8804 (Comments Welcomed)

[60's guy]

8804 is a combination of acoustic guitar tracks written in 1988 and 2004. I recorded the tracks a few months ago here in Connecticut. A friend in Memphis tracked keyboards. Two other friends in California tracked bass, electric guitar, and percussion. The mix was done in California.

Comments and critique are most welcomed.

8804 is at the top of the page @

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/randyclinemusic.htm

[scrubs]

Pretty good, 60's guy. I like the tune. I am not too keen on the acoustic tone (too "direct" sounding) and some of the percussion sounds were distracting. Other than that, nice work.

[Pinky]

Has that "... and now you're local forecast..." thing going on, good for elevators and upity restaurants.

There's definitely some musicianship here, but "what was the song trying to say" I ask myself. Well, it's a showcase for their twangy Santana-esque stylings of neo-smooth jazz musack... I know I know, music's subjective blah blah blah... This is what happens when you homogenize a recording so 4 different people can 'dig' it enough to record their $0.02

From a techical standpoint it may be too crisp, too well produced to the point the definition of each instrument was competing for my ears. Dunno if that's a bad thing, it sounded like the parts were well recorded and I could hear everything clearly. Certainly not from lack of recording or engineering ability. Dare I say -- maybe TOO good for hr.com??

[60's guy]

Thanks for taking the time to listen and comment guys. I appreciate it.

Scrubbs,
I hear you on the directness of the acoustic guitars. They were purposely recorded direct, and I do understand where you are coming from.

Pinky,
Elevator music? I never anticipated that description. LOL!

Santana-esque? I suppose so, but then again all of us can be prone to allow influences to sneak in every now and then, right? SRV style would have been a little much I think for this particular piece.

Thanks again.

[Pinky]

I'm sure that when Santana first started recording back in 1918 he sounded like someone else too.

[60's guy]

Originally Posted by Pinky

I'm sure that when Santana first started recording back in 1918 he sounded like someone else too.

No doubt that Carlos would be amused by that. He was quite the blues player also when he began his career...or was that before your time?

[junplugged]

I'm hearing a lot of high freq. percussive things that are really up front, not listening w/ studio monitors, but seems to have little low mids.

[Pinky]

Originally Posted by 60's guy

No doubt that Carlos would be amused by that. He was quite the blues player also when he began his career...or was that before your time?

Slightly. But my parents had Santana records long before it was cool to have Santana records, so I was brainwashed ... I mean, "exposed" to some very interesting musak in my youth.

If I had to compare say Zappa [or insert any awesome guitarist/musician/song writer here] and Santana, it's like comparing Einstein to Corky from Life Goes On. There's a lot of good Zappa coming out of the vaults nowadays. Give a listen to Quaudiophiliac (DVD Audio). Zappa was producing 4 channel surround music before theaters even had speakers anyplace other than under the screen. Aside from perhaps The Grateful Dead producing a surround effect in their live shows (when was that, in the 1980s??) I've never heard of such presentation of music in surround sound until the recent advent of DVD Audio and DTS DVDs. Most of these releases are remasters of older recordings, and unfortunately whomever is picking the albums to be remastered must be on crack because there's so much missing from the catalogue it sickens me to even look through the DVD Audio bin at the record stores. They had it right remastering and releasing Brain Salad Surgery, but then I see the Insane Clown Pose and Sting and wonder WTF!!

Santana is cute for a song or two, then you 'get it'. Once you 'got it', there isn't anything left 'to get'.

[MX3282]

Of all the samples I listened to on here, this one really made me jump in my seat. It was alot louder, crisper and had a very quick opening. Yeah, It had that quickened "Santana" thing goin on, but hey, I love Santana. I even named my youngerst son Santana, and we're not even hispanic. My other sons name is Justice, but I think I'm moving away from the subject here.

Great musicianship, your tight. I'm sure all this was done with a click track. If I heard this LIVE, I think the word "Bravo" would have come to mind.

simply put, soften it a little with some eq, let it warm you, not shock you. The music will take care of the rest. Great job.