Shadows - Recording the drums, bass and keyboards parts - episode 9

Hello !

Those of who know all the details of the album know that there are 13 songs on it, and you may have noticed that I didn't show you all the recordings...
I keep some of them to make you discover the songs from time to time, like today !

Here's a sample of the recording of the song "The book of destiny", which will be a song with vocals, as soon as I find my singer, that means as soon as a singer replies me...You can see what I have to do to contact singers, without having replies, in the previous articles of my blog...

I hope you'll enjoy that !







See you next week !

Behind the musics from "The Visitor from the Future"

Hi everyone!

Now that the soundtrack is available on my bandcamp page, I found some videos I shot when I was recording the songs, for the fourth season.

Those of you who follow me on facebook already saw this video of the instruments used in the song "Bienvenue à Neo Versailles":

Now, here's a video of me recording the guitars and bass on the song "Octave", you can even see a part of the sheet music !

Now, here's a video about the sounds used in the song "Les cachots", you'll know which instrument I use to replace a tambourine...

At last, a lot of people love "Dancing Future", the music from the bal, but did you know that it is only a second version ? The first version is called "Dancing Queen", and it's online on bandcamp, you'll recognize some of the sounds used in "Dancing Future", and you'll hear me "singing" !



I hope you enjoyed it ! See you next week !

The Visitor from the Future - Musics from the seaons 3 and four are now online !

Hi everyone!

Today, the musics from the last two seasons of The Visitor from the Future are online !
You can listen to them, and buy them on my bandcamp page.



You can find a lot of informations about them in the article about the musics from the 1st and second second seasons, but here are some other informations:

- The 18 first songs are from the season 3, the others are from season 4.

Season 3:

- "Les Missionnaires - Crédits" is the song used for the end title of the season.

- "Un nouvel ordre" is the song used for the end title of the episode 7.

- In 2012, there was a concert of the musics from the Visitor from the Future, "Les Missionnaires" is the song we played. It was one of the first song I composed for the third season.

- "Le plan des missionnaires" is the song used in the episode 6, at 4:33

- "Le fonctionnement des missionnaires" is the song used in the episode 5 at 6:48

- "Le sacrifice de Judith" is the song used in the episode 8, at 10:55. It uses the theme of the song "Judith", the song I prefer in the third season.

Season 4:

- The end title of each episode is a sample of the end of the song "Tous au portail"

- I composed the song "Les dessins" for the sequence with the T-rex, it's a kind of tribute to the song in Jurassic Parc. We didn't use it in the sequence finally...

- "Requiem pour Judith" is my favourite song of all seasons.

- During the bal, there is 3 songs. I think that the one everyone wants to hear is "Dancing Future". The others are "Ce soir on danse" and "VDF Disco".

- "Démarche finale" is the song used in the episode 10 at 16:25

You now know everything, enjoy it !

"Shadows" is looking for its singer - again

Hi everyone !

You may remember that the last time, I covered a song from Hannah Trigwell in order to contact her and ask her if she was interested to sing on my album.
A few emails later, she finally won't sing on the album.

Almost two weeks ago, I sent an email to another singer, and as usual (I'd really like to know why), I don't have any reply.
So I attempt to do the same thing I did the last time, to have her attention.

This time I try to contact Sara Niemietz, an american singer. If she is interested, we would have to work "online", because for financial reasons, I can't go and record her in LA or pay her to come in France to record with me...it's an interesting challenge though !

This time, no loops, it's piano only. The song is Rooftops, by Sara Niemietz. Let's now hope and wait for any reactions...

See you next week !

About the mastering

Hi everyone!

Today, as I'm finishing the mastering for the soundtrack from the third and fourth seasons of The Visitor from the Future, I tell you the the mastering.

What is it ?

Mastering comes after the mix. I think that mastering only one song is useless. But the mastering is important on a full album. The goal is to give the whole album a unity, in terms of volume, frequency response and sound space.
There are a few steps to do that, and we usually use the same gears (real or virtual) than when we mix.

Mastering is a subtle process. I often heard that the bass guitar in a song is an instrument you only hear when it's muted...It's the same idea for the mastering.

Here's what I use:

- The Waves NLS plugin. It emulates a channel from an analog console, pushed in its limit in terms of volume. If you didn't know it, be known that there's a "spot" on every audio gear when the sound quality is optimized, it's often the point where the sound starts to distort. Your guitarist is right when he cranks his amp's volume up, because the "sweet spot" is usually located at about the 3/4 of the volume.

- The Izotope Ozone plugin. It changes everything, I use it a lot. EQ, multiband compression, stereo enhancer, multiband saturation...everything is great and subtle.

- The Kramer Master Tape by Waves. It emulates a tape recorder.

So what is the result when I use all that !

Here are some samples. It's subtle, so if you don't hear anything on your computer's speakers, it's normal.

On the first two samples, there is the mixed version first, and the mastered version.

The first sample, on the song called "Judith", shows the stereo enchancer, as well as a change in the overall volume.



On the second sample, you can hear multiband compression and EQ, so that on the master version, you can hear more strings and horns than on the mix version.



On the last sample, I activated the plugins one be one:
0:05 - NLS on
0:09 - Ozone: EQ on
0:14 - Ozone: Reverb on
0:18 - Ozone: Harmonic generator on
0:22 - Ozone: multiband compression on
0:27 - Ozone: stereo enhancer on
0:31 - Ozone: maximizer on
0:36 - Kramer Master Tape on
You may think that nothing has changed from the beginning, so...
0:43 - every plugins off



I hope you liked it !
There are some engineers specialized in mastering, and they would surely talk about it really better than I do, but as I do some mastering from time to time, here was what I'm able to say about it !

Bye !

The Visitor from the Future - Four seasons of music about to be released !

Hi everyone!

Maybe you saw on instagram or facebook some clues, no we can announce it: you are about to be able to listen and buy the soundtracks for the Visitor from the Future. 

I'm speaking about all the musics, from all seasons.

It starts today, with the release of the soundtrack for the first two seasons. You can find them on my bandcamp page.

Now, let me explain you a lot a things:

First, the first two seasons are separated from the seasons 3 and 4. I composed the soundtrack for the seasons 1&2 before Ankama (which produces the series) was interested. When they decided to make DVD and CDs, they bought me the rights for two years. Now, this contract has ended, I now have all the rights on these musics, and I don't owe anything to Ankama (I prefer to tell you that now, because it has an importance, specially for the price of the soundtracks for the seasons 3&4)...

The soundtrack for the seasons 3&4 will be released later in december, time for us to finish the mastering and create a nice album cover ! We'll keep you informed on the social networks.

For the last seasons, it's a bit different.

Ankama owns the rights to exploit the musics. Considering that nothing happened for a long time, I contacted and negociated with them. Now, I also have the rights on theses musics, that means that I am now able to sell these musics.

That also means that I have to pay everything if I want to exploit these musics.

As you know, I'm actually finishing my album "Shadows". I spend my money and time on that album. Until "Shadows" is released, there won't be physical copies of the seasons 3&4 soundtrack.

That's the same idea concerning a live show (but I can tell that we will play some songs from the Visitor from the Future in the concert of "Shadows").

Speaking about the soundtrack of the seasons 3&4:

It took me 2 weeks of mastering, to have a really better sound and dynamic than what you heard in the episodes !

There are 29 songs, for a total length of 56mn, and yes, there will be the music from the bal, "Dancing Future".

There also the song I prefer in the four seasons: "Requiem pour Judith", I hope you'll like them as much as I do.

The album will be available on my bandcamp page, and priced 15€ (this time, Ankama earns money on these sales).

For questions like: why bandcamp, not iTunes, Deezer?...Please read my article about my EP release.

Be aware that doing all that took me a lot of time. For those of you who listened to the podcast by Jul, I was already talking about it, we were at the end of july ! 

I had some replies and started to negociate only 2 weeks ago. That took me about 5 months, so even if everything isn't perfect, I'm really glad that you can listen and buy those songs !

I think you have all the replies you need, but feel free to ask others in the comments below if you need !

My real instruments

Hi everyone !

This article completes the one about the virtual instruments that I use.

Here are my real instruments.
I didn't buy all this gear at once. I have several of them for more than 20 years. Time made my collection bigger.
Come people always want to have the last instrument released. If my instrument still sounds great, I keep it ! Most of them are quite old, and selling them wouldn't allow me to buy another one, so I prefer to keep them.

Let's start with my main instruments: keyboards.

The Kurzweil SP2XS isn't my main keyboard, but it's the one with which I did the most of my concerts (something like 150 gigs with it). I now use it in my studio, to give piano lessons. It's the only 88 keys keyboard I have, and it's the one I use every time in the show "Ce soir j'attends Madeleine".

On the left here, there's a Virus Indigo 2, by Access Music, used for synth sounds, monophonic or polyphonic. I used it a lot in the compositions for the music of the Visitor from the Future, season 3 and 4, specially for the "bal" music in the 4th season.

Usually, I use it with the small white expander you can see on the keyboard: a Shruthi 4 pole mission, by Mutable Instruments. It's a monophonic digital synth, with analog filter.

My main keyboard, the one I use on stage when I don't use the SP2XS, is another Kurzweil, the  PC3, a 76 keys keyboard. My opinion is that this keyboard is the most powerful synth nowadays. The Indigo and the Shruthi also are good synths, but the PC3 goes further in terms of effects, polyphony, modularity and realistic sounds.

Above the PC3, there's a Xylosynth, by Wernick Musical Instruments. It's a midi xylophone, that I use as master keyboard for the PC3 or other virtual instruments. I used it a lot when playing with David Keler, but I now use it very rarely. I will probably have the opportunity to use it on stage when playing the songs of my album "Shadows".

Under the PC3, you should see a blue flightcase, it's Beryl, a master keyboard I made, based on a midibox project and doepfer electronics. I don't use it for now, but I wish I have a project to use it again !


That's all for keyboards, I have some others not on picture, mostly master keyboards, that I use on stage, depending of the projects...I also have a toy piano, used on my song "Remembering children's games" from my upcoming album.

Let's talk about my second instrument, the instrument I really love: the bass.

On the left, there's a Ray34CA, by Sterling by Musicman. It's my main bass, the one you'll hear on all the songs of "Shadows", except one.
Next to it, it's a Fretless Jazz bass vintage modified by Squier. I use it when I need a fretless sound, or when the musicman sounds doesn't suit my requirements.
On the right is a Ibanez AEB10 electro acoustic. I used it a lot, but now I often play the musicman. I take it when I go on hollidays or if i go playing with friends who play acoustic guitar. You can hear it on the song "Le visiteur groove" from the 1st season of The Visitor from the Futur.

Guitars:

That's not my main instruments, neither the one I like the most. I have them because sometimes, it's faster and cheaper to record it by myself rather than having a guitar player.
The electric one is a Fender Stratocaster Black top, with 2 humbuckers, and some intermediate positions that I use to have a stratocaster or telecaster sound.
The acoustic is a Taylor Mini SG. I love the sound of that guitar.
If you heard some guitars in my songs, its one of them, except if I don't play it. The electric guitar is used in the songs "Octave" and "Richard" from the season 4 of the VftF. The acoustic guitar has been played by Florent Dorin when we recorded his song "Inside my Heart" for the final episode of the 3rd season.

My drums is Roland HD1. I never used the internal sounds. I use it to control my virtual instruments. I played all the drums part for my album with it. I also have a cajon, and a tambourine. You can see the cajon used in a cover of the Monkey Island theme.

Wind instruments:

There was a podcast about me that Jul released last week. You may now know that I started music by playing the clarinet. Since that, even if I love playing keyboards or bass, I love wind instruments, specially flutes.
Next to my clarinet, you can see a melodica that I don't use as it is very out of tune. Next to it, there are several tin whistles, plastic or metal. There is one in Bb, one in C, three in D, one in Eb. I kept my two recorders from school. You can hear the plastic D one at the end of the fake Frenchball movie trailer !
 I have a Honner chromatic harmonica that I don't really use, because I don't really know how to play it.
Above it are two ocarinas from STL Ocarinas, one is a purple clay simple alto ocarina, the blue one is a plastic triple ocarina.

You now know everything about my instruments !
My next post here will be monday, I will tell you about the release of the digital album for the 2 first seasons of the musics from The Visitor from the Future !

"Shadows" looking for its singer

Hello everyone!

As you know, all the instruments are recorded on the album, except one: vocals. Today, I tell you why I don't have a singer yet.

First, from the beginning, I don't want a French singer for several reasons, including the accent, and then the way of singing. I know that some people don't agree with me, but with the same technique, and similar voices, two singers from different countries will not sing in the same way. It turns out that I don't like the way French singers sing, at least for my album.

I spend a lot of time on Youtube listening to singers. I'm not looking for a specific voice, I just want that voice to make me feel the emotions of the song. I saw some very good singers, some very bad, and others that fit perfectly with what I wanted.

From there, I contact the singer and I expect her to reply me. If she doesn't reply, I usually contact her again a week later, by all means at my disposal (facebook, official sites, managers, etc). None of them answered me yet (I sent my first email in June).
For those of you who bought the EP, and who are dreaming about listening to the full album, you have to know that these singers have access to the whole album. No reasons to be jealous though, none of them listened to it!

So in these cases, I have to question myself and don't think all singers are rude.
In my emails, I think I'm respectful to the singers I contacted, but again, without any reply, no way to be sure.
I remain convinced that if people don't read my email or don't answer me, that is because I don't interest them (because of the double handicap cited below).

After a moment, I decide to contact someone else. That means I'm gonna spend several weeks to find another singer. I usually look for someone with a different voice from the previous singer, not to have any point of comparison.
It is a very exhausting process, since I have to find a voice that will suit my songs, although I already found one. And it's even more exhausting because I usually don't have any reply from the previous singer, so I still hope that she accepts ...

I know I have a double handicap: I'm not known, and I'm French. French music is generally associated with the accordion, you just have to watch a foreign film whose action takes place in France... However, I have nothing against accordionists, who also have to fight against this cliché. For those of you, not french, who read this blog, be aware that french music is not musette !

For now, I contacted 3 singers.
I first contacted a German singer, who never replied me, although I'm sure she got my emails.
I then contacted a Russian singer, with whom I chatted, but she never told me yes or no.
Three weeks ago, I contacted an English singer, Hannah Trigwell, I have no reply yet.

With the Russian singer, I did a video cover of one of her songs, which allowed me to strike up a conversation.

Today, I go further, I cover Rectify, a Hannah Trigwell's song, to try to have her attention and ask her if she is interested to sing on my album.

I'm pretty sure she will see at this video, and I hope she'll reply me.

Warning for you who read this blog, I'm sure Hannah will see this video, so no need to spam her about it or ask her to reply me. This is my personal initiative, I don't know if she'll like it, she can delete this video, she is allowed not to reply, or even refuse to sing on my abum or any reason.
But in the state where things are, "thank you for your interest, but I'm not interested" would be a short, yet polite reply, and that's all I ask.

Here's the video. Everything is performed and looped live:

Let's hope we'll have news about that soon, and of course, you'll know it !
I will surely do a video tutorial about the keyboard programming for this video.
See you next week !

The virtual instruments that I use

Hi everyone!

Today, I want to talk about the virtual instruments I use in my compositions.

First, although it's not an instrument, my sequencer is Protools 9 (not HD). Although I am currently testing the demo of Reaper, I am quite attached to Protools. This version comes with a few virtual instruments that I use quite often.

Now, let's talk about the instruments:

First, for all general sounds, I use Xpand2, included with Protools. It has a lot of sounds. I use it a lot for synth pads or lead synths, some percussions or ethnic (koto, mandolin ...) I can also use it for bass, before recording a real one.

SYNTHS

If I quickly need a lead synth sound, I also use an instrument included with Protools: Vacuum. It has its own personality, with a very high volume, and it can do some really nice bass synth sounds.

For pads, I use the UVI Workstation with the String Machines bank. I discovered UVI this summer, and I'm now using 2 of their sound banks, I find them very usefull.
I use String Machines for these old polyphonic synths sounds. The sound bank is very complete, and editing functionalities are also great. Almost all pads of my upcoming album "Shadows" were made with this instrument.


PIANOS

For pianos, I use two instruments:
Until very recently, I used almost exclusively MiniGrand, included with Protools. Its doesn't really have any particular personality, but is very good. It is simple to use and quick to load.

A few weeks ago, I bought the bank "Grand Piano Collection" from UVI. That is the piano sound that I use since. The sound bank offers 5 pianos, quite uneven. I mostly use the "Acoustic piano," a sampled Steinway, and the "Upright Grand Piano".

All my EP that I released last week uses the "Acoustic Piano" sound.


ORCHESTRA

For all orchestral instruments, including strings, brass, woodwinds, orchestral percussions, I use Eastwest Symphonic Orchestra, Gold version.

It is this instrument that you can hear in all the orchestral musics of "The Visitor from the Future".
I also widely used taikos from this instrument.

PERCUSSIONS / DRUMS

This is surely where I use most of different instruments.
First, as previously stated, I love the taikos of Symphonic Orchestra and the bass drums.
For the 4th Season of "The Visitor from the Future," and some musics for "Frenchball", I used Stormdrum 3, from Eastwest, mainly for large percussions (such as those that can be heard in the teaser of the 4th season). I also used some small gongs and originals percussions, like the clocks. I love the sound and the visual interface of this instrument.

For electronic drums, I use two instruments:
Boom, included in Protools, allows me to quickly have sounds from old drum machines. It is easy to use and sounds good. I used it a lot each time I needed that kind of sounds (like in the track "Here We Go" from the 1st Season of VftF, "Dancing Future", the famous music of the ball in the 4th season...)

I also use Geist, from Fxpansion. It comes with a library of interesting sounds rather hip-hop and electro. I have not much used it as a drum machine, but I often use it as a sampler.

For acoustic drums, I use Superior Drummer 2.
I have all the sound banks. I mostly use the "Allaire" or "Avatar" banks, but on my album "Shadows", I exclusively use the "Music City" bank. The sound and dynamics are great, the settings are complete, there is everything you need to make great sounding drums!


So long for the virtual instruments, in a future article, I will tell you about the real instruments that I use!

Shadows on Keys - EP release

Hello everyone!

Today is the release of my EP «Shadows on Keys».

First, let me play to you a short medley of the songs from this EP, I hope you enjoy it!

You can buy it on my bandcamp page 

Id like to let yo know that, despite the reasons that led me to do this EP, it is by no means an EP done fast. It is not either of the piano parts of the album that I extracted to make the EP.

I spent four days recording the five songs of this EP. It then took one day to mix, add some effects on 2 tracks and master the EP. The total length is about 18mn.

The musical themes are really the ones you’ll find on the album Shadows, but in different versions arranged for this EP. The structures are mostly identical to the original songs, but sometimes I had to slow the tempo down to suit the atmosphere of the piano.

If you read the history of this album, you know that all the songs have a very melodic section, usually played by the strings, and a rhythm section that contrasts with the mood of the strings. This rhythm section is absent on the EP, so the songs are much more melancholic than the same ones on the album.

Price:

I sell this EP 5 €.

For now, it’s only a digital version. I will certainly edit physical copies when I release the album.

As you know, the money from this EP will help me to move forward on the album. Be aware that if you buy this EP, you can buy the album at a price of 10€ in its physical version, including mailing costs, instead of 13 € for people who didn’t buy the EP. Make sure to correctly fill in your name and email address when you order the EP.

Why I chose Bandcamp and not iTunes...?

First, Bandcamp is a platform for musicians. I ‘m the only one to manage my page. When you buy the EP, you pay me directly and instantly, which is not the case with iTunes, where you have to wait at least one month before a statement of sales which can never be sure ... It is then necessary to ask his money, and you know it annoys me a lot.

On Bandcamp, you can listen to the entire songs, not just 30s of random extracts. I do not make money on these streams. I much prefer this system to a platform like Deezer, which pays the artists ridiculously low, when they want,...

You also have the option, and I advise you to do it, to download the files in their original format, uncompressed WAV.

There was a time when iTunes was interesting, but now there is everything and anything on it. There was a time when you could discover some artists on iTunes. Now, if you want to find me, you’ll have to search for me.

Financially, at the end, the income generated by the two platforms are identical, but in terms of operation and services, Bandcamp is better to my way of thinking about listening and buying music. So if you have to search for me, do it on Bandcamp !

What if you want to support me, but you don’t have money?

Well, we need this EP and the upcoming album to find their audience. If you can not or do not want to buy this EP, but you still want to help me, then share the info!

To share, simply send the link to the Bandcamp page to your contacts, your friends, your enemies ... everyone, no matter how old they are and where they live, telling them to share.

Feel free to invent chains such as "if you do not share to 10 people, that's what will happen ..."

I also want to add that there is actually a "loudness war" in the music industry. Very often, the dynamic range of the songs is really small and the songs are loud from the beginning to the end.

If I played nuances on the piano, I want you to hear them.

If there are volume buttons on the devices used to listen to music, they are made to be used, so do not expect to hear this piano with the sound level of a hard rock band ...

Thanks for your help !

Shadows on Keys - The EP - The origins

Hi everyone!

You may have seen this picture on facebook monday. Shadows on Keys is an EP. You'll find some songs from the upcoming ablbum Shadows, in their easiest version: only with a piano

I will tell you everything about it saturday, but for now, I'd like to tell you about its origins.

At first, there was a nice reason:

I was a bit worried for the live (I always think about the live when I'm recording or doing anything with this album, and I can tell you that it will be great), specially for the money I'd need to organize a concert. I was wondering if I was able to play the songs alone (I'm not interested at all to play them alone, but if I don't have any other choice...)
After a few tries and arrangements, I managed to play the songs. I kept that in my head for some weeks.

Then I had a small problem. This blog is about my work, and I think it's important to tell you about the things when they don't go right.

These last years, I always had to claim my money each time I worked as a composer. I had contracts, invoices, but none of the payments was paid in time. Most people don't have to claim their money at the end of the month, and I think it's totally not normal for me to ask for it.
In that mix of bad luck and bad faith, I had to face parental leaves, people who simply forgot...several times, people who dismissed their job or were fired, and replaced by people who didn't ever contacted me...

The problem is that when I have to ask, it takes time. Sometimes, I had to wait for over 6 months to have my money.

Actually, I'm waiting for money, a lot of small amount which make a big one.

If you read this blog regularly, you know that I produce the album on my own, I planned it from the beginning, and I knew I was able to do it because of that money I'm waiting for, since september.

You know that I spend a lot of time trying to contact singers. But I have to slow down a bit, because if I find her, today, I can't pay her. Once the recordings done, I need one month for mixing and mastering, then I'll have to make the cds...with the money I'm waiting.

Nothing here is really serious, that money isn't lost, and I will earn it one day, but I need it now.

I release the EP to raise money while I'm waiting.

I could have used a crowdfunding plateform, but I didn't want to sell something not really appropriate, or an album which isn't finished. I decided to record some of the songs from the album in other versions, so that you can have an idea of what the themes are, and this is something directly related to the album.

You now know everything about the origins of that EP, you'll know everything about the EP saturday !

Shadows - Recording the strings - Episode 4

Hi everyone!

The recordings are finished (except for vocals), but you didn't have samples from all the songs...
Today, here are some samples of the strings.
The strings players are: Louise Leverd (cello), Jasmine Collet (viola) et Pauline Denize (violin).

First, cello and viola on "Remembering Children's Games".



Here is a sample of the strings, together on "Shadows"

Une vidéo publiée par Jimmy Tillier (@jimmytillier) le Nov. 11, 2014 at 7:48 PDT

That's all for today. I will post something during next week to tell you about a surprise next saturday !

See you next week !

Shadows - Recording the drums, bass and keyboards parts - episode 8

Hi everyone!

Today, here are some samples of the recordings, on the song "Shadows".



All the instruments are now recorded, all that remains is the mystery singer...

While I'm looking for her, I'm working on the visuals, here's the album cover:

See you next week!

Frenchball !

Hi everyone!

Today, to change with the articles about my album, I want to talk about compositions I did during the last weeks, between the recordings for my album.

Frenchball is a new youtube channel created by Frenchnerd. François Descraques contacted me a few weeks ago to tell me about it, and he asked me to compose for a few things.

There were two steps.

At first, I worked on 3 music themes for the videos called "Soirées Loose"
François sent me different songs to inspire me in terms of music style, I was free to compose the way I wanted, as long as I was close to that style.
Here are the kind of descriptions François sent me:
"a cool/relax theme for introductions, like a funny tutorial"
"an action theme for some parts with a fast action"
"a party theme like you did with the Bal on the Visitor from the Future,...or in a funny Ska-Punk style"...

What's the result of that ? Here are some videos I did while recordings the last two themes (you'll discover the other one soon in the new videos)

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The second part of that work was the trailer video for the channel.
This time, I received the video, with some music in it. Like before, these songs were there to inspire me in terms of style and length.
I composed three songs: one in a jazz style, one in a marching band style, and another one in a orchestral style closer to what I usually do for The Visitor from the Future.

Here are some samples:

Publication by Jimmy Tillier.

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Now that you know everything about it, here's the video:

See you next week !

Shadows - Recording the drums, bass and keyboards parts - episode 7

Hi everyone!

Today, here are some recordings samples, all about one song, with a lot of instruments on it.
Remembering Children's Games is an instrumental song, about children playing, creating their own universe for a few moments...

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Basse sur remembering children's gammes. #shadows

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Enregistrement du piano. #shadows #rememberingchildrensgames

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To end, here's my updated todo list, I think the instruments recordings will be finished next week !

Shadows - Demos VS Actual Recordings

Hi everyone!

Today, I wanted to change a bit, so no video samples.

Today I'd like to speak about the differences between the demos and the recordings.

If you read this blog regularly, you read here about the different steps when creating this album.

Once the whole album composed, I had all the songs in a demo form. They all had their "almost definitive" structure, the strings parts, bass and drums riffs, and some basic keyboards parts.

I already knew what I wanted to add to these demos, the sounds, the keyboards, some effects...
When I started to record everything, I played the things I wanted, the way I wanted them to sound...

And the songs came to life. In the first post about recording the album, I told that I was discovering the songs, and that's still the case for all the songs.

Today, I want you to understand what I mean, so here are three samples. On each one, you'll hear the demo version, then the actual recording. It's always the same sample (not mixed).

I hope you'll like them, see you next week !

Shadows - Recording the strings - Episode 3

Hi everyone,

Today, here are some samples of the strings recording session, this time all about violin with Pauline Denize!

Here are the 3 frustrating new samples for the songs of the album:


And here's my updated To do list. Tomorrow, we complete recording violin parts. I will have to record bass, drums and keyboards on 4 songs, and I still need the vocals for 6 songs...

See you next week !

Shadows - Recording the drums, bass and keyboards parts - episode 6

Hi everyone!

Today, here are some samples of me recording the drums, bass and keyboards, on the song "Open your eyes".

I hope you'll like them.




This week, I started recording violin with Pauline Denize, and I h
ad to compose for a new project, so I didn't have a lot of time to work on my album, but here's the updated "to do" list.

See you next week !

Shadows - Recording the strings - Episode 2

Hello !

Today, I'm sharing with you my "to do" list for the album. You can see that all the recordings for the cello and the viola are now done. You can also see what remains to do !

Here are some other samples of the recordings of the strings.

Let's start with the viola for the song 'Crossroads". You can see some samples of the bass, drums and piano HERE.

Next, here are some samples of the song "No memories"

I put together the cello and viola on the song "Open your eyes"

The strings recordings done, I listen to them alone to hear how it works together, and with all the others instruments. Here's a sample on the song "Remembering children's games".

Next week, you'll have some other recording samples, mostly for drums, bass and piano.

Bye !

Shadows - Recording the strings - Episode 1

Hi !

the setup for recording viola

Louise Leverd

This week, I'm very busy, I'm starting to record the strings !
Monday and tuesday, I recorded the cello with Louise Leverd.

Today and friday, I record the viola with Jasmine Collet, and I'll start recording the violin sunday with Pauline Denize.

I'm very satisfied with the recordings, the songs are more and more "alive", it's really nice to hear real instruments at last !


I was used to hear the virtual instruments, and even if they are quite decent, after recording the cello, it changed the songs, but I could still hear the virtual instruments.

Today, after recording the viola, the only virtual instrument remaining (the violin) is really bad, I can't listen to it anymore, it sounds ridiculous...

I'm so happy that I want to share with some samples of these recordings.

It starts with the viola on "Breathe" (you can hear some samples of the drums, bass and keyboards HERE)

Then, here are some samples of the cello and the viola on "Chase the wind" (you can hear some samples of the drums, bass and keyboards HERE)

And at last, here are some samples of the cello and the viola on "I will light a candle" (you can hear some samples of the drums, bass HERE, but since that time, I had to transpose the key of the song, for vocal reasons...)

Next samples saturday !

Shadows - Recording the drums, bass and keyboards parts - episode 5

Hi everyone !
Today, I share with you some other samples of the recordings.
Here are some samples of the song called "Chase the wind".

Next week, I start recording the strings players, so you'll be able to hear some samples of the recordings and discover the other musicians who play with me.

Have a nice week end !

Shadows - Recording the drums, bass and keyboards parts - episode 4

Hi !
I am still recording my parts for the album, at a good speed (although I'm not in a hurry).
Today, I share some samples of a song called "Crossroads".
I hope you'll like them.

Next samples saturday !

Shadows - Recording the drums, bass and keyboards parts - episode 3

Hi everyone!
Today, I share with you some samples of the recordings for the album.
Here are some samples of the song called «I will light a candle», one ballad of the album. No keyboards here, I kept the ones I did in the demos, so I didn’t play it agin.
I hope you’ll like it (I know that in 6 seconds, you can’t really juge the song...)

Next samples thursday !

Shadows - The team

Hi everyone!
Today, no new vines about the songs, mostly because I don't have my computer with the videos.

Today, I tell you about the musicians who are going to play on the album.
Those who read this blog know that I started composing this album after the concert of the Visitor grom the Future.
Now, the recording days are booked, so I can announce that on this album, you will hear the following musicians:

Pauline Denize (Violin)

Jasmine Collet (Viola)

Louise Leverd (Cello)

They all played in the VDF Orchestra when we played for the Visitor from the Future. We didn't work together since, and it's a real pleasure to work with them all again !

The only unknown musician for now is the singer. After a lot of emails during the past two months without any replies, I'm starting to look for someone else, but it takes time...You'll be informed as soon as I find someone !

Bye!

Shadows - Recording the drums, bass and keyboards parts - episode 2

Hi !
The last week end, you discovered some extracts from "Between clouds", and from that moment, I started recording all my parts.
I play the drums, the bass and the keyboards, I record one song a day.
The really nice thing is that I organized everything in my room to be ready when I need it, so I don't spend time connecting or setting instruments, they are all ready !

Today, I let you with some extracts of the song called "Breathe":




I hope you like them !

Shadows - First notes !

Hi everyone!

Everything is ready to record!

This is it. Everything is written, all the sheets are done, all the lyrics, all the melodies...today I start the production of the album.

For the next few weeks, I'm going to record, either my instruments (keyboards, bass and drums) or other instrumentists.

I decided to start using Vine. I discover it today, and I post 3 little vines of one of the songs: "Between clouds".








I hope you like it. I will surely update the blog a little more often during the next weeks, to share with you other recordings !

See you soon.

Shadows - Sheet music

Hello everyone!

The melodies for the vocals aren't finished yet. I still have four to write. Sheet music for all the other songs are now done.

Why do I edit the sheets, and what do I do ?


At first, I have to say that I only edit the sheets for the strings players. I don't play strings, so the musicians have to know what to do, that's why I edit the sheets.
I will surely edit the sheets for the keyboards, bass and the drums later, but that's not the most important for now.

I composed all the demos in ProTools. The Sibelius software I'm using to edit the sheets is more or less integrated in ProTools.
It's then easy to convert my virtual instruments tracks into sheets that I can edit in Sibelius.


Once I have the notes on screen, my work isn't finished.
On the demos, I set the volumes of each part during the song, in order to hear every instruments at the good volume. I had to write the dynamics of each instrument on the sheet, so each player knows if he has to play loud or not.
It takes time, but it's a time saved in recording and mixing!

Next week, chances are that you will be able to hear some samples...