Song Of The Month Club - November 2024

ecamburn

@richardyot said:

@ecamburn said:
I'm not sure what folks mean by "lyrics in the spoiler".

You can hide text so that it's only optionally visible, and it doesn't clutter up the thread.

Select the text, then in the paragraph options choose "spoiler":

[pics deleted]

Thanks Richard

studs1966

Hi Guys.. Its been a while.. Anyway, here is my contribution for this month/. Its been out on all stores now, with 8 mixes I did for this track?.. Enjoy..

Here is one other mix of it, but in Radio Edit.. More Sax than Vocals.. Almost an instrumental.. with a Disco Vibe?..

BillS

@Fruitbat1919 said:

@BillS said:

Thanks for listening and your feedback - I understand your point completely. I was a huge fan of the Smiths and have clearly been subliminally influenced by the jaunty happy tunes of songs like Girlfriend In a Coma and There's A Light That Never Goes Out (..."if a 10 ton truck kills the both of us, to die by your side, well the pleasure the privilege is mine").

I’m listening to your other SoundCloud tracks at the moment. I’m on Man at the gig at the moment. Some quality music. Apart from Atocha, which was a real change from the rest so far, they all have a feel that makes them gel well together.

Your music has a real quality live feel and flow to it - some quality playing or and programming. As for your choice of material - let me put it this way - you play a melancholic chord and it still sounds happy! Your lyrics are thought provoking and clever, but if I’m honest you come across as just too happy a person to be singing about such subjects. I think it’s in your voice. I could imagine you having success with someone else singing your songs, or you backing singing for a female vocalist. As it is, you do sound like you are enjoying making your music and singing your songs….maybe a tad too much enjoyment lol!

I’m now on the last track. I’ve really enjoyed listening to your music. Production values sound top notch to me. Are you recording the tracks live, as it has a very live feel to each sound?

I much appreciate you taking the time to listen through my songs. I opened this separate SoundCloud page when I started learning piano about a year ago, and they are generally of a quieter, more acoustic nature. Ha ha, too happy? I don’t know, it’s just the way it comes out! Most of what you hear in this selection is piano, acoustic and to a lesser extent electric guitar, all played live with no or minimal editing. . The only thing I program is drums. Production is something I’ve learnt on the job over the 25 years I’ve been using DAWs and it’s a part of the process I enjoy so much.

All I need to do now is employ a miserable singer😂. If you’re interested my Spotify is here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1MXPl0GQM6yepQxgbCc9Rz?si=OuJ4lA6tQUGmDcfRUIYurQ

Thanks again

deadpoetlive

@richardyot said:
My entry for the month, lyrics in the spoiler:

If you want to see the light
You have to look into the night
Contradictions that convey
The mystery can lead the way

The voice in the silence
Will speak suddenly
The whispering islands
The wind through the trees

We couldn’t see
The stars were out
We drifted our sleep

We couldn’t reach
The distant shores
The sea was far too deep

And so you blindly
Felt tears run down your cheek
Way behind me
When the world was cold and bleak

If you grasp this whisp of smoke
The fractured dreams it will evoke
Can be your guide, into the dark
Where stars emerged from a single spark

The howl in the darkness
Will make your skin crawl
It shatters the silence
With its awful call

We couldn’t see
The stars were out
We drifted our sleep

We couldn’t reach
The distant shores
The sea was far too deep

And so you blindly
Felt tears run down your cheek
Way behind me
When the world was cold and bleak

My favourite song of yours so far, everything just works from intro to outro. My partner called from the other room asking if I was playing soft cell which I think you can take as a definite seal of approval.

richardyot

@deadpoetlive said:

@richardyot said:
My entry for the month, lyrics in the spoiler:

If you want to see the light
You have to look into the night
Contradictions that convey
The mystery can lead the way

The voice in the silence
Will speak suddenly
The whispering islands
The wind through the trees

We couldn’t see
The stars were out
We drifted our sleep

We couldn’t reach
The distant shores
The sea was far too deep

And so you blindly
Felt tears run down your cheek
Way behind me
When the world was cold and bleak

If you grasp this whisp of smoke
The fractured dreams it will evoke
Can be your guide, into the dark
Where stars emerged from a single spark

The howl in the darkness
Will make your skin crawl
It shatters the silence
With its awful call

We couldn’t see
The stars were out
We drifted our sleep

We couldn’t reach
The distant shores
The sea was far too deep

And so you blindly
Felt tears run down your cheek
Way behind me
When the world was cold and bleak

My favourite song of yours so far, everything just works from intro to outro. My partner called from the other room asking if I was playing soft cell which I think you can take as a definite seal of approval.

Thanks! Partner approval is literally the highest accolade there is 👍

BillS

@ecamburn said:
This was also submitted to the 4 track challenge. [edited] put lyrics in spoiler.

Will be back to listen to others' tunes.

staring down a blank slate
looking at my shoes
can't come up late
what am I gonna do

what's my number
what's my plan
gotta finish thing
to get to thpromised land

he said
i've got a contest
it's got some rules
just follow these
and all will be truej

the rule is four
four and no more
don't use five
or i'll disqualify

!

The synth based arpeggios are effective and the use of the stereo field sounds great on headphones. I like the use of the heavy processing on the vocals, but after the first or second verse, I thought it could have been very effective to drop the effects and perhaps vary the melody a bit more in the final verses. Good work though!

ecamburn

I love the variety of stuff submitted to this thread.

@richardyot. Dig the jangly guitar. This has a really dreamy vibe to it. The distorted chords that come in at around the :30 mark add a nice contrast to all the mellow elements. The pads complement the vocals nicely. The only thing I might note is that the bass and kick seem low in the mix.

@fruitbat1919. I couldn't quite tell what direction you were going at the beginning of the tune, but I dig where you ended up after settling into a groove. Love the dueling basses. All your stuff has a very live feel to it. I like how you never know what lead is next around the corner.

@unlink. The minimal sine synth part really communicates the song's concept nicely. Has a dark, cinematic vibe. Up till the part where the drums came in my ears were tracking the rhythm in a completely different way. I dig the unusual rhythmic connection between the the sine sound and the drums. Interesting piece.

@DavidEnglish. This is a pretty piece. Low and slow is exactly what I needed here on a rainy Saturday morning. The simple structure of building around octaves is really effective and does a nice job of setting the peaceful, dreamy vibe.

@BillS. I love how the lyrics put you right on the street with those folks. It reminds me of a little gaggle of school girls I pass on my way to exercise class in the morning. They stand with their backs to each other, completely silent. The social dynamics of street life are fascinating. Nice one.

richardyot

@ecamburn said:
@richardyot. Dig the jangly guitar. This has a really dreamy vibe to it. The distorted chords that come in at around the :30 mark add a nice contrast to all the mellow elements. The pads complement the vocals nicely. The only thing I might note is that the bass and kick seem low in the mix.

Thanks - I think you're right about the low end of the mix, it probably needs to come up a little.

Fruitbat1919

@studs1966 said:
Hi Guys.. Its been a while.. Anyway, here is my contribution for this month/. Its been out on all stores now, with 8 mixes I did for this track?.. Enjoy..

Here is one other mix of it, but in Radio Edit.. More Sax than Vocals.. Almost an instrumental.. with a Disco Vibe?..

Only had time to listen to the first mix. Funny enough I didn't like this style of music when I was young - love it now. Only listened on my iPad so far, but sounds a professional quality mix. I look forward to listening to the 'sax' mix later

Fruitbat1919

@ecamburn said:
I love the variety of stuff submitted to this thread.

@fruitbat1919. I couldn't quite tell what direction you were going at the beginning of the tune, but I dig where you ended up after settling into a groove. Love the dueling basses. All your stuff has a very live feel to it. I like how you never know what lead is next around the corner.

Thwnks To be honest I'm not always sure of a direction when I start a track. As I build my tracks up and they change as I go along, sometimes they can lack direction - the one I'm posting next month is personal one about the different feelings of dealing with my head pains and that one is a bit all over the place. This one really was about that morning coffee, and I was trying to give the feeling of coming out of sleep and gaining normality through that morning cuppa. To be honest though I'm guilty of loving a meandering track and I do love throwing in different sounds....absolutely not commercial value lol

unlink

@ecamburn said:
This was also submitted to the 4 track challenge. [edited] put lyrics in spoiler.

Will be back to listen to others' tunes.

staring down a blank slate
looking at my shoes
can't come up late
what am I gonna do

what's my number
what's my plan
gotta finish thing
to get to thpromised land

he said
i've got a contest
it's got some rules
just follow these
and all will be truej

the rule is four
four and no more
don't use five
or i'll disqualify

!

I like your track, and considering the limitation of the 4 tracks I think it's a really good track. Quite some variations but most important it tells a story, it's a nice dark electronic story!
The only thing I would change is the ending which I think is a bit too long (I'm referring to the refrain which starts at around 3 minutes). Also nice singing!

piano39

This is a song that I wrote for a local songwriter’s circle. Every month, four musicians are invited to a local brewery to perform original music. Each musician plays four songs, 3 minutes or so, each. Here is one of the songs that I did for the October event.

Fruitbat1919

@piano39 said:
This is a song that I wrote for a local songwriter’s circle. Every month, four musicians are invited to a local brewery to perform original music. Each musician plays four songs, 3 minutes or so, each. Here is one of the songs that I did for the October event.

Loved it. Surprising twists and turns along the way. Chord changes that I wasn’t expecting. When I make my music, I think of emotionally moving things along the way - this piece had the same effect - an emotional story as the piece was played, open to the interpretation. Thanks for sharing.

piano39

Thanks, Fruitbat!

jo92346

(edit) I also made a video for this one:

Brilliant. I love it. Once again your voice does wonder, and the arrangement keeps getting better.
Do I sense a new album coming soon?

jo92346

@Fruitbat1919 said:
My entry came about due to a piece I wrote about five years ago. That piece became two tracks about my head pains. I may post one of them next month, as I was intending to this month. Then after the slightly harder on the ears tracks, I happened to put on some Gong. Later that night I chatted to my wife about morning cups of tea (that she was looking forward to in her holidays, hint hint). From that came about some more mellow tracks, which I post here now.

I posted the tracks as I would have a vinyl single with an A and B sides. So I’m putting the A side here for your critique. The B side is after it on the YouTube if you care to listen to it for completeness, but obviously I’m entering only one track here.

I am posting two versions, as I mixed one on my iPad speakers while on the sofa. I then tried it on my monitors and there was uncontrollable bass (I do have 3 bass tracks at some points in the track), so I’ve posted another version that has the bass better controlled. I’m still learning how to mix for different speakers, so bear with me!

Monitor Mix

iPad Mix

Epic bass lines! Love the flute, the arrangement. Not 100% convinced with the brass patches though, but the lines are great. Good writing, good mix. I love it.

jo92346

@unlink said:
I’ll just repost the link because the preview of the previous one didn’t really work.

Why is your music always too short? The harmony is brilliant, to sound is brilliant, the introduction of the piano is brilliant, the introduction of the string is brillant, everything is brilliant. But too damn short. I could get along with an album long version of this track. It has potential for so much development.

jo92346

@DavidEnglish said:
Here's mine for November.

I improvised the music track using two MIDI keyboards connected to Bitwig Studio on a desktop PC. There the MIDI was routed to Solo for the violin, flute, cello, and bassoon; Noire for the piano; Jaeger for the singing voice; and Omnisphere for the other instruments.

After bringing the audio recording into Vegas Pro, I applied the Lurssen Mastering Console plug-in to the audio mix.

It's titled The Trapeze Artist.

I remember this one from last summer. I’m an absolute fan of your work.

jo92346

@BillS said:
Continuing in the same lyrical vein as my entry last month, but with a fuller musical production, this is Bench People:

It could be an old piano, wrapped in blue
Could be a pile of breeze blocks hidden from view
But the bright tarpaulin starts shifting on its own
An arm appears, then there’s a face, then a home

Bench people you look like you’re watching TV
In zen like contemplation and blind to the likes of you and me

Sitting there on their bench watching the world go by
Swaddled in a pile of old blankets under the leaden sky
Faces on a passing bus turn to stare
These people, do they really live there?

Bench people you look like you’re watching TV
In zen like contemplation and blind to the likes of you and me
The screeching Deliveroos, the roar of the bus
There but for the grace of god, sit you and not us
Bench people, it seems like I’m watching TV

Hipster barbers, bao bun places
Anonymous people with their long lost faces
Market stalls serving up artisan gin
They don’t give a fuck about you about him

Bench people who look like they’re watching TV
The elected self-righteous blind to what they will and won’t see
The screeching Deliveroos, the roar of the bus
We all count our blessings it’s them and not us
Bench people, they look like they’re watching TV

What @Fruitbat1919 said.
Great production, great sound. It is a good song. Thumbs up for the piano lines.

jo92346

@ecamburn said:
This was also submitted to the 4 track challenge. [edited] put lyrics in spoiler.

Will be back to listen to others' tunes.

staring down a blank slate
looking at my shoes
can't come up late
what am I gonna do

what's my number
what's my plan
gotta finish thing
to get to thpromised land

he said
i've got a contest
it's got some rules
just follow these
and all will be truej

the rule is four
four and no more
don't use five
or i'll disqualify

!

The minimalistic approach pays off in this piece. Enigmatic and moody. I like that.

jo92346

@studs1966 said:
Hi Guys.. Its been a while.. Anyway, here is my contribution for this month/. Its been out on all stores now, with 8 mixes I did for this track?.. Enjoy..

Here is one other mix of it, but in Radio Edit.. More Sax than Vocals.. Almost an instrumental.. with a Disco Vibe?..

Totally not the kind of music I usually listen to but it sounds absolutely great. I prefer the second version. Production is excellent +++.

jo92346

@piano39 said:
This is a song that I wrote for a local songwriter’s circle. Every month, four musicians are invited to a local brewery to perform original music. Each musician plays four songs, 3 minutes or so, each. Here is one of the songs that I did for the October event.

The piano is beyond brilliant. I love this piece. The writing is absolutely excellent. I know how hard it is to record the piano and make it sound good.

Fruitbat1919

@jo92346 said:

Epic bass lines! Love the flute, the arrangement. Not 100% convinced with the brass patches though, but the lines are great. Good writing, good mix. I love it.

Thanks Is it because I’ve made the brass patches quite synthetic sounding with the layers and fx, or another reason? I’ve not really used Crudebytes Heavy Brass much and I’m not really sure how to get the best out of it. I have been eyeing up some of those non sample based iOS instrument apps (forgot their names), but they are quite a monetary investment, especially around Christmas time lol. Thanks a lot for your helpful comments

unlink

@piano39 said:
This is a song that I wrote for a local songwriter’s circle. Every month, four musicians are invited to a local brewery to perform original music. Each musician plays four songs, 3 minutes or so, each. Here is one of the songs that I did for the October event.

Lovely song. The main theme is so melancholic and the chord changes are very nice. Also this sounds absolutely great, really good job in recording the piano.

unlink

@jo92346 said:

@unlink said:
I’ll just repost the link because the preview of the previous one didn’t really work.

Why is your music always too short? The harmony is brilliant, to sound is brilliant, the introduction of the piano is brilliant, the introduction of the string is brillant, everything is brilliant. But too damn short. I could get along with an album long version of this track. It has potential for so much development.

Because I always live with the hope that this would be listened also by "normal" people (instead of just us ambient-neoclassic-electronical nerds ) which is bored after around 4 minutes of strings and weird beep-boop sounds

Thank you very much for listening.

richardyot

@piano39 said:
This is a song that I wrote for a local songwriter’s circle. Every month, four musicians are invited to a local brewery to perform original music. Each musician plays four songs, 3 minutes or so, each. Here is one of the songs that I did for the October event.

Very nice, I like the changes and the way the outro circles back to the intro motif. The right-hand melody with the repeated notes is really effective.

piano39

Thank you, Richard

BillS

@piano39 said:
This is a song that I wrote for a local songwriter’s circle. Every month, four musicians are invited to a local brewery to perform original music. Each musician plays four songs, 3 minutes or so, each. Here is one of the songs that I did for the October event.

This is lovely. As a new piano player (well into my 60s 😂) I found it fascinating. I could imagine composing something similar myself but certainly not playing it live. Your left hand does a lot of the heavy lifting and that’s something I am looking to improve on myself.

Beautiful piece of music, and lovely playing.

piano39

Thank you, Bill

Dav

@piano39 said:
This is a song that I wrote for a local songwriter’s circle. Every month, four musicians are invited to a local brewery to perform original music. Each musician plays four songs, 3 minutes or so, each. Here is one of the songs that I did for the October event.

Very nice piece!