free jam tracks - brought to you by nick cresswell

About the Jam Tracks

The Gear

Zoom HD8 Hard Disk Recording Studio. I like the zoom units cause they have touch sensitive pads along with it's internal drum machine. So I can 'play' the drums in on the pads if I want. I do play drums but I can't record a kit easily so I really like using the zoom unit, it's a great substitute.

I don't use the software packages that come with the Zoom. Just the zoom unit, the zoom unit's drum machine and playing the instruments.

I need to upgrade to an HD16 as this will give me the option of recording the drums live. Currently the drums are recorded with the touch sensitive drum pads. They give a pretty good feel but it'd be nice to be able to record a live kit sometimes as well.

The acoustic is an old Valencia guitar. It's an old axe from the 1980s. It plays great and sounds pretty cool too. The acoustic guitar is miked with 2 Behringer mikes. I don't add any effects to the acoustic from the zoom.

The electric is a Fender Tele body with Seymour Duncan pickups in it. It has a Strat neck. I record the electric guitar straight into the zoom and I pick an effect from the zoom. I try and pick a different effect for each track, just to mix up the sounds a little.

The bass is recorded straight into the zoom as well but with no effects added. The bass is a Fender Jazz Bass with S1 Switch (which is always pushed in).

The hammond is an XK1. The hammond is recorded straight into the zoom as well. I only used it on the early jam tracks - I don't have the hammond anymore. I'd love to get a New Hammond XK system with a couple of Leslies one day. That's the plan!

The Recording Process

I'll record using any combination of the above instruments. I often start with bass with a drum backing track or guitar with a drum backing track. Basically I make up a basic track and build on that. I'm really into the blues so most of the progressions I come up with a based on that format - but so is music in general.

Usually, I have a good idea of what I'm basing the track on after I've recorded the guitar over the bass and drum track or the bass over the guitar and drum track. The tunes sometime take a whole new direction after adding a new instrument. There is a bit of magic involved there, it's one of the things that makes it fun to do. You never really know what will come out next. Adding a walking bass line might change the whole feel of a song and take it from what started out as a rock track and turn it into a jazz or blues number.

Once everything is recorded I mix it down to the master track. It's a pretty simply mix-down. I'm just looking for a reasonably balanced track from the mix. Nothing too serious.

For the bass backing tracks I simply take away the bass from the full mix and similarly for the drum backing tracks.

The whole process is all pretty simple and the playing is relatively straight forward. If I start recording parts that are complicated, the tunes might be good as songs but not for jamming with. When I am playing along with a track it's usually because I am working on a specific element of my playing. So I want a backing track that will allow me to focus on what I'm doing and not have too many changes in the progression. Otherwise you sit there having to learn the song and not spend the time working on what you want to learn.

I have been recording jam tracks for myself to play along with for many years.

My friends like jam tracks - so I figured other people would too. Thus this website exists.

Jam on!

Nick.