"Back in Time" Featuring Cole the VII. Something Very Different for Me.

[PavlovsCat]

A rapper named Cole the VII shared his acapella track called "Back in Time" for others to use to do what they liked with. I put his track into my DAW with a click track and started improvising with it. Twenty-four tracks later, this is the result. I think it turned out pretty well. So Cole did the acapella rap and I composed and played all of the music you hear, live (well, one track at a time). 

I'd love to get thoughts on the track, where you think my improvised parts work and where you think they don't and your advice on how to make a better mix. I have this track on private, so I'm not sharing this beyond with Cole and some musician friends. I did have a blast making it, but as I wrote, it's improvised and in a day or so, I may want to tweak some of the parts and it'd be valuable to hear from folks what parts they like and what they don't like. My timing isn't perfect. This isn't a heavily quantized song, in fact, a lot of my  tracks feature no quantization, so some of the timing isn't perfect. If you find any of the timing is so off it bothers you, please share it and I'll redo that part. I basically kept things as they were because I had a vibe going and I thought quantizing things would destroy the feel. 

Thanks, Peter

Edited October 9, 2023 by PavlovsCat

[Ross Smithe]

Wow Peter, this is really fabulous! If you hadn't said anything, I would've thought the instrumentation was originally done together with the rap! Your arrangement and instrument choices are all very tasty and fit well. Honestly, nothing jumped out that needs dramatic adjustment. Seemed very spontaneous with the improvisational feel, and having some imperfections seems to fit well also. Looks like you have a future as a hip hop producer, my friend!

[PavlovsCat]

13 minutes ago, Ross Smithe said:

Wow Peter, this is really fabulous! If you hadn't said anything, I would've thought the instrumentation was originally done together with the rap! Your arrangement and instrument choices are all very tasty and fit well. Honestly, nothing jumped out that needs dramatic adjustment. Seemed very spontaneous with the improvisational feel, and having some imperfections seems to fit well also. Looks like you have a future as a hip hop producer, my friend!

Thanks so much! I used to be a working musician (okay, even though I play muiltiple indstruments, I played drums professionally;  my late  musician/music teacher mother always said, "Drummers aren't musicians, you're only a musician because you play a piano and organ," so I do feel a little guilty everytime I say I was a working musician!), but had a repetitive stress injury and stopped playing until 20+ years later the pandemic inspired me to attempt to play music again. So 20+ years without practice and only being able to play for, at most, several minutes before I'm in pain and have to stop keeps me from being a live musician again. Imagine the shows --"Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed that song, sorry for screaming in pain near the end. I'll be back to play the next in an hour!"  So yeah, I sincerely didn't even know if I would be able to play a full song until a few years ago. Doing any collaboration is fun and hearing feedback like yours is so encouraging, I can't even begin to describe how nice it is to see your comments! Thanks, so much! Every time I play, the old me -- who was a perfectionist -- hears my bland, pedestrian playing, comparing it to pre-injury me when I was obsessively practicing my instrument and could play, pretty much whatever popped into my head, and thinks, this is terrible! So, even a small amount of encouragement means a lot. Sorry, that's a major overshare. But it's honest. Thanks, you made my day. 

I actually was looking for reactions and tips before sending this over to my son, who is away at college and is a big hip hop fan. I think it will blow his mind to hear that his dad, an old rocker, did a hip hop track! You just gave me the confidence to send it to him! 

Edited October 6, 2023 by PavlovsCat

[Larry T.]

Not bad at all at this point. Reminded me of Faith No More's ground breaking "Epic". Good stuff????

[PavlovsCat]

52 minutes ago, Larry T. said:

Not bad at all at this point. Reminded me of Faith No More's ground breaking "Epic". Good stuff????

Thanks! I love Faith No More! Although I didn't think I rocked that hard (although I 'd love to, I didn't think it would fit this rap).  I never collaborated on any hip hop stuff before. But as a drummer, I mainly played rock, but ventured into playing a lot of different styles with various bands over the two decades I played. But I really enjoyed the rap and it inspired me and I just improvised with it. I'm really glad you liked it and appreciate the kind words. 

[KSband]

Your music fits the rap perfectly, nice work.

[Tim Smith]

I think you made the right calls on this in terms of  quantization. And to be honest, I don't rweally hear anything that jumps out of time. You are right, it has a nice groove going. 

What do you mean dummers aren't musicians? LOL. Without you guys the whole game falls aparts when it comes to any music with a beat.

You did a nice job on this. Kudos.

[PavlovsCat]

5 hours ago, Tim Smith said:

I think you made the right calls on this in terms of  quantization. And to be honest, I don't rweally hear anything that jumps out of time. You are right, it has a nice groove going. 

What do you mean dummers aren't musicians? LOL. Without you guys the whole game falls aparts when it comes to any music with a beat.

You did a nice job on this. Kudos.

Thanks for the kind words! 

The whole drummers aren't musicians thing was my mother, who was a fantastically talented musician who went to a great music college for classical piano and organ performance. She was from the school of thought -- which I'd hear back in the day from a lot of college-educated jazz and classical musicians -- that drummers technically aren't real musicians because they don't play an instrument with tones. So, my (late) mother would often tell me that I was a talented musician, but clarify that I'm only a musician because I play piano and organ, because "drummers are not musicians." While I don't agree, I did find it funny.  She was really encouraging to me as a musician and songwriter, but she was also savagely critical. My favorite compliment she gave me -- repeatedly -- "You're such a talented musician, it's a shame that you have such a horrible voice." Me: "It's just mediocre, it's not horrible. My pitch is decent." Her: "Don't kid yourself, it's horrible." So, I did look at it like, okay, I know that her praise must be sincere because her criticism is absolutely brutal! But I suppose she did train me to handle criticism well. 

 

[PavlovsCat]

On 10/6/2023 at 11:33 AM, Tim Smith said:

I think you made the right calls on this in terms of  quantization. And to be honest, I don't rweally hear anything that jumps out of time. You are right, it has a nice groove going. 

What do you mean dummers aren't musicians? LOL. Without you guys the whole game falls aparts when it comes to any music with a beat.

You did a nice job on this. Kudos.

Thanks for the kind words! 

Okay, after getting some feedback from a very talented audio pro, I made some changes to the mix and fixed a weird technical problem that occurred during the bridge that I didn't notice until I listened to this song on my phone. FTR, I mixed this on headphones, so I never heard it on other speakers until after the first mix (my bad). 

 

Edited October 9, 2023 by PavlovsCat

[Lynn Wilson]

Well, this ought to impress your son!  Everything sounds right and tight, and this made me a fan of a genre that I don't listen to very much.  Take a bow!

[Bajan Blue]

Hi Peter

This is excellent - and this is not a genre of music I listen a lot to - but I used to love Grandmaster Flash and Sugar Hill Gang!!

Cool Stuff

Nigel