And Now For Something Completely Different...

dewhitt

dewhitt

Dave DeWhitt
Hi All,

It's been awhile since I posted in the clinic. I haven't written much since I finished up my CD last year (a self-imposed break!), but recently I've started playing around with some instrumentals in various styles. I've posted a couple up on Soundclick, and I'd welcome any feedback, either regarding the production/mixing or regarding the compositions. The instrumental stuff is new territory for me, and it's cool cause it's allowing me to try some new styles...hopefully the results don't suck :D

Music page of Dave DeWhitt - MP3 music page on SoundClick

I have a few more in progress in the jazz and blues vein that I hope to post up soon . My thought is that eventually I'll put them all on a CD and submit to Pump Audio or somewhere similar to try for licensing...but, who knows.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Best,
 
Everything sounds great. Very eclectic! All well written and arranged. I liked Life Is Good the best, maybe because I have a song with the same name!! :eek: :cool: It really captures the sound and feel you were going for. The only drawback for me are the midi sounds, the horns for example. The last song is very well done, great singing and sounds like a completely different thing, very modern rock.
 
Hey macle, thanks very much for listening and for the comments. The last song, Signs of Life, was written and recorded last year, and is part of my CD, so yeah, that one has a completely different style, which is more in line with the rest of the tunes on that album. The other two on the soundclick page are newer - recorded over the last week or so - and are just me messing around with little musical ideas for fun. I'm not sure how to improve the horns and such...I don't play horns, never have, so it's just guesswork for me to try to emulate what a real horn player would do. I'm having some similar trouble with another track I'm playing around with which is in a jazz style, and I'm trying to add some sax accents. I really have no clue what I'm doing. Coltrane would punch me right in the face :)

I checked out your tune 'Life Is Good'. I think I may have listened to that one before, and I was relieved to hear that my version wasn't too similar...you had me sweating there for a minute...lol. Listening back to that one on your site, I know you say that is one of your early and rough recordings, but I really like that one. Your voice is great on that track.

Thanks again for checking it out!

Best,
 
I get what you're saying about the horns, I've gone through the same thing. I got a sax and learned enough to be able to get a horn flavor because I just couldn't get fake ones to seem alright. But I'm not sure whether most people would care about whether horns are real or not.

Thanks for the compliment on Life Is Good, guess I won't sue!:)
 
Oh man I love Sarafina.... beautiful and upbeat piano. Love the panned echo on the high notes near the end. Who else does music like this? I love piano but have never really listened to any solo performances like that
 
Hey Instink, thanks very much for the comments, I'm glad you like it. That piece came about because a friend of mine asked me to write something for a promo video she's putting together. She told me she wanted something 'old-timey and lively' and she sent me a link to the theme song for the Jeeves and Wooster TV show, which is more in a jazz style. I was shooting for something jazzier, but when I was coming up with the melody and arrangement, I was sitting at the piano, and Sarafina is what I ended up with. I took piano lessons as a kid for a long time (didn't have much choice, cause my mom was the local piano teacher...lol) and I played a lot of Chopin in my day. I think the style with the chromatic melody lines and some of the chord changes, etc are similar, although Chopin was a musical genius and I am absolutely not...lol.

The echo parts were pretty simple to do with the miracle of modern technology...I just played that high melody part separately on its own track, then doubled it, time shifted it and pulled the volume down some on the double. The only way to pull that off live would be to play offset octaves with the right hand, and it wouldn't really sound quite the same, but then...I don't really have any intention of trying to play this live :) It would take four hands anyway, so i guess it would have to be a duet.

Probably more info that you wanted, but there you go.

Macle, I like the idea of getting a sax to learn...I was thinking my next instrument was going to be a mandolin, but now I'm wondering... Thanks for not suing! :D

Best,

Dave
 
Really enjoyed the piano song, dude... I'm way too tired to type anything more. Glad I Listened to it, though.. Keep it up!
 
sarafina did remind me of some older film soundtrack or something, nice playing...you hit what you were aiming for


life is good is poptastic, i could hear singing over it...for some reason the boo radleys sprung to mind??


belting mix Dave
 
Hey Jason, thanks for listening. I am hoping that the reason you are tired is because you are so busy with paying studio customers that you can barely keep up with demand :guitar:

Keith, thanks for the listen and comments. I hope you are doing well! I wasn't really thinking about putting words to Life Is Good, mainly just because for me music comes easily, but lyrics are always a pain in the ass, and I've been feeling too lazy to 'work' on writing and crafting words to music lately. I will go take a listen to some Boo Radleys though to see if maybe inspiration strikes :)

Very Best,
 
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