AndyB01

I've had Stage for years, I'm an occasional pianist but I've found it more than adequate for my needs. That said, I've just upgraded to v8 Standard - because I wanted an extra instrument anyway and I got that for the upgrade price so the deal worked well for me. Just had a play and the additional tinkering you can do in Standard looks good and you can get some interesting sounds. My 2c anyway. Andy

My experience on Bandlab, no bullying but a fair bit of spam and the odd inappropriate comment. I report all of these and tbf to Bandlab - every single one has been blocked and kicked off for breach of rules within a day or so. As to why people do it - human nature I guess - I don't think it's just a Bandlab problem. Pathetic and doubtless talentless keyboard warriors, hiding behind a cloak of pseudo-anonymity they believe gives them the right to abuse others without sanction or redress. It's beyond tragic but almost impossible to police at scale, like playing whack-a-mole but for every one you hit, ten more pop up. Thankfully, this place is a lot more civilized, one of the reasons why I'm still here. I've only ever been trolled once on here (on the previous version of this forum) and the community response was both swift and inspiring. To see this guy (who had been rudely trashing a number of posts by me and others) publicly taken down and dismantled by some of the elders on here was extremely heart-warming. Andy

Some nice lyrical craft in there Allan - I enjoyed it (including the cheesy synths), great job! Andy

Agree with David - you can definitely hear the difference in feel between the piano and the sax - piano feels a little 'automated' to me. Loved the groove however and sax is a standout. Thanks for sharing Andy

It's all Greek to me Jesse ?

A final bump for this, in case anyone is interested in listening to and commenting on the updated version and missed my last post. ⬆️⬆️⬆️ Cheers ? Andy

Progressions and changes are super smooth as always and always impossible to predict - I love that about your stuff. I think I know where it's going next and then something completely unexpected plays in. Great stuff. Andy

This had a great 50s feel - the mix was spot on. Enjoyed the listen. Andy

A lot of work in there Jack, very interesting use of instrumentation and well brought together. Enjoyed the listen. Andy

Hi Jesse - you certainly nailed the sentiment with those lyrics: 'if you want to be seen, you have to see others' Absolutely spot on. An ode to the crazy times we live in. Loved it Andy

OK here's a new version with all the changes noted above - including a major uplift in the key - nits, crits and comments welcome. I have left the original one uploaded for comparison (should you feel the need). https://www.bandlab.com/post/2df84b89-aa62-ed11-819a-000d3a3ee86d Cheers Andy

Thanks all for your feedback, constructive comments and suggestions. I am working on an update to lift this into the key of D (which is a lot closer to the original of G flat than my first version); that's about as high a register as I can manage. I'm also adding a simple drum track and I've lifted the BPM by four clicks as per the original. As a result I've had to re-record everything and edit all the MIDI, as the chord inversions go haywire after such a significant transposition. It's a lot of work and I don't have much spare time but will post the new version when I can. Andy

Enjoyed this one, needs a touch of polish as Nigel says but has all the ingredients for another classic. Andy

Great riff and some nice lyrics in there - hook and chorus is just great. Super tight mix. Andy

The multi-voice output is a a very clever feature - I had a quick play with it today. Really good for routing strings - you get a lot of control. I compared a simple chord set routing to a full orchestra string patch with the same chord set split between bass, cello, viola, and 1st and 2nd violins (both of the violins routed to MIDI Ch 5). It's incredibly easy to set up the routing - I mean even I managed to do it right first time! You really can hear the difference, you can set levels across the different patches; you can even pan the instruments to their actual positions in the orchestra pit. Incredible potential if you're into orchestration (although a purist would probably not use Scaler to achieve this). I'm very impressed - much fun to be had. Pound for pound, Scaler is an incredible plugin imho and just keeps getting better. Andy

I'm still getting to grips with the last version, will have to have a play with the new features. It's a highly underrated (and in my case under-used) plugin imho.

Great stuff Peter - thoroughly enjoyed that. ??? Andy

Great song - really enjoyable listen - I thought the drums fitted the song style perfectly. Andy

Cheers It was definitely three and they were in black and white!!! ???

A few hours. At first I had to get the chords (fortunately some guy on YouTube had done a bar by bar breakdown) and then transpose to the key I wanted. Programming chords into Scaler is OK, you just have to make sure every chord you need is there once, and then do a mapping to the song structure using key switches to change pattern - I wrote a little guide to help. I just routed and recorded this out from Scaler to another VST (Pianoteq), as the Scaler instruments are a bit lame. A quick quantize then import (and humanize) the chord track over to a couple of EzKeys tracks. The noodling piano is one of the jazz ballad packs and the accompaniment is a simple basic arpeggio pattern. Both use pianos in EzKeys (the upright). I had to edit a few inversions where EzKeys goes out of whack but it did pretty well. It took a few hours one evening to get it right. Sure is - a Yamaha Silent Guitar - SLG200-N My wife's favourite guitar - because it makes very little noise. ??

Lovely acoustic tones and enjoyed the harp too - a minor crit - maybe the lead guitar could have had just a little more crunch in there but it's all good. Like the change of pace and feel at around 2:25 as well - great work, well done. Andy

Thanks Tom - I actually programmed the piano chords into Scaler (so I could play them using key switches to lay down a really simple chord track) and then I used a couple of EzKeys MIDI packs to add some character and embellishments - worked out better than I expected. I tried to keep the guitar solo as close to the original as I remembered it - which pretty much follows the vocal melody. It is fairly busy - it's not particularly difficult to play - you just need to select the best neck position to get the most impact for the glissando transitions (of which there are many). Appreciate all the feedback and cheers for the listen @MichaelJohn, the guitar tone is just my Yamaha SLG200N (yep that's the so-called silent one), DI'd in with a bit of added reverb. I find it to be a great guitar for recording with nylon strings. Andy

Cheers Mark, appreciate the listen, you make a good point about the key - for what it's worth - I agree 100%. It actually came out quite a bit lower than I expected - I definitely have a bit more headroom in my vocal range than this, so I will have a bash at re-cutting it at some point. Easy to lift the MIDI tracks as you say, I'd re-record the guitar though because transposing it using something like Melodyne will destroy the tone I think. I look forward to re-comping the twin-tracked vocal tracks. ? Andy

It was a dud link briefly Nigel - after I uploaded a new version - but I think it's fixed now; try again when you get chance. Andy

Nice builds from the start - I enjoy the journey on your tracks - that occasionally very slightly discordant arp is cleverly done. Great work Andy