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Dayvenkirq View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 19 2014 at 12:59
Originally posted by Kazza3 Kazza3 wrote:

Originally posted by Dayvenkirq Dayvenkirq wrote:

 Throwaway #1 - "Bread And Wine".

Originally posted by Dayvenkirq Dayvenkirq wrote:

Throwaway #3 - The Silent Moonraven Ballad. 
 Nice! These all, particular the first and last, sound like they have a lot of potential. I know they're throwaways, but some tuning wouldn't hurt, and obviously as you practice them you'll be able to get those parts sounding really clean, and it'll be even better.
Thanks. For tuning I use my Yamaha keyboard, so I didn't think that something was wrong.

Edited by Dayvenkirq - August 19 2014 at 13:00
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 19 2014 at 17:52
Throwaway #5 - Flying Too High. I did not write the music (I'm not that talented Unhappy ). This was recorded in the UNR (University of Nevada, Reno) music department, where the vocal exercise and the orchestral performance went well together.

Throwaway #6 - Improvisation. I believe it's in the style of Brit folk or Italian folk, I'm not sure.



Edited by Dayvenkirq - August 19 2014 at 18:49
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 19 2014 at 21:30
Originally posted by Dayvenkirq Dayvenkirq wrote:

^ That depends on how our writing styles could gel, if at all. I look in my "garbage can" and see bits in different styles. I've got Romantic classical, folk, experimental, free jazz, rock, etc. So far maybe nothing really serious. I've got an alto sax, a violin, a keyboard, guitars, bass, soprano recorder, digital sound-producing software, and editing software.

I guess if there are bits that we have and don't know what to do with them, we could pitch them between each other.

Sure, that might work. If you have some unfinished parts send them over and I'll see if I can make something out of it.  Hopefully I'll have some time, since I'm starting a new semester next week, but I'll give it a try. I don't have my recording stuff at the moment, but when I get the chance I could record and send a few incomplete ideas to you.

Originally posted by Kazza3 Kazza3 wrote:

Originally posted by N-sz N-sz wrote:

Here's a new-ish recording. Now you can read along with the score!

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1reU6B6YPAY

Really cool! And thanks for the score. Is the intention for it to be an actual joint strings & guitar ensemble, and the keys are just filling in? For my tastes, sections of it are bit too weird and seem to lack a direction, or there could be a bit more repetition of themes for listeners to hang on to. Particularly towards the beginning- and at times some of the rhythmic complexity/number of parts gets a bit messy (though that could partly be the performance of the keys). The roughly middle section was better in these regards, with some particularly cool bits, and my favourite part was the guitars alone at the end. But nice!

I rarely have more than a foggy idea of what I'm going for when I begin most pieces. The idea with this, which I wasn't even very committed to, was just to have a bunch of violins, beginning with only one playing at a time, then two at a time, then three, and so on (why the guitars entered in was kind of a happy accident I guess, long story short). I did that before with an all guitar piece and thought maybe it would work again with an instrument that can sustain long notes this time, so that's really why I wrote it with violin parts, not that I expect to ever have this performed with real violins haha. My music is often pretty directionless. I can't hold onto a single idea for very long, so I try to embrace that instead of forcing more structure onto it. I agree though--it's a perfectly valid criticism, but I attempt to make good things out of that. Glad you enjoyed it anyhow! Thanks so much for listening :)


Edited by N-sz - August 19 2014 at 21:39
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 19 2014 at 22:18
You just opened for Yes (who will be on live on Yahoo! at 11:30pm EST).

Originally posted by Dayvenkirq Dayvenkirq wrote:

Throwaway #1 - "Bread And Wine".


Whether it's intentional or not, I dig the old "Django" sound.  You have several ideas here: Classical, Celtic, Country.  This was my favorite of the so-called "throwaways."

Originally posted by Dayvenkirq Dayvenkirq wrote:

Throwaway #2 - "Morning".


One universal piece of advice I can give is to turn down the input volume.  You can adjust volume later and avoid unwanted distortion.

Originally posted by Dayvenkirq Dayvenkirq wrote:

Throwaway #3 - The Silent Moonraven Ballad.


I like that groove in 6/8.  Some more development on that would be desirable.  Then there's that somber classical style.  I feel like those two sections would work better separately, as they suggest two very different things.

Originally posted by Dayvenkirq Dayvenkirq wrote:

Throwaway #4 - Sunshine Of Alberta.


This one seems like you're not sure what you want to accomplish with it.  I say that not because it's short, but because it sounds like its trying to rock and be pretty at the same time in such a short span.

Originally posted by Dayvenkirq Dayvenkirq wrote:

Throwaway #6 - Improvisation. I believe it's in the style of Brit folk or Italian folk, I'm not sure.


Sounding quite inspired by Steve Howe there ("Mood for a Day" comes to mind).  Interesting improvisation and you may be able to pick parts from it that work well together.

Originally posted by Dayvenkirq Dayvenkirq wrote:

Throwaway #7 - Dreaming Of Winter.


Keyboard now?  That's a simple basis for something larger, or could work very well as an interlude on its own.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 19 2014 at 22:36
^ Thanks for the feedback.  

That's how I see a throwaway: a tiny, half-assed musical idea just for the show that I might never use again. I can't think of a better term for those tracks. Show bits?
Originally posted by Epignosis Epignosis wrote:

Originally posted by Dayvenkirq Dayvenkirq wrote:

Throwaway #2 - "Morning".

One universal piece of advice I can give is to turn down the input volume.  You can adjust volume later and avoid unwanted distortion.
Duly noted. Didn't know that. As I've told N-sz, I have this laptop that has a crap built-in mic. I believe that's the reason why there's so much noise in there, and you can barely hear the bass notes. I guess I could get around those things with your advice.

Originally posted by Epignosis Epignosis wrote:

Originally posted by Dayvenkirq Dayvenkirq wrote:

Throwaway #4 - Sunshine Of Alberta. 
 This one seems like you're not sure what you want to accomplish with it.  I say that not because it's short, but because it sounds like its trying to rock and be pretty at the same time in such a short span.
Doesn't it strike you as something in Lerxst's style? Like "Discovery"?

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The ones below I've recorded with mic array of 20% and boost of +20dB. All it did was reducing the amount of noise recorded, but that deep, broad resonance coming from the hole of the guitar gets loud when certain notes are played. The low-pass filter feature of my editing software didn't remedy the issue.

Throwaway #8 - Disagreement. Features a sloppy piano part, but they, it's just a rough draft.



Edited by Dayvenkirq - August 20 2014 at 02:51
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 27 2014 at 21:33
Having a little progress. Since the range of musical styles I listen to is somewhat wide (not bragging), for years I've had too much on my plate. This is something I should have done a long time ago: organizing all of my bits, ideas, tracks, etc. by styles. I've just built a spectrum of genres in the form of folders on my Dropbox account. I don't want to sound out of touch in my music. Let's see how the lyrical ideas and the music I have on my hands will gel, if at all.

Edited by Dayvenkirq - August 27 2014 at 21:35
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 03 2014 at 07:03
Hey guys, I noticed that this forum put my album on their Bandcamp Recommendations thread last week.  I just want to say thank you for acknowledging my work!  Ever since that post though, I have completely remastered the tracks on the album to make them sound better, so if you have the time, come check out the new mixes on the link!  I would love to hear what you think of the tracks.

https://echotail.bandcamp.com/album/mirroring
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 04 2014 at 05:04
Great stuff EchoTail! I only listened to parts the tracks (sorry) on poor headphones, but the opening track is my favourite, the guitar solo and tone is very nicely done. Several of the other tracks feature riffs that are little too straight-up metal for my tastes, with higher gain guitar tones than I like.  Be sure with an instrumental album to keep it varied and interesting, from that perspective I enjoyed the quieter moments the most. Sounds well mixed from what I could hear too. Well done!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 04 2014 at 06:31
Thanks Kazza for listening!  During the recording, I did not intend for the album to become metal, but I guess it just happened naturally as I was doing it!  I do agree with your opinion about the variety within the songs; I actually wanted to put vocals on these songs in the future and switch the structure of the songs around a bit.

It was my first real attempt in recording an album of some sorts, and do not have the resources that a recording studio has, so I am very happy that you like what you have heard so far!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 07 2014 at 14:03
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 20 2014 at 03:10
[stupid crap erased]

Edited by Dayvenkirq - November 10 2014 at 00:31
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 09 2014 at 06:04
Recently recorded a new song:



Any feedback is welcome. ;)
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 05 2014 at 14:22
New:
http://https://nickyj.bandcamp.com/track/no-34-now-with-drums


Edited by N-sz - December 09 2014 at 13:15
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 06 2014 at 02:58
Originally posted by N-sz N-sz wrote:

New:
https://nickyj.bandcamp.com/track/no-34-now-with-drums

Sounds good, some great ideas! Whoever you talked to was spot on about recommending drums. My main criticism would be that it sounds a little stilted- which would partly be because you tracked drums last, if you did drums first, with their full groove, then recorded the organ to those drums you should a much more 'in the pocket' performance. Of course, that stilted kind of sound is partly just the nature of that kind of organ style.  My other criticism is that the overall effect sounds a little plain/not lush enough, or something like that, which may just be the organ tone, mixing, but partly ties into the previous comment. But nice. I like the effects on the drums toward the end!
 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 07 2014 at 15:20
^ Thanks! Fair criticisms. I agree that the organ sound was pretty plain. I used some more textured sounds with that organ in other recordings, but since this one is a kind of robotic sounding song, I thought that might match it well and create some overall contrast with the EP where it originally comes from. Haha glad you liked the effects. I had some fun with that. Thanks again for listening :)
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 09 2014 at 00:08
Okay…so this quite the long post.  But it’s because I missed all this great stuff after being gone for a while – lost my login, no retrieval email, work, kid, house, life, etc.  Anyway… being back on this forum is good for my soul.  I saw this thread and had to go through it.  So many breaths of fresh air.  Here’s what I thought of a bunch of it.

Timbo1961 – Holy cow do you sound like Peter Gabriel! I like it.  “Alpha-Omega” was really lovely.

MustardSea – I was sad when I saw that no one really responded to your post of your music.  I listened to it – very slow riffs, made me think of what Type O Negative would be like if they weren’t so… well, so negative.  It has a crunchy, eased-back sort of beauty to it, very ambient. The new “By The Sunrise” is very pleasant, too. Smile

pianoman – I’m floored by Ocean Architecture.  This is the whole reason I joined this site in the first place (years ago… before I forgot my password and was “StarsongAgeless”… now I’m busted back down to a n00B).  I love music that takes me places I don’t expect, and this does it beautifully and brutally.  Found Animus on iTunes and bought immediately.

 I then checked out Revolving Maze by Involved.  Again… wow.  “Ingress” starts out beautiful and soaring and builds to something a bit Martian Chronicles Soundtrack-like that tells you the project is going somewhere great.  It delivers lush soundscapes, but more than that – so much comparable music just creates a mood, and that’s it – a constant mood for anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes.  Not so here.  There’s so much motion.  Each track tells its own story rather than standing still on something ear-catching.  It’s so refreshing and emotionally absorbing.  Thank you.  In my day-to-day life, I am surrounded by people who think pop radio is the be-all and end-all of creativity.  Hearing music like this restores my faith in humanity.  Clap

 Now, (still talking to pianoman), I have a question for you – it looks like the track order for Revolving Maze is different on iTunes compared to on Bandcamp.  Is one or the other the intended order?

 Dayvenkirq – I noticed you talked about getting stuck in certain modes, like coming up with hard rock riffs when intending to write for metal music.  I know how you feel.  I’ve found that when something like this happens to me, it means that I need to get that stuff out of my system.  I have to go ahead and write it – finish the song or songs that belong with the hard rock riffs, and then maybe at a later date the metal will come out.  It’s like the 10,000 hour rule – you have to put your time in, even if what you’re producing isn’t what you wish you were.  Sometimes it's agonizing.

 “Does anyone here tend to overthink when they write lyrics? Do you write choruses? Or do you just write stanzas or free verses? Single lines? Do you bother with rhymes? Do all your choruses in a song have the same lyrics?” – With me, there is no single approach that works.  It always starts with something that comes naturally.  It may be a tune on the piano or guitar, or just a few words in my head – or I may get a sudden urge to write a poem.  Usually when I write the poem I just hear the music that would go with it in my head (and then after playing with it for a few years it eventually reaches something like a finished form).

There’s a lot of discussion about thinking on here in regards to writing, and I tend to find that if I’m thinking too much it means I’m done.  I need to take a break.  If I’m not playing music or singing or actually typing/writing words, and am therefore just sitting there thinking, I’ve reached an obstacle and I need to distract myself for at least a little while.

There’s one statement on page 15 that I have to disagree with: “Well, I think that if you really want to cook up something soon, then may I suggest sticking with one style for now? If you want your body of work to be stylistically consistent, look at what the other artists are/were doing.”  This advice would never have worked for me.  I have to do what comes naturally to me at the time, otherwise the end product always sounds forced.

About the “Throwaways” you put up – the first thing I noticed was that the tuning was off.  If your keyboard isn’t working well for tuning, I’d suggest one of those electronic ones that has a light-up scale so that you can be sure you’re on the right pitch.  You do some nice runs on #6.  It sounds like you have the same issue I do with the guitar, which is that no matter how much I practice the strings always buzz.  It drives me insane.

Regenard – I started listening to Supercraft Saga 1 and immediately recognized the opening.  Don’t mean to freak you out!  It was just the first 20 seconds or so.  I’m not sure where else I’d heard it unfortunately, but being a prog fan I’m betting it was in a prog song… most likely Yes, Rush, Nektar, Rick Wakeman, Glass Hammer or Emmerson Lake and Palmer… but actually could also be from a video game, lots of them have prog-like synth stuff happening.    After that first 20 seconds… I greatly enjoyed this piece.  It’s uplifting even in its current midi state.  I’ve never managed to make a midi composition sound even somewhat natural – good for you for doing so.

 Polymorphia – “There's always a niche for honest songwriting.” I agree.  Every time I set out to write something purposefully it falls flat on its face because it’s not really coming from me.  Sometimes, I hear a prog song that technically is very good but just does absolutely nothing for me– it sounds dead, lifeless, emotionless.  I often wonder if it’s because the music was designed for sound only, and didn’t come from some deep instinct inside the composer…  of course, I could be dead wrong.  And I greatly enjoyed “Jeanie with Raven Hair” – it surprised the heck out of me, I thought it was going to be a fairly standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus song based on the start, but it really, really wasn’t.  I love surprises.  Any plans to put this on an album?  After hearing the Dinner Guests’ music, I’m suspecting you are a superb songwriter.

 N-sz – New Song/Old Song: Acoustic guitar chops = awesome!  There’s no way I could play that and sing at the same time.  Love the change around 3:00 and 4:30, nice development.  I would love to hear this one done in a studio setting.  As to both your and others’ comments about your vocals – in the past decade, people seem to be more and more obsessed with vocal “perfection.”  It started, I think, mostly with pop singers, but if you listen to an old album in just about any genre you’ll find that the pitch of the singer is not always that perfect spot on to the pitch within 1% as it now is on just about everything.  This is the double-edged sword of autotune.  It has made many people forget that the human voice is not just about perfection, it is about expression.  Personally, I think you expressed yourself well.  Could you benefit from vocal training and practice? Sure.  But my advice is not to sacrifice the sense of you that comes with your natural voice. Smile

I wish I could hear the last song you put up.  There's some sort of problem with the link.

Pessimist - Wonderful piano parts!  Technically great music, not my personal listening cup of tea, but I usually don't connect much with jazz.  I'm not entirely sure why.


Kazza3 – The tune you put up evoked immediate memories of playing Final Fantasy IV!

I'd love to share with all of you some of my songwriting process/where I'm at musically, but this post is already so long I'm afraid the forum might not even let me post the whole thing.  So I'll post this, then work on my own.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 09 2014 at 01:28
Alright, so here's where I fit into the songwriting circle.  I started writing music when I was 12 and it was terrible! Smile  But happily it has been many years since then.  I have close to 100 songs written, and I've definitely noticed a great deal of improvement, but it didn't really come until I hit song number 35 or so.  I'm working on an album (almost done).  Originally, it was going to be under the name "Sonolumina" and a friend of mine was going to be the singer, but it just didn't work out that way - mostly distance, partially life stuff for both of us.  So I'm going solo for the moment.

I don't have any set method I use to write music.  Sometimes I just sit at the keyboard or with a guitar and play for hours.  Sometimes a particular idea strikes me for a poem, and usually I hear music in my head to go with it as it develops on paper.  Sometimes I dream music and hope I can figure it out in the keyboard when I wake up.  There are some songs that are most definitely prog, but almost all of those were songs that I set out to create in the prog genre, and feel forced.  Only one of those made it on to the album's track list, because it wasn't written that way.  It's not done being mixed yet (none are completely).  I put together this video of clips from the current mix (the song is called "Wings of Ash" and actually was one of those dream songs):

[.video=youtube;-XCpCyxYcIk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v-XCpCyxYcIk[/video.]


Here are the full lyrics for "Wings of Ash":

Like a disease
Bound to this place of death and dying
Light through cracks in this nethering sky
Gives no life its heat.

Suffering, bent will
Hide inside this blackened house
Nurse the hate that sent you here
Hollow eternal home
Shelters your insanity.

Ashes of a goddess
Mirror hanging outside, far from view
Staring ceaseless
Running far from view, far from you
From your wasteland
The curse of the touch of your hand
Running from your wings of ash

Burnt grass, knarled trees
Riddle your prison to its horizon
Since you emerged
From your pyre of disbelief

Ashes of a goddess
Mirror hanging outside, far from view
Staring ceaseless
Running far from view, far from you
From your wasteland
The curse of the touch of your hand
Running from your wings of ash

There is fire in the trees
It is freezing in your blood
Darkness neverending here
You will not escape from here
You cannot escape from here
You will not escape from here

Spreading wings of ash...
Spreading wings of ash...
Rising on wings of ash,
But nevermore to rise from the grave
I turn away from you,
Your charred and vacant face
Exiled to your infinite garden of death.
Ashes of a goddess.

[The lyrics directly describe what happened in the dream.  I didn't understand it at first, but later came to realize the dream was quite psychologically significant to me].

And then there's the other end of my songwriting spectrum, which certainly still is proggish, but I think would be called "indie rock" by the music industry... perhaps?  This is Blinded... with me being very goofy-looking, but the video itself was well-done I thought:



Here are the lyrics:

I am blinded
Blinded by your glare
Wind like razors on my skin
Why did I let this begin
In, in my own eyes?

Blinded by your glare
Your goodness hanging
Heavy in the air
If there is a god
Is he speaking to you?
Blinded by your tears of apology
You are far too kind to me
I'm blinded by your honesty.

Sometimes I, sometimes I
Catch myself being weak.
Sometimes I, sometimes I
Want to fall into you.

If there is a line to heaven, I assure you
You, my friend, will get there before I do
Since if there is a god, he knows you're not perfect
But if there is a god, he knows you're the better one.


There are many, many songs that I have no recordings of - the music and lyrics are written down and in my head.  Most of the limitation is time and money.  But I've hit many songwriting slumps, sometimes spending a year or so without even touching an instrument.  It comes in spurts....

I'd love to talk to some fellow songwriters about all this stuff.  No one around me really gets it.  They see music as something to keep you calm at the grocery store.


Edited by Star_Song_Age_Less - December 09 2014 at 01:38
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 10 2014 at 04:16
Originally posted by Star_Song_Age_Less Star_Song_Age_Less wrote:

Okay…so this quite the long post......
Clap Good on you for going through all of that! And thanks (well, assuming the FF IV soundtrack is good!)


Originally posted by Star_Song_Age_Less Star_Song_Age_Less wrote:


There are some songs that are most definitely prog, but almost all of those were songs that I set out to create in the prog genre, and feel forced.  
I can definitely understand that feeling- and I feel like there's plenty of modern symph bands that do the same, but they don't realise or don't care...


Originally posted by Star_Song_Age_Less Star_Song_Age_Less wrote:

 And then there's the other end of my songwriting spectrum, which certainly still is proggish, but I think would be called "indie rock" by the music industry... perhaps?  This is Blinded... with me being very goofy-looking, but the video itself was well-done I thought:
Nice! I definitely wouldn't call it indie rock though, seems very definitely a modern prog ballad reminiscent of several female-fronted bands in particular, I can't quite place who, my memory isn't as encyclopedic as some.


Originally posted by Star_Song_Age_Less Star_Song_Age_Less wrote:


There are many, many songs that I have no recordings of - the music and lyrics are written down and in my head.  
Well, the beauty of today is being able to record any idea immediately on your phone, and so on. I've got plenty of sh*tty, cliched ideas that I'll never use recorded on various things.


--


Having spoken before about having been stuck, writing-wise, I'm having a bit of success for the first time in a couple of years. There's a short poem by a friend of mine that I like, and have thought before that it'd be nice to put to music, and so I put some thought into it and saw the music that should go with it, just vaguely, the textures, timbres, colours, etc. That's not unusual for me, but this time I've been able to materialise it (or part of it, so far), which is the breakthrough. What I've got so far certainly doesn't conform exactly to how I initially saw it, but it's right in feel. Similarly to what you were saying, Jamie, I could've tried harder to keep it as I saw it, but it would have been forced, instead I found what felt right both in itself and for the feel of the piece.
It won't be anything big or special, but hopefully I'll be able to get something out of this before the holidays are over.

 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 10 2014 at 12:43
A few months ago I recorded an arrangement of Mussorgsky's full "Pictures at an Exhibition" suite using only a Korg Radias synth.  The Radias is a circa 2005 synth with many different types of synthesis options.  For this project I only created voices using the subtractive synth engine to give it that 70's type of sound.  After being introduced to this piece by ELP over 35 years ago it has remained my fave classical work.  Doing this arrangement was lots of fun as I could hear what parts ELP emphasized in their interpretation. 

Anyway, here it is...hope you like it Wink

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 11 2014 at 02:22
Originally posted by The.Crimson.King The.Crimson.King wrote:

A few months ago I recorded an arrangement of Mussorgsky's full "Pictures at an Exhibition" suite using only a Korg Radias synth.  The Radias is a circa 2005 synth with many different types of synthesis options.  For this project I only created voices using the subtractive synth engine to give it that 70's type of sound.  After being introduced to this piece by ELP over 35 years ago it has remained my fave classical work.  Doing this arrangement was lots of fun as I could hear what parts ELP emphasized in their interpretation. 

Anyway, here it is...hope you like it Wink


Really well done! Big effort to arrange all that and design all the synth patches and so on, the synth sounds great. I'm not very familiar with the ELP full-band version of Pictures, but I am certainly familiar with the work itself. To be honest I've never been a big fan of the 'synthesised classical music' fad, other than as a passing curiosity, for me it can never adds any new light to the compositions. As these things go, then,  I liked what you did and greatly appreciate the work that goes into the arrangement, there were arrangement choices I liked and some I felt were lacking, but those were usually just inherent to the format (Kiev is my favourite movement, so when it gets there and it doesn't sound like an overwhelming column of pure glory bursting forth, it's always going to be disappointing). So in the end, for me, I listen to the treatment of the original work with a lot of interest, but my bigger pleasure is revelling in the retro synth sounds. Smile
 


Edited by Kazza3 - December 11 2014 at 02:24
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