Soundcloud Share Thread

**Top Cat** · 12-04-2019

Originally Posted by 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

Hi Rick..just listened to Morning, lots of beautiful rich guitar textures, and of course I enjoyed your drum playing. Very professional and great production on the mix and final product.
Thanks for sharing with us. Are you guys signed? I guess no one does anymore, do they?
Unfortunately, most musicians have to have a day job and promote themselves these days, but be proud of what you accomplished.

**Top Cat** · 12-04-2019

Originally Posted by 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!

Once you make your decision of laptop over desktop this is a great time of year to make a purchase, either now or after Christmas blow outs. I just got my wife a nice Lenovo PC tower for use with her art projects. She was using a HP Pavillion and it was slower than molasses. We came close a couple of times to taking a hammer to it. lol So far I've been impressed with the Lenovo, who knew? never really heard of them before but the reviews are mostly positive. Of course hers is not loaded with super memory(4G Ram) and I'm not sure what the processor is, might even be a AMD. But it's definitely a upgrade from that stupid red laptop.

**Guitarplyrjvb** · 12-04-2019

Wow! Some great music here. Always astounds me about the talent level that folks have. I would imagine that many on this forum are musicians given the primary subject matter discussed.

I recently upgraded my version of Sonar based on feedback from excellent users like TopCat and would heartily recommend it.

Here's my contribution to the thread:

This is a collection of Christmas tracks that my wife and I send to our family and friends each year. It contains some chestnuts like "Welcome Christmas (from the Grinch), Happy Christmas (Lennon), and I Believe in Father Christmas (ELP). There's also some more obscure stuff.

Merry Christmas, and thanks for starting this thread!

**Buddhabreath** · 12-04-2019

Had a bit of a listen, Guitarplyrjvb and will dig in further when I have time, but great guitar playing and those nice lush harmonies on Unfinished Symphony! Polished.

**Guitarplyrjvb** · 12-04-2019

^^ Thanks, Buddah! I try to disguise my voice by layering harmonies over it and doubling!

**Guitarplyrjvb** · 12-04-2019

Just listened to Buddabreath’s track “Journey to an Alien World: Lift Off”. Loved it! Great atmospherics and really nice bass playing. Sort of like Tangerine Dream with more meat to it.

**Rick L.** · 12-04-2019

Originally Posted by Top Cat

Hi Rick..just listened to Morning, lots of beautiful rich guitar textures, and of course I enjoyed your drum playing. Very professional and great production on the mix and final product.
Thanks for sharing with us. Are you guys signed? I guess no one does anymore, do they?
Unfortunately, most musicians have to have a day job and promote themselves these days, but be proud of what you accomplished.

Thanks for listening, man. Independent release. All the members of Ra Quintet are local "pros", though. Performers/composers/teachers, etc. Most of us are involved in a bunch of projects simultaneously to continue feeding ourselves. Jazz, rock, metal, fusion, free improv, and occasionally "classical " stuff.

Enough about me. Let's hear some more tunes, people!

**Guitarplyrjvb** · 12-04-2019

Rick L. ....great stuff, indeed. Definitely a Cunieform vibe as has been said.

**Buddhabreath** · 12-04-2019

Gosh, thanks Guitarplyrjvb, that's quite a compliment!

**BobM** · 12-04-2019

Going through some of your work now, all I can say is ... I've got some catching up to do both in playing and in production quality.

Dean Watson - just wow, a professional and it shows.

Alan - I like the World Within, have to listen to others. The guitar and keys together make a nice sound. Too bad I'm just a keyboard player

Frinspar - same comments, I wish I could layer guitar as well as keys, thanks for sharing your ideas

Nosebone - nice tunes from way back when. I wish I had recordings of my early band days that were worth sharing.

Guitar (something unintelligible) - love the Christmas vibes

All I have time for now. Hope there is more to come fellas.

**frinspar** · 12-04-2019

Rick, enjoyed the first three a lot (all I've heard so far). I'm a fan of clean and distorted accompanying/countering each other, like in Moving.

Joe, thanks for the Christmas tunes! I dug around your other stuff, too. Lots of diversity.

I'm guessing you're playing on a real drum kit, too? Very cool.

**Guitarplyrjvb** · 12-04-2019

frinspar, love the track “Temporally Yours”! Nice stuff!

Bob, nice keys, percussion and vocoder (?). Very atmospheric! I’m gonna’ have to check out the Lenny White source!

**frinspar** · 12-05-2019

^
Thanks! I hadn't done much but collect ideas for so long, and only recently moved onto fleshing them out and recording actual songs. So each one is a learning experience. I used Adrian Belew's Flux:FX app for a couple bits in that. I'd like to get into using it more, just gotta wait for the right ideas.

**Dean Watson** · 12-05-2019

Originally Posted by Top Cat

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

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 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.

I'd like to give a nod to Reaper as well. I suffered with protools and it's processor hogging. Many dropouts, low rez, low track counts, just a pain overall. Then I discovered Reaper - what a revelation! OMG. Everything just works. Period. I paid $60 for it - that was after playing the full version for free for a few weeks. It truly is amazing. My last recording - Track Of Days - was recorded entirely in Reaper on a Dell Laptop ( i7 8 gig ) with a Steinberg UR22MkII external soundcard. I recorded it in 24/96 which I could NEVER do in PT. Plus, they're updating Reaper all the time - like weekly sometimes - so they really care about the product. Not to necessarily flaunt my stuff, but if you check out my latest CD - you can hear what a laptop and Reaper and a $250 soundcard can sound like - even the mastering was done on my laptop - you can listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hou_jv2X7uw.

**Buddhabreath** · 12-05-2019

Food for thought. Thanks Dean.

**BobM** · 12-05-2019

Originally Posted by Dean Watson

Not to necessarily flaunt my stuff, but if you check out my latest CD - you can hear what a laptop and Reaper and a $250 soundcard can sound like - even the mastering was done on my laptop - you can listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hou_jv2X7uw.

Did you record that all in one take? A truly impressive undertaking if that was a yes, but with all that complexity I don't see how. Awesome music Dean.

Wait - you played every instrument? (mind blown)

**Dean Watson** · 12-05-2019

Originally Posted by BobM

Did you record that all in one take? A truly impressive undertaking if that was a yes, but with all that complexity I don't see how. Awesome music Dean.

Wait - you played every instrument? (mind blown)

Bob, what did you think of the sound quality? On many, many listens, and comparing it to my older ProTools stuff I really think Reaper sounds sonically better. To think, a laptop, reaper and cheap external sound Card? Technology is awesome!

**BobM** · 12-05-2019

I will play it on my main audio rig over the weekend and let you know. I should get every bit of goodness out of it on this system.

IMG_20181215_162302.jpg

**Dean Watson** · 12-05-2019

Holy crap! That’s your stereo? Yes, please let me know how it sounds!

**BobM** · 12-08-2019

Something I knocked out on a rainy Sunday morning. Playing with percussion and pads.

https://soundcloud.com/user-139631929/at-pads

**Top Cat** · 12-08-2019

Originally Posted by BobM

Something I knocked out on a rainy Sunday morning. Playing with percussion and pads.

https://soundcloud.com/user-139631929/at-pads

Knocked it out? I can't wait to hear what you do on a sunny Sunday morning..lol
This is a nice smooth happy piece, and I really needed that today.
Been dealing with family matters all week and it's been quite stressful so this was a cool chillin moment for me.
I like the percussion thing you have going on, and then sounds like a Solina pad to me and also the pad with the res filter sweeps (done very tastefully), bring in the organ to put the icing on the cake. I was hoping I'd hear after the 2:00 something, the organ leslie sim kick in and sure enough you did it.
Great job! thanks for sharing this and lighting up my day a bit.