uh... belly dance show this time

[kensuguro]

second half of the tune is going towards a more DJ like approach.. trance, house, etc. A little sad the dancer is not comfortable with exploring the more subtle side of things.. I still prefer the slow piano version, much more imaginative.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/kensuguro.com. ... -take5.mp3

[Nestor]

Dear friend, I'm so busy right now, I will come back to this one, and it will be a pleasure to study it toguether, best wishes...

[kensuguro]

More

https://s3.amazonaws.com/kensuguro.com. ... -take6.mp3

At this point, I'm just enjoying myself with the grooves.. The dancer is liking all of it, though it's not particularly Arabic like the intro song. Just uses darbuka loops throughout. Planning to go on into the Brazilian house and build up toward a huge carnival and end at 7min.

[Nestor]

It sounds pretty cool. I tend to ask for the darbuka to be without much verb space on it, and much more up front, just before the big groove comes up.

[kensuguro]

still adding meat at the end, but did a mix on Harrison Mixbus for fun. It has better definition, but sort of killed the thump in the kick.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/kensuguro.com. ... rrison.mp3

I haven't used Harrison Mixbus seriously for production yet, but I'm finding that generally things turn out sounding a bit more acoustic than appropriate for club-ish tunes like this. I love how their mixer operates though.

[kensuguro]

Made it to the end, and grafted the first and second half together. 10:05, 5 seconds over, not bad.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/kensuguro.com. ... 3-k702.mp3

The bad intro's still in there, haven't thought of a good alternative yet. Chilled out on the high end in the mix since everything was getting sizzly and sounded like static noise. Lowered the center gravity sort of.

Also will probably be adding FX type sweeteners here and there to spice things up. Holding off on the detailing 'till I get a final OK from the production side.

[Nestor]

I too think there is a need for some work still in the mix (if I well understood your needs). And due to the nature of the song, I would give about 50% of importance here, to the mix, which I think it could be a very creative work.

What I most enjoy is from 07:01 and on, it gets joyful and makes my body get to dance, naturally.

The sound of the darbuka now is really good, much better, I don’t know which have been the stages but they are very natural and appropriate for the song, in my humble opinion.

The intro is now in a much noticeable contrast than before when listening at the whole of the song. I am looking forward about what you are going to do with it. I regard the intro as a very important act here, I think it deserves your best effort, the rest will come by itself.

So far, so good Ken.

[kensuguro]

The intro is still a challenge. The production side likes it so it's good to go as far as they're concerned, but I still think it lacks vision and directionality. I'm still thinking about it.. As of now, my only requirement for the intro is that it needs to be pretty quiet, and also act as a bridge into the hollywood arabic scale. (especially the Nardis sounding phrase)

[kensuguro]

BTW, been a while since the show but here's the low down. Show happened October last year at some hall in Yokohama. Sound engineer day of screwed up and played the track with my rendition of the lead violin in it, so the REAL violinist got super pissed. (of course) And lighting guy messed up his cue and broke the structure of the later half of the tune. (the samba parts) But all in all, reception was great, and people enjoyed the composition. My song was just the intro, so the rest of the show I believe went just fine, though I haven't seen it.

Reception was particularly good with the pro bellydancer community and seems like my name's stuck within their circle. I think it came as a surprise to them how a custom piece written for the show can be very effective. (no duh) And most bellydancers who produce their own shows have given up on getting something written for their routines because of the lack of composers interested in mid eastern palette. (at least in Japan) Of course, I do hope my strings arrangement also blew them away.

So for 2015? Maybe more of these projects? I'm already in talks to do a longer format 50min piece with the same dancer. We'll see if that actually happens or not.

[dante]

BTW, been a while since the show but here's the low down. Show happened October last year at some hall in Yokohama. Sound engineer day of screwed up and played the track with my rendition of the lead violin in it, so the REAL violinist got super pissed. (of course)

Why violinist have a problem playing in unison - or even a 3rd above? All show musicians should be prepared to improv in the event of a miscue.

[kensuguro]

Well, sure I agree with you technically yes, they should be capable to,but if the show is paying the performer to play a specific thing, and we screw it up so she can't do her job, then the fault's on us. Of course, as a pro she expressed some unpleasantry, and went on with the show. As a person who used to coordinate stuff for stage, I take these mishaps pretty seriously. Especially concerning established performers. Makes it harder to find people for the next show, and also makes it look like the staff doesn't know what they're doing. (Which was unfortunately true). Ironically, I believe the sound guy who effed it up cost more than the violinist.

[dante]

Fair enough - as a soloist I'd be peed off too .. especially if I found out the sound guy not only stole my solo thunder but got paid more for it