Baffled Once again!!

[crs7string]

Well Onlelight, You make a good point regaurding where your money is spent .. I myself have questioned Taxi's rep.. And like yourself and many others that complian about the screening process over there at Taxi we are just out of luck! !! Not being rude just saying .. I actually stpped submiting and when I did I got email after email from Taxi the most emails I have ever gotten from taxi the whole time I was a member ...lol my last submission was in july I think and to be honest I never received any new listing emails from them in awhile ....But I guess since the whole cambells soup bomb shell exploded everything is screwed up over there . Money avenue this way
I let it lapse for awhile and still gotta send in my refund letter . If I am gonna bet on a longshot Id rather go to the track or casino atleast there you can see who just pooked your pooch haha oh well good luck in your choice !

So I guess you won't be attending the Rally?

Chuck

[Casey H]

It's really great here to see how other composers will bend over backwards to help someone. This is such a terrific community. Dave, Mazz, Chuck et al... you guys rock!

Casey

[onelight24]

Thanks Len911, Geokkos, Chuck, Casey & Mazz, once again!

Casey, this is precisely as I mentioned previously on this very thread! Wonderful community of Peers!

Mazz, below I've attached the link of what you've requested! I apologize for the confusion! Lastly, thanks for taking the time to listen as well as comment, it is truly appreciated!

http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/2921212

Thanks again to everyone, for all input!

Cheers,
Vincent!

[mazz]

Vincent,

There is much more musical clarity in these versions. The natural instruments create a much more convincing vibe and the pieces sound much more idiomatic. Even though the "a las" may use more instruments or have more complex arrangements, that doesn't mean that a composer can't capture the vibe of the request with more limited means. Sometimes less is more.

I did still hear some timing issues which take the feel from "live" to "too loose". If I was producing and mixing this, I'd either go for more takes and get it tighter live, or do some judicious editing after the fact to move things closer to, but not directly on, the grid. I'd still like to hear it without the tambourine to see if that's the culprit. It's takes up so much sonic space that it basically makes the ear want everything to conform to it, and when the other instruments don't, it kills the feel. So the question becomes: "is the tambourine too loose, or is it so tight that when the other instruments aren't with it, it makes things fall apart for a second"?

Also, on Neopolitan flavors, there are some tuning issues between the guitar and the mandolin, which makes it for sure not ready for broadcast quality.

The modern ear is much more attuned to timing discrepancies, for better or worse, and so having a tight groove and still maintaining the feel is very important. There's a fine line between "vibe" and "sloppy", we are all striving for the first without losing the feel, of course!!

A strategy that I employ often is to put a piece up, step back, close my eyes and pull back from the details and see if anything pulls me "out" of the vibe of the piece. I try to get in tune with the ebb and flow of the piece and separate myself from the act of composing and/or playing it and try to get into the mood of a listener who may not necessarily be a musician. If anything makes me twinge or open my eyes or go "huh?", then something isn't flowing. Then I can put my editor's hat back on and go in and address that spot technically and then pull back into listener mode. It's important to not look at the edit you just made on the screen because I've found the eyes will fool the ears into thinking the edit is good, but stepping back and broadening the focus usually will give you that "tweak" if it still isn't quite right. Use your intuitive sense when listening and then use your technical and musical sense when doing the editing. Bouncing back and forth like this is an essential skill to develop, IMO.

Cheers!

Mazz

[crs7string]

Re: the tambourine.

On the Italian tracks I've signed to libraries I have the tambourine playing on beat three (in 3/4 time) I have used a tambourine sample from Battery for this and can have variation thru several different tambourine hits. With the bass on the downbeat, guitar playing on 2 and 3, and the tambourine on 3, you basically have the rhythm functioning as a drummer playing one on the bass drum, 2 and 3 on the hihat, and 3 on the snare. It is complete, clean and effective.

Also, then the lead lines (guitar, mandolin and violin) can concentrate on what they are playing and not have to worry about the rhythm falling apart around them. They provided the melodic and rhythmic variation.

Without sounding like a broken record, this is how this ensemble would interact live. All egos are checked at the door, and beauty and simplicity of the music is the shared and common goal.

Chuck

[onelight24]

Mazz, & Chuck, thank you for taking the time to listen, & offer your expertise! It is appreciated!

I assure you each take I record I tune any & all instruments I perform on. However I do hear the tuning dilemma! Might be, the mandolin strings need changing! As for the time I also hear that! As mentioned I really tried to leave this not quantized! Editing would have been a better choice! I tried to give these pieces the feel of Italian folk music which I have extensively performed since childhood, in wedding bands, & other scenarios! Yet again I was mistaken!

Onward we go!

Thanks again!

Cheers,
Vincent!

[mazz]

Vincent,

I think you're getting close to the feel, it's just that with recordings it needs to be tighter than it might be at a wedding where the music serves a different purpose.

Keep at it.

Mazz

[Cruciform]

A strategy that I employ often is to put a piece up, step back, close my eyes and pull back from the details and see if anything pulls me "out" of the vibe of the piece. I try to get in tune with the ebb and flow of the piece and separate myself from the act of composing and/or playing it and try to get into the mood of a listener who may not necessarily be a musician. If anything makes me twinge or open my eyes or go "huh?", then something isn't flowing.

I just wanted to second this. As I'm watching the play cursor run across a project I have a habit of pre-empting new sections by hearing them in my head as the cursor gets closer so I'm not actually hearing what's really there. Shutting down with closed eyes, relaxing and just listening is so important. Something I also find helpful is regularly doing mp3 mixdowns to hear how it sounds along the way. And of course the one we all do (or should do) is take a break from a track for a day or two and hear it with fresh ears.

[rnrmachine]

A strategy that I employ often is to put a piece up, step back, close my eyes and pull back from the details and see if anything pulls me "out" of the vibe of the piece. I try to get in tune with the ebb and flow of the piece and separate myself from the act of composing and/or playing it and try to get into the mood of a listener who may not necessarily be a musician. If anything makes me twinge or open my eyes or go "huh?", then something isn't flowing.

I just wanted to second this. As I'm watching the play cursor run across a project I have a habit of pre-empting new sections by hearing them in my head as the cursor gets closer so I'm not actually hearing what's really there. Shutting down with closed eyes, relaxing and just listening is so important. Something I also find helpful is regularly doing mp3 mixdowns to hear how it sounds along the way. And of course the one we all do (or should do) is take a break from a track for a day or two and hear it with fresh ears.

No doubt this is good advice!!!

Rob