First publication - so nervous ;-)

Hello All,

After a lot of doubt and still not sure ;-) I kind of decided to publish one track of my test album "Netherlands - A", the last track called Azewijn (Conclusion). It's a kind of a "small" summary of the rest of the album.

I have been for more than one year now member of this forum and I have now almost exactly one year my modular system but so far never published here anything, so let this be the first publication ;-)

This kind of test album I did, was for me a test to see how difficult it is to create an album, pretty difficult I would say, especially then when you like to have it all perfect like me, being a perfectionist, realising that it's no-way near any kind of perfection, far from it, I would say :-) But it was good that I did it, I guess. Most of it is really just test material but this track above here is the one I would like to share with you.

I would appreciate your feedback on it, especially if you see (rather hear) which parts I could improve to increase the quality of: recording, mastering, stereo effects, well and whatever you can come with and I have no clue about ;-)

I have to apologise to everyone I have commented about the stereo effects I was mentioning in my feedbacks over the last half year or so. When I did record this album, only then I realised how difficult it is to get some decent stereo effects in your tracks. It's so difficult to get that properly done, so my huge respect to those who are able to do so! As well as a lesson learnt for myself...

The track has no percussion at all other than the Tea Kick from Bastl Instruments. I had the percussion parts not really ready within my rack and still wanted to record something. So one of the reasons why my track is rather boring, it's the lacking of percussion.

Since I am always begging you for details on how you did create that sound or that track, etcetera, I can't withhold such information for my own publication I guess ;-) So here are the details on this track, it exists of 12 voices:

Voice 1 - Mutable Instruments - Plaits
Voice 2 - Doepfer - A-110-4 QZVCO
Voice 3 - ACL - Variable Sync VCO
Voice 4 - Doepfer - A-111-4 Quad VCO
Voice 5 - Make Noise - STO
Voice 6 - Make Noise - Wogglebug
Voice 7 - L.E.P. - Lumanoise, 808 Cymbal Drone Generator
Voice 8 - Intelllijel - Rubicon2
Voice 9 - Doepfer A-111-2 VCO
Voice 10 - Bastl Instruments - Tea Kick
Voice 11 & 12 - Synthesis Technology - E330 (voice 11 through LP+HP filter, voice 12 through BP filter)

Beside the above voices of course used several other modules, the main central component for most of the sounds (not all though) is the ACL - Sinfonion.

I didn't use any input device for playing tones or something, my name is still Garfield, hence lazy, hence not putting any notes into the system ;-) So everything was produced somehow by the modules themselves.

All the "noise" has been produced by my modular system with the exception of two effect pedals: the Ventris Dual Reverb from Source Audio (beautiful reverb effects pedal) and the Grand Canyon from Electro-Harmonix. Other than these two components, everything else was done by modular. Other effects, i.e. by modular, were: Erica Synths - Black Hole DSP2 and Intellijel - Springray2.

Recording was done with the Zoom - H5 recorder at 24 bit/96 kHz, reduced it here for publication to MPG3, sorry about that...

Thank you very much in advance for listening, have a nice Sunday and kind regards, Garfield.

Edit: Removed typo.

EDITED Jun 28th 2020, 02:28

Nice to see you share some work @GarfieldModular! I really appreciate the density and voice breadth here (well explained by your patch notes), and the ebb and flow from clusters of notes to reverb-y sustain. It feels a bit 20th century classical at times, and at others the modular part of synthesis really comes through. Well done on an interesting and varied piece ᕕ(⌐■_■)ᕗ ♪♬

Nice transition and progression at about 3:45. 7:45 really got my attention. Same with 11:20. My kind of ambient jam.

I really enjoyed listening to this a few times. Nicely done!

Awesome. I like how every sound has room to breathe. That's something I am trying to work on in my music, but I have a tendency to always add more and more until all of the space is gone. You have given each instrument plenty of space.
I need to invest in some of the ACL modules. I'm always impressed with them.
Thanks for sharing!

Hi Troux, Mowse and Farkas,

Thank you all for your kind words, that's really comforting me :-)

Troux: Ha, ha, interesting to read that you feel bits of 20th century classical at times, didn't expect that but on the other hand I have been grown up in the 20th century, so that might explain :-) As you noticed, I love to use the frozen-reverb of the Ventris of Audio Source, I just couldn't stop using it, it gives kind of ambient accents to the whole thing. Perhaps I used it a bit too much that frozen option?

Mowse: Thanks a lot for the details on your focus on transition and progression. At 03:45 the arpeggio of the Sinfonion kicks in, the voice of that arpeggio is done by the STO of Make Noise (using the Ventris reverb effect pedal). At 07:45 or just before you hear the effects of the Erica Synth - Black Hole DSP2, around 07:45 I kind of "cut off" that effect at 07:42 the first "cut off" and at 07:47 the second "cut off", by just reducing those effects parameter knobs on the Black Hole DSP2. The voice used there is the Intellijel - Rubicon2. Before 11:20 that cloudy-voice is the E330 (voices 11 & 12), after 11:20 mixture of sounds of voices 1, 2 & 3.

Farkas: Thank you for pointing out the room each sound has to breath, I actually hadn't really thought about that until you pointed that out here, so thanks a lot for that marker point :-) Yes, ACL modules are nice. In this track you can here the Sinfonion at full action at certain times. The voices 9 up till 12 went through the ACL - Audio Interface (via the Grand Canyon effects pedal) to the external mixer. The big con of ACL are their prices :-( So there are still plenty of ACL modules on my wish list ;-)

Thank you all and kind regards, Garfield.

This is twin peaks in its purest form!

Very touched that you released on your tunes!

Keep it coming! :)

Hi Jingo,

Thank you very much for your kind words. Ha, ha, and interesting remark about twin peaks :-)

Well you kind of invited me and encouraged me to publish something, well, voila ;-)

Ha, ha, well the next thing to share might take yet another year, at least a track from an album that is. Perhaps if I got an interesting patch that's so funny or interesting that I might share it, let's see. For the moment I have other stuff in mind to do with my modular rack, not 100% sure about that though. Once I made up my mind about that, I will let everyone know here about it, but that's rather (far) future stuff, at least till it makes sense in practical terms, but let's see.

I also want to work on my percussion with my rack, I am waiting for a decent sequencer to be released (aiming at the Endorphin.es - Ground Control), then need to build up experience with that, so before any music, ehm sorry, any noise comes out of my rack, a year is a quite good estimate I think. While I am waiting for that Ground Control to be released I try to work on that above mentioned idea.

Thank you and kind regards, Garfield.

Hey Garfield,

I'm glad you shared this. The track has air and space in it and yes, it breathes, in a good way. As for recommendations, I have none and I don't think you need any. Just do your thing, with our without percussion. No rules here or if there are, you, we shouldn't care. As long as you create something, you're good, we're good. Takes one year to create something? That's OK. Takes only 10 ten minutes? That's just as OK. All in all, keep them tracks coming, is all I wanted to say. :)

Cheers,
Gabor

Hey all together,

thats the spirit, its all about creation and the fun while making sounds!

I am trying to make simple techno like music since I am 14 (I am 44 now) and I really like to share my efforts.

So yeah, keep it coming! :)

Best,
jingo

Ooo....
Eerie
War of the Worlds
Space
Twinkles
Birds in a forest
Sunrise
Happy

You want us to give constructive criticism yeah?
Some transition points could be extended between parts.

I used to fall asleep to music like this back in the 90's, Occasional bits remind me of FSOL, just throw in some scary samples or wash them in and out :)

Cheers

Hi Gabor,

Thanks a lot for your reply and kind words. Yes, of course, you right, no matter if you do something in 10 minutes or in one year, as long as you have fun with it and enjoyed making the music versus noise, it doesn't really matter. I agree :-)

Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Wishbonebrewery,

Thanks a lot for your reply and honest feedback here, much appreciated! I like the reference to War of the Worlds :-)

I will keep those transition point lengths in mind and, yes, throwing in here and there some samples might be indeed a good idea.

Thank you and kind regards, Garfield.