L.a. Boogie Collaboration, FINAL MIX & COMMENTS Options

[Ivan Milenkovic]

Hey my friends!

Here is the summary of the comments for the L.A. Boogie Collab, and the Final Mix.


Matt23:

Rhythm: Great rhythm from the start, and continuing very nicely, using long notes in a very good manner, coupled with occasional faster sequences. The solo is progressing nicely to the end, using faster passages in the end. In the second part there is that one faster bluesy sequence that could be more in time. The sequence alone is fairly decent, but I would like the second part of it to be exactly in time, and the root should come on the first beat of the bar to really nail that sequence down and to really make it even more effective.
Phrasing: I really liked the phrasing you pulled out in this take. I think you have a good sence for beat, and good sense for where to finish the licks. Root is predominantly used as a landing note throughout the solo, which is pretty good and gives a nice balance. Also, when the backing goes to G in middle part, you managed to work your way out through that change pretty effectively as well using the A minor scale. I the second part the ending could use couple of more notes as I mentioned in the comment for the rhythm. Just one or two notes before the root, and the root comes all alone in the last bar would make it sound bigger and more complete.
Technique: Good array of techniques, it is nice to hear such a nice balanced bend/vibrato technique. One thing that could be better with vibrato is bended vibrato technique that still could use some more work in order to control it well and to be synced with the tempo of the backing track. Your picking is good, and the only part where there is some additional noise present is the last faster passage. I advise that you spend some time working on some faster AP passage exercise, so it becomes your regular routine during workouts. Remember - spending 30 mins or so per day on one fast AP passage will greatly increase your ability to play faster, not just that passage but a wide array of previously learned sequences as well.
Sound: Your sound on this take was excellent, very smooth and pleasing to the ear. Lots of drive and compression but very nicely balanced with good smooth mids that cut through the mix nicely. The amount of space is good, I would prefer just a bit less delay volume, but it does sound pretty cool.

jafomatic:


Rhythm: Very cool groovy lead, I liked it very much. Although you started with some faster notes, you did build up your take right until the end and made it very effective and interesting to listen. The shuffled feel sounded very good here, and the only weak point of your take in terms of rhythm are just couple of rhythmically misplaced notes in the last part of the take. Other than that, every note was very much in place, so it was a very cool solo.
Phrasing: Great melodic build up as well as rhythmical, you followed the progression very nicely, in the first and middle part using mostly pentatonic scale notes. Middle part was a great addition with those double stops, sounded nice and rockish, and really gave your take a cool dimension and a story to follow to. The last part like I mentioned could use a bit more precision in execution so the notes are all well defined with precision timing. Other than that I think the phrases are very well composed, blended together, and all of them form a very interesting solo and story. The ending with a nice bluesy lick was a great touch to this great take.
Technique: Good playing in general. The legato parts should need some more work to really nail them down without any additional string noise, which is very important in order to create a good control over the tone. Also I noticed your bending is a bit weak, so you should perhaps focus more on strengthening the bends. This just takes several metronome sessions to get the technique just right, doesn't really require you to put more strain on the fingers while bending.
Sound: very cool and interesting sounding take. panned effects are something that always works well and can turn out pretty effective. I think this little experiment proved to be very successful, and wah and delay parts that are panned really sound pretty cool. Couple of things to watch out are: delay is a bit louder than needed, wah should be sweeped with more control, taking into concern the tempo of the backing track and the beats, and distortion could be just a tad bit smoother in the midrange. Other than that, you get 10 for creativity.

enforcer:

Rhythm: Very nicely balanced solo. I like the way you accent the beat using the dotted half notes in the first couple of phrases. The solo is divided into 3 main sections same as backing, in the first part you have a good structure, then comes the middle part legato/tap sequence that wasn't that perfect, I can see that you were nearly there, fretting all the notes, and you know what notes you wanted, but they just didn't came out that well timing-wise. The last part was a nice wrap up, and sounded very cool and balanced. All in all very stable, with the exception of the legato run, that could use some couple of days with metronome to make it solid.
Phrasing: Good use of pentatonics, dorian and minor scales. I like the main theme you played during the whole take, and again the only thing that could use some work is that legato part. I have to say however that in that run all the notes were properly placed - melodically speaking, so from a phrasing standpoint it was quite cool to hear it. I liked the harmonized part in the end, you really showed some good skills and creativity here to fatten up the solo a bit, and make it sound even cooler. Overdubbed takes always sound cool this way, so this is very cool. The ending turned out excellent and effective.
Technique: Your execution was great, no weak points in fretting or picking on slower passages, some extra noise audible on the faster legato/tap part. Good control over the tone and over the bends as well. Thing that could be a bit better is vibrato, gotta make it more wider and aggressive, so it really brings out those long notes to life.
Sound: great smooth sound, very balanced mids with some very subtle low pass and hi pass filtering. This leaves the bass and treble a bit less pronounced and it sounds pretty cool, very similar sound to what I used for this collab in the first place. The amount of space you used is just enough, gives it a nice dark depth that is suitable for the backing. Well done on this field.

JVM:

Rhythm: Starting good with 4 nicely structured rhythmical phrases. After that you had some problems with the timing. Some notes didn't come out exactly on the beat, and your were behind the beat. In general your sense for rhythm is very good, but I think you have to watch out your timing. It needs to be perfect and all the notes have to come out clear as a bell.
Phrasing: Using mostly A minor and A pentatonic scale and it does sound very nice. All the licks were on spot, and you had a really nice structured and interesting solo take here. Using double stops in the second part was a good decision as well, and all in all I think the phrasing was good. In the last part of the solo you circled around a bit, it may seem like you lost the story with your solo, but you managed to finish off nicely.
Technique: As far as technique goes, the whole take is nicely played, so in general I can recommend fine tuning your techniques. This will enable you to sound more tighter in execution, which is very important. There were some weak notes in the middle of the solo, but you managed to pull through. Bends also could use more work to become stronger.
Sound: Good smooth preset, with some top end buzz that could use some low pass filter to kill the buzzing and the additional noise created from overdriven preset. In general, the tone was good, but it had some problems of being heard in the mix. Perhaps some mid boosting would enable it to stand out.

Gus:

Rhythm: Good rhythmical phrases that sounded very nice and tightly structured to me. You seem to prefer eight note phrases that last around 2 bars so you used mostly these kind of phrases in the take. What could be a bit better is inserting some longer notes here and there, thus enriching the overall rhythmical structure of your take. Too many 2 bar eight note phrases will sound repetitive even if you change the notes. So using longer notes may help in that case. Your timing was very good in the whole take.
Phrasing: You displayed some very nice phrasing in this take, I like the way you changed the phrases to keep the interesting, and you did it quite well. In this sense, the phrasing keeps the attention, but since the phrases are "packed" into very repetitive rhythmical structure this can lead to not determining the proper solo build up.
Technique: Your playing is good in this take, and all the notes came out on their right places, but the execution itself is a bit sloppy with lots of unwanted string noise on some places. I suggest you work more on muting techniques so you clean up your playing from undesired string noise. This will do wonders for you tone, and make your overall playing much more enjoyable and smoother.
Sound: Good sound, smooth in essence, but with buzzing occurring in the treble-presence region. I think smoothing out that part would be a smart thing to do to create a more stable preset. Lots of distortion is used, so that compresses the signal and kills dynamics, so a little less drive would be useful as well. I like the wah use, and if it had slightly less drive it would come out even better.

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