I downloaded a few new sound packs for my DAW and had to give them a go.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
^^ The beginning sounds like a soundtrack for a dark science fiction movie.
Little ditty inspired massively by Ennio. A bit different and fun.
It was a little problematic with the limits of Garageband to get an organic feel to the rhythm on the drums. It tries to correct in places I wish it wouldn't. They weren't working as a single track the way I wanted in most spots, so I did several tracks and tried to time them a little better that way. Stilted in some places, but it's as good as I was going to get with that.
Last edited by frinspar; 07-17-2020 at 03:15 PM.
I love the elephant-like noises at the beginning. Pairs perfectly with the tribal drum feel. Definitely different but I like it, especially the different instrument sounds working together with the flies. If you don't do different once in a while things get predictable.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
These dog days of summer are just dragging and the news isn't making anything better. We all want this Covid and political and racial mess to be over, but it's probably going to go on for some time yet. I think everyone is feeling a little down and this track represents that.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
Here' the latest from my dungeon lair. It has some mellotron in it, so it may be of interest to some on here. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have a lot of catching up to do with everyone's music.
Another Covid song
Hard to write about anything other than disaster with this crap looming over our heads. If there were movies actually being made these days there would be an overwhelming common theme, no doubt.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
Hi, Renate! Thank you for listening! it does sound like a banjo, but it's just a staccato 12 string with effects. For you keyboardists out there, how do you tame mellotron sounds? There's such a delay in attack, it's difficult to play in time. I find the swell of the chord means you have to be ahead of the beat in order for it to sync with the music. It's a little like a volume pedal with the guitar.
The Mello was always a delayed (slow attack) instrument. Not made for individual string lines, just a background swells pad. You just have to play it that way. It's like hitting a fret low and bending up to the note you want. You know it's wrong but the bend makes it right. So hit your keys early and there you go.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
Bob, listened to Melancholy. As usual, very nice. It has a Bach-feel to it. Very engaging. Is that an Oboe sample carrying the melody at one point? Sounds very realistic.
Matt, also checked out "Boots and Blades". Tribal drums, Middle Eastern scales, and then a hint of Japanese/Oriental stylings? It also has a little bit of the chamber rock vibe a la Univers Zero. Very interesting piece!
I used the Spitfire Audio BBC samples and stuck with the sad sounding instruments in the orchestra, like bass, cello ensemble, solo violin, oboe, french horn and bassoon. The end is just piano and bassoon, which I've heard work well together in other recordings.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
Short and silly one. Restrung and cleaned up a guitar I'd just gotten back that was loaned out since February and threw this out with it.
Ha, you're definitely branching out sound wise. It has a nice feel and rhythm, something you could probably build into a bigger piece I think.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
I've been revisiting some things that I've done this year and remixing them, now that I've gotten some experience under my belt. I used to just post the mix version here with mixed results (pun intended). But now I've looked into mastering and decided I just don't have the right tools to do that adequately myself plus there's some magic involved, I'm sure. I found a decent free site called Bandlab and they do a reasonably good job with their automated algorithms, and did I mention it's free. You can hear your original version, a CD version, a bass enhanced version and a clarity version by switching between them, then choose the one you like best and have it saved on their site.
One thing I've found though is you have to submit your mixed version down about 4-6db or it will come out somewhat hot and sometimes distorted. So I've been using a loudness meter on my master track to adjust this and it's working quite well. Melda Productions has a good one in their toolkit for your DAW and that's free too.
Of course none of this will sound as good as a real mastering engineer, but that's quite expensive for a hobbyist.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
After 6 CD releases I've settled in on using ( in Reaper ) the Stereo width enhancer, followed by slight compression using the Waves CLA-2A plugin, followed by Waves Greg Wells MixCentric enhancer, lastly the Waves L3 Multi Maximizer Limiter. Works for me.
Coming September 1st - "Dean Watson Revisited"!
just tried adding in a stereo width enhancer as you suggest and - WOW! Thanks for the tip.
UPDATED - OK, too much of that is too much. Use judiciously.
Last edited by BobM; 09-04-2020 at 04:51 PM.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
Because I had some problems with my Cubase-file of 'Where is the audience', which suddenly grew to 4GB and couldn't be opened in Cubase anymore (still waiting till Steinberg answers my help-request), I decided to start writing a new composition for piano and synthesizer (Roland Jupiter 8), both instruments from the Arturia V-instruments package. (I worote it between July 18 and August 8.) Everything went well, though at some point I got some message about the eLicencer. Still Cubase functioned, so I didn't give it much attention. When at some point I had opened Cubase without connecting my USB-audio-interface, I couldn't switch back to the USB-audio-interface, when it was connected. With the V-instruments it worked properly, but not with Cubase. (For this problem I'm also waiting for an answer from Steinberg.)
So I decided to record it with the Nord Electro 2 and the Nord G2 Engine with a sound I created myself. Mastered it with Magix, with the classical preset.
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