#WeeklyTrack #7 - 2024-02-19
The vocals are too quiet on this, but I haven't yet located the mixing session files so I can fix that. The basic tracks (EPS/M click and drum loop, Rhodes, vocals) were recorded in the 1990s*, and then I added the other pieces (the ones that come in after the first chorus) in 2004 using a $200 Yamaha keyboard (possibly from Costco) -- shown in the cover photo -- and Cool Edit Pro.
* I have contradictory information about when I recorded the original tracks. On the lyrics page [woozalia.com], I said it was recorded in 1994 -- but I thought I remembered buying the Rhodes later than that (c.1999), when I came back from Wisconsin and had plenty of money. Then again, it was only $200 (I remember that much), and I might have decided it was worth getting even if I couldn't really afford it (because $200 for a Rhodes 73 in decent condition was, even then, a very good deal).
As noted on the lyrics page, I'm not totally happy with the lyrics, so maybe it's just as well that they're a bit low.
@woozle Very nice--I listened to it twice. (Second time reading the lyrics page--I'm bad at hearing them even at full volume.) Your tracks have also given me more respect for the electric piano--for a long time I thought it was just a cheap replacement for a piano/organ (or later synth). BTW it took me a moment to find the keyboard in your picture--I hope you didn't play it at that angle! 
@wikicliff I don't think I played it at that angle in this song, but I actually did play it at that angle in All the Beautiful Girls [woozalia.com] :D Necessity is the mother of... awkward working situations. Or something.
Re e-piano -- I remember when people were making the same kind of fuss about synthesizers replacing real instruments -- but take a listen to, say, Don Henley's "Sunset Grill" (synth horns + real horn section) or Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" (Mellotron strings + real strings/orchestra) and it becomes clear that they are not the same; they each have their own role.
Even the Yamaha electric grand, which is intended to sound more like a real piano, is a different instrument from a fully acoustic piano.
...and keep in mind that the Rhodes is, in fact, an electromechanical analog device -- every bit as "real" as an electric guitar. 
@woozle
I had no idea you could actually play like that. My back protests a little just thinking about it. 
Van Halen's "Jump" sold me on synths, but I always wanted my own real piano. First I got a Yamaha PSR, then a dedicated MIDI hardware module with higher quality, and finally a full weighted keyboard. It took me a long time to realize that a lot of the "piano" sound I wanted was really reverb. Nowadays decent VST pianos are so cheap that I got two for free with my new keyboard.
@wikicliff It was only a little awkward; I wouldn't call it difficult. (I once played a piano in the back of a moving pickup truck...)
I had a baby grand for a few years when I was in GA, but it didn't have a super-great sound and circumstances made it impractical to keep after I moved. I now have a mid-size upright (obtained for the cost of moving it, a couple of years ago, from a neighbor) in decent shape, but it needs a bit of tuning ;-)
What I've always wanted, of course, is a concert grand...
...but yeah, modern digital piano simulation is pretty danged good. Much of it comes down to the action of the keyboard, rather than the quality of the sound itself. I need to learn how to do VST stuff...