November

Girk

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Description

Well, if Cornucopia is full of Eastern Promise (what does that mean?), now for something entirely different (to paraphrase John Cleese!). Plenty of Acoustic with fine classical trill building through DnB into an orchestral finale...Enjoy!

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Lyrics

None. Wouldn't mind some though!

My mate Dave (Urquhart) playing the acoustic.

Song Stats

Hits: 1174
Comments: 19
Fans: 3
Plays: 101
Downloads: 86
Votes: 2
Uploaded: Mar 29, 2007 - 01:43:04 PM
Last Updated: May 31, 2007 - 03:19:45 PM Last Played: Nov 20, 2009 - 04:17:39 PM

Song License

Creative Commons License:
Attribution-ShareAlike

Song Actions

Hardware:

Eko 12 string acoustic
Ovation 6 string acoustic
Fender Jazz Bass
M Audio Nova Cond. Mic
M-Audio Ozone (input)
M-Audio Firewire (Output)
Recorded on Apple G4 GarageBand
Acoustic guitar digital remastered using ART analogue valve pre-amp
Mastered on Apple G5 Logic Pro 7.1

Software:

Apple LogicPro & GarageBand; Korg Legacy cell software synth; LogicPro UltraBeat; Software Instruments: Hip Hop Remix, Paris House Remix, Violin Legato, Orchestra String section, Violin Trill, Viola, Cello Stacatto, Cello Pizzicato

Comments

Gav

Gav said 969 days ago (March 29th, 2007)

great vibe!!
I likes this alot. I love the intro - it really drew me in and the drums were very unexpected but a lovely contrast to the intro. It has a bit of a Spanish vibe coming through the guitars. I dont think its structured to add vocals to it at the moment. It works as is really well and if it were to be made into a song it would need a major re-jig. But keep this!! Its a gem!

Check out my latest song called Understand

Girk	Girk said 968 days ago (March 30th, 2007)
	Thank you! It brings me great pleasure to read your kind words. I hope you made full use of the bass section underpinning the progression to the conclusion! I'd still love some vocals, but have to admit, it's something I feel quite daunting to construct. Nonetheless, I take your point entirely! Check out my latest song called Kathy's Theme

drakonis

drakonis said 968 days ago (March 30th, 2007)

bassicly cool
Definitely a show-piece for a nice bass-line and a pretty Greek-like fast-strummed guitar riff. There wasn't as much cohesion in this one as in your prior piece, this seemed a little more "throw in this and that"... and though I really liked the main chord progression and guitar melody (sweetly sad), I wanted a B-theme to come in and mix things up a little. Possibly November in Cumbria has rather large thunderstorms? November here tends to be calm and peaceful, so from the title, I was not expecting the big jarring crescendo at the end (did I detect a bit of clipping there in the final MP3?) Possibly it was your intent to lull me into a beautiful November guitar piece, then hit me with a big rolling storm. So, I really liked the initial guitar ideas, very pretty and compelling, but the symphonic/synthy build-up seemed a little out-of-place to me. Those are my thoughts.
ttfn,
Drakonis

Check out my latest song called Lullaby for the Inner Child

Girk

Girk said 968 days ago (March 30th, 2007)

It's wet ere in Cumbria!
Cumbria is the UK's Lake District: It doesn't have huge lakes for nothing! Boy, in fact it can rain so much that statistically 1 day in 2 involves a varying degree of atmospheric precipitation! Indeed, between Halloween 2006 and mid january 2007, it rained every single day. And when it rains here, it rains! It's so damp that the rubber window seals on our cars grow MOSS! November here is on the cusp: Deciduous dying back, squirrels tending their nuts, Old Jack Frost laying his icy fingers. Brrrrr!
The track is called November because that's when it was recorded and the arrangement was made to show how we start with a warm summer rapidly fading into an icy blast. Leaves... Blink... No leaves...
Hence this might give insight into the contrast through the piece and into its finale. I chose the Korg to accentuate the central counterpoint melody through L and R blasts as the reprise.
Glad you heard the Thunder! That's Ultrabeat through a convolution reverb.
The guitar isn't Greek (the Greeks don't have historical influence on the Guitar in the same way the Spanish have zip influence on the Bazouki): It's Spanish tremolo played on a steel string. The classical equivalent is trill. It involves cycling the fingers rapidly on the harmony strings whilst picking the melody with the remaining thumb. It's piano equivalent is to sticking your thumbs in your belt loops and playing Rachmaninov with your nose! You may of course choose to stick your thumbs elsewhere...
As for the clipping, it might be your equipment due to the pronounced bass presence. The master through Logic Pro was finalised through an adaptive limiter after multicompression to -0.1dB, and the final master output peaks at -0.8db prior to output if this helps. There is no clipping on any of the 24bit tracks either and the guitar lines were digitally remastered after intial recording through an ART valve preamp to add real valve nuance. This is impossible to model by software (although Line 6 do a very good attempt if anyone's used a POD) as the vacuum tubes are chaotic in their saturation and loading.
Keep diddling, Girk

Check out my latest song called Kathy's Theme

drakonis

drakonis said 968 days ago (March 30th, 2007)

points taken
One of the things most people LOVE about Southern California is something I instead see as a problem... we really don't have any strong seasons here. Having lived here all my life, I tend to miss the strong seasonal pull that most of the world gets, my loss. You captured the storm.

I mentioned that the distortion might be in the MP3 (not in your 24 bit originals), but it is likely my cheap headphones here at work.

As for the "Greek" comment, I meant to say that the playing style reminded me a bit of Greek music, not that it was a Greek instrument. And if you were simultaneously strumming AND plucking out the melody, you should ADVERTISE that virtuosity in the description, that *IS* impressive skill!

ttfn,
Drakonis

---
Deja vu - It's the next best thing to being there<br>
### Today's song:<a href="http://www.macjams.com/song/28669">Dance of the Technoids</a>

Check out my latest song called Lullaby for the Inner Child

Girk

Girk said 968 days ago (March 30th, 2007)

In reply
Thank you very much for your help and guidance, especially on the ID tag issue. This track has a heck of a lot going on down below, with kick, heavy bass and dabs of Space Designer! It'll wow your woofers! Please try to audition it though a ported speaker, although headphones will do a decent job but will shelf-off the low end. Laptop speakers kill all my compositions as they all rely on hard, heavy bass.
It is meant to be a very contrasty piece, as I said in the preamble. Starts very simply with the two tracks of guitar and builds through layers crashing into the finale to finish with the final plucked guitar note that hangs in the air: A bit like an autumnal leaf before it's carried away in a woooosh! Kindest regards, Girk

Check out my latest song called Kathy's Theme

Girk

Girk said 968 days ago (March 30th, 2007)

Check out my latest song called Kathy's Theme

	said 968 days ago (March 30th, 2007)
	marvelous! did you use the 12-string to make the mandolin-like sound? it's great. i like when the beat kicks in. a wonderful ability to compose and arrange all of this into one cohesive experience! very thoughtful piece. wonderful song! welcome to macjams!!!!

Girk

Girk said 967 days ago (March 31st, 2007)

Eko 12 and Ovation 6
The fingered chord progression was done on an old Eko 12 string dreadnought with the GBE using single strings and the trill was done on a plastic roundback Ovation 6 string electroacoustic. This is why it might sound like a mandolin! However, single strings and not double here! Both acoustic tracks were recorded through M Audio's Nova Cond. Mic and Ozone I/O to a G4 using GB. The tracks were then output in real time from the G4 through an ART valve preamp into my G5, both running GB (2 tracks, 2 channels, thus 4 seperate takes!).
After basic editing, the piece was loaded into LogicPro for final mastering, with High Pass shelving on the guitar tracks at 150Hz to remove any wow artefacts and the sound of slippers tapping the rhythm on the carpet (I kid you not!). I used a low pass filter at 8kHz on the bass line to increase the bandwidth on the Master and 1kHz on the kick and bass drums through the JamPack drums. The only high end filtration I didn't use on the bass and rhythm was on the Ultrabeat track as I wanted the headroom through the convolution reverb to add texture (and not music!) to heighten the sense of arousal to the piece. The output track used multipressor and adaptive limiter, with 12v filter enabled to remove any transformer artefacts.
Gentle reverb to the guitars (I use about 93 dry: 7 wet ratio) was added using Korg component modelled software AU pluggin effects. I don't generally record with reverb as you can't wake up one day and strip it off the original recording. My approach post recording is effects, EQ, multipressor, (adaptive) limiter. I always apply EQ downwards so the MAXIMUM output on any particular frequency is at 0dB. The other EQ slides in the graphic EQ will thus be set at -ve dB values. This allows the compressor to work without any hard knee artefacts creaping in and allow more amplitude between quiet sections of the piece and loud ones, adding drama. The output is optimised with the limiter to increase final gain, before setting the final output level in the Master Output track. I've listed the variables above! I don't normalise as a rule!
The EQ, multipressor, limiter12v filter had also been applied to the bass and guitar tracks in turn using standard presets.
I think this eplains why the guitars sound so alive in the opening section!
The Korg synth was chosen to bite through on the reprise as I felt that using heavy guitar power chords would have been contrived and predictable, and so using the synth on sawtooth waves and then resampled at 8bit to give it the crust and bite, I think on the whole, is unexpected and adds to the drama in the finale.
Thank goodness we're into Spring! Kindest regards, Girk

Check out my latest song called Kathy's Theme

	said 967 days ago (March 31st, 2007)
	kudos on... ...a much greater understanding of mixing than I. That's quite a process, and it pays off well. Thank you for taking the time to break it al down. Hopefully, I can learn something from your explaination. ...(now where's that pen of mine?...) --- Learn, Love, Grow

Cori Ander	Cori Ander said 967 days ago (March 31st, 2007)
	Very nice Very nice mood! The string instrumens are very nice sounding and well placed. Very nice and pleasant listening. Thank you! Check out my latest song called Guitar test — Martin CSN (Gerry Tolman Tribute)

Girk	Girk said 964 days ago (April 3rd, 2007)
	Great comment Guys! Thank you for the great praise and comments. Having heard music from both of your sites, this no mean feat! Kind regards, Girk Check out my latest song called Kathy's Theme

michael2

michael2 said 960 days ago (April 7th, 2007)

again, wow
this is gorgeous. hadn't had a chance to check this one out. you get an amazing guitar sound, which is one of my weak points. you are right about a lot of bass, which i always like. excellent job. would fit right in the cinematic genre too. i still plan on doing some vocals for cornucopia BTW. see ya soon.

Check out my latest song called Behind Enemy Lines (w/Bud and Particle Dots)

Girk

Girk said 959 days ago (April 8th, 2007)

I Don't Know
is your track I keep playing. I dunno about your guitar sound being anything except great. And as I said on my critique, it's a beautiful sound you have. Very reminiscent of undistorted Nirvana, with the resonant solo just fantastic. Reminds me of the tone from my Gretsch DuoJet.
Thanks for your comment though and for taking time to listen through a good balanced EQ. Happy Easter Chap! Girk

Check out my latest song called Kathy's Theme

davajonah	davajonah said 959 days ago (April 8th, 2007)
	Wow... This is beautiful. I just love the bass vibes in this. Exceptional playing and I've downloaded, thank you. Check out my latest song called Pavlov's Dog

metronom	metronom said 919 days ago (May 18th, 2007)
	hey!! intro is perfect and when the drums came...there is nothing to say about it...it's wonderfull....very very good job. Check out my latest song called myspace

Girk	Girk said 799 days ago (September 15th, 2007)
	A Voacal I'd love some sort of voacl to this. I'd have a bsh myself but quite honestly, if that's the only alternative, believe me, it's better off staying as music!!! Hope you all enjoy it and if anyone does fancy taking the gauntlet, I'm all ears! Best wishes, Girk Check out my latest song called Kathy's Theme

Girk	Girk said 799 days ago (September 15th, 2007)
	A Vocal I'd love some sort of vocal to this. I'd have a bsh myself but quite honestly, if that's the only alternative, believe me, it's better off staying as music!!! Hope you all enjoy it and if anyone does fancy taking the gauntlet, I'm all ears! Best wishes, Girk Check out my latest song called Kathy's Theme

Girk	Girk said 799 days ago (September 15th, 2007)
	Can't Sing, Can't sepll... A few typos in my comments above. Sorry. I also have a sieve like a memory too! Check out my latest song called Kathy's Theme

Fan List

Gav

Cori Ander

davajonah

Artist Info

Name: Girk

I have a very wide and diverse sense of music and musicality. May I recommend using ported speakers (if possible) for my tunes as they are (in parts) bass driven. I hope you enjoy the music as much as I did making it... Thank you!... [see more]

Check out some of my other songs:

Genre Info

More songs in Acoustic:

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