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 Triva
Lurssen Mastering Console, Ozone Imager
Reverbs, EQ, Compression - Neutron Elements, EZMix

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

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!

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

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

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.

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.

Hi, Will

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed the song.

Hi, Dave.

Thanks for listening, I'm glad the wide pan worked for you.


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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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

Thanks, Mark!

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,
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

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

Hi, Robert.

Thanks for stopping by for a listen, and your positive feedback.

Hi, Bob.

Thanks!

I keep promising myself that I'll start working on lyrics "real soon", but never quite get back around to it.

Hopefully this month I'll start in earnest.

Very nice! Interesting mixture of instruments with the genre. Works well here. I do like the separation. I think the mix may just be a tad hot. If it weren't so hot, it would leave more room for dynamics. Not a deal killer, though. Still sounds good. I really enjoyed this.

Steve

Works well David. Great choice of band. Rob4580

Hi, Steve.

I didn't really think of putting the trumpet on it, but I dropped it in, and it seemed to work. The SampleModeling Trumpet is a blast to play - I love the tone, and I'll never get that kind of tone out of my real trumpet. Truth be told, my actual trumpet playing sounds more like a kazoo.

I agree that the mix is a bit too hot. If I revisit the mix, I'll bring it down a bit. Sometimes it's hard to fight "louder is better." Once again, I blame my complete lack of using a reference track.

Thanks for listening!

Thanks! There are a lot of great sounds to find in BiaB.

Wow - really nicely done! The flow gorgeously well, and the instrumentation is lush and vibrant. It really sets an interesting mood, and the way all the instruments weave around each other is effortless. An awesome groove too and I thought the mix was concise and professional.

You should be proud of this one - thanks for sharing

Man, that bass and the drums really lay the groove down for this...excellent on the monitors.

We like it all. It's very moody in a cinematic way. Sounds like a good tune for the film/tv libraries.

As a minimalist bass/rhythm guitar picker I'm clueless on how you put all those non-BiaB tracks together.
They sound great.

Regarding the dobro -- We played with a fine dobro player in our band for many years. They have, as you
alluded to, many different sounds depending on the resonator, the wood, the slide and the picker.
For this tune we think it sits well in the mix and does its job...as does the entire mix!

Nice

J&B

i dig the way you brought the drums way out front.

gives me an appreciation for some of the indiginus libraries.
pretty compelling reso guitar.

Hey David,

This is beautiful. Really love the instruments and mix!

Gonna be little shorter and sweeter on my comments these days, but I really love this man.

Hi, Deryk.

Thanks for taking the time to listen, and the kind words.

David,

Very cinematic tune.
The bass and drums are powerful, but the melody is calm and beautiful.
It is wonderful that various innovative attempts have been made in this tune.
Using Samplemodeling instruments.
Using not only the keyboard controller but also wind controller.
Enjoyed my listen a lot.

Best regards.

Shigeki Adachi

Yeah, my son (who used to claim he could tell BiaB by "the sound") was asking if I'd used EZDrummer on the track. The RealTracks bass and drums (and steel string) really sound super.

Thanks!

My own bass playing leaves a lot to be desired. Root and fifth, and stepwise motion is about as adventuresome as I get in real life. Which I think is better than getting a bass player who's trying to be a lead guitarist, I guess.

The parts are basically outlining chords with stepwise motion to give the illusion of melodic movement. The nice thing about MIDI is I can move notes after the performance to make stronger note choices.

But interesting musical ideas... those continue to elude me. I think I've done a competent job here, but it's relies much more on harmony than strong melodic ideas. That's something I'm continuing to work on.


I'm glad to hear that.

To be honest, what little I know of dobro comes from what I've picked up listening to W. G. "Snuffy" Walden on the "thirtysomething" soundtrack.

I keep telling myself someday I'll learn how to get some of those sweet licks from my guitar. In the meantime, I've got the Indiginus instruments to tide me over.

Thanks for stopping to listen!

Thanks!

Not to sound like an advertisement here, but the Indiginus libraries are a blast. Unlike some virtual instruments, for better or worse they sound exactly like on the demos.

To some extent, instrumentals for me are just an excuse to put nice sounds together - both from BiaB, as well as other libraries.

Hi, David.

I understand time's hard to come by for you, so I really appreciate you stopping by!

Hi, Shigeki.

Thanks, I really enjoy listening to your songs as well.

If you haven't already, I suspect you might like Sample Modeling and Audio Modeling instruments. In particular, I think the the SWAM saxophones and SM trumpets are really good.

Then again, you've already got access to a live players, and you can't beat that!

Hi David,

This is an exceptional listen! I'm sitting here right now trying to figure out how you managed to capture such a wonderful and vibrant overall sound.

Your creation soars on wings of quality from beginning to end. I love the melody and how you've harmonised it. The journey that you are presently taking me on is, quite simply, magical. Kudos on your arrangement... it mesmerised me.

This is definitely one to be proud of.

All the best,
Noel

Hi, Noel.

Thanks, for listening! You're very kind.

Wonderful, David. A clear and powerful statement. As the textures inter weave (about 3/4 through,) it truly fulfills its purpose.

So pretty to listen to with all those lush instruments. It was melodic enough for me, and I didn't have to turn it down. The drums seemed busy to me, but since nobody else mentioned it, it must be me. I could listen to more like this.

Hi Dave,

this is a really great production. Don't know much (to say the least) about the technical stuff you mentioned, so I have to stick to simply enjoying what I hear. And I enjoyed it A LOT.

Very well done !

Take care,

Stefan

I'm not technically-minded at all, so I'll leave the technical comments to others. All I'm going to say is this: this sounded really, really beautiful to me, calming and ethereal and somehow transported me to a better place whilst listening. And that's all I really want from a musical listening experience - to enjoy it. I forgot to listen critically when listening to this - and that's just about the best compliment I think that I can give. Great job, well done!

Really nice instrumental David!! Good mix overall, and the solo violin sounds GREAT (a worthwhile investment)! Like Floyd said, the bass sound is fantastic too! Really like this!!! Take care. Greg

Thanks, Ed!

No, you're probably right. But they're so cool, I didn't bother looking for another drum track.

But there are a number of places in the song where I swapped out the drums for a slightly less busy version for some short sections, just to bring down the energy level a touch.

Thanks for the feedback!

Hi, Stefan.

Thanks, I appreciate that!

Thanks! I really appreciate that!

Songs that shut up my own inner critic because I'm enjoying that song are truly the best.

Thanks, Greg!

To be honest, I was thinking I should have perhaps bumped up the violin a but more in the mix, especially at the beginning.

I'm glad the violin works for you - I'll see what I can do to use it more in the future!

Nicely done David...
Gentle & easy on the ears...
With a tasteful sounding mix!

Tasty David, very tasty! I liked everything about this one. The wide stereo spread was great. You view Grahams videos don't you?

That resonator sounded great. The mix was spot on IMHO. All of the different instruments blended well.

You did a great job on this song.