Tribute to me... (Trans Europe Asian Jam Orchestra project)

  • Thread starter Thread starter James Argo
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James Argo

James Argo

Fancy Rock N' Roll
I don't know what to say... umh... :o

Okay...
Last week Pedulist woke up from his bed, with a tune in his head. He couldn't get it away from his head. He kept humming it, and he had a picture of me playing it. So, she grabed his Cakewalk Home Studio, wrote simple chord & melody line necessary, and sent me the mp3 file with notes. He liked me to listen & consider working on. He kept telling me, it's gonna be great.

I thought... Yeah, it's good... Small thing that can be turned into monster. So I work on it. Unfortunatelly, I couldn't play the highest part of the violin in tune :o Did I tell you I'm not Pro Violin player ? :D So I invite my cousin to jam and laying his part on the opening. I did the rest violin work, and all orchestration with SONAR 2.2 XL. Finish it in only three days. As I kept listening to this song, I realize there's something missing with the song.... I didn't know what... untill I saw Guernica's new baby born picture. That's it !!! Baby feel !!! Lulaby!!! So I dig my sample library to find baby sound, and re-mix the song with enhancement here and there...

I would like to dedicate this song to my friend dobro ( Thanks for your "real world" help, fella !!! :) ) and for thou who had blessed with such beautifull gift from God... A BABY !!!

Happy birthday for you & junior, Guernica, this one for you :)

I posted both file for comparing. Here's the link...

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=2631&alid=-1

Track 4 (For James) is the raw mp3 Pedullist gave me.

Track 2 (Tribute) is what I've done...

Cheer up everybody, like usual, comments are warmly welcomed. What would I be without your words :)

Thank you !!!
;)
Jaymz
 
Ok, that was way too soothing and nice.

Where are the blood-curdling screams?

Kidding, nice one.
 
Very cool! The beginning sounding like the opening to an ELO track.

The recording is very smooth and rich textured.

I really love this! As it moves along I am imagining some kind of movie soundtrack!

Sweet! :)
 
Fine arrangement again!

I especially like the ostinato in the string accompaniment and the counter melody in the horn line.

Piano part is to quantized / good supportive percussion / 1:25 effective string entrance /

I'd consider changing the string line @ 1:30 or lowering it way down in the mix. (The descending E to D# @ 1:30, 1;34 & also @ 1:43, 1:47 could be brought down 3-6 db or should be changed to whole notes as opposed to half notes as there is to much separation.

Also the 'A' & 'embellished F#' @ 2:15 &
2:17 bother me. The 'A' especially as it interferes with the 'G' in the melody.

Nice work Jaymz!

Sweet tune Tjarko!

Ralph
 
Wowie! Very impressive arrangement, my friend!

This is exactly why I gave it to you, James. You know how to work with something like this. Like I told you repeatedly: it can turn out nice (a lullaby) or cheesy (some kind of Vai-ish metal anthem). Luckily you chose the first one.... :)

I always thought the ending of the theme was kinda lame, but I couldn't think of something better and I certainly cannot blame you. I believe this is what Ralph is referring to (although I really don't know what an 'embellished F#' is :eek: can't you speak english, Ralph? It's hard enough for me! :D )

Let me show you guys the reasons why it's sometimes better to swallow your ego and give your song away to someone with the proper knowledge about that particular style of music.

This is the first demo, right after waking up (out of tune, badly timed, barely alive....this one applies for the WATYF challenge I guess)...I can't believe I'm posting this:

Ouch my head, gimme some coffee please

and after a couple of days, it occurred to me it 'could' be a übercheesy metal anthem...(did I mention I was weird?)

Whoa, that sounds like the opening of the superbowl!

(yes, you're allowed to laugh hysterically)

You can imagine...neither of these version worked for me. Until I got my aurion (aural vision) of James playing it. He got it. And understood very well what I meant. This is exactly how I pictured it.

Good one! I shall arrange a marriage with my wife's sister for you, James! (if your wife is OK with that)

btw, James never knew about these early versions....I wanted him to make his own choices...plus, I felt ashamed of it
 
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very nice:)

OK how do you vote? I'm compelled to give this 2 thumbs up:)

I love the intro, kind of reminded me a The Camera Eye or Witch Hunt from Moving Pictures for about 2 seconds, then became it's own thing, very beautiful:) And it just gets bigger and bigger, one of those things you never want to end. Could you please add about 7 more minutes to it, pretty please:):):)

What a wonderful sense of dynamic, and melody, together.

You two work great together.

Shawn:)
 
Beautiful, beautiful tune. I love the shift from the original melody - it works so well.

The violin gets a bit lost in the mix when everything comes in. Up 2 dB! Hey what kind of mic did you use on the fiddle?

I love that baby at the end - as the baby sound fades, it sounds like someone's carrying the baby off into another room LOL.
 
Thanks guys...also on behalf of James (who seems to be absent at this moment :) )

Check out my original demo's too, if you like a good laugh... :D
 
THANKS GUYS !!!!

jake-owa
:D :D :D

boydrj
Gee, it wasn't the first time somebody associates my work to movie theme :D May be I should consider this job in Holywood near future... Hehehe, Sweet !!! :)

flat-9
Wow !!! Sharp ears you got right there :) You were right anyway, it can be better somehow. Thanks for making it easier for me. It was 3-4 days quick working last weekend, then I'm off to gigs in several cities for couple week (I'm replying in public intenet service near hotel after gig now). I thought to post it ASAP before went out of town. So I kinda little bit rush on working on it :o Thanks !!!

Pedullist
My wife said it's okay... :rolleyes: :D :D :D

shawn gibson
Brought here by the mail, eh ? :) Thanks! Ever wonder what it would be if I get the $3000 sample CD's ? I don't know. I've heard rumors said that every angel in heaven would sell their harp for it :D Thanks for enjoying, shawn :)

Who's child ? God only knows :D :D :D

rats
:) Glad you love it, fella :) Pedullist wrote the melody perfectly !!

dobro
:) Thanks, good to hear you love it :) Like usual, I didn't mic the violin. It was cheapy Lawrence Fisher transducer (got it for Sin $40 on the same damn store -City Music Corp in 1993 :D). It comes with 3 pickup. I use only 2 of them snaped below the violin bridge (low & mid pickup), the high left unsnaped. Route it directly to SB Live! Line input thru Korg AX30G flat (use it as preamps only). Plugins I use was Waves 3.5 C1, DSound BPM Delay, and Cakewalk FX2 Reverb.
The baby sounds comes from 25 different samples (got from various source, various bit & sample rate) I append, edit & sequence in CoolEdit Pro2. Export to Sonar, and mix with the rest. Add the harp & "dreamy bells", and finally work on the outro. I did quick mix on the outro, with pre-automated reverb, so getting deep/far as the sound fade away. Thanks for enjoying this baby, dobro :)

As I mentioned above, I'm off to gig out of town this week, so I'll see if I can check the BBS whenever I have a chance (or if I'm not that drunk after gig... :D ).

Thanks !!!
;)
Jaymz
 
wow~this is really good, James

you always do something cool with orchestration, nice playing on the violin, too.

the intro is very powerful, grabbed me instantly, as well as the rest of the song. The only complaint, well, something that's isn't exactly my taste is the drums. I didn't think they were fitting too well, but I have heard many similair tunes using similair drums, so, I guess that's just the way it is.

anyway, great job, and Pedullist, you had a nice idea to make all this happening!!
Al
 
Beautifully played and arranged, James. Nice melody, Pedulist.
 
Hey Jaymz,
....Man, what a wonderful gift. I cant thank you enough for this. This is so very beautiful. Your very adept orchestral touch made this a true joy to listen to. Im going to burn this to cd as soon as im done writing this. Seven's gonna fall asleep to this incredible music tonight. Thank you so much for this.
your friend, Mike

...stars are worthless here...... this is miles beyond a 5 star pat on the back. ...this truly touched my heart. ....again, thank you.
 
Very impressive James. This could be part one of several movements to fill one side of an LP. :)
 
Oops, I posted the same url twice (read my first post)....this is (quite hilarious, I might say) the superbowl version:



(and this was the first 'just got out of bed'-version:
...how's that for a dry recording?)

No wonder no one checked it out yet...it suuuuuuuucks :D
 
Pedullist - that new avatar of you lying back in bed - is that a bid to get someone to share your bed with you ever since you got inspired by the picture of Guernica's baby?
 
My wife wouldn't agree...:)

(btw, my wife made that pic...umpteen years ago)
 
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