An Active God-non denominational or proselytizing instrumental

This is the first recording I’ve finished in 2022. It was built around the part you’ll hear played in the steel and nylon stringed acoustic guitars. My intention was to just record them, but you’ll hear that a fretless bass, minimal percussion, electric piano came along for the ride. An acoustic 12 string guitar and softsynth briefly pop up in solos.
Any of the drums and keys were done from Halion and/or groove agent. The guitars and bass all went through the Line 6 Helix Native plug-in. I’ve always struggled with decent non-mic’ed acoustic guitar recordings, but the latest Helix Native includes a really good DI preset that I’ve tweaked separately for each of the steel string guitars here, and a bit more tweaking for the nylon. I’m curious in particular what any of you who listen might think about the sound of those instruments here, which were recorded directly through that plug in.
I am fond of puns, and the title here is definitely a pun of sorts. You can see what I was thinking of in the info file on either the bandcamp or soundcloud page. I’m pasting each in as a potential choice. I think bandcamp files sound better, but the threat of a download fee scares some away. Soundcloud has its own annoyance through their ads that prevent you listening to something more than once.
Happy to read any impressions, but I’ll already say I don’t want the percussion to be more prominent than it already is. Just a matter of taste for me on this one. Thanks!

Hi John,

This piece is super cool. I don’t know if the term is appropriate, but I would define it as very organic, both in terms of instrumentation and sound impact as a whole. It seems to me difficult to assign a musical genre to this work, but that is of little importance; like it or not, for my part, the atmosphere of the piece pleases me. The guitars and bass sound very good, and the mix seems well balanced to me. At least the audio response of my HS50s allowed me to appreciate a well-made product.

Renel

Thanks for the listen and kind words, Rene. Always nice to know that someone likes what we’ve done. This issue of genre always troubles me a little bit when uploading to soundcloud. I don’t really know what genre a lot of my material might fall into. I agree that’s of little importance. It always comes down to whether music strikes us, or not.
John

A nice organic piece as Rene says above. Nice to bob along to, thanks for sharing.

I’m also a fan of Helix and have to say you’ve made better use of the presets designed for acoustics than I’ve managed. These were DI acoustics? Nicely done anyway,

Yes, genres and the incessant need for classification of music seems to get worse and worse.

Bandcamp files definitely sound better than Soundcloud…of all the services I think Soundcloud is still the worst.

There’s a lot going on here with all the instruments working hard, almost competing for air. However, I like it for what it is and wish I could get the clarity of each instrument the way you do. Nice.

Jonathan

Thanks, Nic.
I think Helix Native is awesome. I haven’t had any of Line 6’s effect board stuff since the POD days, and that was generally great so I hoped/assumed that Native would be on that kind of level. I’ve put all of my guitars and basses into Helix Native for the last few years of recording projects. The one thing I hadn’t been too happy about were their built in settings for acoustics, but that has changed.
What I really liked about their latest update was that they did include this dedicated DI Input. That’s what I ran my acoustic guitars into, and I created a slightly different set of settings for each of the 3 acoustic guitars I used here (the 6 string steel, nylon, and 12 string). Of course, it allows me to save those settings, and they’re now there to play around with in future projects. I just ran each of them into my audio interface and played with the DI input from there.
Glad you enjoyed bobbing along to this.
John

LOL, Jonathan, about the instruments working hard and competing for air! This was actually a pretty minimal production for me relative to many things I come up with.
I’d blame my lost youth in the 70’s listening to the prog and fusion from those times, along with a huge smattering of Todd Rundgren.
I feel good about you saying the individual instruments had clarity. I’m glad if that was achieved.
Thanks for listening, and for your comments.
John

Makes sense. I was there, too.

Jonathan

Sounds great. One thing I don’t like, is the high hat on beat 2. Too intrusive/doesn’t mix with the rest of it organically. Other than that, I like the sounds and vibe!

Yes I started with the PODs, indeed still have them. I do also have a hardware Helix (great for both live use and getting a sound quickly when recording) and just love being able to swap sounds from the hardware unit to the Native plugin and vice versa.
I shall have to have another go with Helix Native for my acoustic recordings. Cheers!

Interesting observation about that high hat. Hadn’t thought of it in the terms you mentioned, but just listened again with headphones and that thought in mind. Maybe I’ll go back and try to reduce it in the mix.
Thanks for listening and the positive reaction plus suggestion.
John

Hi Swetch, many great sounds in this one. Really like it. Seems to me the mix is mostly in the center. Maybe that’s how you wanted it.

This pièce is full of Joy. Love it, in particular the way instruments interact and reply to each other. Absolutely well done John…
Ps: Title is smart too…

Thanks for the listen and kind words. I’m happy in general with this, but I will listen again to the mix and see if I think the recording might benefit from widening it a bit.
John

Thanks, Stephco. Glad you enjoyed this one. I’ve been pleased with the reactions , so far. If I was able to convey Joy in music, that’s definitely a big plus.
John

Hey Schwetz, now I’m not sure. I was listening on my headphones, and it seemed mostly in the center. Listening again on my speakers, maybe I misjudged. Still really like the sounds.

Hi Swetch, What a nice listen. It was real acoustic instruments sounding like they are in a real space. The piece just rolls along pleasantly and smoothly like a modern jazzy trip down the Mississippi.

Thanks for those kind words, I’m particularly happy you liked the sound of the acoustic guitars. I was really trying to improve the sound quality I’ve usually gotten with them, so you’ve validated those attempts.

This has a 70 ties CSN&Y sound, like the bass sound very much. It is rhythmically a bit to much imho,
it could easily do without the percussion a bit part of the track, there is so much going on.
I also agree with Early21 that the mix could be much wider so the instruments sound more apart, it will contribute to the polyrhythmic and melodic lines. Your centre ir the place then for the main theme/hook of the song.

The tile is too much for my tiny muso mind but very impressed with the sounds in this …to me, Avant-garde piece, a lot going on but a lot of space…go figure, you should do a youtube tut on how you do it…