Seeker
Arrick Modular
Stuart
Dun dun duuunnnn!!!
Posts: 15,337
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Post by Seeker on Jul 5, 2015 21:39:23 GMT
Hope it goes well for you Martyn. Thanks Stuart I enjoyed it very much :-) Excellent.
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Concept Devices
Roland System 700
Martyn
keep right on going and dont look back
Posts: 10,742
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Post by Concept Devices on Jul 6, 2015 22:40:36 GMT
This is a little something I have posted up on the Awakenings page on Facebook and thought I would copy it to here for those that aren't on FB :-)
I have had a little time to collect my thoughts on Awakenings 4th July concert and here is my full and very long account of it, hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed recollecting and writing it
Are we all sitting comfortably, then I shall begin……….. Once upon a time, well approx. 6 months ago, in a galaxy not too far away, I received a message across the airwaves from Mr Phil Booth asking me if I would like to do a solo opening spot on the 4th July. I couldn’t get my answer to him any quicker than about 30 seconds later which was a very pleased and excited YES!!!!!! After prizing myself from the ceiling I started to think about what I needed and how I was going to do it, a video backdrop, some kind of souvenir which ended up being T shirts and a small compact gear set up. During January I was given the chance to play an half hour spot at Reverend Jez Creeks Church of Sound in Nottingham, which was lots of fun using a small rig, and being an avid member of the congregation an opportunity not to be missed and the debut performance of Concept Devices. The first Awakening’s of the year came and it was, as always; another great night of EM music and with just over 3 months until the 4th July, it was time to get things moving for my preparations. T shirts were designed and various samples of my Concept Devices logo were tried out on cloth finally settling on the one that appears on them and on my video. I had never done any video production before so this was a big challenge for me, thinking of the ideas and then working out how I was going to knit them together to create 45 mins worth of watchable and hopefully interesting footage. Knowing a little about how to use MS PowerPoint as a presentation medium I decided that was the way to go, my main idea being that it be unique to this event, incorporating dates and credits to this fact. After much head scratching and chopping and changing of stuff I was pleased with the final result and think it made an unusual visual backdrop to the music I was going to play. Quite a lot of interest was being generated on various forums due to the fact that Binar were back playing together after a long time, and Bouvetoya was going to be travelling from Ireland to play his first Awakenings. I tried to promote it as much as possible for these guys as well as myself, posting up various bits and bobs along the way. SATURDAY 4TH JULY. The day had finally arrived and it was time to load my van and travel the very short distance from my home to Burton. On arrival, the sounds of Binar jamming in the theatre and it was filtering into the carpark and I thought yes this is a good day After saying my hello’s to everyone, I set my gear up at the front to those guys playing away and there aren’t many people that can say they have set up to the wonderful sounds of an improvised Binar jam, I was constantly being distracted by the great stuff that was coming from the PA. I had a soundcheck and a bit of a play and Michael “Bouvetoya” Jones arrived with lots of flight cases full of gear. After Michael had soundchecked it was just the waiting game until 6 PM, audience members started to filter in and I was able to chat to a number of old friends and make some new ones.
Zero hour for me and the lights went down, and never to come back on again LOL, I was introduced very kindly by the stand in MC Phil and away I went, 45 minutes over in a flash. I enjoyed it immensely although I felt I rushed it a bit and it lacked a certain direction at one point, but on the whole I was pleased with how it went and I think I did the job I was there to do, which was to warm up the audience for what was to follow. I received some very welcome warm applause and quite a few encouraging comments on both my music and video so thanks everyone for that My gear list was made up of various boss FX pedals, Yamaha graphic eq, Lexicon multi FX, Yamaha CS01, Mininova, Shruthi, Mopho, Volca Keys, Nintendo DS, sequencer, and my Concept Devices box of tricks. However much I was there to play and enjoy my own spot I was also there to enjoy the remainder of the night and I wasn’t disappointed.
The lights went down again and Phil introduced Bouvetoya, Michael Jones had travelled from Ireland to come and play for us and proceeded with some wonderful traditional sounding Berlin School music to a great video. I thought it was a little too loud at the start which swamped some of the feel but once my ears had adjusted and I think the volume was reduced we had some lovely sequence driven music to entertain us. Gear consisted of a modular, Yamaha sequencer, Korg delta, Yamaha an1x on top of an electric piano looking thingy, a very nice looking Memotron, Mopho keyboard and various FX including a Moogerfooger. After another short break we were ready for the main event and what a brilliant improvised set of music we were treated to from Paul and Andy. The music was constantly changing to create different feels, massive quality sounds, masterful keyboard playing coupled with genius sequence and drum programming, with a lovely fractal based backdrop video. This was a hardware based live performance that was created by two seasoned pros doing what they do best, working off each other’s knowledge and skills to create a truly mesmerizing experience for us all. They finished to a well-deserved rapturous applause and then treated us to a 10 minute encore and again big applause from a very satisfied audience. And so ended the second Awakenings concert of the year and I am already looking forward to the next one in September. I would like to say a big thank you to old friends and new that took the time to come and chat to me and showing interest in what I did and the gear I used, it makes the whole experience much more enjoyable and feedback continues to encourage me further. I have been to all but two of the nights that have happened in Burton and the amount of people who made the effort to get there on Saturday was one of the higher attended nights in my memory, coupled with all those that purchase the VT this can only be a good sign for the future of the venue. Thank you all from a very happy Martyn
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Filby
Roland System 100
Phil
What message ?
Posts: 9,462
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Post by Filby on Jul 19, 2015 17:05:11 GMT
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