StaticNomad

Predator is a classic film ("If it bleeds, we can kill it").

This would be a pretty weird soundtrack for it but, sure, I'd like to hear/see it. I think it might be way too chilled for the Predator vibe, which is far more nervy and tense.

If the film's owners ever decide to release a new version and ask me if they can use this track on the soundtrack, I will let them.

Yes - I made it for exactly that purpose.

I quite often go looking for aliens in swamps, using special alien-detecting equipment.

This makes a great soundtrack and I think it's actually attracted them as I've caught quite a few since I've been playing it around the swamps in my area.

Hi.

Great to hear you liked this big chiller.

I spent ages constantly tweaking the level of the drums. They don't change a great deal (which gives it a consistent vibe) but there are all sorts of variations in volume and stuff. Hence the very dynamic waveform (no tube of toothpaste for me).

It is a patient and relaxed pace and I love this type of shuffle blues groove. I could play guitar (or other instruments) over it all day. But it always seems to cry out for guitar so I added a fair bit here, with some Eastern melodies for additional flavour. I enjoyed doing the soloing and there's quite a lot of it for me as I'm not that much of a lead guitarist.

Thanks again.

Hi.

Yes, a fun jazzy intro.

"the part that brings it back at 2m"

Not quite sure what you mean. Oh, I know - you mean the return of the legato sax playing. Now it's over a fat, funky hip hop piano bassline rather than jazz.

Good to hear you found the track awesome.

Hi.

Yes, a distorted version of the cello riff that began at 1:41 comes in around the time you mention. I didn't just add distortion to the previous one (I do that kind of thing a lot) - I replayed it.

"a very cool Pink Floydish groove took over"

I'm a big PFloyd fan but I'm not exactly hearing their vibe there. Doesn't sound like one of their riffs - probably a bit heavier and funkier than what they usually go for.

I've never heard Yo-Yo Ma's playing thought I'm quite familiar with the name. I'm mostly a guitarist but as I try to learn the cello (3 months so far) I'm trying to use it where I would normally play guitar, which is going fairly well considering I'm only a beginner.

Here's another cello track containing quite a bit of beauty:

The Warm Glow Of Yesterday

http://www.looperman.com/tracks/detail/176476

Thanks again.

Thanks.

A unique vibe is what I go for every time. I'm trying to make music that no one has ever heard before and I'm also trying to make music that doesn't sound too much like my other music. Sometimes I'm not sure which is harder.

Of course it would be silly not to reuse some sounds and playing styles. I do that all the time as well as introducing new ones in every track.

Glad you enjoyed it.

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.

Sure, I guess this could be used in computer games. However, I'd rather people just listened to it on its own as a piece of music, rather than as background sound while they're tapping their fingers away at a controller.

"trumpet or whatever it is"

It's a saxophone.

"pink panther" game in PS1"

I know the famous soundtrack to the Pink Panther films but not that game. I don't play computer games.

Yo.

These grooves inspired me to do loads of cello playing over the top so it's good to hear that someone else was also inspired by them. I've only been playing cello for about three months.

Loads of hip hop in this, even though it's clearly not a hip hop track.

Good to hear from you.

Take care.

Groovin' Nomad

Hi.

"really crips"

That's a typo that I really enjoyed. I know you meant 'crisp'.

My drums are extremely important in every track as I make music based around strong grooves so work hard at getting the programming and sounds right.

"wouldn´t have recognized it as cello if you hadn´t told us"

Yes, I mostly agree and I'm really happy with it though there are undistorted cello parts at various points that don't sound like guitar. A lot more like regular cello.

If you really want to hear some badass guitar-like cello sounds, the following track's dirty cello riffage still surprises me. Most of the heavy riffage it sounds exactly like heavy guitar playing, mostly because I put it through my standard heavy setting on my guitar effects unit.

Nuance Is Futile

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

Thanks. I will try.

I can't promise to be successful but I will give it my best shot.

Cool and yes.

Word up, Crustapher (F**cking moron)

Are you amused to see there's a guy on here called that? You should work together, perhaps calling your little group Crustethus or Crucepher.

Sure, I enjoy a bit of whale voyeurism. I like to feed that whale so usually slip some fresh fish in there.

"Nice Dr Dre California intro."

Ha, I had to go back and listen to that total classic again. No, this piano bassline isn't similar to California. What you're thinking of is another Dre song but I can't remember which one, which is annoying. I've never before used piano as the predominant bassline. Works well, I think.

"Fascinating chords after 3:05 Bb to Dmin to Aminor. cool progression and different from your other works."

I like the lead cello in this section (which sits on top of two other cello riff layers). If you think it's different from my other stuff, that's probably cos it's a new instrument for me in a different tuning so I'm not altogether sure of which notes I'm playing. I'm bound to discover some new things that way.

Yes, I think the mostly dry sax works fine. You'd expect me to put loads of reverb on it but I've tried to be different by not doing that. Delay just comes in occasionally.

"This is a fun tune you made and you should be happy and proud."

I agree and I am.

"Ending was a little cloying but why not, it's Christmas."

Sorry - I just tried to give it a conclusive, definitive ending rather than some of my lazier, more abrupt ones from the past year.

See you later for more thoughts. Perhaps on this track but perhaps also on whales.

Staticentry

G'day, dishonourably dim dong-wearing dawg.

Great alliterative intro from you.

Some is well with me.

No fuckin' way - 2 Bass Bro reviews in 2 days for this unspecial, average Nomad. Why not go crazy with a triple review?

Trrrrrrrrraaaccckk!!!!

gets right into it cos I removed my 2 min country intro that has too different a mood. Saved for another day. Only problem is I don't make country music.

Are the "two rogue plucks" the banj fill at 0:10? I like it.

"a half-drowned contra bassoon" is a very accurate description for the legato notes at 0:22. Sax player is the only other person to ever play an instrument on one of my tracks. He's also on Way Beyond Wrong, the one with banj metal in it (this is from the same project).

Killer 1:42 riff does sound like someone is waving a huge piece of sheet-metal around. That's just the bow action and the abrupt yet careful way I stop for the last beat of the bar adds that ripping, waving feel.

2:15 I layer in the same approximate riff on top but now distorted. Then lead, distorted, delayed cello arrives so I have three nice layers of it for some thickness and balls (plus piano and no other bassline).

"cosmic guitar tones"

Add delay to slide guitar and you can get cosmic tones. Same goes for bowed cello. Alien, swooping stuff, as best heard towards end of track.

"3:23 returns to earth"

Nice to bring it back down into hip hop drums. Guitarey cello keeps sort of soloing.

4:43 did you like my plucked, delayed cello bassline?

5:28 sax maybe should have reverb but that seemed too predictable for me. May be more interesting without.

6:40-6:47 is swooping, whale call, bowing stuff followed by cool little, funky spiccato riff on 6:47.

7:44 note/tone is cool but there are others after that I prefer. I hit some real good bowing tones with this distortion + delay (plus some shit, of course). An inspiring sound to be used again very soon. I think these distorted cello tones would go well in your music. Perhaps they can via Slupergroupery.

"Quaint ending".

Is it? Cru seems to think similarly. I just tried to make something that was conclusive, for a change.

You only spent 20 mins listening? Damn, I normally spend 2-3 hours* on your tracks, trying to absorb ever morsel of sonic and emotional data.

Thanks for the details. Nuance is not always futile.

Nomad, fucking all these gun-toting hip gangster wannabes

*No, not really.

OK, cool.

But did you only listen to the first 11 seconds of the track?

The first 11 seconds have a gentle jazz groove but after that there's quite a hard, straight hip hop vibe and then rock drums.

Thanks.

I have to work hard at getting that clarity. And I'm sure there's always room for improvement. I think I've finished a track, upload it to Looperman and then find loads of small (sometimes big) ways of improving it. I'm not even talking about things that people have suggested in comments. I just notice loads of problems so I go back and fix them.

I'm not hearing many obvious problems with this one but I bet I can find some.

Good to hear you enjoyed it.

Yes, I think it feels brief, or at least that it doesn't drag too much, because I'm always introducing new elements so there's always stuff ending and starting.

Not much more I can say about your other words as you haven't given me any detail eg by mentioning instruments or particular sections of the track.

Glad you enjoyed it.

I don't listen to Tom Waits though I do love his song Heart Attack And Vine. That's brilliant.

Not sure why this makes you think of Keith Richards. Maybe it's the cello parts that sound like guitar playing?

"This is one weird piece."

Yeah, it's unusual but that's what I go for, along with melodic and grooving, epic and so on. And unique - that's always my aim. If I can't be the best or a virtuoso instrumentalist (I'm not), if I can at least make unique tracks, that means a lot.

"Superb journey into the unknown"

Yes, I think it's hard to know where the track is going.

Good to hear you enjoyed it.

Hail me, master of...poor cello technique.

And hail you, master old fart across the water.

Yes, that early pumping piano part I hear as being very hip hop. That main first note was a kick drum part (hence the insistent precision) and then the note it changes to was the snare. I have some interesting ideas that I'll have to explore some time regarding taking drum fills and copying the MIDI data to a synth so that drums and synth are playing exactly the same thing. Could be very interesting, especially when I start to slowly vary things so that they're not quite playing the same thing.

Yes, I have been doing lots of creative stuff with the cello. That's partly because I'm still rubbish at bowing and can't consistently do the kind of things on it that I can do on my other stringed instruments. But I don't just sit there practising it as I try to learn it. I record and then edit my parts very carefully to get rid of all the many errors. I do that a hell of a lot anyway with my other instruments but that's more for creativity whereas this is initially just to get rid of the crap bowing tones that I often hit. Scrapey, whingey sounds.

"enjoyed this one till the last note (which was not the more usual lazy fade most of us do)"

My endings have not been too great in the last year and I've done too many abrupt sort of endings and only a few skilful ones. I think I'm almost getting worse at endings. Must make more effort as they're important. That's how you leave the listener so it has to be a good goodbye, so to speak.

Good to hear you enjoyed all of this.

Word up, eternity-taking Iced E.

Your alliterative greeting is excellent, Dashing Doer Of Daring Deeds a potential track title. Totally sums me up. I'm doing some of those deeds now whilst typing.

See - you can still come up with a good, new greeting. No idea how I'll come up with new, decent ones if we're still greeting each other in, say, 20 years' time. Just think how many yos and word ups I'll have given out by then. Squillions.

I did not get up, get on up, like a sex machine for you. That's what I didn't do.

Trrrrrrrrack!

No wah in intro but a filter that is similar. Automated a little at certain points and then turned off as it all goes BAM! when the fat drums smash their way in.

Cello plucking (pizzicato) around 0:40. Like a lead, clean bass but low, not high.

1:17 tone is cool - plugin distortion added to clean cello parts. All the low end riffage in this through hardware FX unit.

1:46 break has riffage I love. Perhaps complex cos I've chopped up different bits of jammed riffing to make it. Sounds just like heavy guitar.

"Synth afterwards is very nice"

I think you mean the Fender Rhodes at 2:14. 'Tis a surprise that fits fine. Not much Rhodes on top of heavy guitar riffage in general.

2:33 a short cello solo from me. Sounds just like guitar.

Still never really heard any of Queensryche's music though I know the name well, partly cos it's distinctive.

4:13 synth is that same Rhodes instrument from before, now with distortion. Not sure why it's out of place. I like how the clean, swooping cello bowing sits underneath it. If I "peel all that back" I don't know how I'll successfully manage to build up to the return of the badass riffage on 4:42.

"Futuristic steampunk" is a label I'm glad to hear as I hadn't thought of it. I love the third and final heavy section. Loads of distortion on synths and some crunchy drum loops.

I like the glass and brass tubing ideas too.

"adequately confident in your new tool"

Not at all when bowing. Not even close to being decent enough to jam with other musicians, which I can do easily on other stringed instruments. My careful editing skills, as always, make me sound so much better.

Let us indeed mesh cello and lap-steel some time. Let us make some cellsteelstep.

Streams will only be crossed if parts are panned. We will probably both be sucked into some vortex if that happens so keep those parts panned far apart.

Great to hear you have been stretching your shit* and I'm looking forward to hearing that make a difference to your music. That's the idea. Of course you got some surprising results. Try 800% on some simple lap steel lines for awesome ambience beauty.

Ooooh 7 mins. A Bass Bro epic. You must be stretching all your parts!

Static Bowmad, chugging the shit out of that cello, getting an amen, getting a hallelujah, thanking Jesus.

*Ten Mile Turd

Yo.

Swanky Static here.

Yes, jazzy intro sounds a lot like one of my favourite bands ever - Morphine. The cello seems to work as a replacement for Mark Sandman's bass parts there. And then we're into my big hip hop piano bassline, which really dominates as one of the main basslines for the rest of the track.

Special secret: that piano bassline was originally a drum part! I just copied a drum part to the piano track, moved some notes about and it worked (must try that again). There are also various rapid piano fills that were originally drum fills (others are played by hand) at various points in the track.

"underlying moog sounding thing I'm hearing there at :45"

is some sort of synth bass, with me carefully controlling the cutoff frequency. This isn't much of a synth track but that part there does make a difference and meshes quite nicely with the piano (an instrument I don't use often).

" little piano twinkles amid the sax and guitar serenade"

Yes, I use a second piano sound which is much lighter (and with a longer release time) than the main (bassline) piano. It's good for the tinkles and is really a lovely sound. There's not much of a guitar serenade there. When the sax returns in that chilled, funky section, there's none. That distorted stuff is all cello.

"6:40 you go into what sounds like a whale mating call groove... are the higher pitched tones straight or enhanced"

I like watching whales getting it on so thought I should make some background music for them to do it to. The distorted cello in this (which dominates proceedings after a few mins) also has loads of delay and reverb on it. It's my main heavy guitar setting on my floor effects unit, but with the distortion turned down a bit here as this isn't a heavy track.

Doing shimmering bowing with all that delay on the cello is cool fun and those whale sounds are not due to any other effects. That's just some of what you can do with bowing and the weird tones that can be used. There is a specific, strange tonal delay effect used a little a bit later but most of those weird tones are really just generated by the bow.

At 6:48 I'm really pleased with the high, lead cello playing and melody there. I'm employing a technique called spiccato, which is a word I've known for years but without actually knowing what it was. Basically, it's using the bow to hit/bounce off the strings rather than pulling it across them. So, a lot like the thumb in slap bass playing.

Thanks for dropping by to check out my new merger of sounds and bowing progress.

Static Cellmad, celling it up.

Thanks for listening.

The piano mostly is the bass, which is something I've never done before. No bass guitar and only a bit of synth bass. Cello also covers the low end, in some places (eg the jazz intro).

I noticed that you commented on this after about 3 minutes of listening. Why not, next time, try listening to a bit more before commenting? You might even hear something that is of interest to you.

Hey I forgot to mention that's not too bad a joke.

I get it but also don't get it.

It seems it would make more sense if it were banjo players or accordionists as those are maligned instruments. But I'm not at all aware of the cello having any such status.

Here's my favourite banjo joke, from one of my absolute favourite musicans in the world, Harry Manx, who I've met twice at his gigs. He tells it on stage before playing banjo. Something like:

"I did a gig the other night and left one of my banjos in my car. I came back to the car to find it had been broken into. My banjo hadn't been taken and there were six others alongside it."

You've really gotta check this guy out as he's excellent on guitar, banjo, mohan veena (a very special slide instrument), harmonica and vocals.

Nice guy as well.

Harry Manx plays "Can't Be Satisfied"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO73Fczq9IM

Harry Manx - Spoonful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn17wun1FEc

Yo yo yo.

I too am damn surprised that this all this riffage comes from a cello. What I have learnt over the years is that if you put pretty much anything through some fat (guitar) distortion, you'll mostly be hearing the distortion. Sure, you get the pitch changes (ie the notes) but the timbre of the instrument is very much overpowered by the distortion. But you can still take advantage of some of the weird tones you can get from bowing. The kind that I hit unintentionally because I don't yet know what I'm doing and have poor control.

"take that bow to your guitar ala Jimmy Page."

I don't think so. You can't bow individual strings because of the flat neck and you'll get the rosin that you put on the bow on the guitar strings. I've not really seen Page do it but I'll bet he only does pretty simple stuff.

"what in the world prompted you to want to learn to play the cello?"

I have meant for a good few years now to start playing another instrument. Actually, I got a banjo for Christmas in 2011 and, as you know, have put that in quite a few tracks. But it is kind of a limited instrument/sound. I need to keep expanding my musical repertoire and the main way I do that is with new synth sounds. But playing an actual new physical instrument seems like an even better idea, though much more challenging (and expensive).

I've probably wanted to play cello since about 16 and I am very much a stringed instruments musician so I thought I should get on with it. I'd like to play (or at least get the sound of) various Indian instruments but I'm not sure which would suit me. I've had a sitar since 1998 but it's a bastard on the hands and I don't know anything about the tuning. I never play it (partly because I don't want to lacerate my fingers).

I quite like your Progello term and will see what my cello teacher thinks of it. It also sounds like it might be some sort of medical product (a gel). But don't you like 'cellometallo'? Makes me think of Nutella.

"you maintained the structure and didn't go off on a 3 or 4 minute jam"

Yes. I'm really happy with the structure and length. The track is actually quite minimal (especially for me), with instruments only introduced when they need to be and not much layering going on. As always, there are loads of little details and fills (the nuances) to look out for but there aren't as many things to listen to at once as in most of my stuff.

Yes, I really like the synth work. I perhaps could have got some high lead cello work in there but I find it hard. However, in the few weeks since I made this, I've improved a bit so there's shitloads of lead high cello in my latest track (Everything Where it Should Be), which is nearly ready to upload.

"you certainly are blazing a new trail here"

Yes. Do not hold your breath waiting for anyone else to upload a cellometallo track to Looperman.

Thanks for the interesting thoughts.

Yo.

Good to hear from you.

Yes, it's pretty good fun when those fat drums kick in.

"That vocal sample is on point."

It totally isn't as there are no vocal samples in the track. If there were, I probably would have mentioned it in my description. Give me a time reference and I'll tell you exactly what you're hearing. Probably a cello sound. I hope you've read that all this riffage is distorted cello. I still think most of it sounds exactly like guitar.

"My headphones are screwed so I cannot comment on the mix.."

That is a shame but it seems you've at least heard something worthwhile.

"@4:14 a great switch, evolving, then back to that southern/nola feeling riffage.. "

Yes, I get funky, with the distorted Rhodes part (plus some clean cello bowing underneath) and then it's back to the badass riffage. But, for the third and final heavy movement, I introduce some different synth arps and melodies.

Great to hear you'll have some new music soon. I still haven't got round to hearing all your current Looperman tracks. Must start changing that.

Thanks again.