A very Muslim Christmas

[DavidK]

Arabian Dance

From the gayest of the gay Christmas Ballets, the Nutcracker. Music by Tchaikovsky until I ruined it. Any suggestions welcome. I eventually will put percussion/Drums in this, I just dont know what yet. Comments?

 

[ido1957]

Nice percussive keyboard patches - sound like steel drums in places and wood blocks? in others.

You mention adding drums after the fact - that will be cool but there sounds like drums in here now with the instrumentation you're using....almost sounds like the big kettle drums in spots....cool....

Do you use standard patches on your keyboards or do you/can you tweak them?

Sweet violins - always my favorite part of all your pieces....super smooth....great tones......

Sounds like a sitar in this - cool....

Where did you get the singer ? What is he chanting? I like the way it fades out in the beginning, and only peeks through in the end....

You've captured the middle-eastern vibe with the tempo/percussive effects....that slow, sweeping sort of dance of the veils....

Excellent mix - the panning/eq/volume you've used allows the various instruments to occupy their own space.

Top Quality all around ....

 

[DavidK]

Thanks for listening Gerry.

Do you use standard patches on your keyboards or do you/can you tweak them?

I layer them and use the mod wheel on the keyboard to change timbre. There are a lot of patches mixed for the rhythm stuff, maybe 12. I dont tweak stuff much, I just layer.

Where did you get the singer ? What is he chanting?

I, err, borrowed it from some demo of samples on the net. I have no clue what he is saying. Probably something about Bush. I will have to get another sample or buy one if I decide to use it.

 

[Dogman]

Sounds well done to me. Nice mix. No real comments from me...it sounds good.

 

[true-eurt]

That is really cool David !!!

 

[rayc]

David,
Terrific work. I love the sitarish thing off to the side it also reminds me of one of the sounds used in the Jeff Wayne WOTWorlds soundtrack.
A perennially nice piece of music, lifted from it's torpor by your arrangement & augmentation.
I look forward to the next step.

 

[DavidK]

THanks for listening Ed, True and Ray

I look forward to the next step.

Any Ideas? Seems a lil bare to me, then again I am used to 6 zillion tracks.

I am trying to find a new direction, I dont want to make the same CD twice. I fear drums, I dont know how to do them. Hold me.

 

[bigbubba]

The piece itself is very brilliantly put together.

A small nit: Muslim Christmas would be an oxymoron. Since the piece subtle arabic/middle eastern undertones, I'd say Arabic Christmas would be a better tag. Also Muslims don't really celebrate Christmas anymore than Jews do. However there are many Christian Arabs that do celebrate Christmas and who would love to hear this piece.

The guy is not very comprehensible.

The violins rock as usual. You should be the male version of the band Bond.

Maybe boost the percussion slightly to give it more presence.



Carry on.

 

[jpw23]

Excellent as always!!!!!

 

[DavidK]

Thanks for listening, Bubba and Jay.

A small nit: Muslim Christmas would be an oxymoron. Since the piece subtle arabic/middle eastern undertones, I'd say Arabic Christmas would be a better tag. Also Muslims don't really celebrate Christmas anymore than Jews do. However there are many Christian Arabs that do celebrate Christmas and who would love to hear this piece.

Take that up with Tchaikovsky, he was the one who put Arabs in his Gay Christmas ballet.

The guy is not very comprehensible.

The guy is a placeholder. SOMETHING will go there similiar to what I have, the guy was the first thing I cold find that would work. He is singing in Turkish, at least I think he is.

Maybe boost the percussion slightly to give it more presence.

Duly noted. It either has to be louder or more percussion parts.

 

[bigbubba]

Take that up with Tchaikovsky, he was the one who put Arabs in his Gay Christmas ballet.

The guy is a placeholder. SOMETHING will go there similiar to what I have, the guy was the first thing I cold find that would work. He is singing in Turkish, at least I think he is.

Hehe, Arab is not synonymous with Muslim. So having Arab Christmas and Arab influence in a Christian event is very likely and does happen all the time. because there's a lot of Christian Arabs. Muslims in a Christian event will.... well won't really happen.



The guy can be replaced by even you chanting in what would appear arabic or middle eastern melodies. . Or you could find one real one.

The percussion will be definitely sound cool louder and if you add more that will be fine. As is, it is still complete sounding with the current amount of percussion 'coz you have a busy piece which has a lot of active instruments and so keeps the ear busy.

Good stuff.