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Howard Levy, Jeff Coffin, Antoine Dufour and Terry Hayes - "The Relative Sea"

BradHoyt

Active Member
Thought I'd share this composition I recorded a while back - The only instrument that virtual is the piano I played - (I Used Ivory II American Grand).

The rest of the instrumentation is:

Jeff Coffin: soprano saxophone
Howard Levy: diatonic harmonica
Terry Hayes: classical guitar
Antoine Dufour: harp guitar (He's playing percussion, bass and steel string guitar parts in one pass on the same instrument)

Hope you like it. :)

 
A very lovely piece with some nice harmonies and great sound quality too.

In terms of mixing and development, I felt the percussion was too present and distracted from the beautiful piano playing - maybe it could be EQ'd, especially at the top end, to push it back into the mix, and also only start playing a bit later in the piece to add some impact when it comes in. A few variations in the beat could work too (speaking as a drummer) :)

Regarding the rest of the arrangement, some changes in dynamics or parts dropping could create some variations... but that is something of an aesthetic decision and you might prefer a smoother vibe.

Thank you for sharing!
 
A very lovely piece with some nice harmonies and great sound quality too.

In terms of mixing and development, I felt the percussion was too present and distracted from the beautiful piano playing - maybe it could be EQ'd, especially at the top end, to push it back into the mix, and also only start playing a bit later in the piece to add some impact when it comes in. A few variations in the beat could work too (speaking as a drummer) :)

Regarding the rest of the arrangement, some changes in dynamics or parts dropping could create some variations... but that is something of an aesthetic decision and you might prefer a smoother vibe.

Thank you for sharing!

Getting an optimal mix for "percussion" when the percussion is played simultaneously with the bass and guitar part on the harp guitar was troublesome. - He's an amazing player to pull that off btw! This also explains the limited variation as well considering the percussion is basically him banging on the harp guitar while multitasking the other parts. :) - I could have had him play the parts separately, but that would have been against the approach of the entire album which was that each player perform their part in one pass.

Regarding the harp guitar EQ - Many different EQ options were tried, but it was a situation where adding or subtracting EQ caused new problems to arise. Again, due to the fact that that percussion, bass and guitar parts were all on one track, it made it difficult.

As for the piano, In retrospect, I think I could have added more of that to the mix.

Thanks for the feedback. :)
 
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Thanks for clarifying the recording process... when multiple parts are baked into a single track it greatly restricts your options! That's very impressive playing! :2thumbs:

And yes, more piano (cowbell ;)) would have brought forward some of the lovely harmonies, lines and rhythms.

Well done and thanks for sharing!!!
 
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