It has been a long long while but due to physical inconveniences I have not been able to produce any songs here at home since last October or thereabouts.
So this is my first recording since then. As mentioned on my youtube page the original dates back to 1996 and was recorded by famous Dutch singer Rob de Nijs, a contemporary of folks like Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard,Roy Orbison, etc. The guy is 78 now and still active. His career spans 60 years !!! This song was a phenomenal hit here in the Netherlands in 1996. It offers great possibilities for new arrangement. Mine is different from the original as you will hear if you care to check out the original on youtube as well.

regards
John Smies

https://youtu.be/e-xKgwRWMZ8

Nice to hear your music again, John. Thanks for sharing!

funny that once you enter a song not sung in English it seems to be Greek to most here. Of course it may well be one does not like the song, fair to me, but I would have expected some feedback as to the sounds of the Ketron at least

regards
John

Hi John, I totally understand your sentiment, and that's why I rarely post my music. I often end up feeling like "why bother" ?

But I do understand that it takes time to listen to a complete song, and make some sort of reply. Also, here on SZ since we tragically lost our beloved leader, and all disagreements on political and social issues among members, not many people are commenting on anything, they just choice to lurk. Hopefully this will change, but people can be quite stubborn and hold grudges.

Anyways, like I said John, it's nice to see you here again, and to listen to your music no matter what language it's in.
Stay safe and well!

Always a bit reticent to offer advice here, it’s hard to know if people who post here are looking for genuine criticism or not…

But if you care to know…

One of the things that is the most difficult on keyboards is to articulate guitar sounds well. Recent developments with AI articulation with some keyboards have made it a bit easier, but you still need to voice and phrase exceptionally carefully, as the slightest slip up can ruin the illusion.

As far as I know, Ketron haven’t yet gone down that path, or if they have, the main guitar you used doesn’t do articulated phrasing, right? So, right out of the gate it’s easy to spot that it’s a guitar ‘sound’, but not really guitar ‘playing’.

I think as well that the choice to go with a really different drum beat may have worked against it, the original ( https://youtu.be/0WOWi_okrhg ) had a sort of soft pop ska or reggae kind of beat, and straight 8ths. But your style has an inside swing factor, and at the tempo you’re doing it at, the swing seems a little rushed. Not to mention it’s hard to get the self played guitar to match that swing value.

But, as always, the Ketron drum sound is nice and upfront, lovely dynamics on the fills (why oh why can’t MIDI styles get this right?!) and the tune is nice and easy on the ears.

Unfortunately, that’s the double edged sword of audio drum styles. If this were a MIDI style, it would have been fairly easy to get into the style’s editor and relax the swing factor a bit, but an audio style is what it is. So it’s doubly important to make sure what you play matches the style’s groove, and this beat don’t make that easy!

But it’s great you’re still posting. Don’t get discouraged! One of the things about an English language forum is, it’s hard to listen to a song when you have no emotional connection to the lyrics. They shape how you feel about a phrase so much, they help define the music, and vice versa the music helps define how you interpret the lyrics. But if you can’t understand them, that’s all gone. Which might be a part of why so few commented…

But in fairness, I put up a few demos on the Roland sub-forum if stuff, and didn’t get that much commentary on some of them, it’s just the nature of the beast… 😎🎹

Nice reply Diki

Hi Guys,

first and foremost thank you kindly for your comments, much appreciated. Paul, I agree that most folks these days cannot be bothered anymore. The vehement discussions about gear ( which arranger is better than the other etc.etc. ) has all but died down both due to the fact that all top arrangers these days are excellent and rather a matter of preference than of quality and due to the fact as well that many here have moved over to the Facebook Arranger group. (me, I am a member of both).
Posting songs and asking for feedback generally leads to comments in the vain of " well done, thanks for posting, nice song,etc. ". Often I have read comments of qualified musicians praising folks whose performance are below par , to put it mildly.
As such I am more than grateful for Diki's extensive comments.

I do notice that both him and Paul are professional entertainers to the best of my knowledge, whereas yours truly at the age of 69 has rarely performed in public, considering myself an amateur home musician. Jack of all trades and master of none, I dabble in guitar playing, arranger keyboard and more recently some piano playing. ( see my youtube videos of which there are many).
Keyboard wise I have progressed from Roland ( in the 1990ties) to KORG (ever since 2002) to Ketron , more recently. Due to health issues I do not get down to playing half as much as I would like to as well as the fact that I have altered my preferences from arranger to piano and ac. guitar. Anyway this new video of mine is on the Ketron, and so are your comments.
As to the guitar SOUNDS of the ketron I have no complaints. Yes the acoustic guitars on the Yammies are better, yes the electric guitars on the Roland may be better but overall I thik all sounds on the Ketron vary from good to excellent.

As to my guitar playing (right hand) on the ketron, that is debatable though nothing to upset the average listener I think.
While I appreciate your comments on the choice of style,etc. I tend to disagree here, but then we are getting down to the nitty gritty of using ARRANGER keyboards. I included a link to the original of Dutch Artist Rob de Nijs and Diki quite rightly pointed out that my style is different, and in his view less correct of less appealing. For those of you who are familiar with my music and views on arranger keyboards ( see my youtube page) you will know that I set little or no store by SONGSTYLES nor by reproducing a popsong in its original setting. That is a job for cover bands ( to please their audiences) and the arranger keyboard player is basically a one-man cover band imho.

Playing a recording songs at home it does not add much to e.g. play Jailhouse Rock with the all but identical songstyle , adding my singing. Hence I generally go for an arrangement that differs from the original as much as poosible. Not necessarily but if I can I will. A good example would be "Rollercoaster " by Dutch singer Danny Vera. Check it out please on youtube and then check out my version and you will know exactly what I mean.

Thanks again,

John

P.S. Come on Bernie you can do better than that

Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t criticizing a choice to use a different beat, just that the one you selected had a rather uncomfortable inside swing factor at that tempo, or that tune, or perhaps simply from fighting the played guitar. Quite honestly, the further from the original something can get AND STILL WORK the better!

I also wouldn’t put any stock on the pro/amateur distinction. I’ve heard amateurs that blow me away and paid professional players that were horrible..! The only distinction is how willing you are to chip away at weaknesses until you achieve realism. As a guitarist, you might notice them more than the average listener…

Speaking of which..! You have to remember that an arranger forum is NOT where you go to play stuff to the ‘average listener’. Whether skilled or beginner, everyone here filters their impression through the lens of being an arranger player themselves. Quite honestly, the ‘average listener’ tends to be a lot more brutal than we do! You don’t get any brownie points for attempting to emulate a guitar sound, or how good the basic sound is, you simply get a ‘What the hell is that guitarist doing?!’

Most ‘average listeners’ don’t know why a groove might not be working, they just know it don’t get their toes tapping, and they fast forward to the next tune.

We give opinions, nothing more; that is all we have.

I feel that the majority of people here in SZ are good people trying to help. Some opinions may seem to be more than just opinions, due to their nature. No harm is intended.

Receive all opinions with a positive mind, there is no perfection here. Many are having a problem existing under the conditions we have today, trying to be in a positive mood does not always easily.

Having said all of that, keep posting your music, I for one will be listening.
John C.