Round About

This is a track I have just completed and it's 'round about' what I wanted to end up with (something in the style of Jools Holland's R&B Orchestra). Just did it for fun and I'm quite pleased with it so I thought I would share it with the NG. The ending's a bit ragged but I was never any good at them
http://www.gigs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ukmg.htm

Jenifer:

Guitar: Epiphone Sheraton through a V-amp2 (Steve Dix note: this is the one coming to Wigan!!) All other noises: Yamaha PSR740 Recording/mixing: PC using N-track Studio Mp3's made by N-track (Hi Fi) and Blaze Audio Rip Edit Burn (Lo Fi)

Bravo! Excellent. I enjoyed that a lot, thanks for sharing it.

How long did it take you to lay it all down?

[snip stuff]

Hi Steve, glad you liked it, I would say about 6 hours all together. I did bits over 3/4 evenings. I did the last guitar and extra drum bits tonight after coming back (at 8.00pm) from an early curry !!

Took me ages, Jenifer, to work out what this reminded me of. But I got there in the end, thanks to having moved my entire CD collection over to my OpenBSD server here at fivetrees HQ [1] - and the winner is: **** Pink Floyd: Relics [2]: Biding My Time: outro

[1] My teenage kids have good musical taste, sadly [3]. Now I don't have to search their bedrooms.

[2] Relics was originally a 19s11d (or maybe ten bob? Icarusi - help me out?) vinyl pressing from Woolies, IIRC, circa '69-70. Poorly pressed at that - every copy I ever came across jumped somewhere. And incomplete without jasmin joss-sticks and candles. (Velvet curtains recommended. Sweeter/more pungent smells optional...) Great cover. Great stereo.

[3]: The bonus is that they introduce me to good new stuff, e.g. They Might Be Giants.

Steve PS: nice one. Is the MIDI file available for public twiddlage?

I think that's prolly the best thing I've ever been pointed at on this ng.

Nice one.

Pete (also a purveyor of sleazy blues licks...)

Now - assuming that thoust refereth to my 'Biding my time' reference: 'sleazy blues licks' is _sooo_ exactly right I'm in schlock. Not just guitar - that trumpet is X-rated. Filthy. Avert thine eyes.

But perhaps thou didnae.

Hi Andrew,

Good stuff, mate. Can't wait to play this one with you at the jam night

<slaps forehead, which these days extends evermore napewards> Trumpet??? Shirley that's a trumbone?

Andrew Stelmasiak wrote Orchestra).

Hey, nice vibe going there Andrew. I rather like this. The brass section, however, sounds very artificial and starts to dominate later in the mix. There's a lot going on towards the end of the tune and it gets a bit muddy. But I think the shambling ending is quite in keeping with the overall feel of the tune. It has a 'live' feel about it which aint no bad thing at all.

Overall, I like it, and I'm sure you'll be VERY relieved to know that

Frank A Muller

[copy bits from various replies]

Thanks for all the comments.

- Only the basic drum and bass pattern is midi, all the rest was played real time into N-track (after audio recording the midi file into NT). I could do you an mp3 minus guitars if you wanted to twiddle over it.

- the brass is a standard sound called 'Big Band Brass' on the PSR740, its probably a mixture of trumpets & trombones. {Other sounds used are all standard on the keyboard, Acoustic grand piano, Vintage Organ, Growl Sax}

- I would like the brass to shimmer in places but haven't tried to yet. I think the initial punch is quite effective but the higher the notes get the more artificial it sounds. This is typical of some sound sources which are sampled and generally quite good but over a limited range of notes. Re:muddy. Getting enough 'space' for all the instruments in a recording where there is a lot going on is something I find hard to achieve. Perhaps panning brass a little to one side and organ to the other might make more room. I'll have a fiddle.

- See first point, but also the bass is from the keyboard auto accompaniment. Hence the backing track exists only as a .wav or .mp3 file

Thanks again

That's rather good, I thoroughly enjoyed it. More please.

Mike E.