End of Summer

This one is just 'roll the tape and do whatever.'

It features Bill Ray on drums.

the loose, raw feeling is cool. i feel drums are a bit weak in the mix. interesting guitar playing as usual, the lead part in particular (though that solo could have been a bit longer!) i like the vaguely-fragile quality of the vocals; maybe that's not the right way to describe it, but i dig it.

Thanks for the listen/comments.

The drum level will have to be investigated.

Indeed, the vocals are like a whisper because i'm trying not to bother the neighbors.

This whole 'album' is improvisatory; just load up a Bill Ray drum track and play/sing along.

Interestingly or not, through the course of making this song collection i'm hearing some 'feedback' sounds at times; with the simple effects combo of Mokafix Cream Tube, and Simulanalog Rednef Twin.

indeed the mokafix stuff is great for "real" distortion sounds. i don't have the payware ones but my brother swears CreamTube is the best software distortion he's heard.... and he's a "software sucks, gimme analog" kind of guy. cheers on the simulanalog usage too... everyone's all 'amplitube this, vandal that, with guitar rig in between' but to my ears the simulanalog stuff is quite nice.
i've bookmarked your page for some more listening later tonight.

I love the loose style. The vocals remind me of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. That loose feeling has a lot of promise. Like to listen to more of your stuff.

Kwembe, thanks for the comments! Bonzo Dog Band? wow!

As it happens, i've just finished 22 tracks in this same kind of style. They're at the website in my signature.

The 'album' is called, 'Bill Ray and Me.' It got to the point where i was just firing up his drum tracks, and playing along without even listening first. It was quite the wild ride, trying to hang in there with the superlative Bill Ray.

This stuff didn't track too well in midi. Mr. Ray has got some slight tempo fluctuations in his playing, and syncing it up tightly (in any quick fashion) with the VSTIs was out of the question. So, no programming was done with the VSTIs, and instead the bass/keys were played in real time, and left as is. The only change would be an overall +/- milliseconds adjustment to an individual track's time. One thing i would do, was to tap out the 'average' drum tempo on a Kaossilator, and enter that into Renoise. That way, some of the arp-type of VSTI stuff would sit better in the track.

I thought of playing the Kaossilator on this, but was wary of having too many large samples running simultaneously; so the bass/key are all VSTI.

VSTIs: One track uses Dirty Harry on key/lead, and another employs Synth1 on bass. All of the other tracks have Medusa2 on bass, and Famisynth 2.5 on key/lead. There was some quick automation there and about, with LFOs driving automation devices.

The guitars are almost exclusively Simulanalog Rednef Twin or JCM 900, usually fronted by the Cream Tube from Mokafix. 'Montauk' and 'Dreams' employ Ronald Passion's RevolutionZ amp. Poulin Hybrit might have been used here and there. It's just that the Rednef Twin sounds pretty darned good, and the JCM 900 filled in for the grittier stuff; and they both take so little CPU.

There was often de la Mancha compression (the one with 'RevB') on the drums, and mjmultiband compressor on the stereo out as needed.

Buzmaxi3 was the tracking limiter(s), and Classic Master Limiter was on the stereo out.

yada yada

Very nice to listen, it has a retro feel. I like it

Cheers

mrblitz000 shoots. mrblitz000 scores. :-)

should have been the b side of the 45 summertime summertime.

yeah SCORE! Haha really really nice retro feel to it... I can definetly see myself listening to it when the weather warms up, good job x 10...

"Don't get your panties in a twist!"
I think the drums fit nicely in the mix.
I like this song.
Nice!

lol.. took me a moment to realize.. that was a lyric from the song.

Oh, by the way, this was taken from what i remember of an old Sal Salvador tune. The verse doesn't stand out in my mind, but the chorus melody is at least somewhat as i remember it. I had this Sal Salvador album 'be boop doo bop' or something like that; and for awhile there was listening to it, over and over again. In retrospect, that might have been a rare album, because an internet search can't seem to find it.

What i liked about the record was that it was so 'on edge,' as though they didn't have the time or budget for a lot of re-takes, so there and about across the album, there are these sort of half-pops and half-clicks, where Sal doesn't sound to exactly get the note.

To paraphrase Thelonius Monk, 'if you can't get it within 2 takes, then you're not well-rehearsed.'

As for Sal's playing, it never quite falls apart, and for the vast majority of passages, it flat-out soars. So, i'd say he was well-rehearsed. Be that as it may, the slight lack of polish has its appeal.

mrblitz, this has a little bit of a Doors and Kink's feel to it, somewhat Ray Davies in the vocal work.

Fun stuff,
Geoff

Lovely raw vibe and I like the almost 20s thing on the vocal. Outsider garage in a good way!