If Love Was All - a lush soul piece

[kensuguro]

For a video thing.. a very lush sounding classic R&B tune. ah the groove.
you can hear the synful strings in there.
ep from pianoteq (now my no brainer default)
cheap synth is Live's built in Analogue synth
drums are DSK mini drums, forgot which preset.. maybe an Alesis one.

Cm7 -> Bbm7 -> Eb7 -> AbM7 -> G7#5#9
Cm7 -> Bbm7 -> Eb7 -> Abm7 -> G7#5#9
Cm7 -> Bbm7 -> Eb7 -> AbM7 -> G7#5#9
Cm7 -> Bbm7 -> Eb7 -> AbM7 -> Db7

if you're curious. I really like the G7#5#9 with the #9 right next to the 3rd. (F, Bb, B, Eb) Easy to reach, and is a little less dramatic than the "claw" voicing that goes 3, 5, 7, 9. (B, Eb, F, Bb) Also, the last chord is the dominant 7th counterpart of the G7#5#9 since the #9 effectively adds a minor 3 to the G7, whereas even though the upper voices are the same, shifting the bass to D makes it a rather purer 7th. For some reason I figured out early on that for every 7#5#9 there's the regular dom 7 counterpart. In this case it's a great chromatic step back down the C. I mean, mechanically if the you do a 7#5#9 on the V, using the dom7 counterpart automatically lands you half note above the root, so it always works.

Also, the progression is sort of a variation on the classic:
Fm7 -> Gm7 -> Cm7 -> Bbm7 -> Eb7 (II or IV, III, VI, V, I)
You can see that the variation starts on the Cm7 forward. The key center is sort of obfuscated by starting on the Cm7, seems like it resolves to AbM7, but then resolves forcefully back to the Cm7 via the G7. Or, you can forget about all the logic and say it's just a progression that's been darned used to death. lol

[dawman]

I see the Brotha's all bumpin' & grindin' away.
The little synthy thing was perfect for the groove.
PTeq EP is a FAT little sucker ain't it..so much meat.
I recently got the Ray '73 freebie which sucks by itself but in a mix the Tines sound nice so I mix it with the PTeq now.
Definetly Disco strings. Guitar kind of turned it into a Smooth Jazz thing though.
I like the groove and chrod progressions though and that little synth was perfect.

Nice ..

[yayajohn]

Very nice. Like the way you mapped out the progession and especially appreciate your explanations, I listened to it before I read your post and was thinking to myself, wow that sounds nice and well planned out, howd he do that? LOL! Sometimes I imagine myself as a cocktail pianist in a dimly lit smoke filled bar, ah well maybe in a different life - only a select few actually get to live the dream eh?

Dan