[LAU] Some new* music

[Q]

Hello Julien!

Sorry for not responding sooner.

Thanks for listening and also for your kind words about it. That 
"Egyptian orchestra" bit in Part 3 seemed like a good idea, but by the 
time I got to the twentieth Tron pass I was heartily sick of the part! 
The rest of it is fairly standard choir, three violins and organ pad 
parts on the Tron.

Again, the punctuated part was a fun little thing that came almost as an 
afterthough whilst I was writing it. I'm still ambivalent about the way 
the guitar solo destroys the second silence, but perhaps the second time 
round wasn't as effective as the first anyway and the solo didn't seem 
to work as well any other way.

I think sometimes I probably overdo the number of parts and ought to 
start ruthlessly editing things. Mostly I can hear clearly everything 
that's there, but then I know it's there and know what to listen out for 
(but sometimes it all just clumps into a big mushy mess, but then I'll 
hear it in a completely different way to most listeners with listening 
in great detail and many, many times over!). I do worry though about 
whether there is reasonable separation between all the parts and whether 
people can hear them: I don't really want it to be a monolithic wall of 
sound, more a wall where, if you focus yours ears in, you can hear the 
individual bricks if you want to, rather than just a big mush.

I was struck when listening to some Yes (some people would say that 
served me right!) just how distorted the drums sometimes sounded. I've 
seen it mentioned about other 70s mixes, that the engineers hit the tape 
hard when tracking drums, for the sound and qualities the tape 
saturation gave. I thought I'd give it a try and have a go at capturing 
a bit of that old-school drum vibe. It did seem to give the drums a 
little bit of extra presence to cut through the mix in the loud bits 
where the drums were most full on (and hence distorting most).

Thanks again for listening. I've no idea when I'll get onto the next 
sections -- I think I need a bit of a break from this piece and I have 
one or two other projects where people are demanding my time. Plus, I 
move about as quickly as an asthmatic ant with some heavy shopping ;-)

Best wishes

Q

Julien Claassen wrote:
> Hello Q!
>   As always this is a superb piece of composition and production. I 
> especially like the drumming. It's magnificent. When first listening to 
> it, I thought it was good, but after a few relistens, I had to revise my 
> opinion. :-) I really do like the fact, that you have so much Tron in 
> there, but hide it or use it in untypical ways. It creates a very 
> specific sound.
>   Good to hear someone to perform punctuated playing and calcualted 
> pauses to impressive effect.
>   You create some very dense clouds of sounds without muddying it, which 
> is sublime, something I have trouble, when tracks get out of hand. :-)
>   Only one small criticism: The drums in the last part are a bit too 
> distored for my liking. From what I've read, that's intentional. Still 
> my aural taste buds disagree, if only slightly. Yet, that is nought but 
> a luxury problem. :-) And I suppose it is expected of me, to find 
> something to criticise on drums. :-)
>   Very well done, already looking forward to the next section! No 
> pressure. :-)
>   Oddly metred yours
>            Julien