KVR Audio

K-Bee · Post by **K-Bee** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 10:59 am

...or at least, that's the intention of this track entitled "Sundance". I was inspired by the likes of Incognito and Sunburst Band (Joey Negro's act)when doing this.
It's damn hot outside where I am and so is this!! (spoken with quite a bit of irony of course

http://drop.io/K_bee_sundance

Comments come highly appreciated. Enjoy!

It's on my Myspace profile as well

synaesthesia · Post by **synaesthesia** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 9:41 pm

Not my cup of tea (genre-wise) but the arrangement seems like a soild piece of loungey summer house. It's crying out for a laidback soulful female vocal - samples would work as I don't think you want vocals to flood the track.

The main thing that doesn't work for me is the majority of the sounds. The electric piano sounds great and, although it's clearly synthy, the mute trumpet has rather a smooth charm.

But the other sounds, especially the drums and bass, sound very light, almost like GM sounds. The drums really needs some extra house-y punch. What did you use for these sounds?

Sorry to be a little negative.

K-Bee · Post by **K-Bee** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 7:32 am

synaesthesia wrote:It's crying out for a laidback soulful female vocal

I'm afraid I can't deliver that

The drums are from the various free drums kits releases done by Pettinhouse and the bass (DirectBass FREE) is by them too. So it's far from GM really

Bongos and muted trumpet are from Sampletank and the rhodes are MrRay73.

Negativity is better than no reaction at all

But It funny you think it sounds thin, I was just told on another forum to turn down the compression on the drums

I suppose it all depends on what you use for listening. Things wasn't to thin sounding when listening on my monitors or headphones. Haven't had a chance to put this on my hi-fi yet though.
Thanks for your view on things

synaesthesia · Post by **synaesthesia** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 7:56 am

I think when I've used the word 'thin' I haven't been clear. There's enough presence in the drums just that the samples to me sound, I dunno, not as good as the track deserves.

It might be just my personal taste, it's difficult sometimes to review a genre that isn't something you normally listen to but I don't like to see threads with no replies (like my current track!

)

Cheers.

Spin Boyz · Post by **Spin Boyz** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 8:01 am

K-Bee · Post by **K-Bee** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 8:16 am

Ok you wanted phatter sounding samples. I can relate to that, but I wanted to have a go using those Pettinhouse drums

I might do a different mix of this with some changes when I get around to it.

synaesthesia wrote:I don't like to see threads with no replies (like my current track! Smile )

Won't be for long

TristezaOrange · Post by **TristezaOrange** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 8:17 am

I have some comments on the track but I'm getting ready for my trip to Ayia Napa

so I'll post the comments when I'm back. I don't mean in a couple of weeks, I live half an hour away for Ayia Napa.

sazb30 · Post by **sazb30** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 10:03 am

This is a genre I'm quite familiar with. I like Om and Naked Music etc, so hopefully I can offer a few useful comments. Musically, I'd say it's pretty good. The chords are nice, as is the jazzy solo line, and it's got a smooth, summery funky house vibe. A hook of some sort would make it stand out a bit more (vocal possibly) and I have to day that totally agree with synaesthesia about the drums. They sound kinda dull and are missing some snap and crispness. Actually, everything is lacking a bit of definition to my ears. Just my 2c

K-Bee · Post by **K-Bee** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 11:15 am

Thanks sazb30. I appreciate it.
My main attention on this has definitely gone towards chords and lines and not so much towards the beats (silly me, it's house for cryin out loud

)
I was also wondering a bit about the actual tempo of the track though. it's currently 119BPM. Should I make it more uptempo? 119 seems slow for a house track on paper but I thought about it since it might change feel of the drums being dull (which I kinda like

)

Emerald Tablet · Post by **Emerald Tablet** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 3:00 pm

Funky

very nice work on the muted trumpets
the mix is very 70s fresh and the baseline is nicely filtered and sits pleasant in the mix

Congratulations on the good use of the stereo spectrum.

Yep. Very soothing on this sunny sunday
Is the e-piano / rhodes played or programmed?

Hug
Remmie

K-Bee · Post by **K-Bee** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 5:00 pm

Thanks Remmie

I played around with some chords after programming the bass line which was my initial idea. The solo was played (well sorta, loads of errors had to be corrected but no quantizing was used)

TristezaOrange · Post by **TristezaOrange** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:07 pm

[back from the beach

]

I really like the sound and atmosphere. It's indeed very summery and light. Cool stuff!

BUT... +1 on the comment about the drums. It's not that they are not present or compressed or anything, they just lack some... oomph, I think is the word. Power! That cracking quality that makes them real. You know what? Throw bootsie's Density on the drum buss. Trust me!

K-Bee · Post by **K-Bee** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:24 pm

Hmmm Everybody are having issues with the drums so something must be wrong

I never tried any of Bootsie's plugins so I could give that density a shot being freeware and all

synaesthesia · Post by **synaesthesia** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:30 pm

Hi K-Bee, thanks for the review of my track.

Perhaps rather than endlessly tweaking compressors and eq until you go bananas, how about layering up the drums with some more samples? Like 909 samples if you have any? Just an idea.

K-Bee · Post by **K-Bee** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 7:19 am

You're welcome synaesthesia

As for the drums, I might try some completely different samples and see how it affects the overall feel of the track. When talking drums are we talking snare/kick specfically do you think the percussion is off as well?

Sun drenched soulful summer house!