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Hi all, I’m looking for a little direction here. “ My New Toys " is a song I composed using the new toys I’ve received. That is a Squire P-Bass that my wife bought me for Christmas, a Dean EQA acoustic/electric that she bought for my birthday and an EWI-USB I just purchased. I’m finger picking the Dean and my bass: my arthritis in my right hand is allowing me to do so.

I used to play trumpet and French horn. The EWI-USB had a horn fingering option. Although it is slightly different than playing a trumpet I am trying to learn how to control this beast, abet a little slower than I had hoped. I’m hoping to make my horns sound a little more real that the static soundfonts/samples

Now although I’m not trying to be compared to a finger picking guitarist, a seasoned basses or flutist, what I’m looking for is how close am I getting? Where can I improve? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

PS – I know the song is a little redundant, but as I said I’m trying to learn this EWI-USB. Redundancy is good when practicing!

Thanx in advance for your input.

I need some direction too. Kara-Moon just keeps giving me a Username sign in. Some way around this??

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Try going to www.kara-moon.com and scroll down until you see Mario's photo on the left. You should be able to access the song by clicking on the title.
HTH

Quote:

Try going to www.kara-moon.com and scroll down until you see Mario's photo on the left. You should be able to access the song by clicking on the title.
HTH

I've got to look at his picture? I dunno man, let me think about that one.

Later,

Mario's Okay.....just shut your eyes when you scroll past the little fat Aussie fella playing the keyboard.

Well I'm into the site, Mario, but the only trax that are up there are:
1. Tranquility Island
2. Toasty
3. Day Dreams
4. Candles
What am I missing?

Sorry all, I put the song in a password-protected area. It is now posted here

Hi Mario,
Your "pickin" is good as always!
Is that the Aria software that comes with the EWI-USB?
Some of the people on the forum have been dissing the Aria sounds.
You sure sound good on it...the emulation is better than some of the windcontroller players that have been playing.

Keep it up.
Mick

Thanx Mick. Yes this one of the Aria flutes that you are hearing. I don’t think the Aria sounds are as good as some of my Kontakt 3 sounds but the Aria is set up to match the EWI-USB right out of the box. Thus I can concentrate on learning the instrument without worrying about CC assignments! I can only handle one thing at a time here

Thanx for the very kind words.

Very good.

Mario,

The guitar, bass, and synth all sound premium.

Keep in mind that Mark Knopfler finger-picks all his riffs. Thumb and little finger....

Good clean sound.

Just *spend time with the new instrument* -- you know the drill by now, immerse yourself in the EWI. Sometimes this takes discipline and not picking up the "old friends" as much. When I have to do something new like this I will often put the old friends out of reach in my practice studio and leave only the new instrument readily available, forcing me to use it in everyday stuff, transcribing, practicing, etc.

Work on your breathing and phrasing with the EWI.

--Mac

Sounds pretty darned good to me Mario even though its just a test, lower the drums a tad, and you have a keeper........lol

great sound all the way around.

Sounding good to me. I think you are certainly headed in the right direction.

Hi Mario,

I really enjoyed listening to this song. It's got a relaxing, haunting sound and sounds really professional.

As I listened, and please keep in mind that this is a personal opinion and probably outside the scope of your intentions with this work, I found myself thinking that I would've liked to have heard some interplay between the guitar and the flute. Your guitar playing is sensational and I kept wanting to hear it feature more. To my ears, the flute dominates against the backing. I guess what I might have been hearing in my mind was a more co-operative performance with some interplay between flute, guitar and the imagined musical group. That might be another song, though.

Overall: hmmm..... well at least 15/10

Regards,
Noel

in a word...sweet! a very enjoyable listen amigo. thank you.

Mario
What a great listen! I loved the changes in there especially, and I also liked the very hooky melody. A really enjoyable piece.
One slight query re. the drums. On almost all of the fills there was no kick on the downbeat at the end of the fill, just a cymbal crash. The fills themselves are spot on (RealBand?) so it's strange they're not properly 'tailed'.

John

Thanx all for listening and the kind words of encouragement.

Mac, that is exactly what I’m doing. All of my practice time is on the EWI.

Noel, that is my ultimate goal, to augment my guitar parts with more realistic horn parts. This attempt was just at using the EWI, thus the redundancy. Maybe next time I’ll incorporate a more guitar and horn structure.

John, the drums are from Groove Monkey, i.e. midi drums. I usually fine tune things like that but in this quick and dirty case I was concentrating on the EWI. I’ll have be more on the ball in the future. Thanx for catching that.

Neat arrangement!. Thanks for sharing. I wanted to hear more vibrato on the flute, and haven't a clue what it takes to make that happen. It sounded like you got some on higher pitches, and I think that adds feeling, especially for repetitive phrasing. Best of luck.

Very nice Mario. The Bass sounds great brother. Kinda tricky to get em to sound that good in a live recording. It is right in there and sounds fantastic to me.

I like the Flute, a lil repetitive, but I can live with it. Sounds pretty real to me.

Very nice tune brother. I like the off chords ya threw in there, nice change up.

Mix is fantastic.

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