[Dance/Synthpop] Ventilate (MP3)

[bvanoudtshoorn]

Well, it's been a fair while since I last uploaded a piece of music -- over two months, in fact! So here's my latest piece.

This piece actually started out as an experiment -- I recently got my hands on all sorts of shiny new toys, and OpenMPT got an awesome upgrade, so I couldn't resist seeing what I could do with them.

I managed to use all but one of the products that came with Komplete to make this track -- FM8, Massive, Reaktor, Guitar Rig, Kontakt, and Battery. Much fun.

Online play & blog post
Download

[Sam_Zen]

Quite enjoyable, Barry. You obviously are ventilating your excitement with the new toys !

[uncloned]

I must say I don't understand the comment about CS and music on the blog post considering how many at TiS, CTG and here make a living or hobby of coding.... but whatever!

This is an odd atmosphere and I think the choice of sounds great!

Without the spooky high melody it is reminiscent of Devo in a less aggressive moment.

[bvanoudtshoorn]

@Sam_Zen: Yep, you're right!

@Clones: The comment is from a guy from thesixtyone.

I'm glad you enjoyed the sound choice -- I was really having fun, seeing what sort of distinct abilities each of the synths had.

Thanks for the feedback, S_Z & Clones.

[uncloned]

You know - I wonder if these sample sets are giving so many choices it actually takes away from composition. I don't know about you - I sometimes get lost in just trying things and put off that - "I'll really put some effort in" piece - now fairly indefinitely at this point.

As a compositional method I believe in experimenting - in years (decades) past it was formulating a way around limitations. Now it is, for me, trying to grasp a tool and I have so many now. Sometimes I wonder how many people actually go beyond the presets in something like Omnishpere what has some 33 gigs of presets.

Do we lose something here?

It is an argument for me to keep playing my piano set up and use GPO I guess. But I love the electronic sounds...   :?

Sorry to hijack your thread with musical philosophy 101  :oops:

[Nahkranoth]

Sorry for putting sticks in your wheels, Barry, but I'm not impressed. I was tempted to hear your new song, but instead it left me confused. Am I the only one who thinks it's kinda bland? Maybe it's because of this abrasive lead/bass that is offputting and I can't hear anything that's going on behind (it's Massive, right?).
Yet I want to hear something gentle that is pouring out of this monster, but in the demo there was only those ugly ear-tearing sounds.
I hope I won't get killed for this post, but honestly, bv, you could do much better :oops:

[Saga Musix]

rather unexpected style from you, but predictable and typical chord progression from you, I think. Interesting sounds, but the distorted sounds that's playing right from the start through the whole piece makes it sound a bit more simple than it actually it is, as it's just the same thing over and over again and it's pretty much in the foreground, IMHO. Still, an enjoyable tune.

[bvanoudtshoorn]

@Clones:
Regarding sample sets and so on... I think that I've just about got to the point where I'm intimately familiar with the sounds I have available to me in Kontakt. I know them, and I understand them, and generally that means that I can lay hands on what I want when I want it.

The recent update to Kontakt4 brought a whole bunch of new sounds, but nothing that I can't 'assimilate' into my current knowledge without too much effort. However, I also got hold of a bunch of synths, and that's a whole different ball game. I still don't fully know what each is capable of. For this track, I basically just hopped around through the presets, and tweaked from there. I should note, though, that the 'tagging' system that NI has implemented in most of their products makes this 'hopping' a little bit less random and a little bit more targeted, but it's not 100% accurate.

I don't think that we'll ever get to the point of not having to work around limitations -- I still have an awful lot. I do think, however, that either reducing the limitations or allowing users to circumvent them is, generally speaking, a good thing, even if all you can ever hope to achieve is the replacement of one set of limitations with another.

@Nahkranoth:
No, you're not the only one. Check out the blog post for someone who agrees with you. I'll say the same thing I said to HonoredMule there -- I appreciate the fact that you've taken the time to tell me that you think there are problems. I agree with you that it's not my strongest piece, and that the bass is perhaps a tad 'obnoxious'. :/ I'm working on another piece at the moment (orchestral) that should hopefully be a bit better.

@Jojo:
Glad you enjoyed it. Yeah, like I said to 'noth, I think the bassline is a tad on the obnoxious side. :/

@All:
Thanks for the feedback, philosophy and thoughts, everyone. I really appreciate it.