Back to Berlin School -- again!

[BJG145]

Improv no, 2. This time I brought the SIG in along with the Mother-32 and SubH.

https://audio.com/don-music/audio/improvisation-no-2

That gave me Jarre vibes. I like the 7/4 motif.

[Eddy Deegan]

Improvisation No. 1: This reminds me of the intro to "Lost Tempel Of Polipane" and has a slightly 'other worldly' sound to it that I like a great deal.

Improvisation No. 2: A distinctly Jarre-like vibe here and I particularly like the sequences that merge in after the first minute or so. Right up my street.

Two great little demos there Ben, good work!

[Arpangel]

Ben, your enthusiasm is amazing, your depth of exploration, reminds me of how I used to be, before I became "involved" love the depth and detail you go into regarding various modules, I wish I had the time, I'm jealous.
Keep up the good work.

[Ben Asaro]

Improv no, 2. This time I brought the SIG in along with the Mother-32 and SubH.

https://audio.com/don-music/audio/improvisation-no-2

That gave me Jarre vibes. I like the 7/4 motif.

Thx! And good counting!

[Ben Asaro]

Improvisation No. 1: This reminds me of the intro to "Lost Tempel Of Polipane" and has a slightly 'other worldly' sound to it that I like a great deal.

Improvisation No. 2: A distinctly Jarre-like vibe here and I particularly like the sequences that merge in after the first minute or so. Right up my street.

Two great little demos there Ben, good work!

Thx Eddy! I didn't hear the Jarre similarities as he's not a major influence, but now I'm tempted to go back and re-listen to his classics.

[Ben Asaro]

Ben, your enthusiasm is amazing, your depth of exploration, reminds me of how I used to be, before I became "involved" love the depth and detail you go into regarding various modules, I wish I had the time, I'm jealous.
Keep up the good work.

Thx, Arp! "Those that can't, demo" is my motto

[Eddy Deegan]

I didn't hear the Jarre similarities as he's not a major influence, but now I'm tempted to go back and re-listen to his classics.

Improvisation No. 2, from about a minute in, reminded me of this section of 'Night in Shanghai', although they are two very different pieces of music. I really like what you're doing here

[Ben Asaro]

I didn't hear the Jarre similarities as he's not a major influence, but now I'm tempted to go back and re-listen to his classics.

Improvisation No. 2, from about a minute in, reminded me of this section of 'Night in Shanghai', although they are two very different pieces of music.

Wow, mesmerizing ... and cool idea to borrow w the panning!

[Ben Asaro]

Improvisation number 3. Kind of a kitchen sink on this one, added SIG and Pet Rock.

https://audio.com/don-music/audio/improvisation-no-3

[Eddy Deegan]

Improvisation number 3. Kind of a kitchen sink on this one, added SIG and Pet Rock.

https://audio.com/don-music/audio/improvisation-no-3

Hypnotic and 6 minutes well spent (that high string-like sound is great)

[Ben Asaro]

Improvisation number 3. Kind of a kitchen sink on this one, added SIG and Pet Rock.

https://audio.com/don-music/audio/improvisation-no-3

Hypnotic and 6 minutes well spent (that high string-like sound is great)

Thx! I'm hoping that once I have a few pieces up on BandMix it will prove to be a suitable honeytrap.

[Ben Asaro]

Improvisation No. 4 is my attempt at programming synth strings onto the JP-08.

https://discord.com/channels/9583775217 ... 8382355457

This one was a lot of fun to jam on!

[Eddy Deegan]

https://discord.com/channels/9583775217 ... 8382355457

I'd really like to listen to this but it's asking for a login which I don't have. Is it available somewhere I can access it without having to create an account*?

* asks the man who hates creating accounts

[Ben Asaro]

https://discord.com/channels/9583775217 ... 8382355457

I'd really like to listen to this but it's asking for a login which I don't have. Is it available somewhere I can access it without having to create an account*?

* asks the man who hates creating accounts

Sorry about that, it was a copy/paste error and then I was out all day!

https://audio.com/don-music/audio/improvisation-no-4

That's the actual link; feel free to nuke the post above, it's to a private server.

[Eddy Deegan]

https://audio.com/don-music/audio/improvisation-no-4

I want more! Is there a multi-track of this, and can I get my hands on it?

[Ben Asaro]

https://audio.com/don-music/audio/improvisation-no-4

I want more! Is there a multi-track of this, and can I get my hands on it?

It was recorded multitrack! I'll pop em into a Google Drive folder and PM you a link.

[Eddy Deegan]

Great stuff, thanks Ben

[Folderol]

https://discord.com/channels/9583775217 ... 8382355457

I'd really like to listen to this but it's asking for a login which I don't have. Is it available somewhere I can access it without having to create an account*?

* asks the man who hates creating accounts

Sorry about that, it was a copy/paste error and then I was out all day!

https://audio.com/don-music/audio/improvisation-no-4

That's the actual link; feel free to nuke the post above, it's to a private server.

... and I thought it just didn't like my browser!
This is rather tasty

[Ben Asaro]

https://discord.com/channels/9583775217 ... 8382355457

I'd really like to listen to this but it's asking for a login which I don't have. Is it available somewhere I can access it without having to create an account*?

* asks the man who hates creating accounts

Sorry about that, it was a copy/paste error and then I was out all day!

https://audio.com/don-music/audio/improvisation-no-4

That's the actual link; feel free to nuke the post above, it's to a private server.

... and I thought it just didn't like my browser!
This is rather tasty

Thx!

[Ben Asaro]

I booked 8 hours for tomorrow at Pirate Studios in Brooklyn; I hope to get the synths tracked for 1-2 songs, but there's always the outside chance that I will end up with an uninspired mess.

[Ben Asaro]

Yesterday was my first time going to Pirate, and it's a fantastic idea: a collective of self-serve suites for music creatives that range from DJ setups to mixing/recording suites, to full band rehearsal rooms. The fee was extraordinarily low with a special they are running, so I jumped on it. (Only $80 for 8 hours!)

I booked one of the 'pro' suites: a two-room affair with a small booth, 61 key NI keyboard, computer monitor, Focusrite Clarrett interface, and pair of powered monitors. The room was very well isolated and had plenty of power receptacles. It was an easy matter to get all of my stuff set up, though the schlep to the studio was definitely a Thing, carrying three cases onto the NYC subway system.

So, was it productive? Yes! Sorta ...

I got a total of about 7-8 minutes of music recorded, but I think I will probably end up using it as an idea seed. The first piece I am working on (The Gateway Project) features spoken word throughout, as well as some field recording ambience, and this has always clashed with the synths. A day like yesterday was absolutely necessary for me to work the kinks out of the layers. A couple of moments from the session are very good and will definitely be reused but, in the main, I will probably be re recording everything.

My idea for the piece has now changed from a single, monolithic idea, to dividing it into six(ish) parts, with each part being its own micro-composition separated by a recurring motive.

I also feel that what I recorded yesterday bordered on retread for me with the music venturing too close to ambient and not having the drive of Berlin School to my ears.

An unexpected benefit from yesterday was using the iPad and Cubasis 3 in anger instead of a laptop. I learned a lot about using Cubasis under pressure! And, overall, it performed great; my biggest issues are related to how markers work (or don't work in some cases) and using your fingers to zoom in/out can have unintended consequences if you are not very careful. I would never want to use Cubasis as my primary DAW, but for portability and ease of use, it's very hard to beat in terms of feature set.

[Ben Asaro]

[Eddy Deegan]

I said as much when we last spoke Ben, but I do like the look of those facilities and there's a lot to be said for putting oneself in a focussed environment without distractions.

Even having a studio in my house I'd be tempted to use a similar facility if there was something similar in my area. As we all know it can take a lot of time to come up with even a few minutes of usable material in some cases!

If we weren't so distanced geographically I'd have been interested to try a joint session in the same place. I look forward to hearing what you come up with but, weird though this might sound, I think it's time well spent even if you don't though I suspect you will either as a result of this or a future session!

[Ben Asaro]

I agree 1,000% with everything you said; hear, hear!

I woke up this morning and set pen to paper and actually scored out the first few minutes of the first track, and then set about tracking all of the spoken word bits using a combination of the RC-5 looper, VO-1 vocoder, JP-08, and RV-500 reverb/delay. It was not my intention to make it a Roland/BOSS only affair, it just worked out that way.

[Ben Asaro]

Very productive day yesterday, got about 7 minutes of basic tracks down. Following a score is SO much more productive for me.