This is just a mellow groove tune, it doesn’t have a name yet. I’d like to get some feedback so all criticism is welcome!
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Very nice, I like it! Very tasty guitar styling. I think the groove is pretty good. Is that like a Latin bossa-nova drum beat? I don’t know enough about jazz to really critique it, but since the guitar is very dynamic maybe it could have some (or more) compression on it? I’m sure you wouldn’t heavily compress a jazz guitar, but a little bit might even it out. The notes popping out are kind of nice actually, it just seems like for extended listening it could be evened out level-wise a little bit. I hope that helps.
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Hi IngoLee,
Nice and mellow, yes. I’m thinking of the jazz trio in a restaurant that plays a constant background you’re not really supposed to listen to. But that’s my main feedback for you: maybe a bit too mellow. Maybe it could do with a bridge or two that stands out. A song structure that’s more obvious with a bit more excitement/ climax. An other idea: maybe you could give the other instruments room to solo? Oh and in places the timing is a bit sloppy, sometimes due to the drums, sometimes the guitar. You could edit your way out of that, but I’m guessing its a live recording with spill? Might not be so easy.
good luck!
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Well it’s similar certainly, probably more of smooth jazz thing though.
This would probably be a good approach, but when I try that I can’t get a good result. When you spend time including dynamics you get attached to them. 
I’ll bet a commercially knowledgeable producer would do that, I just can’t get it right.
Absolutely, thank you for helping!
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Been there done that! 
You’re right, and that was my original intention, but then I just did a one-take over this and liked it. In my own mind it is a complete thought and I couldn’t find a place to break it apart so I kept it. I should do that at some point though.
Well those are midi tracks so I could write in another solo but it would just sound to me like I had just jumped to another instrument. But you’re right though, I need a horn player or vocalist or . . . but I don’t have any available at this time unfortunately.
Yes it is. On purpose actually (most of the time), it’s a jazz thing that others do better than me, it’s supposed to make it sound ‘expressive’ ha ha.
Thank you for listening and the helpful comments!
Really cool listen… thanks for sharing!
I can’t really comment on song structure because I’m much more of an appreciator of jazz than knowledgeable about it.
Mix-wise, my only comment would be that I think the drums could use more ambience. The first reference that came to mind was Mike Stern’s album of standards that he did, creatively titled “Standards”. 
Although I think they go a bit overboard on that one but the concept is there.
Cheers!
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I love the smooth vibe of it. Did you add the organ over the drums first and then the guitar last?
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That’s interesting Blair, I’ll have to look at what the settings were on that. As I get older I seem to use reverb etc. less but it can really make a track when it’s used properly. I’ll have to check out Stern’s standards album, I haven’t heard it. He’s an amazing player, and his wife Leni is also. Thanks for listening and commenting!
Nice, nice, nice.
Bring the drums up a smidge and bring the lead guitar down just a touch.
LOVE the tone on the guitar. Very cool.
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Yeah, it’s actually pretty tasty. I guess it’s just that my training prompts me to gain-stage and compress everything to some degree.
With the right kind of compressor, at maybe a 1.5:1 or 2:1 ratio, slow attack/fast release, with just 1-2 dB gain reduction (and equal make-up gain) it could perhaps add just a bit of leveling. Or maybe even better, something like Waves Vocal Rider - not compression, just automating the level based on the other instrument levels. Anyway, just some thoughts.
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Well you’re talking to a guitar player with a big ego and his hand on the slider. I tried but it keeps springing back up! But I think you’re right.
Thanks for the kind comments!
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Oops, gotta eat my words here. I double checked my settings and there is a lot of processing on this track. The guitar is direct in with no amp sim but it has a PSP vintage warmer and Ozone with the full suite turned on including a multi band comp with the following settings. Don’t believe anything I say!
And then Ozone reappears on the master buss with more compression! Doh!
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The guitar tone sounds really nice,maybe a little tad of comp would even it out a bit and it is a bit too loud i think. Drums are a bit soft and could do with a bit more room .
Good work i really enjoyed it
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What I did was to write chords and a couple of licks and then put it into Band in a Box with a jazz syle setting. BIAB is pretty cheesy so then I took out the midi tracks from there and edited them and added instruments from the East West Goliath library in Reaper. That made a complete rhythm section which I expected to further edit with a bridge or something else but then I plugged in and did a solo and ended up adding processing ( explained above ) and keeping it. Sort of an accidental production.
Thanks for the encouragement, I appreciate it!
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Good ears Alan, others have mentioned this also. I now realize I have some compression on both the guitar track and the master buss but I’m definitely not skilled with compression so that needs some work.
But you know the only way to get a guitarist to turn down though right? (Hand him some sheet music.) 
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Oh, OK. Well maybe it’s just right then. I didn’t feel there was too much compression, at least on the guitar. The other elements are softer and more of a supportive rhythm section IMO.
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Nice tune Ingo! Nothing to add that hasn’t already been said, so I’ll just add that was cool! 
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Tasty stuff Ingo! You’ve already got a lot of great comments, so I’ll just offer a couple observations. I understand going for the looser feel (I’m fond of doing that myself regularly). I think the keyboards are being played in such a way as to prompt the listener to seek regular timings, the way the chords are sounded. The keys sound a lot more “on grid” compared to the other instruments, so perhaps you could apply a “humanize” function to the keyboard midi to mitigate? Worth the experiment anyway.
When it comes to Izotope plugs, I tend to use Alloy on an instrument track, rather than Ozone, which I use only on the master, but there’s no law saying one can’t use whatever one wants!
This reminds me of this great set of quotes from jazz aficionado and baseball legend Yogi Berra:
Interviewer: What do you expect is in store for the future of jazz trumpet?
Yogi: I’m thinkin’ there’ll be a group of guys who’ve never met talkin’ about it all the time…
Interviewer: Can you explain jazz?
Yogi: I can’t, but I will. 90% of all jazz is half improvisation. The other half is the part people play while others are playing something they never played with anyone who played that part. So if you play the wrong part, its right. If you play the right part, it might be right if you play it wrong enough. But if you play it too right, it’s wrong.
Interviewer: I don’t understand.
Yogi: Anyone who understands jazz knows that you can’t understand it. It’s too complicated. That’s whats so simple about it.
Interviewer: Do you understand it?
Yogi: No. That’s why I can explain it. If I understood it, I wouldn’t know anything about it.
Interviewer: Are there any great jazz players alive today?
Yogi: No. All the great jazz players alive today are dead. Except for the ones that are still alive. But so many of them are dead, that the ones that are still alive are dying to be like the ones that are dead. Some would kill for it.
Interviewer: What is syncopation?
Yogi: That’s when the note that you should hear now happens either before or after you hear it. In jazz, you don’t hear notes when they happen because that would be some other type of music. Other types of music can be jazz, but only if they’re the same as something different from those other kinds.
Interviewer: Now I really don’t understand.
Yogi: I haven’t taught you enough for you to not understand jazz that well.
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Thank you Mike, all the responses have been great, I’m again impressed by the helpfulness and talent of our community here including yourself!
For the record, I agree with this sentiment. You have some really good stuff in here, but it would be more impactful and more interesting to break it up a little…
This made me think of the tune I’m working on now. I’ve got a cruddy entry level looping pedal and was playing with it one night. You can only remove the last part you added – or – reset the whole thing. I got on to something I really liked and parts just kept flowing. THEN I thought, maybe I should record this? So I dumped the pedal loops into my DAW (in mono of course) because I had no other option.
For the life of me though, I couldn’t recreate it piece by piece. So I’m just going to use the loop as an “intro” for the song it inspired… I mostly just mix these days, but I really need to set up my DAW so it’s ready when the mood hits.