Not entirely sure about this one

[Folderol]

It has a very long gestation. At one time I could play the arps and main melody straight through on a Yamaha SY22. I wouldn't like to try that now
As well as lots of extras added over time, it is now fully Yoshimi-fied.
Comments?
Rotten Tomatoes?
https://soundcloud.com/soft-sounds/chil ... al_sharing

[Drew Stephenson]

Listening now.
Obviously stylistically we don't really overlap (!) but I do admire your gift for melody lines.
I must confess that for me it could have been shorter, the evolution of the melody lines is good but could happen more rapidly in my opinion.

[Folderol]

That was quick!
Thanks Drew. It is quite long - longer than I usually compose single tracks. Mind you, I'm so used to it now, that I don't know where I could apply the thinning shears without it feeling 'broken'

[Eddy Deegan]

Live notes through my first listen:

I like the 'phase-y' sound of the plucked sound in the intro.

The pad that comes in behind the lead is classic 'Will' and it's a sound you've used a lot. That's not to denigrate it, just an observation.

At 1:48 where the a 'nasal'-sounding, slightly sax-sounding part starts playing with the lead that's nice juxtaposition. At 2:26 I like the plucked echo-y bell-like notes.

The slightly guitar-like sound that comes in at 3:17 is nice and adds some more texture. Followed soon after by the synth lead.

When the bass comes in subsequently it's got a nice solidity to it without overwhelming everything else.

I found the 'in your face slightly' noise-based hi-hat stuck out a bit once I'd twigged it. The track as it unfolds reminds me of fairground music, as might be played on a mechanical organ.

There's a lot to like about it but I'd say that it was too gentle in its current form and some parts of it led me to wanting more, almost as if they were backing sections missing a lead.

That said, I enjoyed listening to it

[Folderol]

Thanks a lot for such a detailed review Eddy.

Sadly, it seems I need a proper hearing test
The high-hat ish sound was intended to be a subtle shaker sound. I'm working on revising it. I have a perceptual spectrum analyser, and looking at it on that, the bandwidth is too narrow and the centre frequency too high, oh and the amplitude way too high!

I'll be putting up a revision fairly soon. However, it's significant you mention mechanical organ. In the early days I made a mistake listening to an 'expert' who virtually 'instructed' me to apply quantisation, especially to the arps. I've regretted it ever since. It's in the earliest MIDI sources I have, and I don't feel up to trying to play that lot through again to recover the natural variations.

Still, all said, I'm fairly happy with it.

[Folderol]

Well, it seems my hearing is not as bad as I feared (I will still get it checked though). I was working while tired - and I know not to do that, and also did the final mix on headphones - I also know not to do that. Added to that, it was on my old AKG 240s which seem to roll off the HF somewhat. So now there is a new upload for comparison. As well as changing the 'shaker' I've made a few other tweaks.

https://soundcloud.com/soft-sounds/chil ... al_sharing

[Folderol]

I've now made this public, as https://soundcloud.com/soft-sounds/childhood-past-1
Due to SC dumping unskipable advertising even on paid accounts, I've now cancelled this and reverted to the basic account. This means I have to delete a lot of older material, but am slowly revising, then moving more across to bandcamp.

[Drew Stephenson]

It will be a shame when it goes but I don't think SoundCloud will be around much longer. I hear they've been burning through the last injection of cash and none of the current plans show a realistic chance of turning a profit.

[Folderol]

Over the years they've taken away much of what was wanted, and added stuff that nobody asked for, and no genuine musicians wanted. I've had a paid account for yonks, and unskipable advertising was the last straw. I've now reverted to a basic free account, and deleted most of what I had there.