Song for Cubendo. Respect and best Wishes.

[Zenda]

Post introducing Third Version

Hi and Thankyou


General Positioning and stereo field altered to place it on a 'stage'. Ambience modified too.

Bass guitar has been de-fuzzed.

Electric guitar, I totally pulled off the hard distortion and added the spring reverb

Drums, recomposed everything after the guitar solo and narrowed their stereo spread

Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child Mk 3 (http://www.glynmuir.co.uk/music/MotherlessChild-13.mp3)


Best wishes
Glyn



Start of post introducing First Version

Hi and Happy New Year :)

Two days has gone by and here's the song I promised ... Kind of Sonic Champagne Bottle to swing against the hull of the Good Ship Cubendo!

This is a traditional song which has been reworked by many people. The one which I used to listen to when I was a lad was the Eric Gale version from the album Multiplication. The vocals were done by full gospel choir.

This is a piano-based jazz quartet with a bit of electric guitar.

Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child (http://www.glynmuir.co.uk/music/MotherlesChild-03.mp3)

It's definitely a work in progress ... I've got to the point where I need to stand back, and would appreciate your lending me your fresh ears to, well, take the thing apart to help me put it back together better.


All the best
Glyn

[TerryG]

I'll start by framing my comments as more on the arrangement/performances rather than mix itself.

For me, the vibe gets better the deeper you get into the song. It really starts to gel after the first guitar break.
If it were me, I'd try doubletiming the vocals in the first verse and sing it a bit more straightforward to set up evolving into the halftime swing feel later on. It just seems to get off to a slow start at first listen, and the evolution of the voice would add interest for me.

I'd mess with the intro of the first guitar solo, maybe with a bit more syrup and some classic jazzy spring reverb that settles into where it ends up. It seems to start too "on the beat" compared to the swing of everything else at that point. If you don't want to change the performance, maybe add some pre-effect (reverse the track, add delay/reverb at the end, and flip it back around) to have the effect swell in to provide a hint of what's to come.

I'm on my third pass through while writing this... It's cool.

[enroe]

Hi Glyn,

I impressed about your range of styles which is pretty broad! :)This "late night bar melancholic kind of blues" is very special and soulful!

For me it depends 99% on the expression of the vocals - and it nails down this "late night melancholy". And therefore I can't imagine of changing anything ... I would keep it as it is!

Greetings, enroe.

[Zenda]

Hi

Enroe .. I am glad you liked it. I modified further to add positioning on a 'stage' ... I hope this has brought it closer to the Melancholy Late-Night bar that you identified. I had been only thinking in the 'player-perspective' and had missed out on on this possibility.


Terry ... Thank you very much for sharing the depth and the detail of your listening. That Electric guitar, I totally pulled off the hard distortion and added the spring reverb you asked for. In response to a comment on CNET, I pulled that back from Very wet to Slightly wet ... I tried to get the sense of a 2 by 12 combo. I did retain the original performance because there is a certain staccato violence/upset tantrum which I wanted to retain at the beginning, but hope that softening the tonal characteristic diminished the sense of 'jarring against the swing'.

That idea of yours of adding Reverse Ambiance at the beginning ... and the notion of somehow 'reflecting' the end that piqued my curiosity. I DID want that sense of discontinuity and breakout of frustration at the beginning of the solo, but not at the expense of pulling the listener out of the 'piece as a whole'. Hmm .. I'm going to go for it.


My work on this peice has slowed down for a while because I need some distance but my next steps will be the following: Incorporate your feedback concerning blending and balancing that guitar solo in the context of the whole. I'm reluctant to go straight to changing the vocal performance but your concern about the first two verses makes sense. First I will rewrite some of the piano and maybe the bass part to 'catch up with' work done on the drums and to improve sense of dynamic direction throughout the song.

At the moment, the piano, IMO, even though it has some nice melodic chordal progressions, has a tendency to get too 'vertical and choppy' ... especially in the early part of the song and I'd be interested to hear what the voice sounds like when it is no longer having to take Full Responsibility for the sense of 'forward-flow.'.

When I've done those, I'll certainly be very grateful for your feedback to see if I have to some extent solved the problems you've identified.

While I'm doing that, I will, however be keeping in mind possible vocal alterations, and with that in view, please could you explain 'double time' and 'straightforward' ... or even demonstrate .. just enough to give me an idea because I'll want to learn to sing it the way you are suggesting so's to be clear in my mind.

FWIW, the sum of my background references for this song are

Eric Gale's version on the album 'Multiplication'

And much more recently Jimmy Scott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4aHWG7aqPM


Thanks again and best wishes
Glyn