[LAU] [Music] Synthetic Air on a B-Thing

[David Kastrup]

Christopher Arndt <chris at chrisarndt.de> writes:

> Hello Music and Synth lovers,
>
> every Synth Nerd has to do a "Switched-on" track at least once, I
> guess. Since my sister married recently again, this was the perfect
> opportunity for me to see what I could do with just one monophonic
> analog synthesizer module from Behringer for my interpretation of
> Bach's famous "Air" from BWV 1068.
>
> Listen to or download the track from my Nextcloud instance:
>
> * https://0x20.eu/nc/s/NjC7W9xp5Sk94Jj (FLAC)
> * https://0x20.eu/nc/s/xEdXajYS5EBaDNW (Ogg Vorbis)
>
> Listen on or download from Soundcloud:
>
>  *https://soundcloud.com/spotlightkid/synthetic-air-on-a-b-thing
>
> (to download, click on "More" under the comment entry field and select
> the download option)
>
> I recorded this with Ardour 6 on Manjaro Linux, track by track, first
> as MIDI and then replayed and recorded as audio, so I could ride the
> filter cutoff or other parameters during recording. Then I exported
> the stems of all audio tracks, re-imported them into a a new Ardour
> session and mixed it there, using a 4-band EQ, a compressor and
> several reverb sends on each track, chorus and low-/highpass filter on
> a few track, as well as a multi-band compressor and EQ on the master
> bus.
>
> Equipment used:
>
> - Behringer Pro-One
> - Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 Mk 1
> - Tuxedo Laptop with AMD Ryzen 7
> - AKG K240 Headphones
>
> Software used:
>
> - Ardour 6
> - ACE Compressor
> - Calf Multiband compressor
> - EQ4N EQ
> . Glame High-/Lowpass Filter
> - LSP Impulse Reverb Stereo
> - SamplicityM7 Impulse Response "Boston Hall A"
> - CAP PlateX2 Reverb
> - YK Chorus
> - x42-dpl Limiter

Ok, full disclosure: violin and accordion player
(<https://youtu.be/9kHxQTB59bQ>, looks like everyone's sister is wedded
to the same music).  As accordionist, I may be suffering from glissando
envy, but as violin player I am not unaccustomed to it.

First, thanks for _not_ using the "Air on a G string" compaction to work
with in spite of your piece's title, but rather the original ensemble
setting of the Air (BTW, you gotta love the economic use of paper in the
autograph).

That being said, apart from the distraction of the wide glissando swings
itself, I find that their target pitch is quite hit and miss about
settling in a manner perceived convincingly as being on-beat (it would
probably take an inordinate amount of practice to get this just so).
For me, that distracts from the measured solemnity of the piece and
makes it swim about the bass part.

For this particular recording, I find that you have much too much of a
pause between first and second halves (a bit like "Must I?" "Please,
James." "Very well, Miss Sophie.").  There is no full stop between the
two.  Then there is some rather large slowdown in the first half of the
first repetition of the second half apparently originating from the bass
part that does not seem to serve any purpose.

Apropos: what happened to the second repetition of the second part?  The
piece just ends after the first repetition.

Of course it is easy for me to complain when all it takes for me to redo
a piece is to record for 5 minutes and then curse and repeat for three
days.  And that while missing out on the viola part.

All the best

-- 
David Kastrup