Hi Guys.

Wanted to share this track that I am working on. Its kind of early but I was itching for some human response (other than my own). Its a reinterpretation of an acoustic ballad and its arrangements and most of the progression is basically lost in translation to the Big Band style.

Any feedback, criticism would be appreciated. Be kind though as I am not that into Jazz or Swing, in fact the first time I ever played a Jazz chord was yesterday (after googling a chord guide).


@Soundcloud

 

The problem with music these days is no one knows who is playing what, what is samples, what is real or VSTi, and vocals.. well... I dont remember the last time I heard any.

I think it should be mandatory to post videos of .. performances.

Sounds nice enough.. but.. like I said ^

 

the bass is too loud - it's unrealistic

 

Hotel lobby springs to mind.And if it is real or VST does it realy matter.If I want real I just go to watch something live and real.

 

Nice work! What daw did you use?

 

@stan: Thanks for pointing out, I use world's cheapest earphones to work (about $0.3 USD each) and this is not the first time my mix had a loud bass. Will fix it. Do you mean the playing is unrealistic or the loud volume is causing this problem?

@Onereason: Thanks a lot, I know what you mean, you don't know how to judge a piece if you don't know whether its samples or real thing, due to advancements in sampling and virtual instruments. I think this phase will pass soon and we will be able to judge music on only the artistic aspects.

Here are full details of the track for barka2011 and those who are interested:

Sequenced in Reaper 4
Mixed in Audition 3
Drums: Addictive Drums (Jazz adpack)
Bass: Core Bass Pear
Brass: Sample Modeling (3 Trombones, 3 Trumpets, 5 Saxes - brought down the system to its knees due to memory usage).
Guitar: RealLPC with GR5.

I think the drum pattern might have a problem, due to my inexperience in swing pattern used in Jazz. Any expert advice on that would also be welcome!

 

Interesting, well, pretty good then, yep the bass is a little overwhelming, good job overall tho.

 

Are you SURE ITS LIVE?
It could be playback

Many of those cute girls who dance and mimic that they sing on MTV and similar shows are playback.And many times even playback AND singback,
Simply beacuse they lack skills in singing they can dance and they look very sexy but they can´t sing.

The same goes for many synth and pop bands it really sucks when the music they suppose to do live FADES out and they hardly even noticed.And the instruments is NEVER plugged in to any Amps hell manytimes they dont even use cables

It was way better in the old days when musician was musician and they could play their instruments and sing in tune.
If they couldn´t do that they didn´t get any record deals or got booked more than one time to do liveshows

 

Umm Guitarmaniac64,

Your sentiments are misplaced here. Nobody is claiming live playing or anything, this is just a sequenced piece. Cheers!

 

Thought I would listen to yours since you were nice enough to listen to mine. You are correct about the drum part. It is very blocky and wooden feeling. The problem with creating this style of music with machinery is that machines just don't "swing" very well. Swing needs to breathe a little and have some spontaneity to feel authentic. Some people are very good at this style of programming, (they usually have some drums in their background) but to a drummer or a jazz lover it never feels quite right. Snare sounds a little behind the beat, also. I like the modal sound that comes with the combination of notes the instruments are playing. You have some solid basic components to work with here, and have an idea to follow through on and you will learn a lot along the way. Good luck and enjoy the journey.

 

I love the brass, it sounds great.

The bass is, like many others have said, far too loud. If this was "authentic" the upright bass would be much lower in the mix. It doesnt have to be "authentic" to be good, but it does feel like youre aiming for the big band feel.

The chorus effect on the guitar is a bit much, its too wet. Id scrap the chorus and go for some tremolo or add a rotary speaker VST to it.

You should check iZotope vinyl out. Im sure its free. Stick it on the master channel and this will truley feel "authentic"

Keep it up, I like it!

 

Thanks for feedback you guys, the client seems to be backing out on me so the future of this track is dark.

The bass boost is not by design, my earphones lack low-end apparently and I have been inadvertently compensating for that. The drums are crappy because I focused too much on chords and brass. Should have spent more time on the patterns.

@Paus Vinyl will retro-fy the mix taking away the shine of brass and everything else, the style of music is by no means dead and artists have achieved mainstream success with it in recent years (ie, Michael Buble, Jamie Cullum, Matt Dusk).

I agree about the guitar part as well, it should be more in the back plus the track needs a piano.

The best part about this experience was learning to using the Sample Modeling instruments (worth their weight in gold imo), and learning the difference between trumpets, trombones and different types of saxophones.

Again, thanks for the feedback, I'd definitely post an updated version if the client shows any interest.

 

Youre right about the iZotope plugin taking away from the brass I guess. Usually when I give crit, its basically me saying what I'd do if it were my track

You should finish this track regardless of client issues.