Iko Iko (by The Dixie Cups)

Songs
1

I think I read somewhere that the Dixie Cups recorded their original rhythm track banging drumsticks on chairs and ashtrays in the recording studio. I hit my coffee maker with a couple of pens, recorded 8 bars and looped it. Then I sang all the vocal parts straight into the mic on my iPad while I was standing in the kitchen drinking my coffee!!

Nice little warm up to get back to covers.

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2

Hilarious story! Awesome job - so creative!

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3

I love all your voices here and the different places each one fits in my headphone. great jobs with one of my favorite goofiy songs,

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4

This is so inspiring! Was it in Garage Band? How can I do this, too?!?

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5

Yes it was in GarageBand and if you haven’t used it before, it’s pretty straightforward to pick up but actually has loads to offer.

My first recommendation is to watch this video from as Australian called Pete Johns! It’s a few years old but it’s still relevant to get the basics for recording using the mic on your iphone or ipad. I’m by no means an expert in GarageBand but I’ve learnt almost everything I know from this guy. His YouTube channel is specifically for people who are home recording using iPad/iPhone/GarageBand.

A couple of additional thoughts

  1. Use headphones without a built in microphone. They don’t have to be anything special to get you started but if you have a built in mic it will override the mic on the ipad so if you are trying to just record your guitar you are more likely to pick up your own breathing!
  2. If you want to get the sound of more than one voice for a vocal line (double tracking), don’t just copy and paste the part you have already sung as that will just make it sound louder rather than like multiple voices. To record this, I sang the lead vocal line three times, the first was just straightforward singing to my ipad. The next two I either took a couple of steps back or turned my head away (as far as the headphone cord would allow) so the mic would pick up my voice differently. These two tracks I also panned one a little to the left and the other a little to the right, to get that effect of different places in the headphones that Bill mentioned. Much the same for the harmony vocals.

The main thing is to have a go, there’s no right or wrong, just experimenting and learning.

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6

I started out using GB before moving on to Logic Pro and before there was Logic on iOS, I would use GB to get something started and then bring it into Logic on the Mac. It’s an awesome tool! I still watch Pete and there’s also the British “GarageBand Guy,” who may only be doing Logic videos now. They sometimes do a show together - both so very nice and helpful.

Joey, your instructions are so on point, I’m wondering if you were also a technical writer, too. :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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7

Not a technical writer but I’m an operations/project manager so I write a lot of process documents! And I’m a bit of a nerd too :grinning:

@SavvyAZ one other thing I forgot to mention about headphones- which you may already be aware of- when you are recording multiple tracks always use wired headphones, not bluetooth. There is some latency with bluetooth headphones so you will hear the tracks in your ears after the playback on your device(phone, computer etc) and the vocal/instrument that you are singing/playing will be behind what is already recorded.

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8

a class song …really well done