chick singers" in the chorus.
So I asked Joanne (jo131) and Josie (Sundance) and Janice (Janice & Bud) if they would be my backup.
They all agreed. Ya gotta love this place, dontcha?
We'll call them "the Girls" - since they constitute the entire female population of the PG forum.

Before it was all said and done, I added a siren as well....

So a WHOPPING BIG THANK YOU to Joanne, Josie and Janice for helping me out on this! Y'all are the best!

Hope you enjoy this. As always... comments encouraged.

RealTracks:
RealTracks in song: ~1054:Sax, Alto, Soloist SmoothJazzCool Sw16 075



DIAMONDS


b-19, bingo
somebody hit it rich
the pool halls and the penny arcade
applaud the winners and make their pitch
but somewhere on this dark friday night
there's a winner who's yet unsung
the police sirens and the warehouse alarm
are screaming at the top of their lungs

(chorus)
diamonds, cool diamonds
the warehouse has been hit
it's bad luck to cast your shadow in the moon
keep to the dark until the hounds forget

now you come around here boasting things
that no one ought to hear
if you insist on talking so loud
someone's gonna put you out on your ear
you think you're so cool because you pulled it off
i hope you tied the ends up neat
man, this stuffs gonna make us both rich men
as soon as it hits the street

repeat chorus

leave word with the blue man
if you plan on coming back
i'll leave a light on in the back room
and a window up a crack
there's a game every night until three or four
bring some dough and we'll let you play
show some sense kid, don't get greedy
we might even let you stay

repeat chorus


Have at it...

floyd

150+ Songs produced using BIAB RealTracks
And 50 more...
and some more...