Emunator Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 Artist Name: Lucas Guimaraes ft. David Russell, Alejandro Espinoza & Louie Aronowitz For once I'm not really going to bother with a source breakdown since the melody is most of the time there and it barely drifts into original stuff. I'll be happy to oblige if requested. Lucas Guimaraes - Arrangement, Mix, Sound Design David Russell - Piano Alejandro Espinoza - Bass Guitar Louie Aronowitz - Drum Set I figured I need at least one single from my Volume 1 re-release of old tracks, yeah? This track was originally on BUDDIES: A Tribute to Banjo-Kazooie (BEAR SIDE) before being pulled from distribution. So what's the story with this one? Well, I wanted to do a jazz trio in the style of Hideaki Hori. Specifically his cover of Pure Imagination. Funny enough, I think this is the only time I've been particularly inspired by another cover. So I made the sheet music and arrangement pretty simple and gave the three a lot of room to improvise. The result? Hoh man, calling me the mix engineer on this is almost a far cry. I feel like I didn't even have to do anything. It was just some slight gluing together and adding in some sound design. That's it. One funny production story from this whole track is when I asked David Russell about doing it. I don't remember the specifics, but he was like "surprise I already did it" and I was just like "what." - I guess when the arrangement and idea is inspiring enough that really pushes people to record. One thing I love doing, absolutely *love* doing with covers by now (as clear for anyone familiar with my music) is taking a classic tune and really flipping it around. It's one where I enjoy a lot of the process behind it, like really digging deep into the source material and understanding how it works, but also the end product. Getting everyone to go "What the heck, how?!" and create something that (hopefully) inspires. I hope you all enjoy! Games & Sources Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 starts out with some great keys. drums and bass are in almost immediately. drums sound really muted, especially the kick is almost not audible and the toms sound pretty rough. sounds like an overhead mic only was used and the toms don't really speak through that as the other instruments do - i'm curious if it's possible to pull some of the tone of those not-cymbals out with very specific EQ notches. bass tone is also bland - there's little top-end to it and it doesn't speak well over the drum elements in the same range. keys are the spotlight here. i really appreciate the varying levels of dynamics that are represented here, and there's a hard groove that the drums are laying down that the piano really settles into. bass isn't quite as settled into the pocket 100% of the time (any time there's repeated notes or a running section, it speeds up a bit down the stretch). keys riff at 1:46 is pretty silly great. there's some interesting falling action at 2:45 as part of a recap before it's the ending. the last chord took a second or two longer than expected to hit, and it's done. this is an interesting one. i really don't care for the quality of the drum recording or the bass tone, but the keys are really solid. there's a good amount of solo material here, but there's clearly a preponderance of the A section of the main theme at least so there's no concern of the arrangement. what i can hear of the drums especially is a really clean, clear pocket that's well-used by the keys to establish a really solid groove. i think overall requiring a drummer to have a multi-mic setup to be able to accurately record a jazz kit isn't required to have a passing grade on a great arrangement, so this is a yes from me. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemophiliac Posted May 18 Share Posted May 18 Piano trio you say? This is a helluva piano performance from David Russell. 100% steals the show and shines brightly through everything. Lucas really gave David a lot of space to do his thing and run wild between fragments of the source. If this were being played live in a lounge where people were eating appetizers and drinking coffee, the bass and the drums would get their chance to shine as well with some solos. That would have derailed this into too far from the source had that happened though. Lucas keeps the source as the main anchor throughout the piece, and the piano gets an elastic tether that snaps us back to the source right when David is gonna go too far away. I'm in agreement with Prophetik on both fronts about the drums and bass. Drums definitely sound like some overheads only, and that causes the kick to be nearly lost. The pocket and groove established by Louie is fantastic and the piano really locks in with it after a while. Some of the bass motion doesn't quite feel like the right time to be moving when it should be more static, and vice versa. Should have been more locked into the strong beat 2 like the snare is establishing. The other thing that I though was unusual but not a deal breaker to me was the piano being a bit to the right in the stereo space compared to the other parts. That all said, this is fun and stellar performance from David Russell and a solid arrangement. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted May 30 Author Share Posted May 30 It's incredible how much you were able to class up a very silly source tune - this is simultaneously tasteful and showboat-y somehow, in a very pleasant way. I'll echo the sentiment that this gets by on the virtue of the clever adaptation and the extremely vibrant performance from David Russell, to the extent that any of the shortcomings in the recording quality of the instruments is a null factor. I also loved hearing the "fake Lucas audience" at the very end, I didn't realize you'd already used this idea before! Easy vote, you knew what you wanted to craft here and you left enough space for the performers to color between (and occasionally outside) the lines in spectacular fashion. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted May 31 Share Posted May 31 The piano is the star here, wowza that's a cool performance! Drums could have a tad more presence, and bass tone isn't the best ever, it's slightly mid-heavy, but it surely gets the job done. What an awesome arrangement of a very silly little tune. You gave it such a new vibe with attitude and class. The only thing missing is some soft audience atmo that would be nice throughout the piece. I feel like I need to summon the waitress for yet another cocktail. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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