New Song - Blockchain
I finally got off my musical vacation and worked up a new song. I took a month and a half off from recording to clear my head. Anyway, I decided to write something with a lot of changes. This one features Polymod on some smoking guitar and synth solos. I'm playing 5-String bass, acoustic drums, keys, and guitar. I do a lot of double kick on this coz I wanted to mess around with my new double kick pedal. Did I mention there are a lot of changes in this song? It's titled "Blockchain" at: https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=13686811
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jamesg1213
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/01/31 14:34:32
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This is very cool, got a Jeff Beck/Jan Hammer fusion feel to it. Love the chord changes.
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/01 00:24:36
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jamesg1213
This is very cool, got a Jeff Beck/Jan Hammer fusion feel to it. Love the chord changes.
Thanks James! It was fun to play and record, and that's the whole point for me.
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emeraldsoul
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/01 01:11:56
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whoa! Really quite good! What lead synth did you use for the 2:20 feature? Killer!
All throughout your tune, great performances on many instruments. Chops for days! A treat to listen to.
The mix might be something for feedback - I wanted more bass, and in general I think it tilts towards the bright side. It's a heck of a lot of very well played parts mixed with extra splash! up top. You'll get different opinions on this, of course. Sometimes I wondered if the louder cymbal hits were turning sibilant. Do you have an eq on the master bus that adds high end at the expense of the lower?
A terrific piece, very inventive and very well-played.
cheers,
-Tom
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/01 01:54:57
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emeraldsoul
whoa! Really quite good! What lead synth did you use for the 2:20 feature? Killer!
All throughout your tune, great performances on many instruments. Chops for days! A treat to listen to.
The mix might be something for feedback - I wanted more bass, and in general I think it tilts towards the bright side. It's a heck of a lot of very well played parts mixed with extra splash! up top. You'll get different opinions on this, of course. Sometimes I wondered if the louder cymbal hits were turning sibilant. Do you have an eq on the master bus that adds high end at the expense of the lower?
A terrific piece, very inventive and very well-played.
Thanks Tom. I appreciate the feedback. The synth that Poly plays at 2:20 is a genuine vintage MiniMoog. I've only been recording acoustic drums again for about two months after a 35 year hiatus using only V-Drums with softsynths. I recently sold my fairly large live drum kit and bought a set of the really small Ludwig Breakbeats by Questlove so I could have an acoustic drum kit in the studio to play around on. This is the kit I used on the song.  Then one day a couple months ago I decided to try recording them and was surprised at how they came out in the recording. I used to have a giant Ludwig Octa-Plus set with 14 mics in a dedicated drum booth, but that was 35 years ago. Anyway, after that first test recording the little Ludwig kit, I bought a matched pair of Audio Technica AT2020 mics to use as overheads, and a ported kick head so I can put my Sennheiser 421 inside the kick, plus a low profile boom stand to get an SM58 right on my snare. That's what I used on this song, and I'm still working out how to get the best sound out of the acoustic drums with four mics. The two AT2020s are being used in the Recorderman configuration, with kick and snare mic'd close. Highs are boosted 2db on the master and I'm using a highpass to kill bass below 35Hz. The EQ is mostly flat on the drums submaster, with some mid emphasis to bring out the snap on the kick, and pop on the snare. Like I said though, I'm still figuring out how to mic my drums with only four mics, and each song I get a little bit better results, and save the setup as a template to be the starting point for the next song.
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jamesg1213
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/01 08:32:03
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I remember 'Polymod' now, he used to post some excellent stuff here. You two are a good team
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eph221
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/01 08:43:44
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I want it that way. Really nice!
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/01 17:30:51
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jamesg1213
I remember 'Polymod' now, he used to post some excellent stuff here. You two are a good team
Thanks James. It was back before Cakewalk had gone to a web forum and was still using an NNTP Newsgroup when Poly and I hooked up. I had posted a song where I played a synth solo, and Poly posted back that I should let him take a crack at doing the solo. I didn't know who he was or ever heard any of his music, but I thought what the heck, and let him record one. I was instantly blown away by not only his dexterity, but also his note choices. Since that day about 20 years ago on the old Cakewalk NNTP newsgroup, he and I have done hundreds of songs together, yet we've never met face to face, or talked to each other on the phone. We both still post at least several times weekly over on the original cakewalk.audio group that leaked onto USEnet from way back in the days of Cakewalk Pro Audio.
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/01 17:31:42
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eph221
I want it that way. Really nice!
Thanks David! :-)
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Lynn
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/02 01:33:16
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Fantastic!! I also heard some Utopia in there, but super creative and ingenious. Encore.
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Hugh Mann
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/02 01:54:13
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That was really awesome. I am also a vdrummer. But its really just out of convenience. I much prefer playing acoustic drums. You got a really great sound out of your drums. It inspired me to start moving in more of an acoustic direction. Anyway, great music. Awesome playing. Very impressed. I'm a fan. The only thing is i would agree that the drums (really more the cymbals) are a tad too bright. Just a tad. :)
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/02 02:37:46
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Lynn
Fantastic!! I also heard some Utopia in there, but super creative and ingenious. Encore.
Thanks Lynn! Both Poly and I were big Utopia fans among other progressive rock and jazz bands.
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/02 03:00:39
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Hugh Mann
That was really awesome. I am also a vdrummer. But its really just out of convenience. I much prefer playing acoustic drums. You got a really great sound out of your drums. It inspired me to start moving in more of an acoustic direction. Anyway, great music. Awesome playing. Very impressed. I'm a fan. The only thing is i would agree that the drums (really more the cymbals) are a tad too bright. Just a tad. :)
Thanks Hugh. I've exclusively used digital drums since before V-Drums even existed. On the page where my song is, on the left you can see a pic with me in front of my old half Yamaha, half Roland triangular pad kit. Anyway, I never thought I'd be going back to recording acoustic drums, but the stars all aligned such that exactly that has happened. I'm using the recorderman configuration with two AT2020 mics, which I bought right after seeing these two videos. I also have an SM58 on the snare and a Sennheiser MD421 inside the kick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtSGYODo8-4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-EjezU6_Zg As for the mix of my song, as you pointed out there is a bit too much edge, especially on the crash cymbals, and as a few other folks have mentioned the 5-String bass I'm playing is a bit subdued in the mix, so this weekend I plan to address both those items. Thanks for the feedback, and I can't say enough good things about the tiny and cheep Ludwig Breakbeats by Questlove. I had seen that kit in all the music catalogs I get and always thought it was a starter kit made for kids, which it could also be, but not only will I be using them as my goto drums in the studio, but will also be taking those drums out live to play gigs with a band I recently hooked up with. Edit: Thought I should mention that I did upgrade the snare on that kit to a Supralite snare. They gave me $50 trade in on the 8 lug wooden snare that the kit came with, and then I bought on sale the 10 lug metal Supralite snare, which ended up costing me another $90, so I have a total of about $440 (excluding stands, cymbals and other hardware) invested in that kit.
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/03 19:37:47
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It's titled "Blockchain" at: https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=13686811 I did a fairly significant remix of the song last night. Gave the bass track I'm playing a bit more bottom end and a small bump in volume. Also took the real bright edge off of the whole mix. I pushed up Poly's guitar solo tracks a bit in volume as well. Anyway, check it out. Hopefully it will sound more balanced on your speakers. I burned CD after CD taking different adjustments out to listen on my car stereo last night until finally settling on this mix, which sounded pretty balanced in the car.
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MarkusClinus
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/04 18:31:43
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This is great - well written, great playing - I love your guitar playing. Excellent.
Mark (formerly CLEAN) THE PUGTONES
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/04 22:42:48
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MarkusClinus
This is great - well written, great playing - I love your guitar playing. Excellent.
Thanks Markus. I'm actually just playing the Bass, Drums, Upright Piano, and Rhythm Guitar. My buddy Polymod is the one who is playing all the hot solos on Guitar and MiniMoog.
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Just Another Bloke
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/05 19:05:29
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Hugh Mann
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/06 04:40:24
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the_user_formally_known_as_glennbo
Hugh Mann
That was really awesome. I am also a vdrummer. But its really just out of convenience. I much prefer playing acoustic drums. You got a really great sound out of your drums. It inspired me to start moving in more of an acoustic direction. Anyway, great music. Awesome playing. Very impressed. I'm a fan. The only thing is i would agree that the drums (really more the cymbals) are a tad too bright. Just a tad. :)
Thanks Hugh. I've exclusively used digital drums since before V-Drums even existed. On the page where my song is, on the left you can see a pic with me in front of my old half Yamaha, half Roland triangular pad kit. Anyway, I never thought I'd be going back to recording acoustic drums, but the stars all aligned such that exactly that has happened.
I'm using the recorderman configuration with two AT2020 mics, which I bought right after seeing these two videos. I also have an SM58 on the snare and a Sennheiser MD421 inside the kick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtSGYODo8-4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-EjezU6_Zg
As for the mix of my song, as you pointed out there is a bit too much edge, especially on the crash cymbals, and as a few other folks have mentioned the 5-String bass I'm playing is a bit subdued in the mix, so this weekend I plan to address both those items. Thanks for the feedback, and I can't say enough good things about the tiny and cheep Ludwig Breakbeats by Questlove. I had seen that kit in all the music catalogs I get and always thought it was a starter kit made for kids, which it could also be, but not only will I be using them as my goto drums in the studio, but will also be taking those drums out live to play gigs with a band I recently hooked up with.
Edit: Thought I should mention that I did upgrade the snare on that kit to a Supralite snare. They gave me $50 trade in on the 8 lug wooden snare that the kit came with, and then I bought on sale the 10 lug metal Supralite snare, which ended up costing me another $90, so I have a total of about $440 (excluding stands, cymbals and other hardware) invested in that kit.
Thanks for sharing the info on the drum recording. Reading about the backstory and how you put it all together is cool. It always seemed like such a pain to record drums, but you definitely got a great recording. And the playing is great. Just an awesome track. The new mix sounds perfect. I wanted to buy the track ( and bring you .99 cents closer to retirement, lol) but you have as a free download. Thanks!
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/06 15:41:08
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Just Another Bloke
Naiz.
Thanks Justin!
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/06 15:59:46
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Hugh Mann
the_user_formally_known_as_glennbo
Hugh Mann
That was really awesome. I am also a vdrummer. But its really just out of convenience. I much prefer playing acoustic drums. You got a really great sound out of your drums. It inspired me to start moving in more of an acoustic direction. Anyway, great music. Awesome playing. Very impressed. I'm a fan. The only thing is i would agree that the drums (really more the cymbals) are a tad too bright. Just a tad. :)
Thanks Hugh. I've exclusively used digital drums since before V-Drums even existed. On the page where my song is, on the left you can see a pic with me in front of my old half Yamaha, half Roland triangular pad kit. Anyway, I never thought I'd be going back to recording acoustic drums, but the stars all aligned such that exactly that has happened.
I'm using the recorderman configuration with two AT2020 mics, which I bought right after seeing these two videos. I also have an SM58 on the snare and a Sennheiser MD421 inside the kick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtSGYODo8-4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-EjezU6_Zg
As for the mix of my song, as you pointed out there is a bit too much edge, especially on the crash cymbals, and as a few other folks have mentioned the 5-String bass I'm playing is a bit subdued in the mix, so this weekend I plan to address both those items. Thanks for the feedback, and I can't say enough good things about the tiny and cheep Ludwig Breakbeats by Questlove. I had seen that kit in all the music catalogs I get and always thought it was a starter kit made for kids, which it could also be, but not only will I be using them as my goto drums in the studio, but will also be taking those drums out live to play gigs with a band I recently hooked up with.
Edit: Thought I should mention that I did upgrade the snare on that kit to a Supralite snare. They gave me $50 trade in on the 8 lug wooden snare that the kit came with, and then I bought on sale the 10 lug metal Supralite snare, which ended up costing me another $90, so I have a total of about $440 (excluding stands, cymbals and other hardware) invested in that kit.
Thanks for sharing the info on the drum recording. Reading about the backstory and how you put it all together is cool. It always seemed like such a pain to record drums, but you definitely got a great recording. And the playing is great. Just an awesome track. The new mix sounds perfect. I wanted to buy the track ( and bring you .99 cents closer to retirement, lol) but you have as a free download. Thanks!
Thanks again Hugh, I hope by detailing how I'm recording acoustic drums that I can save others some time if they want to give it a try. The recorderman configuration is a variation of the Glyn Johns method, who got John Bonham's great drum sound. Thanks for trying to send me a buck for my retirement fund, but I'm already retired. I had been planning to do it at 62 from my software programming gig, but I got pushed into it at 58. Thank God I had paid my house, car, and credit cards all off long before that in preparation to do it at 62. Turns out I was ready anyway, so now I can spend more time writing music, and being talked into going out and playing some live gigs again. I've come to realize that my purpose in life is to help bring more music into the world, and that the series of events that led to me having this golden opportunity to do it wasn't so random. :-)
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Hugh Mann
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/09 04:25:34
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Hey retiring at 58 aint too shabby. Thanks for sharing the techniques on recording. It always seemed so complicated to record drums. And with not so great results. for me at least. But that method doesn't seem too out of reach. Had a listen to the rest of your tracks. I downloaded a few. I really dig your drumming and bass playing. And your guitar and keyboard playing. geez, you're really good on all of the instruments you play. your sound is jazzy, but with balls. you infused the rock feel into the jazzy musicality. you've brought more music into my world, so your goal is met with me at least, lol. im seriously a fan.
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/09 15:21:42
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Hugh Mann
Hey retiring at 58 aint too shabby. Thanks for sharing the techniques on recording. It always seemed so complicated to record drums. And with not so great results. for me at least. But that method doesn't seem too out of reach. Had a listen to the rest of your tracks. I downloaded a few. I really dig your drumming and bass playing. And your guitar and keyboard playing. geez, you're really good on all of the instruments you play. your sound is jazzy, but with balls. you infused the rock feel into the jazzy musicality. you've brought more music into my world, so your goal is met with me at least, lol. im seriously a fan.
Thanks again Hugh. If you want to see who is actually playing what on any of my tracks, I credit the friends of mine (like Polymod who is on this song) in more detail on my music page, which lists all the songs with more informaton, rather than queuing them all up in a player where you don't really get any info. That page is located here: http://www.soundclick.com..._music.cfm?bandID=5672
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Wayfarer
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/17 04:45:00
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Great stuff! I thought Jan Hammer had joined Frank Zappa's band there for a minute. Killer synth solo.
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/02/18 17:31:22
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Wayfarer
Great stuff! I thought Jan Hammer had joined Frank Zappa's band there for a minute. Killer synth solo.
Thanks Bill. I don't think Hammer ever played on any of Frank's music, but he sure could have!
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stevec
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/03/12 19:04:56
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Nice... Loved it! Fits perfectly in my favored genre/style. I was getting a bit of Genesis on the more melodic sections, and maybe RTF on the solo bits, but all in a cohesive mix.
SteveC https://soundcloud.com/steve-cocchi http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=39163 SONAR Platinum x64, Intel Q9300 (2.5Ghz), Asus P5N-D, Win7 x64 SP1, 8GB RAM, 1TB internal + ESATA + USB Backup HDDs, ATI Radeon HD5450 1GB RAM + dual ViewSonic VA2431wm Monitors; Focusrite 18i6 (ASIO); Komplete 9, Melodyne Studio 4, Ozone 7 Advanced, Rapture Pro, GPO5, Valhalla Plate, MJUC comp, MDynamic EQ, lots of other freebie VST plugins, synths and Kontakt libraries
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/03/13 13:36:55
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stevec
Nice... Loved it! Fits perfectly in my favored genre/style. I was getting a bit of Genesis on the more melodic sections, and maybe RTF on the solo bits, but all in a cohesive mix.
Thanks Steve! I checked out some of your latest songs on Soundcloud. Cool stuff!!!
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Bob Oister
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/03/14 00:52:22
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Hey, Glenn, Really great to see you back on the forum!  This tasty instrumental is absolutely dynamite! Fantastic playing and performances, very creative composition, and a nice, clean punchy pro sounding mix! I really loved all the twists and turns, and the guitar and synth solos were outstanding. This sort of reminded me of some early Gino Vanelli albums, which I was always a fan of. Great stuff, thanks for sharing! Have a good one, Glenn!Bob
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/03/14 15:05:11
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Bob Oister
Hey, Glenn,
Really great to see you back on the forum!
This tasty instrumental is absolutely dynamite! Fantastic playing and performances, very creative composition, and a nice, clean punchy pro sounding mix!
I really loved all the twists and turns, and the guitar and synth solos were outstanding. This sort of reminded me of some early Gino Vanelli albums, which I was always a fan of.
Thanks Bob, when I heard about all the changes going on in the world of Sonar I came back to follow along. I switched to Reaper ten years ago, but still have Sonar on my machine, and on occasion fire it up to access older projects. I was always a fan of Mark Craney's drum work on Gino Vanelli's song Appaloosa.
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sven450
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/03/14 18:36:09
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Really enjoyed that! Fusion-y goodness. Great playing all around.
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Re: New Song - Blockchain
2018/03/16 14:23:41
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sven450
Really enjoyed that! Fusion-y goodness. Great playing all around.
Thanks Sven. :-)
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