new thing, beta: 'happy wheels'

  • Thread starter Thread starter jeffmaher
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Nice Jeff, almost has a modern Vince Guaraldi flavor to it. The lead acoustic is very cool; well recorded and played. Good on you man...
 
Very cool Jeff. To state the obvious, for something this "busy", the song really needs a skilled human drummer to take it to the next level.

I like the main hook on the acoustic a lot. Call me a sellout, but I think you should add some vocals with a sweet and catchy melody. Doing so might dictate some tweaks to the arrangement but this piece would definitely support it.

Good work

Matt
 
Very nice mellow groove. I see this song having a two part harmony lead vocals. This is well balanced and played very well. I didn't like the ride cymbal in the intro, but that's a matter of taste. The tom in the left channel is a bit too loud also.

very nice, thanks for sharing.
 
Very nice. Do you mind my asking what kind of guitar you were playing, and how you recorded it?
 
Wow, I really enjoyed that, thanks! Great acoustic guitar feel/dynamics and pretty melodies.

There could be more contrast in the drum dynamics between V/C/B. There are a few sections that feel a little sparse, as if there should be a ride or hat keeping time. Maybe some ghosting on the snare?

Well done, sounds great!
 
There's a ride...but it's all 6 midi tracks played into a stock kit. What the preset gives, I get. Each track'll be rendered to audio when the time comes...each sound selected from the menu, tweaked, leveled individually.

It just didn't pay in the past when I took the kit beyond this point without completing the other things.

The last part is sparse, too, cuz I accidentally clipped off the rhythm acoustic in the last verse and outro. Fixed it.

The guitar is a Maton EBG808 TE. I recorded both tracks stereo...the rhythm is the mics abour 6' apart, and 3' from the guitar ....a triangle. For the solo voice I stacked L&R, aimed then akimbo a bit to get wall reflections, and sat about 2' away. KSM27 Shures.

There's a synth lead voice ...laid out...following the top voice of the guitar chords...for the C part, to come; and an "Eric Johnson-esque" unison double on the line on the B part...electric guit.
There's gonna be a 3rd-up harmony guitar on the head, starting V2.
See how it works.

There could be more contrast in the drum dynamics between V/C/B.

What's That?? :^) [I really can't figure it out! V?...crash?...bassdr??]

No vocals. so far. Came to me like this, running around doing errands...driving the car...a hurry-up-get-stuff-done head-infection. I recorded another version 2 years ago...sounds more like an Eric Johnson thing. There are two voices singing the head...just scat.....sort of a "Duh duh duh duh" groove. But I don't have a real good amp or guitar for R&L and solo metal guitar...so I decided to feature acoustic, mostly. I WAN'T MY LES PAUL AND MARSHALL!!!...I'll take one o' them pointy guitars, if it sounds good, too. Whammy bar time.

Tx for the guidance, and time u took to listen!
 
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mattdee1 said:
Very cool Jeff. To state the obvious, for something this "busy", the song really needs a skilled human drummer to take it to the next level.

Good work

Matt
Click to expand...

Oh yeah!! No doubt about that! Alex Acuna and Badrina are who I want;
I'll settle for Stew Copeland: I can afford...me. :^)


My midi drums are getting better....trying different things all the time: in a couple years I'll be much better, or I'll have a kit and mics and a room, and I can get a couple of the local guys I know to play..walk in, zoom...and pay 'em something. I know a couple local cats who could absolutely nail a latin/jazz/Copeland groove on a tune like this. They'd do it free for me, but arranging the time, and feeling bad about not being able to compensate them, is off-putting. But I save all my platforms and tracks for someday.
 
The guitar playing here is really very nice :).

The drums, while far more involved than anything I would imagine programming, just don't keep up with the rest which is a shame, because the stringed instruments and the piano here sound really terrific!

The acoustic guitar sound has immediacy to it while still sounding warm...it is a good place for an acoustic guitar to be.

I think the above post mentioning V/C/B refers to verse/chorus/bridge, but I could be wrong;).

Very nice performance and well captured :D!
 
AH! chorus, verse bridge. Check.

Well, today I added chunking L&R rock guit on B&C....and some electric doubling and harmony to the melody, and substituted Hendrixian octaves w/ whammy engaged for the B melody instead of synth. Edgier. Gotta digest, edit and mix..and consider if it's done...then I'll toss it up again after I screw with audio tracking a selective kit ensemble....and mixing as carefully as I can.

And I think the midi samples sound a cut better in general from my last pile:
I use an old Mackie VLZ Pro 12. And I finally figures out that the better-than-brand-X DXM preamps are only on the first four channels. I was previously feeding the synths into a non-DXM channel. So I think that's why the cannedpiano might sound a bit better, for example. Plus I played all the parts organically...to escape the grid and vary velocities.

I'd might take some time to listen to some latinjazz drumming...like Alex's...to give me some ideas for fills and groove. But I gotta be careful not to get too jazzy. A lot of people think it's chaotic. I need to appeal to the unwashed median :^)
 
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