congaplace.com

Hi guys ... I'm new here and I'm a guitarist, not a percussionist - but I have a request. I play in a 3-piece rock band and our percussionist moved across the country. I would like to add sampled congas to our live set, but I don't know where to go to purhcase some real authentic conga loops. What I mean is, background percussion for classic rock stuff like Jackson Browne's "Doctor my Eyes", Crosby Stills & Nash's "Southern Cross", some Paul Simon stuff, etc. Can you help direct me please? Thank you very much for your time.

Maury

You can try Apple's Jam Packs for the Apple software GarageBand.


http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/jam-packs.html

Thank you for the fast reply, but I should note that I have windows and a PC, no Mac, no garageband

you can always hire a conga player online.

Email your track, have the percussionist record their track(s) and send back to you.
They can send you a conga track and separate misc. tracks with percussion like shakers, tambourine, timbales, bells, effects, etc. You can then edit and mix the tracks as you see fit for the song.

good idea congamyk!

Thanks, I was considering that too ... I'm glad someone else suggested it, to reinforce that it wasn't a dumb idea .

OK, is this the correct part of your forum to ask for details on "congas for hire"? Who's ready to join my band?

First sample I would need is the signature conga break in Jackson Browne's "Doctor my eyes", if anyone is interested and has recording capabilities. I only need 30 good seconds of it, for looping purposes. Thank you.

Hi,
I just had a quick listen to the song. It depends on how faithful you want to be to the original of course, and the sort of gigs you are doing, but that track uses a lower pitch conga up to about 1'37" (with a little conga break at 0:57") then switches to a crisper, higher pitch conga for the rest of the song.

In some sections of the song the conga is less prominent and lower in volume (e.g. from 2':14" to 2':24"). It's a fairly simple pattern though.
I always think it's better to record a line for the whole track and be faithful to the original (if that's what you are aiming for of course) rather than just looping a section.
But then that's what I do, and when it comes to percussion, I'm something of a perfectionist!
I would do it, but I don't have good recording facilities at home.
Pavlo

Go to Kompoz.com http://musicollaborate.com/ where you can upload your track and invite a percussionist to lay down a sep conga/perc track. They'll bounce it back to you as an MP3. Just be upfront about your intended use.

you can download percussion studio, a small soft that uses samples. You will need to register (around 30 dollars) in order to be able to save your work.

http://www.moosware.net/PercussionStudio/



It is very easy to use and the samples are good.

B

thank you both very much! I'm going to use this live onstage, not in a recorded studio song - so no need at all to have the timbre and level change to be authentic... this is just to make a rock trio sound better onstage. I'll try the musiccollaborate - great tip!

i really appreciate it.