New track: Synthony No. 1 revised / Remastered By rs2000

rs2000

And here it is: A masterful "Synthony" composed by @LinearLineman with a few little enhancements done by @rs2000

The idea behind these tracks was to write a symphony with less traditional instrumentation.
All sounds were generated on an iPad, including the little addons by @rs2000.

Please don't worry too about the slightly distorted sound in a few areas, it's the best we were able to do from a number of track mixdowns with the original arrangements not being available anymore, and the material is just too valuable as not to post it.

Enjoy listening and thanks to @LinearLineman for the excellent collaboration!

LinearLineman here... just to add the new version has five movements, so an untraditional form to go with the untraditional rest!

So much thanks to my friend and collaborator, @rs2000. He was challenged to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear and did wonderfully, IMO. It is much more listenable now, clipping removed, strings less muddy and more defined, volumes balanced, tracks EQd and much more. He managed to give it a silky quality making it much easier to listen to. I look forward to future postings together which will be with material we have both worked on.

Pierre118

Really great performance!

Curious what apps you both used.

rs2000

@Pierre118 said:
Really great performance!

Curious what apps you both used.

I'll let @LinearLineman be the first to comment

LinearLineman

Thanks for liking it, @Pierre118. I didn’t mention that all the tracks were improvised. I could not play this stuff again if I tried. I am grateful to my teacher, Connie Crothers for instructing me in such a mysterious but unownable approach.

I used Ravenscroft 275, iFretless Bass and Brass Ensembles, iSymphonic Strings, Sopranotron and, I think, SynthMaster 1 or SynthMaster Player for the synth sounds. No effects to speak of. I had only been doing iOS a few months. Barely a clue.

rs2000

First track intro featuring 100% pure SpaceCraft

Pierre118

Thanks @LinearLineman and @rs2000

McD

@rs2000 said:

First track intro featuring 100% pure SpaceCraft

It almost sounds like the string section of an orchestra tuning to A=440 (with the lower strings adding a minor harmony).

I remember the inspiration for the original improvisations was the classical Mahler Symphony orchestra rendering @Kuhl had made:

I took a shot at a Beethoven Movement and then Mike started improvising pieces in the style of classic orchestras and slowly dropped the most of classical harmonic conventions ideas and made very modern sounding orchestral improvisations.

@Kuhl also put up his rendering of the Beethoven allegretto:

Now @rs2000 has joined then sequence of events to expand the pieces into larger well mastered tracks.

This is all due to this forum and the ways we inspire and support each others creative process.

rs2000

@McD said:
@rs2000 said:

First track intro featuring 100% pure SpaceCraft

It almost sounds like the string section of an orchestra tuning to A=440 (with the lower strings adding a minor harmony).

Nice analogy!
SpaceCraft is the smoothest-sounding granular synth I know.

I remember the inspiration for the original improvisations was the classical Mahler Symphony orchestra rendering @Kuhl had made:

I took a shot at a Beethoven Movement and then Mike started improvising pieces in the style of classic orchestras and slowly dropped the most of classical harmonic conventions ideas and made very modern sounding orchestral improvisations.

@Kuhl also put up his rendering of the Beethoven allegretto:

Now @rs2000 has joined then sequence of events to expand the pieces into larger well mastered tracks.

This is all due to this forum and the ways we inspire and support each others creative process.

Thanks for the information, I'll give these tracks a listen!
Indeed this forum is a great place to meet

LinearLineman

Hmmm @rs2000... I never even asked you how you made that intro, and I agree with @McD, immediately sounding like an orchestra tuning up. Did you use a string sample on SpaceCraft?

rs2000

@LinearLineman said:
Hmmm @rs2000... I never even asked you how you made that intro, and I agree with @McD, immediately sounding like an orchestra tuning up. Did you use a string sample on SpaceCraft?

You won't believe it: I have used the first ten seconds of the same track as the source.

LinearLineman

Wow @rs2000. Good one. Sure fooled me. Btw did you use SC for the end note as well?

rs2000

@LinearLineman said:
Wow @rs2000. Good one. Sure fooled me. Btw did you use SC for the end note as well?

Oh sorry I almost forgot to mention - I have to admit that I've used the factory string lib from Logic, low strings and cello to be specific 😊😇

chandroji

Great music! 🎶
I’ve really enjoyed listening these 27 minutes masterpiece!
My compliments @LinearLineman and @rs2000 , very well done! 👍

This is the third Synthony version, isn’t it?
I already loved the 2. Version (see my statements there) but this version sounds even better. As you said Mike, the music and sound becomes a more silky and smooth quality. Wonderful work, indeed!

I really like collaborations like this. Good people here, congrats... 😊

Thanks a lot for sharing!

McD

Tracing back through Mike's catalog shows that the core of this work comes from the 3rd project he labeled as a Synthetic work 9 months ago. There's a final section in the original project that sounds like pure Copland Americana Piano with choir and strings. This one seems to be his most orchestral sounding effort.

He started the synthony series with some very piano centric improvisations of some classical sounding harmonies. Later in the series he seems to use a tango like Latin rhythm. Duplication of effort just isn't in his wheel house. He was trained to avoid the expected.

This Synthony phase turned his attention to using more instruments in his projects and occasionally avoiding the piano instrument all together. Using more instruments got him interested in learning more about Cubasis and mixing automations.

McD

Oops. Most of the material for this one comes from a series labeled as "Project X" which shows 2 re-mixes
on his SoundCloud. Posts that announced those projects might show what he was working through at that time. The theme of Project X has that Bernard Hermann suspense film score sound used in so many Hitchcock classics and duplicated by so many that followed the master in later films.

LinearLineman

Thank you so much @chandroji. A 27:00 commitment is a lot these days! Yep, @rs2000 is a master of the silky smooth (obscure ref to Adam Sandler’s Great Don’t Mess With The Zohar).

Thanks for the chronology @McD. The original genesis of these classical forays was @kuhl sending me a vid of a guy improvising with choirs on a Yamaha Tyros. About the same time as his and your Beet experiments. I thought I could do as good as that guy... nothing like an egoistic challenge!

The five movements are thus... 1. 1st movement 2nd Synthony, 2. 3rd mvmt 1st Synthony, 3. 3rd mvmt 1st Synthony 4. 1st mvmt 1st Synthony and 5. 4th mvmt 1st Synthony. Not that anyone cares!

@rs2000 and I are planning another synthonic effort, this time using all synth sounds, no acoustic emulations. Wish us luck!

chandroji

Love especially the last part with the choirs! 😊

@LinearLineman said:
@rs2000 and I are planning another synthonic effort, this time using all synth sounds, no acoustic emulations. Wish us luck!

I’m already curious! 👍

McD

At the original release @LinearLineman wrote:

It took around fifty hours to complete. Seven sessions, mostly all nighters. All improvised. @kuhl showed me a video of someone playing choirs on a Yamaha Tyros. I listened and thought, hmmm I can do better than that! That was as much of a concept as I had! It is all improvised, mostly in one pass, but sometimes two or three improvised pieces of a whole.

Wow. I think of you tossing off as these improvisations in the time it takes to record start to stop but 50 hours for a 30 minute project tells a different story. Are there dozens of rejected takes?

Now, I'm curious about that Tyros video, too... Found it!

Now, the fact that you immediately thought "I can do better" just speaks to your training in improvisation as needing to "push against conventional thought". You heard that piece and it sounded like music you've heard a millions times and you have a filter to avoid anything formulaic which can be challenging for the listener.

Most highly trained practitioners of the arts have a similar approach and the audience that can appreciate their efforts to generate new ideas is always similarly trained. That's why the award winning novels are rarely best sellers for example. You have to understand good writing to enjoy great sentences, I think and know when it's something that's been done a million times before and sound more like regurgitation versus creation.

I think most of us are happy when we make something that sounds similar to the music we enjoy.

When we hear something really fresh that moves culture forward it's a game changing experience.
I'm sure we all have favorite artists that fit into this model of progress.

LinearLineman

@McD... you found it! Brings it all back. It’s pretty good actually., but very white bread, no? As to the fifty hours, that was to orchestrate and arrange all four movements with a lot of iPad 4 breakdowns, The actual recordings took no more than 2 hours including separate bass, horn, Sopranotron and synth parts. So, yes, there were not many rejects. I built the bass, horn and synth parts incrementally... playing forward until it broke down, erasing the breakdown and picking up again. And so forth till reaching the end. The piano parts were actually around 3:00 each and I repeated each again in each movement altering the mix and lead and bass lines which played through.

With @rs2000 I am playing six or eight minutes straight through, so maybe that is progress. But he may slice and dice them, which is fine with me,

gusgranite

Nice work, LL and RS2K!!

rs2000

@gusgranite said:
Nice work, LL and RS2K!!

Thanks @gusgranite!
That was fun.
There's nothing like working on music that both of us appreciate.

LinearLineman

Thank you @gusgranite!

@rs2000 said:

@gusgranite said:
Nice work, LL and RS2K!!

Thanks @gusgranite!
That was fun.
There's nothing like working on music that both of us appreciate.

Haha! I guess I appreciate this music. I better!