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Open Mic Night

By Kedbreak136 on May 22, 2022 8:52 am

I spent much of the week working on a backing track for my wife's live violin playing. She is playing jazz violin, covering a Japanese artist who makes Latin music (it's complicated). I am not a fluent reader of sheet music, so it was quite a lot of work to read through it, but it was interesting to learn how they were approaching melodies and rhythm. I am pretty sure the track started based on that - I just ate so much of this type of music that my brain spat back a variation of a jazz Latin type of music.

And I want to believe the rest is echoes of last week with robots entering the scene mid-piece. In this one, it is like an open mic night where people can join and jam together. A few people are playing some light-hearted jazz, with some piano, clarinet and bass. And then enters a group of robots that decide to join the band. And they take music very very very seriously. Some claim they saw Buckethead as part of the group of robots.

AI voice was done using 15.ai.

Did the buckethead love surface after that weeklymeets discussion on how many albums he's released? haha. I think this was really cool, I love that transition from the latin jazz section to the robot section. Not only was the transition itself cool but the robo-rock was kick-ass. The synthwave got my heart pumping. The buckethead solo was dope too, how did you create that part? And nice spacey ending too.

Good storytelling big_smile loved how the robots enter the scene and make sense of the previous part about 2min in.
Nice robotic shredding solo big_smile

Ha, that's awesome.  Love how you can hear the door open as the robots enter and then they just completely take over.  The story comes through very clearly.

RajaTheResidentAlien wrote:

Thank you! smile

ViridianLoom wrote:

Did the buckethead love surface after that weeklymeets discussion on how many albums he's released? haha. I think this was really cool, I love that transition from the latin jazz section to the robot section. Not only was the transition itself cool but the robo-rock was kick-ass. The synthwave got my heart pumping. The buckethead solo was dope too, how did you create that part? And nice spacey ending too.

Thank you! smile

The discussion we had some time ago about Buckethead made me go back and listen to his old albums, especially Monsters and Robots. Also, I suspect that if there is a battle of the bands between humans and robots, Buckethead would be on the robot side.

For the solo, there is no way I can play at this speed with that kind of precision, but I wanted to get something that actually sounds like a guitar being played. I programmed a synth with an accoustic guitar sound, and used some Buckethead's go-to phrases (especially towards the beginning), then followed with some crazy tapping. I then applied a set of guitar effects to that track to give that sense of live playing through an amp, with enough dirt. It kinda sounds close to a real human playing, as much as Buckethead is a human.

horatiuromantic wrote:

Good storytelling big_smile loved how the robots enter the scene and make sense of the previous part about 2min in.
Nice robotic shredding solo big_smile

Thank you! I can imagine the robot looking at the humans, sneering, and then playing a doubled version of that, with the 12 fingers of only one hand.

CosmicCairns wrote:

Ha, that's awesome.  Love how you can hear the door open as the robots enter and then they just completely take over.  The story comes through very clearly.

Yep, they did show humans how it's done (also they really expect people to listen in silence). smile

Listening Notes:
* Massssssive piano sound.
* Wow, the reeds make this sound so French...
* ...Robots! OH SHIT, FRENCH + ROBOTS...
* Synthwave bass better get its own solo, this sounds owns.
* Oh, I see a different kinda solo, yes. YES.
* Oh snap this is how the world ends, not with applause, but a BANGER!

(Excellent production.)

I like the old school Robocop servo sounds that bring in the robot domination. Right at the midpoint, I envision some kind of chrome synth violin taking lead.  Love the shredding that starts at 3:00! Epic outro.

Wonderful, wonderful work.

Nice piano, la clarinette est super, le switch aux robots est vraiment réussi. Tu prendras le temps d'inviter ton épouse sur quelques morceaux weekly beats! Le violon est un instrument tellement expressif ce serait nice. smile

Tes tracks ont tjrs un côté "cinematic" vraiment cool. Celle là aussi, vraiment nice comment la track se transforme.

I pull of my hat, for the cool stories you tranfer in your weekly beats. I don`t have an idea how to come up with such weird sceneries, that are totally cinematic and let the listener hear picures of musica. The whole track makes sense and I can definitely follow the robotic transhumanism in latin style. the guitarsoloplayer is not from this world, or the guitar is not from this world. or both. I have to congratulate you for this track. I was missing your wife playing jazzy violin in this track. But this may happen in the next movie.

wow!

Man, it goes into electronic so well, it's easy to miss the whole latin jazz undertones. I mean, is it even either at this point?
- Devieus

The open-mic night theme really brings this to life. It gives the whole thing an almost space saloon feeling, and I almost wish there was the sound of a glass being dropped when the first robot makes its comment haha. I adore the synth line that you have running through the second half. It’s catchy and driving and powerful. Really strong outro as well!

Love the seamless transition between the intro & robotic melody.  Hell yea to those robocop-like sounds.   That robot soloist is a show off! yikes  The second more sci-fi-ish melody towards the end is even cooler.  Awesome idea and work!   

ilzxc wrote:

Listening Notes:
* Massssssive piano sound.
* Wow, the reeds make this sound so French...
* ...Robots! OH SHIT, FRENCH + ROBOTS...
* Synthwave bass better get its own solo, this sounds owns.
* Oh, I see a different kinda solo, yes. YES.
* Oh snap this is how the world ends, not with applause, but a BANGER!

(Excellent production.)

Thank you very much for your comments! The fact that you thought the reed sounded French made me laugh.
Not only robots, but robots that play solo!!! and also that have limited patience for noise during their performance.

NWSPR wrote:

I like the old school Robocop servo sounds that bring in the robot domination. Right at the midpoint, I envision some kind of chrome synth violin taking lead.  Love the shredding that starts at 3:00! Epic outro.

Thank you!
Yes that would be the lick inspired by Buckethead! A robot among humans.

Robots playing violin, we're not there yet but on the way.

fc wrote:

Wonderful, wonderful work.

Thank you for your kind comment!

djippy wrote:

Nice piano, la clarinette est super, le switch aux robots est vraiment réussi. Tu prendras le temps d'inviter ton épouse sur quelques morceaux weekly beats! Le violon est un instrument tellement expressif ce serait nice. smile

Tes tracks ont tjrs un côté "cinematic" vraiment cool. Celle là aussi, vraiment nice comment la track se transforme.

Ha bonne idee, je vais essayer de la soudoyer pour qu'elle fasse quelques enregistrements pour moi. Ca va justifier le fait qu'elle a un violon electrique.
Merci du commentaire! smile

Q-Rosh wrote:

I pull of my hat, for the cool stories you tranfer in your weekly beats. I don`t have an idea how to come up with such weird sceneries, that are totally cinematic and let the listener hear picures of musica. The whole track makes sense and I can definitely follow the robotic transhumanism in latin style. the guitarsoloplayer is not from this world, or the guitar is not from this world. or both. I have to congratulate you for this track. I was missing your wife playing jazzy violin in this track. But this may happen in the next movie.

Thank you for this very nice comment! Here is the guest guitar player on this track:

Alright I did not get the real Buckethead to record but I just programmed a solo inspired by his usual high speed mind bending and finger twisting licks.
I'll definitely try to talk my wife into recording on these tracks! smile

emily wrote:

wow!

Thank you!

Devieus wrote:

Man, it goes into electronic so well, it's easy to miss the whole latin jazz undertones. I mean, is it even either at this point?
- Devieus

It was all consumed, digested and spat back out by our AI overlords. It's now robotic expression.

hent03 wrote:

The open-mic night theme really brings this to life. It gives the whole thing an almost space saloon feeling, and I almost wish there was the sound of a glass being dropped when the first robot makes its comment haha. I adore the synth line that you have running through the second half. It’s catchy and driving and powerful. Really strong outro as well!

for that synth line, I took the latin piano, copied it, and then put it into a cyber punk synth, doubled with a screaming synth that spills out a lot of harmonics. I think I added a Wider plugin to give it even more size. That kinda worked. Thank you for your comment, and now i am thinking saloon + robots...

Tone Matrix wrote:

Love the seamless transition between the intro & robotic melody.  Hell yea to those robocop-like sounds.   That robot soloist is a show off! yikes  The second more sci-fi-ish melody towards the end is even cooler.  Awesome idea and work!

Thank you! It may sound silly but I always spend a lot of time on the sound design of these transitions. Like the footsteps are a combination of a lot of sounds, from servo motors, kicks, actual footsteps, playing with reverb, etc and then finding an impact for the robot that sits down. Way too much time. smile

amazing change up, love the robot sound - incredible how you pieced that all together.

have we heard your wife's violin playing before in WB?  I can't remember.  For what occasion is she covering the artist?  For fun?  Is she a professional musician?  A MILLION QUESTIONS that could be easily answered if I got on a WB call! tongue

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