Thanks for the very nice feedback on the track, Patricia. It's great to see you back on Looperman. It's been a while, not that I should talk. I've been here only sporadically and haven't posted any tracks for quite a while. Anyway, I've often wondered how you were doing and if you would return.

I must tell you that I have been sitting on a partially finished track using your spoken acapella, "Summer Breeze". I actually think it's pretty good, or capable of being pretty good. BUT, I need a male vocalist (baritone) for it. Needs to have a voice like Luther Vandross or perhaps Barry White. So, it has sat on my hard disk for years, unfinished. Very frustrating because I think it could be something worth listening to.

You had a cold when you did that acapella and it gave your voice a husky character that really set the feel of the track. That's what inspired me.

Regards,

Eric

Thank-you for listening and for your very kind comments, Sheensheep! I'm glad you liked the track. I feel badly that I haven't finished it. I suspect I could could find a suitable singer (for hire) on Soundbetter, but I just haven't got the lyrics right yet. And I'm reluctant to pay out good $ to complete a song that really isn't as good as I think it could be. Interestingly, I really haven't attempted anything like this since. It was entirely dependent on those wonderful acapellas from Jacques Demers. I have several other tracks of varying genres in development, but nothing ready for exposure here on Looperman. All require vocals and the lyrics just aren't flowing for me. But, I keep on trying. :)

Thanks, sortofneg1. I'm sorry I didn't respond to your post sooner. I do appreciate your listening and leaving a comment. I agree, the third part does sound promising and it is very frustrating that I haven't been able to finish it off. I have partially completed lyrics. Not great, but getting there. My hoped-for singer didn't pan out. Still looking, but frankly, no sense locking in a signer if I don't have lyrics for them to sing. So, this remains a work in progress. Many other tracks in the same status, I'm afraid. I seem to be getting more picky about what I am willing to share (not satisfied with the quality of my tracks) and, at the same time, finding it harder to finish off anything. Is a bad combination I think. :)

Thanks itiyati! I really appreciate the positive feedback on this track. It is the only one I've left up on Looperman. My plans for completing the third section of the track kind of fell apart because I couldn't find a vocalist to collaborate with. Actually, all my music-making has hit a roadblock because pretty much everything I've been composing has been intended for vocalists. And, I can't sing at all! :)

Bonjour, Jacques! It is SO good to hear from you again. I was worried. I thought you had abandoned us here at Looperman.

I'm very glad to hear that you liked how I used your files. They were great inspiration for me. The track has been pretty well received by Looperman members. Unfortunately, I have not found a vocalist to finish off Part 3 of the track, but I keep searching and hoping.

I am looking forward to hearing what you've done over the winter. I have not been very productive. I did just complete the Berklee Music online Songwriting Course. Very interesting. Focus was entirely on writing lyrics.

Eric

Pat: I really appreciate your advice and explanation about use of mono in your response to my comment on the "Proximal Vicinity" track. I'm in the process of trying to figure out how to convert stereo tracks to mono. I'll check out the Logic Pro plugins, but I thought there might be channel strip setting that I could change. Some of my VSTs give me the option of loading a mono version of the instrument, so starting off on the right footing might be the better solution.

Your comments on the Don't Keep Your Love Away track were really interesting to me and I've just spent some time trying to figure out what was going on. I had an adaptive limiter set for a max output of 0db as the last plugin on my mastering output track, so I thought that would avoid clipping distortion unless I had clipping occurring in one of the instrument channels. My master output showed a max level of -2.7 db for the first part of the project so I thought I was OK. Then I inserted a metering plugin and changed its location in the sequence of plugins I was using in the mastering output track to see what each of the various compressors, EQs, etc. I had on the channel was doing to the output signal before hitting the adaptive limiter. I discovered that I had a compressor that was pushing the signal above 0db on the left channel. I also found that I had levels in a couple of the individual instrument tracks exceeding 0db, although it was my understanding that there actually is headroom on those tracks in Logic Pro and slight overages do not cause clipping.

The bass imbalance on the second track is a puzzle to me. I checked level meters for the bass tracks and left and right channels are completely aligned in their movements throughout the track. I need to listen to the track and not watch the meters I think to see if I can figure out what's going on. Anyway, thanks for the advice. It has prompted me to pay more attention to details on my mixes and not to just assume that a limiter at the end of the signal chain will right all wrongs! :)

Thank-you Carrol. I really like Kate Bush's work, so there probably was an influence from her coming out in the track unbeknownst to me. I constantly worry that something I compose is actually a copy of some song I've heard in the distant, or not too distant, past. I actually played the track for my granddaughter, who plays cello in the Ottawa Junior Youth Orchestra. She agreed that her friends probably could play the piece. It's actually not too complex. But, I don't think she really was impressed by it, so no live orchestra is likely in my future anytime soon! :)

Hi, Dan. Never too late to comment! Merci pour votre critique. It was a lot of fun doing this piece and I learned a great deal I think. I'm finding that creating music is a strange business. I really don't know where the ideas come from and when I finish a track that seems to sound OK, I think to myself that I have no idea how I actually pulled it together. And, I'm convinced that I could never do it again. That being said, I really do hope that I will be able find a vocalist and finish the third section. It isn't looking too promising right now. But, I am a patient man. :)

Thanks so much, Musicante. I've just discovered the Mellotron. It was actually a comment by Scott here on Looperman that made me check it out. The VST works pretty well and it just made me try to create something beatleseque. The vocals are from Jacques Demers. He's composed for Cirque du Soleil. I'm pretty sure he hired session singers to do the acapellas that I used.

Thanks, Richie. Just read your bio. Looks like you and I were playing in bands about the same time. Actually I had a few years headstart on you! :) But I assume you were in the UK and I was playing around Vancouver, British Columbia, then upstate New York for a few years. Anyway, thanks for the feedback on the track. I really need to find a UK-based singer for the third section. No luck yet. If you know of anybody who can do UK synth pop type vocals, please let me know. I've got a definite sound in mind.

Thanks for the vote of confidence on this track, 15ludwicke. Worked quite a bit on the strings, although I have to admit I really don't know much about the theory of arranging them. Right now, my arrangements are pretty static, not a lot of movement by each of the string sections. I'm working on improving that, or at least I'm thinking about the fact that I need to be working on improving that! :)

Thanks, Larry. Still hoping to have a collab with you some day. Please keep me in mind.

I'm glad you liked the track, Ed. Yes, quite a bit of thought and experimentation went in to it, although the more I listen to it, the more I realize how simple it is. Used a fair amount of automation to get dynamics with the VST acoustic instruments, but I still have a lot to learn about how to use them effectively. As I told ProgRockDan1, I have not been able to find a singer to do the third section, so this whole thing is stalled indefinitely. Very frustrating.

Thanks for the comment, Dan. Finding the right singer for a specific track is incredibly frustrating I agree. I have very specific ideas of what I want the vocal to sound like, so that is really limiting. I have recruited a few singers (not on Looperman) who are willing to collaborate with me, but then my problem is that none of my unfinished tracks actually work with their voices. And, turns out that it is a lot harder than I expected to compose, write lyrics, and produce something that would work with them. I haven't heard back from the Looperman member that I had in mind for Part 3, so I'm just plain stuck. Almost desperate enough to try it myself using a vocoder. Ugh! :)

Yes, the Mellotron is a very interesting instrument for sure. It has a unique sound I guess due the fact that in the original instrument, the 10 second tape loops that were triggered by each key had a certain amount of wow and flutter. Never did sound totally realistic. Mostly, this track uses the "flute" preset on the Mellotron VST. The other orchestral instruments are from sampler VSTs and they do sound more realistic. I'm still not very good at using the keyswitches to control articulation on these kinds of VSTs. I think it is possible to get a much more realistic sounding orchestral mix than I am managing to achieve. But, its definitely better than I used to be able to do, even a year ago. So, I guess the lesson here is that we just need to keep creating and experimenting. :)

Thanks, Angel. Glad to hear that you liked the track so far. Looks like I won't have a vocalist lined up for part 3 as I had hoed. Am now scouring all the Looperman acapellas to see if I can find an alternative. Still want a very specify sound for the vocals.

OK. Let me know when you are ready to venture downtown!

Looks nice. A bit beyond my budget at the moment. Is the pintech snare louder to play on than a normal "pad"?

Thanks for the advice, Scott. I think I've heard of Pintech. Will need to see if there's any place here in Ottawa where I can check them out. That Roland kit I played on definitely did not have mesh heads.

Yes, definitely some Strawberry Fields in there! And I agree that Part 2 is probably more interesting, music-wise. I wish I paid more attention in my harmony and counterpoint classes. I really have no idea what I'm doing. Just fiddle around until stuff sounds OK to me.

Thanks for taking the time to listen and comment, RenzWilde. I really do appreciate the feedback.

Eric

I have Superior Drummer and it looks like it would work really well with an electronic kit. Right now, I just use it for the preset midi sequences it comes with. I'm curious. Why did you get the Alesis kit. I played on a Roland kit for a day or two last year. Rented an apartment in Edinburgh and it came with a Roland kit set up in the living room. Lots of fun, but my drumming chops have slipped so badly that I really wasn't very good. Also, playing on the pads really felt funny. Like having a whole kit of practice pads. Bounce simply wasn't the same. it was the cheapest Roland kit available, so that might have been part of the reason.

Thank-you Alex. A lot of the time, I try for a contemporary sound and people say it's "old school" or "retro". This time I really was trying for a something quite retro. Seems like I succeeded. :) I'm not doing so well on Part 3. It has been a couple of weeks and I haven't heard back from the Looperman member I asked to do the vocal, so I guess its time to consider some alternatives.

Well, Scott. Got the idea of using a Mellotron VST from you actually! Yes, I am using the same VST as you. Turns out I apparently have some mellotron patches in one of my sampler VSTs, but the M-Tron Pro worked really well. I don't have all the added extras, but I have enough to do what I need to.

That drum intro that opens the second section was a bit of a challenge for me, by the way. Thought of you as I was doing it. I don't have any trigger pads (or real drums for that matter) and I find it awkward to program real sounding drums on my keyboard. Took a lot of fiddling (and effects) to get that intro to sound halfway decent. But, I kept at it because I wanted to try to live up to the standard that you set with your tracks. Kind of embarrassing that it was so difficult for me, frankly. Next time will be easier. Right?

Eric

thanks, Mosaic. Glad to hear you liked the journey. So far, the ratio of listens to comments on this track is kind of pathetic, so I figure its just a bit too much off the normal path for many Loooperman members. But, hey, I don't really care about that. I'm happy if even just a few members find it worthy.

Eric

Thanks very much Crucethus. Wow! You must have had a cool 7th grade music teacher! Mine was an old-school ex-british military band guy. Excellent musician and taught all the students all the instruments in the band. But, no Moogs and no Human League. Mind you, this was actually pre-Beatles so can't hold it against him! :)

BTW, if you are ever downtown in the Market area and want to get together for a coffee sometime, send me a PM and we can set something up. I don't think its a major breach of online etiquette to actually meet a fellow Looperman member in person?