Groovin'

After taking a vacation/holiday, having my Amazon account hacked, having to get another new charge card, and finally replacing a failing HD I finally got a chance to listen to some of your fine music.

This is what happens with a soprano saxophonist and their keyboard player join in on after hours jam with the house band's drumer, bass, and keyboard players.

Consider this a jam where I am trying to learn some new recording techniques. It didn't come out to bad so I polished it a bit and thought that I would post it to get your thoughts, constructive criticism welcomed.

BiaB style = Smooth Jazz w/ soprano sax - a RT style converted to MIDI
Tempo - 65 BPM

I deleted the string track and all tracks were slightly modified to better fit the song.

Drums = Steven Slate's SSD 5 drums
Bass = Ample Bass - preset Jazz Bass
Piano - Kontakt - preset Classic Duo
Guitar - EZ Keys - Dream Machine - preset MK Dreams
I am playing the soprano sax via my MIDI keyboard controller

Fine sounding, smooth groove Mario. I sure liked the way the bass and the drums were mixed in.

Brad

Sorry to hear about your Amazon and HD woes. Hopefully all is well again.
Another great composition. You have great talent in composing melodies.
What immediately caught my attention was the drum kit, especially the ride cymbal.

Is this what you used?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrfYmWdj8Jg

Any thoughts about EZDrummer2 to produce entire drum grooves, intro, V1, V2, Ch, etc? (As opposed to playing them on a keyboard)

Really liked those triplets at 1:00 or so. Would have liked to hear more of that, just to break things up a bit here and there. Good work overall, I enjoyed my listen.

Hi Mario
Great Jam
Many good passages e.g. 1:44
It's usually good to just jam away
Sometimes good ideas develop
Well done Mario
Many greetings
Andi :-)

Not exactly my favorite genre, but still a nice listening experience.

Since the saxophone is the main instrument, I would make it louder, at the moment it plays somewhere in the back of the green room...

Mario,

Like B.D. Thomas said:
Not exactly my favourite genre, but still a nice listening experience.

Anne-Marie

Thanx so much Brad.



Thanx for the suggestion, it is a good one and thanx for listening.



Thanx so much Andi.

Not yet as I'm still waiting for my credit card to arrive.

I used the purchased version of SSD5.5. It contains a ton of usable kits.

All of basic drum tracks come from BiaB, GrooveMonkee, or a few other MIDI drum loops that I have collected over the years. Many times I will modify said tracks and sometimes either play or write a measure or two.

Thanx for that suggestion. I argued with myself about the lead volume and may have picked the wrong one volume.



Thanx so much for listening and commenting, especially since it is not your favorite genre.

Mario,
Good bed, Nice work on drums and mix. I applaud your wind controller skills. Good listen and thank you for sharing.

Misha.

Mario,

You always create unique sounding songs, coming up different textures and sounds! Thia smooth jazzy vibe sure works for me! I enjoyed it all the way! Hopefully you've got your frustrations behind you for a while and can focus on creating more music without computer and Amazon distractions!

Thanks, Torrey

Thanx Misha. My wind controller died so I am using my MIDI keyboard and a MIDI controller pedal board now. I think I will keep using this and not purchase another wind controller as I can control more things live. With my pedal board and keyboard I can have one hand playing the notes (that is for a monophonic instrument), the other hand controlling either the mod wheel or the pitch bend wheel, and both feet controlling two assignable expression pedals. Of course being as uncoordinated as I am this can and usually does lead to some MIDI editing.

Thanx so much Torrey. I also like smooth jazz and hope to do more soon.

Hi, Mario.

I liked the song, but all together? It sounded like players rehearsing a song they never saw before, so each was focusing on their parts, but not really paying attention to each other. They never hit a groove, and the dynamics didn't feel like they were in sync.

For example, the drum would put in a nice fill, but so did the keys. They were both good ideas, but they didn't match up together.

You've got each instrument in its own space, and each seems to have its own reverb as well. But there's nothing gluing them together.

There's a huge amount of reverb on the keys, and the reverb tail is so loud, it's distracting.

The soprano sax sounds like it's struggling to play in tune. It's also placed further back in the mix, so the keys and drums are in front of it.

Each instrument is so separated that each and every sound - be it from the drum, keys, or bass - demands attention. Putting the sax in front and the other instruments in supporting roles might fix it. I'm too much a pea-brained dinosaur to listen to more than one idea at a time!

Wow, do I sound negative! I did like the song!

Anyway, just some thoughts that I could be completely wrong about, feel free to ignore!

Hi Mario,

It's a miracle you can music again after what happened with all your stuff.
I also read you are waiting for your credit card to come. What more can we expect after that?

But about your song: It contains a lot of nice aspects, but in a way i got lost in what melody you want us/me to listen to.
A lot is going on, but also confuses me a bit. Like that awsome sax. At first I think it is a bit too soft, but secondly I missed a theme. It looks as if it was playing randomly, if I say that correctly.
What David wrote is in a way what was happening to me too while listening.
On the other hand, the sound of it all was very good. only a twist on the meldody...

Hans

Ah, great after hours jam, Mario. Some of the players actually sound sleepy. Man, you are good with that controller.

Mario,

Always good to hear what you do with the MIDI stuff.
Always impressed.

A lot of good stuff here. Mellow.
A couple of nits. The sax sound seems "a bit dull". no "air". In my speakers, the ride is somewhat loud - "making itself known" (and "not to my taste" - so take that with a grain of salt)

fj

David and Hans, thanx so much for those constructive criticisms. After listening again you are right. I'll have to beware of those things if/when I do another jam; I must pay more attention when I polish them.

Someone was sleepy when he did this one .

Thanx for listening and the fantastic controller comment!



You are correct in that dull sax. I'm making a note about that for the next one.

The ride didn't sound loud here but I know that you are "sensitive" to cymbals. Again I'll be aware of the cymbal volumes.

It's the end of a long day. We are both unwinding and found this quite relaxing.

Honestly Mario, we are always too impressed with the musical feelings you create and your musicianship to attempt to parse out your songs. Not to mention our complete lack of understanding as to how you accomplish it.

I know you asked for specifics but we got lost in the "total picture."

So y'all work it all out

We enjoyed it!

J&B

Mario

A pleasant Jam. An easy listen and some nice playing.

Peter

Lovely jam Mario. Some really cool instrumentation in this song. Really well done.

Very nice mellow tune, pleasantly smooth jazz. The saxophonist is very skillful, plays quite wildly

Janne

Thanx everyone for your very kind responses.