>> So it's basically an improv.
>
> That's even more impressive.
>
> If I get time tonight, I'll post a couple of the things *I* improvised.
> Sadly, they don't compare at all...

http://download.orphi.me.uk/Music/G2/Acid.ogg [1.1 MB]
http://download.orphi.me.uk/Music/G2/Sequence1.ogg [8.4 MB]
http://download.orphi.me.uk/Music/G2/Sequence2.ogg [10.2 MB]

Obviously, you'll need something that understands Ogg Vorbis.


with lots of knobs and dails on it) and a Boss BR8 recorder (portable 
digital 8-track recorder using the obsolete "zip disk" technology).

"Acid" was sketched out in literally 20 minutes flat. Everything is 100% 
live, just overdubbed. I didn't even use the metronome for timing, it's 
just freehand (rather like yours). You can even hear a few places where 
I missed a note or two. (You'd be amazed how many people claim to not 
know which bits I'm talking about!)

The other two tracks... probably aren't even worth bothering with, to be 
honest. Listen to 30 seconds or so, and now you basically know how the 
whole track sounds. I was attempting to emulate the iconic sounds of 
Tangerine Dream. (What do you mean you've never heard of them??)

As you can probably tell, I am not a prodical genius like the band 
members of Tangerine Dream. My method was simply to program my Amiga 
1200 to feed a few MIDI loops into the synthesizer while a twirl the 
knobs like crazy. The result could at best be described as "sonic 
texturing". Calling it "music" would be a bit of a stretch.

As an aside, one nice thing is that I can program the 8-track to start 
recording the instant my sequencer starts playing, for inch-perfect 
synchronisation.


Of course, these days I build everything inside my computer, so 
synchronisation is a total non-issue. I have Native Instruments 
"Komplete 6". That's basically a bundle which includes almost every 
[software-only] product that NI sells; synthesizers, drum machines, 
samplers, effects processors, etc. Added to that, I have Steinberg 
Cubase SL3.

Together, they theoretically make a powerful home recording studio. In 
competent hands, they could probably do some serious damage. In my 
unskilled hands, they don't produce much of any merit. But for your 
amusement, here is my latest opus:

http://download.orphi.me.uk/Music/G3/DistantLands.ogg [4.9 MB]

The long intro is freeform. Only later on did I turn on the metronome 
track to synch everything up. The track basically evolved from an 
interesting chord sequence I was working on. I'm not sure it works too 
well when constrained to a regular beat. That beat does have a slightly 
80s vibe going on with it. I'm not completely happy with some of the 
fills and breaks. The dynamics are a little all over the place.

A few days before producing this, I was studying the work of Enigma. 
Their stuff is interesting in that it seems to have insane amounts of 
reverb, and yet it still sounds tight and controlled. It has lush thick 
strings in it, and yet the melody still cuts through. Obviously whoever 
mixed this knows *exactly* what they're doing. All that *I* took away, 
however, was that their strings tend to be very "dark", whereas I tend 
to gravitate towards the brightest, most flamboyant sounds I can find. 
Using something darker leaves more spectral headroom for the rest of the 
mix, as exemplified here. That part did seem to work out quite well...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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