# 5 People playing 1 guitar!



## Hamstrung (Sep 21, 2007)

This is nicely done! I wonder how many takes it took to get this right?

[video=youtube;d9NF2edxy-M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9NF2edxy-M&amp;feature=g-logo&amp;context=G280eaa9FOAAAAAAABAA[/video]


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## Latiator (Jul 18, 2007)

That's a great find Hamstrung, quite intricate the five of them are together and not a bad song to boot.


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## dodgechargerfan (Mar 22, 2006)

They're Canadian, too!

They're from Burlington, ON.
There was a bit on the Hamilton news yesterday.


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## zurn (Oct 21, 2009)

Awesome, thanks for posting that!


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Very well done. Good song as well.
Ya, must have been more than one take, you'd think.

Thanks for that.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Much enjoyed, thanks. I like the song and the arrangement too.

Peace, Mooh.


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

the blonde does an adele cover as well which was also entertaining to watch. also, she is a total hotty.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

VERY COOL !!...Many thanks hamstrung.

Cheers

Dave


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## Shark (Jun 10, 2010)

That was pretty cool. Talented bunch.

Am I the only one who thought the opening phrases were a weird version of Baa Baa Black Sheep?


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## Morkolo (Dec 9, 2010)

I liked it, the only thing that disappointed me was when the guy on the far right started to sing. For whatever reason I was expecting a deep voice similar to that guy from the Crash Test Dummies.


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## simescan (May 15, 2007)

Thanks for posting it, Hamstrung.


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## Latiator (Jul 18, 2007)

Mark P said:


> Am I the only one who thought the opening phrases were a weird version of Baa Baa Black Sheep?


Nope, not knowing what to expect I thought it was a weird rendition of that song as well.

You know what? When I watched it the second and third time I noticed something, at 2:10, 2:18, 2:39, 3:40, 3:47 and 4:02 the middle fellow plays the lead lick (ba, ba, black sheep) with a vibrato featured in the song but his hand doesn't vibrato like it had at the beginning (0:11 and 0:19) and towards the end (3:44/45). Call it splitting hairs but this leads me to believe it isn't a live performance. Nonetheless, they're playing it in the video fairly competently and I like the tune


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## Clean Channel (Apr 18, 2011)

My wife is friends with all these folk from high school. She's really happy to see them enjoying their sudden fame! 

As an interesting side note, their band used to be called something really crude like G-Spot Tornado or something like that. She showed me one of their videos a year or two ago.

And yep, the audio is overdubbed. Worth it though, the whole thing turned out great.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Cool video--that might be fun to try sometime...


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

just think what they might accomplish if they could all afford their own instrument! :wave:


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## Guest (Jan 10, 2012)

Clean Channel said:


> My wife is friends with all these folk from high school. She's really happy to see them enjoying their sudden fame!


Cool. The guy with the long hair seems to be a bit of prodigy based on the videos but... 



> And yep, the audio is overdubbed. Worth it though, the whole thing turned out great.


Okay, I totally thought that was the case but didn't want to poo-poo on an otherwise awesome video by bringing this up. The girl, in particular, has some videos where she's singing with an acoustic in a room and her vocals aren't nearly as polished in those. And in the Adele video they do the last guy to take up the piano stops playing the drum with his foot but it keeps going in the audio track.

But yea, given that it's overdubbed is the guy with the long hair as big a prodigy on the instruments as he appears to be in the videos? It's no small feat to play a double bass. Add the guitar, piano, drums...

You know, why do they try and fake like it's recorded live as they do the video? It's cool that the audio is pre-recorded. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But why do it all up with the mics and everything like they're doing it live? Why the feint?


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## Hamstrung (Sep 21, 2007)

iaresee said:


> You know, why do they try and fake like it's recorded live as they do the video? It's cool that the audio is pre-recorded. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But why do it all up with the mics and everything like they're doing it live? Why the feint?


Nearly 9 million views on YouTube to date, that's why!


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## Shark (Jun 10, 2010)

Latiator said:


> You know what? When I watched it the second and third time I noticed something, at 2:10, 2:18, 2:39, 3:40, 3:47 and 4:02 the middle fellow plays the lead lick (ba, ba, black sheep) with a vibrato featured in the song but his hand doesn't vibrato like it had at the beginning (0:11 and 0:19) and towards the end (3:44/45). Call it splitting hairs but this leads me to believe it isn't a live performance. Nonetheless, they're playing it in the video fairly competently and I like the tune


Well spotted! I only listened until about halfway through and had it running in the background while I did other stuff, so I didn't catch that at all. But I'm not surprised. I was wondering how the lead guitar guy managed to hit some of those notes without the girl damping the strings he needed sometimes. Maybe I'll watch it again.


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

Mark P said:


> That was pretty cool. Talented bunch.
> 
> Am I the only one who thought the opening phrases were a weird version of Baa Baa Black Sheep?


 the original is played on a Xylophone and that was the first thing i thought of when I heard the song (original) took me back to my elementary music class...


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## Guest (Jan 10, 2012)

Hamstrung said:


> Nearly 9 million views on YouTube to date, that's why!


It's not just this video. All their videos are done as if live. Several mics in the shots and what not. I suppose you could argue it's a style decision versus a requirement. They like mics in shots. Not that they need them since the audio is done separately.

They do a stellar job of that Gottye tune -- I don't think the 9M views are because they had microphones in their video.


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## Hamstrung (Sep 21, 2007)

iaresee said:


> It's not just this video. All their videos are done as if live. Several mics in the shots and what not. I suppose you could argue it's a style decision versus a requirement. They like mics in shots. Not that they need them since the audio is done separately.
> 
> They do a stellar job of that Gottye tune -- I don't think the 9M views are because they had microphones in their video.


True but it also isn't simply because it's a good rendition (which it is). There's thousands of good performances on YouTube. The impression the video gives is that it's a single take of the song being performed that way. If it was just them standing on a stage performing the same song in the conventional way we likely wouldn't have ever seen it regardless of how well it was performed.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

I thought that it was recorded in one shot. Too many things to synch up afterward was my logic.

If it is 'faked' so to speak, they did it really well.


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## Guest (Jan 10, 2012)

smorgdonkey said:


> I thought that it was recorded in one shot. Too many things to synch up afterward was my logic.


Sync up? Not really. The recorded and mixed it. Played it back over speakers and sang along/acted out the video. SMTPE code to match the two after the fact is pretty standard stuff.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

I heard/saw a rumour (maybe I read it on FaceBook?) that they're playing the Wiarton Willie festival. The video can't hurt.

Peace, Mooh.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

iaresee said:


> Sync up? Not really. The recorded and mixed it. Played it back over speakers and sang along/acted out the video. SMTPE code to match the two after the fact is pretty standard stuff.


Well, that's true if it was just something straight...they have the guy strumming above the nut, they have the guy hitting all of the different percussive things on the body of the guitar and they have 3 people playing stuff. 

That doesn't seem standard to me. I suppose they could look at it and dub in a hit if a hand moved and there was no sound but that seems like a lot more work than just getting the mics out and taking 5 runs at it.


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## snacker (Jun 26, 2008)

wanna hear something impressive? - check out the rest of gotye's catalog - that cat is badass!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_CM5-gel6o


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## Guest (Jan 11, 2012)

smorgdonkey said:


> That doesn't seem standard to me.


Eh? People lip sync and sync act to music all the time. All music videos are pretty much made this way.



> I suppose they could look at it and dub in a hit if a hand moved and there was no sound but that seems like a lot more work than just getting the mics out and taking 5 runs at it.


Dub in a hit if a hand moved? More like he just acted out a hand motion that matched with the recording he was listening to.


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## Guest (Jan 11, 2012)

snacker said:


> wanna hear something impressive? - check out the rest of gotye's catalog - that cat is badass!
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_CM5-gel6o


His stuff is decent.

I'm more impressed by these Sing Sing Studio videos from Kimbra. Her albums stuff is...meh. They messed with it for mass appeal and ruined it. But the Sing Sing stuff is killer good.

[video=youtube;6i1mr9amqeg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i1mr9amqeg&amp;feature=relmfu[/video]

[video=youtube;u1mUwwuw4Ik]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1mUwwuw4Ik&amp;feature=relmfu[/video]

[video=youtube;ewMTRN9So88]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewMTRN9So88&amp;feature=relmfu[/video]


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

iaresee said:


> Eh? People lip sync and sync act to music all the time. All music videos are pretty much made this way.
> 
> Dub in a hit if a hand moved? More like he just acted out a hand motion that matched with the recording he was listening to.


My point is, it would be very difficult to act the stuff out and get it all right when you could just record it and get it in about 5 takes. All of the above the nut strums are there and all of the tapping is pretty complex.

Hey, if you think that would be easy well, maybe it would for you. I try doubling my own guitar and I miss stuff so I don't think it would be easy.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

smorgdonkey said:


> My point is, it would be very difficult to act the stuff out and get it all right when you could just record it and get it in about 5 takes. All of the above the nut strums are there and all of the tapping is pretty complex.
> 
> Hey, if you think that would be easy well, maybe it would for you. I try doubling my own guitar and I miss stuff so I don't think it would be easy.


It's not any harder than some of the tremendous stuff put out by the top guitarists like Steve Vai or Roy Clark doing "maleguena". It just takes lots and lots of practice. You be the judge of which is more difficult.

[video=youtube;lxDQQDF6j0Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxDQQDF6j0Y&amp;feature=related[/video]

Or this one.

[video=youtube;QhiKgeJV3k0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhiKgeJV3k0&amp;feature=related[/video]


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

Steadfastly said:


> It's not any harder than some of the tremendous stuff put out by the top guitarists like Steve Vai or Roy Clark doing "maleguena". It just takes lots and lots of practice. You be the judge of which is more difficult.


So, now we will venture into the realm of 'which is harder'...
I'll make it easy for you, somewhere between 25 and 30 years ago, I was taking guitar lessons from a guy who used to tell me about Al Di Meola, Chet Atkins, John Mclaughlin, Joe Pass, Duane Allman, etc. So I have known about Roy Clark for decades and have seen those videos that you posted many times. This is not the subject.

So...anyway, back on the subject, I just saw someone post on another forum:

*Just saw another bit on the news with an interview of four of the band members.
It took about 30 takes to get that down.
They now have a publicist and are taking things slow.

*Cool...so, not a fake(?).*
*


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## Latiator (Jul 18, 2007)

I have no doubt that it was pre-recorded but I will give credit where it's due. To sync everyone up in such a way that it's nearly perfect with the recording takes determination and discipline too and that's just what they've done.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

Latiator said:


> I have no doubt that it was pre-recorded but I will give credit where it's due. To sync everyone up in such a way that it's nearly perfect with the recording takes determination and discipline too and that's just what they've done.


Exactly how I feel. To do it either way would take a lot of determination and application, although dubbing in a click or a knock would be the way that I'd go if I were to 'fake' it.

One of the things that made me think that it was real was the sound that the guy makes by hitting his hand (non musically) on the guitar at the end. If someone were faking a video like that, they'd leave out that errant sound IMO.


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## Latiator (Jul 18, 2007)

smorgdonkey said:


> One of the things that made me think that it was real was the sound that the guy makes by hitting his hand (non musically) on the guitar at the end. If someone were faking a video like that, they'd leave out that errant sound IMO.


Yea that one puzzles me a bit too, perhaps a hybrid recording is the answer if one can conceive how. Furthermore, based on my recording experience, the microphone placement capturing both vocals and guitars/percussion seem to be a little more biassed towards the guitars and wouldn't seem to capture clearly the performances of particularly the two verse singers as they appear to be singing rather softly but the audio is quite clear and a little stronger. I can provide nothing conclusive, just theories, I hate to pick on it too much, that is not my intention but like smorgdonkey, I like to analyse.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

smorgdonkey said:


> So, now we will venture into the realm of 'which is harder'...
> I'll make it easy for you, somewhere between 25 and 30 years ago, I was taking guitar lessons from a guy who used to tell me about Al Di Meola, Chet Atkins, John Mclaughlin, Joe Pass, Duane Allman, etc. So I have known about Roy Clark for decades and have seen those videos that you posted many times. This is not the subject.
> 
> So...anyway, back on the subject, I just saw someone post on another forum:
> ...


So it was a lot more difficult than it looked. It's still a cool vid, even if it took 100 takes to get it right.


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## zurn (Oct 21, 2009)

I like this version better!

[video=youtube_share;6YzGOq42zLk]http://youtu.be/6YzGOq42zLk[/video]


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

zurn said:


> I like this version better!


I very much like that version as well as the original and the 'big buzz' vid by Walk Off The Earth.


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Here they are on Ellen performing the song...

[video=youtube;SvviLGNydeg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvviLGNydeg[/video]


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

I guess it's not that hard after all:

[video=youtube;o9OCshv9pfw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9OCshv9pfw&amp;feature=related[/video]


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## Guest (Feb 15, 2012)

That was pretty hilarious.


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