Bands And Albums.

Waz goinz on!!!??? i'm new here. I just wanted to say hi and ask you to check out my page. Also, to let any Smooth Jazz fans know that I have an album out in iTunes called "June 24th." If you're interested to hearing music with a distinctive flavor.. check it out!

Welcome Brian, have not listened to it yet, but although I have some rough drafts on yourlisten.com under PieTime, I can't say they would qualify as smooth jazz, yours are for sure no doubt, but at least I have come to the conclusion that I need to upgrade my cpu power and soundcard power, and upgrade to a recording software that offers more than 4 tracks maximum of recording ability..I use Ableton Live Lite 5 and would love to hear back from you as to what recording software you use before I listen to your tunes.. thanks for making your music available..Dayne.. P.S. I sincerely want to try a different recording technique in the future, I want to lay down a percussion track or two, with a bass line as a foundation to get something I can top out with guitar and will not be overloaded or top-heavy with guitar sounds.. I have got to figure out how to get good bass lines and percussion taking up most of the space..l

I got your "June 24" off of Amazon for $7.99. Worth every penny.

Welcome Brian, have not listened to it yet, but although I have some rough drafts on yourlisten.com under PieTime, I can't say they would qualify as smooth jazz, yours are for sure no doubt, but at least I have come to the conclusion that I need to upgrade my cpu power and soundcard power, and upgrade to a recording software that offers more than 4 tracks maximum of recording ability..I use Ableton Live Lite 5 and would love to hear back from you as to what recording software you use before I listen to your tunes.. thanks for making your music available..Dayne.. P.S. I sincerely want to try a different recording technique in the future, I want to lay down a percussion track or two, with a bass line as a foundation to get something I can top out with guitar and will not be overloaded or top-heavy with guitar sounds.. I have got to figure out how to get good bass lines and percussion taking up most of the space..l

Dayne - check out Reaper software. Free to download the full uncrippled version, $60 to register it. As full-featured as ProTools at 1/20 the price.

Threadjacker!

everybody in da hot tub!

welcome to BM. i checked out a few tunes... that hot tub jazz really ain't my thing. if i have a critique (besides the genre)...it'd be that there are some small timing/phrasing issues from the "lead" voice that caught my attention. they were....well...less than "smooth".

I have got to figure out how to get good bass lines and percussion taking up most of the space..l

well dayne, you just need to hire me and one of my able bodied drummer buddies!

say, have i mentioned (within the last five minutes) that i give bass lessons??!?!!!!!

PLANETguy I can create relevant bass lines, the trouble is I can not get that fat meaty sound like Brian has on his tunes.. I was hoping Brian would respond to my question about his recording equipment and/or recording technigue, I am not sure why I can't get a fat and meaty bass line but believe it has to do with EQ settings I can't achieve due to equipment limitations, either a weak soundcard a weak cpu, weak engineering abilities on my part, weak recording software, crappy pickups on my Hondo II bass.. no bass amp cause I now can't even find it.. it was a Ross bass amp but believe it somehow got buried in the storage unit I rent .. LOL!!

also Brian, I was in heaven listening to "Smooth" and several others, but am wondering if these are shortened versions? all were around 1 minute 30 seconds long, or at least the tunes I listened to.. maybe meant to be that way, really enjoyed your stuff, and enjoyed it so much I pulled the guitar out and created some nice harmonic guitar parts to it.. thanks again!

PLANETguy I can create relevant bass lines, the trouble is I can not get that fat meaty sound like Brian has on his tunes..

sorry dayne...i didn't mean to insult your bass playing. ( i don't believe i've ever heard you play bass!)

keep in mind those smooth tunes (or the ones i heard at least) have keyboard bass. if you're running your bass DI and have a nice round sound when you are monitoring it.....i see no reason why you shouldn't be able to capture that. a little compression can help fatten things up.

bon chance.

did not even think for a second you were second guessing me planetguy, without a LIVE act and getting paid gigs, it makes absolutely no sense to be paying hard earned money for session players or $80.00 an hour professional grade studio time.. you know that , jimmie knows that, and anybody spending money on albums or cd's had better understand that.. it's the reason I have not invested money into taking my rough drafts any further with polishing them up, and putting lipstick on a pig..the only reason I made rough tracks available was to find musicians that like them enough to maybe get together and rehearse them up, depending on quality of musicians, I can dumb them down if needed LOL..this smooth jazz posted here is far more simpler music, but it is such a better sound and more commercially feasible..and Brian is teaching me it is not about complexity of the music but commercial appeal in which Brian scores big points on.. this guy is really onto something here, Peabo Bryson, James Ingram quality sound here..would like to try to take my tunes there, into a live setting, but no believers thus far, mainly comments off craigslist is good chords and soloing, but you need bass and percussion FIRST! I have never thought the quality of themy recordings were high enough to sell as digital downloads or whatevers.. I just wish Brian could hear the guitar I added to his tunes, I guess he is looking for a band and he would be a great asset..I hope he responds sometime

a lot of people have "formulas" for how they write and how they record things.

what comes first.... a chord progression? THEN a melody? or the other way around?

what do you record first....the rhythm section and THEN the stuff on top? or the other way around...laying your bass line in AFTER you've filled up space w other stuff?

i don't think there's one right way to do it. i know that's how i approach it....flex.

sometimes the bass IS the first thing i record but often it's the last thing i add to a recording. this allows me to play parts that hopefully sit better w everything else.

that's also how mcartney approached bass on most stuff.....adding his bass last.

the next time I plug in the Ableton and fire up the TonePort UX-2 I am going to completely come up with bass line first, percussion will come in second, I am saving now for the machine RGMix referred me to, a Behringer electronics drum set.. from now on, sparse guitar and sparse soloing.. but the whole idea once again is to use that to find players that want to take a crack at learning hard to master time signatures and hard to master chord structures, many don't even use their pinky finger yet..