<glacius:metadata>

    <title>Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven - Solo</title>

    <description>My recording of the solo from Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven"</description>

    <category>Music</category>

    <category>Music recording</category>

    <category>Guitar</category>

    <series order="12">2022 music project</series>

</glacius:metadata>

<p>

    According to my gigantic 

    <a href="https://www.alfred.com/led-zeppelin-the-complete-studio-recordings/p/00-40963/">book

    of Led Zeppelin's complete studio recordings</a>, the solo from <em>Stairway to Heaven</em>

    is "such a classic that every rock guitarist should have it in their repertoire".

</p>

<glacius:figure glacius:src="stairway-solo-comment.jpeg" type="image">

    <caption>It's not easy but you're a loser if it's hard.</caption>

</glacius:figure>

<p>

    Since it was not in my repertoire, and frankly I haven't been playing the guitar

    all that much lately, this seemed like a good opportunity to get back in shape.

    So I recorded the little interlude plus the solo section and then filmed myself

    pretending to play along to it. You know I was faking it because I forgot

    to plug my guitar into something.

</p>

<p>

    Takeaways:

</p>

<ul>

    <li>It is impossible to program drums that sound like John Bonham.</li>

    <li>Continuous bending is a technical weakness of mine</li>

    <li>There was very little distortion in <em>Stairway to Heaven</em></li>

    <li>The solo is mixed <em>incredibly</em> low in the studio recording.</li>

</ul>

<h2>Recording</h2>

<glacius:figure 

    glacius:src="stairway-solo-480p.mp4" 

    glacius:thumbnail="stairway-solo-poster.jpeg" 

    type="video">

    <caption>My (distorted) rendition the solo from <em>Stairway to Heaven</em></caption>

</glacius:figure>

<p>

    There were two acoustic guitar tracks (panned L and R), two clean rhythm tracks

    (L was neck pickup, R was bridge pickup), two slide guitar tracks, a bass track,

    a crunchy rhythm guitar track for the outro, and the solo guitar track. Drums were programmed in 

    <a href="http://hydrogen-music.org/">Hydrogen</a>. The tempo annoyingly changes from 83 BPM 

    to 90 BPM to 96 BPM to 102 BPM. <a href="https://ardour.org/">Ardour</a> is my DAW

    of choice with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JACK_Audio_Connection_Kit">Jack</a>

    as the audio transport.

</p>

<glacius:figure 

    glacius:src="stairway-ardour.png"

    glacius:thumbnail="stairway-ardour-thumb.jpeg" 

    type="image">

    <caption>Screenshot of my <em>Stairway to Heaven</em> session in Ardour</caption>

</glacius:figure>