Fusion, and Friends - Orchestral thingy.

[markone]

Well... Make of this what you will ... it's got radiowaves from time and space, it's got orchestral stuff and synths and powerchords. It's called Prelude.

There's a vague notion that it will actually BE a prelude to something much bigger.

The radiowave stuff is made up from white noise, tuned sinewaves, filters, found clips from the internet, ring modulation, etc. it was a project in itself with about 15 audio tracks.

The Piano is the Holy Grail, The clean guitar is the big body 6 string.

The orchestral strings are Garritan Personal Orchestra, VSTi

The woodwinds and brass from the Siedlaczek Advanced Orchestra ROM on my EMU Proteus Keyboard,

Bass Drone is Korg Wavestation, Loop perc and blippy synth are Emulator X VSTi.

Power Chords are Slayer 2 VSTi.

All done in Cubase - Really old version: 2.2

Think that's about it. Right now it's an early mix - Almost no EQs, just some level tweaks, no automation yet.

Thoughts?

www.markonemusic.co.uk/audio/prelude-mix1.mp3

[psionic11]

Excellent concept, great work in progress, markone!! I like.

Couple quick suggestions/observations, to take or leave as you will:

1) I like the "scan the radio dial to see what Planet Earth is broadcasting" concept. I might suggest fading in the beginnings of certain of the quotes, rather than fading out the ends, where the meat of the message is, and also to give it a more natural "just happened to find this quote" effect (mostly the Churchill quote).

2) All the radio wave + quotes stuff is great, engaging, and it creates a nice setting for what follows afterward. However, the entrance of the main orchestral theme is rather abrupt and sudden, destroying a certain continuity, although it is quickly restored just by virtue of the grandiose statement of the theme itself.

3) Something (a very high English horn?) is waaay out of tune in the main theme, up with the high strings. It is flat, it happens every time the theme repeats, and sounds like a 7th grade band

4) Another transition that could be smoothed out is when the rhythm track kicks in about 3/4ths into the song. It arrives suddenly, and is a proper support of the main theme, but it just BOOM shows up. It does elevate the mood, but some kind of very brief transition-like sound or motif can bring it in so much better. Something like a faded-in-to-very-loud 2 second "jet swoosh" or tympani rolls or the overused techno tut-tut-tut-tut-t-t-t-t-t-prrrrrrrr or a tutti orchestral brass+ string 2 octave rising scale...

And of course, overall mix levels and reverbs for the polish, but the meat of the idea is fantastic! More, please ;D

[markone]

Hi Psionic... Thanks for taking the time to listen, and for the really useful comments.

I'll try to post a new version very soon, but I've taken on board your comments. I've re-edited the radio scan in line with your ideas, Winston fades in, and MLK has had some level automation to fade him in and out, as has Neil Armstrong. The brandonberg gets some single-sideband distortion.

I found the tuning issue. It was tubular bells! They were playing the theme along with the strings, but of corse tubular bells have a very strong minor 5th harmonic, so there was a real discordant thing going on when blended with the other parts.

I'm working on a swoosh to bring in the perc.

Again thanks for the valuable insight... watch this space for an update.

[rainbow]

Very interesting work in progress Mark ... I really like the radio dial/scan idea and I can already hear how much work has gone into that ... very impressive! I look forward to listening to the update:)

[psionic11]

Glad to hear you liked the tips, I was a little concerned I might have been too direct. Again, it sounds very good overall, I can't wait to hear more. This is the kind of music/art I like, where everything is not just all 8 bars of some groove and a sexy sound layered on top of it, oozing of safe ear candy production. Bring on more of this inspired stuff =)

[twokks]

Given all the aforesaid, four minutes into the song come the drums. Now please forgive in advance my irritation with rhythmic percussion as the loudest sound. OK for a rock band I suppose, but not natural in a symphonic-like piece. I was immediately thrown from a theater/concert hall into a recording studio, which, to me, broke the magic spell, so to speak. Else, nice stuff. Appreciate your efforts.

[markone]

Your reaction is interesting.

This is something I've been interested in forever (well nearly)

The very first proto-prog album ever, is probably Days of Future Past by the Moody Blues, and although the album was 'Moody Blues with the LSO it always rankled me that they kept the orchestral and band stuff completely apart, and the big symphonic section that preceeded 'nights in white satin' gave way to a melotron... I always thought ... why?

So I liked what the nice did with the 5 bridges suite. The band and the orchestra shared the stage.

I also like what David Arnold does with his soundtracks blending techno elements with the orchestral format.

So I'm really unrepentant about this. I take the point that the transition is abrupt, and I'm working on a version that brings in the drum loop in a more intresting way. But the vision was that the pure orchestral stuff was always going to be augmented by synth elements and guitars. Hopefully I can improve the way they get along. 'cause they're together to stay

[lildave]

That was very interesting.

[Hollow Sun]

Jun 11, 2009 14:17:26 GMT markone said:

the big symphonic section that preceeded 'nights in white satin' gave way to a melotron... I always thought ... why?

Hell's teeth man - you're having to ask?!!!! Because it's a Tron that's why!!!!

I think they wanted a 'sound' and the Tron back then was very trendy and used by a lot of people - the Moodies and Mike Pinder became synonymous with it. The use of the Tron and its eerie sound certainly does make that line stand out in a way that maybe a straight orchestra wouldn't have... perhaps.

Their use of it back then caused a right old rumpus though - the Musicians Union wanted to ban the Tron and MU members would walk out if a Tron was involved in a session (in fact, this might be why the orchestral stuff and the band/Tron bits are kinda 'separate' on DOFP - maybe the musos threw a wobbler!).

I liked your piece - very adventurous and well constructed. I won't comment because it's all subjective and there's always stuff I might have done differently but I agree with Psi that there's something nastily out of tune when that theme crashes in - it needs fixing (unless you like the 'effect' that gives ... and it does have a 'quality').

[etherealnate]

The timpani roll at the first episode would do well to extend and crescendo for an extra measure. Otherwise it's too jarring and abrupt. Also to keep the over all orchestral tone throughout I think it would sound nice to include a crescendoing snare drum roll before the techno drums come in for at least a measure. The preset orchestral drums on the Fusion has a suitable one. That's my two cents. I enjoyed the listen. Sounds William Orbit-like.