Johnson, flippin' brilliant! Nailed the brief and it sounded epic beyond note!!!

What does Johnson mean when he says "sampled acoustic?" How would one reverse it? Is it an effect? I'm opening it up to anyone to answer, not just Johnson! ?

Cooder, really enjoyed your track too! The end was a Jeff Beck, hendrix, McLaughlin type vibe, pure awesomeness! ? I did find it took too long to get off the ground though (which is pretty much like, beck and hendrix ?). But, that's just my opinion.

Great entries guys! Would love to hear the process from Cooder's recording. Really enjoyed reading how Johnson made his track up, helps me out A LOT!

Paul E wrote: Johnson, flippin' brilliant! Nailed the brief and it sounded epic beyond note!!!

What does Johnson mean when he says "sampled acoustic?" How would one reverse it? Is it an effect? I'm opening it up to anyone to answer, not just Johnson! ?

Johnson PM'd me:

"The acoustic guitar was from a free Kontakt sample library by TheoK. It's just a very basic sampled acoustic guitar. I composed the short phrase, then I literally right-clicked, selected reverse, then added reverb to the reversed version."

Johnson will email me the acoustic guitar sample, and I'll upload it here for us all to be enriched by his/her process

Adrian Rogowski wrote:

Paul E wrote: Johnson, flippin' brilliant! Nailed the brief and it sounded epic beyond note!!!

What does Johnson mean when he says "sampled acoustic?" How would one reverse it? Is it an effect? I'm opening it up to anyone to answer, not just Johnson! ?

Johnson PM'd me:

"The acoustic guitar was from a free Kontakt sample library by TheoK. It's just a very basic sampled acoustic guitar. I composed the short phrase, then I literally right-clicked, selected reverse, then added reverb to the reversed version."

Johnson will email me the acoustic guitar sample, and I'll upload it here for us all to be enriched by his/her process

Does that mean you play it on a keyboard via midi? Is that what a sample does? Like this:

Sounds super cool, however you did it! ?

Both tracks were awesome!

I favoured Johnson a lil more due the the kickass drums. Cooder is probably closer to something I would have done.

Johnson
I really like the muffled/underwater effect and stuff happening with the drums. I coulda used more guitar tho ? Nailed the brief with all the reversing stuff happening there.

Cooder
Sounded like some reverse delay starting the first part of the song, gave it a kind of ethereal vibe. The drums could maybe have come in a little sooner. It felt like the timing was off at the beginning of the lead? The lead felt a little "distant", maybe a bit quiet in the mix? I really enjoyed it though and it was pretty tight after the start (according to my "feel" of it).

It was really hard to choose between the two of these entries!

Only two entries, but quality > quantity. Great stuff gentlemen, take a bow!

Johnson - great backwards guitar, cunning use of reversed & forwards elements (piano's rocked) & the outdo was really artfully done. Thank you for the explanation w/the entry.

Cooder - Awesome ambient vibe, combo for reversed & forwards guitars worked for me - mix was real good, until the drums kicked in @ 44s, then I felt things didn't quite gel as nicely as you had built them up. Perhaps the guitars could have used a bit (more) of delay/reverb?

Victory at last! Even if it was a 2 horse race.

Good work Cooder, really enjoyed your entry. I agree with V8, the drums didn't gel with the rest of the track. Some EQ and compression on the drums and level adjustments could have helped here. I think there were a few timing issues on the lead and it could have been a bit louder. Other than that, a very interesting and well-executed idea.

ok, maybe i should have gone for the beginner category because

firstly, i got owned,

secondly, johnson's description, production and skill is way over my head (did you actually have any recorded guitars in there though?)

thirdly the advice given to me is also over my head... i dont even know what you mean by adding compression to the drums

lol

jt wrote: ok, maybe i should have gone for the beginner category because

firstly, i got owned,

secondly, johnson's description, production and skill is way over my head (did you actually have any recorded guitars in there though?)

thirdly the advice given to me is also over my head... i dont even know what you mean by adding compression to the drums

lol

I don't think you got owned at all. There were only 2 people and only 11 votes, so, I don't think 3 is bad at all! Your track was great and your playing is good too. I think you fit into the intermediate category just fine. I'm also quite keen to hear what is meant by compression on the drums... ?

jt wrote: ok, maybe i should have gone for the beginner category because

firstly, i got owned,

secondly, johnson's description, production and skill is way over my head (did you actually have any recorded guitars in there though?)

thirdly the advice given to me is also over my head... i dont even know what you mean by adding compression to the drums

lol

No, you didn't get owned. And no, I did not physically record any guitars for my entry. I composed the phrase on my electric, but wanted it to be an acoustic section, so I sampled it as I do not have an acoustic guitar. The samples are of an actual recorded acoustic guitar, I just told the sampler what notes to play when.

Compression is sometimes a very complex and sometimes a very simple concept. I consider myself extremely intermediate when it comes to mixing, and it has taken me a good year or two to properly understood compressors and compression in general. I don't mean simply compressing the drums would have turned your entry into a perfect mix, just that it is one choice in a great many mixing decisions you can make.

Anyway, this is not a production competition per se, and your guitar playing should be the main consideration. I could have perhaps placed a greater emphasis on the guitars, but I liked how it sounded as is, and chose to leave it like that.

If you are interested in the production side of things, you can start learning by watching this and the rest of the videos in this series and the Wikimedia channel:

=

Ah, sacrilege, I've been so busy at work that I didn't get a chance to vote. I thought I had the weekend haha, Ai, well I'm still gonna crit, as thats where the value is at. Firstly, lets identify our entrants, as if it wasn't known at this point.

Johnson - doc-phil
Cooder - jt

Doc-phil, I think your entry hit the goal perfectly. The main backwards instrument was that guitar or sample used, the drums, and others instruments sounded pretty straight, but there is no harm with that. I think if everything was played backwards, it might have done more damage than good. I do like what you did with the drums, and I enjoyed your blurp on it, I can't say I heard the reverse overheads or what not, but it painted a good picture. The drums were one of my favourite features. I liked that they were subdued, and yes, I definitely got that under-water vibe. Great track, keep it up.

jt - Id say your track was no beginner, you know what you doing 8) I enjoyed that sucking effect you got on the guitars, that was very backwards - this could easily be a Mars Volta song, if you don't know them, check them out. I didn't have so much of an issue with the drums, I think its just cause we comparing them to what doc-phil did, and the explanation he provided. I do think maybe the crashes were too much, and stole from the backwardness of the guitar, but that's a taste thing. Again, this is definitely no beginner entry, and I expect you to keep entering on this level. No backing down now haha.

JT - track was good up until the drums came in, was very King Crimson like up to that point then it changed too much, you should of kept it going and done some lead stuff over that (with a ton of reverb and delay on it).

Phil - Overall this one had the most obvious reverse thing going on, what could have been pretty cool is if it faded in the whole time and the low pass on the drums lifted up, so it would've been a reverse of a track fading out by fading in and only getting to it's loudest and fullest right at the end. This one could've easily been in category 3.

Overall these two nailed it more than the other category I think.

jt wrote: ok, maybe i should have gone for the beginner category because

firstly, i got owned,

secondly, johnson's description, production and skill is way over my head (did you actually have any recorded guitars in there though?)

thirdly the advice given to me is also over my head... i dont even know what you mean by adding compression to the drums

lol

Nahhh bro, you didn't get owned - like PaulE pointed out, 3/11 votes ain't a poor showing at all (at least imho). For me, the important part is that you got a entry in, showcased your creativity & got a lot of useful feedback to build on future efforts. That is a win! 8)

In my experience - the challenges unfortunately, are generally not solely judged on creativity (composition/arrangement), production/mixing skills do make significant impact on voters. Personally, I'm glad this is so - learning about that aspect of music has been a lot of fun and -ultimately- benefited my musical efforts (and listening enjoyment of music).

doc-phil wrote: If you are interested in the production side of things, you can start learning by watching this and the rest of the videos in this series and the Wikimedia channel:

Mmmm, that looks super useful stuff - thank you Doc Phil, hadn't see the wikimedia channel before.

Doc-phil - congrats on winning. Send me your details (look at previous thread to see what info I require)

jt - PM a possible theme