General Music Chat

Les and I almost finished another tune last night.

It's going down easy because? Oh I don't know really.

And on top of it, it's a "piano predominant" piece. lol
(I know what you are thinking but even I like it and I dislike everything)

As in it has no regular guitar at all.

It's keys, drums, bass guitar and vocals.

Get ready, I am guessing it will be a little more artistic that you are ready for.

I could get an engineer, but who would I ever get to play keys like this>?
The best is that Les doesn't realize how good a keys player he really is.

I told him he could memorize like 4 simple pieces and play a mixture of this all night long and get paid to do it. He thinks I am not serious.

If when you hear this next tune, "Mint" and you like it, please let him know in no uncertain terms.

I have to laugh, I think he's a really rare type of keyboardist because he is playing in a way that makes me like cleaner music.
To be honest, I do not like music this clean but I like what he's doing enough to be enthusiastic.

(color me pleasantly surprised)

Cap'n your defo a Antiquarian! I mean.............!
Pity we didn't meet, but things are the way they are. Much luck with your keys guy, it sounds like you have something going there Cap'n

Now don't go all Mushy on me and tell me you like people, that would really kill your image off!

Keep well.

Chipfryer

I used to play with a keyboardist, and we wrote a lot of originals together. I would come up with some pretty "out there" bass stuff, and somehow he managed to always come up with a really melodic part to go with it. And it would all make sense. It really wasn't the type of music that I would have written on my own, but there were times when I was blown away by what we created. It sounds to me kind of like that's where you are now.

Run with it! I'm excited to hear it.

Yep, I got some other offers after the last tune but reality says "if it's not broken, do not try to fix it".

The material being pumped out now is both high quality and at some impressive speed.

It has a slightly wider genre spread than I like, but I want to try new things so I'll give it my best shot at being enthusiastic at all times.

There will be no wine before it's time, fortunately it's ready to drink.

It's called "Once in a Moment" or "Mint" for short..
(It's on my player, no need to chase it.)

Big departure for me, as I play in the mud of it all.
No mud in this one..(>????!!??!) Les really surprised me in a good way.

Les - Keys, Drums, Lyrics, all DAW/TECH aspects.

Scott - Bass and all vocals..not much else here.

It has ZERO regular guitar in it.

Take your shots now, we just basically finished a new one last night.
It's called " Seven" and if this one "bothers" you, the next one will make you a jumper for sure.

If you like it, hey that's great, if not...make sure you blast me.

Chief, I didn't know whether I was going to like it at first or not but then as it progressed I suddenly found myself on the coast highway riding the "Orange Sunshine Bus" tripp'n while adding some David Gilmourish licks here and there. I like it!

Damn Scott, I swear you are becoming more creative by the day.
You are so UNIQUE! Thats what separates you from all the rest of us pickers.

What are you using for reverb to get those big spaces without loss of clarity?

I like it Capt, you are doing some really cool music.

Wowo, I am glad you guys like it.
(This is so far off from where I live musically)

I don't really understand where this one came from but I am glad it's
done.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11507083

Reverb? I have no idea, I just play it.
I only know what I like and what moves me, everything else is foreign.

Les will know, ask him. lol

I have to laugh, I heard this big artistic thing in this one.
I pestered Les until the very last hour and as we finished, he finally heard what I thought I heard from the beginning.

So we have no guitar line on that at all.. ((!!!>?!??!?!???)

But I think it's really interesting on some weird level, but don't ask me which one. I heard some references made to this tune no self-respecting musician would repeat for fear of being carried off by angry villagers.

Even better is this WEIRDER tune we're finishing called "Seven".

It's odd in a way I cannot actually describe accurately with words. (LOL)

Anyone who is/was upset at how erm "interesting" this one is should definitely step back from the edge of the chasm, because the next one is going to make you want to jump.

I have to laugh, "Mr. Keys" over there was laying this single keys lead type track and stumbled on a game changing patch for "Seven".

It picked up so quickly we almost finished it in one stinking session.

The vocals are the only thing left, expect "Seven" to come out of the gate as soon as next week.

(Hide the handguns) lol

LOL

The first part made me think of Zappa for some reason.

I dont care for the snare drum for some reason, I wish it had a different tone to it.

Interesting, not something i would go out of my way to listen or buy.

I hear some slide guitar in the ending sections with the vocals, just my take on it.

CAPT you are going in a direction that suits you with this. Good Job

LOL

The first part made me think of Zappa for some reason.

I dont care for the snare drum for some reason, I wish it had a different tone to it.

Interesting, not something i would go out of my way to listen or buy.

I hear some slide guitar in the ending sections with the vocals, just my take on it.

CAPT you are going in a direction that suits you with this. Good Job

Yea , at 1st I thought it was a Zappa song I had not heard, well there's alot of zappa songs I never heard.
but the rest was pure scotty,
A little too verbose for me but, but psychedelia is that way sometimes.
but a good product.

you could add a little mid range to the drum track and move it back a bit.
but that's just me.

Thanks, I heard Les play this a little bit and it seemed like this was his big piano thing.. (cut to Carnegie hall and giant white piano in middle of stage) lol

I don't like art, per se but this was interesting.

JW you are 100%, same feeling for this piece as myself.
The slide guitar is an excellent idea..et al.

The next one I think we inadvertently took a stab at (gasp) "POP" or at least as close as I get..
I am afraid of what it might mutate into before it's finished.

Yeah, Les can really jam..it felt like writing with Sir Elton and/or Billy Joel.
(I don't write that cleanly or in that vein, but when they get rolling it gets "artsy fartsy" and you can't help but go where it takes you).

No one more surprised that this is well received than myself.
Thanks for whatever we get from this site and all the people here.

Wow, Zappa? Easy nowwwww.. We could do that stuff all night long.

All comments appreciated especially technical opinions.

Remember that everything we write is undirected, meaning that we go into a tune NEVER trying to assimilate a sound. It's better to go slowly>?! and piece it together and then the tune picks the genre itself, if that make any sense to you.

It makes me panicky to hear that it sounds like any artist I know because it's 100% accidental.

Then again, Les' keys work is starting to make me panicky because I have to try and maintain a higher level of musicianship when I play with him because of his keys prowess..

Glen that is a synth available in Sonar called Z3TA, which is a fantastic VST plugin for anyone using Sonar.

It has compression, decimation, two programmable synth modules, chorus, modulation, phasing, three separate interleaved delays, width adjustable EQ and reverb all in one package. Each has it?s own section and can be disabled, so you can A/B the effects.

The reverb on this was a large hall, no damper, very large size and fairly dry, maybe 30 - 35% wetness, with low and high bands at normal. The delay is a crossover type, synched to half notes if I remember right left channel 0ms and right 3ms with the project tempo of I think 85BPM, at maybe negative 45% db gain. Bandmix when are you going to fix my punctuation?

I?m just learning about it, but just messing with it is as fun as it gets. I still have so much to learn. Thankfully it all seems like cool stuff to me, so I do not mind the hours of research and tweaking at all. Who knows? One day, I hope to actually know what I am doing. At this point occasionally I get close to something good. I can not wait to hear the difference two years from now, compared to our capabilities now.

Thanks JW, JCP. On the next version of this mix I will mess with the drums, it seems a common detractor from this one. I am used to mixes with a lot of padding and this mix actually has some quite areas. Can you tell me which part of the snare you dislike? It might have too much pop and not enough smack or, maybe a little too thin and bright. I will definitely mess with it, I am sure it could be better and those keys have to come down.

Anyone reading this, yes or no are the keys too loud? They seem too loud for my taste, but Scott prefers louder and it is a piano piece. I am just really uncertain where in the mix they belong, Since most times I play as background arpeggio or padding. Within a three piece and no guitar to hide behind, they sound LOUD to me.

Anyway thanks for the input folks. Sans suggestion that we work on making the percussion more interesting, has had a huge influence on what we are doing, as well as other suggestions along the way. Hopefully all for the better.

Definitely COOOOOOL.
I didn't realize you and Scotty were working together.

I see the uniqueness of what you are producing. I like it !!!!

Thanks for the heads up on explaining your reverb.

I like the tune... needs more cowbell though

I agree with others that it has a true Zappa vibe and the snare is too thin still. It might be fixable with EQ but most likely needs an overdub.

If Frank Z. was co-producing this piece, the snare might sound like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7EOb-Ke ... re=related

I am a big believer in using reference tracks as a guide during mixdown to help find those sounds you are looking for.

Thank you Glen and you are welcome. Working with Scott has been outstanding so far. It is a good mix for writing because I prefer things too orderly and stale, where Scott injects some pleasant chaos and adds more expression. We both know what we like and as long as those preferences have equal share in the results, it works out great. I could have never came up with this tune alone and that is the part I think is so great about collaboration.

Cow bell? lol I was thinking didgeridoos. You guys ever see Walk Hard, the Dewey Cox Story?

Excellent thank you Johnny for the reference, more pop less sizzle. Wow a lot more pop to it, almost like a bright tom. I?ll see if I can translate that in the mix, probably a different sample and I am pretty sure I know which one will work. It should give it more clarity, as well as sounding cool. I am loving MIDI right now.

When Scott and I are working on a project we may remark how it changes from one tone to the next. Like Invisible Light initially sounded like maybe a Meatloaf tune, then it went Eagles for a little bit with maybe a touch of something Beatlesistic and after the vocals it ended up where it is now. This one seemed to have a slight Neil Young tone to the vocals at first. But if we embraced any of those directions, it would be too easy to run with it. So we have never picked a specific target and steered towards it.

But in the case where it is already almost dead on something already and near the end of the project, I do not see any harm in grabbing the tones that I know will go with the mix. Whether we steered it or not we are already so far down that road, we might as well make sure it works. If it already sounds like Zappa, it could not harm anything in making it actually sound like Zappa.

It is a great idea Johnny, thank you man. Too often I am killing myself, reinventing the wheel from scratch.