Hotel California synthesiser dance recording attempts


These are live versions of Hotel California trying to do it with synthesisers, just to give you an idea of what this song would sound like with some electronic noise and a dance beat. It definitely needs guitars IMO, including perhaps an acoustic (maybe acoustic sustained). The recording quality is not the best. especially the vocals. Things get a bit better (as it should hopefully) with the newest version v2 where my vocals aren't so tired with a Ibiza 2004 dance/trance beat. There's no need to hear the older versions unless you want to hear a different background setting and tired vocals.

My excuses for the first two versions are are that I had been up for more than 36 hours so my voice sounds really tired, especially since these are the nth attemptsq at recording this song (since the previous attempts didn't give enough length for the long ending to be recorded). It's just to give you an idea of what a synthesiser based Hotel California would sound. The end part is kind of repetitious (it is also in the original song) and remember I am playing ALL the parts here simultaneously live. The v0 version is based on a "rock" beat in the Clavinova and "6-8 trance" for the v1 version.

The way my studio is set up is that 16 audio tracks corresponding to various instruments, effects processors, and microphones that go into the digital mixer are digitally recorded (via USB) and then I can remix them if I wish. I've not remixed anything here. I've recorded technically 3 tracks (the two from the keyboard with balanced inputs and one vocal track completely unprocessed and unbalanced).

In other words, I'm just recording "16" tracks and then merging them as is into two tracks and then from that wav creating an mp3 file (this is done using a Unix tool called "sox" --- so it is just sox with recording and then using sox to merge the tracks and then using lame for the mp3 encoding). So the vocal track is originally recorded on only one channel and merged into the final stereo mix as is. In the real world, the vocal track might be processed, duplicated, run through autotune (I can do that but I chose not to---this is going to be one of the rare occasions where you hear my voice unprocessed and as is).

I can solo better if I had my daughter or someone else playing the rhythm. Right now I'm just trying to get the guitar sounds at the end of the song using synthesisers. If you're patient and wait for the very end you'll see some of that come through. I actually think that the trance beat is the way to go with the synthesiser sound and the song sounds better at the end with the sustained trance-like playing rather than trying to replicate the staccato guitar style in the original version. But perhaps an acoustic guitar and/or an electric guitar can be added with a lot of sustain. (I'm trying to make a new version rather than replicate the old one entirely.)

Sorry for all the flubs but they also illustrate how the electronic noise can make the song sound cool.

Comments are welcome! I believe this concept could be made into a cool version of this song. Adding sustained guitars grunge style might be really synergistic. And I need to sing when I am not tired.

(At least one person has said that this is better than the original. I can understand that since I love electronic synthesiser sounds extremely; I like the guitar sounds also but not everyone does. I am not doing this to please anyone or sell copies, so this is true art.)


TWISTED HELICES || Ram Samudrala || ram@twisted-helices.com