Back Then (again)

Here’s my latest, which is actually a complete new recording of something I first did years ago on Cubase 5. I was inspired to revisit the song because I recently bought a Taylor 12 string acoustic guitar. I thought it’d be nice to hear that on this song, and assumed it would be a “quick and easy” return to something I’d already completed.
That definitely didn’t happen. I wrote new parts (intro, outro, soft synths, and the 4/4 drum part). Originally the recording had the 6/8 part you’ll hear as the only percussion part going through the entire song. That was originally done on a Boss DR-880 drum machine, and here it is again at a quicker tempo than it had once been during the 6/8 part in this new version. That tempo made the part unusable for the entire song, so that’s why I did the separate 4/4 part in Groove Agent.
The song now includes 3 acoustic guitars (nylon stringed, 6 string, and the new 12 string-which oddly enough doesn’t feature as prominently as I’d felt it would). It has a 5-string electric bass and the soft synths. 2 of those are from Halion (cellos and woodwinds), and the sort of snarly one is from Spector.
I was a big fan of 70’s Prog in my formative years, and the bands I liked sometimes did tracks that were a bit evocative of “early music”. I’m thinking of HIs Last Voyage or A Reunion by Gentle Giant, or Turn of the Century and Madrigal from Yes. I think this song is connected to that type of musical place, although I’m not consciously aping any of those songs or artists. The title relates to the idea that the song isn’t really 20th or 21st century music. It points back in my mind to some sort of earlier undefined time and place.
I’m putting links here to the song in both bandcamp and soundcloud. I always feel bandcamp files sound a bit better. If you listen in soundcloud, there’s actually a version of this song way down among my tracks that dates back at least 10-12 years. Not thinking anyone might want to listen to that one, but it is there too.
Thanks for listening, and for any comments you may choose to leave.
John

https://soundcloud.com/56swetch/back-then-again-02?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Hi John,

Truly intriguing, mesmerising music. I get the early music influences and the prog relatives. Love the percussion. To me it has a Zappa sound, too. The different sections connect nicely giving a sense of growth throughout.

Thanks for sharing

Jonathan

Cool! Very original. This music is very Flower Power. I kind of feel like I’m back in the 60s. Peace Man! The world needs it so much… Excellent mood, great achievement.

Nice one, thanks for sharing! :sunglasses:

I’m picking up a little of that “earlier time” vibe, for sure.

Rene,
Thanks for the very kind words. I’m happy with all that you said-particularly the original part-and pleased that it struck you this way.
John

Thanks, and hoping that “earler time” is a pleasant one to visit.
John

Hi Jonathan,
Happy to find that you liked this, and gratified by your kind words. I appreciate the Zappa reference, and I’m kind of intrigued by it. I never really listened to him much, but a few comments for a song I put up about a year ago (called the 11th Hour’s Promise) also pointed to a “Zappa” sound or vibe. I definitely take that as a compliment since he’s very well respected, but I’m curious how he might’ve filtered in to the things I do.
Thanks again for listening and weighing in on what you’ve heard.
John

Hi Swetch, yes, inline with Gentle Giant, for sure (i’m a fan of octopus, btw).
I love the change @ 1m20s. really cool. This part is beautiful to my ears.
I like the way you managed the distance between all the elements during the flow in terms of panning and depth. AND the Bass is amazing!
I’m feeling the hard work too. The 3 parts (at least) are well organized and orchestrated.
Yeah, as Rene said, Excellent mood, great achievement…

Nice, John! Wish I could hear the bass better.

Thanks, Stephco and Leon. I appreciate the music each of you do, so if this is pleasing to you guys, I’m very happy.
As for the bass, if you were serious about it being more prominent, Leon, I did the old trick of listening to my original mix on my car stereo. The bass almost blew the doors off-and this is a pretty laid back song!.
This mix repaired my car door dings (kidding). I played the bass part on a pretty new 5 string after doing the original track on an older 6 string bass that I’ve done a lot of recording with. The 5 string had a character I liked. so I kept that take, but I’m still trying to find a good sound and settings for that bass. It’ll be work in progress.
Thanks, again.
John

A really nice piece, enjoyed the listen…quite Avant-garde to my ears, seems to me that there is a timing issue starting at around 40 secs lasting for around 5 secs? forgive me if this is intentional.

Hi, and thanks for the kind words and evaluation. That timing issue you mentioned is definitely there, and wasn’t intentional. I hadn’t noticed that, but it’s legit. I’m guessing it has to do with copying and pasting that percussion loop used in that part of the song. I did tweak the placement of a few things in the loop and thought it would copy and paste correctly in all instances where I used that part. It didn’t seem to in that one. I will fix it, and re-up this on bandcamp. Thanks for your good ears and close listen.
John

The track is now fixed, and thanks again to knmack for spotting the rythmic hitch. The fixed bandcamp track is at the top of this thread as it should be, but I don’t have soundcloud pro, so I had to delete the track before reposting it.
The fixed version on soundcloud can be heard through this: