Tympani is MIDI

jeffmaher

jeffmaher

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SoundClick artist: Jeff Maher - page with MP3 music downloads

Three fiddle tracks...two flute....a banjo trying to sound Japanese....and my mic'd drum kit ...played by a real drummer, Carl. Upright bass, two tracks, bowed.

Unfinished. Just gassing on the new stuff. Thought I'd share and get some feedback?

I had Carl play beats to four click tracks...military-sounding stuff....into the eight mics. He tuned the cans a bit and got the snare sounding OK, I reckon. Then I mixed to a single track and transported to a new platform. Edited-in the crashes from other tracks. I only have two cymbals. One sucks....the other is not so good. On the list.

The new puter is workin' swell. I can get a gaggle of tracks, and fill the bins with individual verbs and stuff. Liberating!

Swimming in verb. For the WWII film. Lots of grit...since I don't play fiddle or flute real well. Bowing a bass in new, too. But I'll learn and get better. I didn't want to totally ruin the outcome by trying to be a drummer, this time.

I wish they had Strats with whammy bars and stax o' Marshalls in '42.


The composition is [inspired] by the drum track. A new approach. Just let fly with ideas....bass first...built on that, up. I got an augmented melody thingy...and a phrygiolydian somethinorother in there. I'd have modulated the intense tympani part if I had to do it over.

Anyway.....
Cheers!
 
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Snare sounds real good.

The flute and banjo are buried. The drums tend to dominate everything else.

The sounds on everything seem to be pretty decent.

Heard a little pop at 2:10.
 
Thanks, Triple, about the pop thing. Didn't hear it...cuz I'm in a hurry, and didn't audition the trax solo before mastering....like a good engineer oughta. That was the sound of my head hitting the mic. :^)
 
Hey Jeff, reminds me of a prisoner being led to the firing squad.....:D
Totally bad-ass bass you've got on it. It turns nice and asian as it goes along. Totally interesting stuff. The mix sounds great to me, somehow full and 3-dimensional although it has a pretty sparse instrumentation, but it really doesn't need anything else.
 
Well, one thing I'm learning: if I do enough fiddle trax, the intonation awfulness averages out. :^)

And I'm determined to get a cello. Need something to cover the space between fiddle and bass. I might do with a viol...archaic cello...six string...tuned like a guitar. Wish I had the chops to solo some on these new things.

All that TV watching when I was a kid is paying off. This is strictly background for WWII guys telling their stories. I'm trying to mix it up, cuz I have no rushes from the film, and I'm flying blind.

I reloaded to bleep the pop...and decided to try to clean up the fiddle and flute tracks. Gotta slow down. Thanks fer listening. The translucent sound of real stuff is a gift. A little MIDI thrown in doesn't destroy it too much.
 
Wow, this is pretty cool. Really nice organic sounds. I think some of the playing could be tighter, but it sounds good. Really nice job.


I'm jealous. I wish I had piles of real instruments to play with. I'm stuck with guitars, bass, drums, and a handful of novelty noisemakers.
 
The one thing that struck me the most is how all instruments stand out on their own. Very cool, indeed. Yeah, this defiinitely sounds like background music for WWII movies. Will you be submitting this to a music supervisor or something?
 
Yep. Tighter would be great! Fiddle is a tricky feel: gotta start the bow moving a nanosecond before y' want the noise. Slipping tracks to get it on the one. Har!

All the tracks are as-recorded...nothing done to them...except a 6-ish db boost in the bottom end of the drums and tympani below 120 Hz....and a minor bit of compression. 1.8/-11 Then a 9% Lexicon 'Concert Hall' verb. All I did was level-up in the mastering. No compression. The bass, flute and fiddle were all recorded with a $100 Audix ADX90 clip-on condenser mic. It's my fave mic. Really "gets" what acoustic bass is all about! And it doesn't 'hear' much of anything more than a couple feet away. Nice! But it's touchy w/ proximity. If y' don't clip it on, y' gotta maintain position real good. The bass drum is a big, deep, double-headed, no hole, and no muffling boomer recorded with a Shure PG52. Carl played it in unison with the big floor tom...also recorded with another budget Shure drum mic. I used over/under mics on the snare: the ADX90 on top; a SM58 on the bottom. Wanted the scuzz.

I though I might re-master w/o the boom in the bottom...Triple said the drums dominated. Mebbe just too loud? Keep the earthquake??

My friend, Scott Stets, has produced this movie...and he's got a pro editor sewing it into a film...about half done...and a contract with WGBH. I'm donating the music, non-exclusive. PBS pays no royalties. But my name will be in the credits, and it's an important historical narrative. Scott might think the music sucks, and not use it. But at these prices? :^) He's been blowing thousands out of his own pocket for six years to travel to, and interview, these old warriors. I think he's tapped out. Good for me. It's called "Why We Fought" Two-hours is the plan. I'd like to hear myself in it. So I'm trying not to suck too bad.

ps....I just found a cello for $50 on CraigsList!!
 
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Man its nice to hear stuff like this. Cool to hear someone orchestrating music instead of just banging out some chords and following the root note with the rest of the instruments. I only have a chance to come on here and listen about once a week or so....I never leave here uninspired. There really is a lot of talent in this place. Thanks for posting!!!!!!! Good Stufff
 
It's nice to have a reality check once in a while as to what truly organic music sounds like. With my head deep into mega-processing stuff to make it sound "better", this sure was a lovely breath of fresh air.

Nicely done. FWIW, I didn't think the drums were too dominant at all, and I loved the bottom-end.

Thanks for sharing, Jeff.
 
Hey , PI!

Wondering what you think of the sound I'm getting with my Chinese Ludwigs and budget Shure mics. Anything stand out as in need of improvement? The drum trax and mix, with the exception of the bottom boost for the master, was flat and un-screwed with. I'm thinking you'd have mentioned it, if you'd have heard it; then, I'm thinking, you n' Gerg are just bein' nice.

Watching Carl smash the crap out of them was inspiring: gonna start shedding. Just hard, cuz I don't want anyone to hear me! I guess you get over that early-on as a drummer?
 
Okay... Giving it another critical listen. First thing I notice, is your snare sounds *so* good. Nice full body, nice crack, and nicely played, too. The next thing I noticed is that there are minor sync issues all over the place. The more I listen, the more I think it's that the drum track is slightly ahead of the rest of the tracks. Try moving the drum track(s) back a hair. (just typing as I listen) - the more I listen, the more apparent it becomes that this is consistent. Move your drum tracks back about 60ms, and it'll tighten the whole track up.

The next thing I noticed is the reverb. It has a pretty long tail, and seems like the entire project was put through the same verb. Not sure if it'd help to give things a bit more of their own personality.

But yeah, dude... Sounded really nice.
 
Thanks , Greg, I reckon I just couldn't believe I got a good sound without years of hassle. Didn't seem possible, with all the reading on the forum.

By golly, PI...I think you're right about the drum track. It feels a little behind or ahead of the beat on some of the later edited-in parts. I snipped and sewed it in places. A realignment in high res is in order. TX!! And I'll mess with the verb some, too.

Although, when I said I was gonna clean up the fiddle trax, I meant that there was a bad lag time in getting the notes on the one....that bowing delay thing. And I'm still crawling on the instrument...I think it may be that I was playing it lazy. Magnifying glass time....
 
Nicely done. What a great listen. Who'd have thought a piece of music with no distortion could sound so good? :) You should post a clip of the movie on youtube when it's done
 
An updated, re-mixed, slid/scootched, much better version is up at the link.

The penciled banjo is up;
I dispensed with the boom in the bottom: this might be playing under dialogue, and along with stock footage sound...explosions, gunfire, etc. Don't want it too damn epic, on second consideration. And Ikept the single verb...even cut it back: again, this isn't the star of the show. I've ruined too many decent recordings getting lost in the FX woods.....always away from 'better'.
The drum trax were fine, time-wise. It was my inexperienced hands and lips on the instruments. I generally advanced parts where I was consistently late in getting the sound out of the tools. Cut, pasted, and edited as necessary to get everything likkedy.

I thank you for the listens and the advice. I was in a hurry, and too enamored of the sound. I forgot to consider the tightness adequately. But that's why I post here.

I think I can get Scot's permission to post a clip. Best advertizing for the buck on youtube, eh?
 
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