OM: Friends Together (mingguan)

M

mingguan

New member
Hi all,

Attached is my latest composition: Friends Together

This is my first attempt of sequencing/recording.

Equipments/tools used:-
Sequencing Software: YAMAHA SQ01
Tone Generator: YAMAHA S90 ES
Recording Device: GEMINI iKEY

Please feel free to listen & comment.
Critique are welcome!

**EDIT**
Friends Together (original ver)
(Initial version without any edit, sounds is clearer but with more noise)
 
nice...peaceful.... recording. :)

just wondering, whats the use of the gemini ikey? can't u plug your s90 straight into the usb port of your computer?
 
guys,
Thanks for spending time listening.

Indigo_blues
iKEY is to record the audio from S90ES to external harddisk.
USB for S90ES only for MIDI signal transmission.
 
hmm oic.. thanks. . thot usb cable could transmit audio as well.. must have mixed it up with the firewire interface..

cause it would be better to keep everything digital rather than using the analog outs of the s90.. :)
 
hi mingguan! another excellent piece from you. its very relaxing, but i think the quality is somehow compromised when u recorded it. feels compressed and unclear. I love the song very much :D but sounds more like a goodbye song rather than friends together :lol:
 
I have to agree with Tera , it sounds more like a goodbye song than a friendship song but nonetheless it sounds great! I like the arrangement.... :D
 
It is a very relaxing piece indeed! Reminds me of some Japanese animation or games - not that I watch or play games at all. I see that you sequenced it real-time this time round instead of note-by-note sequencing. It's clean and did not have unecessary clutter. Using only 2 tracks is fine for this music (or did you use a layered piano? counld't hear too clearly due to the muffled sound).

First of all, I agree that the title and the mood is slightly mismatched.

The recording - it is not too bad in that there's no background noises. I wonder if the muffled sound is from your recording interface or your settings somewhere. Using pads adds to the "dark" and muffled atmosphere. Try playing around with the EQ slightly.

Otherwise, the tune is really catchy. I'm stuck with it in my head. Nice work!
 
Thanks for spending time listening...

Regarding the song title,
Hm...
It is intend to be the same "series" with my previous song (Friends Forever) :wink:
In this song, I wanna create a relaxing/confortable/peaceful mind (ie. no need to think much, or no need to trouble...) feeling when friends are together with you.
And...
I already try my best to remove whatever sadness feeling from the song.
(although I can't really distinguish between "relaxing" & "sadness" :( )
BTW...
it is sad due to the melody itself, the arrangement or my playing (since I sequenced it real-time)?

Regarding the recording,
The quality of the mp3 is as same as the WAV (which is also bad :oops: ).
As there is a lot of analog noise in the recording, after record it to Wav file, I use Wave Editor to filter out those noise. Thus the quality of the sounds somehow affected.

Cheez, I'm not sure which muffled sound you meant.
For Piano, I used "Dark S" (I guess it means dark S700).
For Pad, I used "VP Soft" (I guess it means VP String Soft).
Do you aware that I used percussion? :lol: but only Triangle & Belltree (wind chimes?).
 
Can't hear much of the wind chimes or bells. They are almost totally removed or muffled when you filter the noise. That's the problem with noise filtering - you cut off all the high-frequencies. When I say muffled, I meant everything sounded in the low frequency and lack brightness.

Why are you getting so much analog noise? Should check your cables connection etc. I really hope it is not the audio interface. If so, better change it. If you are using a notebook and want a cheap, easy and low noise solution, Echo indigo is very good.

Anyway, it's a pity I can hear much of the higher frequencies like the bell and chimes. I'm sure it will sound nice when those sounds cuts through the mix. Arrangement is nice - it's a pity the recording makes it unclear. Is it possible to redo it again? I don't mind noise as long as everything can be heard.
 
Mingguan, what noise?? This is much better than the previous one. There isn't that much noise I can hear. I is actually quite clean, audio-wise. It is not muffled and I can hear the the details of the pads much better - things I couldn't hear at all from the previous version. I think this should be the main version instead of the other one!

Things like noise reduction and EQ should only be used very sparingly and very carefully.

I can hear the wind chimes at the end of the song. But I still can't hear the triangle. Maybe my ears aren't working too well early in the morning.

I like the catchy tune. As for the title, it doesn't sound like a "group of friends together". More like 2 friends (guy and girl) staring into each other eyes... It is like a love song - romantic. That's the feeling I get when I listen to it.
 
I also did listen it thru on-line streaming.

If you listen thru PC speaker, the noise is not obvious.
but if you listen thru headphone, you can easily hear the noise throughout.

For the triangle, it is at 1'37".


As for the theme...
it is to cherish the time when friends are together... :wink:
 
I listened with headphones. It sounded OK to me. But then my headphones isn't too good. I didn't use my monitoring headphones. Still, it is not obvious at all.

One thing about writing for limited percussion in a piece. If you want your piece to be as realistic as possible, you need to think that it is going to be played in a real situation. You need to consider the instrument players you are going to get. If the percussionist is only going to tingle on the triangle once and then play the chimes once at the end (a few seconds each time), he will be pretty bored sitting around doing nothing for the rest of the piece. Percussion is very much an instrument, not just as a fill in. Just like you won't use the violins just to play one bar at the end and rest throughout, the same goes for the percussion. It should be integrated into the piece - not too much, but not so scarce either. However, there are times when other instrumentalists take over the percussion when they are not playing (eg saxophone player rest, then play the percussion once in a while). That's acceptable. Too much percussion in a piece like this is also not good since it destroys the mood. So in the end, it's a balance.
 
haha...
i ever think of it.
my intention for this song is to be played by 2 persons:-
1 person play the piano part,
1 person play others (ie. pad sounds, triangle & wind chime) on keyboard.


ps: I hope I have more people listening & more reviews on this. so can motivate me write more songs... :wink:
 
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