[Prog rock/synth atmospheric/IDK] Vale Fanfare -- a bit of something and nothing

[Lost_Highway]

Hello everyone

I must admit, I hesitate to post this as it's really all a bit of summat and nowt.

The basic idea came to me last year when I was noodling around on a new (vintage) synth and I thought that with a little work it would make a nice, insubstantial bridging section between two major parts of a piece I'm working on.

In some ways I think it's an epic fail, because it's sucked up a substantial amount of time and effort to get the details right . On the other hand, I still think it's not really much of anything and is (relatively) compact and concise.

Because it's so short and nothing substantial I'm still not sure about posting it, but it can almost stand on it's own outside of the context it was intended for, so what the hell

I do prog rock, so I suppose that's what this is, but it's also quite synthy and a little bit atmospheric and could be part of the IDK genre, because I don't know what the hell it is .

This is just a mixdown, followed by a little bit of limiting to raise the level -- no post-processing/mastering. I never did Latin, so the title's probably wrong, but it's called Vale Fanfare and is a mere 1.50 long:

FLAC (11.3 MB)
OGG 10 (5.0 MB)
MP3 320 kbps (4.4 MB)

Instruments:
ARP Axxe Mk II
DSI MASK (aka Mopho Keyboard)
Moog Little Phatty Stage II
GForce VSM: Logan String Melody, ARP Solina, ARP Quartet
GForce M-Tron Pro: I forget which choir, briefly
GForce Oddity: one sound effect I just couldn't quite copy right on the Mopho
Classical guitar
Flute
Sampletekk BOB Orchestral Brass
Prosonus Harp & Orchestral Percussion
Sampletekk Baroque Organ
...and a few other tinkly, metallic percussion Giga files

It's all recorded and mixed in Ardour, using Fantasia/LinuxSampler for the Gigas and a tiny bit of midi programming in Rosegarden.

Sorry for rambling on. Erm, enjoy. Briefly. Maybe.

[oddson]

I like it... I like the voice leading and the chord progressions and most of the timbrel choices you've made. It's a bit on the grandiose side... but hay you did say it's prog.

But it does sound like it's there to connect two things together -- or at least lead to a more up-tempo prog-epic section.

The brassy synth is a little too brassy for me (and reminds too much of Pink Floyd's "Shine on..." into). Maybe some chorus/reverb or something to thicken it up a bit (and mix it down a touch). Just a thought.

[DocAtlas]

I really like it; I wouldn't change a thing. I'd like to hear the sections it's meant to bridge.

[liqih]

Very beautiful but indeed sounds like an intro to your next piece, yes?, <wink>

[Lost_Highway]

Well, first off, apologies for being absent for a while. I bought a Logan String Melody II last week so had my head (literally) in that for a couple of days, cleaning the key contacts so that it worked properly. Then I just had to play it . Followed by a bit of inspiration for the section that comes after the one posted here.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for listening and commenting.

I like it... I like the voice leading and the chord progressions and most of the timbrel choices you've made. It's a bit on the grandiose side... but hay you did say it's prog.

Thank you. Regarding grandiosity, in the words of Mr Wakeman's classic riposte, "Yeah, 's good innit?!"

Personally, I don't see a problem with being grandiose, it can have its place like anything else.

But it does sound like it's there to connect two things together -- or at least lead to a more up-tempo prog-epic section.

Yeah, the grandiosity is why I think it might be a bit of a fail as a linking section, but at least it doesn't go on too long. It does lead into a much longer, faster section, but I thought it could almost work on its own and I so rarely release stuff that I decided to put it out there anyway in the meantime. Someone told me he thought it was just an intro going into something, rather than a bridge and took a bit of convincing otherwise!

The brassy synth is a little too brassy for me (and reminds too much of Pink Floyd's "Shine on..." into). Maybe some chorus/reverb or something to thicken it up a bit (and mix it down a touch). Just a thought.

Floyd are bastards, you can't do anything with a brass patch over string machines these days without it sounding like Shine On

I'm happy with the sound though and it wouldn't be much of a fanfare without brass!

It's surprising how unbrassy it sounds in isolation though. There's no actual delay on the synth part, but what I did was record (twice) the lead line using BOB Orchestral Brass (samples), delay those by a tempo-synced amount, push them to the background and use those as 'delay' on the synth to make it sound bigger. There's also reverb on all the parts.

Much as I love Floyd (although I rarely listen to them these days), I think Howard Goodall's theme for Red Dwarf was more of a direct inspiration -- I was fiddling with the Axxe when I got it to see whether ARPs live up to their reputation about brass patches, it started sounding a bit like a plaintive fanfare and I ran with it

I really like it; I wouldn't change a thing. I'd like to hear the sections it's meant to bridge.

Very beautiful but indeed sounds like an intro to your next piece, yes?, <wink>

Thanks to you both. Doc, as I said to Oddson above, I'm not going to change the synth lead -- you can't please everyone all the time and I'm happy with it and I'm usually the hardest one I have to please

The first part, that this piece immediately follows, was finished last year and is recorded and mixed, although I'm slightly tempted to go back and make a few minor changes at some point.

The section that comes immediately after this about 75% written -- I need to finish writing a guitar solo (finally started making progress with that in the last couple of days), a bit of synth work after the solo and finish writing the drums. Then I just have to track and mix it... it's coming, slowly, very slowly, but don't hold your breath as I don't want to be responsible for your deaths

Thanks again everyone

[oddson]

the grandiosity is why I think it might be a bit of a fail as a linking section, but at least it doesn't go on too long. It does lead into a much longer, faster section, but I thought it could almost work on its own and I so rarely release stuff that I decided to put it out there anyway in the meantime.

Actually I think the grandiose style is more appropriate if it leads into a longer related piece that makes the implied importance warranted.

As for the 'brassy' comment. I should have chosen my words more carefully.

Obviously it's meant to resemble a brass instrument... I meant it's a bit too bold and cuts through the mix so well that it overpowers the other instruments. I thought a thicker sound -- where the upper-harmonics would blur together a bit against delayed copies as in a reverb or chorus -- would 'tone it done' a bit.

Now that I've listened to more I've softened on even that position... listening to it with a bit less volume helps.

It's really a lovely piece... I would very much like to hear what it is meant to lead into.

[D.H. Miltz]

I wasn't sure what to expect from the description, but I did enjoy this. Briefly. Certainly. It stands on its own just fine, I think.

Thanks.