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Home studio tracks submitted for your perusal & critique.

#4
I really enjoyed all of those tracks, they sound really good for a home studio recording! Are you playing bass on all of them or are there some synth bass parts I heard in there?

There are a couple of bits in some songs where the timing gets a little bit out of whack... but aside from that it all sounded pretty good.
 
#5
Hey Oliver,
Everything except Black Market (I need to go back in and fix that!) is real bass... either an MTD fretless 535 or a MTD fretted 635.
Can you point me at the bad timing stuff by tunes and times? I know that might be a pain in the ass so no biggie... but it would really help me to hear what stands out as gross violations of the "rhythm code." Although I'm sure there's too many to count... Actually I'm not nearly as good as it might appear. After all, the beauty of home recording is that you only have to play it right once, assuming the recorder is running! Often I can't seem to get it right even that one time!

My motto is "my music is actually much better than it sounds!"




Also, mind if I ask what speakers you listen to online music on?



cheers


b
 
#10
stretchcat said:
Are you playing all the bass, keyboards, and guitar parts? I really enjoyed your arrangement of "Lush Life" and also Chick Corea's "Windows".
Click to expand...

Hey Strechcat,
You have great ears! The reason Windows and Lush Life are bout the best stuff I've done is because I had the genius idea of hiring a few professionals! On those two and also on FIRST KISS that's Indianapolis monster talent Kevin Anker (who plays with blues singer Tad Robinson) on keys and my bandmate from a past life, Michael Stricklin on sax. Michael also id features on "What's Goin' On. "

Both are among the strongest players in Indianapolis, or anywhere as far as that goes. It was pretty cool... these guys are my close friends but I got to hire them and make 'em do stuff!@ I highly recommend it to anyone making music at home. HIRE A PRO! It's cool! And, less expensive than you would think. (If you negotiate a little!) Well worth it and much better than coming off like a Huck Finn in fence painting pinch.

Otherwise, thanks so much for the kind words. I'm humbled.

On all the other stuff it's all me. Just because I'm an über control freak I guess. I've been working on this for a couple years and I'm having a blast. I can't seem to get bored with tinkering with this stuff! I'm guessing you're probably in the same boat.

Oh yeah, worth mentioning... that arrangement of Windows is almost all Mike Stern's. Ain't it something? I love it... wish i could play the guitar like him!!

So it goes.

And... seriously, I wanna know what is terrible about this stuff. So I can erase it!!!


cheers


barry
 
#13
Barry,

I really hate picking on anything in your music that sounds "funny" because you obviously have put many hours in these tunes.

Comments on a couple of things that stood out to me:

1. Bubble Shuffle: I really like the melody and the shuffle groove. I think that the delay on the rhythm guitar is very distracting during the melody. I would tone that down a bit. Nice "Jessica" quote at the end.

2. Lush Life: Once the groove sets in after the initial melody is stated, the bass enters kind of harsh for my ears. It does smooth out as the tune progresses. Nice double time feel at the end of the solos.

3. Kazumisan: Nice smooth jazz melody, 70's style synth orchestration and MTD fills. It's kind of weird to me to double a B3 and a rhodes sound (before the synth solo). Not a big deal though. Where did you learn to stack synth sounds like that? I'm jealous!

I'll check out some more tunes later as time permits. Your mixes really sound great!

-Ben

BTW, I'm listening on a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-M20 headphones, which aren't the greatest.
 
#16
stretchcat said:
Barry,

I really hate picking on anything in your music that sounds "funny" because you obviously have put many hours in these tunes.

Comments on a couple of things that stood out to me:

1. Bubble Shuffle: I really like the melody and the shuffle groove. I think that the delay on the rhythm guitar is very distracting during the melody. I would tone that down a bit. Nice "Jessica" quote at the end.

2. Lush Life: Once the groove sets in after the initial melody is stated, the bass enters kind of harsh for my ears. It does smooth out as the tune progresses. Nice double time feel at the end of the solos.

3. Kazumisan: Nice smooth jazz melody, 70's style synth orchestration and MTD fills. It's kind of weird to me to double a B3 and a rhodes sound (before the synth solo). Not a big deal though. Where did you learn to stack synth sounds like that? I'm jealous!

I'll check out some more tunes later as time permits. Your mixes really sound great!

-Ben

BTW, I'm listening on a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-M20 headphones, which aren't the greatest.
Click to expand...


Hey man...
You make some really good points here. The delays and reverb are obviously "crutches" that I go to when I'm feeling insecure about my guitar playing (and singing for that matter.) I have to learn to be more judicious in their use. It's tough for me since I grew up on music that was swimming in them and what I hear in my head is usually whet ends up sounding "passable" to my ears. It's very difficult to make the adjustment to a modern approach to mixing. Clearly, hearing it from others helps and I really appreciate your feedback. I haven't managed to get in there to work on it yet (I've been trying to get my Vdrums to trigger MIXOSAURUS accurately and that's not going too well or too quickly.)

Thanks for catching the Jessica quote! Some people (my best friend Joe Filipow et al) hate musical quotes, but I don't. I'm surprised I didn't squeeze in a "Beverly Hillbilly's" quote... some of my favorites! <grin>

On LUSH LIFE - You're right again... Great catch... that transition is probably my favorite part of the tune and the bass part never seemed to work. I really need to go back in there and retrack it. I think the idea is ok but the execution was pretty lame. I tried "mute picking" that section but I think it might sound better with more of a slap thing... (I'm not much of a slapper but I'm going to try!)

That organ/rhodes patch... I'd love to take credit for it but it's actually just a slight velocity mod on an existing MOTIF patch. You're right... it's a "swishy" B3 patch layered with a Rhodes patch with the velocity mapped so the Rhodes sound disappears altogether with slower attack. The "B3" patch is mapped to be louder the softer you play it and get quieter with more velocity. I think it could be duplicated pretty easily with other synths but I haven't tried. It's a very expressive patch to play. Hopefully it sound good... and weird!


Thanks again for doing some great listening! Feedback like this is what makes it possible to grow as a player and a mixer. Great stuff!

cheers

barry
 
#17
DWBass said:
Really good stuff. I dig! I'm a Toto and Steely Dan fan and dig the covers! Good job!
Click to expand...


Thanks for the kind words! Those tunes don't really belong in the "jazz project" tune list but they are relevant. The goal in doing those was to attempt to emulate the originals in an effort to "reverse engineer" the recording techniques and figure out a little about what makes those recordings sound the way they do. (Other than the obvious - great writing/playing/recording & mixing.) The Fagen stuff in particular intrigues me because of what seems to be his obsession with über cleanliness and MONO ambience (short reverb) centered in the mix.
I learned a lot tracking those tunes for sure. (and quickly forgot most of it!) Obviously, the chord structures are key as well! Fagen is a rare genius in my opinion!

The TOTO tune came to be because Uwe Lietzow, developer of MIXOSAURUS, provided me with the entire drum sequence... I couldn't resist!


Thanks again for listening!


cheers

barry
 

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