Beautiful UK Airbnb with surprising guitars

Eric Clapton Strat? Did not expect!

Pretty much noticed it when I walked in. Naturally, I immediately reached out to the owner to ask about it. He kindly let me play it. An offer that I very carefully took him up on.

The process

Muser Studio was set to 118bpm on my iPhone 16 Pro Max. No fancy mics, just the one built-in to the phone itself. I plugged the guitar into the owners rather diminutive practice amp.

I laid down the rhythm riff first: a simple case of marking the loops start and end.

Next came the bass strings riff that introduces the melody. No looping here, I just played it freestyle as a gap between loops.

The main Layla riff is trickier to loop. The melody actually starts after beat 3 of the bar before the one you’d expect.  Setting the loop start at the beginning of the bar would chop off those quick first six notes. Oops.  My workaround: let it chop them off, then play them one last time before marking the loop end. This way the end of the loop ends up actually feeling like the beginning. Trust me, it makes more sense once you try it.

After all that, I indulged in some made-up soloing for fun.

What does using Muser Studio look like though?

This video has the same audio but also the interface is visible.  Even though I didn’t really touch the phone during the recording I used the MIDI controller on the floor to mark the loops.  The app interface shows what equivalent buttons were pressed with the MIDI controller acting as a remote control.

But those different guitar sounds and drums? Did you do that with editing?

Why yes, actually! I was quite pleased with the original Muser Studio recording, so to get into some editing I used the Muser Studio Export Audio Stems feature.  To clarify, audio stems are separated audio files that contain only one source, rather than all the parts smushed together.  In this case it means one for each of these:

• rhythm loop
• lead loop
• intro bass string riff
• improvised solo

Armed with the stems I was able to quickly make a 118bpm project in Ableton Live, drag the stem files in, then start playing with gain, reverb with some automation, EQ, and slap on some ‘Glue’ compression. Adding some drums was fun too.

I kept the video from my iPhone but replaced the audio with the Ableton Live mix.  That’s what you hear in my results.  There’s something rather satisfying about retrofitting drums and effects to a casual bit of guitar playing done with an iPhone.  I hope you get to enjoy it too, whether on not you’re lucky enough to have a fancy Strat appear in front of you unexpectedly.

Location, location, location

If you’re looking for a charming place in Folkestone I am more than happy to recommend this little gem! Let me know if you want the deets.