ELP Hoedown Latest project Please critique

Hawk Studio

Hawk Studio

New member
I would really appreciate a critique on our latest project. This is our version of Hoedown by Emerson Lake and Palmer. There is no midi automation on this except the drum track. We have yet to find a drummer that can hang with Carl Palmer.

This was a bitch to mix, especially the last 3rd of the song. I would really appreciate any opinions, either positive or negative as we have several other ELP projects lined up behind this one.

Thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

EMP-Hoedown
 
I think you need something mid range in there. You have a muddyish bass and the shrill organ or whatever it is, and the drums, but in the mid range there isn't a great deal, especially in the first half of the song. You could have chucked in a rhythm guitar, maybe acoustic...but I don't know if this goes against the ELP style. The last section of the song seemed to be a little more filled out.

But geez, if humans played all that complicated stuff with all the fast runs, then that's pretty damn good. On top of that, I like hoedowns a lot...
 
Im not sure how to bring up the mids on this, other than EQ. The original is a little shrill. There are no guitarts in the piece.
 
Pretty decent. I like the last third, the organ doesnt do it for me. I am very familiar with ELP, have every album, played this piece a zillion times in the orginal orchestral version.

To me, the organ sounds a little clean and quantized ( not saying that it is). It;s a little clean in the articulations, a little too white for my tastes.
If your goal is to reproduce the ELP version note for note, you are coming close but are missing some articulations, mainly on the short notes ( need to be longer).

The ELP version I prefer is one of the live ones, it is much faster and dirtier. Let me put it another way:

I could do this. Through midi and slowing it down, I could make this. I am OK at keys but not great. A lil more flair from the keyboards is needed to seperate an armchair midi-guy like me from a real bitchin keyboard player. I would rather it be sloppier and more exciting.

Sounds real good, nice job. I would head to the recording project collab forum with this and ask for a real drumer ( beg), some people definitely can do it. It will make it sound a lot more real
 
Thank you for your comments Dave. I appreciate it. Our goal with this piece was to follow the studio version at the same tempo. The only changes we wanted to make was to give it more of a Copeland "circus" feel. The Moog Modular was set up according to an article written by Emo's sound guy where he went into detail for the oscillator/filter/envelope setups in detail. I modified the patch for this feel and did the whoosh and other synth fill parts. The organ tracks came to me as audio from my buddy in Florida played against a metronome. I also improvised on the bass guitar a little but stuck pretty close.
In our next project, Nutrocker, we are planning a lot of improvisation as it is basically a blues piece. Half of the drum solo will seg into a bass solo etc.

I cant find the forum that you are talking about but will keep looking. Thanks for the idea there. Every time I line up a collab here I get several volunteers but no one ever comes through. I'll try again as we desperately need a vocalist and drummer for these covers. We would like to do Karn Evil 9 3rd, Pirates and a few others. Any volunteers?
 
Google recording project, its somewhat an offshoot of this place. At one point those words were sorta banned here, I dont think its like that anymore but dont want to offend anyone.

Yes I know nutrocker, I played for years in a very popular band that did it.

The Moog Modular
Click to expand...

This is what I like so much about your version, sounds great. I even like the siren sounds at the coda, though a bit different than the original.

Out of curiousity, why are you doing this? I do similiar things sometimes, indeed I have also recorded the hoedown.

Yup, the organ sounds like it is played to a metronome. Not that thats a bad thing, I can appreciate people attempting classical licks since I am a pro symphony violinist. It just sounds a little too rigid. Obviously you are a huge fan of ELP, they werent that tight in concert, which is why a prefer their live stuff over studio recordings like the hoedown.

Good luck with future projects, send me a pm and I will be sure to listen :cool:
 
Thanks Dave. It is really just a collab like any other project I see here. As a bass player, I spent a lot of time hunting down a good keyboardist that was also an ELP freak. I finally found one in David Presley in Florida.

Why are we doing this? Like I said, I never got a chance to take a crack at any ELP, but with David I could. I hate midi keyboard projects. No real talent there other than programming. I also love molding sounds with analog synths. I jumped at the chance for this due to the heavy analog component. I worked on those patches for days. The whoosh has 6 oscillators in it, plus several filters and envelopes. It was really a lot of fun.

I even got a chance to play some keys, a bit of a departure for me. By the way, the sirens sounds at the coda were generated with my Roland Fantom-X. The rest is analog.

Thanks again for your input.
Be good
Mark Estes
 
Hawk Studio said:
Thanks Dave. It is really just a collab like any other project I see here. As a bass player, I spent a lot of time hunting down a good keyboardist that was also an ELP freak. I finally found one in David Presley in Florida.

Why are we doing this? Like I said, I never got a chance to take a crack at any ELP, but with David I could. I hate midi keyboard projects. No real talent there other than programming. I also love molding sounds with analog synths. I jumped at the chance for this due to the heavy analog component. I worked on those patches for days. The whoosh has 6 oscillators in it, plus several filters and envelopes. It was really a lot of fun.

I even got a chance to play some keys, a bit of a departure for me. By the way, the sirens sounds at the coda were generated with my Roland Fantom-X. The rest is analog.

Thanks again for your input.
Be good
Mark Estes
Click to expand...

Brilliant playing man, I like it, it lacks some rawness though try tilting the hamond :D ...

a thumbs up from Naka a huge E.L.P fan if you ever do The only way from tarkus please let me know, I would love to take a crack at the vox. :)
 
Nak
Thank you very much. Its was a really FUN project.
"The Only Way"...not just yes, but HELL YES!! I always loved that due to its lyrical content. We desperately need vocals for our ELP projects. We are currently doing Nutrocker but I could think of a dozen we would have placed before Nutrocker if we had someone who was willing to make a serious comittment to do vocals. I'd hate to spend all the time on the music only to have the vocalist drop out.

Sure man, Im sure that I could talk David into it if you could do vocals for us. That would be really great.

Mark
 
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