On A Cloud Remix

Ubiquity records was doing one of those remix one of our artists contest and this was my entry.
It's a little rough but I figured just enter it, get it over with, learn a little and move on.

The original track, find it here: http://www.ubiquityrecords.com/ur234.html

It's kind of soul-a-riffic. And after trying to put a different kind of spin on it, I gave up. The structure was a little too structured for me to do anything other then a variation of what they'd already done. So I tried to deconstruct it a bit.

http://www.divshare.com/download/5217452-fca

Delong Avenue

Another in my series of guitar based instrumentals. I apparently can't play in time however. So there's a little bit of a lag when the drums don't pick up the end of the riff in the first section. They should jump the beat a tiny beat...alas, they don't. So it sounds a little robotic and not swinging.

However, you can work your way past that, the riff's are pretty cool. In this case, I did them all with Logic's Guitar Amp Pro. For clean stuff, GAP isn't bad. It lacks the character of GR3 but for the clean parts in this song, that's not such a problem. You just want a good cleanish sound so the playing really comes through. On second thought, that's maybe the opposite of what I want until my playing catches up with my ambition.

My goal is to move beyond just creating 16 or 8 riffs and songlets and eventually pull out an entire song...instrumental-wise. I'm getting closer.

Guitars are my normal Squire Bass and my Fender Mexican Strat for all the other guitars. If you listen close there's a synth in the deep background kind of mirroring the chord changes.

http://www.divshare.com/download/4942956-e45

OMG: GR3

So there is a difference between Guitar Amp Pro from Logic and Guitar Rig 3 from Native Instruments. GR3 sucks away processing juice; GAP doesn't.

Seriously though, GR3 is awesome. The guitar tone has detail GAP can't achieve. GAP is still fine for some stuff but if you want that Alice in Chains Dirt-era sound, you can't go wrong with GR3.

Here's the "song" I did just messing around with GR3. It proves that...I really need to woodshed on my soloing skills.

The GR3 is on the left and it's the first solo. The GAP is on the right and a GAP preset handles the second solo. Keep listening and you can hear the rhythm parts by themselves. The rhythm part are a little harder to tell apart but the solo tone of the GR3 is awesome. The GAP solo tone is pretty weedy and kind of thin.

Anyway, here's "Malice."

http://www.divshare.com/download/4615926-dd1

Primavera

I created this for a Flash movie for work. It's inspired by some of Ben Vaughn's instrumental work -- whose work would then be inspired by various Italian movie composers and surf rock musicians. Not quite sure of the lineage there. (Note to self: learn some names of some other composers so I can say that I'm influenced by them.)

Of course, my wrinkle to all that is...phone tones and office noises. You see because it's a video about offices and stuff. So it's relevant not just gratuitous.

The guitars are Variax acoustic. Panned hard right and left. The lead guitar is my recently returned to me South of the Border Strat. On the B section there's a combination of piano and glockenspiel or something. The drums are just a four bar loop.

So on the to-do list to prep a final version for the video: a) turn down lead guitar a bit. b) add in a subtle bass part. c) fix the piano timing in the chorus. d) look into bringing the organ only on the choruses or maybe just the second verse/chorus.


Direct download "Primavera":

http://www.divshare.com/download/3759720-8cb

The embedded "Primavera":

Classic Synths: No Cape Required

All I Want for Xmas is a Mini-Moog or a Prophet V.

Santa brought me a few synth-a-mi-sizers. Well, Arturia Analog Factory anyway.

And I love it. It's 3000 classic synth sounds that you can use in your DAW of choice. And while you can't edit the sounds, like you can in Arturia's full versions of the products, for some one like me it's probably fine.

Now as for the USB copy protection dealie? Geez, these things are a pain in the ass on a laptop. Whatever.

Anyway, check out the tune which features a host of Analog Factory sounds. The drums are a Logic TR-909 style Ultrabeat patch but other than that, it's all AF.

Dig it here:

http://www.divshare.com/download/3287793-209

Or here:

Adentilia

Back with some more instrumental guitar rock.

2 guitars panned leftish+rightish; hi-pass on each at around 200 khz (think that's right); shifted guitar 2 a little down the timeline. Sounds pretty decent. Logic EXS24 drums. No bass.

I've got another(!) funky cable which is contributing to little audio drop outs or low levels when I'm recording. Or it could just be the Variax.

Now, the Variax is great, however, it's been doing this thing on occasion where it doesn't want to switch properly or is just a little confused. So Acoustic Guitar #1 thinks it's a Strat Model #2. Kind of aggravating. However, it's a $300 guitar; I can't complain too much. However Pt. 2, how difficult would it be to provide a reset button of some sort to remedy this situation where the little modeling computer gets confused?

Just a thought.

More to posts to come soon. Maybe even some instrumental guitar holiday songs?

CD

Here's the file:

http://www.divshare.com/download/2902374-6e7

More Experimental Stuff

Check it out.

http://www.divshare.com/download/2376921-0c2