New Music Friday #17

[john]

Hi Gang

 

It’s time for New Music Friday!

 

Post up your current music projects, anything from just a melody through to a full production. As experimental as you want.

 

I will post up another of the few 1 take songs I recorded on my phone a little later today. 

 

Cheers

 

John

[Christopher Burke]

Dear John.

 

Bit fear-and-twembling, really, never posted one of my New Age tracks anywhere before!

Something you or someone must know is - where do these YouTube composers get their pad (as in backing) sounds from? There's all these guys writing MASSIVE tracks using gorgeous pad sounds - Yakuro, Yellow Brick Cinema, Karunesh, many others - and I've absolutely no idea where they get their sounds from. I don't want to rip their style off, it's just like if you hear someone playing a lovely guitar, you'd want to know where they bought it (if you're a guitarist) so you could get yourself one, no?  People keep saying things, I keep buying them and the sounds are always alien nightmares, not nice pads!  Do you know of a nice source of YouTube quality 32-bit pads that don't sound like something only a vampire would listen to?  If so, please say!

Anyway, here's one I did day before yesterday, been a bit lazy today!  Love to know what you think. 

Yours respectfully - feel free to criticise the mix, I need to learn -

Chris.

[Clay Anderson Johnson]

48 minutes ago, Christopher Burke said:

Love to know what you think. 

 

It is very pretty at the beginning.  It was calm and soothing until the vocal synths overpowered the piano rather than supporting it.  At that point it became difficult to continue listening although I did make it to the ending.

Edited March 11, 2022 by Clay Anderson Johnson

[Emily Quinn]

3 hours ago, Christopher Burke said:

Anyway, here's one I did day before yesterday, been a bit lazy today!  Love to know what you think. 

Yours respectfully - feel free to criticise the mix, I need to learn -

Chris.

I think this is so lovely! Maybe the piano sounds a little mechanical and could breathe a little more. It's kind of cool how it disappears in the mix a little, though I agree that the synths overpower it maybe a bit too much. And maybe there could be some more contrast within sections, as the song feels a bit like it keeps going but doesn't have any particular form or pattern of sections? Maybe I just haven't picked up on it. And that's fine if that's what you like! I am just a big pattern-person. I tend to prefer the a b a b c b  pattern, or something basic like that.

[Emily Quinn]

Happy Friday! Here's a new one from me, called Mountain. I think it's one of the ones I'm going to have mixed and mastered for the EP I'm working on with Steve. It would be cool to know if I need to do anything to the basic bones of this song, the performance of it and all, before sending stems. Have a lovely weekend!

 

[Clay Anderson Johnson]

24 minutes ago, Emily Quinn said:

Here's a new one from me, called Mountain.

 

This is beautifully done Emily both as a performance and as a song.

 

The section from around 2:50 - 3:20 would be a great place to insert a strong electric guitar solo based around the melody line.  It would blow people away and take the song even higher into the commercial realm.  This is the type of move which makes a song step from Good to Unforgettable.

 

Great job! ♥️

[john]

Another phone recording this week.

 

Truth

 

 

[Clay Anderson Johnson]

5 minutes ago, john said:

Truth

 

Really nice song John!  I couldn't quite understand all the lyrics but the overall feeling was very good.

 

You make me wish I could play rhythm guitar well.

[Clay Anderson Johnson]

3 hours ago, Steve Mueske said:

Going to be speaking on a panel for Microtonal Adventures Fest in mid-May

 

Keep us posted with a play by play on your blog on what's happening there!

[Emily Quinn]

John,  I love how your vocal melody soars over the chords changes.  This is a beautiful song. 😊

[john]

On 3/11/2022 at 4:33 PM, Christopher Burke said:

Dear John.

 

Bit fear-and-twembling, really, never posted one of my New Age tracks anywhere before!

Something you or someone must know is - where do these YouTube composers get their pad (as in backing) sounds from? There's all these guys writing MASSIVE tracks using gorgeous pad sounds - Yakuro, Yellow Brick Cinema, Karunesh, many others - and I've absolutely no idea where they get their sounds from. I don't want to rip their style off, it's just like if you hear someone playing a lovely guitar, you'd want to know where they bought it (if you're a guitarist) so you could get yourself one, no?  People keep saying things, I keep buying them and the sounds are always alien nightmares, not nice pads!  Do you know of a nice source of YouTube quality 32-bit pads that don't sound like something only a vampire would listen to?  If so, please say!

Anyway, here's one I did day before yesterday, been a bit lazy today!  Love to know what you think. 

Yours respectfully - feel free to criticise the mix, I need to learn -

Chris.

Thanks for posting this up.

 

I think a lot use Native Instruments Komplete. If you buy the Ultimate bundle during their frequent special offers you get a brilliant range of sounds… the only negative being you will have soooo many to choose from you can lose days just familiarising yourself with the various synths. It is fairly expensive, but brilliant. Loads of really good lead synths and ambient pads and some pretty awesome real instrument samples.

 

I had a good listen. A couple of things to consider. You stay within a limited range of notes, while staying within the rhythm laid down by the bass line. It makes any sections indistinct. It does have a toy piano/music box feel to it.

 

Your sounds make it sound a bit dated, and there is no reason it should. It could very easily be new age/relaxation music with a more appropriate sound palette. However you would need to be careful not to play stereo types… yes, new age, relaxing etc, but worth really experimenting with the sounds for this.

 

I look forward to seeing what you do with it!

[john]

22 hours ago, Steve Mueske said:

Okay, so here's mine at the moment. I spent the week working on two pieces. The first is "The Dance of Death," which, if you've been playing along, started in NMF 1 as a diversion from the Pentachrist pieces I was working on (and will return to in a few weeks). The last "public" title of the piece was "Sequences." I've been calling it "The Dance of Death" for about two weeks. I'm still not convinced the title is right, but I dunno, it's right for now, I guess. I'm trying to create a sort of ultra hi-def lo-fi thing. No, nothing is clipping. Every choice was intentional. Whether it's "right" or not, I'll leave to listening ears. I have a three-stage mix and master process with a lot of gain staging and places to print radically different mixes. I think the next step will be to export stems from three completely different mixes and then cut them up and trigger them with samplers.

 

https://play.reelcrafter.com/whoisthemuesk/musicistheriver

 

Later tonight I will post an update of Emily Quinn's "Here" with additional backing vocals. I've worked two sessions on it, but there are a few things that are still bugging me about the mix that I want to solve before posting. It will be second on the reel later. I can't tell you enough how pleased I am to be working with her.

 

 

The dance of death is certainly moving on… though I like the title, I don’t think it suits the mix. It doesn’t really fit the energy as it is just now. As ever, I love the sounds. You play with the tension you create really well. Nothing I’d highlight as a mix issue.

[john]

21 hours ago, Clay Anderson Johnson said:

 

Really nice song John!  I couldn't quite understand all the lyrics but the overall feeling was very good.

 

You make me wish I could play rhythm guitar well.

Thanks Clay! I’ll be doing proper recordings of all the songs I post up soon. Hopefully you’ll get all the words then (accent allowing!)

[john]

9 hours ago, Steve Mueske said:

 

I had a listen to this this morning. I can sense a lot left unspoken. I really like the strumming pattern. If this gets a full song production the bass will be doing a lot of the heavy lifting I would suppose. Thanks for sharing!

As it stands I hop to do acoustic and full production versions of all my songs. You’re right. The intended bass line is quite riff based. It has a distinctive rhythm and also pulls out some nice harmonies with the vocal line. At least just now! Recording has it’s own way of asserting change, so who knows!

[john]

5 hours ago, Emily Quinn said:

John,  I love how your vocal melody soars over the chords changes.  This is a beautiful song. 😊

Thanks Emily! Very nice of you to say so.

[Clay Anderson Johnson]

2 hours ago, john said:

(accent allowing!)

 

Or you could post the lyrics. 🤪

 

Sean Connery's first stage role was in a production of South Pacific because he was able to do cartwheels during one number.  He commented later his Scottish brogue was so strong the rest of the cast thought he was Polish.

[Clay Anderson Johnson]

9 hours ago, Steve Mueske said:

I need feedback.

 

1. The song is very good but it need bass and drums badly otherwise it sound like background music in a film. It does not sound like a commercial song offering.
2. The first part up to 1:00 sound great.
3. The part staring after 1:00 where the effects are added to the vocal sound cheesy and unimaginative.   The effects detracts from the overall song, rather than adding anything they subtract.

Edited March 13, 2022 by Clay Anderson Johnson

[Emily Quinn]

2 hours ago, Clay Anderson Johnson said:

but it need bass and drums badly

I have a friend who added a bass part yesterday, and I'm going to figure out drums in cakewalk and fix some of the bare bones on this. 

[john]

On 3/12/2022 at 11:18 PM, Clay Anderson Johnson said:

 

Or you could post the lyrics. 🤪

 

Sean Connery's first stage role was in a production of South Pacific because he was able to do cartwheels during one number.  He commented later his Scottish brogue was so strong the rest of the cast thought he was Polish.

I meant to post this up last week…

 

Truth

 

Verse

 

Truth, sets you free

Hope falls short

of what I need to get me through

 

Chorus

 

Time, and time again

I get help from my friends

 

Verse

 

I'm up, I'm slowed down

Things to say

Just the words, get in the way

 

Chorus

 

Time, and time again

I get help from my friends

 

Bridge

 

It's not the way, you thought it was at all

It's changing

Truth is, it's plain for all to see

If they choose to...

 

 

[Clay Anderson Johnson]

3 hours ago, john said:

Truth

Très bien! Simple but eloquent