Wrote a song and recorded 2 arrangements of it

[Bloody_Inferno Dead and likes Rendang Find all posts View Profile Close Bloody_Inferno]

Had this song prepared for my second album and made about 3 or 4 demos of it. Then a bunch of personal stuff happened which delayed my plans before the crippling hammer of 2020 hits delaying my plans further. But somewhere along the lockdowns, I wrote a ton of music to be used for podcasts. At one point I ran out of ideas so I cheated and used this song and rearranged a version to suit.

Posted the demos on the gram like some influencer wannabe shmuck because I dunno...

Original:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CRofROTHpIY/

Arrangement:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CGMTTEZHJTY/

Turns out the client loved both arrangements and wanted to use them both anyway.

At the moment they're demos so they're still rough, (both performance and especially production), and really I'm just using these demos as excuses to force myself to work on them. The ultimate goal is to record the song with a real rhythm section, replace the placeholders like the organ with real playing because I can't stand the midi instruments. A proper recording is a given for the original, though I may get a proper recording of the arrangement as well to release as a B side or something. That was done at an even lesser time, and a lot more rougher, so it'd be nice to hear them with a proper production value.

Feel free to cast stones.

[Megametal7 Forum MVP Find all posts View Profile Close Megametal7]

Great work man, I like second one bit more.

[Budda Needs more reverb Find all posts View Profile Close Budda]

Well damn.

[Bloody_Inferno Dead and likes Rendang Find all posts View Profile Close Bloody_Inferno]

Thanks guys.

The second arrangement was done hastily. I said I ran out of ideas and pulled this song for rearrangement, but didn't have to change much. Even the tempo I kept exactly the same. The idea was to make a song flexible that can be easily edited for whatever vid purposes, hence why it starts as a simple guitar/conga percussion affair, then a full bossa band kicks in mid way. The same tempo and the fact that both are liked by the client opens it up to even more editing possibilities, like cross fading between tracks.

[Iron1 Oldschool Blacksmith Find all posts View Profile Close Iron1]

Was totally not expecting that. Good job! I like v2 better, but they're both great.

[Bloody_Inferno Dead and likes Rendang Find all posts View Profile Close Bloody_Inferno]

Was totally not expecting that. Good job! I like v2 better, but they're both great.

Thanks! I might have to record v2 with a full band after all. Still, it'd be fun since the bassist playing on my album has an upright so it'd be good to hear it with an authentic band. Plus it'll force me to learn how to properly mic an acoustic.

I also need to release music with actual riffs stat.

[Cameron Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cameron]

I like both and the second arrangement is a clear "acoustic" version of the first which was cool.

Also for the drum mixes, maybe do a little panning. the hats are right on top of the rhythm guitar

[Bloody_Inferno Dead and likes Rendang Find all posts View Profile Close Bloody_Inferno]

I like both and the second arrangement is a clear "acoustic" version of the first which was cool.

Also for the drum mixes, maybe do a little panning. the hats are right on top of the rhythm guitar

Thanks Cam!

I'll have to admit that I knew next to zero about drum mixing and only started playing around last year. And whatever I've been doing is mostly improvising by ear. Originally this demo was done on Garageband so at the time drum tweaking was minimal. Moved the session to Logic and I'm still trying to figure things out. I am learning a lot on post production with my co-producer. We've recently started doing zoom meetings where I can hear things clearly through remote so we can mix in real time as opposed to sending mix test emails over weeks or even months. It's so much more efficient this way and I'm taking in as much notes as I can.

You're right about the hats, and already rethinking on where to pan the rhythms. I'll probably push the single note rhythms away from the hat pan since that goes on throughout the whole song. The Nile Rodgers chords don't happen often so they be more flexible on where to be. I'll still be remixing my album demos, the idea being to practice on how to achieve what I want. Ultimately once I'll get these recorded for real, my co producer will be on the wheel and use what I learned so we can make a much better mix.