Your Music

Manbird · « **Reply #680 on:** May 21, 2021, 10:51:01 AM »

Hello gang - I'm posting another recent remake of an ancient teen Ant song. I probably posted the original way back, but I've lost track! This is called "Valerie's Waiting" and it shows me at my most Kate Bush/Peter Gabriel, written in 1986. Yow! As with the other teen tracks I've been remaking, I tried to replicate the original as closely as I could.

The main synths throughout the first half of the song are Prophet 5. The bass is Moog Grandmother and the strings are a combo of VC-340 and PolySix. I started work on this song during one of several uncomfortable "B-word" discussions on the Forum, and was sheepish to even go near the VC-340, especially as part of the conv was about string machines etc. I'd actually assumed the PolySix would get the job done, as that's what I used on my 4-track recording, but in this case, it didn't quite cut through on its own. I also tried using the GForce VSM and Korg Prologue. The latter can do a decent PolySix approximation and can also come really close to the VC-340 string sound. In the end, though...

Meanwhile, the piano was one of the Pianoteq upright models. At first I figured I'd go with a grand piano, cos why not, but the upright suited the old-school spirit. I wrote and recorded this tune on a small Chickering studio piano and Pianoteq had that "dad's living room" vibe. There's a touch of M-Tron Pro at the end, and a few guitar tracks. Drums were from Logic's live-in Drummer.

A note - I know I'm one of the few here on the Forum who posts pop songs with vocals. I've found myself doing more and more for-hire vocal work lately and wanted to put it out there that I'm available for such. PM if interested. (And mods - if this isn't appropriate, feel free to edit or delete.)

Hope you enjoy the tune, and thanks!

https://archive.org/details/valeries-waiting-mix-3

Soundquest · « **Reply #681 on:** May 26, 2021, 09:46:49 AM »

Nature sounds on Hydrasynth? I was able o get some frogs and crickets going

Some interesting keys too.

https://soundcloud.com/wavescape-1/remember-this-spot

Sacred Synthesis · « **Reply #682 on:** May 26, 2021, 09:54:12 AM »

That was impressive, Soundquest. And really nice music. You just have to get those frogs to say "jig-a-rum" a little more distinctly. I realize it's difficult to get frogs to speak clearly.

Soundquest · « **Reply #683 on:** May 27, 2021, 09:30:40 AM »

Hah, thanks Sacred Synthesis. Yeah, making bull frog with good diction is not easy

. Funny story here, is that I wrapped that song up yesterday, as I still needed to make the frog as the final touch. By chance, the night before my wife and I went down to the local lake in town and I heard a bull frog calling- which I don't usually hear there. I told her to hush up for a moment as I wanted to hear the detail of his voice- because I was making a frog the next day on the synth. Yeah, she thinks I'm nuts.

For that frog I used a pulse for the main voice sound, then a ramp shape lfos , one for volume, one for filter. Also sharing the second lfo as a source I routed it to osc 2 level. Osc 2 was one of the digital wave forms on the Hydrasynth that seemed to just add a little realism to the buzzing/guteral, sound they get at the top of the volume ramp. I recently sold the Nord Lead 4 - where I had so many of my insects and birds stored. The rest live in the P12.

Sacred Synthesis · « **Reply #684 on:** May 27, 2021, 10:17:12 AM »

You told your wife to hush up so you could hear a bullfrog? Did you type that from your hospital bed?

Soundquest · « **Reply #685 on:** May 28, 2021, 07:42:28 AM »

Quote from: Sacred Synthesis on May 27, 2021, 10:17:12 AM

You told your wife to hush up so you could hear a bullfrog? Did you type that from your hospital bed?

LoboLives · « **Reply #686 on:** May 28, 2021, 04:48:17 PM »

Here's my tribute to the Canadian cult flick "Bells" aka "Murder By Phone" aka "The Calling." It's pretty much a Scanners knock off but without any of the supernatural aspects to it.

The score was done by none other than John Barry! It's a complete departure from his big band scores for the James Bond franchise or his moody compositions from films like Midnight Cowboy. This one is entirely electronic. I used my trusty Prophet 6 here with the main riff having the Pulse Width of the oscillators modulated by a sample and hold LFO which creates a strange rhythmic pulsing sound, the song melts into a cacophony of BBD delay echos as it plays. There is also another overdub with a triangle LFO modulating the filter cutoff and speeding up as the intensity progresses until it reaches audio range modulation territory.

No idea what was used on the original but it's likely a Prophet-5 or ARP 2600 was used (ironically these were also used for Howard Shore's score for Scanners) but perhaps it might have been a giant Moog Modular for all we know.

One thing we do know for sure is if you ever come across a payphone and it starts ringing, answering it might be the last thing you do!!!!

© Everett Dudgeon 2021
℗ Everett Dudgeon 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCHvRDJ0bRM

LoboLives · « **Reply #687 on:** June 04, 2021, 09:31:18 PM »

I was talking to my friend Allison about the new Homegrown Horrors boxset release from Vinegar Syndrome and was explaining that a lot of the films are similar to The Strangeness: A group of young friends just making a monster movie for no money on weekends.

I went back and revisited The Strangeness and read up on the production through Stephen Thrower's incredible book Nightmare USA. What an inspiration it was and what a kick ass Carpenter-esq synth score as well.

Instruments are as follows.

Prophet-6 doing pretty much everything from the warbling pads to the Theremin-like lead.

Fender Stratocaster being run through the Roger Linn Adrenelinn Effects Box on a clean Fender amp setting through some sinister delay simulating the echoing of the cave.

The Tempest is driving everything with a steady Linn Drum beat with an analog bass line pumping through the piece.

Enjoy folks!

© Everett Dudgeon 2021
℗ Everett Dudgeon 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGv7319ViVY

LoboLives · « **Reply #688 on:** June 13, 2021, 10:47:02 AM »

This week I wanted to do a tribute to a score that doesn't get much attention and that's Rick Ulfik's Synclavier driven score for the 80s flick Street Trash.

This isn't a cover of his score but it's certainly heavily inspired by the "Viper Theme" he did. Everything is done using the Prophet X in real time with zero overdubs and relying on the onboard Prophet VS waves to recreate that unapologetically digital sound.

Hope you enjoy!

© Everett Dudgeon 2021
℗ Everett Dudgeon 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-X_aGKzm50

Jason · « **Reply #689 on:** June 20, 2021, 06:07:32 AM »

Memories of Green from Blade Runner Soundtrack (Live Cover)

Most of this is piano, but I use three Prophet Rev2 patches from my two units on this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NClCE4Th8tI

Sacred Synthesis · « **Reply #690 on:** June 20, 2021, 08:57:37 AM »

I don't know how much of that was improvised, Jason, but it showed an excellent command of harmonic progressions. A few dominant sevenths fell just in the right places to move the music to the next chord. I'm impressed with that sort of talent. Oh - but the white noise was out of tune.

Jason · « **Reply #691 on:** June 20, 2021, 03:21:52 PM »

Quote from: Sacred Synthesis on June 20, 2021, 08:57:37 AM

Oh - but the white noise was out of tune.

That's what I get for using someone else's patch!

I have read that much of Vangelis' work is improvised, with his film work frequently written and played as he watched clips of the film. I always wonder how much of it starts as an improvisation which later is developed with more deliberate effort. He frequently did overdubs, and perhaps altered pieces later as well. It could also be that with so much playing, some of the work ends up being of greater quality. It does seem that many of the best composers produced enormous amounts of music, with much of it not being as worthwhile. In this case, Memories of Green was actually first recorded for a studio album called See You Later in 1980, so it could be that more work went into this than some of his film music.

LoboLives · « **Reply #692 on:** June 25, 2021, 08:47:31 PM »

I've been on a big 1980s action kick as of late and one of my favorites is 1985's Cocaine Wars. Lots of 80s elements and has a nice synth soundtrack.

I didn't want to do a cover of the score but instead my own creation.

The Tempest drives along the beat with a "Tom Cart" kit with it's massive synth tom hit running through a large reverb.

The arpeggiated bass as well as "Tom Sawyer" filter sweeps are done with the Prophet 6 using the vintage mode.

The Prophet X is doing some user samples which include a typical 80's DX7 electric piano as well as strings from the Emulator 2.

Enjoy!!!

© Everett Dudgeon 2021
℗ Everett Dudgeon 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqqgZ04beyQ

LoboLives · « **Reply #693 on:** July 04, 2021, 07:42:16 PM »

1981's "Scream" gets a bad wrap for being slow and plodding. While the film is a slow burn there are some genuinely creepy moments, especially when the legendary Woody Strode arrives. It comes off like a combination of a slasher but with a classic ghost story approach.

The Prophet X is doing everything here. From the 12 string guitar to the repetitive tonal percussion and upright piano to give impressions of an old western ghost town

I decided to run the entire piece through a low fi "crackling vinyl" effect. Giving the impression of something old....representing the ghostly elements of the story.

Enjoy!

© Everett Dudgeon 2021
℗ Everett Dudgeon 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mhsHTna3mg

Manbird · « **Reply #694 on:** July 05, 2021, 11:54:22 AM »

I did an interview with Johnny Normal and Bridget Gray for Johnny's Synthetic Sunday show on Artefektor Radio. It ran yesterday and I'm posting the pod'd version here, in case anyone's curious. I'm a little disappointed that the audio quality of the songs varies so much, but there's a nice range of my synth-based material, from teen years up to my latest, and if you can bear to hear me rambling on with too much coffee in my blood, I talk about using the same Minimoog that Gary Numan first encountered, why I wouldn't want a Mellotron and whether I consider myself a synth geek. Cats, chimeras, lizards, pigs are all in the mix, too!

Enjoy!

https://artefaktorradio.com/podcast/johnny-and-bridgets-virtual-sofa-special-anton-barbeau-interview-feature-ar134/

jok3r · « **Reply #695 on:** July 06, 2021, 02:27:32 AM »

Quote from: Ant of 12047 on July 05, 2021, 11:54:22 AM

I did an interview with Johnny Normal and Bridget Gray for Johnny's Synthetic Sunday show on Artefektor Radio. It ran yesterday and I'm posting the pod'd version here, in case anyone's curious. I'm a little disappointed that the audio quality of the songs varies so much, but there's a nice range of my synth-based material, from teen years up to my latest, and if you can bear to hear me rambling on with too much coffee in my blood, I talk about using the same Minimoog that Gary Numan first encountered, why I wouldn't want a Mellotron and whether I consider myself a synth geek. Cats, chimeras, lizards, pigs are all in the mix, too!

Enjoy!

https://artefaktorradio.com/podcast/johnny-and-bridgets-virtual-sofa-special-anton-barbeau-interview-feature-ar134/

I listened to the whole interview (more or less attentive, since I'm working right now). There were some nice little stories you have told there. But what I really liked was the great tour through your music. Some very nice tunes there, some I've known before and some that I don't know what to feel about ;-)

If you can listen to the radio at work, I recommmend to you listening to this interview for 2 hours instead of your regular radio station.

Sacred Synthesis · « **Reply #696 on:** July 09, 2021, 08:00:52 PM »

Improvisation #103 for Poly Evolver Keyboard and Prophet '08:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u87H5lesS3w

Manbird · « **Reply #697 on:** July 09, 2021, 08:37:58 PM »

Quote from: Sacred Synthesis on July 09, 2021, 08:00:52 PM

Improvisation #103 for Poly Evolver Keyboard and Prophet '08:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u87H5lesS3w

Lovely, as ever. And a perfect cool, calming moment after a silly hectic day.Thanks!

Sacred Synthesis · « **Reply #698 on:** July 09, 2021, 08:52:56 PM »

Thanks, Ant.

Manbird · « **Reply #699 on:** July 12, 2021, 02:58:11 PM »

Here's one that I hope will also be calming, despite it being a shoplifting-themed song!

It's called "Crystals," and was written in Berlin on Prophet 6. I've been away from my P6 since the pandemic kicked off and this track reminds me why I love the 6 so much. The Prophet 6 can sound so organically electronic and classically modern. The chords are P6, as is the white noise rhythm loop, which is augmented with an SCI Drumtraks. Pro One on bass. Bryan Poole from Of Montreal plays guitar, Sharron Kraus sings harmonies and plays recorder and my wife Julia is on gin jigger and vocoder vox.

https://soundcloud.com/anton-barbeau/crystals-1/s-5JhW884gIu1