This is a short demo of a ukulele simulation I made. I have a musical coming up which needs some ukulele on a Meghan Trainor song, "Better When I'm Dancing." Paults gave me the great suggestion of using a nylon stringed guitar capoed up. Well first I exchanged the 4th string (D) with a 1st string (E), tuned to it's regular pitch, to more simulate how a ukulele's pitch sounds (it is NOT tuned low to high, and not the way I have it either! With a capo on the 5th fret I played this through a modified Paults Clean Fender profile taking out all reverb and delay, adding more bass, as the ukulele is not a bright instrument. There was a lot of feedback. I then pared down a regular sound hole blocker to fit the smaller classical guitar hole (Taylor NS-6). This still hummed quite a bit, so I then added a strong noise gate. The hum is gone and I think my results will suffice. Any suggestions for further improvement is welcomed. Thanks for your advice, Paul. (Sorry my playing on it is a bit clunky, I'm just starting to learn it and the precise picking pattern for it. It's also a bit slower than needed but I'll work on that).
A Ukulele that's NOT a ukulele - courtesy of the Kemper
- prsgary
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Sounds authentic, almost a kalimba quality. Tiny Tim would approve.
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Well done-I think that will do nicely for the show. And, you’re welcome!
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Wow, that's scary good
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Well done, Gaz! Works for me.
If we're gonna be picky (see what I did there?), I'd consider dialling some of that boosted bass back a little. It causes a peak in body resonance that's a little too-weighty IMHO. It gives the impression of a larger body size than a uke actually has... IMHO.
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Thanks Nicky, and I expect you to be nothing less than picky, brother!! I'll listen again and see if I hear what you heard and whether I think it's worth more tweaking of the bass. I appreciate your feedback, even if it causes more... feedback
!On the other hand it turns out my string replacement was perfect - I went into a local shop that had a real ukulele, and playing it exactly the same and yielded exactly the same notes... they even asked if I was learning to play ukulele, which was not my goal at all and I can't claim that. Funny though.
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No worries, Gazza.
Bear in mind that I had to make the judgement on my mono, Zero-bass™ CrapMac™ speaker. It's entirely possible that a peak in the low mids gave this impression, but either way, there's an "unnatural" low(ish?) resonance thing happening, at least according to my "unique" listening tool...
I wouldn't sweat it 'though; you did really-well I reckon.
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Sounds really convincing I'd say! Nice one!
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You're so cool and so funny! Luv you bro! Get some nice monitor speakers
Lol, nice! +1 on those monitors, hook em' up, we know you got them somewhere!
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You're far-too-kind as always, Gaz. Besides, I'm not really "allowed" to be funny anymore...
Brother, I've got the monitors alright (my babies!), but until I receive my MOTU AVB interfaces and install all my audio software, 'tis the CrapMac Zero-bass Speaker Train™ all the way. Damned thing's so quiet I often have to get down on the floor and place my hairy ear right up against the speaker.
Nevertheless, I do my best as Kemperites really do appreciate feedback on their work.If I don't speak to you before it, good luck with the musical, man! Break a leg.
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Damned thing's so quiet I often have to get down on the floor and place my hairy ear right up against the speaker.
Now there's an image I could have lived without...
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wow, very nice indeed,,,
