I realize it’s long overdue, but I’ve finally made enough progress on Tranquilo to share something for your listening pleasure (or displeasure, whichever the case may be)!

This is what’s referred to as a “stem mix”, analog to a rough draft, and indeed the mix fits the description!  Nothing has been processed, panned, or EQ’d so apologies in advance if it sounds a little muddy.  The objective at this stage is to lock down the tune’s structure so that my session musicians can take over and record their parts, respectively.  That’s when it usually comes to life!   With the exception of the drum loops, I’m playing everything you hear thru a combination of MIDI samplers and virtual instruments:

• Drums Loops: DrumCore via Rewire
• Bass Guitar: Spectrasonics Trilogy (VSTi)
• Acoustic Guitar: Korg Triton
• Distorted Guitar: Spectrasonics Omnisphere (VSTi)
• Synth (pads): Access Virus TI
• Piano: Ivory Jazz C7 via Muse Receptor
• Sax: Yamaha VL1-m via MIDI wind-controller
• Brass: Roland XV3080 “Patchman” additions via wind-controller

Next, they will professionally play & re-record all the key instruments: drums, bass, guitars, sax & horns; and once I get those back, I’ll remix and re-work the piano parts to fit accordingly.  The piano solo, in particular, is a rough draft and has lots of “errors” – all of which will be fixed before it’s all said and done.

As many of you know, this is an iterative process!  But hopefully, you get the feel for where it’s going…  And now, it’s time to employ the power of the Internet and commission my team of professional session musicians; they’re literally spread spread across the globe!  It still amazes me that we can work this way, and it’s especially convenient for me since I’m about to travel overseas for business.

I’ll share the progress by posting the previews of what’s provided back.  For me, this is funnest part of the process because everything really comes to life with help of the StudioPros – stay tuned!

Hot on the heels of kicking some new brass into Worship, Danny (from NewYorkBrass.com) kept the hammer down and recorded live tracks for Seduction.  I decided to remix Seduction first…  This may still require some additional work after I enlist the feedback of some professional ears – before re-mastering.

By the way, have I mentioned that SoundCloud.com is delivering in spades?  I absolutely love this service!

Danny delivered a total of 9 tracks (dry): 3 sax of which 1 is the lead/solo, 3 trumpets, and 3 trombones – a full blown horn section (no pun intended)!  It took some time to get these dialed-in as I was aiming to apply the least amount of processing.  I originally routed the tracks to my outboard HEDD 192 and Bricasti M7 (reverb), but had better luck using plug-ins.  I ended up dealing with the lead/solo sax on its own employing the Waves API-550B EQ and IR-1 (Hall) reverb.  I created group tracks for the remaining sax, trumpets, and bones, respectively; and applied the same EQ, but with different settings for each instrument.  I tried to minimize the verb on the trumpets and bones, and decided not to use any compression – we’ll see if that holds.

Oh… YES, I am working on a new tune, and do LIKE where it’s going.  I’ve been recently inspired to inject some latin vibe into my work, but as a result, the rhythm is a bit tricky.  I may end up having the drum track pre-recorded and write to the completed track vs. the other way around… because for once, I actually know what I’m looking for!

Despite having oodles of technology and sound libraries at my disposal, I’ve been gradually shifting towards the use of professionally played and recorded instruments for everything – except for my piano and keys – those will remain on amateur status until further notice!   First came the live-recorded drum tracks, and then real bass & guitars – all courtesy of services provided by Studiopros.com.   It’s been much more difficult, however, to locate an online studio specializing in Brass – Horns and Sax.  Brass plays a key role in the type of music I write because I use it to melodically interweave with the piano.  So the authenticity of the sax & horns is extremely important, and despite using some great acoustic modeling technology, there’s only so much “pizazz” you can produce from a MIDI controller.

Fortunately, I recently stumbled upon NewYorkBrass.com and after some discussions decided to give them a go on the tune of their choice; they chose Worship.  If these folks work out, I plan to re-record the prior tunes and, of course, use them on future projects!  Here’s the newly recorded version with REAL horns and sax…

Bear in mind this is an unpolished, low-resolution mix (MP3) so the levels and tone need to be dialed in, but it’s good enough for a preview post.  And most importantly, to get your feedback!