OK Ableton community, I need your feedback.

[harryem1]

I don't know if I'm completely atypical of the Ableton community --I'm 59 and picking up on the compositional mindset I left back in the 70s, and then playing in rock'n'roll bands in the 80s and for a stint in the 90s. Over the last year, I've gotten beyond learning the basics of the software in conjunction with my current "rig" (Behringer midi footswitch, M-Audio short kb and controller, and Inspire interface for my guitar and/or bass and mike).

The first four pieces on the myspace link are more recent. I've enjoyed creating them, but I feel like I've been working in isolation (maybe due to my lack of participation in this forum). So it's not just feedback on the pieces (which I still consider in process), but ideas on Where To From Here ...

Thanks for your reading thus far. I'll be re-posting to this link, and have my own site in planning stages.

http://Myspace.com/urlnotulr

[tlennon]

In this forum, anything goes. Some will like what you're doing and some won't. I try to keep an open mind as long as the poster is serious about what they do. I, for one, did not like your music because it's not my preference. If you enjoy what you do, you should continue as there may be an audience out there for your style of music. Thanks for sharing.

[guyinyoureye]

Your music is not necessarily my preference but I did like. I would like to hearsome nice hard hitting acoustic drums to go along with the jazz sound instead of the drum machine-like percussions that you have going on.

[Jarvisimon]

I don't know if I'm completely atypical of the Ableton community --I'm 59 and picking up on the compositional mindset I left back in the 70s, and then playing in rock'n'roll bands in the 80s and for a stint in the 90s. Over the last year, I've gotten beyond learning the basics of the software in conjunction with my current "rig" (Behringer midi footswitch, M-Audio short kb and controller, and Inspire interface for my guitar and/or bass and mike).

http://Myspace.com/urlnotulr

Hey Harry.

Nice one. I like it a lot. There's some pretty heavy funk going on in "Why Not?". It has a lot of potential, you just need to get those sounds to fit together a bit better, which is going to take some experimentation but if you get there, you've got something worth listening to for sure.

How much of the guitars and bass are recorded live? It's hard to tell as many of the sounds overlap on certain frequencies, so perhaps you need to tweak your eq and filters and pan settings a bit but it's not all that bad really. Just some tightening up.

I am listening on headphones btw. It's not a perfect monitoring medium but there's no dishonest reflections to cloud what I hear.

Some of your synth sounds like the arp on "that was it" need to be mixed down a bit, infact, the whole song is quite unbalanced, though on the whole, even though I say that, the effect is pretty heady, even though I can barely hear the drums at all, except at the end when the arp fades out.

Could still do with some movement in the synth though. Try recording in some filter/pwm tweaks or some such parameter that drastically alters the sound.

Even better still may be to try and program some synth sounds yourself as you've picked some right cheap casio kind of sounds, which on their own can be very effective but to my ears they don't quite give each other enough room as there's just too many of them vying for space. This is "cold chillin" i'm talking about btw.

"Rhythm and Comp" is good, perhaps a wider stereo and a touch less reverb just to give everything a slightly extra bit of focus, aaah, and the drums need bringing up in the mix....Don't forget your drums, there's some interesting "Beefheart" type patterns going on there that need bringing out.

Blimey, that was a lot of typing and I didn't do everything.

Very much enjoyed that thanks, bit of tweaking and messing around and it will be even better.

Perhaps you should also do some monitoring on headphones, if your room acoustics are throwing everything out you could end up never being able to get a decent balance. As I said, headphones aren't perfect by any stretch but they get around unruly room acoustics so you at least know you're in the right ball park.

Now, seeing as you're a stockhausen fan, i'll post you a link to some of my stuff.

I hope you too get some pleasure from it. http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default ... dID=944007

On the whole though, a pretty enjoyable and very psychedelic set of tunes you have there. Post as much as you like.

[Rxkimo]

Hi Harry,

I listed to Why Not? and here are my thoughts:

I wasn't a huge fan, I think because on my setup the high frequencies sounded kind of jarring. I like the up tempo jazz like feel. Maybe if the higher frequencies were smoothed out or harmonized a bit it would have been more pleasing.

One direction I could see this song going is if you make it have less harsh starts and stops, have instruments that weren't so bright, and maybe throw in a light pad or something to glue it together, then this could be music that would be great in the background. Something heading towards an ambient feel. Thanks for sharing.

[harryem1]

Thanks for the extensive (especially Jarvisimon) feedback thus far. Yes, I could see the need for tweaks. I have not yet even upgraded to Live 8, so deeper drums, less Casio-like synths, all areas to explore. I just dream of an escape route from my day job. Does anybody make a living at this?

btw: I'm enjoying your work Jarvisimon ? Mole Cooler as I type this.

[bicarbone]

Quite unexpected!

Yeah, there might be some tweaking to do but most of all keep experimenting and just go ahead and have fun

I would suggest you mix up your tape manipulation technique with software possiblities, like a 70's and year 2009 quirky encounter, and you're meant to come up with something really unique. I mean, don't get me wrong, what I heard is already super original.

Thanks for sharing!

[bicarbone]

Listening to "And then it occured to me" and I can't hit the stop button.

[Jarvisimon]

Thanks for the extensive (especially Jarvisimon) feedback thus far. Yes, I could see the need for tweaks. I have not yet even upgraded to Live 8, so deeper drums, less Casio-like synths, all areas to explore. I just dream of an escape route from my day job. Does anybody make a living at this?

btw: I'm enjoying your work Jarvisimon ? Mole Cooler as I type this.

Glad you like. I wanted to approach things from a totally different angle, so everything I do has a random element to it, which I then tweak to the point where it kind of makes sense.

Also, 95% of those sounds are synthesised, I do occasionally use samples but never as they're meant to be.

As for making a living, I suppose if your sound has an appeal, then sure, it's possible.

I think it's about time some new forms of psychedelia surfaced in mainstream music, so keep at it. You may never be as rich as the top end stars but even if one song worked its way into the popular psyche, you could earn more than your job would ever give you.

Personally, I wouldn't make that an aim, however, it would be a great side effect of making music you want to hear.