The Wagtunes Corner (Featuring My Best Yet)

[DCrown]

21st track from my upcoming CD "And Now For Something Completely"

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim ... what-i-got

This is my fav track of yours, very creative drum & percussion, sometimes you added more voices to lead voice and horns are good for your style, whenever you use horns it is cool.
And bass is one of my fav instruments, the bass very good, as well.
What is your horn machine?

Frank1985 from this forum said this track actually sounded professional. I think that was the term he used. You can look up his comment to check.

There is a secret to why this track sounds so good. I'm not going to divulge it but I'll give you a hint. I heavily relied on my influences growing up.

The horns are also Broadway Gig.

I also sometimes use Warp IV which is excellent.

https://www.warpivmusic.com/

You stole the song? That's why you keep it secret? Or are your influences a secret? Why? You listed 100 influences, so how could I know?. James Brown? Horns remind me of Curtis Mayfield a bit.
Who is Frank1985?

Everyone is somehow influenced by whomever

[wagtunes]

https://on.soundcloud.com/CH0x15D6J1EHmjC0q9

This is really your master piece, wow, listen to it for the forth time. The way the bass and horns play together, really soooo good. These horns are awesome, also your vocals perfect on this track.

Horns are your friends, Wagtunes, use horn as much as you can!

You know what's funny? Many years ago I wrote with a friend who wrote lyrics. Whenever I'd do a song with horns (and they sounded like crap back in the 70s) he'd tell me how he loved my songs with horns. I always seemed to have a flair for horn arrangements.

Of course today, with the really great libraries, it's a lot easier.

But not every song lends itself to horns. You can't just throw them in there willy-nilly. I guess this is where we differ in our philosophies. I think arrangement can make or break a song. Arrangement, instrument selection, FX, everything. You, on the other hand, think a good song is a good song even if it's played on a $25 acoustic.

I'm just not there yet and don't think I'll ever be.

[DCrown]

https://on.soundcloud.com/CH0x15D6J1EHmjC0q9

This is really your master piece, wow, listen to it for the forth time. The way the bass and horns play together, really soooo good. These horns are awesome, also your vocals perfect on this track.

Horns are your friends, Wagtunes, use horn as much as you can!

You know what's funny? Many years ago I wrote with a friend who wrote lyrics. Whenever I'd do a song with horns (and they sounded like crap back in the 70s) he'd tell me how he loved my songs with horns. I always seemed to have a flair for horn arrangements.

Of course today, with the really great libraries, it's a lot easier.

But not every song lends itself to horns. You can't just throw them in there willy-nilly. I guess this is where we differ in our philosophies. I think arrangement can make or break a song. Arrangement, instrument selection, FX, everything. You, on the other hand, think a good song is a good song even if it's played on a $25 acoustic.

I'm just not there yet and don't think I'll ever be.

Of course, horns don't fit in every song. I never said arrangement is not important, there is a lack of arrangement skills today, most just do verse, refrain, verse, refrain everytime and they are scared of modulations.
I rather don't care whether a sax of brand X or brand Y or... is used, a sax us a sax. Even if I like Yamaha a lot, if there was no Yamaha at all, still enough choices, although imagine no fm-synthesis!
You make feel like I use too little horns, I must use more horns in future.

Btw I met someone today by coincidence, her voice is similar to Sade, we will meet saturday, make some music, will see what happens, but I am used to make music alone the last 10 years, as a teen lots of bands, though

[wagtunes]

21st track from my upcoming CD "And Now For Something Completely"

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim ... what-i-got

This is my fav track of yours, very creative drum & percussion, sometimes you added more voices to lead voice and horns are good for your style, whenever you use horns it is cool.
And bass is one of my fav instruments, the bass very good, as well.
What is your horn machine?

Frank1985 from this forum said this track actually sounded professional. I think that was the term he used. You can look up his comment to check.

There is a secret to why this track sounds so good. I'm not going to divulge it but I'll give you a hint. I heavily relied on my influences growing up.

The horns are also Broadway Gig.

I also sometimes use Warp IV which is excellent.

https://www.warpivmusic.com/

You stole the song? That's why you keep it secret? Or are your influences a secret? Why? You listed 100 influences, so how could I know?. James Brown? Horns remind me of Curtis Mayfield a bit.
Who is Frank1985?

Everyone is somehow influenced by whomever

I assure you the song is original. The influences, however, all have very distinct styles, as I'm sure you know. James Brown and Curtis Mayfield (both of whom I love) sound very different from each other.

But the process is very simple. I'll listen to a collection of works from a certain artist. I'll make note of everything that isn't melody related because that's stealing. I'll make note of arrangement, FX processing, how the vocals are delivered, what kind of drums are used, what model bass do they use, if they use synths, what synths and what patches are common. And on and on and on. And then I'll try to come up with a song that sounds like them but completely original as far as melody goes.

It's cheating without plagiarizing. I actually do this a lot but it doesn't always translate as well as I hope. Here's a song I wrote based on the works of Modern Talking. The song is actually called Modern Talking. The melody is original but the sound is all them, if you're familiar with the group.

The vocals were done with Vocaloid 4. This was during my days using computer vocals.

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim ... -on-backup

[DCrown]

You wanna torture me. Modern Talking???
Haha I will listen.
It is funny, but Modern Talking is not my cup of tea at all.
I repeat I really love your horns stuff, of course it doesn't sound like JB at all, but a little bit like Curtis Mayfield - the horns!

One of my fav songs are The makings of you by Curtis Mayfield.

[wagtunes]

https://on.soundcloud.com/CH0x15D6J1EHmjC0q9

This is really your master piece, wow, listen to it for the forth time. The way the bass and horns play together, really soooo good. These horns are awesome, also your vocals perfect on this track.

Horns are your friends, Wagtunes, use horn as much as you can!

You know what's funny? Many years ago I wrote with a friend who wrote lyrics. Whenever I'd do a song with horns (and they sounded like crap back in the 70s) he'd tell me how he loved my songs with horns. I always seemed to have a flair for horn arrangements.

Of course today, with the really great libraries, it's a lot easier.

But not every song lends itself to horns. You can't just throw them in there willy-nilly. I guess this is where we differ in our philosophies. I think arrangement can make or break a song. Arrangement, instrument selection, FX, everything. You, on the other hand, think a good song is a good song even if it's played on a $25 acoustic.

I'm just not there yet and don't think I'll ever be.

Of course, horns don't fit in every song. I never said arrangement is not important, there is a lack of arrangement skills today, most just do verse, refrain, verse, refrain everytime and they are scared of modulations.
I rather don't care whether a sax of brand X or brand Y or... is used, a sax us a sax. Even if I like Yamaha a lot, if there was no Yamaha at all, still enough choices, although imagine no fm-synthesis!
You make feel like I use too little horns, I must use more horns in future.

Btw I met someone today by coincidence, her voice is similar to Sade, we will meet saturday, make some music, will see what happens, but I am used to make music alone the last 10 years, as a teen lots of bands, though

I hear you. And to some degree, I agree with you. Splitting hairs between 2 brands of instruments, as long as both don't sound like they were run over by a truck, is pretty meaningless. Especially in the context of a pop song where most stuff is buried in the mix anyway.

Here's another example of what I was talking about above. I'm sure you remember the group "When In Rome" who did the song "The Promise". Well, I wrote this song called When In Rome, based on their sound.

Again, Vocaloid 4 doing vocals.

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim ... -on-backup

[DCrown]

What a beautiful song

Do you hear the horns and strings?

[wagtunes]

You wanna torture me. Modern Talking???
Haha I will listen.
It is funny, but Modern Talking is not my cup of tea at all.
I repeat I really love your horns stuff, of course it doesn't sound like JB at all, but a little bit like Curtis Mayfield - the horns!

One of my fav songs are The makings of you by Curtis Mayfield.

You don't have to if you hate them that much.

[DCrown]

This is nice, but I recommend really making songs with horns that's where your talent shines.

[wagtunes]

What a beautiful song

Do you hear the horns and strings?

Boy could he sing. He made The Impressions. They were never the same after he left.

Yes, how could you not hear them?

[DCrown]

As a master of horns you could love the following song, Al is one of the greatest singers of all time for me
He probably had one of the best bands ever with musicians no one knows, that's sad, they play so dope.

I shouldn't have posted, it almost makes me cry to hear such a unique great singer, I am sorry, I apologize

[wagtunes]

As a master of horns you could love the following song, Al is one of the greatest singers of all time for me

Another big influence of mine. I did a song many years ago in his style. It's before my PC era so I don't know if I managed to salvage it. I'll have to check.

[wagtunes]

As a master of horns you could love the following song, Al is one of the greatest singers of all time for me
He probably had one of the best bands ever with musicians no one knows, that's sad, they play so dope

I did manage to salvage it. Of course the recording quality isn't so great. But this was my tribute to Al Green.

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim ... -like-i-do

[DCrown]

As a master of horns you could love the following song, Al is one of the greatest singers of all time for me
He probably had one of the best bands ever with musicians no one knows, that's sad, they play so dope

I did manage to salvage it. Of course the recording quality isn't so great. But this was my tribute to Al Green.

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim ... -like-i-do

wow, that's cool, only snare a bit too loud or harsh imo, but doesn't matter. That was your real voice without ai?

[DCrown]

it is unbelievable how good the musicians of Al's band were, the horn section, everything, omg