Short midi composition

[richiebee]

Would like to hear opinions on what might make the guitar part in particular more real. What are the tell-tale signs that its a VI?

Excuse the bad trumpet playing... can't get my tongue working these days.

[archiegood]

Richie, my wife says it's not necessarily the tongue, but the lips that do the trick. Your trumpet playing is great, if not just a tad loud in the solo.

As for the "guitar," I think the first problem in the intro is that the two strums are just to the right of the short lead in the stereo spectrum. The two don't sound like they are coming from the same instrument, or position. Also, if you listen closely, the directions the reverbs reflect from those two sounds don't agree. Putting both sounds exactly the same place would be my first attempt to cure their (its?) questionability (did I just make up a word?).

When the guitar strums and the short leads are played with the other instruments, it's not as noticeable.

The mistake in the long lead at 50.5 is too glaring for me. I assume you were looking for the "wow I just made it to that fret" kind of sound for realism. But, if it were my playing, I wouldn't find it acceptable; I'd retake that lick.

Finally, in my opinion the fade out of the bass and organ at the end is a bit abrupt.

I might add that I would love to be able to program the way you do. Really sweet stuff.!

[richiebee]

Thanks for the detailed listen and notes! Maybe its not my tongue but my brain's unwillingness to tell it when to go and stop so that its in time with the rest of me.

I think I've fixed the panning issue. I moved the guitar parts over to the other side to balance up with the high hat better and they're mono panned to the same place. They share a bus now too, so the reverb should be good to go.

I think I've fixed the wrong note at 50.5. Pff... jazz is still something of a mystery to me. What's more, I'm very used to performing with a guitarist who really goes outside the box. He pulls it off much better than I ever will. I should probably stay inside the box for now.

Ending wasn't really a fade out at all... just the organ using the swell pedal. But I've made it into a fade now. Mmmm... maybe a little too long.

[Jaimes]

Personally I think that the slightly too loud trumpet thing sounds great, it makes me feel that I'm listening live, and it really pushes that passion to the front, I love it! And you're second time, there, it sounds a bit quieter-is this true or have I really been out of the loop for entirely too long?

[magno]

Wow sounds really cool.
The only part I could really nitpick about is the bass especially at :16.
Maybe its compressed too much or the muting on that part messes it up for me.
Maybe it's falling behind the beat ever so slightly.
I don't know but it's the only part that sounds "unnatural" to me.
Could some reverb help on the trumpet solo?
I really don't know anything about recording trumpet but it sounds like it needs to be thickened up.
Maybe overdub it? heh I'm thinking trumpets should be treated like a guitar solo.
How did you record the trumpet btw?

[richiebee]

I agree that the bass doesn't always seem to be in time. I'll have to check that out.

The trumpet was recorded with an ElectroVoice RE20 and processed with an Antress ModernCompressor, ModernEQ and ModernAnaloger. To be honest, I'm not doing these amazing plugins justice - I just used presets that I had set up for another purpose. The trumpet part was an afterthought... I just put it in there since my trumpet was lying around the room waiting to be played while I was working on the rest of this stuff.

The only problem with the Antress stuff is that they are pretty resource hungry.

Anyway, I had the track playing through my monitors and just doodled into the microphone. Very rough, lots of leakage.

[archiegood]

Much better!