Dive Bombing the Moon

[Melodious Rex]

I don't usually write spacey music, but to commemorate the bombing of the moon - a gravity propelled deep probe actually - I wrote this piece.
It's more of a sound collage than a song.

All sounds Arturia Mg Modular V2.0 and V2.5 except explosion at 2:30 (Roland MKS-30.)

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8199860


 

[Sweep]

Thanks for that. It's good to hear people actually making music with these instruments. One or two of us were saying in one of the other topics that there doesn't seem to be much music appearing with Arturia synths.

From my point of view it's very refreshing to hear something that isn't either a collection of random noises or a lot of sterile, carbon-copy beats.

Just listening to your other music as well, starting with Ananke. The Greek title interested me. Are you interested in Greek myths and so forth, or is the title fortuitous?

[Melodious Rex]

Thanks for listening - and for listening to my other songs.  I think the MMV is a great synth - excellent sounds throughout.  I try to make something of a song out of everything I do - Dive Bombing the Moon was one of the freer movements I've done in a while - and I know full well how boring a song full of long sweeps can be - so I kept each element short and varied it a lot. 

I took the name Ananke from one of Jupiter's moons - a small moon in a retrograde orbit.  The song was my attempt to something along the lines of Tangerine Dream - specifically the Phaedra era. 

Cheers

[Sweep]

I took the name Ananke from one of Jupiter's moons - a small moon in a retrograde orbit.

Of course - I'd forgotten they'd used a lot of Greek terms for the moons of several planets. There's phobos and elios and a whole lot more as well, I think?

Incidentally regarding Run Through Tall Grass, I've listened to that one a few times, and it occurs to me it might benefit from the drums being a brush sound, to give a sort of swishing effect. And if the piano was a bit looser, maybe that would give more of a sense of freedom. But that's just my response, not meant as any kind of criticism.

I like The History of Zero as well. It's interesting that the MMV seems to lend itself to these gentler sounds. Brad Gilbert, who I share a website with, used the MMV for a whole series of very gentle MMV pieces.

[Melodious Rex]

Sweep, Thanks again for listening. 

I appreciate your comments on Run Through Tall Grass.  It was done, except for drums, with a Yamaha TX802 - the module form of the DX-7II.  The drums were made on a Roland R-8M, and I can't remember which card I had in it.  Ironically, I do have the Jazz Brush card, which I liked so much that I overused it.  About a year ago, I was using it on everything that I did!  I'll re-record the drum track with the Jazz Brush card and see how it sounds. 

I also agree with you about the piano solo being mechanical sounding.  I wrote it rather quickly in Cakewalk and never went back to rework it like I had intended.  I had a scale book out and was trying something in Locrian mode.

I do like the overall feel of RTTG.  I took the midi drum track and copied it to make the bass track.  It gives it a very cool motion.  The mellow high sound at the beginning reminds me of 80s jazz bands like the Yellow Jackets.   It's quite possible that they were writing with a DX-7 or one of its family.   

[Sweep]

Thanks. Let us know if you do rework this track. It does have unrealiised potential, I think.

It's interesting that you've used the Yamaha FM module. I bought a DX7 a couple of years ago, mostly to see if it really was impossible to program. I rather like some of the things it can do, and I think it has potential that hasn't been explored very much.

Actually some of the souinds I like from it I found I could also get with the MMV using the FM option. I have a bank of MMV FM sounds that are very Yamaha, quite different from the sounds people expect from a Mg modular.