Song 10 - "With or Without You" by U2

Very well done Duncan! Nice tone as well.

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Thank you, Jerry!

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I’ve decided to go for the 50 song challenge :stuck_out_tongue:

There is so much to learn, all I can do is gain from this :slight_smile:

So the first song has already been posted to Covers thread … so I will Link it here to be included as part of my Progress.

With or Without You - U2

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a bit of distortion here and there but played well

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I am going through the 50 songs challenge and really enjoy reading back all the comments.

So much to learn from how different people are doing it. I never even considered playing with the bass in the backing track like John and Barney do! I practice with the original but I never recorded with the original, only with the base-less track.

Will try it for this one. Hopefully will post in a few days. Shouldn’t be too hard to learn this one. Performing it well is a different story…

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not sure what you mean hear, I record without bass in the backing track always. as does @Barney

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Maybe I misunderstood, but there was a discussion earlier in this thread about it and it sounded like one of the suggestions was to record with the original bass playing along, but in the end not mixing it in of course.

So the final mix has the bass-less track plus your recorded bass (no original bass in the final mix), but when you actually record, you hear the original bass and you play along with it.

Maybe I misunderstood it, but I gave it a try and I can see how useful it is.

So I started using 4 tracks in my software when practicing for this current song:

  • bass (me)
  • bass-less backing track
  • isolated bass (downloaded from youtube)
  • original

And then I mute or change the mix as I feel when practicing. And it really does help!
After I record myself I can listen to my bass and the isolated original bass together and notice minute changes I never did before.

For example, I always liked the little slide from the G to the D, I think it adds a lot in this song and I don’t like the fingering on the lower part of the neck as it leaves it out. (there are also slides sometime down form the D to the A and from the B to G).

However, the timing of this slide is not easy for me and using this technique I figured that the slide is actually on the last 8th note of the G and not on the 1st 1/8th note of the D. He is always already on the D when the ā€œ1ā€ come in.

Anyway, even if I misunderstood the suggestion, it is a very useful misunderstanding!
:joy:

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Maybe I misunderstood a bit too.
Yes to this but I often take the bass out when recording as well so that I know I’m sounding good when I play vs the original.

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I will often play along with the original bass line as a guide, when I’m learning a song, but then remove it once I ā€˜kind’a’ know it, so that I can properly hear myself. This can mean that I deviate from the original, i.e. I end up playing something different, but then I think this is just past of the fun…!

Actually, as an example of this, another song in the 50 is ā€œBad Moon Risingā€. The original has very few fills or transition notes between chord changes. I have put transitions in as I find the song rather tedious to play, so what I play is different to the original. Last week, at work, I was having a ā€œbass offā€ with a colleague. He was playing an open mic that night with his band, they were playing Bad Moon. Now, this colleague is technically very good on the bass, more experienced than me, and understand theory in a way I can’t be bothered to learn ( :laughing:). Anyway, he completely changed the baseline … made it into a walking baseline. To my ears, he was overplaying. To his ears and fingers, he was having fun. Given, like me, he’s in an amateur band that plays open mics, who cares! He owned that bass line, as I own my versions!

OK, here it is.

I enjoyed working on it a lot!
(other than really liking the song of course…)

Tapped into a new aspect of working on a song for me. Not so much figuring out note sequence or difficult transitions, but working on consistency. It is SO hard!

I opted for a single string (all on the E string) and sliding with the pointer finger from the G to the D to get the slide sound. I couldn’t get it the way I like it by sliding on the A string into the D, or by sliding with my pinky on the E string to the D. It looks derpy, but I like how it feels to play and how it sounds, and that’s it.

The ending is cut short and abruptly on my backing track unfortunately, so I faded it out early, but that’s ok.

P pickup, tone mostly up, into a DigiTech Main Squeeze compressor, then EQ and that’s it. Bass still quite high in the mix…

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Nice work on this @y.farkash . Good consistent timing.

The only feedback I’d give is that by choosing to play all the notes on the E string, rather than jumping up to the A; you’ve got a long move between chord changes.
For the most part it was good, but a couple of the changes were ever so slightly late because of the long move up the neck.

It’s a really minor thing, but the more you play you’ll probably look to play with a more efficient pattern which makes the move between the chords faster.

Cheers

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Great job y.farkash! I don’t think the bass was too high in the mix; thought it fit perfectly.

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Thank you for the input.

I agree, I played it the most inefficient way to play this song.
:slight_smile:

But it sounded the best to me.
I practiced and recorded a few versions ( versions of fingering) but didn’t like the sound and feels.

Interestingly, when I looked up live performance, to figure out how to get the slide, Adam Clayton plays it the way Josh transcribed and you suggested, with both E and A strings, but without the slide.

However, my guess is that on the original recording he played on the E because the slide is so pronounced.

It probably down to efficiency: when you record one song at a time you can be more ā€œdemandingā€ of yourself but when you play a live set there are other factors going I to it.

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Thank you!

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Yeah there’s no wrong answer here @y.farkash

The limitations of a bigger shift at your experience level are going to give you more timing challenges.

I look at it from a ā€˜how would I play it live’ standpoint. Less shift means I don’t have to look at my hands when I play if I keep it closer.

Come back to this in a few years and you’ll find it interesting. :metal:

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Agree with @Barney here. Overall very good. Great tone, but some lateness going back down the neck.