30 Oct
2009
30 Oct
'09
1:28 a.m.
On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 10:17:35PM +0000, Q wrote:
Welcome back my friends...
Can I play too? Everyone else seems to be releasing music, so I may as
well join in seeing as I'm just about at a stage where I'm happy with
what I have to be happy with.
This is a symphonic progressive rock instrumental, influenced in style
to a large degree by some of the moody Scandinavian bands of the past
couple of decades.
What's presented here is essentially finished: I feel the writing and
recording for these sections is complete. I'm now content with the mix,
for the time being at least. I daresay I might feel the urge for a few
tweaks here and there if I take a break from it for a few weeks and come
back with fresh ears, or if anybody points out any glaring howlers that
I've become deaf to (quite likely, I'm sure). (Probably why it takes me
ages to get anything finished, ceaseless tweaking!)
But it's a work-in-progress in the sense that I don't know where parts 5
and beyond are going (I have a few ideas). Plus, I've done no
post-processing/mastering beyond using the TAP Scaling Limiter to boost
the level by 6 dB. I'll probably get around to running it through JAMin
at some point to polish it up a bit, unless it turns out to be a turd ;-)
The working title is Lovatnet and so far there are parts 1--4 (in true
prog fashion they will probably end up each with their own titles). I
probably ought to warn that it starts off very quietly but does get a
fair bit louder in places:
FLAC (22.7 MB):
www.quirq.ukfsn.org/Quirq_Lovatnet_pts_1-4_mixdown_26-10-09.flac
OGG-7 (6.6 MB):
www.quirq.ukfsn.org/Quirq_Lovatnet_pts_1-4_mixdown_26-10-09_ogg7.ogg
Some details: recorded in Ardour (three sessions, composited in a
fourth), drums in Hydrogen, a couple of bits of sequencing in Rosegarden
(which for me feels like cheating -- need to face the fact I can't play
as well as I'd like), Sampletekk Black Grand in Qsampler and the pipe
organ is the wonderful Aeolus, lashings and lashings of LADSPA plugins.
I get the feeling it's not a popular sentiment in some corners, but I'm
also incredibly grateful for the likes of Wine and Wine-ASIO, without
which I wouldn't have been able to make this, due to all the commercial,
closed-source, Windows VST instruments plastered everywhere: GForce
M-Tron/M-Tron Pro, NI B4 II, GForce Virtual String Machine, GForce
Oddity, NI Elektrik Piano. Even a freeware pitch correction VST
(GSnap) was used, but not on any vocals! :P
Comments welcome (preferably in 13/8 time!). Enjoy.
Very nice! Well produced too and well-written and well-played.
Reminds me a bit of Anglagaard, who I saw at ProgFest in Los Angeles in 1993. It was their
first time in the USA. They borrowed my friend's Mellotron (and his L100). They
totally blew the crowd away. Everyone was thrilled. After they finished their first song,
someone yelled out "MORE MELLOTRON!!". They had Mellotron all over their sound,
but apparently the crowd loved it that they wanted more.
Speaking of more, my friend with the Mellotrons helped them set up, and before their set
started, he told me that they did "The Musical Box" as a soundcheck, and it was
great. Well, he sat not too far from me, and when Anglagaard had finished their set, we
were all on our feet screaming for more. The band looked shell-shocked. I asked my friend,
"what will they do next?". He said, "They don't have anything else,
that's it." Hmm. Not true-- I remembered our earlier conversation. So I cupped my
hands, and hollerd as loud as I could, "MUSICAL BOX!!!". Someone in front turned
around, and glared at me, as if to say, "You ass, what makes you think they're
going to bust that out just because you, some random schmuck, requests it?!"
The lead guitar player suddenly broke out of his deer-in-the-headlights trance, turned
around, and shrugged his shoulders at the other band members, they shrugged their
shoulders back at him, and then... "play me Old King Cole.... that I... may join...
with you". I have never heard a crowd of nerds go more berserk then when those first
three chords were played. It was scary. A note-for-note perfect cover of it too.
I'm pretty sure Kevin Gilbert was in the audience, and he took note of this reaction,
and planned his Giraffe Lamb-Lies-cover set for ProgFest 1994 based on that. He also used
the element of surprise. Another friend went to that show, and said it was just billed as
"Giraffe". Nobody outside of their innner circle knew that it was going to be a
complete live version of Lamb Lies, and it got a similar heroes' welcome.
-ken