Started creating music again - My most recent tracks

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jdfight
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Started creating music again - My most recent tracks

Post by jdfight »

I have a few new tracks that I completed over the last couple of months and would like to share them here. Everything was produced Ardour using FOSS audio software.

Anomalous Condition: Dark instrumental jam. For the name, I was inspired by the year 2020.
https://soundcloud.com/james-adams-3461 ... -condition

We Almost Knew : Instrumental rock - This song broke a long creative hiatus - I was listening to a lot of Kruangbin and Pink Floyd at the time:
https://soundcloud.com/james-adams-3461 ... lmost-knew

My Digital Assistant: This was my submission to the latest Libre Music Challenge #3.
https://soundcloud.com/james-adams-3461 ... -assistant
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Re: Started creating music again - My most recent tracks

Post by milo »

I really like your style, especially on the first two instrumental songs. Your use of the volume wah is very effective. I like how you layer the guitar parts, and your playing is really good. That time you spent working on your playing technique was well worth it. I look forward to hearing your future works!
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Re: Started creating music again - My most recent tracks

Post by turbidh20 »

Welcome! You've got a great sound there, I like the production. I get the Floyd influence on the second track. Good stuff, I'll be interested to hear more :D
Arch Linux (i7-4790k/GTX970); UMC204HD; MPK Mini MKII; Jack2 (QjackCtl) & Ardour/Mixbus
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Re: Started creating music again - My most recent tracks

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Thanks for taking the time to listen! I appreciate the comments :)
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Re: Started creating music again - My most recent tracks

Post by lilith »

Just listened to the first track. It sounds really good. The guitar tone reminds me on KING CRIMSON and composition wise it reminds me a bit on TOOL, which is strange cause TOOL are influenced by KING CRIMSON :lol:
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Re: Started creating music again - My most recent tracks

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I am definitely a fan of King Crimson and Tool!- I have been listening to a lot of King Crimson recently. So, it must have sneaked into my sound a bit :D Now, if I could only download Robert Fripp's playing ability into my brain...
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Re: Started creating music again - My most recent tracks

Post by Basslint »

I agree with the King Crimson comparison. In general, I hear some 60s psychedelic rock influences as well in the first track.

Dig the groovy Bootsy-style bassline on the second track a lot. More than Pink Floyd, I would compare it to bands like Funkadelic.

Care to share more info with us about your Guitarix setup? I think you achieved some very good tones.
jdfight wrote: Mon Aug 31, 2020 2:18 am I am definitely a fan of King Crimson and Tool!- I have been listening to a lot of King Crimson recently. So, it must have sneaked into my sound a bit :D Now, if I could only download Robert Fripp's playing ability into my brain...
Adrian Belew also has some impressive guitar skills, albeit in a less traditional (and showy) way. In fact (and KC fans might want me banned for saying this :lol:) I believe Discipline to be their best and most influential album.
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Re: Started creating music again - My most recent tracks

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Yes, Adrian Belew is awesome. I don't think anyone in the history of King Crimson's lineup has ever been anything less than amazing. Discipline is also one of my favorite albums of theirs!

Glad you enjoyed the bassline in "We Almost Knew" There is a band called Kruangbin that I enjoy a lot and their bass player, Laura Lee, has that tasteful smooth sound and good pocket. That was what I was going for - but I also love classic funk and Bootsy, of course!

As far as my Guitarix setup goes, I hope not to disappoint. I use Guitarix in a very minimal way. I get most of my guitar sound from my pedals and amp. I have an Orange Crush 35rt amp and it has a great line out. I run that into my audio interface through a DI box and then I kind of filter the sound through Guitarix before running it into Ardour. I run Guitarix in standalone mode and route the input into Ardour. I only use the Head and Convolver units in Guitarix. I am using a Celestion impulse response in the Convolver for cabinet emulation (Celestion GH12 Greenback 4x12 SM57 Dark) . I don't use the Guitarix LV2 plugins because the gx convolver is not available a plugin and to my ear, standalone sounds better than using a gxamplifier plugin with a different convolution plugin. That might be purely psychological though. I am not a believer in recording a dry guitar signal and then adding effects in post-processing. My performance is highly dependent on the sound I hear when I am recording and I might attack a note differently because of the effects I am using. If I was to change the effect in post-processing the way I attack the notes might not work well with a different overdrive or other modulation.

I would alternately mic my Amp - but it is nice to be able to record at night when everyone in the house is sleeping!

For pedals on those tracks I used various combinations (in order) of Vox Wah, Boss CS-3 compressor, EHX Small Stone, ProCo Rat, Vox Volume, EHX Small Clone, Boss DD-5 Delay. I usually add Reverb in Ardour via Calf Reverb (but - I recently acquired a Digitech Polara reverberator pedal - and will be using that on future tracks!) :D
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Re: Started creating music again - My most recent tracks

Post by Basslint »

jdfight wrote: Mon Aug 31, 2020 12:05 pm Glad you enjoyed the bassline in "We Almost Knew" There is a band called Kruangbin that I enjoy a lot and their bass player, Laura Lee, has that tasteful smooth sound and good pocket. That was what I was going for - but I also love classic funk and Bootsy, of course!
I know them very well, if you search for Khruangbin on this forum you will find me recommending them! :D Laura Lee is a great player, it is mindblowing that she picked up bass soon before joining the band!
jdfight wrote: Mon Aug 31, 2020 12:05 pm As far as my Guitarix setup goes, I hope not to disappoint. I use Guitarix in a very minimal way. [...]
Not disappointed although I was kinda hoping for an all-Guitarix setup :lol: , thank you for sharing so much detail, I think you got some great tones!
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Re: Started creating music again - My most recent tracks

Post by Rainmak3r »

"Anomalous Condition" is incredibly groovy and mesmerizing, and probably my favourite of the 3! Apart from the King Crimson, I think I can hear a bit of Santana too in the guitar tone and playing? I can definitely hear Pink Floyd in "We almost knew", and that's not a bad thing at all! Like the previous track, this also has a nice loop and mood throughout the whole song: definitely the perfect background for improvization! "My digital assistant" is quite weird, but the good kind, even though it's not really my genre :wink: It reminds me of some experiments from the early Porcupine Tree period for some reason.

Anyway, I'm glad you decided to get back to music again! You definitely have good ideas, and you implemented them really nicely, playing and mixing them quite well: as a guitar player, I really liked your tones in all of the tracks. I'll most assuredly be looking forward to more music from you!
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Re: Started creating music again - My most recent tracks

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It is not the first time I have heard people mention Porcupine Tree or Steven Wilson - I am not too familiar with their work but have been slowly delving into it. There is a lot of music to listen to!

Getting back into music is both exciting and daunting at the same time - I always used to feel like I was fighting against myself or not trying something because "I wasn't ready yet" - Well I am too old for that now. It is better to just get those ideas out and have fun doing it and if I grab for something and don't quite nail it, then maybe it is still worth keeping.

As Bill Frisell once said, " In so many ways, it feels the same now when I play as the very first time I picked up the instrument. There's always this sound out there that's just a little bit beyond my reach and I'm trying to get there and that just sort of keeps me going."
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Re: Started creating music again - My most recent tracks

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jdfight wrote: Thu Sep 03, 2020 12:41 am As Bill Frisell once said, " In so many ways, it feels the same now when I play as the very first time I picked up the instrument. There's always this sound out there that's just a little bit beyond my reach and I'm trying to get there and that just sort of keeps me going."
Thanks for sharing this quote, I am a huge fan of Bill Frisell, probably my favorite guitarist ever! You can hear this "quest" every time he plays and it's most evident in his cover of the Beach Boys' Surfer Girl (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnDZ7yb5g-c), where he revisits something he must have known for a long time in such a touching way!

I too recommend Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson. Try Hand. Cannot. Erase, you won't regret it :D
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Re: Started creating music again - My most recent tracks

Post by milo »

I really enjoyed that Frisell video. It is a great rendition of a classic song.

Bill Frisell is one of those great guitarists who still looks and acts like a normal human being. He doesn't have that smooth-as-butter, make-it-look-easy kind of execution that some master guitarists have. You can tell that he's really thinking, and even struggling, to get his fingers to play what he hears. Watching him play, I think, "Yeah, I could learn to play that." And yet I probably couldn't. :)
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Re: Started creating music again - My most recent tracks

Post by jdfight »

Bill Frisell is one of those guitarists that I always end up listening to when I need inspiration. Something about the way he plays everything is so musical... He can play something incredibly complex or incredibly simple and is always just what the music needs at that moment. It helps me remember that I actually love to play the guitar - instead of feeling like I need to impress people with it.

And that telecaster tone is amazing!
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Re: Started creating music again - My most recent tracks

Post by folderol »

Very much enjoyed "We Almost Knew" - the others not so much (just personal choice)
The Yoshimi guy {apparently now an 'elderly'}
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