Hi.

I think yours is the first serious offer I've ever had on this site of someone offering to add some vocals to my music.

I did check out a good few tracks of yours but I feel that I don't need any vocals on this one. The reason is that, as I work mostly without vocals, I'm used to making tracks work without any. In other words, I don't just make a backing track, waiting for someone to contribute vocals. I instead get my various instruments (mainly cello here) to do a lot and maintain the listener's interest.

Thanks again for asking. It's always good to hear that someone's into what I do.

Yo.

I have a 5-string NS cello. I may have made a mistake getting one with an extra string. I have less of a gap between the strings, which makes hitting the right string with the bow harder.

"making the transition from plucking picking or strumming to bowing must be an awesome experience and a very difficult one I imagine"

My pizzicato is fine - though I am playing, for the first time, a fretless instrument. But I see the cello as being mostly about bowing. And bowing is really tricky and fraught with danger. The danger is in hitting either scrapey or whingey tones or weird undesirable tones. If you can control all this, you can get some great and surprising tones. I'm working on an Easten cello dance track and doing lotsof high, spiccato bowing that sounds like a shakuhachi or flute.

I'm also doing bowed harmonics beyond the fingerboard, producing some really odd, alien tones.

"7:30 mark everything coalesces and full liftoff tonality occurs"

Yes, this is mostly a chillout track but I can rarely help making things go more exciting and funky/rocking/both. So, 7:30 is the breakout funk groove for a final flourish, with lots of high bowing.

"tempting to blitz this section with an electrical axefest"

I agree. I've been playing cello for 3 months now, to the exclusion of my other instruments. So, I've been trying to get it do what I might normally do on guitar (and bass too) and not allowing myself to simply add guitar. Trying to make it all work on cello alone is how I'm exploring the instrument. So, I made a badass, heavy track featuring no guitar but loads of distorted cello riffage:

Nuance Is Futile

http://www.looperman.com/tracks/detail/176620

"your quick on the uptake"

My cello teacher seems to think so. She's a touring professional but says she can't really teach me anything about riffs and that she actually learns from me.

I have no idea if the cello has the greatest empathy of any instrument or what the connection between it and the voice is. I'm still trying to work out what the connection is between bowed cello and wind instruments (ie shakuhachi, flute and even bassoon).

" steer your playing of the instrument into a lead melodic role or more as an accompanying layered string section?"

I want to do it all. As with my other instruments, I'll keep exploring different playing techniques and FX as I try to squeeze as many cool sounds as I can out of it. Whilst trying to avoid scrapey, whingey tones.

Yes, I love the intro of this track. Hypnotic harmonics that I enjoyed listening to over and over again.

OK, I'll tell you more about signal path another time. It's quite similar to my guitar setup as I go through the same Boss multi-effects unit.

Thanks for the extensive thoughts.

More cello tracks coming soon. In the meantime, my latest track contains loads of cello:

Everything Where it Should Be

http://www.looperman.com/tracks/detail/177063

Hi.

Thanks for checking this out and sorry for the slow reply.

" it seems I tend to annoy you"

No, not really. It was just that one comment on my other cello-heavy (and heavy cello) track in which you asked for some "real cello". The track was full of real cello playing so it looked you had somehow mistaken all the cello sounds for cello samples I'd triggered from the keyboard rather than stuff I'd taken a while to play and edit. A bit like telling Jimi Hendrix one of his tracks needs some "real guitar".

Yes, this track has a very different feel from the other and there are more obvious cello sounds, which I assume is what you were looking for from the other track. No distorted cello riffage here though there is quite a bit of reverb and delay on the many cello parts I recorded. I think this one has quite a classy, graceful chillout feel and I loved listening back to some of the sections on a loop while making it.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Hi.

Yes, your comment is much shorter than some others but that's OK. I've come to understand that quite a few people in life don't really have that much to say for themselves. It's relatively few people on here who are capable of/can be bothered to write decent reviews that say anything more than "Yeah, I like it".

Good to hear you were chilling to this as that's also what I felt when making it.

Tally mothafuckin' Pruit, yo!

About time we brought her back.

Keep your spit away from my lovely cello. Well, unless you polish it afterwards.

Intro is nice and it's predominantly cello harmonics plus some plucked (pizzicato) slides that I find deep and moving. First bowing arrives 0:29 (high shimmer).

"3:48- What is that sound?"

More cello, of course. I can't explain why there is a connection between bowing and the sounds of wind instruments (apart from the irrelevant blowing/bowing* connection) but there is as you can also produce flutey sounds with the bow.

I first heard/saw that when watching a double bass player bowing and was certain I heard flutey sounds sometimes when he went up high. I asked him about it afterwards and he said yes that was intentional. That guy was playing a 150-year-old double bass, which is pretty impressive.

"Oooohh, 4:00 change" is pretty cool. I add some amp distortion to the bass g (and one cello part) there to give it some added balls. Not trying to go badass but you know I like balls on everything. Except women. They're better without.

"4:48-5:12 is a special section"

Yes - some nice shit and the return of my chimey guitar instrument playing some sad, moving stuff.

"6:07- The sorrowful grieving of the narrator"

I find the high bowing in this section quite beautiful. Damn awkward for novice me to bow the top two strings but that's what I'm doing there. Same goes for 7:54 when it gets bigger and crazier. Similar playing but sounds different.

"I do like the bell-ish outro/intro.I do, however, agree with Master Wayne on it possibly sounding better with a more natural instrument"

I might get rid of that part right at the end, just leaving the low cello note hanging.

"This song seems special, and I feel it should be treated differently."

I've kept the other synth stuff quite minimal and I think it sounds different from my other tracks. Cello is the focus and there may be more of it than guitar in my guitariest tracks.

"the melodies you wrote carry more weight than most"

No idea why. They're really all just jammed, happy accident melodies produced through layering and seeing what happened to come out. Not planned or imagined, as always (my great musical failing).

"I dug the bits of reverse drums in there, too"

Ah yes, you're a sucker for anything reversed. When will you make a whole track just consisting of reversed sounds? The small reverses here are just part of the series of glitch effects on one hip hop drumkit in the middle. Just to give the drums a strange feel and make that section stand out.

My next track will be cellmetallo, no guitar. The Bass Bro gonna drool over my badass cello riffage.

Hope you're well.

Static Cellmad, celling shit up.

*I do enjoy a nice bowjob

Hi.

Good to hear you heard the beauty in this - I feel there is a lot.

Yes - a new instrument for me though I first wanted to play the cello aged 16, many years ago now. I have wondered if I need to keep learning new instruments so that I can have new ideas and playing styles as I constantly worry about running out of ideas on the instruments I already play. I don't think I'd like playing a wind instrument - strings are definitely my thing.

" there is something really weird happening almost all the time with my perception throughout the day"

I'm not sure I can help you with that.

" thought you must have used only one cello loop then"

I'm not sure what you mean. There's one main, looped section of cello harmonics mixed in with pizzicato that starts the track off and continues for a few minutes. But it doesn't get boring because there's so much other cello stuff that keep being introduced. There's some bass guitar too. The main cello loop does indeed have lots of delay on it, which gives it some nice movement.

"Before the Sphere represents basically an 'open' evolving music while this one is probably more 'just groove' type of track."

No, they're really both just my usual groove-based type of music. I am a slave to the groove and not very good at forming structures (or even riffs) if I don't have a good groove.

I listened to the Marcus Miller link and he is a very good bass player. Not really sure what that has to do with this track. And the cello link is lovely playing. I am not at all able to play like that yet. I wish I could!

"spectral dimention and space illusions you created on this track are quite overwhelming"

Thanks. It's hard to explain but I think it has something to do with all the cello layers and some of the delay used. It's a gentle piece of music, in which I make constant use of cello slides to give a very deep, emotional overall sound.

Thanks again.

More cello experiments coming soon.

Yo, Mr H.

I sure am giving the cello a good workout. I've hardly played any other instrument for the last 2 months. I'm trying to get half decent (nowhere near that yet) so I can really properly incorporate it in my music.

Until then, I'm having to do so much editing of the parts I record as there are so many errors and shit, unintentional tones.

" Some of the higher stuff you played around 6:30 was very cool"

I agree. It's really laidback, kind of classy playing but there are also some nice little rapid bowed runs. I find playing the top two strings (as I'm doing here) really quite difficult as they seem to be quite far away from me so I have to adjust my position just to see what I'm doing.

"some of that dobro would fit in the end part."

Quite possibly but I was adamant that I wanted to try making it work only with cello as the lead instrument. I've hardly played any slide in many months.

"I didn't care for the synth in the end so much. Things were sounding pretty organic then that popped up"

No problem if you don't like it but what you say is a bit of a surprise because that same synth sound has already occurred quite prominently twice in the track. So, check it out at 0:48 and then 3:12. By bringing it back at 7:30, I'm only returning to previously established themes so hopefully it shouldn't feel too out of place. Despite being cello-heavy, I don't see this as a natural, acoustic, organic kind of track. It's still really quite processed and progressive. So, I think the trancey arp synth fits that vibe.

"You just may be the next Jeff Lynne."

Ha, I'm a massive fan of his but I don't believe he plays cello. You're thinking of one or two of his bandmates in ELO, one of my favourite groups of all time. They are a much maligned and seriously underrated group.

Thanks again.

Hello.

From your words, I'm guessing that you're mostly a hip hop guy and that you mostly felt the hip hop drums in this one. They are indeed hip hop drums but not loops.

"these more kida dark instrumentals"

I don't hear this as very dark but no problem if you do. Deep but not dark.

"Just for the sake of shedding"

Shedding what? Skin?

Glad you liked it.

Yo, BradoBro.

Sorry to hear of your cello problems. I had problems too, which is why I put off starting to really play it for about a year. Definitely not the same sort of problems as you're having but I seem to remember you saying that you weren't happy having bought something that was just too cheap.

Yes, the slides in this are nice and probably pop up all over the place, though I'm employing a bunch of other techniques as well. First time that I've actually bowed the top two strings. I find it kind of awkward to reach them (mine is 5 string though I think I'd prefer only 4) so only make simple chord shapes (5ths) and limit my movement so that I don't screw up too much.

"Minimalist drum kit that I really like"

Yes, it's mostly a hip hop drum kit, with rock kits taking over towards the end. It's quite busy at times but, yes, I've tried to make the drums a bit more background to allow all the cello activity to shine.

Glad to hear you found this cello track relaxing. I think so too.

Next cello track will probably be the opposite - cellometallo.

Good luck with your damaged cello.

Static CellMad

Hi.

"specially the bass strings, sounds like a fretless bass"

That's all cello. There's bass guitar as well in some sections but those big slides are all cello parts.

I add a slow attack effect to the cello when recording which helps give it a "liquid" effect. And it does also make it sound like a fretless bass, as you say.

"Love progressive chill out."

Me too. I try to make all my music progressive as I'm not that interested in making regular, traditional genres of music.

Thanks again.

Warm, glowing greetings Mr Danke.

I really like the intro, which is based around harmonics on the cello. I hadn't really thought about blues but your're probably right.

"the final sections peak is more like a rock performance than a chill ending"

Yes - I do that sort of thing a lot - start out slow and then keep building and end up in something really heavy and intense. It would have been quite easy to bring in some heavy guitar towards the end and make the drums go really heavy but I thought that would be too predictable. So, instead I decided to just rock out a bit but in a funky style. And still no guitar, just cello.

"your weird but unique approach"

You know I try to be unique. And also a bit weird.

Thanks for your thoughts and praise!

Yo.

"i was wondering where you had gone"

I've not been using the site much and have been ill but still managed to complete this unusual piece.

"your latest cluster of cool chilled vibes"

All three tracks are from the same project so either you're really into my 80 BPM vibes or perhaps that tempo really inspires me to do good stuff.

"You have your own voice that is instantly recognised"

Cool. That's exactly what I aim for as I try to make music no one has made or heard before.

"Cool Cminor triad riff intro"

I don't know what triad/dominant/subdominant mean, in musical terms, but I'm sure you're right. That intro is based around cello harmonics and I love it.

"Nice riff that doesnt get monotonous."

I agree so much that I felt it needed to play a lot in the track, sitting underneath other layers.

After a break , from itwith cello and bass g doing other stuff, you can hear a nice return to that riff on 3:12.

"some percussive or string sounds outlining the minor7 chord(0:48 onwards)"

0:48 a trancey synth arp arrives panned left as well as a chimey lead VST guitar panned to the right.

"its hard for these ears to pickout exact tones"

I agree and I'm good at merging multiple sounds in such a way that it's hard to tell what's what.

"although they sound like a pop at 1:26?"

I did have some big problems in this track with pops but at 1:26 it's just a hip hop percussive hit. I don't hear a pop there.

"Some grooves can just repeat all day and this is one of them"

Yes - it was a fun to keep listening back on a hypnotic loop though, as always, I felt I had to take the track on an exciting journey and stop it from feeling too loopy.

"3:37 I like the introduction of the rasping synth"

Yes - I'm trying to make things start to go a bit "trance euphoric".

"The last section is very euphoric"

Yes - I wanted it to be uptempo and exciting but not too heavy.

"Whats the low buzz sound i thought my phone was about to kick off"

Just cello. At 9:12 the cello note is ending but very low in the mix under that chimey guitar.

Great to hear you enjoyed this. I enjoyed making it though I did get a bit bored with it in the end as I think I perhaps spent too long on it. But I was trying to complete it when ill, which is not easy.

Take care...

Yo.

I'd never heard of Adam Hurst but he's very good. Wish I could play like that but my bowing is still shit. It's so damn hard!

"I like the minimalistic approach"

There are some notable other instruments here but I've been focussing so much on the cello for the last 2 months, trying to use it over and above my other instruments as I explore its possibilities. You can make it go fully badass just by sticking it through some fat distortion. I have a very unfinished cellometallo track in which no one will believe they're not hearing distorted guitar.

Good to hear you liked this.

"Only suggestion, make more please"

I'm trying and I have a few more in the works, pretty much all of which are dance or dance-related tracks. This is easily the best major cello track I have. I guess as I improve, I'll be able to play more styles.

Thanks again.