Question for musicians who are also Mike Oldfield fans

[sebsaghini]

I'm a huge fan of Mike Oldfield, mostly the first two decades. I'm trying to find all the information I can about the instruments, especially synths, that he used in his career, but I'm also trying to find out which ones I already have in my collection of virtual instruments and I don't know about.

Let me explain. Let's say he played a CS-80 in some album. Fine, I have Arturia's CS-80 v4. But, it comes with tons of presets. And it seems to me that there might be some legal reason but companies don't usually tell you which preset matches what performer, album, movie, etc.

And then there are more generic products, like all the synths that come with Native Instruments Komplete 14 CE, which is a beast of a compilation with dozens of instruments, which have all kinds of synths and other stuff.

Sometimes that's easier to find, like Blade Runner presets, but other times they are hidden, and when you have tens of thousands of presets when you put together all the virtual instruments you have, you'd spend years just to go through each one. Hell, just trying to load each product in Komplete 14 CE and trying to play a few notes and chords just to check it out, would take forever.

So I guess I'm trying to put together a database of what Mike Oldfield synths and other instruments people find while browsing presets of different products. I'm not asking just for myself, maybe I can gather that information with tips from everybody who wants to contribute, put it in a spreadsheet and put it up somewhere so everybody can download it.

This can be whatever instruments you people have, even if it's an old product like Absynth. As long as it can run on a modern computer, Mac and PC, it's fair game.

So maybe it's presets from the Komplete Factory Selection, or any instrument that comes with the Komplete series. I'd like to find any that I can in my own collection, like Analog Lab V, CS-80 v4, Komplete 14 Collector's Edition, Soundpaint Dunescape, EW Forbidden Planet, and so on.

[MOF]

A few synths appear here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q4lb0gXOq4I
and there’s a list someone’s compiled here
https://tubular.net/instruments/
they didn’t have presets back then until the CS80 as far as I can remember, so it’s a case of programming your own sounds as close as possible to his sounds.
That will be easier on string machines which were semi-preset i.e. brass, strings, piano levers that I had on my ARP Quartet.

[resistorman]

He seemed to be exploratory, so if there were presets involved he probably modified them. Unless it was a DX7, of course

[Arpangel]

The ARP2600 featured heavily, I think, it’s definitely in some pictures of him at The Manor.
It’s interesting that he used synths on those first few albums, he uses them very sparsely, and they aren’t obvious, which I like.

[Tomás Mulcahy]

I did a partial cover of Etude, mainly to figure out what Fairlight IIx sounds he used. They're all factory library sounds, so I figured them all out. Apparently that was how his version of Etude started too, as a way to learn the Fairlight. You'll find them all in Arturia CMIV.

[Ben Asaro]

It sounds like you're doing the Lord's work.

I hope you post your findings when you have your sound library assembled!

[Arpangel]

I did a partial cover of Etude, mainly to figure out what Fairlight IIx sounds he used. They're all factory library sounds, so I figured them all out. Apparently that was how his version of Etude started too, as a way to learn the Fairlight. You'll find them all in Arturia CMIV.

The Fairlight was the death knell for a few people, Oldfield included, instant corn and cheese, I have an inbuilt firewall regarding his work, that stops me going beyond the albums in "Boxed"

[Tomás Mulcahy]

I did a partial cover of Etude, mainly to figure out what Fairlight IIx sounds he used. They're all factory library sounds, so I figured them all out. Apparently that was how his version of Etude started too, as a way to learn the Fairlight. You'll find them all in Arturia CMIV.

The Fairlight was the death knell for a few people, Oldfield included, instant corn and cheese, I have an inbuilt firewall regarding his work, that stops me going beyond the albums in "Boxed"

But Boxed has In Dulce Jubilo. That’s the cheesiest thing he ever did, no?

[The Elf]

But Boxed has In Dulce Jubilo. That’s the cheesiest thing he ever did, no?

You've clearly never heard 'Speak, (Tho You Only Say Farewell)'...

[Wonks]

Or Don Alfonso.

https://youtu.be/gPQgpWApKnA

'Speak' for contrast.

https://youtu.be/t_CYVYTL9CU

IMO, 'Speak' is just bad, 'Don Alfonso' is cheesy. But I really like 'In Dulci Jubilo'.

[Tomás Mulcahy]

You’re right I haven’t heard either of those. I think I’ll keep it that way

[IAA]

You've clearly never heard 'Speak, (Tho You Only Say Farewell)'...

neither had I till just now. Oh dear. I wish I could unlisten. I’ll have to listen to Tubular Bells for the rest of the day to purge….

[tea for two]

Speak made me chortle.
First time I heard it and probably last lol.

I adore this exuberant performance of Guilty.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dKSAVe0Ky7w
Lady singers chucking a paper aeroplane lol at 1min37sec and 5min05sec.

[MOF]

I’ll have to listen to Tubular Bells for the rest of the day to purge….

I had 'Tubular Bells part one' on the car stereo the other day, large parts of it are not that great, both sound choice and melody, in my opinion.

[DarthPaul]

Mike is on Facebook as Gordon Mikefield. If you message him with questions, he may respond. He's a very chilled, friendly guy.

[resistorman]

Speak made me chortle.
First time I heard it and probably last lol.

I adore this exuberant performance of Guilty.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dKSAVe0Ky7w
Lady singers chucking a paper aeroplane lol at 1min37sec and 5min05sec.

Ah, the 70's Gotta hand it to the keyboard player doing those arpeggios live by hand, impressive!

[Arpangel]

But Boxed has In Dulce Jubilo. That’s the cheesiest thing he ever did, no?

One of my favourite tracks, I used to ring the duty officer at the BBC to get them to play it again and again on R2.

[Tomás Mulcahy]

But Boxed has In Dulce Jubilo. That’s the cheesiest thing he ever did, no?

One of my favourite tracks, I used to ring the duty officer at the BBC to get them to play it again and again on R2.

#blocked

[Tomás Mulcahy]

Have to thoroughly disagree with Tony. Oldfield's later stuff has many gems. He's done a wide range so there's bound to be stuff you would not like. One I really rate is Amárok. A large number of short pieces that flow together so well. And an all digital recording with the Neve Capricorn. Wonderful full use of 16 bit dynamic range.

Oldfield is unquestionably a gifted guitarist and composer. For a 18/19 year old, Tubular Bells is incredible. As a 15 year hearing it in the eighties, it spoke to me. Full of teen angst which makes sense when you read about the trauma in his childhood and the repression of emotions that was the norm in those days.

His performance on bass at the Olympics opening ceremony was masterful (despite In dulce Jubilo ). He's one of those musicians who can play great regardless of monitoring or interacting with the others on stage.

[Arpangel]

Just listened to Amarok, it’s got that "listen to all this new technology" feel about it, it’s got a sort of tacky sparkle to it, the earlier albums were so organic, and you didn’t know what it was you were listening to sometimes, but everything combined and blended so well, Amorok sounded too "technical" for me.

[Eddy Deegan]

I'm a big Mike Oldfield fan but not of all his work!

I prefer Tubular Bells II to the original, though all three albums in the trilogy are excellent. I very much like a lot of his early material and "The Songs Of Distant Earth" is one of my favourite albums of all time.

Amarok is deliberately spiky; he wrote and engineered it in such a way as to annoy Virgin and it famously contains a morse code message telling Richard Branson to eff off. I like a listen now and again but prefer Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn.

[Arpangel]

I'm a big Mike Oldfield fan but not of all his work!

I prefer Tubular Bells II to the original though all three albums in the trilogy are excellent. I very much like a lot of his early material and "The Songs Of Distant Earth" is one of my favourite albums of all time.

Amarok is deliberately spiky; he wrote and engineered it in such a way as to annoy Virgin and it famously contains a morse code message telling Richard Branson to eff off. I like a listen now and again but prefer Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn.

Spikey is a good word to describe Amarok, and the title fits perfectly.
But it’s those early records that have the true magic, everyone has their moments of glory, and they were his.
Let’s face it, Bells blew us all away, I’d never heard anything like it, it was totally mysterious, and all of my friends were running around asking have you heard that record?
I’m not sure about teenage angst, or wanting to piss off Branson, Oldfield was taking acid around Tubular Bells, if not before, and it had a rather traumatic effect on him, that I think he was struggling with.

[Tomás Mulcahy]

The man himself speaks on it:
https://tubular.net/articles/1998_11/Mi ... ite-Tracks

[Arpangel]

The man himself speaks on it:
https://tubular.net/articles/1998_11/Mi ... ite-Tracks

Strange that, seeing as he did so much for Virgin, I think Branson was less and less at the helm, as things went on.

[Eddy Deegan]

If any here haven't already got a copy I enjoyed Oldfield's (at least up to 2007 or so) autobiography, 'Changeling'. It's enlightening, inspirational, entertaining and a hint of 'wtf?!' in places but every page was a good read.