MOTM

Paul S. writes:
>>Any MOTM it that? The strings sounded very 'VA'.<

Not likely since that recording is from 1977.  Even I didn't own a synth
back then..  I'm surprised Dana Countryman didn't recognize it and spill the
beans.  But if he had, I had another synthesized version ready:

http://home.att.net/~elhardt/Waltz_Of_The_Flowers_2.mp3

Koos Fockens writes:
>>Wendy Carlos style ..... and look forward to your (constructive)
comments<<

Well if Wendy had done this, it would have been played expressively and by
hand.  There would have been 100 different timbres flying by, each one
synthesized appropriately to emphasize certain musical lines in Carlos'
particular style with timbres we've never heard before, and sounds would
have been bouncing between speakers.  The whole piece would have been very
colorful and it would have danced and nobody else would be able to match its
quality.  In yours, there's only something like 3 timbres for the entire
piece, and it's robotically sequenced.  So it's perhaps not quite fair to
Wendy to say it's in Wendy Carlos style.  But I did see in a later post you
mentioned trying to add some dynamics to it.  Personally though, I've heard
so many people play that particular piece of music on every imaginable
instrument including synths (and also Bolero), that they're so overplayed,
it would be nice if people didn't keep going down the same path time after
time.  There's lots of great pieces that have never been transcribed to the
synth.

Dana Countryman writes:
>>Jean-Jacques Perrey and I get to do that song, onstage every night, when
we do our shows, and it's an amazing tune....<<

Ah, you've revived my anger. :-)  When I bought the two CD set the Best of
Perrey and Kingsley, I was supposed to be getting their two full earlier
records on there.  But the very last piece and one of my favorites "Pioneers
of the Stars" was replaced by that damn "Flight of the Bumblebee".  Then
later they came out with a newer CD set, and Pioneers of the Stars is right
where it should be.  I'm still fuming.  Perhaps at some point I can find
somebody who can MP3 a copy of Pioneers from the new CD set and email it to
me.

-Elhardt

"2005 represents the date of the event that sets things off....The date
stuck out more than the month or year, but I think the month was August and
the year was 2005" - Actual text from May of 2002 when the late John
Mitchell (Konkuro) informed me that on the 20th something of August 2005 the
US would be hit by a major event.  I waited over 3 years to see if anything
would happen.  Then on 29th of August 2005 the US was hit by its most
devastating disaster in its history, Katrina.  Score 1 for Konkuro.

Hi Kenneth, that sounded great (both versions) :-) 
BTW: I don't mean to compare myself to Wendy Carlos, I could never match her talent. I 
just mentioned it, as all that Carlos had available at the time of Switched on Bach was one 
modular synth, and had to do everything track by track, as did I, but obviously Carlos is a 
genius, and I am not (at least I haven't discovered it yet :-) ) . 
It requires some work still to make it sound better than it does now. Not sure when I will 
do that, as you said, it's a piece that has been played by many, and all of them better than 
mine, but it was a challenge a friend of mine set me.
The fun for me was in trying to construct polyphonic parts by recording individual notes of 
my small MOTM.  I'll be looking for other music in due course that I could try and record 
in the same way, but I'm in no hurry. 

--- In motm@yahoogroups.com, "Kenneth Elhardt" <elhardt@...> wrote:

>
> Paul S. writes:
> >>Any MOTM it that? The strings sounded very 'VA'.<
> 
> Not likely since that recording is from 1977.  Even I didn't own a synth
> back then..  I'm surprised Dana Countryman didn't recognize it and spill the
> beans.  But if he had, I had another synthesized version ready:
> 
> http://home.att.net/~elhardt/Waltz_Of_The_Flowers_2.mp3
> 
> Koos Fockens writes:
> >>Wendy Carlos style ..... and look forward to your (constructive)
> comments<<
> 
> Well if Wendy had done this, it would have been played expressively and by
> hand.  There would have been 100 different timbres flying by, each one
> synthesized appropriately to emphasize certain musical lines in Carlos'
> particular style with timbres we've never heard before, and sounds would
> have been bouncing between speakers.  The whole piece would have been very
> colorful and it would have danced and nobody else would be able to match its
> quality.  In yours, there's only something like 3 timbres for the entire
> piece, and it's robotically sequenced.  So it's perhaps not quite fair to
> Wendy to say it's in Wendy Carlos style.  But I did see in a later post you
> mentioned trying to add some dynamics to it.  Personally though, I've heard
> so many people play that particular piece of music on every imaginable
> instrument including synths (and also Bolero), that they're so overplayed,
> it would be nice if people didn't keep going down the same path time after
> time.  There's lots of great pieces that have never been transcribed to the
> synth.
> 
> Dana Countryman writes:
> >>Jean-Jacques Perrey and I get to do that song, onstage every night, when
> we do our shows, and it's an amazing tune....<<
> 
> Ah, you've revived my anger. :-)  When I bought the two CD set the Best of
> Perrey and Kingsley, I was supposed to be getting their two full earlier
> records on there.  But the very last piece and one of my favorites "Pioneers
> of the Stars" was replaced by that damn "Flight of the Bumblebee".  Then
> later they came out with a newer CD set, and Pioneers of the Stars is right
> where it should be.  I'm still fuming.  Perhaps at some point I can find
> somebody who can MP3 a copy of Pioneers from the new CD set and email it to
> me.
> 
> -Elhardt
> 
> "2005 represents the date of the event that sets things off....The date
> stuck out more than the month or year, but I think the month was August and
> the year was 2005" - Actual text from May of 2002 when the late John
> Mitchell (Konkuro) informed me that on the 20th something of August 2005 the
> US would be hit by a major event.  I waited over 3 years to see if anything
> would happen.  Then on 29th of August 2005 the US was hit by its most
> devastating disaster in its history, Katrina.  Score 1 for Konkuro.
>

Koos Fockens writes:
>>Hi Kenneth, that sounded great (both versions)<<

I think some people weren't taking the hints that I didn't do those
(although one did mention the vinyl surface noise).  The first one was from
Alexander and Kraft's 1812 Overture / Nutcracker album from 1977 done on Arp
2600, Odyssey, and Pro Soloist.  The second by Wurman from the early 70's,
done on a Moog modular.  Other than some pretty good brass sounds in the
first one, if I had done a version it wouldn't be so cheezy in places and it
would be bigger and more impressive sounding.

>>BTW: I don't mean to compare myself to Wendy Carlos, I could never match
her talent. I just mentioned it, as all that Carlos had available at the
time of Switched on Bach was one modular synth, and had to do everything
track by track<<

Ah, I see.  Though that's not unique to Carlos as every modular synth record
was done that way.  I even use polyphonic synths that way as in my mostly W.
Carlos style Bach and Scarlatti demos.

-Elhardt