This is the first track of new music that I’ve done since late Spring. Happily, I started to gig again a bit during the warm weather months where I live, and, unhappily, that cut into much of the time I’d been devoting to writing and recording during much of the last decade. In any case, There At Dawn just recently emerged.
The first 3 letters of the word DAWn led to my song title, because much of what you’ll hear came from the softsynths in Cubase 14 Pro (Halion, Padshop, Retrologue, Absolute orchestral strings, The Grand, and percussion from Groove Agent and Backbone). There is a real fretless electric bass and nylon stringed guitar with all of that. They were recorded via the Line 6 Helix Native plug-in that’s been my constant go-to for guitars, basses, and occasionally vocals.
All of this composition came from playing around with the stuff mentioned above in Cubase, and the bass and guitar were the final elements added to that. Interested, of course to know what others out there might think of this, so thanks in advance for any comments you might choose to make.
This piece is rather minimalist in its instrumentation compared to some of your other productions, and despite the use of VSTs, it sounds very organic. I find that very interesting, and it’s actually a common characteristic of your pieces. At least, that’s my perception.
It’s very original; it’s difficult to describe the atmosphere of this piece, which is, to say the least, surprising, even a little mysterious. I needed a few listens to appreciate it, but in the end, I thought, it surely has a story to tell… doesn’t it?
Thanks, Rene. Very happy if you liked it, and it seems you did. I appreciated all that you brought out in your comments. I definitely respect your musical output and aptitude, and reading what you’ve written is gratifying.
As for Johnny Moneto, I’m not quite sure what you’re getting at with the timing comment. I just listened through again, and it’s an even 4/4 throughout. Were you referring to where I started musical phrases? If so, those were deliberate choices.
Hey John, this is another good piece. I like the sounds you are using. Well done! Great use of synths! Makes me think of Shape of the World, maybe your best piece ever. Certainly on my playlist.
I also understand what Johnny Moneto is saying, and I’ve said it myself previously on other pieces. The notes don’t line up cleanly in many places, so instruments don’t land on the beat at the same time. As he said, not tight. I think you really are against using quantize, given that musicians playing together shouldn’t need it. But when you’re laying parts down on top of other parts, it’s never going to sound as good as it does live. Studies have shown that musicians can anticipate the beat much better in a live situation than they can playing with a metronome. I thoroughly believe that, through my own experience.
So if you want to make this piece tighter, and I think you should want to make it tighter, because it’s a really good piece, you should either re-record until you get it as tight as you can, or you should resort to quantizing, which I think you are against, and I respect that. I personally resort to quantizing, because with all the little delays due to the way computers work, the latency adds up. It wouldn’t happen with humans playing live. And you and I both know this because we are both playing live these days! How cool is that!!!
Thanks very much for listening to this, Leon, and weighing in with some kind assessments and suggestions (and recalling one of my songs from a few years ago-actually called Map of the World). Since reading what you wrote, and thinking in terms of quantizing, I went back and just did that, so what’s to be heard now is that updated version.
Having said that, I’m not sure if I applied quantizing correctly, but think that I did. To my ear, it still sounds good, and to be honest, basically like it had prior to applying quantizing (hence, wondering if I’d really done anything, or applied it correctly).
In any case, I’m not sure if either you or Johnny M will come back to hear this again, but I’d be curious if it sounded any different relative to notes lining up. Hope that it does, and if it doesn’t, I’ll go back and watch a cubase video about how to apply quantizing! Yet another reason why, as much fun as it is to go DIY with a project, another set of ears is pretty important.
Sounds better to me, John. Some notes are still a bit loose, but overall, better. Quantize only works on MIDI, but there are ways to achieve the same on audio. And with MIDI, you have to set up the quantizing correctly, or notes will end up on the wrong beat. But I think that improved the recording. Oh, and sorry for forgetting the name of that great song!