August 18, 200520 yr I imagine most people here are going to have a problem with my music. This is a good thing. It's good to get feedback. Being the highly selfish person I am, I'm doing this with only critisised (?) a couple (if that's) pieces... I'll start by putting my most 'traditional' electronic piece up: Paradigm It's called Paradigm and is a modern 'Variations on a theme by a chap named King Elytron. The 'Theme' presents itself from 2:24 - 2:32. It was part of a composition by him that sounds very different. And please, before you turn it off in disgust, I beg you to listen to it properly once through first. And then tear it to shreads. :lol: 1stly, I will be deeply offended if you call it new age music as that seems to be the nearest the majority of Americans come to electronica. :) And yes. It stays in the same key and tempo all the way through. I broke the rules!
August 18, 200520 yr The file you linked to seems to be incomplete. It's only around 20 seconds long. Anything you can do about this?
August 18, 200520 yr Stefan... nothing here that you don't know already, as we've surely discussed this over wine and/or beer at some point... The thing I like about your music generally is its awareness of minimalism and interesting use of found sounds (the clicks in Paradigm, for example *grin*). Paradigm is an interesting piece. I like, especially, the section starting at about 3:50 (the minor 6th repeated in the Piano) which has (what I think of as) an introduction of just over a minute before anything melodic happens (also in the Piano). The organ provides a few chords which offer interest to those who are easily bored yet to me is a good use of extended time. After all... how many pieces in this kind of genre last this long without going off the rails? More clicks. Lovely. Virtuosic playing was required to capture that sound... Joking apart, anyone who listens to a minute of it and then stops it because they don't like it clearly aren't going to like *anything* new to their ears. To have a chance of liking it you must listen to the entire piece. Then you are allowed to dislike it.
August 18, 200520 yr Author I must honestly say, that the clicks and scrapes you played on a guitar I sampled from you that I used for the drums (just to clarify for people who aren't me and David) have been very very handy. Indeed. Although not ALL the clicks are you. :) I can't remember exactly which ones are and which ones aren't now, though, sadly! But I know that the 'main' ones certainly are. :) And thanks. :)
August 19, 200520 yr Author Um... mine... :o Actually there are some nice clicks from when we recorded Christoph's guitar and we caught the plugging in of the cables... very crunchy.
August 19, 200520 yr My favorite section of the piece is a little after the halfway point where this really cool bass sound (oh, if only I could speak with any knowledge about electronic music) comes in for the first time in a while and the piano is playing a couple of notes really fast back and forth. (Sorry for the lack of technicality. I just really like it and I simply want to enjoy it as it is without trying to categorize it.) I don't see what's so offensive about this music. Stefan, I have a lot of respect for you and any others that are versed in music technology and sound sampling enough to put something like this together. Although I have no idea how it's done, there are a lot of creative sounds that make the piece a worthwhile listen. For example, I had to listen to the falling scratchy sounds at the beginning a few times just to absorb them (not that that means I really have any more idea of exactly how they were put together). So in that aspect, I think this work really shows off your creativity. However, from a (and I absolutely shudder to use this word because I don't even know yet what it means) 'musical' point of view the piece is not that creative. By this I mean that the harmonies and melodies are very standard. Since they are simple, and have been used before, and repeat throughout the piece, I don't think it can be said that the piece is 'musically' (!) creative. I'm walking on eggshells saying all this, because I really got myself into trouble on the Squaresound forums trying to talk about the difference between technical and musical originality. For the present, I hope you won't be offended by what I said, and that you will give me time to go to a thread on these forums that I saw about 'true originality' and try to sort out my thoughts.
August 20, 200520 yr Author Heh. No need to walk on eggshells... ;) Yes I know exactly what you mean about not being 'musically' creative... and I thank you for your kind words regarding the technical stuff: the falling scratchy sound is made by a held chord in the synthesiser (the very first second it is 'pure') and the 'bit depth' (with how much resolution a sample is defined at (there are 44,100 samples taken per second) was reduced. At one point, the harmonics created by the aliasing caused by the bit reduction matched the harmonics of the chord (but not exactly, hence the nice swelling sound) - that was the point at which I stopped and the intro is over. I think that while the harmonies are pretty standard, (they don't stay entirely static throughout - there are a number of 'versions') I believe that music, now, is more than just notes on a page. At least, this tune, is more than notes on a page. There isn't a way to reproduce the 1st section with an orchestra at all, but is important to the music. Hm. What am I trying to say? I'm trying to say that I believe that the technicality is a part of the music, as harmony and melody are. Timbre. Yeah. While other pieces concentrate more on harmony, I did on timbre. Doesn't mean it's no longer musical. Just differently focussed. But I know what you mean.
September 10, 200520 yr Author This is the most beautiful music I have ever written. Please listen and comment. Anthem Makers Factory Line - Carry On
September 10, 200520 yr I get the impression the use of the adjective "beautiful" was somewhat sarcastic. Am I right? Anyway, I liked it actually. The way you developed the ideas, the drums you used (loops?), those weird high pitched ant-type noises. It's confident, addictive music. Oh, and an explosion always ends music effectively ;)
