[chilled] One Hope (mp3) improv

[uncloned]

Well....

Have you ever just felt so down that you wanted to find comfort in music but didn't have the will to actually work at it?

This is what this is.

I turned on the 4-track and put down improvised lyrics / vocal / guitar
then I tossed synthesized Rhodes and Casio Electronic saxophone. (in fact the only song I've used the Casio horn on)

I have a love / hate relationship with this song...

Only One Hope


I'm trying to tell you what I feel
I'm trying to tell you what my life is
from inside....

I'm trying to show you
what it is
I'm trying to show you
me.....


I only think there's one hope
I only think there's one chance
I only think there's one way
I only think there's just one time

I can not feel your feelings
I can not feel your thinking
I can not think about
what I don't know....

I do believe...
there's a chance, chance, chance

But there is only one hope
But there is only one chance
There is only one time
There is only one way

Don't throw shadow on the light
somehow things will work out all right

I don't know how...
I don't know how...

There is fear at the bottom of this precipice
There is fear at the bottom of this
There is fear at the bottom of this
There is fear at the bottom of it all
There is fear at the bottom of it all

http://clones.soonlabel.com/mp3/one-hope.mp3

[Sam_Zen]

First the trivial thing : it would have been quite easy to remove the background hiss first.
A good, driven song.
I noticed in the ID3 tag as style 'jazz'. I don't think that's correct, unless you play a solo-chorus with the saxophone..

[uncloned]

well... free style jazz? sort of? it was all improvised in one take each.

Noise - yes the curse of tape. perhaps I should clean it.

I'm taking all of my cassettes and converting to digital so I should end up with raw and cleaned copies eventually.

20 gigs and counting.

Thanks for the listen - I'm glad you like it. I'm working through your last offering.

[Sam_Zen]

free style jazz

I don't think so. There's a difference between 'free jazz' and 'improvisation'.
Free jazz doesn't have a common theme or basic rhythm for the musicians, while an common improvisation
could, even freely played, be build based upon certain chord properties, or rhythmic structures.

Noise - yes the curse of tape. perhaps I should clean it. I'm taking all of my cassettes and converting to digital

Yep, Tell me. I once decided to convert 34 reel-tapes to digital, and it took me one complete summer.
I haven't cleaned them all either, considering them as 'raw' takes.
But if I decide to publish, it's piece of cake to denoise the track first.

[uncloned]

Sam.... I can't hear noise, honestly.

Perhaps my hearing is not good high up?

[Sam_Zen]

well, I'm older so my HF range should be lower.

Listen especially to the right channel at the beginning of the song. Hiss-noise. It stays during the song.
I did some simple hiss-reduction on the track. Check the difference:
http://www.louigiverona.com/webarchive/samzen/download/oggs/one-hopey.ogg

If dealing with tape, it's important to have some pieces of silence around the song also recorded in the file.
Because some apps like Cool can calculate a 'profile' of the bg noise of such region, and remove it throughout the song.
This could also be valid f.e. with a 50 Hz hum in a track.

[uncloned]

last night I was unable to hear it - with Bose headphones

I do clearly hear it in your example - on laptop speakers !

let me give it a shot.

[mrvegas]

Nice ending with the electric piano bits and the vocal fading out.  Very Pink Floyd-ish.  Ah yes, the old four-track days.  There was a time when a rough cassette tape could actually be used as a demo.  (Given the advances in recording technology, I'm not sure if there's even such a thing as a demo anymore.)

I heard the tape hiss, too.  Honestly, I wouldn't waste time trying to remove it.  It's not bothersome and it didn't stop me from enjoying the song.  (I assume you're not anticipating this version being a commercial release.)