Island thing

[grandsoul]

What do you think of this song

The song is called "Grand Royal Caribbean Blue".

Tell me what you think.

Grandsoul

http://www.reverbnation.com/luciusaustin

[mazz]

Hi Lucius,

I don't usually do reviews when folks ask "what do you think of this song", only because I really don't know how to comment without knowing what their intention for the piece is. Without context, it's hard for me to know what to comment on.

Are you thinking of releasing it on a CD? Are you think of pitching to libraries? What are your ideas for where this piece would fit in the world?

Do you want feedback on production? Composition? Arrangement? All of the above?

If you can be more specific about your goals for the piece, and what type of feedback you are seeking (if any), I can give a much more specific review.

Thanks,

Mazz

[glender]

It got a little annoying after about a minute, but up until that point I was sort of in to it. Loved the bicycle bell

[tedsingingfox]

And Mazz's reply was 100% correct. "what do we think of it"??? As compared to what?

You'll never get specific answers without asking specific questions.

So, ask... we are here to help.

Ted

[grandsoul]

Hi Lucius,

I don't usually do reviews when folks ask "what do you think of this song", only because I really don't know how to comment without knowing what their intention for the piece is. Without context, it's hard for me to know what to comment on.

Are you thinking of releasing it on a CD? Are you think of pitching to libraries? What are your ideas for where this piece would fit in the world?

Do you want feedback on production? Composition? Arrangement? All of the above?

If you can be more specific about your goals for the piece, and what type of feedback you are seeking (if any), I can give a much more specific review.

Thanks,

Mazz

Don't have to be so formal. Just asked what you thought of it .

Obquiously, it is something of an island piece based over a blues pattern. The steel drums handle the melody (I've heard steel drum orchestras play classical music compositions on their respected instruments). The feel is very festive. The bass comes in as a supportive sub melody. In human terms, the loop would take three people to play.

It would be generally categorized as island/ethnic dance music. Some would consider it world music.

The music was performed using a Korg N264 Keyboard Workstation. I used my Carvin LB76 fretless for the bass lines.

Have a listen.

Grandsoul

http://www.reverbnation/luciusaustin

P.S. This would not go under the "experimental" category

[grandsoul]

And Mazz's reply was 100% correct. "what do we think of it"??? As compared to what?

You'll never get specific answers without asking specific questions.

So, ask... we are here to help.

Ted

If I did this, it wouldn't make much sense to post the song.
If we all answered all of the questions we asked, the forum would be of little use.
Posted to have a listen to see how the folks on the forum like it.

Have a listen please.

Grandsoul

www.reverbnation.com/luciusaustin

[glender]

Hi, to be fair I went back and listened to the whole tune. It's quite a mixture of sound (very artsy). What I though was a bicycle bell sounds like it might be a triangle? It sounded like you might not be hitting every note your aiming for dead on. Some of the notes seemed sharp/flat or out of time. That might have been your intention though, if that's not the case then maybe my ear is a little off. The quality of the recording seemed a little rough like it needs to be mastered still. The constant repetition of the melody was a little annoying to me, but again I'm not use to this style of music. It's probably perfectly fine for someone more familiar with the genre. I did like the conga drums, that worked very nice for this type of music. I'd be interested in hearing the mastered version assuming this is a rough demo.

gl with the submission, let us know how it did.

[grandsoul]

Hi, to be fair I went back and listened to the whole tune. It's quite a mixture of sound (very artsy). What I though was a bicycle bell sounds like it might be a triangle? It sounded like you might not be hitting every note your aiming for dead on. Some of the notes seemed sharp/flat or out of time. That might have been your intention though, if that's not the case then maybe my ear is a little off. The quality of the recording seemed a little rough like it needs to be mastered still. The constant repetition of the melody was a little annoying to me, but again I'm not use to this style of music. It's probably perfectly fine for someone more familiar with the genre. I did like the conga drums, that worked very nice for this type of music. I'd be interested in hearing the mastered version assuming this is a rough demo.

gl with the submission, let us know how it did.

All right, pull up a chair, and I tell you how this was done.

I wrote this song a while back before a lot of the "now" modern recording items came out. I know there are easier, different, and more scientific ways to do this, but that's progress.

A big producer was supposed to have been coming to one of the local music stores for a seminar/music listening session. Most of the music presented were vocal pieces. My idea was to bring in something new, not a cover song (this was just before "American Idol" came into being).

After a lot of mental pondering (wearing a groove in the carpet), I came up with the idea for the melody. I tapped the idea into the Korg N264, and the ideal took hold. I did an initial rough percussion track, and did a first recording of the song, which I still have, but never played or showed it to very many people. Too rough for the public forum .

I set it aside for a few months, working on other projects and songs. Then I took it out again. This time, I created the percussion pattern/loop that you hear. I made that loop for about seven and a half minutes. Then I tracked the steel drum part, which is the melody. There is also baritone sax, drums, padding synth sounds, some alto/soprano sax, xylophone, electric guitar, handclap sounds, triangle, shaker, splash cymbals, organ, all done in the Korg N264. The loop was a set pattern set using the sequencer, all of the instruments were recorded in real time.

After all this was done, I recorded the parts into a Sony MDM X4 Mark 2 Mini Disc recorder. This was the second generation Multi-track mini disc recorder from Sony. Came without the bugs of the first one . Blended down to two track stereo. Sound wasn't bad for a home recording. It was still way better sounding than a cassette .

This is when I named it, "Grand Royal Caribbean Blue".


I wanted to do the bass line on my upright bass, but I never really got the right groove for it with this. Eventually, at my brother's house, I tracked the music from the mini disc into his computer. He had a Compaq PC tower that was contemporary for the day. The problem was, many times if you were recording audio, when you played it back, you hear skips and glitches in the playback, and you had to do the entire recording all over again (glad I never did any live recordings like this .

Not being at my home base, I didn't have all of my basses I generally use. I used my Carvin LB76F fretless six string bass. I was just getting used to six string basses (as referred to as extended range instruments). I dropped it somewhere, and the knobs on the volume pot broke . I had to take out the preamp because it just wasn't working. I ended up wiring up the pickups straight to the jack, nothing in between . About this bass, it is made of koa wood wit two maple stripes going down the center. The wood finally matured several years later. Now it sounds like it is supposed to. (But, this was then).
To top it off, the strings I bought didn't make the instrument sound like it should have. I put on some Fender six string bass strings because they were the only six string bass sets the local store had. (keep reading)

For recording into the Compaq, I was running from the stereo output into the computer. The music recorded on the N264 was on the two track Mini disc. This mini disc recorder can record four tracks at once. When I recorded the music into the Compaq, I played/recorded the bass track while the music from the two track was being recorded as well. It (the bass using two tracks in the mini disc) had a bit of a flanging sound to it, which added some character to it.

A real balancing act, but it came off well.

I played it for a lot of folks, and they said they liked it. Some of my music comrades says it sounds like a jam session which it somewhat is .

It is based over a blues variation. Notice the one/four/one/five/one pattern. The melody of the song echos throughout the song. The bass comes in as a sub melody, giving it a strong, supporting underbelly. An all out joyous piece of dance music.

If only I would have had a brake drum,...

Let the festivities begin.

http://www.reverbnation.com/luciusaustin

[mazz]

Ok, here's a quote from one of your replies:

"Don't have to be so formal. Just asked what you thought of it ."



So here's what I thought of it:

It sounds pretty loose, groove wise, particularly in the steel drum sounds. It doesn't really hang together very well at all as far as the feel goes, the friends that said it sounded like a jam session were pretty much right on the money, a very loose jam session at that. The Korg synth sounds are pretty cheesy sounding and wouldn't hold up under the scrutiny of current broadcast quality standards and the piece is way too long without much development happening musically, the poor sound quality and sloppy performances notwithstanding.

It needs a ton of polish performance-wise and a complete re-do on the production level, not to mention lots of editing in the composition to make it more cohesive.

I hate to bring this term back up, but it sounds like you were experimenting with your gear and the recording process and it sounds like a very rough demo, nothing that I would ever consider releasing to the general public in it's current state, but that's just me.

OK, that's what I thought of it. My opinion only, of course, for what it's worth to you.

Cheers!

Mazz

[glender]

Nice little story, Time to invest in a 16 track recorder If I spent that much time an effort on a piece I'd at least shoot it into a couple of listings and see what happens. What's 5-10 bucks at this stage of the game. Mazz is pretty up to speed on this stuff so his advise is probably closer to reality. I like your attitude and your style of music though.

gl

PS - I knew I heard a triangle in there!