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The Giants of Albion

Brutus! there lies beyond the Gallic bounds
An island which the western sea surrounds,
By giants once possessed, now few remain
To bar thy entrance, or obstruct thy reign.
To reach that happy shore thy sails employ
There fate decrees to raise a second Troy
And found an empire in thy royal line,
Which time shall ne'er destroy, nor bounds confine.

-- Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain/Books 1, 11

OK, the quote wasn't really the inspiration for the song. The title came from the style I used - _ALBION.STY - and Wikipedia had this to say about Albion, so I went with that title.

I used a minor chord progression for a change, but went with the standard major 7ths in the chorus I love so much, built the track, put together a guide melody (not very good), and sat down to write some lyrics.

But... no luck with the lyrics.

Rather than continue to fight it, I decided to make an instrumental and move ahead.

I start with the SWAM sax and my EWI, but what I got wasn't convincing at all. Eventually I picked the lovely SampleModeling flugelhorn, and came up with something hopefully melodic.

I probably should have added a bridge to the song, but obviously didn't.

I had purchased the Greg Wells VoiceCentric plugin a while ago, but didn't get a chance to try it out on vocals yet. I thought it would be interesting to run the flugelhorn through that. So there's compression, delay and a bit of doubling in the flugel. And then it's run through a huge reverb from EZMix, because I love reverb, and I wanted something a bit more spacious than VoiceCentric had.

The MIDI electric guitars playing power chords are the Stratified and Roculus guitars from Amadeus Symphonic Orchestra, run through some EZMix effects. They're not entirely convincing, but they get the job done.

I added some MIDI strings, one side Amadeus Symphonic Orchestra, the other Native Instruments Strings to make it more interesting. I think I got carried away with some of the string parts - the simpler bits are actually the best parts.

The mix is run through the Lurssen Mastering Console, and then a stereo widener effect. I probably overdid the compression.

I didn't sweat the mix too much, so I'm sure it needs some fixing. So don't bother posting any comments on SoundCloud - they'll get lost when I post a new version.

Edit #1: Brought out the strings (per floydjane's suggestion), perhaps a bit too much at the beginning. Added BiaB power chords, and an oboe and a male choir at the end while I was at it. I also had my son play with the mix a bit.

Edit #2: Ooops. Doubled the woodwinds on the intro by mistake. Trying to do too much while running around on a Sunday morning. Sorry about that!

1759:Bass, Electric, Pop16ths Ev 085
2914:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Folky16thsBrent Ev16 085
3056:Guitar, Acoustic, Rhythm Pop16thsSyncBrent Ev16 085
1757:Accordion, Rhythm Pop8ths Ev 085
~365:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Ev 085
Power Chords from various guitars
RealDrums: PopRock16ths^04-a:Sidestick, HiHat, b:Snare, Ride

As always, comments and criticisms are welcome.

Well, I know nothing about production myself, but what I CAN say is that I loved the track. The melody catches one's attention and the orchestration is splendid - dare I say it, it's very well balanced and everything comes through so well - great texture. The use of the flugelhorn to carry the melody is a great idea, I think. A great, "epic soundtrack" feel to it all, for me. Loved it - want to hear more! :-)

Good instrumental!

Love the flugelhorn, nice melodic line that held my attention throughout the entire song. Running it through voicecentric worked a treat.

Enjoyed the listen!

David,

I like the sound of the flugelhorn! (the spell checker wanted me to change that to "bullhorn" ).

The bass sounds really good. Love the way you mixed the drums!

The acoustic guitars were beautifully subtle.

The strings were too subtle, I think. They could have been louder??

It seems a surprising choice to use MIDI guitars for sustained chords. BIAB can give you some nice sustained electric guitar chords by checking the Held box (the Brent Rock solo 120 works well).

An excellent listen. And thanks for all the detail on the process. A really interesting read.

fj

You always seem to deliver interesting musical works...
And this one is just as compelling...
I must say I really enjoyed the listen!

I'm glad you liked it - thanks for listening!

Thanks, Dave. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Now I need to do some writing so I can try it out on my voice!

Ha!

I've got a "real" flugel, but my embouchure isn't even close to being good enough to record it. So the EWI will do until my lips catch up.


I was thinking about you when I mixed them. My son's played with them a bit on the new mix, but they're still up front.



Done. There were some problems with the part that I fixed, and they're now back in the mix.


I was just going through some instruments, wondering what I could add, and I saw them. I was too lazy to go back, but that's been corrected as well.



Thanks again!

Thanks, Jim! I appreciate the feedback.

David,

This sounds great. You have really built the mix up nicely.

Much enjoyed!

Bob

Thanks, Bob!

David

Listened to the original and the edited version. You've achieved really nice sound.
The flugelhorn sounds excellent and is nicely played.
The backing is very nice and well mixed (not sure about the very short male choir snippet fits at the end).

A very enjoyable instrumental.

Peter

Thanks, Peter.


Does the vocal stick out too much? I just figured I'd add it because I like the sound. But if it's distracting, it should probably be removed or brought down.

Very cool track David. Such an excellent melody. Floaty dreamy song. Drums were perfect for the song. Well done...

David,
Very interesting composition. Flugelhorn is the boss! A bit sharp/metallic on edges, but still very cool sounding! Seems like you invested yourself heavily into melody and I believe you done excellent job on it. It kept me entertained throughout. Mix is very good, and flugelhorn sits well, but as an average listener, I would prefer it just a hint quieter.


Thank you for sharing!

Misha.

David,
Very cinematic and the flugelhorn is a great fit ( dissapointed that`s not an RT).
Nice work on the strings.I liked the voices at the end.

Robert

This is a wonderful emotional instrumental!!! I would pitch it for film.....if I was a film maker, I'd jump on it!! AWESOME!!!! Take care. Greg

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Not that I don't like them, just thought given they were not present anywhere else they may be necessary - but I see Robert likes them.

Peter

Thanks, Scott!

BiaB has a lot of nice RTs, and the drums are no exception.

Hi, Misha.

Thanks for the feedback!

Are you referring to the mix as being overly loud, or the flugel?

I assume you mean the mix, which is rather hot. After listening in my car, I was thinking about moving the flugelhorn up a bit, but I should probably leave it alone for a day before messing with it any more.