synthz: funkbug

[synthz]

Hello, i got a new funk song i wanna show you guys! :) Please give some feedback!

I made this song entirely from scratch. The hardest part was starting out, like having a blank canvas and trying to think what funk song do i wanna make.. (Made this song especially for this competition btw). After figuring out roughly what kinda song i wanna make, then programming drums are a pain in the ass as usual, then trying to find cool bass lines & patch with it.. i settled with acoustic upright bass, it might doesn't sound so obvious after all those layers...

after the skeleton of the song is done, it's a bit easier to fit in little parts.. listening to which one's work and doesn't work. There's a lot of layers in my Adobe Audition, i used up 48 audio tracks LOL... Try to listen to this VERY LOUD! It'll be great.. trust me :P Spent 2 weeks creating this baby, felt like years actually.. it's like a lot of blood, sweat & tears.. but i'm glad at the end i find the right path for the song. It's very easy for us to just noodling around with the song and being sidetracked for making a 'composition', i think i managed to avoid that.

A lot of time were spent doing production work, finding the right mix, finding the right lead lines, thickening up the sounds..

http://yudhi.gravy.friction.com.au/images/temp/synthz-funkbug-192.mp3

[Axe2Grind]

Well Dude, I think the blood & sweat was well worth it, I love this track. Very funky and rocky. It sounds like you've taken care with the arrangement and the top notch sounds used. Love the leads too, really well played...you're churning out some quality music at the moment, keep doing it !!!...:)

[Liquid Shadow]

Which competition did you make it for?



Good stuff...as usual for you. :) Keep it up. Me likes.

[synthz]

Axe2Grind - Thanks man.. i'm happy with the result too. Appreciated your feedback!

LiquidShadow - Thank you!! it was for mp3 of the month comp at guitars101.com, but i was late apparently and couldn't submit :(

[Rosie]

Wow, this is fucking great! Possibly the piece I've most enjoyed listening to on these forums. Very in your face. It's WILD, HEAVY funk, which you don't hear that often, very full and loud. I love it! Adore it.

I honestly can't tell if the guitar is synthesised or not. The division between the notes does have a very "synthesised" sound to it, but that could be down to settings and playing style, some distortion pedals do that too. It's very good whatever it is :)

[synthz]

Wow..thank you very much for your feedback Rosie. Glad you love it! Yeah the guitars are played thru keys, but i'm glad you didn't notice that.. Thanks man!

[kjetilnossum]

Wow, I think I have to start playing funk from now on. This was GREAT!!!
Very cool "sax-theme"! Now I play it on my keyboard all day :)
Awesome playing and improvisation, the organ solo is great too! :D

[Omega Monkey]

Great job man. Highlights would be the sax and organ solos. One thing I really noticed was the sax phrasing was very realistic, and when you would bend, you did it in spots where a saxophonist would bend. It ended up with kind of a Mike Brecker feel to it, at least phrasing/tone wise.

The only criticism I would give is the mix/eq'ing sounds a little hollow/bright, but some of that may be a function of hearing it on small computer speakers at reduced resolution. Maybe just look at ways to make the sound warmer/fuller next time. But I guess some of that is up to personal taste anyway.

EDIT: OK, after listening to it a second time, Im not really hearing the brightness I was before, but what I am noticing is a lot of clipping. Im not sure if its primarily from tracking or mixing, it sounds like a little of both maybe. The drums especially sound like they were clipping some during tracking, but the rest I would imagine happened in the mixing stage. A tube gain stage somewhere in the signal chain would probably clear up some of that, and make any breakup a little more natural and subtle (although it could already have some tube action in there just with too much gain). Just something to keep in mind next time.

[Semmi78]

hey Synthz!

You definitely have some groove in your fingers! Did you play all the sounds with the Trinity?? especially the drums sounded really tight.Which program was used for the final mix?

Nice work!

[Rosie]

I'd love to hear you try Cowboy Bebop-esque "Funk jazz".

I'd like to point out that I've been playing guitar for nearly 4 years now(sort of on and off, though, probably more like 2 1/2-3 years :P), and being listening to rockin' music for a bit longer, and I honestly wasn't sure if that was real guitar or not. It still sounded somewhat "synthesised" as I said, but I wasn't 100% sure by a long shot. I still much prefer real guitar for a number of reasons, but you did so well. So good job on that :)

[synthz]

OmegaMonkey - Thank you so much for the feedback man...!! Yeah i love how the sax patch work.. it's doing quite a good job. But i think i'm gonna have a hard time using it on a slow song :)

Yeah, there's a bit of clipping. See, i'm having this problem with the guitar patch that i ran thru POD, the level is just too hot, but if i lower it, it's just getting really buried inside the track.. i could find a sweet spot for me, but the freakin' clip is on sometimes because of that, i thought it's alright to risk it in order to get a better mix. It's not from the tracking, it's the mixing.

One question though - What's a 'tube gain stage'? :)

Semmi78 - Hey man..! Thanks for checking it out.. yep it's all Trinity :) The drums for this track was using Jazz Kit.

Rosie - of course i won't be able to beat the real thing hehe.. but it's already make satisfy me at this point.. I know what Cowboy Bebop is, but unfortunately i don't watch anime :)

[lighthouse]

synthz: I love your tune man!!!!


Juan Pablo

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Very cool, I particularly liked the organ solo. A few comments though.

1: I know there's probably nothing you could do about this, but the saxophone seemed fake to me. Perhaps it's just because I play sax myself and listen to a lot of jazz.

2: It seemed really busy on the first listen, a lot of parts to pay attention to. Perhaps I won't mind this so much after multiple listens though

3: Did you do much quantizing with the parts? It seems just a bit stiff, and not as human and "funky" as most funk.

Don't take these too harshly, I definitely like your work.

[synthz]

Thanks Lighthouse!!

Lithojazzsphere - Thanks for the comments man! Appreciated the feedback!
1. Hahaha..busted by a sax player, yeah.. for a person that really really knows the characteristic of sax this won't fool them.. :)

2. Yeah, there's a lot of layers in it.. it's quite busy... i want to keep the dynamic high all the time..

3. Yes i did a lot of quantizing.. what it probably need is more tom fills.. like a real drummers would do.. drums are a pain in the ass to make :( especially the ones with complete fills on every few bars.. takes a lot of time.. :(

[Phred]

First I want to say - that is one fine tune... I am very impressed. It had me be-bopping my foot.. and my head.... Talented playing too... I have been listening to a lot of funk lately and would like to offer some insight.


2. Yeah, there's a lot of layers in it.. it's quite busy... i want to keep the dynamic high all the time..


I second the comment about it being busy. All the parts are really cool, but I find that makes it less funky. True funk (of which there are very few modern examples - but check out Maceo Parker) is very much about the groove and space. Filling it with too much stuff clutters up the space and may make the energy level higher, but takes away from the main groove of the tune... I personally think that the highlight was the organ solo, partially because that was a great solo, but also it is because you toned down the rest of the backing stuff...

That being said, you did a great job of keeping the backing shifting and changing and keeping the listener interested...


3. Yes i did a lot of quantizing.. what it probably need is more tom fills.. like a real drummers would do.. drums are a pain in the ass to make especially the ones with complete fills on every few bars.. takes a lot of time..


You quantized because you had a lot going on... With less going on, you would need to quantize less... Playing lazy and behind the beat is the norm in funk, you don't need to fix it...

Watch out when ever you add something to fix things... Remember in Funk - less is more...

[synthz]

Thanks very much for your feedback Phred!

I've never heard of Maceo Parker, i'll try to get his mp3 if i can...

That's a very good insightful tip about groove and space. That was very interesting. Glad you liked the organ solo. Yeah i did a lot of work in the production, but still need to learn a lot actually....

Regarding quantize... isn't funk very much emphasized on beat 1? which makes it really spot on 1, instead of behind the beat? I know the 2,3,4 is more laid back.. but i've heard from a few people, 1 is quite strict.

[Rosie]

It was all the stuff in it that made it for me. I've listened to other people's "funk" tracks which were much more empty, and found them to be rather dull and lacking any kind of signature sound. It's more like "hey, I'll make a funk song now" and do everything like a funk song "should" be done. You put yourself into this, your own style, which resulted in the energy that makes it truly "heavy funk".

[Phred]

Synthz - you are right, one is generally hit pretty acurately - I never thought about this, but is definately true... Another good trick that I hear in R&B which steals alot from funk (real R&B - no babyface thank-you) is emphasising the eighth between 4 and 1... A great example is a good little instrumental from Booker T called green onions... Listen to the guitar playing hitting only that one 4-and-1 beat for a while...

The laid back thing is pretty hard to describe. I'd be lying if I said I had it totally figured out... Do you know "I feel good" by James Brown? Listen to the sax parts (After the singing... "I feel Good" - an 8th note chromatic 'trill' on sax...) Totally lazy...

Rosie - don't get me wrong, I loved the parts he had, but I found the groove was harder to find... The hardest thing for me (and I am continuing to practise this daily...) is to _not_ play... (I know this is Jazz, but Miles davis had a really famous quote - "You should have heard the notes I didn't play...").

What he meant was sometimes you shouldn't play the notes that are swimming around in your head. Trust me, once you get good at it, exercising restraint will yeild great results...

[synthz]

Thanks Rosie, what you said was right. I intended it to be a heavy funk, instead of the usual laid back funk.

Phred - Yeah, lots of people i've talked to has said that, especially funk bass players :) Them & the drummers are the ones cares mostly with that kinda stuff... Hmm.. i think i know what you're talking about with the 4 & 1.. not from Booker T, but i've heard that a lot subconsciously.. like in Victor Wooten, etc...

Gonna check 'I Feel Good' bit later....

That's a nice remarks there.... "What not to play".. i agree.. as we grow older musically we tend to get more selective on note selections.. trying to get the best impact (if the time permits :P)

[Zaki]

the tone is sweet
is this guitar from keyboard? sounds realistic man

[micha24]

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[synthz]

Thank you Korayah - Didn't notice people still care about old thread hehehe.. that's good!

Micha24 - Thanks for the offer! Are you a funk guitarist? If you are, then i'd prefer putting you on a new funk track. Is there any mp3 of your stuff floating on the net somewhere?

[Zaki]

hehe perfect man
i wonder how can i get similar sound in my triton any help guys

[micha24]

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