Soundcloud Share Thread

[AdventAlan]

Greetings,

A very nice idea for a thread and I've been listening to all the great music everyone has kindly been sharing here. I plan to listen through all the music posted on everyone's SoundCloud profile as soon as time permits as well.

I'll also, humbly, add a link for my own SoundCloud profile page, in case anyone's interested in checking out what I've posted there:

https://soundcloud.com/alan-solo

It's a bit of a mix of:

- Demos of unfinished compositions
- guitar recordings (for Advent and otherwise)
- a tune I wrote, about 25 years ago, for use as an outgoing answering-machine message
- Six homework assignments for the Berklee-based "Introduction to Improvisation" class I took via Coursera about six years ago
- my first two solo pieces from the latter half of the 1980s

Thanks, take care, and best wishes,


Alan

[frinspar]

Alan, I started at the bottom and worked my way up.
"The World Within" would've fit in perfectly with my collection of flexible 33rpm singles that came out of the various guitar mags I bought in the 80s.
"Olhos de Gato" reminds me of the loungey/library stuff from the 50s/60/70s that I like to listen to.
Thanks!

[AdventAlan]

Alan, I started at the bottom and worked my way up.
"The World Within" would've fit in perfectly with my collection of flexible 33rpm singles that came out of the various guitar mags I bought in the 80s.
"Olhos de Gato" reminds me of the loungey/library stuff from the 50s/60/70s that I like to listen to.
Thanks!

Hi Matt,

Thanks very much for checking out my tunes. Ironically, "The World Within" was my first solo recording (primarily motivated by having just bought my first four-track cassette recorder) and "The Escape" was actually put together for Guitar Player magazine's "Soundpage" competition (in 1989). Though I didn't win, the end goal was to make it on to the very type of flexible single you mentioned. (I still have to see if I can find my some of my old singles of this type, mainly the very cool version of Kazumi Watanabe's "Unicorn" that is different from the studio version.)

"Othos do Gato" was submitted as sort of a final for that "Introduction to Improvisation" class, by the way.

All the best, thanks again, and look very forward to continuing on through your SoundCloud tunes as well,


Alan

[Top Cat]

Great idea for a thread. I've been thinking of asking admin if we can have something like a separate forum to post new music, maybe like the "music cafe" for something like that where members can post their new music, rather than start a separate thread.
I've been enjoying sampling some of the music here, but want to devote more time to each Soundcloud page because the artist and the music both deserve an attentive listen rather than 30 second sampling as I've seen happen on other sites.

I'll be checking out you folks, but be kind if I leave behind some cookie crumbles(I love to snack with music) and any adult beverage cans will be removed for recycling. lol
At the moment I've been enjoying Buddhabreath's "Rescued from Oblivion" https://soundcloud.com/user-16403345...-from-oblivion and in between I'll try to check some of your music out as well.

I'd like to add a new release I recently finished. Don't say no instruments are:
Korg Kronos piano,
Ensoniq VFX-SD main keyboard melody, woodland flute
Korg Arp Odyssey FS, bass/
Moog Voyager(flute)
Kontakt Strummer guitar(an acute bout of tendonitis in my thumb prevents ANY guitar playing at the moment)
Evolution Strawberry Elec guitar(lead)
Guitar Rig
vocals: me
Cubase 6/Roland Studio Capture Audio Interface

[Dean Watson]

Here's a tune of mine that I wrote originally in 1982 ( or so ). I rerecorded it from scratch and this new version will be on my next release, where I redo tunes from my past. I hope you like ...

https://soundcloud.com/dean-watson/jupiter

[frinspar]

Top Cat, nice positive piece there.

Dean, love the clean, bright sound of that. And that guitar with the P90s in the image is beautiful. Only thing, though, they built it backwards.

[Dean Watson]

Frinspar, I built it. I’m a lefty!

[Top Cat]

So far..
Buddhabreath: Journey to an Alien World..nice upbeat piece, love the tone of the guitars, hand drums add a neat vibe. Good to hear you having fun and improvising, but still structured. I still have the otherworldly keyboard part rolling around in my head.

Frinspar: the dude that started this whole share thing, thanks for starting it. Lots of tuneage to go through yet, but enjoyed Slow Walk Down a Weird Road. Love the overall production, good sound and effects on the guitar. A very nice piece even when you're not walking down a Weird Road. Looking forward to more.

Dean Watson: Even tho you've updated it, it doesn't sound dated to me at all. Nice synth lines without becoming cliched, and when your guitar solo comes in around the 2:50ish mark...whoa!!! that really put some icing on the cake and the ending is a total surprise but very well done.

Allen: Out of all the songs, I rolled the dice and settled on The World Within, and I'm glad I did. A perfect song, great keyboards and guitar playing..prog but not in your face.

nosebone: Poor Mrs Attenborough..Wow! I love this song, need to check out more when I have time.

RickL: avant-garde definitely! not my style of music but your performance and song(Giraffe) are very good.

dang..beautiful modular synthesizer and the sounds are gorgeous. IT LIVES!!!

Carvinabuser: nice jazzy piece, especially the second half. What piano is this? most of the music around here is electronic based, but this sounds like a real mic'd piano. Just curious because it has a nice warm tone. I like how upbeat this song is.


Frinspar, thank you so much for listening. I'll be the Paul McCartney of this page, writing and singing soft pop songs. lol I'm 72, I move slower these days. Even if I set a song to 160bpm they still come out slow. lol

btw, if any of you would like to imbed your Soundcloud track directly in your post, click the Go Advanced box next to Save and click the Soundcloud icon, the post the track's url and you're good to go. If you have download enabled, it can be downloaded from your posted track here.
If you already knew this....oops! lol

[Dean Watson]

Thanks Top Cat.

[Rick L.]

Top Cat, I think you have me mixed up with dang, but, thanks.

[Top Cat]

Top Cat, I think you have me mixed up with dang, but, thanks.

I'm so sorry about the mixup Rick, I listened to a lot of music here this morning, all on 1 cup of coffee. lol I fixed it in my post. Thanks again for sharing with us.

[Rick L.]

No worries. Thanks for listening!

[frinspar]

Frinspar, I built it. I’m a lefty!

Stunning work!

[frinspar]

Frinspar, thank you so much for listening. I'll be the Paul McCartney of this page, writing and singing soft pop songs. lol I'm 72, I move slower these days. Even if I set a song to 160bpm they still come out slow. lol

I get that. There's one song, Temporally Yours, that started out as 4 drum/percussion tracks. I had the idea the whole time it was going to be aggressive and heavy. But when I started working on the guitars it became something quite different.

[Buddhabreath]

A lot of talented folks here! I will be digging in deeper, but enjoying Alan's stuff a lot - is that you with the great Pekka Pohjola? Nice track there, hope you develop it further, The World Within is a great production, nice guitar sound. I also checked out and love Nosebone's Poor Mrs Attenborough, superb! Dean, I don't know where to start - you have a lot of fantastic absolutely top-drawer stuff, but I will just say for now I love the drive and rhythm of At Odds, just fantastic almost like Gentle Giant goes to Canterbury. I'm head-banging to "Of Age" at the moment. Also enjoying Top Cat's stuff, in particular "Madness" has stuck with me - a song for our times no doubt.

I'm going to have to actually get a DAW and a decent set up, you guys are leaving me in the dust. Trying to do arrangements with any complexity and putting multiple instruments on a track is frustrating and creates mixing catastrophe on the Spire where all you can do is set the volume and stereo placement for a track and inexact trimming.

[AdventAlan]

Hi again,

Thanks a lot for your very kind words about my music, Richard and Bill. (Yes, Bill, that's a photo of Pekka Pohjola and myself, taken back in 1993.)

I've really been enjoying digging further into everyone's posts here, including the more recent offerings posted--and look forward to digging even deeper as soon as I get a chance.

A few quick notes/additions for anyone that might be interested:

1. I recently rediscovered two solo synth improv tracks I'd recorded on my old "the CAT" synth when I was about 15 or so (from a friend's cassette recording that she recently digitized and shared) and added them to my SoundCloud page as well.

2. There are a couple of group improvisation tracks, from one of our summer party/jam sessions a while back, on a separate SoundCloud page here: https://soundcloud.com/been-jammin-party.

3. My band, Advent, has a SoundCloud site as well, with at least a few non-album tracks scattered here and there: https://soundcloud.com/advent.

4. A musical Facebook friend, Solo Goodspeed, has a lot of really cool music on his SoundCloud page as well--and I think a lot of folks here would enjoy his music as well: https://soundcloud.com/b9tremors. (Apparently, his older "SchizoBraniac" material has been removed though some of it is now featured on his YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9_...Q1xualxT3krwaw instead.)

5. Solo's friend and sometimes-collaborator, Tory Slusher, also has some nice (and often fusion-oriented) guitar-based tunes on her SoundCloud page as well: https://soundcloud.com/user-215212534.

All the best, thanks again, and have a great week,


Alan

[BobM]

So I bought myself an Arturia Keylab MK II 88 key Midi synth for Christmas. I donated my keys to my kids grammar school 20+ years ago and really haven't played piano or synth since. So this is how I'm going to be spending my winter, getting my chops back and having some fun (emphasis on getting my chops back).

Here's a spontaneous track I put together as I try and learn my sounds and DAW software. It's loosely based on a Lenny White tune called Dark Moon, but only in style. Hope you enjoy my first real effort.

https://soundcloud.com/user-139631929/l-white-moon

[frinspar]

Alan, thanks for sharing, I'll be checking all of that out.

Bob, you had me with the opening piano. Love the classic tones, and the yay-yay synth with it.


Just read an email from Soundcloud about a change to their hosting. As far as I understood it, starting Dec. 9, they're giving every user the opportunity to upload lossless HD audio for free, which was only part of a paid membership before.
But to compensate for that, they're now changing the plan for free users from 3 hours flat to an either/or situation. Either it's 3 hours, or 15 tracks. So, if I have 15 tracks at 1-minute each, I'd still hit my limit. Not really worth $100+ a year for me to upload some ditties, so I'll probably just stick with my YouTube channel from here on out.
I totally get it, space, people and power cost money. But since I'm just a couch musician it's maybe not the right outlet for me.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCch...dATv87g/videos

[Buddhabreath]

I really enjoyed "White Moon" Bob. Nice sound choices and textures. Well done. If that's your first spontaneous effort I look forward to more!

[BobM]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I'm laying down tracks with an eye toward learning the ins and outs of Ableton Lite. Getting into stacking sounds and automation next and at the same time playing with all the fun sounds and amazing amount of control in the Arturia instrument software. It's a bit overwhelming. If I only had this much at my fingertips back in the early 80's when I was in a band and recording in the studio. Do the rest of you remember using that damn razor and tape to edit your recordings?

[Top Cat]

I get that. There's one song, Temporally Yours, that started out as 4 drum/percussion tracks. I had the idea the whole time it was going to be aggressive and heavy. But when I started working on the guitars it became something quite different.

Yeah, I could tell it supposed to be fast, at the beginning I thought you were going to do a Yes riff and then it seemed the guitar part was slower but the tempo was still fast. I thought it was kind of cool.

I got the same email from Soundcloud but I think it's workable. If I start running out of time alloted I'll just take something down and resurrect it later.
I believe with SC free you've always been allowed to upload and download in HD format, it's just they compressed the file for playback to mp3 format. I think, if I read correctly if the song is uploaded in WAV or FLac, etc will now be streamed in HD instead of the compressed format.

I'll check out your YouTube channel when I get a chance, been kind chaotic around here for a bit, trying to get caught up.

Hi again,

Thanks a lot for your very kind words about my music, Richard and Bill. (Yes, Bill, that's a photo of Pekka Pohjola and myself, taken back in 1993.)

I've really been enjoying digging further into everyone's posts here, including the more recent offerings posted--and look forward to digging even deeper as soon as I get a chance.

A few quick notes/additions for anyone that might be interested:

1. I recently rediscovered two solo synth improv tracks I'd recorded on my old "the CAT" synth when I was about 15 or so (from a friend's cassette recording that she recently digitized and shared) and added them to my SoundCloud page as well.

2. There are a couple of group improvisation tracks, from one of our summer party/jam sessions a while back, on a separate SoundCloud page here: https://soundcloud.com/been-jammin-party.

3. My band, Advent, has a SoundCloud site as well, with at least a few non-album tracks scattered here and there: https://soundcloud.com/advent.

4. A musical Facebook friend, Solo Goodspeed, has a lot of really cool music on his SoundCloud page as well--and I think a lot of folks here would enjoy his music as well: https://soundcloud.com/b9tremors. (Apparently, his older "SchizoBraniac" material has been removed though some of it is now featured on his YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9_...Q1xualxT3krwaw instead.)

5. Solo's friend and sometimes-collaborator, Tory Slusher, also has some nice (and often fusion-oriented) guitar-based tunes on her SoundCloud page as well: https://soundcloud.com/user-215212534.

All the best, thanks again, and have a great week,


Alan

I listened to the CAT song and it's amazing what you were doing at 15..nice delicious analog synth sounds there. Oh, and nobody had that much hair...ever!!
I also checked out a ADVENT song and really like what I heard. I'll listen to some more when I get caught up.

So I bought myself an Arturia Keylab MK II 88 key Midi synth for Christmas. I donated my keys to my kids grammar school 20+ years ago and really haven't played piano or synth since. So this is how I'm going to be spending my winter, getting my chops back and having some fun (emphasis on getting my chops back).

Here's a spontaneous track I put together as I try and learn my sounds and DAW software. It's loosely based on a Lenny White tune called Dark Moon, but only in style. Hope you enjoy my first real effort.

https://soundcloud.com/user-139631929/l-white-moon

WEll for just getting back into music after 20 years I love what you did with this song. Also you've got a wonderful keyboard controller with the Arturia and plenty of software to help you grow. Can't wait to hear more from you as you learn your gear.

A lot of talented folks here! I will be digging in deeper, but enjoying Alan's stuff a lot - is that you with the great Pekka Pohjola? Nice track there, hope you develop it further, The World Within is a great production, nice guitar sound. I also checked out and love Nosebone's Poor Mrs Attenborough, superb! Dean, I don't know where to start - you have a lot of fantastic absolutely top-drawer stuff, but I will just say for now I love the drive and rhythm of At Odds, just fantastic almost like Gentle Giant goes to Canterbury. I'm head-banging to "Of Age" at the moment. Also enjoying Top Cat's stuff, in particular "Madness" has stuck with me - a song for our times no doubt.

I'm going to have to actually get a DAW and a decent set up, you guys are leaving me in the dust. Trying to do arrangements with any complexity and putting multiple instruments on a track is frustrating and creates mixing catastrophe on the Spire where all you can do is set the volume and stereo placement for a track and inexact trimming.

I agree, lot of talent, some that goes unnoticed and unheard, so it's great to have this outlet to share our music.
Have you thought about what DAW software you will be using?
thanks for your kind words about Madness, yes a timeless song because we just keep repeating the same stupid mistakes. I have a rough draft of a song I worked on several years ago titled Anger. Maybe I should finish it and make it a companion piece to Madness. lol

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I'm laying down tracks with an eye toward learning the ins and outs of Ableton Lite. Getting into stacking sounds and automation next and at the same time playing with all the fun sounds and amazing amount of control in the Arturia instrument software. It's a bit overwhelming. If I only had this much at my fingertips back in the early 80's when I was in a band and recording in the studio. Do the rest of you remember using that damn razor and tape to edit your recordings?

Although in retrospect analog recording had a lot of issues connected with it, but there are some recordings done back in the day where that element added something to the recordings that simply can be missing in today's music.
Digital recording and the ability for a home studio to have unlimited tracks, console and outboard gear emulations, and the ability to mix and even master an entire album at home and get a pretty decent product is a fantastic thing. Being able to cut/copy and paste without a razor blade is definitely a plus and technology has reached a point where clean, warm sounding mixes in the right hands can sound as good as one of our vintage albums from the 70's or early 80's.

[Buddhabreath]

Have you thought about what DAW software you will be using?

Yes, I'm thinking Sonar, because I used Sonar/Cakewalk in the distant past so I will get up to speed more quickly and I believe it is free now and on par and compatible with the major DAW offerings if I read and recall correctly, but please correct me or suggest otherwise if I'm barking up the wrong tree. The main thing is I need a dedicated PC or laptop and an audio interface. So any suggestions in that area? I'm all ears.

thanks for your kind words about Madness, yes a timeless song because we just keep repeating the same stupid mistakes. I have a rough draft of a song I worked on several years ago titled Anger. Maybe I should finish it and make it a companion piece to Madness. lol

Yes please! I for one want to hear it! ;-)

Although in retrospect analog recording had a lot of issues connected with it, but there are some recordings done back in the day where that element added something to the recordings that simply can be missing in today's music...

I agree there is a certain warmness and charm with analog. I had a lot of fun back in the day with the Tascam etc. Tape has a great history of course since everything was mastered to tape and many of those old recordings can't be beat for sound quality IMO, not to mention music concrete, the mellotron, and effects like the original echoplex (just got the new pedal modeled after it - it even has a setting for the "age" of the tape").

Cheerio!

[Top Cat]

Yes, I'm thinking Sonar, because I used Sonar/Cakewalk in the distant past so I will get up to speed more quickly and I believe it is free now and on par and compatible with the major DAW offerings if I read and recall correctly, but please correct me or suggest otherwise if I'm barking up the wrong tree. The main thing is I need a dedicated PC or laptop and an audio interface. So any suggestions in that area? I'm all ears.

That's a great program, my bandmates use it and also a couple friends of mine as well. Yes, it is now free from Bandlab.
Then there is Reaper(free) and I really like Presonus Studio ONe(it's also free with limitations).
I think Cubase has a free version as well.
Any of these have free downloads to try them out, but stick with what you know and if you can't get back in to the workflow, try something new.
I think they're all basically the same with different bells and whistles and UI.

Audio Interface: decide how many inputs you will need for your gear to plug in. I would suggest 4 minimum, that can hold a stereo keyboard, guitar input and vocal. At least one input should have a on/off button for 48v for pantom power for your mic.
I'm using a Roland Studio Capture now because it has 12 inputs and I have a lot of synths and I can just keep everything plugged in all the time.
My other one on my regular PC is Focusrite Scarlett 2i4. I've used Focusrite for years and they've been flawless and sound great. Presonus, Tascam and Behringer have similar audio interfaces at around the same price.

PC vs Laptop. Unless portability is important for your workflow, I find a dedicated desktop PC to have more advantages over a laptop(one of them being able to use a large screen). I have a 23" monitor which is an upgrade from my previous smaller one and it makes a big difference to me).
I'm not a techno-geek, so computers are out of my pay grade. I'll say I prefer the Intel stuff over the AMD, having had both I think you'd like to get something with i7 or higher(this is the processor and determines how fast your computer software responds, especially under heavy demand). 8G RAM and that's pretty much my basic knowledge. lol

Yes please! I for one want to hear it! ;-)

My wife loved the raw demo of it, especially since she came from work one day, I handed her a piece of paper with scribbled lyrics on it, handed her a microphone and said ok, sing. lol
It was me venting after hearing I'd lost my job because the company I worked for announced they were closing our manufacturing plant(air cargo systems) and moving to North Carolina and Bush's decision to send over 100,000 troops to Afghanistan. As a Vietnam vet all I could see was, here we go again. (not starting any political discussions, it was more about my emotions).

I agree there is a certain warmness and charm with analog. I had a lot of fun back in the day with the Tascam etc. Tape has a great history of course since everything was mastered to tape and many of those old recordings can't be beat for sound quality IMO, not to mention music concrete, the mellotron, and effects like the original echoplex (just got the new pedal modeled after it - it even has a setting for the "age" of the tape").

Cheerio!

I think you did quite well with the limitations of analog cassette recording with your Rescued from Oblivion. Some of the effects you got with tape saturation are perfect for the song, not distorted but pushing the level in just the right place.
I was amazed when I came across this video yesterday on YT. The follow up video is also great because you can hear the mastered version of the 4 track cassette tape(recorded on a Tascam 424 4 track(recently).
Sit back, grab a cup of coffee or beverage and enjoy a few minutes of analog recording nostalgia.

[Buddhabreath]

Hey, thanks for the advice Rick, I think I'll get off my duff and get started on the DAW soon since I'm increasingly frustrated with my current limitations. Yes what that fellow is doing with on a cassette is quite something from what I can hear right now on a crappy headset. Also, I'm now looking forward to "Anger" more than ever after that background story should you choose to "consummate" it.

Cheerio!

[Rick L.]

Here's a project I was involved in about ten years ago called Ra Quintet. I play drums on it and also composed the piece Intrinsic Nature. Chamber Fusion? Enjoy! Or, don't!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...3fFv9rs-OegSYc