Take the bottom out, for one thing. If you want it to sound like it’s being played through a little radio speaker, you take the bottom and top out, leaving only the midrange. Also do away with sustain, so the sound falls off quickly, typical of small bodied and short neck instruments like ukulele or plucked violin.
It’s a direct link to an MP3. You may have better luck right clicking and choosing save as.
This is why I used box.net for this stuff. It will give you a page to go to, and that page will even include a Flash player that will play the file so I don’t have to worry about you having an MP3 plugin, or having problems like you did.
Do also note that the site is running rather slow right now, so that may be the real problem. It could be timing out. I’d suggest Kim to host it somewhere else. Or, if they want, I can host it for them. (Just hit me with a PM).
Often a Strat with the pickup selector in position 2 or 4 - bridge + middle or middle + neck pickup. Leads to a thin “quacky” sound - also used for thee riff on Sweet Home Alabama - add a little chorus effect and you’re there.
Oh and play through a clean solid state (not tube) amp.
You’re thinking of roto toms. You can hear them prominently in The Power Station’s Some Like It Hot. And, yeah, I definitely associate them with '80s pop. I don’t know how much Phil Collins used them - I think his “flat” sound was more likely coming from the gated reverb mentioned above.
Collins was still using that effect into the late 80s. I’m not usually one to recognize drummers or producers, but the first time I heard Eric Clapton’s Bad Love I knew that Phil Collins had produced it and was playing drums on that track.
You run it through one of those solid-state multi-effects units from the eighties. Like this one (although it’s a later model):
I looooove 80’s music. I believe it’s the synthesizer…the highly electronic sound of the music.
Yeah, it’s a direct linking site. So it should prompt you to save it, if you don’t have an mp3 player plugin for your browser. I checked the permissions and they’re set right. So I guess it’s just a matter of catching Boxstr.net while it’s not having downtime (which is, admittedly, not very often).
I’m not sure the song’s worth this much effort though. I posted it because I used that 80s style midrangey bass, and an 80s style ARP synth.
I have a cassette of Johnny Winter from that era. He’s a guy known for a pretty traditional style of music, blues, but the album (blanking on the name) has a sound that definitely makes me think EIGHTIES every time I hear it. One thing is a synthesized (I think) handclap percussion effect that was used liberally.
Y’know, that dance wasn’t as safe as they said it was.