KVR Audio

Allomerus · Post by **Allomerus** » Sun Sep 11, 2016 7:50 am

An Unexpected Journey (Instrumental Prog Rock)

John Wegner: Guitar, Synths, Bass
Paul Wegner: Drums and Percussion

Thanks to those that listen.

http://soundcloud.com/allomerus/an-unexpected-journey

woggle · Post by **woggle** » Sun Sep 11, 2016 7:59 am

fantastic - great playing "to the song" rather than showing off (which I hate) and really like the structural shifts. I think you could change the sounds a bit more in the middle third - eg the bass line across that 4-5 minute section could benefit from a different sound - I'm not really a prog rock lover so for me the first and last thirds are the best. But totally pro sound

Laguna Rising · Post by **Laguna Rising** » Sun Sep 11, 2016 8:57 am

Excellent melodies, I like the slow pace, I mean... You took the time to explore every theme with no hurry.
I really like the section from 2.30 to around 5 min mark
The final guitar lead is also enjoyable and I like the way it turns into a middle eastern vibe thing (well done), leading to the end.
This is a fine track, I wish I find one like this every day in the Café...

Keep up the good work

Cheers

Allomerus · Post by **Allomerus** » Sun Sep 11, 2016 9:02 am

woggle wrote:fantastic - great playing "to the song" rather than showing off (which I hate) and really like the structural shifts. I think you could change the sounds a bit more in the middle third - eg the bass line across that 4-5 minute section could benefit from a different sound - I'm not really a prog rock lover so for me the first and last thirds are the best. But totally pro sound

Thanks Greg. Glad you enjoyed it. I really like making the song come first rather producing than a shred fest, so I am pleased you saw it that way.
I'll have another listen to the bass now that you point it out. There is a lot happening on this track so I appreciate you noticing things like this.
Cheers,
John
It's not too late to go over to the dark side...

Allomerus · Post by **Allomerus** » Sun Sep 11, 2016 9:06 am

Laguna Rising wrote:Excellent melodies, I like the slow pace, I mean... You took the time to explore every theme with no hurry.
I really like the section from 2.30 to around 5 min mark
The final guitar lead is also enjoyable and I like the way it turns into a middle eastern vibe thing (well done), leading to the end.
This is a fine track, I wish I find one like this every day in the Café...

Keep up the good work

Cheers

Wow!

Thanks for the great comment!
You are right, this track needed to take it's time (at least until the chase scene in the middle) and I wanted to focus on nice melodies. I am glad you enjoyed it. All the best.

Jace-BeOS · Post by **Jace-BeOS** » Sun Sep 11, 2016 1:03 pm

This is good musicianship and songwriting. I like how much diversity there is in here, with regard to structure and timbre.

If I were to make any critiques about this, it would be based on my own personal tastes. With that in mind: I feel it's a bit polite in terms of mixing, dynamics, & frequencies. The percussion, while very well structured (great work there), is a bit sterile sounding to me. Is that live perc or software (to my ears, it sounds like samples)?

This is excellent music that you should be proud of, so please do take my comments above from the angle that my own tastes are possibly entirely different from your own

Cheers!

alexstelsi · Post by **alexstelsi** » Sun Sep 11, 2016 2:01 pm

aaron aardvark · Post by **aaron aardvark** » Sun Sep 11, 2016 8:06 pm

Allomerus,
Thank you for the review! Now your tune: this intro is pretty trippy (in a good way, seems like a movie somehow). How did you do the Hammond B3 (with Leslie) and Mellotron sounds? They sound good. I recently acquired "Arturia B-3 V" myself (with the V-Collection 5). Seems like some interesting filter effects on some of the guitar. Audio quality is rather good all around. If the drums are real, they sound especially good, because I know real drums are difficult to record. In some parts of the song, it reminds me a bit of Rush (a compliment). In other ways, it reminds me of Yes (also a compliment). Under most circumstances, listening to an instrumental over 9 minutes long would try my patience, though your song recording is quite good!

davidstiles · Post by **davidstiles** » Sun Sep 11, 2016 10:58 pm

This is a really, really cool piece of music - definitely one of my favourites out of the pieces you've posted here. I enjoyed the quirky sounds in the intro, the unhurried and well-paced development, and the way that you've structured it into a variety of clearly identifiable parts that still flow together nicely to create a unified whole. All told, some very fine prog rock. Thanks for posting!

layzer · Post by **layzer** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 4:53 am

fantastic! this was a good one to just sit back and allow it to unwind. lots of twists and
turns and variation but keeping it stitched up with those sweet guitar tones.
live drums definitely enhanced the expressiveness of the track. good job, guys!

Allomerus · Post by **Allomerus** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 10:06 am

Jace-BeOS wrote:This is good musicianship and songwriting. I like how much diversity there is in here, with regard to structure and timbre.

If I were to make any critiques about this, it would be based on my own personal tastes. With that in mind: I feel it's a bit polite in terms of mixing, dynamics, & frequencies. The percussion, while very well structured (great work there), is a bit sterile sounding to me. Is that live perc or software (to my ears, it sounds like samples)?

This is excellent music that you should be proud of, so please do take my comments above from the angle that my own tastes are possibly entirely different from your own

Cheers!

Thanks Jace. Sometimes I go for grit and push things but with this I wanted it to be smoother, so I guess that's why it is polite. The drums and percussion are samples played live on an electronic drum kit.

Allomerus · Post by **Allomerus** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 10:06 am

alexstelsi wrote:

Thanks Alex.

Allomerus · Post by **Allomerus** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 10:12 am

aaron aardvark wrote:Allomerus,
Thank you for the review! Now your tune: this intro is pretty trippy (in a good way, seems like a movie somehow). How did you do the Hammond B3 (with Leslie) and Mellotron sounds? They sound good. I recently acquired "Arturia B-3 V" myself (with the V-Collection 5). Seems like some interesting filter effects on some of the guitar. Audio quality is rather good all around. If the drums are real, they sound especially good, because I know real drums are difficult to record. In some parts of the song, it reminds me a bit of Rush (a compliment). In other ways, it reminds me of Yes (also a compliment). Under most circumstances, listening to an instrumental over 9 minutes long would try my patience, though your song recording is quite good!

My Pleasure Aaron. Thanks for your review. The intro used a combination of guitar effects I found in Logic Pro. Sometimes I use effects from the DAW, othertimes from hardware/pedals. The Hammond is part of Logic and so is the mellotron, although I have in the past used my iPad and a great app called M300HD. I think King Crimson currently use this iPad app!!! The drums are an electronic kit. I like how Paul's expressiveness/playing comes through yet the recording is clean. He has quite a few 'kits' to choose from. Thanks for listening and your nice comments. All the best.

Allomerus · Post by **Allomerus** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 10:15 am

davidstiles wrote:This is a really, really cool piece of music - definitely one of my favourites out of the pieces you've posted here. I enjoyed the quirky sounds in the intro, the unhurried and well-paced development, and the way that you've structured it into a variety of clearly identifiable parts that still flow together nicely to create a unified whole. All told, some very fine prog rock. Thanks for posting!

Thanks David, I appreciate your kind words and we are glad you enjoyed this. All the things you have mentioned were part of my cunning plan...

Glad you think it came off.
All the best.

Allomerus · Post by **Allomerus** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 10:16 am

layzer wrote:fantastic! this was a good one to just sit back and allow it to unwind. lots of twists and
turns and variation but keeping it stitched up with those sweet guitar tones.
live drums definitely enhanced the expressiveness of the track. good job, guys!

Thanks layzer. Glad you enjoyed it, it did take a while to put together, so it's great when someone enjoys it. I'll let Paul know... All the best.

Allomerus - An Unexpected Journey