Let's hear it!!! Post your music here!

[Dave Bryce]

Here is a classical track I did. This is my orchestration of The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Outstanding work! I love the mix of traditional instrumentation with modern sounds - excellent choices.

 

Instruments used?

 

dB

[Cygnus64]

Thanks for checkin it out guys.

 

Instruments used?

 

Korg X50, Yamaha MM6, Garritan GPO.

 

There are about 45-50 violin tracks on this. 12 firsts, 11 seconds, 10 viola doubles, cello doubles etc. I tune down for the cello tracks on occasion.

 

The hardest part was the viola part. Reading alto clef on violin while transposing it up gave me headaches.

[Bill Heins]

Cygnus 64, very nice rendition...the mix of instruments really does brighten the sound and gives it a different flavor. I picked up a few scores a while back with the same intention...did you do the string parts to match a certain orchestra's string section? Or did you find that those numbers gave you the sound you were looking for? I've always wanted to try matching the LSO by instrument seating

 

Bill

[Bill Heins]

linwood, I can see Phil Collins making a career move after the Genesis reunions are over

 

You caught the spirit of his music perfectly!

 

Now to get him to get back behind the drums and get Peter and Steve to rejoin Genesis

 

Bill

[Dave Bryce]

I picked up a few scores a while back with the same intention...

I have the score of Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre with that in mind. I had to enter almost all of the score for a production of the Sondheim show Company a few years back (six live musicians, all the rest me sequenced on Kurzweils) and had the best time doing it, so I look forward to digging into another one soon.

 

dB

[Bill Heins]

Cool piece! I'm not sure if I want to stay true to the score or do it ala ELP Pictures at an Exhibition.

 

Bill

[Cygnus64]

Thanks again guys.

 

did you do the string parts to match a certain orchestra's string section? Or did you find that those numbers gave you the sound you were looking for?

 

I've been doing this for years, and those numbers just work. There are a lot of problems doing this, mainly with phasing. Its amazing when you play something many times, often it is identical. Identical like a fingerprint matching, it's almost eerie. Anyhoo, the sounds really doesnt get fuller as it's one instrument played by the same player. I fill it out with various eq and reverb effects, panning etc. I suppose if I owned 5 instuments and alternated recording with them, it would be more of an orchestral sound.

[Dave Bryce]

I suppose if I owned 5 instuments and alternated recording with them, it would be more of an orchestral sound.

I've done that in the past with horns - trumpet from he Kurz, trombone from the Proteus, sax from the Korg, another sax from the Roland, etc. Definitely makes a difference, IMO.

 

dB

[Cygnus64]

I suppose if I owned 5 instuments and alternated recording with them, it would be more of an orchestral sound.

I've done that in the past with horns - trumpet from he Kurz, trombone from the Proteus, sax from the Korg, another sax from the Roland, etc. Definitely makes a difference, IMO.

 

dB

 

I meant real violins. For romplers, I mix up samples, different synths etc all the time. When I overdub the violins, I only own one. Granted, it would get very expensive to own 5. I could be a yacht instead.

[Jonathan Hughes]

Every year for the past several years, my friends and I have recorded a record of mainly original holiday music. It's all available for free download on my website:

 

www.jonathanhughes.com/holiday.html

 

Including this year's stuff, there are over 30 songs available. They're all performed by some excellent musicians, many are really funny, many feature singing robots, and there's a LOT of synthesizer. There are all sorts of styles covered, so there's probably something there for just about anyone; and best of all, it's almost all original (we do do a few choice covers) and unlike anything you'll hear at the mall. So if you're sick of the songs that are played to death, come on over and start downloading.

 

 

Jonathan

[Dave Bryce]

....and the cover tunes just keep on coming...

 

This one's a fun version of the McCartney/Wings tune Venus and Mars/Rock Show. I'm feeling pretty good about the mix, but would love some feedback...

 

TIA,

 

dB

[BluesKeys]

This is a tune I wrote and the CD has JUST been Released.

 

I Wanna Show You (2nd tune down)

 

www.myspace.com/2theninez

 

The horns were written by our esteemed DaveE

 

I play EP/Piano/Strings and sing on this cut.

[tucktronix]

Original home-recorded jazz/funk and recordings of some blues gigs...

 

http://www.myspace.com/tucktronix

 

Soundclick..

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=73567

 

Jazz/funk band Footnote...

http://www.myspace.com/thefootnoteband

 

Certainly nothing to write home about(my playing, that is)

[David R]

Jon, I like the way the percolating synth pads dovetail with the rest of the band on "Angular Momentum." Very nice.

 

BluesKeys: I'm loving this retro mellow groove. Props to DaveE for the horn writing. Wonderful.

 

I've been having some fun on this website, remixing Canadian rapper K-OS from the stems he's put up of his new record. I have no real idea what the original tunes sound like - I went almost exclusively from the a cappella vocals and played/programmed everything else. Any feedback (especially on the mixing side of things) would be greatly appreciated:

4-3-2-1

Mr. Telephone Man

Burning Bridges

[Dave Bryce]

Just posted a pretty rocking mix of Sympathy For The Devil, which will most probably be the last tune on the covers CD.

 

The band is Marilyn's Last Supper, the jam band I've been playing with for years...but I got my buddy Stu Kimball to play the leads. Stu and I played together in a band in Boston many years ago, but he's stepped up from that a tad - he currently plays guitar with Bob Dylan. He recorded the parts at Michael Wagener's studio in Nashville.

 

I'm pretty happy with this mix, but would welcome any feedback - it's really hard to be objective about tunes when you're really close to them.

[tucktronix]

Just completed and posted a jazz/funk composition, in the vein of early George Duke...

 

Tepid

 

 

[Dave Bryce]

Nice piece, Jon...very well woven. Tasteful sound selection and playing on the keys, and really nice bass work.

 

dB

[linwood]

Killer, db! Man...you took me back for a ride with that one. I use to have Beggars Banquet on 8trk that I'd play all the time on my Craig system in my VW bug in the late 60's.Best sounding car I've ever had, for some reason..... Great job all the way around. Loved your whole approach to it. Love that era of the Stones. One of my fondest memories from that time in my life was going to see the Burrito Brothers and hearing them cover Wild Horses. One of my favorite things I've ever seen.

 

Jon, very nice! Like the tune and the performances. Bravo. I've really liked everything I've heard you post. More, more!!

[Dave Bryce]

I use to have Beggars Banquet on 8trk that I'd play all the time on my Craig system in my VW bug in the late 60's.

Heh...do you remember which (if any) songs had a track switch in the middle of it?

 

Great job all the way around. Loved your whole approach to it.

Thanks, Linwood!

 

Record is almost done - I'm supposed to have it mastered at the end of the month.

 

dB

[alfonso]

Just posted a pretty rocking mix of Sympathy For The Devil, which will most probably be the last tune on the covers CD.

 

The band is Marilyn's Last Supper, the jam band I've been playing with for years...but I got my buddy Stu Kimball to play the leads. Stu and I played together in a band in Boston many years ago, but he's stepped up from that a tad - he currently plays guitar with Bob Dylan. He recorded the parts at Michael Wagener's studio in Nashville.

 

I'm pretty happy with this mix, but would welcome any feedback - it's really hard to be objective about tunes when you're really close to them.

 

I like this version very much....two choices I would have made different: for the vocals in the initial drum box part I would have mixed them with only a very in the face ambient and some whispering delays (double the voice track, run through an hipass with high cutoff and medium resonance and feed a dual delay with some cross feedback) to give a subtly disturbing and more devilish feel. When the "real" drums come in the voice becomes like it is now again, just a tad dryer in the queter parts.

The guitar solo is very nice and with a lot of expressive strength, it kicks in with a bit of too much energy in the low end...a bit of it could be shelved off. I would put it more in the middle or just "stereoized" in both the channels...due to the sound and the kind of phrasing having it panned so much aside is a bit of a too "vintage" decision not consequential to the rest of the mix and the sound used. When the guitar goes rhythmic it can stay at the side but at a tad lower volume.

 

Those are just "artistic" decisions that reflect my subjective aesthetics and not a technical criticism to a mix (exception made for the excessive thump of the solo start) that is very cool and effective. I enjoyed the song a lot, It doesn't happen too frequently with covers.

[Dave Bryce]

Thanks, Alfonso...

 

Re: the fx on John's voice: I've tried all kinds of things - you don't even wanna know - but your suggestion is interesting for sure. I actually did something like that on the version of Reeling in the Years I just did, except I ran the doubled vocals through a fuzz sat plug in...

 

Re: the lead guitar - the clean DI'd signal is actually bled into the other channel a bit - you can hear it when he twangs the strings. I like the dimension that adds when I knocked the sound off center - it wasn't available otherwise...plus, I kinda like that vintage off to the side thing. I did it with bass and drums on a couple of the other tunes - very interesting to get a balanced mix when you do that. I will try hitting it with the 2 band shelf though, and see what that does.

 

Thank you for the feedback!

 

dB

[tucktronix]

Nice piece, Jon...very well woven. Tasteful sound selection and playing on the keys, and really nice bass work.

 

dB

 

Thanks dB. It's been over 2 years since my last finished project and I've kind of struggled with this one. Not one of my favs, but there are some good moments.

 

With that being said, I've always been a fan of your work, especially your reworking of 'The Light Dies Down On Broadway'. Your version of 'Sympathy...' is no exception. 'Evil Genius' is just plain brilliant, IMO:thu:

 

[linwood]

I posted a .sib ver of this a couple weeks ago when I wrote it, but yesterday I exported the midi file out of sibelius, open it up in DP and used some better samples. to give myself a better idea of what I'd done. The mix is a little funky. I keep losing things. You'll see what i mean if you follow along with the paper. I'm still not too sure how to tackle a mix like this. When I have something like a basic section/ pop thing, I don't have much of a problem, but this is a different beast. My computer is starting to give out, too. I'm running a dual 2.5 and I'm having to render stuff to audio wayyy to soon in the process and then when I wanna change it I'm too lazy to re-track the parts and I find myself settling to easily. Anyway, enough excuses.

[Cygnus64]

Anyway, enough excuses.

 

Very nice! Well done, very impressive and stylish.

 

I'm still not too sure how to tackle a mix like this.

 

1. Wider.

 

2. You are about there. Principal thematic material up front, filler chords in back. The mix is already good, it just could be wider in the strings. Make the cellos or violas far right.

 

How did you save this as a pdf file?

[linwood]

Cygnus64, I often think, "man, if I could just spend a few days with cygnus64". Much respect to you. Those strings are the appass. I was using the vsl ensemble and I haven't really figured out how/where to pan things within that. I wonder if I should try just bouncing them down to mono tracks since the samples are mono anyway. Maybe I'd get better imaging, but man that interface is so pretty.Thanks for your help. I value it.

 

The pdf came from sibelius. Goto the print window and save as pdf.

[Cygnus64]

The piano part cracks me up. I hope you get a very patient pianist since he/she has a lot of waiting around to do.

 

The VSL sounds are really quite nice. I would suggest turning up the harp a bit since it is a prominent part, vibes too. Love the bassoon patch, it's hard to get a good one.

[Dave Bryce]

The arrangement is great, Linwood...I love the way the flutes and strings combine - makes me want to write a synth patch with a flute attack over strings.

 

Agree about the harp being up a touch. The strings in general need something to make them sound a bit more natural - not sure exactly what it is, though...maybe Cygnus is right that they need to be wider - gauging from his work, the brother definitely has an ear for string arranging..

 

dB

[SK]

Very nice, Linwood. And love the surprise upward modulation of chords at :45.

[Cygnus64]

I tend to do subgroups: Violin 1 front, violin 1 back. Then again, I have a lot of free time. If you watch a symphony, the lead violin is at ground zero, while the last chair is almost off the stage.

 

In this type of recording, what matters most is everything having its own space, so panning further than usual often works. Another aspect is dimension: Strings are in the front near the mics (or audience), winds are further away in the back. One can experiment with different reverbs to give dimension, the strings having a tad shorter reverb than a far away horn.

 

I've listened to and critiqued thousands and thousands of mp3s on the internet, and Linwood is the ONLY one who supplied a score. That is way cool, I hope people take a good look at it with the music. There is a lot of attention to detail, lots of dynamics written in, some articulations (dots) in the bassoons and trumpets near the end, etc.

 

Linwood also did a great job in making each part interesting. There's a tendency to give the first violins all the fun and the rest of the strings play whole notes. He gives all the string parts moving lines, fragments of melody, etc. When the melody is important, he has Violin 1 and 2 play in unison, which is the way to go. Lots of good stuff in the score.

[linwood]

Thank you cygnus64. Yea..the piano on the end is a goof. I just threw it in at the last sec. to try and make the ending bigger. I should probably change that ending anyway. All and all, not half bad. No playing, and that could be a huge problem , just point and click in sibelius and export midi file. My computer is so slow that I can't play a piece this big in without the samples choking. It's about time for me to upgrade. I agree with you guys, I'm losing the harp....I'm losing a few things. When I do my normal stuff, after listening with all the faders up a few times, I'll start with the kick and I know where I want to see it hittin' the meters so that by the time I add everything else I still have enough headroom. This mix got out of hand a couple times and I had to start over. I haven't found my method yet. This orch stuff is fairly new to me at this old age. Everything is ewqlso but the strings. Maybe I'll open it back up later today and push more faders.

 

I like that bar too, SK. It's pretty simple, but effective. I'm moving major triads down in m3's parallel and on top of that a major triad a whole step above, but moving those with voice leading and within that moving the 5 to 1 of the next triad.

 

Update:

 

So I opened it back up and panned things a bit further out and bumped up the harp in spots. It sounds better to me now. Moving the strings....now I can hear the horns where I missed them before. some of the lines, if not all of them, sound stiff and need to be played in, but at least this gives me an idea of what it "might" sound like with players. Thanks guys.

new mix