My latest recording, a traditional country-flavored “cowboy” (or actually “cowgirl” in this case) song I wrote back in the mid-90s called “Cheyenne”, was my first attempt at using the ARA version of Celemony’s Tonalic Essential in the latest version of Cubase. (I’d previously used the VST3 version on one recording, but the ARA version greatly simplifies things on the workflow front.)
Tonalic was used for the acoustic guitars – 3 tracks total, though two of those were the same pattern but needed two tracks to do parts at normal speed and parts at half speed.
Other “toys” involved include Toontrack Superior Drummer 3 (with a kit from EZ Drummer 3), IK’s MODO Bass 2, IK’s PianoVerse (Royal Upright Y5), Indiginus The Steel and The Fiddle (Kontakt-based instruments), and IK ReSing (for doubling my own background vocals).
I understand about “so much not my kind of music”, and I know traditional country fits that description for many. FWIW, I never write lyrics about trucks, trains, prison, dogs, … Nor the current country equivalent of pickup trucks, girls with short shorts, beer on Saturday nights, … (That stuff is on MY list of “so much not my kind of music”.)
This is as traditional as I’ve gotten to date (I’ve definitely dabbled in country rock, country pop, and Americana before, alongside pop/rock, singer-songwriter, and even some more synth-oriented stuff). It will also end up being my main focus for the album I’m working on now. That will largely be made of cowboy-themed songs I wrote or co-wrote back in the 90s. Most of the songs that will end up in that collection have just been sitting on the shelf, other than for my doing them live occasionally, for the last few decades, but one was recorded by two different Norwegian country singers back in the late 90s and early 00s. Prior to that, I’d had no clue there were any pockets of traditional country music interest in Europe.
LOL. Coincidentally, I’m currently reading Mike Campbell’s biography (“Heartbreaker”), and the chapter I just finished reading at breakfast depicts an incident where the guys in the band are at a place out in the country where they lived together. Tom Petty’s father comes out with two women he picked up in a bar, and does various threatening feeling stuff (Tom was very afraid of him), and Tom sort of stands up to him a bit, and the father says something like, “don’t do me like that, son!” I’m guessing a future chapter will connect it to the hit song.
Country is generally outside my usual listening sphere, but nice work overall regardless.
Looks like you’ve achived a good outcome with Tonalic - I’ve finally got over my technical hurdles (thanks for your input by the way), and now onto my second project using it.
Good to hear. I think I’ve done three now – one with the VST3 version and two with the ARA version. I don’t know if it’s gotten better results than I’d have gotten with my usual tools, but it sure does get the results it gets a lot quicker than those usual tools, and that was a major win. Also, the most recent song I did with it (not out there yet) goes back and forth between 3/4 and 4/4 (and also has a few tempo map changes to get some slowdowns in parts), and it did nicely on that. There was some getting used to how to deal with the time signature changes, but I’m not even sure I could have dealt with that part at all with the UJAM Virtual Guitarist and NI Session Guitarist products.
It’s nice to hear someone singing about their horse.
Didn’t care for the song, but that’s because I’m going through an 80s heavy metal phase. (A few years ago it was Trance, so maybe next year will be Country’s year.)
But…
I liked the production.
So,
LOL. Just to be clear, Cheyenne is a woman, who happens to ride horses.
That’s some variety in phases. I don’t usually go through long phases. This year (and probably into some of next year) may need to change that a bit, though, as I really do want to finally get some of my cowboy-themed songs from mid-to-late 90s out there, and most of those will demand a more traditional country flavor than I’ve ever done before. However, there will inevitably be interruptions for specific needs, like a late 70s/early 80s-style rock ballad I did earlier this year to target a sync opportunity.
