Larry T.

Hi Glenn. Just my $.02. The synth voices don't have the varied inflections that we do. The overall vocal impression I get is stilted, self conscious and unnatural. The lead voice at the beginning is mixed too high. I'd love to hear human voices take a try at the song. Just my opinion. I understand this is a part of the future and will get progressively better. Good luck!!????

Extremely well realized composition. Ends a bit abruptly, though. The Yamaha classical sounds great. Sax lines are great, separately and together. Stereo drums are mixed really well????

Good one Jack. Has a beautiful Weather Report (one of the best bands to ever exist imho) flavor????

From 1:10 to 1:41. Listened again and it sounds fine. A matter of personal taste.

EDIT#2: A few more things you may want to try to get the timing sounding good: 1. First off record two tracks: 1. an acoustic guitar basic track to the metronome and, 2. the VST drums that fit with whatever beat per minute time you decide is correct. You can mute these two tracks later but they will be your timing reference so as to keep all instruments on the same page. 2. Make sure Snap is enabled and set to at least 1/32. 3. I use SI Drums and they will play to whatever BPM that you have specified. hope this helps????

I'll say it again, you write great songs. This is another one. The bass and drum timing issues are minimal imho. I can offer the solution I found when recording my VST bass and drum parts using piano roll view. The timing will be slightly off unless you Magnify the piano roll view to Maximum. At this view you will see that the placement of the bass and drum midi notes that appeared to be spot on timing ISN'T. Reposition them correctly, slight timing issue fixed. Cheers???? EDIT: make sure your piano roll view resolution is set to At Least 1/32 notes....if set lower you may still have timing issues depending on how fast the midi notes need to be played properly....heck, you may want to go to 1/64 notes but that's a lot of midi to edit....good luck!!!!

Excellent. Tasteful, elegant, relaxing, useful. 100% conceptually realized????

Excellent. Lyrics, vox, arrangements, playing, recording, mix....really liked the string arrangement????

Excellent. I'd say the mix is virtually perfect. The only part that I'm wondering about is the first electric guitar introduction. You hit the sweet spot for it the second time it appears, maybe take the first appearance down a dB or so. Great song, vox, performance, recording. Listened on my Yamaha 5.1 system. Cheers????

Solemn, mournful, dignified, powerful, deliberate, soulful????

Excellent????

Yes, I thought that notion would be an interesting idea to explore musically, the title was the first thing I thought of and the music followed????

Long Live Roger!!!!????

Thanks David. Agree with you and treesha, the piece would be a nice match with a short film or specific sequence in a longer one. Cheers????

Thanks treesha. Wanted to do something different. Cheers????

Steely Dan fans rejoice. If you haven't heard yet Roger Nichols daughter Cimcie found, had restored and released the last mix before being accidentally erased of "The Second Arrangement". We've all heard the less than stellar quality versions but this is probably as close to Steely Dan quality as there is at this time. I've read there is a 15ips version (as opposed to the studio 30ips standard tape speed) around but hasn't been released, as well as an actual complete re-recording by the Dan but was nixed by Donald. link to complete 20 minute cassette which has the song with vox, an instrumental version and early version of "Third World Man" (called "Were You Blind That Day"): https://expandingdan.substack.com/p/second-arrangement-steely-dan-roger-nichols-tape link to Cimcie's song/video on YouTube:

Interesting soundscape. Your transitions and segues are great????

Really good. Good existential angst lyrics (there would be no great songs without them, "Bring in the Clowns", "Comfortably Numb", "Anti-Hero"). Your compositions are so interesting, lots of melodies moving in and out, sometimes solo and sometimes layered????

Echo the Dan influence. Extremely well crafted, played, recorded and mixed. All the instruments are clear and very well EQ'ed...the balance is all a matter of taste and I hear no problems with this mixes balances at all????

Sounds nice. I had a 12 string Ovation for awile around the early eighties. Really liked the guitar and I shouldn't have sold it????

Thanks so much Nigel. It's not really a song and it's not really a soundscape....maybe a songscape???? Slowly but seemingly surely my "mixing ears" are getting the hang of it????

As a homage to the film this works incredibly well. I also think it would stand extremely well on its own without the audio clips. Great work as always????

Great song, nice taste of hip hop mixed with some electronic touches. So glad you have a short instrumental break as most songs today completely overdo vocals, would like to see the lyrics????

Great song, interesting production that works, great vox, great unexpected touches/flourishes in the piece????

Thanks Bjorn. Yes, the mood exploration using the guitar chords was the center of this piece. There are augmented, diminished, ninth....any chord that could convey a spooky scenario. In fact, the intro uses one of the Arturia Augmented Strings synths that is playing midi notes that I wrote for SI Strings for the outro but is being played much faster than the outro and with different audio textures and effects.