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Need Help w/ brass on Butterflies!

IvoryKeys

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Ok, I am getting the opportunity to demo a song I wrote in our university's recording studio in a few weeks. I know what sounds I want, and brass are one of them, among some electric piano sound, drums, bass and guitar.

I don't own Invincible........only through iTunes, and there's no digital booklet to go with it.

What i needed to know was what brass instruments does he use in the chorus of Butterfles. I can't tell right off the bat what instruments are making that sound. If anybody could look in their CD's and tell me, I would really appreciate it.

Thank you very much!
 
firstly, i would love to hear your demo, it sounds like it has all the right ingredients ^.^.

and in Invincible, it only lists "horns" in the credits, although i'm definite that is a tenor trombone (lows) and a trumpet (mids) workin together.

horns are so underrated in pop, it's a crime.
 
Oh, thank you so much arXter. Yes, I knew there must have been some trumpets in the mix. This works out great.

Lol, and I may post the demo when it's done!
 
looking forward to hearing this track as well and horns are always needed and are never done enough.
 
Ok, so yeah.....I did a demo of the song....a very rough demo, imo. It unfortunately didn't get to have a horn section like i'd wanted. But I have the Fender Rhodes sound, complete with guitar, bass, drums, and backing vocals. It kind of reminds me of a 70's country song, lol! But for my first ever demo of anything i've ever written, it's pretty decent.

And yeah, i've never ventured into this before. I've written quite a few songs, but never went past playing them on the piano in a few public places. I'm studying to be a music teacher, so songwriting has been put on the backburner for a couple of years.

I said I would show you the song, so here it is. Feel free to also comment on anything you'd like. I'm up for any improvements and whatnot.

Oh, also.....the vocals are S**T because I only got the chance to do 2 takes. I could have sung it waaaaay better.

Ok, here's the song, lol!

"Rock Away"
http://www.mediafire.com/?jlvmlmzzxtg
 
Ahh this is really nice! Love the mellow feel to it!
Is everything "real" instruments or have you sequenced anything with virtual instruments?

I have nothing to complain about, I love your voice also!
It would've been really interesting to hear some brass instruments on this though, I think it could've fit nicely! Just some brass stabs here and there at least :)

I feel kind of talentless after hearing this haha :)
 
LOL, please, you're probably full of talent!! And thank you :blush:

I agree with you on the brass. Thats what I wanted to do with it. Just on a few spots to enhance the melody a little. And every instrument is real except for the Rhodes. It's a midi file from a computer sent through my keyboard. Lord, I wish it was a real Rhodes, but i'll deal with midi for now.

I'm really glad you like it too!
 
BruceWayne said:
I feel kind of talentless after hearing this haha :)
Click to expand...
i know, right?!

Rochelle, i think i'm in love. thanks a lot for sharing this, and it's more than "decent" damn.
i'm captivated myself by your bridge, especially that "oooh" bit. beautiful voice.

and i too could really hear some horns playing nicely in there somewhere, that was a great idea when you started this thread. this is no joke but i dreamt last night that i played the trombone, lol. (i don't know why it crept in).

but do keep us updated...
 
:lol: thank you so much! Having never done that before I really appreciate it!

If I ever record anything again, i'll be sure to post it here definitely!
 
wow! good job IvoryKeys ;)

great track! love the guitars.
 
horn alert!

so we were talking about the brass on Butterflies on another forum, and i posted this and immediately thought of our Rochster:

the very same soul trombonist luminary on Butterflies, Jeff Bradshaw, performed the song live with Floetry on their smooth Floacism gig in 2003.

but you'll hear he actually put his live trombone through a Stevie Wonder-like phaser, and it sounded brill. love that instrument. Jeff's associated with the modern-day Philly soul scene (Dre&Vidal, Jazzy Jeff, Jill Scott, Musiq etc.) and had success with his own material before. he was also the musical director on this set. yummy all 'round.


29kqhsg.jpg


Floetry
Butterflies
(Live)







​
 
Wow! Ok, so another year and i got the chance to record another song. I thought some of you'd like to hear it.....maybe? It's a slower number (much slower). Somewhat of a ballad if you will. I recorded vocals and piano together, but looking back I kinda now regret that. I would have sung better if I recorded them separately.

But this is for those of you who enjoyed Rock Away, the first song I wrote. This one is called Kisses Without an Agenda, and it's piano only. My guitar dude copped out on me... My voice is shaky in some areas, so forgive me there, haha! And i'm no piano virtuoso or anything, but I get by for the most part.

Oh, comments and constructive criticism (hehe) are well appreciated!

http://www.mediafire.com/?zyw2bzywyyo
 
IvoryKeys said:
Wow! Ok, so another year and i got the chance to record another song. I thought some of you'd like to hear it.....maybe? It's a slower number (much slower). Somewhat of a ballad if you will. I recorded vocals and piano together, but looking back I kinda now regret that. I would have sung better if I recorded them separately.

But this is for those of you who enjoyed Rock Away, the first song I wrote. This one is called Kisses Without an Agenda, and it's piano only. My guitar dude copped out on me... My voice is shaky in some areas, so forgive me there, haha! And i'm no piano virtuoso or anything, but I get by for the most part.

Oh, comments and constructive criticism (hehe) are well appreciated!

http://www.mediafire.com/?zyw2bzywyyo
Click to expand...

Rochelle.. I'm blown away by the soulfulness of this beautiful composition. And your voice is so attractive. I really like the vocal harmonies in the climax. I'm having to dig deep to come up with criticisms - maybe gospelize those vocal harmonies? As a secular-humanist I feel weird saying this, but ... take it to church.

And I feel the strongest compulsion to layer a subtle Hammond organ in the background.

Can you reupload Rock Away?

Our Alex (BruceWayne) needs to hear this. Actually, everyone needs to hear this.

Thank you.
 
IvoryKeys said:
Wow! Ok, so another year and i got the chance to record another song. I thought some of you'd like to hear it.....maybe? It's a slower number (much slower). Somewhat of a ballad if you will. I recorded vocals and piano together, but looking back I kinda now regret that. I would have sung better if I recorded them separately.

But this is for those of you who enjoyed Rock Away, the first song I wrote. This one is called Kisses Without an Agenda, and it's piano only. My guitar dude copped out on me... My voice is shaky in some areas, so forgive me there, haha! And i'm no piano virtuoso or anything, but I get by for the most part.

Oh, comments and constructive criticism (hehe) are well appreciated!

http://www.mediafire.com/?zyw2bzywyyo
Click to expand...

IvoryKeys, that's beautiful. It completely works. Thanks for sharing that one.


I recorded vocals and piano together, but looking back I kinda now regret that. I would have sung better if I recorded them separately.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know that issue and I'm struggling with that right now, I've been doing one song like that for weeks and am not happy. One does sound better when singing separately but to get the right feeling and tempi together you have to sing and play at the same time. (in classical songs you never record them separately so that singer and pianist can create the thing together, breathe together)
For me recording the piano track separately results in a "dead" piano track.
 
Jeff Bradshaw - Bone Deep (2003)

arXter said:
horn alert!

so we were talking about the brass on Butterflies on another forum, and i posted this and immediately thought of our Rochster:

the very same soul trombonist luminary on Butterflies, Jeff Bradshaw, performed the song live with Floetry on their smooth Floacism gig in 2003.

but you'll hear he actually put his live trombone through a Stevie Wonder-like phaser, and it sounded brill. love that instrument. Jeff's associated with the modern-day Philly soul scene (Dre&Vidal, Jazzy Jeff, Jill Scott, Musiq etc.) and had success with his own material before. he was also the musical director on this set. yummy all 'round.


29kqhsg.jpg


Floetry
Butterflies
(Live)







​
Click to expand...

Since then, I've been digging more into Bradshaw's work and came across a beautiful soul album he composed and put out on Hidden Beach featuring a great array of contemporary soul musicians.


xlfouh.jpg


2003

Beautiful Day
ft. Floetry








Make It Funky
ft. Bilal








Beyond The Stars
ft. Glenn Lewis








Can You Come Over?
ft. Carol Reddick






​
 
Thank you all so much for your comments! And i'd Soooo love to, haha, "take it to church"!!! Unfortunately I just didn't have the resources (translation...instruments and musicians...) at the time. If the time arises, i'll re-record it and use more tools!

But, honestly, just thank you so much for the kind words. I take every word to heart. I'm grinning like crazy right now too!

Here is another link for Rock Away as well.

http://www.mediafire.com/?24y3ywlmjwm
 
Arxter, those Jeff Bradshaw tracks are fantastic! I listened to them all morning. :)

For some reason, that reminded me of an album that just came out for Bobby McFerrin called "Vocabularies", and to me it's amazing. There are a few tracks that he redid from Medicine Music, but others are new. For vocal jazz nuts like myself, this album is great.

Here's one of his tracks called "Say Ladeo". I'm pretty sure my vocal jazz ensemble will sing it next year so needless to say i'm pissed I wont be there for that. (i'm graduating)

 
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