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Up 'Round The Bend (Instrumental)Not much of a story with this one. I bought the new Samplemodeling Solo & Ensemble Strings ( ka-ching!) and figured I better use them in a song to help justify all that money I spent.  After browsing through the styles, I found the TRUBLUE.STY demo. I played around with the chord progression, and changed it from ABA to ABC and adding an intro. Strings, brass and woodwinds were played on my USB EWI, and the MIDI guitar and mandolin parts with a keyboard controller. Musically, I'm not entirely sure how well this holds together. I think it lacks a strong melody. The parts outline the harmony and move mostly stepwise, but it probably lacks enough contrast. Per usual, I played a bunch of instrument parts, and then threw a bunch of stuff out, as well as simplifying a bunch of parts so they played nice together. There's a whole lot more resonator guitar solo that I expected, but it's a lot of fun to play. There are some places where there are probably too many acoustic guitar-ish parts - I'm really tempted to drop the mandolin from the mix. But I've taken out all it's good parts, so I figure it should get a few bits. I used a much wider stereo spread on this mix than I typically do, because... why not? You tell me. I also suspect I pushed the volume of mix a bit much, but my ears are too tired to tell at this point. So rather than taking a break and coming back to it, I'll just post it.  As always, all feedback welcome! Instruments~1636:Bass, Electric, JazzFunkBreezy Ev16 075 ~2505:Piano, Electric, HeldChords 085 664:Guitar, Acoustic, Rhythm SouthernRock Ev 085 (A:fpick) SouthernPopEv16^03-a:Hat, Snare, b:Ride, Snare Violin, Cello, Trumpet - Sample Modeling Nylon String, Resonator, Slide, Mandolin - Indiginus English Horn - Audio Modeling Percussion Loops - Essential Acoustic Percussion Mixing TrivaLurssen Mastering Console, Ozone Imager Reverbs, EQ, Compression - Neutron Elements, EZMix
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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Hi David,
I truly enjoyed listening - your tune has the right amount of funky stuff to make it a cool tune to listen to.
I don't think it is lacking a melody... for this particular genre of music it works fine!
Thanks a lot for sharing!
Will
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Hey David,
Sounds pretty good to me. I like that wide stereo spread, sounds great through the 'phones.
Reading through your notes you mentioned the resonator guitar, did you play that via a midi controller? Sounds very realistic.
Nice track, enjoyed the listen!
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This is an excellent tune. Love the separation of the instruments. Gave it a live feel. I agree with Dave that resonator sounded very real. Very nice listen
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David,
Sounds good to me.
Love the bass sound you've got. Nice drums presence.
The horns are expressive. Resonator works well, though lacks the "rich depth" of sound that they usually have.
The piece moves along nicely. Kept my interest throughout. I enjoyed it.
fj
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Perhaps the melody could be strengthened with more repeats and (in places) a bit less lead instrumentation. My first thought was "why not keep the fiddle for the verses and then introduce the mando for the big change (chorus), saving the counter-melodies for later."
Regardless, sounds are good and it was a very relaxing and pleasant-sounding piece.
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David,
Solid arrangement and fun fusion of instruments and styles. Listens very well!
I thought acoustic guitar at start was a bit loud. Not that I am trying to sound smart here, just an opinion. Mix is excellent. Enjoyed it!
Thank you for sharing!
Misha.
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I don't think it is lacking a melody... for this particular genre of music it works fine! Hi, Will Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed the song.
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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I like that wide stereo spread, sounds great through the 'phones. Hi, Dave. Thanks for listening, I'm glad the wide pan worked for you. Reading through your notes you mentioned the resonator guitar, did you play that via a midi controller? Sounds very realistic. Yes. The Indiginus Resonator has a bunch of articulations - you can choose to trigger two of them via key velocity (high and low), as well as using keyswitches. My keyboard is too short for keyswitching (although I could remap the keys), so I edit in they keyswitches later. Thanks for listening, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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This is an excellent tune. Love the separation of the instruments. Gave it a live feel. I agree with Dave that resonator sounded very real. Very nice listen Hi, Scott. Thanks for the feedback. I'm was leery that too wide panning will throw the listener out of the experience, like an actor showing off and breaking the fourth wall. Interestingly, a lot of instruments are hard to distinguish without the initial attack - for example, the violin and the trumpet. So panning them helps keep them distinct. I really like playing the Indiginus instruments, although getting their Renegade Acoustic Guitar to set in the mix without sounding too MIDI is a bit of a trick. That's one of the reasons I fall back on the nylon string. Plus, I love the sound.  I'm glad you like the listen.
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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Sounds good to me.
Love the bass sound you've got. Nice drums presence.
The horns are expressive. Resonator works well, though lacks the "rich depth" of sound that they usually have. Hi, Floyd Jane. Good to hear from you, glad you liked it!  The bass is BiaB, but I had some help from my son getting it to sit in the mix - he ended up adding some moderate compression (4:1) to help tame the thumb pops. I'm always thinking of you when I mix the drum, which keeps me from burying it too deep in the mix. I'm glad it meets with your approval. The Lurssen console probably did all the real work, with an added Stereo Widener in the chain as well. The Resonator got a much larger role than I thought it would, especially since I started this as a piece for the violin. Not sure how I killed the sound, so to speak. (Probably the preset settings - I love processed sounds a bit much). Obviously, the slide at the beginning was different than the one with the solos. Thanks for listening and the feedback!
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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Perhaps the melody could be strengthened with more repeats and (in places) a bit less lead instrumentation. My first thought was "why not keep the fiddle for the verses and then introduce the mando for the big change (chorus), saving the counter-melodies for later." Good thought! The mandolin used to have a more interesting part earlier on, but that got edited down to just about nothing. I need to do some work learning to play that instrument better, and I didn't have the patience for it on this song. Maybe the next one - the mandolin is a lovely instrument. Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed the song!
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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Solid arrangement and fun fusion of instruments and styles. Listens very well!
I thought acoustic guitar at start was a bit loud. Not that I am trying to sound smart here, just an opinion. Mix is excellent. Enjoyed it! Hi, Misha. No offense taken - I appreciate the feedback. You could be right about the volume of the slide guitar on the start. I played around with it a lot, and finally decided to make it fairly hot. If I decide to remix again, I'll take that into consideration. Thanks for the positive feedback! I'm happy you enjoyed the song.
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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Pleasant listen for a relaxing Sunday. I like it when I can distinctly hear the drums in the mix as I could on this song.
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Beautiful moody track with a funky flavor. Chording and melody have nice melancholy tone, mandolin and string instruments play well together. I think the spreading works, although to my ears the bass is bit difficult to 'locate' - it could be more clearly in the middle.
Janne
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Pleasant listen for a relaxing Sunday. Thanks, Mark!
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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think the spreading works, although to my ears the bass is bit difficult to 'locate' - it could be more clearly in the middle. Hi, Jannsan. In the mix, the bass is center panned. Although it's a stereo recording, but the waveform looks like it's essentially monophonic. That said, there may be some pyscho-acoustic trickery that the stereo expander is doing. In future songs, I may reduce the bass track down to mono just in case, and see if that helps it sit better. Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed the song, it was fun playing with a funky backing track.
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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David,
Mellow with an unusual mix of instruments- the resonator stands out and the bass sounds good to me ( busier than you`d expect for the style but it keeps the energy up).
Very enjoyable music.
Robert
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David,
This is so beautiful... The guitars around the 1:30 mark sound so pristine and crisp.
You should write lyrics for this and sing it...
Loved it.
Bob
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Mellow with an unusual mix of instruments- the resonator stands out and the bass sounds good to me ( busier than you`d expect for the style but it keeps the energy up). Hi, Robert. Thanks for stopping by for a listen, and your positive feedback.
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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