Post by Concept Devices on Jul 15, 2012 17:14:40 GMT
Thanks for the kind words Xan, Paul it was a pleasure to finally get the chance to have a bit of a chin wag with you and Maureen you are both very important members of this little club we are all in.
On to my take on last night, this may get a bit long winded but thats what forums are for ;D
I'll get to mine and Daves bit later but on the whole the night was very enjoyable and Daves first adventure into this world of ours, was enjoyed by him too.
Great to chat to everyone again and be a part of it I think my life would be a little less fullfilled if these Awakenings events were to stop so top marks go out to Both Jez and Phil for continuing the great work they do I was able to talk to lots of people during the afternoon and night and got some nice comments after our bit too so that was pleasing.
A great mid afternoon session from Mike to start with, very melodic music with some great films to watch, thoroughly chilled me out. Then again during the evening with his partner more of the same lovely stuff, very safe but very enjoyable to listen too, highlights of his set was his soloing, some superb playing and great sounds to boot and as Xan has commented the Dan Dare track at the end was very good.
On to Ideation and first off, what a fantastic film, truely mind blowing images and stuff that I have never seen before. Music wise it was just awesome and I think a very brave way of going about it too, as I have said previously. The Theramin through that effect pedal sounded wonderful, a very visual thing to play and it was a joy to watch. A build up over the hour and a bit of some brilliant sound made special by the way it was done, inputting random notes into the Cirklon and then distributing them around 2 or 3 synths just shows what can be done live with the right knowledge and gear and obvious talent that he is. At times I was drawn so far in between the music and the images that I thought I was in a different place, a different world, a world where only ones own peace of mind matters. Brilliant and another reason why Awakenings concerts work so well.
So onto mine and Daves set and thinking back I enjoyed what we did, and got some genuine nice comments from some people and some (polite) ones from others and I know that there is a lot of room for impovement. In saying that we could have done the safe route with a lot of stuff on a laptop and then some of the timing problems wouldnt have happened, but you know me, safe is not an option ;D
Sorry about the Rush covers Jez, I knew if i'd have told you we were doing them you'd have pulled the plug and rightly so I suppose as they were the only parts where we had a few collective problems, mainly because we were two with a rigid fixed drum machine so it was doomed from the start timing wise as both tracks needed a drummer to play along to what the guitars were doing and not the guitars playing a long to a drummer so to speak. Starting a fixed drum track after Dave was already playing in Xanadu just chucked the timing of that section right out the window, with hindsight we could have probably done that middle bit where the drums start, without the drums
The improv sections for me were difficult due to having to fade down one synth patch before changing it so as not to kill the sound and with only 2 synths and the Nintendo game thing to use I struggled to maintain the contant sound which is the nature of this game Luckily Dave was watching and when sounds dropped out he was there with his synthy guitar sounds to fill the gaps. We had got a great piano sound and piece worked out that also went tits up due to me not picking the right patch on the X5D, that then made what I was playing sound different to my ears causing me to forget what we'd worked out between us
Anyway, enough of my excuses we were LIVE and as such enjoyed it very much, our first time ever playing live together after a lifetime of being mates and i'm sure we will continue as Dave has said today that he wants to do it again but without the covers. Now he has a bit more understanding of how this music works, we may be able to come up with 45 mins worth of improv and make it sound acceptable and fresh.
Big thanks go out to Mr Hughes for doing our film, I was concentrating too much to watch a lot of it so cant comment on how it looked or if it went with what we were playing, but I dont have the knowledge to put together something like this so kudos to him.
Gear list for Paul as promised:-
Dave:-
Ibanez Jem guitar
Boss GT10 FX pedal.
Boss BX4 stereo mixer
Me:-
Electronics were;
Behringer 802 mixer
Korg R3 synth
Korg X5D synth
Nintendo lite with Korg DS10 synth/kaosspad.
Boss DR660 drum machine
Boss BR800 digital recorder playing drums
Yam QX21 sequencer (playing keyboard arpeggio on last track)
Yam QX21 sequencer (playing some chords during first improv)
Yam SU10 mini sampler (supposed to play the coconuts ;D)
Fender Precision lyte bass guitar
Boss Be50 bass FX pedal
Shure wireless for my guitar
XRI digital clock to tell us how long we had been playing for.
As I said a bit long winded but there you go.
Thanks to everyone for supporting this great venue and long may it continue your always
Mart
On to my take on last night, this may get a bit long winded but thats what forums are for ;D
I'll get to mine and Daves bit later but on the whole the night was very enjoyable and Daves first adventure into this world of ours, was enjoyed by him too.
Great to chat to everyone again and be a part of it I think my life would be a little less fullfilled if these Awakenings events were to stop so top marks go out to Both Jez and Phil for continuing the great work they do I was able to talk to lots of people during the afternoon and night and got some nice comments after our bit too so that was pleasing.
A great mid afternoon session from Mike to start with, very melodic music with some great films to watch, thoroughly chilled me out. Then again during the evening with his partner more of the same lovely stuff, very safe but very enjoyable to listen too, highlights of his set was his soloing, some superb playing and great sounds to boot and as Xan has commented the Dan Dare track at the end was very good.
On to Ideation and first off, what a fantastic film, truely mind blowing images and stuff that I have never seen before. Music wise it was just awesome and I think a very brave way of going about it too, as I have said previously. The Theramin through that effect pedal sounded wonderful, a very visual thing to play and it was a joy to watch. A build up over the hour and a bit of some brilliant sound made special by the way it was done, inputting random notes into the Cirklon and then distributing them around 2 or 3 synths just shows what can be done live with the right knowledge and gear and obvious talent that he is. At times I was drawn so far in between the music and the images that I thought I was in a different place, a different world, a world where only ones own peace of mind matters. Brilliant and another reason why Awakenings concerts work so well.
So onto mine and Daves set and thinking back I enjoyed what we did, and got some genuine nice comments from some people and some (polite) ones from others and I know that there is a lot of room for impovement. In saying that we could have done the safe route with a lot of stuff on a laptop and then some of the timing problems wouldnt have happened, but you know me, safe is not an option ;D
Sorry about the Rush covers Jez, I knew if i'd have told you we were doing them you'd have pulled the plug and rightly so I suppose as they were the only parts where we had a few collective problems, mainly because we were two with a rigid fixed drum machine so it was doomed from the start timing wise as both tracks needed a drummer to play along to what the guitars were doing and not the guitars playing a long to a drummer so to speak. Starting a fixed drum track after Dave was already playing in Xanadu just chucked the timing of that section right out the window, with hindsight we could have probably done that middle bit where the drums start, without the drums
The improv sections for me were difficult due to having to fade down one synth patch before changing it so as not to kill the sound and with only 2 synths and the Nintendo game thing to use I struggled to maintain the contant sound which is the nature of this game Luckily Dave was watching and when sounds dropped out he was there with his synthy guitar sounds to fill the gaps. We had got a great piano sound and piece worked out that also went tits up due to me not picking the right patch on the X5D, that then made what I was playing sound different to my ears causing me to forget what we'd worked out between us
Anyway, enough of my excuses we were LIVE and as such enjoyed it very much, our first time ever playing live together after a lifetime of being mates and i'm sure we will continue as Dave has said today that he wants to do it again but without the covers. Now he has a bit more understanding of how this music works, we may be able to come up with 45 mins worth of improv and make it sound acceptable and fresh.
Big thanks go out to Mr Hughes for doing our film, I was concentrating too much to watch a lot of it so cant comment on how it looked or if it went with what we were playing, but I dont have the knowledge to put together something like this so kudos to him.
Gear list for Paul as promised:-
Dave:-
Ibanez Jem guitar
Boss GT10 FX pedal.
Boss BX4 stereo mixer
Me:-
Electronics were;
Behringer 802 mixer
Korg R3 synth
Korg X5D synth
Nintendo lite with Korg DS10 synth/kaosspad.
Boss DR660 drum machine
Boss BR800 digital recorder playing drums
Yam QX21 sequencer (playing keyboard arpeggio on last track)
Yam QX21 sequencer (playing some chords during first improv)
Yam SU10 mini sampler (supposed to play the coconuts ;D)
Fender Precision lyte bass guitar
Boss Be50 bass FX pedal
Shure wireless for my guitar
XRI digital clock to tell us how long we had been playing for.
As I said a bit long winded but there you go.
Thanks to everyone for supporting this great venue and long may it continue your always
Mart