Oh, you know what though, you want funk, here’s a Funkadelic style thing I started on a year ago… This I need to finish. Unfortunately I’m afraid if I start trying to sing like George Clinton I’m going to sound like an idiot. I need a gang of people…
This one is for the people like those at your gig. I normally lean more to BS&T, R&B, Chicago and most of what was happening between 1964 and 1974. The ones that take the most time to work up are the Big Band arrangements. I don’t feel comfortable thinking like a Trumpet player.
@corky That video was epic! I used to love to drop acid. Made heart beat a little faster just reminding me of the good times frying!
That is a tough mixing scenario (at least for me) when you have to mix in a way to make the drums, bass and guitar stand out. Dance and funk are a lot easier for me to mix.
Great job! Great to do music with your kids. My son is taking charge of playing the keyboards. He is more committed to excellence than I am.
I have had the good fortune to be able to carry on working from home (hate it, mind as I like to keep work and home life very separate, and I am only a 20 minute push bike ride from work) and life is as crazy as ever - just mostly within the boundaries of my house/garden apart from the odd bike ride out and no business travel (which has pros and cons, but right now a bit of a disadvantage for the work I need to do). And it’s also the time of year when I tend not to do much in the studio as I’d sooner spend the time sitting outside in the evening - and we’ve had cracking weather most evenings.
Anyhow, back to the music. I haven’t had a huge amount of time, but here is one I improvised last week and bashed the idea down before forgetting it. Probably needs a little more work to embellish it when I get time and add some variation.
As Welsh Floyd is on hold and because I can find nobody in the local area interested in an original or covers prog band, I have focused on solo music and experimenting with ambient/chill out songs - something where I can do just the heck I please.
This one is based around a Yamaha Montage motion sequence performance, but then also mixes in some instances of Dune 3 and UVI Falcon (which I really like) the lead that comes in around 1.15 is Falcon. And I have my new(ish) Prophet X in there as well doing some subtle stuff. So quite a combination of hardware and VSTs.
The reverb on this track is courtesy of the free Valhalla SuperMassive plug in that I mentioned in an earlier post - you can hear the tail at the end of the song. I haven’t gone overboard, mind, but you can make it even more immense if you wished!
I have another one that I finished off at the start of the lockdown if people wish to hear more like this.
I wish I could pull Gilmour off, but my guitar playing is dormant and as rusty as heck. Need to pick it up again at some point.
Here is another two, then, if you like the first.
The first was not written during the lock down, but it is one I am quit proud of, so want to share. It was an experiment to see if I could write an “Eastern sounding song”.
there is quite a lot in this one, which is explained here if you wish to read the detail on what I used, but in summary it is Montage, Kronos, AN1x, EX5r, Omnisphere, Zebra, MTRON (using Steve Hackett’s voice of NECAM library just released from GForce!) and Zero-G EVI for the vocals and their Eastern Percussion module.
And then finally for tonight, here is another track, the one I finished at the start of the lockdown that noodles on for about 20 minutes (I may cut it down a little!) that uses Montage, Kronos, Prophet, Omnisphere and Zebra.
Hope you enjoy. I currently have another one on the go… and plenty of ideas (sometimes just very nice sound combinations to pick up and play with) The intent is to get about an hours’ worth and get all of this on bandcamp to see if I cam make my fortune! LOL . In fact it’s part of a longer term semi-retirement plan (still quite a few years away) to try and get into library music/commissions as a small income from something I enjoy doing anyway. So I am slowly stocking up on sound sources like vocal/choirs along with all the VSTs and hardware.
Thanks both. As I came to music late in life I don’t think I’ll ever have the playing chops like some of you guys and my heroes like Wakeman, so I satisfy myself with being about textures, colours and Melody (where I think Rick Wright excelled in Floyd - mainly a supporting role, coming to the fore now and again, but take it away and it would not be Floyd).
Corky, I hope you get Zebra going. It is so versatile and great sounding - like all U-He synths!
I hope it’s OK to post from older home projects. In addition to playing live keyboards in a few bands I have been a solo recording artist over a number of years and I play guitars and drums and use drum machines in my studio producing. I have never made much or any money selling it but enjoyed working on it very much. Anyway I call my solo thing the dave dave five with respect to the Dave Clark Five for the band name cadence but consisting of just me. This is my take on an instrumental from a German rock band called Masslosen (not sure on spelling). Hope you enjoy it and Thank you all for the thread and showing some of your creations here.