So new you'll smdge the notes if you're not careful

[folderol]

Ok, this is really, really raw, some looping (loopy) background stuff then just jam on top of it. Looking for ideas of where to go with it.It's a bit overlength as it stands but I'm expecting to chop some instruments out and bring others in.

www.musically.me.uk/music/NuToon.mp3

Comments welcome

[folderol]

Ugh. What a difference a good sleep and a few hours makes It's crap. Barely recoverable. Don't hurt your ears

[Boulotaur2024]

Hehe I was expecting far worse based on your last comment.
It's pretty fresh I think, I like it... sounds a bit like a PSX tune or something... Drums (yea I forgot the english name for 'maracas') are a bit too 'present' imo.

And what about some more chord variation at around 3:00 ?

[folderol]

Right. Been out for a walk in the rain and had some lunch so I can face things again

I take your point about the levels. Actually they are all pretty screwed up. I was recording this at about 1.30am using headphones so as not to disturb the neighbours! Indeed the reason I stopped when I did was because I realised I was bloody cold I had been on my way to bed at around 11pm, and just thought I'd try out an idea...

Yeah the chords get a bit monotonous after a while don't they. I'll probably change them a bit and swap to a different instrument too. I think I'll also bring in the lead a little later and more gradually. It will need quite a lot of work anyway.

[runagate]

I think the shakers sound marvelous.
Every 27th or 28th kick is a little off, but otherwise it's a nice rainshower reggae type song.
The mixing is kinda whacko, but that's to be expected under the circumstances! Sounds about 100x better produced than your train song (the idea behind which I quite liked). I'm not sure I can offer constructive criticism since by and large I liked it but see more potential in it... I'm just not sure what. Breaking up some phrasing into triplets or 32nd notes here and there on off beats would do wonders. I think perhaps the contrast between the fast rhythm reggae chords and the laid back feeling of the rest of it really would lend itself to what I just suggested... I wish I could show you what I mean. The use of effects is insanely great, btw, as there's really a lot of shit piled up in there and each sonic idea has it's own place. Kudos, that's no easy thing to do I know.

[clueless]

Don't know what to think about this really.

It was very pleasant low-volume listening as I sat in my darkening shed, against the sound of the rain through the open door.

It's a one idea thing really isn't it? It reminded me of either "Aspectacle" or "Animal Waves" by Can (can't remember which) and you COULD do all sorts of things to it in terms of structural dynamics in the manner of whichever of those 2 tracks it reminds me of......but I quite liked its casual aimlessness.

Thinking of mid-late 70's Sly and Robbie stuff, I can hear in my head what runagate means about triplets. I think!

[folderol]

Thanks for your thoughts guys. Looks like I might actually be going in the right direction This is really breaking the mold for me, and unlike anything I've done so far I'm really having a ball., but I guess I'll have to stop for today - work tomorrow

There is now an (imaginatively named) www.musically.me.uk/music/NuToon2.mp3 I guess I'll have to think of a proper title for it, now it actually seems to be developing. Levels are better balanced. Some old crap has been shoveled out (and new crap shoveled in)

<runagate> I'm not sure what you mean about breaking up the phasing. Do you mean on the lead or then backing?

Hmm. A darkened shed in the rain - Now there's an interesting image

The sort of randomness comes out of the fact I kept looping the backing and playing over the top of it until some sort of pattern came and my fingers kept wanting to go to the same places, then hit 'record'.

For those interested in such things, all the voices except the percussion are produced by ZynAddSubFX. The percussion comes from fluidsynth and the FluidR3-GM soundfont.

"Time for bed" said Zebedee

[folderol]

Hmmm. People seem to be still downloading NuToon instead of NuToon2 so NuToon3 is in fact NuToon...

Just to make everything crystal clear

Just a bit more tidying up, nothing dramatic yet.

[fateamenabletochange]

I really like the lead and the lead's sound

[folderol]

This now has a proper title and I've done some more work on it. The lead is lifted and slightly cleaned up. The shakers are separated and panned left and right, and a better sounding kick is center stage. I've also softened the background second melody? at both the start and end.

As I am short of webspace I'll be deleting the old files pretty quickly so please try:
http://www.musically.me.uk/music/Lair_O ... n_King.mp3
or
http://www.musically.me.uk/music/Lair_O ... n_King.ogg

Hmmm, I really must work out how some of you do those smart looking links

[runagate]

I grabbed in case you were gonna delete it. Busy now but I'll be back.

[fateamenabletochange]

yes this sounds good.....the relaxed kind of almost out of timeness of the lead...parts seem to fit together well

[jakob]

This could be an easy and relaxing tune, if only it weren't for that "in-your-face" distorted guitar! EEK!

Overall, it's still very much "playing around with the guitar over some loop". Structure it more theme-wise to make it an actual song

*edit*
I actually think you can't quite get over the fact that this could become a somewhat cheesy song (hence the dirty guitar). I say: go all the way! Free cheese for all!

[folderol]

Well, I really don't know what to make of this. As an experiment I ran the tune through with various tracks muted and still came to the conclusion that it all fitted together reasonably well.

With both the guitar and the vibraphone/whistle missing the rest sounds like standard music wallpaper to me. I felt it could stand better with just the vibra muted than with the guitar muted.