Jeff Band

Rainy Night in Montague (2018-08-05)

No thoughts yet.

Marcell Martin (2018-07-29)

Good. Ending is a little more down than it should be, but I'm generally pretty happy. Accordion is sped up from half time, which still doesn't sound quite right but I think I'm getting a little better at figuring out what will sound good when sped up.

Liza Jane (2018-07-22)

I'm not that happy with this one. There are places the piano isn't solid on the beat, and then some later tracks adjust to it and some don't. I need to make sure my rhythm track is completely solid before I lay other tracks on top of it. I also consistently can't do the melody's run down in the A part without either rushing or dragging . Intro is ok, though.

I came back a week later and tried to redo this one by making really solid tracks with comping and layering them. The timing was right but it was kind of lifeless. I didn't finish.

Let the Bottle Circulate (2018-07-21)

I like this. Some stumbles that would properly be fixed by comping takes, but that's not something I've learned how to do easily yet. I think if I'm going to do that I need to do more takes!

Colemans March (2018-07-21)

Reasonably happy. Initially (mp3) when the horn come back in was a bit too much, and I came back (2018-08-06) and toned them down a little.

Silver Spear (2018-07-15)

Tried starting strong instead of just building from the beginning. Worked pretty well. Transition into groove is a little abrupt. Recorded the melody accordion half time and then sped it up; if I were trying this again I'd record it closer to full time because as-is it's weirdly staccato in places. I probably overdid it on the trombones; I'll have a better sense looking back on it later.

My first version (mp3) was with real brass (trumpet and baritone) but I'm not that good at punchy playing with them, often failing to get it to come in at the right time. I bought Sample Modeling's Trombone3 and that's what you're hearing in the final version. The main advantage of the midi ones is there are things I'm never going to be able to play myself that they can do easily, though the lines here are ones I could probably handle fine, with enough practice.

Far From Home (2018-07-14, 2018-07-22)

In the first version the piano was too quiet and I didn't like the dual sax riff at 1:03, so I came back and made some edits. I think I turned up the piano, tweaked some volmes in places, and replaced the riff with having the accordion take the melody.

I think I didn't have the lead sax high enough in the monitor when recording, so I overblew and it's not expressive enough.

Franks Reel (2018-07-07

Latency issues remain a problem. Mandolin playing isn't as good as I like; I'm just not that great a melody mandolin player, at least not on fast things. Builds came out pretty well. Decent job of leaving space in the second half, with horns playing the ends of phrases and then slowly expanding.

On the Danforth (2018-07-05)

Latency issues are kind of painful. I was using Reaper, but with too large buffers. Would be better to change it up sooner instead of waiting for the second A1. Initial sax riff is fun but isn't a good fit for this melody. I like the sax build in the second half though.

Midnight on the Water (2018-07-04)

Way too long, not especially interesting. Some issues with control of the virtual sax, where too-low key velocity gives weird long slides. Latency issues, though not that apparent because it's pretty slow.

Sandy Boys (2013-07-05)

Silly, but fun. Still timing issues from the manual alignment. Bass is inaudible on laptop speakers (needs EQ). My fiddle playing isn't very good.

Highland Laddie (2013-07-05)

Better job of introducing interesting things often enough. Still timing issues.

Bus Stop (2013-07-05)

Not very good. Trumpet part is boring and not very well played. Too long for the amount of ideas in it. Manually aligned in audacity, and rhythm and melody mandolin timing doesn't really align.