Opinions sought....

[elevate]

Here's a couple little things I've been working on. (http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/?aid=1414/singles) Climb was basically born of me, for some reason, deciding to dust off my trumpet after a 12 year hiatus. It's also my first real attempt at playing bass (I'm a drummer by trade). During my early organization of this song I envisioned multiple pieces (ie, branches), hence the 'branch 1' part of the title. I've yet to create more 'branches' however...strange thing how having a kid can re-prioritize your time. 11 is a product of me getting some softsynth (I don't even remember which one now), and finding a particularly nice bass sound that had to be worked into a tune ASAP. It also features my meager vibraphone abilities, but I'm a sucker for some vibraphone so I had to do it. Whoever (besides Paraflux) can cite the vox samples gets a cookie. Loft is my first attempt at playing guitar, and is my latest work. It also most closely resembles an actual complete song.

None of the songs are, in my mind, very organized. More like some loosely connected pieces strung together - sometimes this ambling nature is desirable, sometimes not. Clearly some of the transitions are intentional, but I've found that actually completing a song is quite difficult....or perhaps more actually, it's difficult for me to be content enough with one of my songs to actually label it as being 'done'.

Anyway, all of this shit was rough drafted in Fruity Loops, tweaked, mixed, and recorded in Vegas, and edited/"mastered" (for lack of a better term) in Sound Forge.

[Elgyn]

Heya,
Your music is quality, and I think it definately deserves a response. Shame to see it falling off the page with only one response. Climb reminds me of a few songs I heard under the Acid Jazz/Trip Hop kind of Genre. I like the drums in it, quite a moving rhythm, and the trumpet adds an interesting element (not one I'm terribly familiar with either).
Its very professional music, and unless I'd been told, I wouldn't have known it was just one person recording from home (assuming you do record from home).
Loft is good, I like the intro to it, as well as the section when the guitar kicks in. Sounds like its about to get mean. Very chilled out song though, with a good active beat to keep up the pace.

I like the easy listening style you've got going, I'd enjoy sitting down to study or design with this music humbly playing in the background.
I enjoyed the listen, and I can't really criticise much. I can hardly tell that its your first time playing guitar and bass, you obviously know what you're doing.

Sorry if my reply is a little disjointed, I typed it as I was listening.

[elevate]

Thanks for the compliments. I've found one of the keys to making it sound like I might have some idea of what I'm doing with regard to guitar and bass, is the miracle of looping. I typically play a particular riff over and over to a click track. I then turn everything else on and listen. I then pick, say, three ocurrences of the riff that I didn't fuck too bad on, cut them out, stick them together, and voila. I pick more than one so it doesn't sound too loopified. I actually use this method for everything that is performed. And yeah, this was all recorded at home. Thanks again for taking the time to listen.

[elevate]

*bump*




_

[twistfinger]

"11" is freakin' cool. i know what you mean about having elements strung together to create things that are ultimately unfinished anyway. that is pretty much the basis of anything i put together. i say "fuck it." make collages of work. at least it isn't 4/4 pop radio bullshit that drives me up the wall.

the guitar work on "loft" is reminiscant of some nine inch nails. i don't know if you're into them, but i think it's cool and i'm not saying you were trying to sound like nin.

the drumwork on "climb" as well as everything else is cool. i'm a sucker for some good horn sounds and i like it. the beats in this song are tops, sir.

the soft synths you use are cool. i've found modarchive.com to have some pretty cool stuff but i'm always looking for free synth samples.

[Divine_left]

I'm listening to 11 right now. The vibes just kicked in. And all I have to say is that I love your music solely for the time signatures. I work mostly in Fruity Loops where a time change is damn near impossible to pull off smoothly. So anything with an offbeat time signature impresses me.

Maybe I'll post another when I've listened to all the songs. Maybe I won't, but keep it up dude.

[elevate]

And all I have to say is that I love your music solely for the time signatures.
They aren't that strange. The working title for that song was (and still is) 11 because I originally thought it was in 11/4 (it, for some reason, was kinda hard to count off the bass line), but it's actually just a quirky 12/4 - the main beat that is. The intro beat and heavy beat are 6/4. 12/4, 6/4...kinda the same.
I work mostly in Fruity Loops where a time change is damn near impossible to pull off smoothly.
All those beats were done in Fruity Loops. You just have to figure out the right number of divisions and ignore the green/red sections and just count them out.

Anyway, thanks for listening.

[deviatedwolf625]

I'm listening to 11 right now ... very interesting .... not a huge fan of the mellow synth stuff but it's good. My kudos to you, you're better than I (though that is not hard to do).

[elevate]

not a huge fan of the mellow synth stuff but it's good.
Check out Loft - my first forray into the world of guitar. More guitar-oriented tracks to follow.

[Paladin]

you can change the time signature in fruityloops, i've done songs in 7/8 before and other such timings... its under options/song settings

good songs by the way.