April Contest: Gossip

[mmichalski59]

How about...

Songs to Sing to Aunt Millie??

Music for Setting Tourniquets?

Tunes from the Sweat Shops?

Just trying to help...

[farlukar]

- Write a world hit.
- Make a song à la ...

Been there & done that - sort of.

As for the other suggestion: thanks, but - no, thanks

[mellotronaut]

Max is playing with fire again...the one, who shouldn't be named...it is nice without her.

Remix Farlukar with a little help of a world hit... .

[mellotronaut]

...and Muchas Gracias: Slartibarti for the n° 10 vote and Muchisimas Gracias for the n° 2: sweet Zom and for the n° 1 (with a special huggie: schmatz!): sweetest Rick!
Thanks for the humblebumble mentions Michalex.

melloveryhappythewoman

[Scoops]

I wasn't very active in the gossip thread this month...

Any speculation about the next month's theme ?




Cheers

I usually don't let the cat out of the bag, unless it's something like a collab, or midi contest. But rest assure, there will be room for a penny-whistle

-Scps

[mellotronaut]

pete's pets' penny plugs

[Echo Voodoo]

And thanks to NilsB for a vote.
I truly didn't expect any, this time.

You never can tell what some people will vote for.

I'm convinced that my entry is the worst piece of music I've ever finished and posted, but Rachmiel and Hush actually voted for it! Crazy, I tell you.

(Oh, and thanks to Rachmiel and Hush for being crazy enough to vote for me!)

[Barnadine]

offthewall - the stately setting has plenty of potential, but that central whistle is uncharacteristically dodgy and rife with bum notes, sounds like you're tackling the piece with a whistle in the wrong key and trying to fudge the accidentals with half-fingered holes. (which sounds a bit rude when you put it like that.)

Thanks for the honest crit.
It's good to know that you are astute enough in whistleage to recognise the possible problem, however it was worse than that really!
Being distinctly 'un-midi' I spent so much time wrestling with all those midi files to make sense out of them that I ended up with not enough time to concentrate on the audio recording. Had to finish the whole piece in two takes so couldn't find time to fine-tune the 'bum notes'.
'Will do better next time', was always on my school reports.

Yeep, that review sounds harsher than I meant it, in the cold light of day. Bum notes don't normally bother me at all - I grew up on Billy Bragg! Not sure why they bothered me here. I suppose I just know from your previous work you can play more soulfully than this. (And I think I was getting a bit surly and uncharitable by the end of the night. )

[Markleford]

Markleford - Surprise! More Math-Jazz! [...] Some of the brass sounds are not quite genuine - but they are near enough not to matter.

Days later, I felt the need to come back to this and voice my admiration for this comment...

Somehow when one reaches for brass samples the criterion for "realistic" skyrockets, and people suddenly become all too eager to "poo-poo" the tune or concept as a whole simply because the verisimilitude is not 100%.

So thanks for appreciating the margin of "close enough". Nobody is going to be "fooled" by this as anything more than background music (and I have indeed used algorithmic tracks as incidental music in film scores), but it's the central idea and textures that I wanted to put forward as somewhat interesting.

Thanks to all the others who commented, as well, particularly those who I managed to tickle despite not being jazz fans.

In particular to Barnadine for the "cloned rhythm in the solos" comment: you're right. One of the interesting things about this approach is throwing it together quickly and seeing what turns out, but then the editorial hand comes in and decisions must be made as to how much humanization needs to be done. But even that process has an eye toward the clock, and generally little tweaks best made in the beginning only become apparent the following days after submitting! (I already have an improved mix ready to replace the old after voting is complete). One thing I could've done is *reversed* the main rhythmic motif on itself to differentiate the solos. Actually, there *is* some built-in rhythmic variance in there as stands: notes omitted or tied togther for longer durations. But apparently it can use a little more.

- m

[steveholt]

Thanks to all the others who commented, as well, particularly those who I managed to tickle despite not being jazz fans.
- m

I am a jazz fan, but I find the idea of "sounds like jazz" a tricky one. A lot of hard detailed work has gone into jazz composition - Thelonious Monk (a particular favourite) spent years creating his style and really only a few compositions.

Having said that - I enjoyed it a lot for what it is - so I am not sure where that leaves me!

Steve

[xander]

[Khepira]

Somehow when one reaches for brass samples the criterion for "realistic" skyrockets, and people suddenly become all too eager to "poo-poo" the tune or concept as a whole simply because the verisimilitude is not 100%.

Quite true. And yet you will see the most awful, screeching glitch or distortion praised as cool -- Which it *can* be, often is, but can also be just an ugly turnoff to me, when that's not necessarily what the composer intended. In this day, I see no reason why a sound which is "like a trumpet" needs to be exactly like a trumpet. Take the sound for what it is, not what you *expect* it to be.

[mellotronaut]

Somehow when one reaches for brass samples the criterion for "realistic" skyrockets, and people suddenly become all too eager to "poo-poo" the tune or concept as a whole simply because the verisimilitude is not 100%.

Quite true. And yet you will see the most awful, screeching glitch or distortion praised as cool -- Which it *can* be, often is, but can also be just an ugly turnoff to me, when that's not necessarily what the composer intended. In this day, I see no reason why a sound which is "like a trumpet" needs to be exactly like a trumpet. Take the sound for what it is, not what you *expect* it to be.

+1

very well said!

[Max el Belga]

Indeed !

Max... .. .

[Ixox]

...I see no reason why a sound which is "like a trumpet" needs to be exactly like a trumpet. Take the sound for what it is, not what you *expect* it to be.

+1
+1
+1
...

Interesting...
But i don't think it's a choice.
My brain is wired that way. (and maybe other people's brain who fell like me)
If i hear a too bad trumpet sound in a solo, that can prevent me from enjoying the rest. I just think "Aouch !! too bad...".
I cannot do anything for this.
We all hear songs differently, else we would all have the same top 10 list

EDITED/ADDED : and in my case, you can use bad electric guitares, electronic sounds, drum kit etc.... i won't hear any problem....

Xavier