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Andes Off! (sschedra guitar version 3) by drakonis [Email]

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SONG STATS:
Hits: 1143
Comments: 56
Votes: 10
Plays: 111
Last Played: Oct 02, 2008 - 02:52:51 PM
Downloads: 41
Fans: 22
Uploaded: Feb 24, 2008 - 08:51:16 AM
Last Updated: Feb 25, 2008 - 05:25:44 PM
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Keywords:
Big Sur (3), California (11), Condor (3), Ventana Wildlife Society (3), San Diego Zoo (3), CRES (3), Peru (4), pan pipe (2), pan flute (3), zampoña (3), charango (3), Andes (3), not Andean Condors (3), http://cres.sandiegozoo.org/ (3), http://www.ventanaws.org (3), drakonis (55), sschedra (1)
Description:
I asked Stephen (sschedra) if he would look over the guitar chords and offer suggestions, and he not only altered chords, but changed this piece for guitars instead of the higher-pitched Bolivian charangos (mandolin-like instrument.) Please tell us what you think of this update.

Stephen: I worked on the second guitar a bit and made the chords as I would play them in the basic position.  I moved the bass down an octave.  I eq'ed both guitars and the bass and gave the first guitar a little concert hall reverb to match the pan flutes.  All that stuff is just subjective and to taste.  I hope I didn't kill an absolutely great song.   I think you were doing a traditional folk sound with the charangos and here I am changing it to guitar, sigh.  Well, I love this piece (as do all who hear it), so I am just hoping my tweaks give it something that does not take away from its greatness.

Eduard: While my wife and I were travelling back down the coast of California (near Big Sur) from a vacation around New Years, we stopped at a turnout over a cliff, and took a bunch of video of at least 15 California Condors, flying and hanging out on the guard rail, not 15 feet from us! These amazing birds, once almost extinct in the wild, are now being re-introduced on the west coast. When full-grown, they can have a 10-foot wingspan, the largest land-birds in North America. I'm editing the video as we speak (checking with the San Diego Zoo and Ventana Wildlife Society to see if they want the footage.) I have about 15 minutes of amazing video of them in flight, or sunning themselves in the trees, or ambling around looking at the growing crowd of people, who are stopping to look at them in return. I am hoping that despite their apparent lack of fear of people, they remain safe.

Due to lots of interest, I have edited down the condor video and have posted it on YouTube for all to see, go here to watch and read a little write-up of the trip (http://schwansongs.blogspot.com/)

As part of the ending credits, I needed a quickie "Condor" theme, so I whipped this up. It is supposed to evoke Peruvian/Bolivian style folk music. There are some still-photos that I took, as the artwork above.

Hardware:
Mac Pro, Canon GL2 videocamera, Condors, Vacations

Software:
Harmony Assistant, GarageBand 4, my sweet wife
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good :-) &mdash 02/24/08 - 08:56:32 AM
This guitar version is beautiful. The soft guitar sound fits very well to the nice pictures and the birds ...
I like it :-)

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tone mellows &mdash 02/24/08 - 09:21:59 AM
I think the guitars, as well as lowering the bass an octave, gives this a more somber tone. Stephen's suggested changes are quite nice, I thought. Thank you for listening and offering comments as this progresses, Andreas! Off to listen to your latest.
ttfn,
Drakonis

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I LOVE IT &mdash 02/24/08 - 09:11:49 AM
Can't wait to see your youtube video too! Is this an actual guitar being played? If you got this sound from GB, I'm really impressed, but then I'm used to being impressed with you. I love the pan flutes and can totally picture the condors here. Thanks Eduard!



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Faux Guitar &mdash 02/24/08 - 09:27:47 AM
Nope, I asked Stephen to either play a real guitar, or show me how badly I messed up the chords... he took m existing "fake charango" MIDI score (and printed score) and changed some chords and re-cast the GB instrument to a lower acoustic guitar sound. I had already put some "strumming" delay in the notes to make it sound like a strummed chord, but that stands out a lot better with his choice of guitar sound I think.

The link to the video is right up there in the song description (http://schwansongs.blogspot.com/)... I'd love to hear your thoughts on the video too! THAT was a magical encounter!

ttfn,
Drakonis

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just gorgeous &mdash 02/24/08 - 10:23:21 AM
composition and gentle guitar are a fabulous mix.....the blown pipe/flute renders a sublime melody......many bows.....

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Mcboy... &mdash 02/24/08 - 05:53:45 PM
your thoughtful listen is always appreciated, and all the more here, since you are able to get past my attempts at MIDI-scoring the guitar strums, and the music still sounds good? That is a wonderful compliment, and I'm very happy to offer a slice of sublime melody to you. I think Stephen has helped a lot here by moving the bass & guitars down an octave, giving the flutes more space to play in.
ttfn,
Drakonis

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Enhanced &mdash 02/24/08 - 03:16:50 PM
I really like the rich chords ands the lowered bass- and it still retains the Bolivian feel. The textures in here are great, Eduard and Stephen, Kudos to you both. :-)

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Yay! &mdash 02/24/08 - 05:56:48 PM
OK, so we are getting closer to the pinnacle of goodness... hope I don't run out of air before we get there... I can see Machu Picchu ahead! :-) Thank you for listening YET AGAIN to this and offering your thoughts, Roxylee, you are a great help!
ttfn,
Drakonis

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Andes Off! &mdash 02/24/08 - 03:53:42 PM
YES ... !! the Touch of a Folkie heart to this !!
I m enjoyin this way to much cos now it has the folkie
sound much more with all the deep guitars sound .
way to go folks you ROCK !!

how I love it ...one of your best Draki ... !

KUDOS !!

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Feter! &mdash 02/24/08 - 06:03:38 PM
I think there is a "Folk" gene in all of us that goes back to ancient troubadors... it is where we all connect. You are very talented here, but you hear strong folk-backing in this, then I'm improving! I will continue to practice. Thank you for listening and offering your encouragement, my friend.
ttfn,
Drakonis

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Andes Off! &mdash 02/24/08 - 06:44:18 PM
I like the tango feel and the instrumentation. Nice guitar work as well. Nice rhythms and feel in this piece!

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el tango pasa &mdash 02/25/08 - 10:37:23 AM
I had fun giving a tango-like feel to this under the flutes... and I'm glad you liked the overall feel of this. If you have time, check out the video for the inspiration of this :-)
ttfn,
Drakonis

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I'm &mdash 02/24/08 - 07:56:29 PM
surprised he didn't just play his own guitars, he's pretty good from what I'd heard on his page. This version sounds really good. It has an added warmth to it with the changes.

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Thought about it &mdash 02/24/08 - 08:14:24 PM
Brian, I thought about playing the second guitar part, but my classical guitar (although it has great tone) buzzes a lot and so I just modified the basic midi. I didn't touch the lead part, but thought about putting some live rifs over it as harmony, but then when I thought about the thing as a whole, well, its Eduards work and I just wanted to hear it with classical guitar and not change the overall feel and style (which I think is great). Too, I am not quite as capable as you give me credit for I could not produce anything like that lead part without a lot more practice (and many, many takes ;-> )

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me too! &mdash 02/25/08 - 11:33:38 AM
I too was hoping he'd play over it... but even better is the fact that Stephen carefully went over the chord charts I sent and tweaked the GB file to be more "correct" for a real guitar player... and when he sends it back, I will study his changes so I can learn from it and improve! "Teach a man to fish..." and all that :-) However, I would still love to hear some more live guitar on something of mine someday :-)
ttfn,
Drakonis

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The guitar parts... &mdash 02/24/08 - 08:31:46 PM
...are perfect...we must be on the same "subjective" frequencey...beautiful piece...downloaded...

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Perfect? &mdash 02/25/08 - 11:45:52 AM
Well, coming from YOU, that's extremely high praise! Thank you for listening and heading way down south with us! I look forward to learning from his tweaks!
ttfn,
Drakonis

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~ &mdash 02/25/08 - 01:25:19 PM
I'm pretty familiar with this genre. Very impressed with Stephen's choices and playing here. Very tasteful. Combined with your work...wonderful stuff, Eduard.

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A real nice,... &mdash 02/24/08 - 10:06:01 PM
South American style piece, I enjoyed it very much, thank you for sharing it!!!

Ian

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Ian &mdash 02/25/08 - 01:34:18 PM
from another acoustic guitarist I admire, thank you very much for listening and enjoying!

ttfn,
Drakonis

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And it just keeps on getting better &mdash 02/24/08 - 10:57:54 PM
Really nice work here, and an impressive sound quality as well. That guitar - wow! Great results and another fav.

Cheers,,
Doug

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Stephen did a great job &mdash 02/25/08 - 03:16:44 PM
He switched in the guitar sound, tweaked the chords, and added some reverb

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Beautiful... &mdash 02/25/08 - 05:06:32 AM
Being from around that area (Peru), I must say you captured the feeling quite well. It's a great performance and I love the Condor images.
B

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Thank you! &mdash 02/25/08 - 03:20:50 PM
Hi Barretok, I am very delighted to have your native ears enjoy this then! I love this style of music, and wanted to do it justice. Glad you enjoyed the images too... I hope you also watched the video I shot of these birds too (link is above in the description.)
ttfn,
Drakonis

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That pics with Condor&Dragon &mdash 02/25/08 - 07:49:46 AM
together are really amazing, such great species U are!....I like this tune, the combination of andine flute and classic guitar works fantastically and the production quality is also topnoch.

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Excellent Lou &mdash 02/25/08 - 03:23:02 PM
Thank you for listening to the latest update to this... I'm glad you don't mind us two species (big ugly flying things :-) Looks are not everything, after all!
ttfn,
Drakonis

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yep &mdash 02/25/08 - 08:17:37 AM
is a beauty. nice tweeking to a great tune... very different feel!

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little tweak, big difference &mdash 02/25/08 - 03:25:16 PM
Yes, those seemingly minor changes really gave a different overall feel, but I do like it better, after the initial shock of hearing it sound so different... funny things happen to your brain when you listen to the same piece over and over as you work on it. I was glad to hear a new rendition, a bit mellower and richer sounding.
ttfn,
Drakonis

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A nice change &mdash 02/25/08 - 08:32:50 AM
I think you're right about the lower octave giving the flute more space. The guitars have a wonderful warm sound. I'm thinking now with the extra space, the flute doesn't need to be as loud and in your face. It can easily just float above the guitars if it were a bit softer in the mix. Just a thought.

I think it's great that you're trying all these things with the piece. The video is worth it, and I bet it's been fun.

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A stellar suggestion :) &mdash 02/25/08 - 03:28:43 PM
Yes! I think you are right... I think Stephen didn't want to make too many changes to this, but when I get his changes back, *I can* (bwahaha). I will incorporate his changes, and then see about dropping the pan flutes back a little, per your suggestion. Thank you for listening so carefully, and watching the video too. I have been loving all of it, working on the video editing and the music both!
ttfn,
Drakonis

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pretty &mdash 02/25/08 - 05:38:05 PM
enjoyed it thuroughly

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Thank you &mdash 02/26/08 - 11:35:48 AM
Glad you dropped in to listen and liked it. Glad to see you posting stuff again!
ttfn,
Drakonis

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Delightful &mdash 02/25/08 - 06:41:20 PM
This is so good, it puts me into a south American frame of mind, the Andes perhaps, congrats to both of you...

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waaaay South of the border... &mdash 02/26/08 - 11:51:40 AM
that's where I wanted to take you, so it was working then! :-) Thanks for stopping in to listen to this evolving piece, and thanks for sharing YOUR epic talents here on Macjams too!
ttfn,
Drakonis

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Eduard, &mdash 02/26/08 - 11:25:00 PM
...you've gotten an awful lot of mileage from your trip to Big Sur.. . I love the gentleness of this number and it swings along with that wonderful bass and guitar. It is just so very pleasant to listen to. Ah, I really like the solo guitar about 3/4 in. Great little bridge...Oops...it stopped! Just give it a couple more measures...and then a definitive cadence. ...
Really a beautifully-rendered and thoughtfully-structured piece. Nice. Nice. Nice.
peace.
Paul

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400 miles of mileage &mdash 02/27/08 - 10:46:07 AM
We loved that trip, and the video and music it inspired in me has been wonderful, especially with all the suggestions and feedback! Thank you for the careful ear and suggestions for extending the guitar part and adding a more definitive cadence before launching back into the repeat... I will do that!

I always appreciate your thoughtful words... thank you again Paul! Andes off again to work on it more...
ttfn,
Drakonis

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Great &mdash 02/27/08 - 08:17:45 AM
I like the flute on this one.... And the guitar is played great... There's some good details in the guitar play, that i really like.... Good song.... Thanks for sharing...

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Thanks Jakob... &mdash 02/27/08 - 11:35:02 AM
If you have never heard Bolivian folk music, you should poke around and see if you can find some... it is always very deeply moving to me. I tried to re-create it, and Stephen made some great updates here by altering the orchestration from the higher-pitched guitar sound to a lower-pitched one, and dropping the bass down too. I now have ideas for making this even better! Glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for listening and offering great comments, on my music and so many others here too! And for writing great music yourself!
ttfn,
Drakonis

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. Wow... &mdash 02/29/08 - 04:56:13 PM
What a truely Beautiful composition Drakonis - GREAT to hear Your Music once again ! One of Best I've heard so far . . :)


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Thank you Lena! &mdash 02/29/08 - 05:09:45 PM
So glad to have you stop in and listen and let me know you like it. If its the best so far, that is good, it means I am not getting worse! :-)
ttfn,
Drakonis

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Great! &mdash 03/02/08 - 07:28:28 AM
I'm in love with this version, great job you and sschedra did. The guitar is really nice addition to this piece.
Enjoyed it from the start till the end. KUDOS!

Take Care
- Yeman A. Al-Rawi

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Thank you for flying in, Birdman &mdash 03/02/08 - 10:42:57 AM
Hey Yeman, good to see you again, as always! I agree, Stephen's tweaks by changing this to a lower-register regular guitar sounds even better. I'm refining the piece with each of these suggestions. Glad it kept you interested throughout! It is a short flight, but I hope to extend it some on the next launch.
ttfn,
Drakonis

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Beautiful one, man &mdash 03/02/08 - 04:17:56 PM
it really has the spirit of the Andes, imo. Flute and guitar are simply great, but I esppecially liked it when the maracas (they were maracas, weren't they?) came in now and then.

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Macaws? &mdash 03/03/08 - 10:40:01 AM
Glad you got into the vibe... the percussion I added was some kind of shaker thingie, I don't remember now what it was, but I chose it to sound like what is often used in the Peruvian/Bolivian music.
ttfn,
Drakonis

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Brilliant. &mdash 03/02/08 - 08:06:59 PM

Hi

Well done. A beautiful stunning peice of music loved everything about it.
well done you guys, a great listen.
Peace
Dee.

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nice peace &mdash 03/03/08 - 10:41:40 AM
Thank you for listening, Dee... and I'm enjoying your musical adventures here too!
ttfn,
Drakonis

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Music as regal as &mdash 03/07/08 - 10:33:50 AM
the Condors. An excellent piece of music that is performed well and mixed to perfection. I haven't heard the original, so I can't comment on the changes, but to my ears this is just wonderful.

Thanks for the colab and for sharing you efforts. Bravo to both of you.

Ed

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Got the guitar part past you... &mdash 03/07/08 - 03:20:28 PM
Well, Stephen did some nice tweaks with the guitar parts to make them like they were played... I hope to incorporate his changes into an updated version that is even longer with a nice little change-up idea supplied by Alfalpha recently... in the mean time, don't forget to check out the video I took of these amazing birds (link in the description.) Thank you for stopping in and enjoying the flight! I shall soar over to your neck of the woods now, Ed!
ttfn,
Drakonis

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I never &mdash 03/07/08 - 01:27:03 PM
realised until now that midi guitars/pan pipes could sound so real.
Really enjoyed this listen - the music has a lovely gentleness about it that digs deep into oneself and is very relaxing.
Cheers
Len



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a bit of trickery &mdash 03/07/08 - 03:22:16 PM
Yes, I am learning a lot about how to de-MIDIfy my music... and writing things that evoke moods. I have a long way to go, but I am glad you stopped in and listened, and mentioned these things, it tells me I'm headed in the right direction! Thank you!
ttfn,
Drakonis

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I must of fallen &mdash 03/16/08 - 03:59:52 PM
off the truck and hit my head again, or perhaps I slipped into some parallel universe where everything looks the same...but sounds so much different. Dig this South American journey. Thanks for taking me away.

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Good to see you again &mdash 03/16/08 - 09:52:09 PM
even with that nasty bump on your head... if music takes you far away, it's a good thing in my book... that's certainly what your music has done for me. Hopefully you clicked on the link in the description and watched the Condor video I shot up in Big Sur, which inspired this music in the first place :-)
ttfn,
Drakonis

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Very well &mdash 05/10/08 - 10:49:57 PM
Very well made for this genre. perfectly writed and produced. Thanks for sharing it.

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Thanks for listening &mdash 05/11/08 - 08:08:49 AM
Thank you Amirreza, I am happy that you enjoyed this one. Usually music is hard for me to write, but this one came out very easily, and was fun to write. I like it when that happens!
ttfn,
Drakonis

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I do &mdash 07/09/08 - 04:17:29 PM
Love this version Drak. It sounds so rich with the warm (not somber) sounding instruments and that fabulous beat, lovely melody too, regards M

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Yay! &mdash 07/10/08 - 02:22:07 PM
Thank you Maurice... glad the beat and melody capture your attention, that is my wish. Now to get back to all my other half-finished musical projects!
ttfn,
Drakonis

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