Thanks for all the feedback. You are absolutely right. Looperman’s greatest value in my view is that we can get constructive input from other members on what works and what doesn’t work so well in our tracks.

It has been a while since I developed the Box Room track, but I’m pretty sure I was aware (or at least I suspected) that I might have a key change going on in the track. I remember thinking of the Daft Punk track, “Within”, where Montreal Pianist Chilly Gonzales had to come up with a way to bridge sections from A minor to Bb minor. He had to find a chord that played a role in both keys. He chose F. (There’s a really interesting VICE interview with him as one of the collaborators on Random Access Memories where he explains this.). He’s like Jacob Collier in his focus on the role of harmony in music.

Muted trumpet is from Native Instrument’s Session Horns Pro. I think it’s a really good VST. I do tend to layer different VST instruments for strings and horns, but on this one I just used the Session Horns patch on its own.

I’m not sure I agree with you about the vocal processing. I think, on reflection, that I over-did it. It sounds kind of harsh to me in some areas now. Some level of effects I think was OK throughout, but I think I should have been more selective.

I’m not exactly sure what you meant by the chords at 0:32 sounding “too easy”. Definitely agree that playing them on the first count makes thinks sound kind of “wooden” in the track. I think that was just laziness on my part. I struggled to find a chord progression that worked. Once I had that I didn’t make the effort to play a more nuanced piano track. It isn’t quantized, but the timing is pretty close to being exactly on the beats, which gets boring. I think I usually do better.

But, I also think you are suggesting either that the chord inversion was “too easy” or that the chord itself was not as interesting as it could have been. That’s a more substantive issue and I’d really appreciate hearing more explanation from you on that, if possible. The first chord is a Bb7 major, second inversion. Second chord is Eb major with the fifth (Bb) doubled in the bass. Keeps Bb as the common foundation for both chords. (I’m trying to avoid always using the root of the chord in the left hand). Anyway, I’m definitely interested in your advice on what I might do with those chords.

Regards,

Eric

Thanks, Ed. This was a tough one for me. I did study music theory long ago, but not a whole seems to have stuck. It's very much hit or miss for me figuring out chord progressions. It gets very confusing! :0

I saw that you replied to my comment on your "Two Minutes" track, but the page seems to have gone missing on Looperman. Have never seen that before.

One of these days it would be great if we could collaborate on a track. I greatly admire your musicianship.

Eric

After letting the track "sit" for a few weeks, I listened to it again. I think you are right about the timbre of the vocals. I think I went a bit overboard on the processing, at least in parts. Fresh ears.

Thanks, Ronabo. I left you a lengthy comment on your latest track, which I liked a great deal. You do really nice keyboard work! :)

Eric

Orchestral Essentials for the legato strings. NI Session Strings Pro for the violas. I generally find that combining different VSTs on strings and brass and duplicating the midi tracks seems to work better. Each instrument brings a different timbre and articulation. In this case, however, I didn't double track the string parts.

Merci, Bleep. Oui, la voix est filtrée. Aussi double-tracked, compression légère, un peu de reverb, un peu de delay, et "stereo spreader". Peut-Être trop?

Eric

Merci, Laurent! Yes, hard work, but very enjoyable if the acapellas are good and the track ends up sounding OK. I've definitely had attempts that didn't work out very well. Sometimes inspiration seems to dry up, and then it comes back. Good thing I'm not trying to make a living doing this. Would be starving for sure! :)

Thanks, Monterage. Piano solo is a bit clunky I think. My piano technique has really deteriorated. I play everything in via midi, but then I have to spend a lot of time tweaking the midi track fixing wrong notes and getting phrasing so it sounds right. Have decided I need to start practising my scales and arpeggios again. I have a friend (an economist) who is a pretty good jazz pianist. Plays gigs on the weekend in a jazz trio. He practices his scales for 1 hour every day. Real dedication! :)

I AM in luck, Steve. Not only because there apparently is an app that can help me figure out the key of a song ( I usually don't have this much trouble), but also because there somebody like you who point me in the right direction and to actually make the effort to jam to my track to confirm the key for me! :) Thanks very much, my friend! You just demonstrated the value of the Looperman community.

This is all a bit embarrassing, frankly. I can't even figure out what key the track I composed is in. I think at some point early on I did wonder if Eb was the actual key, but for some reason decided it probably wasn't. And, then when I played in the piano solo and mute trumpet part using a blues scale that seemed to be in the key of C, I figured the whole thing must be in C minor. Which is, of course, the relative minor for Eb. I must be getting old. Wait! I AM old! :)

Thanks again. I will check out Mixx for sure. I wonder how it will work on just the acapella alone. I think most acapellas on Looperman don't indicate the key, so figuring that out is the first step. In theory, makes developing a appropriate chord progression easier, although I've never done it that sequence.

Thanks, Steve. I did try to voice the chords not in root position, at last part of the time. That's a change for me because I'm not really good at inversions.

Also , it is possible that the complex chords that Logic was saying I was playing were actually mis-identified due to the fact that, in Logic, I might have specified the key of the song incorrectly. I wish there was some app that could analyze an audio file and tell you what key it was in.

I set this remix as being in A minor, but the piano solo and mute trumpet were playing a blues scale in C. Those are related keys, of course, so who knows what key it really is. Could be both, with a key change?

I actually found this one really confusing. Took me a couple of weeks off and on to get it finished.