PG Music Home Forums General Discussion User Showcase My Latest Smooth Jazz CD

Over at Soundcloud, I can't figure out how to associate the tracks into an album the way I did years ago with my earlier two CDs. Maybe it's only a feature with "Pro" accounts now?

Anyway if you go here:
https://soundcloud.com/michaelmcbroom/tracks

You'll see a list of all 31 of my tracks on Soundcloud. The top twelve are the latest tunes, on my just released Smooth Jazz CD, Leaving Sargasso (copyright Michael McBroom, 2018). These tunes are arranged from last to first, in opposite direction from the way I uploaded them, and in the way they appear on the CD. In other words, "Wildly Beautiful" is the last song on the CD, whereas "Leaving Sargasso" is the first.

Now that I've gotten that taken care of, a few words about my music. This is one of three CDs I've just finished. Leaving Sargasso is mostly Smooth Jazz with hints of other genres -- there's always gonna be inevitable crossover.

I'll have to upgrade to a Pro account over at Soundcloud before I can post links to the tunes on my other two CDs, so I'll let you know when that happens.

Every tune on this CD was initially authored using Band in the Box (2017). In several cases, I elected to go with Realtracks in my rhythm sections because the instrumentation was just so good, how could I not use it? In a few cases, the MIDI instruments I selected sounded so good, that I recorded them to .wav using the "Save Special" feature. Once I had assembled the pieces approximately how I wanted them to sound, I began the long and sometimes tedious task of converting all the music over so I could load it into Cakewalk's Sonar. If all the voices were MIDI and I didn't feel it was essential that I keep the audio sounds of any of the MIDI voices, I just converted the BiaB working file to a MIDI file and was able to load it into Sonar that way. Most of my files have Realtracks for the rhythm sections, though. So in those cases, I had to save the rhythm sections to .wav files and the melody instruments to .mid files, then I had to blend them together in Sonar. For the most part, I ran into few difficulties during this process. Mixdowns generally went smoothly. It wasn't unusual that I had to go back to BiaB and load the original BiaB file, make an edit to it, re-save it to .mid or .wav and bring the edited file back into Sonar.

There were a couple of tunes that I recorded to .wav entirely within BiaB. These tunes still required mixdown adjustments in Sonar, however. Where Sonar really shone was in this capability. I had complete control of the instrumentation and a variety of specialized tools for the mixdown process that really put the final shine on the product.

As always your comments and constructive criticisms are welcome.

Okay I have things figured out a little better over at Soundcloud. Still haven't been able to create an album (anymore), but I've done the next best thing, and created a playlist of this CD. The items are still appearing in reverse order. Dunno if I can fix that. Anyway, here it is:

https://soundcloud.com/michaelmcbroom/sets/leaving-sargasso

Very nice professional sound. I agree some really smooth jazz

This is very enjoyable and extremely well mixed.

An excellent CD for just chillin;.

Good job and congrats! Good luck with it.

Scott and David, thanks for your feedback. I'm really glad you like the mixes. I worked hard on those.

I've just updated two of the pieces on the CD. Dunno if I can edit the playlist to include the new ones. Kinda limited as to what I can do with a free account at Soundcloud. I think I'm gonna have to cough up the $7 a month and go Pro over there. Besides, I've pretty much run out of time there and I still have two more CDs to upload.

On a somewhat related note, David, I took a brief look at your website. Can I assume you've set up your own music publishing company? This is something I want to do, as soon as possible. Got any pointers on the process?

I listened to a few songs at random from the playlist and I really liked how cohesive they were. Great job.

Thanks, Ember. I aim to please

Okay, I finally figured out how to create an album over at Soundcloud. AND! I also found out how to re-order my tracks. So, when you click on the link in my sig, you should see my latest album and the tunes are now appearing in their proper order -- not that the order really makes much difference. But still, it's nice to see things in agreement.

Ah - nothing like some laid back jazz tunage I listened to the first couple, and then a few others in bits and pieces. Really well done! Not quite as calm as I'd imagine it would sound. I'm not a huge jazz buff so my terminology probably isn't up to date. One thing is for sure - this is smooth as butter. Very easy on the ears, and some excellent groove here. Great use of MIDI as well. I'm getting a Bob James sort of vibe on some of these.

Can't wait to check out the rest when I get a minute - thanks for sharing!

P.S. I wouldn't mind knowing which one you are personally most proud of on here I know when I'm done a project I always feel there is a few standouts, or one in particular I'm quite attached with. Might be just me though!

Hey Deryk,

That's an interesting request of yours. To be honest, I haven't really thought about a favorite -- on this CD at least. So I'm giving all the tracks another listen. I gotta say I really like all of them. But there are some narrow standouts.

Quiet Recitation -- I really like the Hammond B3 sound I found. This was by way of the Sforzando synth that was bundled with BiaB 2017, by the way -- the BiaB Rock Organ patch. So anyway, the B3 got the nod for the solo instrument. But I'm also kinda partial to that melody track as well. Forceful without being overbearing is one way I'd describe it.

Images of Jenny -- This is an unusual piece. It is 100% Real tracks. When searching for a decent sounding rhythm section for a chord progression I'd written, I decided to try the Melodist. I unchecked "Generate Chords" and "Generate Melody" and "Allow Style Change." I don't remember which style I selected -- probably an easy-on-the-ears Pop selection. Basically I just wanted the Melodist to generate a set of rhythm tracks for me. And man, did it ever! It was so good, I just left it alone. I didn't even think about adding a melody track to it. I think it works surprisingly well just the way it is. There's enough "purpose" in what is allegedly a guitar rhythm track that it was able to take over the Melody chores. I read music, and I got lucky with this track -- the notation is displayed for this one, which isn't all that common with Realtracks, as I'm sure you know. So I can't take much credit for this tune. Besides a chord progression I supplied and mixdowns, it is all BiaB.

I really like the level I managed to get with the Jazz guitar (c/o Sforzando) on Wild Glimmer -- and I kinda like the rest of the piece too.

I guess I like Pensive Exes because it is entirely unplugged, plus I think the Pan Flute has a nice, strong melody.

And I like the solo instrument on Wildly Beautiful -- it is remarkably full sounding in the lower registers, which its Melody exploits. That instrument, by the way, is BiaB's MIDI 89 patch -- New Age. Just straight BiaB MIDI. It sounded so good, I recorded the entire tune to .wav files within BiaB. First the rhythm section as its own .wav file (since it was already Realtracks selections), and then the Melody, converting from MIDI to .wav. I brought both tracks into Sonar, where I was able to do a good mixdown on the two tracks. My only complaint about this track as you hear it on Soundcloud is the first three or four notes of the Melody instrument are a bit soft and get buried in the mix. This is a correctable problem, but I'll have to go back to the original .MGU file, set the Melody track to "Edit" mode and then boost the velocity for those first few notes. Then resave and reconvert, yada yada. Just haven't felt like doing it yet.

Well, that kinda surprised me that I have five standout favorites -- more or less. It's really hard to choose, though, because really I like 'em all. And that is due entirely to the winnowing process that I employed for putting this CD together. I probably have another 20 or 30 tunes that didn't make the cut for my CDs for one reason or another. Mostly due to having melodies weaker than I liked. So I guess I have to state that, if I can arrive at a strong or otherwise captivating melody, the tune has a good chance of making it through the winnowing process.

Thanks for sharing this with us Cooltouch! Quite an eclectic collection of tracks. Very unique too. Well done!

I listened to the first track then sections of a couple of others and all I can say is that I am very impressed. You mentioned your CDs, are these up for purchase?

Thanks much guys!

Hey Mario, yeah I would like my CDs to be for sale soon. Right now, though, I have one copy of each CD and I've used a Sharpie marker on them so I know which is which. I think I'll need to kick the packaging up a notch before I offer any for sale.

Michael,

I listened to many of the songs - some great selections and great mixes. Best of luck with the CD.

Bob

Thanks, Bob. I appreciate your taking the time to listen to my tunes.