Fauré Yet to Be Morphed

[XLR]

Pavane by Fauré

This track is a starting point for a collaboration between DavidK, myself and maybe others with the aim of morphing the original composition by Gabriel Fauré into something pretty different... altered phrasing, added lines on violin, guitar and synths. It'll all be retracked but I thought I'd toss this two-guitar reduction up here as it is, and update as the project progresses.

Any arranging ideas?

Tim

 

[Nakatira]

Sweet man, nice playing as allways.
Good recording.
Look forward to hear this when its finnished.

thanks for sharing.

 

[Gorty]

Timothy,

Nice playing , I am a huge fan of music that has a sombre like haunting melody. I look forward to hearing the work in progress. I like the arrangement on the guitars there just how it is!

 

[rayc]

That's really lovely! Hope that doesn't sound demeaning.
Whilst I was listening I was thinking of a string line similar to the main theme in Grieg's Death of Ase'. Almost a counter melody.
I look forward to developments.
Cheers
rayC

 

[Dogman]

Very nice Tim. Seems to be a nice balance between the two guitars. I like the melody line. Tune has a sombre feel to it. Very interesting mood. Very pretty.
Ed

 

[Jack Real]

Hi Tim

Very nice playing. Do you have the tempo of the song ?

/Jack Real.

 

[DavidK]

Tim I just read your email, might as well respond here.

Sounds great. You definitely catch the mood and spirit of the piece.

Any arranging ideas?

Ummm, about 1000 so far. OK, maybe only 963, I'm slow today

It'll all be retracked

DONT THROW THIS AWAY

Seriously, this is not only fine, but this should be our metronome. This is the right tempo ( What tempo is this?). I can definitely work with this, especially since it is on two tracks. Cut and paste is a swell invention! The solo line can go anywhere, the accomp can fade in and out etc. I plan on putting a bunch of violins and synths and samples on this.

I am thinking of an orchestration similiar to my new orchestration of Malinconia click here but with more dynamics. Some of it can be guitar alone, guitar and violin alone, then as it builds go to some mammoth orchestration.

You did an excellent job on this! Crystal clear recording, excellent playing. Hey lets face it: after hearing your stuff, this is what I expected from you.

 

[XLR]

Naka, Gorty, Dogman – thanks for the listen and kind comments.

rayc – appreciate the idea re the Grieg reference and will look into that

Jacques – thanks. The tempo was at 85 bpm, done to a click, but it’s usually done slower and more freely when performed by an orchestra. With just the guitar duo arrangement (and no sustaining instrument yet) it sounded to me like it was dragging at a slower tempo, so I went with this to start out. That may change when ideas gel for more parts.

David – Glad you like the initial foray. Since we were kind of stalled with ideas for it initially I thought this would be an OK jump start for the project. It’s is panned at about 10 and 2, so I think I’ll put up a file that’s hard panned L and R for independent track mixing options. I'll send that to you later today.

It’s at 85 bpm, which felt good for guitar but it’d be easy to track a slower guitar part if it turned out that it suited the arrangement better. Don’t know if it’s best to work from a click track with this piece, expressively, but at least it’s easy to stay with. I’m working on other ideas also but I’ll be interested to see where you take it from here.

Tim

 

[DavidK]

It’s at 85 bpm, which felt good for guitar but it’d be easy to track a slower guitar part if it turned out that it suited the arrangement better.

HOnestly I love this tempo Tim.

A Pavane originally was a dance before Ravel, Faure and those other naughty Frenchies got ahold of it We can convey every emotion at this tempo and not make it into a funeral dirge, which it is not.

Every time I play this in orchestra, every conductor drags and drags this thing until you are begging then to move it out.

Don’t know if it’s best to work from a click track with this piece,

Yes and no, we can work around it. I am getting pretty good at lining this stuff up and cutting/pasting so it sounds natural. Again, every time I play this, it has to come to some DRAMATIC ritard every 4 measures until its almost a stereotype.

I am absolutely convinced that we can keep this sucka moving but not have it sound like a midi file metronome-wise. The key will be in a fiendishly cunning orchestration. I can handle that, I have been playing this piece for 28 years. Seriously!

 

[RAMI]

Nice playing as usual..The mood of this is very European and sombre. Beautiful. I think I find the low mids a little boomy, but I've noticed that I always find classical guitars lack highs whenever I hear a recording. Probably too used to hearing steel strings to judge that. Another beautiful performance.

 

[ido1957]

Really nicely recorded. Great tone and clarity. Excellent playing as always - inspiring. I find it melodic and light - would be nice for classical ballet or lyrical dance. I think I'm getting a better feel for the mic distance thing that's discussed in the various posts. The two seem to have a slight different mic placement. The two guitars are also spread out nicely in the stereo spectrum making it easy to listen to each part. I'm not qualified, but for what it's worth, I like this arrangement with the arpeggio on one side and the lead on the other. Looking forward to addition of other parts and watching this grow - thanks for sharing.

 

[true-eurt]

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

 

[SnakeDog5050]

Wow Tim, very enjoyable playing. I could listen to this all day

If anything, I hear some distortion/noise throughout on my speakers. Maybe a noise filter or some EQing on the high high end will help, hopefully not altering the guitar sounds.

Incredible performance. Beautiful playing... loved it

 

[XLR]

New Faure - now lower in saturated fat

David – OK, looks like we’re underway. When you receive the wav files let me know if you think the tracks have too much noise… tracked it in my studio B while just practicing but maybe it’ll work... not a big deal to redo it with quieter gear. You’ll also hear that the orig tracks have a different tone than the mix in the thread here, as I mixed the file here externally through an RNLA limiting amp kind of as an “thickening” experiment.

Rami – thanks for the listen… agree about the low mids. I usually use a bit of low mid multiband comp but didn’t on the orig thread mp3 here as I was experimenting with new gear. See if the above file comes across better that way.

The two seem to have a slight different mic placement.

Ido1957 – very perceptive re the difference in sound between the two parts. It wasn’t actually a different mic placement… it was a leather-covered plectrum used on the arpeggiated part, and regular playing on the other.

True – glad you liked it. Almost didn’t recognize you with the new sharkbabe logo.

SnakeDog – yeah, I probably overdid the saturation… I was going for “velvet” but went a little past the right saturation point in the tracking (EH tube pre at max gain) and the limiting amp used at mixdown mentioned above. Either one probably would have been OK but too much in combination on a piece in this style. Thanks for the comments.

Tim

 

[ido1957]

Snakedog has good ears - now when I compare the two tracks I can hear the noise mentioned in his post....The noise has been reduced in the second version.....I've heard reference to EH pre's from a couple of sources on this forum - I'll have to read up on them......they sound pretty nice....

 

[XLR]

The noise has been reduced in the second version.....I've heard reference to EH pre's from a couple of sources on this forum - I'll have to read up on them......they sound pretty nice....

Hey, ido... thanks. I'm still just learning the characteristics of the EH pre... it's definitely capable of getting some great sounds.

This was mic'd at about 3 ft, playing super quiet with the pre at 100% gain. I think I'll move in a little closer for the next tracks and not push the pre so hard with such a quiet source.

Tim

 

[Dogman]

Beautiful sounds Tim. I don't know if this would work in this situation, but I'd like to hear it tracked a bit closer, as you say, and see if that can add a bit more body to the sound, naturally. Don't know if this would work, but just my thought. It sounds really nice right now, but might gain some interesting dynamics, if mic'd a bit closer.

 

[Rick Shepherd]

Awesome piece, beautifully done!

 

[XLR]

Dogman - thanks for the inupt. Things are starting to come along re adding improvised lines of various types over the arpeggio part with a variety of mic'ing methods. Definitely will be tracking parts to be done on the steel str acoustic gtr a bit closer.

Rick, thanks for the listen.

Tim

 

[Incanus]

This is a very nice, pensive piece.

I'm listening to the 'lower in saturated fat' version now--in headphones. I'm not hearing anything drastic in the low-mids region. Sounds nice all around.

I listened to a DavidK piece a few weeks ago and was floored. I'm guessing the overall length of the piece will grow when he adds his parts to it???

If you recorded this close-mic'd, wouldn't you lose some of the resonance of the guitar body, overtones and such? Or would you blend closer and further mics together? Not to get out in the weeds with micing technique--you're much more experienced at this than I.

Good job. I hope to hear the collab version with DavidK.