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Posted By: Crossroads The Wild Hounds Of Passion - 11/29/18 03:35 PM


Hi everybody,

this is one of my fun projects that help me chase the blues away every now and then - so please dont take it seriously.

And, of course, this strange stuff didn’t come from my very brain, but I was heavily inspired by a TV conversation a couple of year ago between two of the funniest German comedians, both in their sixties, who talked about getting older, their increasing health problems and, of couse, about the physical side of love once you’ve crossed the fifties line. Although it had been extremely funny all the way the conversation became hilarious when the elder one explained that his ‘bloodhounds of carnal lust were either constantly chained up or had, even more likely, already passed away, which he claimed to make him feel superior to young folks who were still ‘slaves of their drives’.

Well, folks, forgive me, but as an affected party as regards age I simply couldn’t leave that uncommented, so here’s my modest contribution to the subject:

Audio + lyrics
Audio on Soundcloud
The (inevitable) video

The technical stuff

Style is _BLUESSH.STY (Blues Shuffle Quintet Swing)

RealTracks in style: 420:Bass, Electric, Blues Sw 120
RealTracks in style: ~425:Organ, B3, Background Blues Sw 120
RealTracks in style: 421:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm Blues Sw 120
RealTracks in style: ~585:Guitar, Resophonic, Rhythm Blues Muddy Sw 120
RealDrums in Song: BluesShuffleHard^2-a:Snare, HiHat , b:Busy Snare, HiHat

I possibly changed the RealDrums, but, sorry, I didn’t take any note about that.

Playdes the guitar solos on exactly what you see in the vid: a 1977 Gibson Les Paul Custom and that amazing teeny-weeny VOX VT20 (I guess) with an Orange amp emulation.

In this spirit have a terrific weejend.

Cheers,

Stefan
Posted By: Buja Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 11/29/18 04:18 PM
cool!
Posted By: Joe -PG Music Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 11/29/18 05:05 PM
Hello Stefan, what a marvelous song I might say! The arrangement is a pleasure to listen to and the vibe is very appealing. Great tones with the guitar, seemed very fun to make. Great work!
Posted By: floyd jane Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 11/29/18 06:35 PM
Stefan,

A fun song and even more fun video...

Nice backing tracks. The organ sounds great. Good job on the guitar. Vocals are crisp and clear and well mixed.

It sounds to me like the drums are panned all the to right side - haven't heard drums panned to one side like that since the 60's...

Enjoyed the listen.

fj
Posted By: Will Josef Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 11/29/18 11:10 PM
Hi Stefan.

You know that I love your music and videos. And this song is great too!

But I honestly think you could have mixed this better. The vocal is way to loud in comparison with the background track in my opinion. But I can read that the more professional guys (than me) like it as it is, so don't take my comments seriously, please!

Keep up the good work, Stefan!
Will
Posted By: Scott C Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 11/29/18 11:45 PM
Awesome job Stephan. Loved the video. Excellent back track and super job on the guitar. super vocal as well..
Posted By: dcuny Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 11/30/18 04:22 AM
Another enjoyable song! laugh

I initially mis-read it as "The Wild Nouns of Passion", which would have been an interesting song as well.
Posted By: Noel96 Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 11/30/18 08:56 AM
Stephan,

Really, really enjoyable! Everything about your singing, your backing, the video and your humour grabs hold and doesn't let go until the end.

It's definitely 'thumbs up' from me for this.

In a word... EXCELLENT!

All the best,
Noel
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 11/30/18 09:31 AM
Originally Posted By: dcuny
Another enjoyable song! laugh

I initially mis-read it as "The Wild Nouns of Passion", which would have been an interesting song as well.


.. I agree, but would this be the right forum to make it public?

Glad you enjoyed it.

Stefan
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 11/30/18 09:33 AM
Originally Posted By: Joe -PG Music
Hello Stefan, what a marvelous song I might say! The arrangement is a pleasure to listen to and the vibe is very appealing. Great tones with the guitar, seemed very fun to make. Great work!


Hey Joe (love to address you that way...),

thanks for your fine review - I really appreciate it.

Cheers,

Stefan
Posted By: Teunis Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 11/30/18 09:33 AM
Originally Posted By: dcuny
Another enjoyable song! laugh

I initially mis-read it as "The Wild Nouns of Passion", which would have been an interesting song as well.


I also missed the topic. The thread title says “The Wild Houns of Passion” which I took to be wild hoons of passion (a hoon here is someone who behaves in an anti social manner). But I guess the hero of this story could be regarded as a “Wild Houn”.

Good fun song and video. Well done.

Tony
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 11/30/18 09:34 AM
Originally Posted By: Scott C
Awesome job Stephan. Loved the video. Excellent back track and super job on the guitar. super vocal as well..


Thanks a lot, Scott, I really appreciate your opinion (like I always do).

Take care,

Stefan
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 11/30/18 09:40 AM
Originally Posted By: Noel96
Stephan,

Really, really enjoyable! Everything about your singing, your backing, the video and your humour grabs hold and doesn't let go until the end.

It's definitely 'thumbs up' from me for this.

In a word... EXCELLENT!

All the best,
Noel


Wow, Noel, what can I say: What a heckuva review - thank you so much. When it comes to humour, tastes can differ a lot, so I'm always delighted when people share my sense of it.

Thanks for the listen and your kind comment and have a great weekend.

Stefan
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 11/30/18 10:12 AM
Originally Posted By: floyd jane
Stefan,

A fun song and even more fun video...

Nice backing tracks. The organ sounds great. Good job on the guitar. Vocals are crisp and clear and well mixed.

It sounds to me like the drums are panned all the to right side - haven't heard drums panned to one side like that since the 60's...

Enjoyed the listen.

fj


Hi Flyd,

first of all thanks a lot for watching and listening so carefully and, of course, for your kind words - I really appreciate themn a lot.

As to the drum panning: You are absolutely right - it sounds as if the drums were (like with the first Beatles stereo records) completely panned to the right, and I couldn't remember we'd ever done something like that.

So I just got the original RealBand file back on my PC and had a lokk at the drum track:

1. It sounds the same: panned to the right.
2. It's a stereo RealDrum track
3. It's panned to exactly ZERO.

Oops - so it was the decision of the people who created this RealDrum track. And when I soloed it, it showed that it was not completely panned to the right, but all the loud instruments were indeed, only soft cymbal sounds coming from the left.

So I'm gonna take this for granted amd, more than that, I'm proud that it was us who gave you and the others that tiny musical blast from the past - even though this happened totally unintentionally cool

Thanks again very much for listening that attentively and have a nice weekend.

Regards,

Stefan
Posted By: tommyad Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 11/30/18 10:15 AM
Stefan, Lots of fun to be had listening to this one. The video was great and enjoyed watching the guitar work. Well sung and played. I think you should revisit the mix, especially drums and bass. There is a lot of creativity on display here. I liked it despite my mix comments, Tom
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 11/30/18 10:31 AM
Originally Posted By: Will Josef
Hi Stefan.

You know that I love your music and videos. And this song is great too!

But I honestly think you could have mixed this better. The vocal is way to loud in comparison with the background track in my opinion. But I can read that the more professional guys (than me) like it as it is, so don't take my comments seriously, please!

Keep up the good work, Stefan!
Will


Hi Will,

thanks an awful lot for listening and watching. And, please, feel free to write as your comments whatever you feel might help.

Well, volume of the vocals has been, is and I'm afraid will be the almost only disputed topic between Maha and me when it comes to mixing.

I'm a couple of years older than her and experienced that mixing style they had in the seventies when it was always good to have the record's cover at hand so you could at least SEE if you were listening to a lady or a guy. smile

And I don't have too much self-confidence as far as my singing is concerned. So it's always me who proposes to get the vocals a bit back into the mix while Maha mostly disagrees. And also important: We listen to the final mix on many differnt devices before the song is being made public. And it's astounding how differently especially the vocals (but also the bass and the drums) can be emphasized - completely different from what we had (or better: Maha had) planned when she heard it on her studio speakers.

So, I'm on your side: I would have preferred to reduce the voval's volume a bit, but in the end it's all a matter of personal taste, isn't it...

So, please, don't you ever hesitate to come up with whatever you think is important - everything you say is being appreciated a lot!!!

Have a terrific weekend and take care,

Stefan
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 11/30/18 10:38 AM
Originally Posted By: Teunis
Originally Posted By: dcuny
Another enjoyable song! laugh

I initially mis-read it as "The Wild Nouns of Passion", which would have been an interesting song as well.


I also missed the topic. The thread title says “The Wild Houns of Passion” which I took to be wild hoons of passion (a hoon here is someone who behaves in an anti social manner). But I guess the hero of this story could be regarded as a “Wild Houn”.

Good fun song and video. Well done.

Tony


Oops - that was just a typo, sorry for that. Like I said in the song: 'My eyesight's pretty bad, you might say I'm almost blind'. Which is not made up, unfortunately...

Just corrected the thread title.

Regards,

Stefan
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 11/30/18 11:27 AM
Originally Posted By: tommyad
Stefan, Lots of fun to be had listening to this one. The video was great and enjoyed watching the guitar work. Well sung and played. I think you should revisit the mix, especially drums and bass. There is a lot of creativity on display here. I liked it despite my mix comments, Tom


Hi Tom,

thank you very much für your comment and especially the hint. Scott already mentioned the drum panning issue - which I've taken care of in my respective reply. And I also agreed with Will's hint that the vocals might be a bit to loud.

But apart from that I'm pretty fine with the mix - it's rough like it was meant to be and has aa bit of a 'live' character. And after all it's a matter of taste... But nevertheless: I really appreciate any hints and comments. So thanks again.

Cheers,

Stefan
Posted By: 44kfl Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 11/30/18 11:32 AM
Nice groove,

rockin' blues, good raw guitar playing!

enjoyed the listen,

Kenny
Posted By: Deryk - PG Music Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 11/30/18 01:35 PM
Oh ya - this took about 10 seconds for me to know I'd be into it. Love the bluesy groove, and found your vocals to be top notch. It has a lot of attitude behind it, and the progressions are fantastic. A real proper mix job too.

Great work, and thanks for sharing!
Posted By: bluage Re: The Wild Hounds Of Passion - 11/30/18 10:10 PM
Dear Stefan...

The video is so well-produced that I would have thought it was a segment of a popular television show laugh !!!

The song is funny as all hell with its clever lyrics, and the music is a rollicking example of what the "happy blues" should sound like. There's nothing like a hard-driving "shuffle" rhythm to get your blood up!

Stefan, not only are you an excellent musician and an entertaining vocalist, but you're obviously quite a showman, too. I'll buy a ticket anytime!

Still laughing,

LOREN
Posted By: Janice & Bud Re: The Wild Hounds Of Passion - 12/01/18 05:35 PM
Oh yeah...THE blues!

The back story and the write are cool

The vocal and guitar performances are cool

The video is cool

A lot of coolness here cool

We like it...a lot!!!!

J&B

PS Odd about that RD. I don't often use styles but when I do, as I expect everybody does, I always take any reverb off each track, any "tone" off, set the pan to zero and turned the volume all the way up...and then render them for my DAW. I'll check that RD and see if it behaves with BiaB.
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Hounds Of Passion - 12/02/18 07:29 AM
Originally Posted By: bluage
Dear Stefan...

The video is so well-produced that I would have thought it was a segment of a popular television show laugh !!!

The song is funny as all hell with its clever lyrics, and the music is a rollicking example of what the "happy blues" should sound like. There's nothing like a hard-driving "shuffle" rhythm to get your blood up!

Stefan, not only are you an excellent musician and an entertaining vocalist, but you're obviously quite a showman, too. I'll buy a ticket anytime!

Still laughing,

LOREN



Dear Loren,

you're not writing reviews - you're awarding medals! And I have to admit that it feels awesome to have one(at least one of yourt kind) pinned on me every now and then.

So thanks a lot of lots for your flattering words, and, yes, I agree as much as I can: There's nothing like a rough blues shuffle whenever you having one of those days: I got it bad, and that ain't good. It should be regarded as a remedy and the health insurance companiers should consider paying for it...

Thank you as well for considering me as a show man - I have to admit: I'm not. If I would have to act like I do in the vids in front of an audience I'd fall dead within ten seconds. I never acted that way prior to 2016 when I first took up composing after a very long period without any musical activity and shortly after that found that coming up with all that goofy stuff is, at least for me, a perfect way of forgetting about those serious issues that 'escort' aging. And I also found that being busy with things you've never been busy with before (like BIAB, RB or the video stuff) might help to stay 'mentally awake'. And since I've always been very fond of the English language it's an immense pleasure to write those lyrics, even though it always takes quite some time.

So, I hope that I will be able to make you laugh again with my stuff in the future, thanks again for the great things you wrote.

All the best,

Stefan
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Hounds Of Passion - 12/02/18 08:22 AM
Originally Posted By: Janice & Bud
Oh yeah...THE blues!

The back story and the write are cool

The vocal and guitar performances are cool

The video is cool

A lot of coolness here cool

We like it...a lot!!!!

J&B

PS Odd about that RD. I don't often use styles but when I do, as I expect everybody does, I always take any reverb off each track, any "tone" off, set the pan to zero and turned the volume all the way up...and then render them for my DAW. I'll check that RD and see if it behaves with BiaB.





Dear Janice, dear Bud,

and your comments are aslo VERY cool - thanks an awful lot for your nice words which were the first ones I read on this (otherwise very dusky) Sunday morning. Couldn't think of any better start for a Sunday...

As to the drums thing: You might have noticed that I prefer to write my own drum part, whenever this is possible. The main reasin for this is that I can customize the fills, but also because Maha has full volume control over every single instrument. But it's hard to write a rollicking Texas shuffle in MIDI, so with this song I tried some of the RealDrum tracks.

When I get going I use BIAB for the mere structure of the song and, of course, for finding the appropriate style. As soon as I think this might be roughly OK, I import the BIAB song to RB which, by the way, is the only DAW we use, because we get along with it and, most of all, because the GUI is BIG.

So the single tracks come in 'clean' and apart from some normalizing they always stay that way until the song is complete and Maha takes over for EQing, panning and mixing.

In the process of editing the songs I very often replace single tracks at a later stage. Since I had never thought that somebody might be interested in how I put my songs together I never kept the long track captions that appear when you generate a new track, but replaced them by 'Drums', Bass' and so on. That's why I can't figure out which RD I finally used with this song. (Now that I'm active in this forum I changed that habit, of course!)

But whatever RD style I used: The stereo track is definitely panned to zero and we seem to have accepted that 'list', because we must have liked the rollicking drive of it.

And I'm aware of the fact that this is not the best song I've written and produced so far anyway, so I can live with that flaw pretty well.

Thanks again so much for listening, watching and commenting so kindly and have a great week.

All the best,

Stefan
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 12/02/18 12:29 PM
Originally Posted By: 44kfl
Nice groove,

rockin' blues, good raw guitar playing!

enjoyed the listen,

Kenny


Thanks, Kenny. I'm glad you enjoyed the thing.

Take care,

Stefan
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 12/02/18 12:37 PM
Originally Posted By: Deryk - PG Music
Oh ya - this took about 10 seconds for me to know I'd be into it. Love the bluesy groove, and found your vocals to be top notch. It has a lot of attitude behind it, and the progressions are fantastic. A real proper mix job too.

Great work, and thanks for sharing!


Oh ya - what a nice review, thanks a lot, Deryk - I'm really gladthat you enjoyed the listen. And if I'm not totally misled you have a certain taste for uptempo songs which I have, too. Well, there's more to come...

Cheers,

Stefan
Posted By: Greg Johnson Re: The Wild Hounds Of Passion - 12/02/18 07:22 PM
Fun song Stefan!! Some really great lyrics and a passionate vocal. Really got a kick out of this!! Take care. Greg
Posted By: Al-David Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 12/03/18 10:32 PM
Hey Stefan,

This is some smokin' hot blues! And what a great video. This is more than a great song a delivery - it's entertainment. Great vocal, hot guitar, big sound, and a nicely-done video! You have a lot of talent, my friend!

Sie haben mich mit Ihrer ausgezeichneten Musik außerordentlich unterhalten. Sie haben ein spezielles Geschenk für die Musik! Ich schätze Ihre Sachkenntnisse.

Alan

PS: Ich werde auf Ihre Private Nachricht morgen abend antworten.
Posted By: Samuel Davis Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 12/04/18 04:16 PM
Groovy blues tune. Great vocals on this and a nice writing. Good job man.
Posted By: Sergio Guarneri Re: The Wild Hounds Of Passion - 12/04/18 04:56 PM

Really nice blues. Great power in it.
Sergio
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Hounds Of Passion - 12/05/18 07:29 AM
Originally Posted By: Greg Johnson
Fun song Stefan!! Some really great lyrics and a passionate vocal. Really got a kick out of this!! Take care. Greg


Thanks a lot, Greg. I'm glad that you enjoyed the thing and I really appreciate your kind words.

Take care,

Stefan
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 12/05/18 07:31 AM
Originally Posted By: Samuel Davis
Groovy blues tune. Great vocals on this and a nice writing. Good job man.


Hi Sammy,

thanks a lot; I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Cheers,

Stefan
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Hounds Of Passion - 12/05/18 07:32 AM
Originally Posted By: Sergio Guarneri

Really nice blues. Great power in it.
Sergio


Thank you very much, Sergio. I really appreciate your nice comment.

All the best,

Stefan
Posted By: rayc Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 12/05/18 07:41 AM
It's a fun song but there're a couple of things in the mix (video version) that seem odd:
. The drums are over on one side - feels almost like a Beatles early stereo mix.
. The music sounds like it's in a different room to the vocal - different reverb?
The lyrics are good and the play on hounds works well.
The playing is fine and your project of humour, music and visuals is always a good time waiting to be had.
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 12/05/18 07:45 AM
Originally Posted By: Al-David
Hey Stefan,

This is some smokin' hot blues! And what a great video. This is more than a great song a delivery - it's entertainment. Great vocal, hot guitar, big sound, and a nicely-done video! You have a lot of talent, my friend!

Sie haben mich mit Ihrer ausgezeichneten Musik außerordentlich unterhalten. Sie haben ein spezielles Geschenk für die Musik! Ich schätze Ihre Sachkenntnisse.

Alan

PS: Ich werde auf Ihre Private Nachricht morgen abend antworten.


Dear Alan,

oh boy, you really abashed me with your great comment - thank you so much. There's a lot of guys around here whose feedback means an awful lot to me, but I feel especially honored by your kind words, because with every song of yours that I get to know my respect for your incredible musical abilities gets deeper and deeper.

Looking forward to your PM (which doesn't mean that you got to hurry !!!!)

All the best,

Stefan
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Houns Of Passion - 12/06/18 11:03 AM
Originally Posted By: rayc
It's a fun song but there're a couple of things in the mix (video version) that seem odd:
. The drums are over on one side - feels almost like a Beatles early stereo mix.
. The music sounds like it's in a different room to the vocal - different reverb?
The lyrics are good and the play on hounds works well.
The playing is fine and your project of humour, music and visuals is always a good time waiting to be had.


Hi Ray,

first of all thanks a lot for watching and listening.

Wow, I envy you for your ears. While I, of course, noticed that the drums are mainly on the right, I would never noticed the other issue that you mentioned. But I've never been very much into the sound editing and mixing thing anyway, most of all because my vision prevents me from coping with all that tiny buttons, captions etc., but a heavy tinnitus I've had for decades doesn't help either - what I sing in the song about vision and hearing isn't made up. Unfortunately. So I'm very glad that Maha (who is otherwise not interested in computers) came to grips with it and, even more important, enjoys it.

As to the drum issue: Floyd already mentioned it and if you move up in the thread you can read what I found out about that issue.

You know, this song was the third or fourth one ever that I arranged using BIAB and RB and which Maha took care of soundwise. Because she would never add any reverb to a complete backing track I tried to recall what might have happened. I think that this might be the explanation:

In the beginning I rendered every single BIAB track and then imported the WAVs into RealBand. This way there might have been some reverb on the tracks. Now I import the BIAB file into RealBand and have it re-generated there, so it's always 'dry'.

One thing I should add is that we never had thought of our projects being reviewed by people with expertise - we just did it for our own and some friends' kicks. Now that I finally dared to show up in this forum things have become more serious, of course. But all our projects that I put on display here are still 'pre-forum', so there will be more issues to be found smile .

And that's why I (or we) also appreciate any technical feedback. Although we will not work on any of the projects again once the videos are out, we will try to keep every hint in mind so we (hopefully) won't make the same mistakes again.

So thanks again for your attentiveness.

All the best,

Stefan
Posted By: cliftond Re: The Wild Hounds Of Passion - 12/06/18 11:27 AM
Excellent rocker Stefan, kicked in gear and fully loaded up.... Love it Cliff
Posted By: F.M.M. Re: The Wild Hounds Of Passion - 12/06/18 05:21 PM
hi Stefan awesome work here love the blues really like the arrangement and guitar work great energy love it thanks eric
Posted By: PeterF Re: The Wild Hounds Of Passion - 12/06/18 11:59 PM
Stefan

Great video and excellent track - enjoyed it all (some interesting technical comments in the thread as well).

Peter
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Hounds Of Passion - 12/11/18 07:31 AM
Originally Posted By: cliftond
Excellent rocker Stefan, kicked in gear and fully loaded up.... Love it Cliff


Thanks for listening and watching and of course for your kind words, Cliff.

Happy Holidays and all the bedt for 2019.

Stefan
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Hounds Of Passion - 12/11/18 07:34 AM
Originally Posted By: F.M.M.
hi Stefan awesome work here love the blues really like the arrangement and guitar work great energy love it thanks eric


Hi Eric,

thanks a lot for your kind words - I'm glad you enjoyed that little thing.

Happy Holidays and all the bedt for 2019.

Stefan
Posted By: Crossroads Re: The Wild Hounds Of Passion - 12/11/18 07:38 AM
Originally Posted By: PeterF
Stefan

Great video and excellent track - enjoyed it all (some interesting technical comments in the thread as well).

Peter


Thank you very much, Peter, I really appreciate your kind words. Yes, I read all those technical hints carefully, so the same mistakes will (hopefully) not be made again.

Happy Holidays and all the best for 2019.

Stefan
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