# A Standard



## Craig Sharmat (Jul 24, 2005)

Herman Witkam said:


> Sounds great Sharmy! Great guitar and harmonica playing! Hey, you could sample that guy
> 
> Personally I would pan the shakers to the far left and right though.
> 
> That new mic, was that the small-diaphragm Neumann KM 183 / 184 you talked about?



Hey, i don't hear no stinkin panning problem...

fixed....thanx!

yes that is a Neumann KM 184


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## Niah (Jul 24, 2005)

Very cool craig, nice arrangement.


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## Marsdy (Jul 24, 2005)

Very smoochy.

I'm snogging the dog as you read this in fact.


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## Thonex (Jul 24, 2005)

Good job Brosky!!!

Man.. those guitar samples soound so real :wink: 

Nice playing too!!

See you tomorrow!!

T


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## lux (Jul 24, 2005)

smooth and clear, lovely.

Luca


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## Herman Witkam (Jul 24, 2005)

Craig Sharmat said:


> Herman Witkam said:
> 
> 
> > Sounds great Sharmy! Great guitar and harmonica playing! Hey, you could sample that guy
> ...



hehe, well could've been an artistic choice 
This is a lot better! The mix is huge now 8)


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## Craig Sharmat (Jul 24, 2005)

Thanks for the nice replies. The harmonica i used strangely enough comes standad with Logic for EXS.

Marsdy i could report you for animal cruelty.


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## jc5 (Jul 24, 2005)

Stylish and professional as always. 8) 
Nothing like a Neumann mic to make you happy, heh.

That harmonica is pretty darned impressive actually... I'd say that anyone just listening to the piece wouldn't think twice about it being real or not.


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## Sicmu (Jul 24, 2005)

Sounds nice, reminds me some Claus Ogerman arrangement from the 70's.All the instruments sound very realistic, I liked the portamento on strings, where are they from ? 

You choose to stay close to the original chords, adding susbstitions sometimes, I think this standard is beautiful and comes already with rich harmonization, it's maybe a reason it's difficult to change the harmonies without losing the mood of the song (especially with Van Heusen's) as we could do with "Take the A train" or any mainstream standard of the 30's.

The only issue is for me the drums : it sounds a liitle bit mechanical and repetitive but it's not your fault : it's almost impossible to simulate the drums and bass playing sligthly out of the beat with a sequencer.


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## Craig Sharmat (Jul 24, 2005)

Thanks JC5,

Alex you nailed the string writing style. That is what i intended for this arragement. As far as the drums were concerned I wasn't... i just found a few loops as a vehicle and added some perc and side stick. while the harmony is fairly traditonal at the begining you may want to reinvestigate as the tune evoles. The voicing get a more Brazilan influence (Dori Caymmi comes to mind). The porta mentos are mostly from VSL but also custom. I added a lot of solo layers of strings so they they had extra espression.


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## Jackull (Jul 24, 2005)

V e r y s m o ooo t h hhh ... luv it. did you use any eq'ing in your guitar? what type of mic did you use & positioning? nice solo, jim hall comes to my mind...

jackuLL


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## TheoKrueger (Jul 24, 2005)

Yeah i agree, that harmonica sounds very cool Craig.



Sicmu said:


> The only issue is for me the drums : it sounds a liitle bit mechanical and repetitive but it's not your fault : it's almost impossible to simulate the drums and bass playing sligthly out of the beat with a sequencer.



Hey Sicmu, it can be done quite easy if you use Sonar and you have the Midi effects that come with it. It has an Anti-quantizer sort of thing which randomizes the start time of the notes you have selected. So you just write in something 100% quantized and then you anti-quantize it and it gets natural.
I wonder if there is something similar out there for Cubase/Logic.... There are also some Kontakt 2 scripts in the performance section that utilize that but the bad thing is that the start times randomizing will only be, by moving the notes forward since it is realtime. Cakewalk ones are Offline, so they move the start times of the notes back and forth.


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## Sicmu (Jul 24, 2005)

TheoKrueger said:


> Hey Sicmu, it can be done quite easy if you use Sonar and you have the Midi effects that come with it. It has an Anti-quantizer sort of thing which randomizes the start time of the notes you have selected. So you just write in something 100% quantized and then you anti-quantize it and it gets natural.
> I wonder if there is something similar out there for Cubase/Logic.... There are also some Kontakt 2 scripts in the performance section that utilize that but the bad thing is that the start times randomizing will only be, by moving the notes forward since it is realtime. Cakewalk ones are Offline, so they move the start times of the notes back and forth.



Thank you for the tip, I didn't know that but I'm still suspicious : the variations are not random, a good bassist and drummer play slightly before the beat to keep it forward without speeding up, it's rather a matter of musical feelings than randomness, but with a short example...


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## fictionmusic (Jul 24, 2005)

Very pretty, very smooth, great arranging, great production and of course great gtr playing. I am not sure about that shaker though, I realize that by being panned it gives more depth, but it seemed a bit isolated that way. I guess my problem is that it seemed to accentuate the fact it didn't sit in the pocket nearly as well as all the other sounds (nor in the same space). Oh well....such a small quibble for an otherwise awesome track.


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## Alex W (Jul 24, 2005)

Great work! Very enjoyable listening, guitar playing is so clean, sounds bloody awesome.


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## Evan Gamble (Jul 24, 2005)

superb and proffesional as always craig :D


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## handz (Jul 25, 2005)

Perfect Sharmy!!! I love it. I always wanted to learn write something like that. I love this stringwriting.


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## Simon Ravn (Jul 25, 2005)

Hehe this is cool Craig. Do you play the harmonica too?


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## ComposerDude (Jul 25, 2005)

Great, Sharmy!


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## Craig Sharmat (Jul 26, 2005)

Thanks again guys for the listening...



Jackull said:


> V e r y s m o ooo t h hhh ... luv it. did you use any eq'ing in your guitar? what type of mic did you use & positioning? nice solo, jim hall comes to my mind...
> 
> jackuLL



I used ny new Neumann KM184 on the guitar with no eq. I guess I could have eq'd a little but this mike which is quite small takes away alot of the woofinees larger mics often add. It was probably the main reason i purchased this particular mic. I did not position the mic specifically, i just found a spot that sounded good and tried to stay there.


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## Jackull (Jul 26, 2005)

Thanks for sharing Craig...Another additional track to my "sharmy's Folder"

jackuLL


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## IvanP (Jul 26, 2005)

Wow! What a nice, clean and well mixed cue! That harmonica is impressive as well... EXS... damn I should have switched to MAC  

Excellent guitar playing too!l 8) And I also want that mic!! :evil:


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