A cover with some Fusion tracks

[deweak]

deweak.free.fr/sons/MP3/Easter-instru.mp3

Here is "Easter" from Marillion. I didn't record the vocals yet. Here are the instruments I used for this cover :

Boss DR-880 : drums
Kurzweil PC1x : piano, bass
Fusion 6HD : everything else (guitars, e-piano & bells, strings and voices, tron, taurus)

I own the Alesis for four only days, so I only used presets.

[Hollow Sun]

deweak said:

Here is "Easter" from Marillion.

Excellent

deweak said:

I own the Alesis for four only days

[deweak]

Thanks :-)

I guess you're a prog fan since many of your sounds's comments are about Tony Banks, Rick Wakeman and so on... Thats a good thing since now I can use some excellent Tron and CP80 sounds in my covers and creations. Thanks a lot Steve !

[Hollow Sun]

deweak said:

I guess you're a prog fan since many of your sounds's comments are about Tony Banks, Rick Wakeman and so on...

I used to be back in the early 70s. My favourite was Genesis as they weren't about self-indulgent solos and technique wankery - they just played well (very well actually) and I liked the surreal story telling and imagery in their work which seemed to be more based on English literature than drug-fuelled experiences!

But, of course, I loved their 'sound' - the sweeping Trons, bowel-wobbling bass pedals and so on (hearing the Mellotron opening chords to 'Watcher of the skies' live on the Foxtrot tour - long story - is arguably the reason I do what I do today!!).

Then Gabriel left (not that he was a huge musical contributor) and I still liked TOTT and 'Wuthering' but then Hackett left and they became more like Collins' backing band. I finally lost interest when he was getting the Earth, Wind and Fire brass section in ... on Genesis tracks???

For other bands, I was more drawn to Camel and England and Gryphon than I was to Yes and Floyd (though I did kinda like the latter two as well ... in small doses).

I was never a huge fan of Marillion but largely only because they tried a bit too hard to be 'Genesis MkII'

But I have always also loved 'old school' electronica - Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Shulze and more obscure stuff - but they kind of went up their own backsides with their pretensions (and, of course, they went a bit 'commercial' moving from evolving, atmospheric 20 minute soundcapes to 3-minute 'songs').

Although a bit 'safe' and 'commercial', I have admiration for JMJ for making synths theatrical rather than 'geeky'.

But I guess my all-time favourite is the Japanese synth-meister, Isao Tomita (or Tomita Isao as it should be correctly written in Japanese). He can have moments of abject tackiness with some gimmicky sounds but there is no denying his musical and technical genius as he built enormous soundscapes using just monosynths (albeit big modular monosynths!!) and 4-track tape machines. He is also (I think) one of THE best Tron players and can make the thing sound absolutely awesome. I still hear stuff on his old albums that has not been replicated even today!

There's a healthy revival of prog in bands like Transatlatic and Spock's Beard and others and I reckon Fusion would be an ideal synth for them, especially with all the vintage sounds in the HS banks!


Steve

[Danimal]

Very nice! The solo is dead on. That lead guitar sound is a *bit* unconvincing, I bet running it through an amp or POD or something would make it perfect. Still, excellent!

[deweak]

danimal said:

That lead guitar sound is a *bit* unconvincing, I bet running it through an amp or POD or something would make it perfect.

Thanks :-)

Good idea. I've got a V-Amp Pro but never tried to patch my synths into it. I'm a bit lazy in sonic experimentations.


Steve, nice biography :-) How old are you ? I'm 29 and I discovered Genesis when I was eight, with the "Genesis" album (and the first band I played in at 17 was a Genesis tribute band). I know Marillion for only six months and I love this band. The Brave and Marbles albums are fantastic, not "Genesis-like" even if you can hear some good progressive ideas and interesting sounds.

[Danimal]

deweak said:

I know Marillion for only six months and I love this band. The Brave and Marbles albums are fantastic, not "Genesis-like" even if you can hear some good progressive ideas and interesting sounds.

Marillion is one of my favorite bands. Mark Kelley is one of the greats, if not HUGELY underrated.

If you want a more "Genesis" sound, check out their early stuff like "Script for a Jester's Tear" or "Fugazi." Those albums were made with their oringinal singer and have a MUCH stronger prog sound (not to mention Fish's sounding like a cross between Gabriel and Collins).

And also, I've been known to run a synth through a Marshall or Mesa amp for a convincing guitar tone.

[pranaearth]

Wow, thats really nice! Good job!

P

[Hollow Sun]

deweak said:

Steve, nice biography :-) How old are you ? I'm 29 and I discovered Genesis when I was eight, with the "Genesis" album

I am not divulging my age but put it this way - I am technically old enough (just about) to be your father

I first saw Genesis back in 1972 when I was about 14 or 15 and they were debuting 'Foxtrot' on the Charisma tour. To be honest, the whole thing kind of came about by accident. I quite liked the single 'Meet me on the corner' by Lindisfarne and a friend bought me a ticket to see Lindisfarne in concert. They were playing with Ralph McTell and some other band I'd never heard of. I only liked the one Lindisfarne track (and wasn't a huge fan of McTell) but what could I do?

So we went and we waited ... and waited. The house lights went down and we could just about see this band shuffling onto the stage in the darkness. And then we waited a bit more.

And then it hit me - this fucking ENORMOUS big eerie chordal sound just filled the hall and I was totally mesmerised, eyes wide open and jaw on the floor!

I was, of course, listening to the opening chords of 'Watcher of the skies' by the then almost unknown band, Genesis. It was like an epiphany! Then this nutter comes bounding on stage, head shaved down the middle with white make-up that caught the ultra violet light. And the band are as tight as hell and Hackett's guitars are swirling round the hall over sweeping Trons and delicate 12-strings and bowel wrenching bass pedals. Amazing!! An hour and half or more later, I'd witnessed 'Hogweed', 'Musical Box', 'Get em out by Friday', 'Can utility and the coast-liners', 'Salmacis' and full rendition of 'Supper's Ready' with 'The knife' as an encore!!!

I decided that night that THAT'S what I wanted to do!!!

Not long afterwards, I heard Tomita (again by chance) but that's another long story!


Steve

[deweak]

Wowwww !

The only time I saw Genesis live was few years ago with Ray Wilson singing :-( Nice show but Tony Banks just played digital keyboards, no old stuff. It was hard to believe that Genesis was a top band twenty years before this tour. It looked like a goodbye show. Pretty sad, when I compare what I saw live and the Wembley dvd I know well.

Talking about Genesis with you is like I was talking with Tony Banks :-) You've seen the band that gave me the will to play prog rock at there beginning ! Great, great, great Steve...

>>>Pranaearth

Thanks :-)

If it's not a problem (due to copyrights), I'll make a Genesis cover soon to expose some classic sounds from the Fusion in action.

[Hollow Sun]

deweak said:

The only time I saw Genesis live was few years ago with Ray Wilson singing :-( Nice show but Tony Banks just played digital keyboards, no old stuff.

That wasn't 'Genesis' - it was some ex-members going through the motions

deweak said:

Talking about Genesis with you is like I was talking with Tony Banks :-)

I never got to meet Banks when I did some roadying for them but I did get to set his keyboards up occasionally - in fact, I owned the same Tron M400 that Banks used a bit later on and was able to provide the keyboard tech with some unexpected servicing and maintenance tips!!!

deweak said:

You've seen the band that gave me the will to play prog rock at there beginning ! Great, great, great Steve...

Oh! They were great in their day (if you liked that kind of thing) and although the band got knocked a lot (even by fellow prog-rockers at the time), they were unwittingly very influential in all sorts of musical spheres.

deweak said:

If it's not a problem (due to copyrights), I'll make a Genesis cover soon to expose some classic sounds from the Fusion in action.

Technically, it IS a problem but practically it is not.

If Alesis were to put out a Genesis cover as an official audio demo for Fusion, they could expect to receive full legal representation from the publishing company's attorneys. However, a *user* putting up a little something on a small enthusiasts forum is unlikely to cause a problem - at the very most, a 'cease and desist' email.

I trust the cover will be of 'Supper's Ready'


Steve

[dmanley]

danimal said:

If you want a more "Genesis" sound, check out their early stuff like "Script for a Jester's Tear" or "Fugazi." Those albums were made with their oringinal singer and have a MUCH stronger prog sound (not to mention Fish's sounding like a cross between Gabriel and Collins).

I would recommend all the albums with Fish, so add Misplaced Childhood and Clutching at Straws to the list...

[Augy]

Fantastic Job! 'D'! I've been listening to alot of Spocks Beard and Toy Matinee lately, but now I'll have to rummage around and find the old marillion CD's. Did you sequence this on the fusion or outboard? I haven't played around with the sequencer much on mine, just using Sonar to Drive, and just basically getting started.

[Psychdlicman]

Everybody talks about Genesis(I play "Firth of Fifth" and "Hairless Heart" with my band and so many others...) /Marillon/Camel (I play "Lady Fantasy" with my band)...

Genesis is my favourite band but there is King Crimson too ( In the court of !! ) ! And now there are 2 bands that I like a lot : The Flower Kings and more recently The Tangent.

Do you know those bands ?
I can't find sheetmusic (partitions) from them

[deweak]

augy said:

Did you sequence this on the fusion or outboard? I haven't played around with the sequencer much on mine, just using Sonar to Drive, and just basically getting started.

I sequenced this on my PC with Samplitude. I should have done the same with the Fusion's internal sequencer and audio recorder (since many parts come from other instruments) but I'm very familiar with Samplitude and for me it's the quickest way to arrange songs at home.

Psychdlicman said:

And now there are 2 bands that I like a lot : The Flower Kings and more recently The Tangent.

Do you know those bands ?
I can't find sheetmusic (partitions) from them

I don't know them. If you can find midifiles, you might print your own sheets ?