Sounds like you have a hot shot studio. Great Job!

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This is really great rocking! I like it a lot! Sonds like a live band!

If I were at a place and they played this kind of music I'd stay for the rest of
the night!

Impressing how you've got such a livey character out of
GaragBand!

Great! Thanks for posting!

PS I seem to be unable to post a first level comments today, the system just
wont take it, so I try to comment this comment instead DS

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Thanks for listening and for the positive feedback. Yeah, that "Hot-Shot"
studio, called GarageBand. LOL!

But you can't beat it for the price.

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melody. Love your voice.
Nicely arranged and produced.
Look forward to hearing more from you.

SlimGirlFat

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"Love your voice."

I love yours, too. Wanna trade? :D

Thanks for listening. I really do appreciate your comments.

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heh, no , but maybe a collab would be cool!
Slimmie

---
"'You cannot discover new oceans until you have courage to lose sight of the shore'."

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I dig the retro sound. Reminds me of Ricky Nelson,
smooth, cool backing horns, solid groove. Nice
storytelling, very cool lyrics details, with a rocking sense
of humor. Solid writing, entertaining track.

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Wow! I never expected anyone to apply a "half-nelson" and"squeeze" out that
particular combination of artist influences. ;D

But from listening to your work, I gather you draw from a fairly broad
universe of musical influences, so I'll definitely take it as a compliment.

Thanks for listening and for your kind words.

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Hard not to enjoy a tune such as this.

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Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

T'was a tale that had to be told.

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You have a perfect voice for this sort of song. Well played and arranged too. The sax section is very nicely done, especially considering how crap the GB saxes are.

Hm.... If you really want a wall of sound you'll have to push those drums back a little. And that handclap-like snare sound is just a tad irritating.

But hey, this is head and shoulders above most songs on this site.

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Well, thanks for listening and for the feedback, Vic.

Truth be told, I mixed this tune "on-the-fly" on a boombox and with
headphones because all my studio gear was packed away in preparation for
moving.

So the mix isn't quite the way I would have really liked it. But it never was
meant to be anything more than a solid demo, which I think it is.

I tweaked the horns to get something approaching what I wanted by playing
with the octaves, raising some and lowering others. It was nothing more than
desperate experimentation that paid off. :D

I'm glad you liked the overall effect.

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With tracks galore and overproduced drums, its rockin steady. That sax
section really adds to the production. Smooth vox track too.

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You're a man of your word, 4EROjet.

Thanks for listening and for your positive comments.

---
Hollywood 'Ape-Peel': <a href="http://www.macjams.com/song/10304">Banana Land</a>

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Is this what you asked me to listen to at one point Joe. I'v been too
embarrassed to admit that for the life of me, I cannot find what you did
ask me to listen, way back when, but I haven't forgotten.

So why aren't you on the radio somewhere. What's your story??? This is
one of those tunes that I'd expect to pump out of the radio while
cruising the beach on some warm summer day w/ my top down. I'm
really curious, what happened... I know that there's a good story for
why it didn't happen...

Catchy tune and w/ everything well aligned. It also had a very polished
mix, w/ the exception of what 4 pointed out about the drums. But this
is nothing, as the producing team would have taken care of this while
producing this little ditties. I only mention this, because somtimes I
think that we for get that we are trying to play artist/musician,
engineer, producer and unbiased bystander and everyone else that's
usually involved in this type of production.

Excellent job Joe. Thanks for sharing it too. Dion



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Is this what you asked me to listen to at one point Joe.

--- Actually, I believe it was Banana Land, because off my off-the-cuff *rap* reply to your
post about Brand Nu by ToozDzChild. You were surprised I could rap and I
suggested you apparently missed my *rap* tune, Banana Land. ;-)

What's my story? Like most life stories it's long and... complicated. Suffice it
to say I've led a full life, with lots of interesting experiences and I have no
regrets about decisions I made that took me away from pursuing music as a
career.

Regarding the drums... yes, drums ARE my weak point. I fooled with them a
little early on in my band experience, but not nearly enough to understand
their complexities and nuances. So I just use loops and I need to spend more
time learning how to edit the damn things. But when I start recording new
material for my forthcoming *vanity* CDs, I hope to enlist the services of my
ex-drummer (a really terrific musician) to cover that base for me.

Thanks for listening and for your thoughtful comments, Dion. I appreciate it.

---
Hollywood 'Ape-Peel': Banana Land

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Been checkin out yer tunes Joe. Even though from yer bio I think yer in
the same ballpark age wise as I am, you have obviously been doing this
longer, more seriously and perfecting yer skills to a much greater
extant then I. I've played guitar & sang in rock, country and blues
bands for the past twenty plus years. Prior to getting a new IMac G5
with GB a few months back, my only previous experiance with
recording is an ancient fostex 4 track cassette recorder that's sitting in
one of my closets. You commented on my " Lost Highway " tune so I
thought I'd listen to yer stuff. I'm blown away ! Besides yer obvious
skiills as a guitarist, bassist ect ect you have great arranging and
production skills as well. If my future stuff sounds 1/10th as good as
yers I'll be happy. I got burn't out on the whole rock band thing in West
Tx about five years ago. You can only cover LaGrange and Gimme
Three Steps so many times. Getting involved with GB and MacJams has
rekindled my passion for music. Enough about me, this tune is
fantastik. Has an early 70s Trex, or Bowie vibe to it. Yer stuff is POP
Music with a capitol P. It's Pop music before it became coopted by the
Britanys and Boy Bands of the world. The layering and harmonies and
panning are all exceptional. It's unbelievable that all this can be done
with GB. Kudos my friend

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Thanks, David... for listening and all your kind comments.

It's been *many years* since I last played in front of an audience. I was
fortunate in the latter part of my career to be able to break out of the
copy band constraints and had an opportunity to perform my own
songs at large clubs and concerts.

Modern-Day Romance was one of the tunes we performed
(although a different arrangement, with only guitars and drums). That
probably accounts for the 70s vibe you so accurately described.

But in writing this... and other tunes for my band... as well as for a Musical
--- I began to realize that I enjoyed this creative process a great deal more
than just performing in bands. While i occasionally miss the juice
from playing in front of an audience, I get a much more sustained satisfaction
from writing and recording my original material.

As far as production is concerned, it just takes a little time and patience. It's a
little challenging at first to listen to yourself and your own work the way you
would listen to anyone else. It's an odd phenomenon, but once you get used
to it, you'll find it easier to use your musician's ears to get the right mix of
elements in your recordings. ;-)

---
Hollywood 'Ape-Peel': Banana Land

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The picture certainly sets the tone!

You got the wall of sound. Great skill involved to get 30 tracks sounding so good together.

Fun song!



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Thanks, Pete, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks for listening. ;)


--- Joe

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Rich tune. Excellent production. It really pulls the music, which is lively and catchy.

Nice!

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Thanks, Doug.

Yes, the pic...

It's only Rock & Roll... but I LIKE it. ;)


--- Joe

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and the mix is awesome man. Absolutely fabulous production values, and good clean solid instrumentation. God, man what;s not to like about this one, it is hot.

All that out of a G4-800 iMac is also pretty awesome. Thanks for sharing this on Joe, it a great song.

Ed

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Thanks, Ed... for the listen and the props. Much appreciated.

It doesn't have quite the *edge* the live guitar-centric version had, but I think it's more musically interesting in this arrangement.

I may revisit this tune in Logic and give it more of a build. At the time I originally recorded it, I was a bit overwhelmed --- and still learning my way around digital recording. ;)


--- Joe

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For a first crack at GB this was really good!

I really like the song, and the lyrics are very good!

Thanks.

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Thanks, Stu for listening and for commenting to my old *orphan*.

Nice Forum idea you had. ;)


--- Joe

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