promenade2239

I like that particular album too. Basically all the instruments are virtual ones (there are live-recorded real guitars on 2 tracqks though) - a very impressive and effective programming work. Also I like the conceptual vision of the album as a whole thing, each single composition is very carefully designed. I checked DEVO refference and you are right - Toax's music is just that kind of pastiche I guess.
Thanks again for nice comments!

Thank you Steve!
We did intense online collab before ('Toax' as other virtual persona as he had few different musical projects) but this is definitely the best one. I asked him for original midi files of 'Neberwirkungen' and layered them using virtual epiano, guitar and a little bit of 'ghost' drumming in the background. I transformed some sequences applying a 'groove delay' plugin to get the interesting rhytmic movement too. All the rest is simply a Roland JunoDi synth. I created 0:00 - 4:00 section first - he added vocal and funky bassline. Then I developed this final version. He stretched the vocal which I processed even more afterwards - the idea was to get a kind of 'afterlife' vibe (because he is obviously speaking to us 'from there'). I really liked that idea.
Funky bassline created by Toax on virtual bass guitar.
I made everything directly on Roland. Drums around 5:00, for example, are from Roland's 'Jazz Brush' drumset and it is actually a random linear pattern I recorded. It is layered with the other pattern with snare accenting 'four'. Epiano and clavinet are also Roland sounds - those are just few riffs I managed to record in a short time and mix along the given funky bassline. I didn't use arpeggiator for that sequence at the end - it is a 'Tri Sine Lead' Roland patch played in a real time with huge reverb and a delay by using the pitch bend wheel.
So this is basically a result of working with given sounds and sequences. Very much experimental and it is a colorful soundscape basically but has more dynamic sections too. Surely the most complex composition I ever made considering the amount of elements used.
I am glad you liked few jazzy flavours I introduced. Thank you for all good words and your support!
Alex

Thank you Orlando!
Here I discovered some new sounds from Roland I never used before - they are fitting the New Age music convention somehow (flutes, airy harps etc...). Just some more complex and experimental composition of mine.
Thank you again for your appreciation. Alex

Yes, there is some energetic pulse and some ambiance but in a massage room I would expect something more easy-sounding. No downloads so far so there is also no chance for this one accompany body massages. thanks for listening and nice comment

Producing a proper cinematic music would be nice - so far I simply keep experimenting. Thanks for your nice comment. I truly appreciate that.

I recorded the audio and juggled with samples. I used the factory presets here basically. Performing music like this entirely in a real time would be quite difficult with my current equipment as I am still in process of building my 'instrumentarium'. Blofeld's multimode is a great performance tool but I didn't use it so far considering a very little time I spent with the synth in overall. Sure I will be making original patches and experimenting further. Your very classic approach to electronic music is inspiring to me.

Hello Steve. I listened many times to the track and I think there is nothing really that 'weird' about this version. I buy it entirely and I love it!
Some of your other works were much more fragmented or eclectic in my opinion being kind of sound-collages of electronic dance music elements, so to speak. This one is incredibly coherent to me and it is morphing very very gently. Especially it the middle area of the track with it's dancing power. Extremly pleasant music to listen to me.

I was inspired by electronic works of german artist Pete Namlook and Blofeld is a perfect synth to make music like this. I will be exploring further the synthesis and posting more tracks in the future. Hope we can make something together again.
Thank you for making such a nice tune! Alex

Hi Brado

Thanks for interesting opinions and nice words! I must say I layered many bass drums and there are also 'ghost' snare drums as well as other drums in the background. Ive put some punchy limiting on many of them - I am sure that if I would continue adding more drum layers with even more compression I could get some more and more of pumping' here. This is something new in my music. The harshness you mentioned is actually a high frequency range you probably do not like but as I said in some comments below I do not use any mainstream electronic styles as an inspiration and I should put simply an 'Electronic' label on this track, not 'House'. There is no filtering and limiting on 'ambient noises' so it is quite natural that at some level the listening experience may be painful.

Oh and regarding to my comment on your track I wasn't very precise with 'harshness' I mentioned. I know it is maybe not a proper place to discuss it but autotune adds sometime a kind of strange rusty and gravelly qualities - especially the very moment when transitioning 'in between' the notes you sing. I played your track only using laptop speakers so maybe that's an irrelevant observation, I do not know. Anyway the proper amount of autotune is always something to consider.

I am glad you liked the hypnotic vibe I created. Thanks again for your comprehensive review.
Alex

Thanks a lot! I am glad you liked my production. This one is indeed quite hard to categorize as those strange backgrounds are not quite 'music' but just a sound soup. I wasn't really envisioning all this as being weird or quirky in particular - I was actually playing with the 'sound itself' so to speak and in a way it's just an excercise in synthesis. Lot to learn ahead for me regarding synthesizers and I say this because Blofeld is a type of synth that you can use to create electric piano patch for example or let's say very different percussions. Believe me or not but it is possible to do this by starting with just few basic waveforms. I will post more music using Blofeld when I progress with my synthesis.
Thanks again for a nice review. Alex

Thank you Orlando for such nice words! I am glad you liked some artistic qualities inside the music. It is definitely a classic sound of Blofeld making it quite special. I will be also working more on creating my original patches - Blofeld has enormous power when comes to sound design but same time is quite easy to manage. There are no shortcuts of course and it will probably take some time untill I get enough energy and inspiration to be able to make something similar again.
Best, Alex

thanks for listening and your comment. Yes, there is just emptiness and all cosmic-sounding space-electronic-ambient music is just a imaginary projection - it's just the mind perspective. I am not afraid of experiencing the emptiness directly though - just relax and focus on the space when the thought is absent and there is no mind for a moment.
And yes, I like working with the hardware synths much more - it seems like there are the infinite possibilities for creating here. Depending on the actual contition of the mind, of course.

Hi Joe, I am glad you liked my new electronic experimentations. This one may be developed further for sure and I am also curious about the results.
It is electronic work of Pete Namlook and german electronic in general that inspired me - I think Blofeld synth is a perfect tool to do quite similar stuff.

I am thinking of our project as I actually deleted the last version of Undergroundsound because there were some issues and I was not really happy with my instrumental. I have some time on Sunday and I want to make a new version of that one using again your vocals and new synths. I can't start any new collaborations but there is a lot of materials I can work on. We will see...I will let you know for sure. Definitely I will be producing slower from now but more 'in details'.

Thanks for nice comments!

All the best to you too,
Alex

hello Wayne, good to see you again, Im happy you had a chance to hear this particular one! Yes, it is a result of learning new things and exploring possibilities of my new equipment as I am slightly gravitating towards another musical directions and techniques I guess. It is not to say that I will be making proper House genres from now as I am more interested in ambient or gentle electronic.
I will be using hardware a lot but I won't be producing music at the same speed as before - I had to slow down my looperman activity last months due to real life commitments. It is because there is a lot to learn about synths as well and it seems like there is so much to explore regarding to sound-design territories and synthesis ahead. Here I am using modyfied presets of Blofeld basically. There is a sequence of chords repeated 4 times throughout and I am really keeping everything organized here by building everything around this sequence. I do not now how much this is noticable - probably not so much at first listening, especially when just playing this along other looperman tracks. It is simply quite different and somehow more difficult track to percieve from others, I guess. As you say: more dark and probably less 'entertaining'. I would say it is a meditative music as it was created in few moments of increased attention and clarity of the mind, which is not always easy to achieve.
Thank you for listening to my music and your support!
Best, Alex

hello Steve
I am really glad you liked my current synthesizer explorations! Not a fan of a soccer myself either (I am not quite sure what you mean - is that maybe something language-related regarding certain expressions(?). It will be great if you can take it and turn it into something more proper house-sounding. Thanks for that! I know you can make some really progressive music. I have stems ready to go to you and am just about to write you a pm.
Thanks again for your nice comments and the idea of developing the track.
Till then, Alex

Thank you! I think I am still not that very close to so called proper jazz even (unless I am playing jazz from the sheet) - 'jazzy' would be much proper label and in this track there is only some freely ascending /descending progression.
I am glad I made it okay with the music around the looperman last day that way, despite the bad day somewhere anyway! Actually those last few weeks were horrible to me as well and I was driven by some unpleasant 'patterns' of the mind too, making me unable to think positively even about my music. Now all this is gone. It was Sunday that changed a lot - I will explain more when I contact you. It is not that I attained the 'pure self' this time, so do not worry. I think I've made some good spiritual progressions though. After some break from my music-making I was finally able to sit with clarity and open head for sometime and this music came out. I am happy I could help you to feel better. Thanks a lot for a nice review and the fave! A.

Thank you Ed! I know this is a kind of a special musical creation and putting it under 'house' might be not correct, those drums have a very tribal character though. Also it is a quite slow tempo here - 116BPM. I didn't really think of picturing any concrete images - it is always up to listener and I am glad you think it would be suitable as a soundtrack.
My work was actually quite complex as I blended together many different sounds of Blofeld. I've made this after some break from music in general. It was an interesting experience - my ears were very fresh and incredibly open yesterday (so to speak:).
Now I am getting even more and more surprised by the possibilities of this synth than I was before. There are 2 factors, I think: my momentary ability to percieve the actual sound and how open I can be to use it musically in that moment - the other is about learning how to use the synth as a tool so I could come up with my original sounds as well (I am still working on that but it is very time-consuming activity). Basically Blofeld is simply a modern version of an old german PPG Wave synth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izVH1CENIDs My version is a 'desktop' one and always needs an external midi keyboard to trigger the sound.

I am glad you liked my playing and the music.

Thanks a lot for your kind comment and your support.
Alex

hi
thanks for your comments! So in this case the chord progression of the song is quite abstract - it is more an excercise in synthesis in a way, or better to say in putting together different synth sounds as I was working mainly with presets by only slightly modyfying them at places. That's why it may probably sound too 'expertish'. There is no true evolving narration in here but just playing with the atmosphere - I could post this under 'ambient' as well. This track was intended initially to be a synth jam with some oriental melodies on the top but I developed this into more electronic ambient. Sure there is a need to turn up the bass drum and make some catchy melodies for getting more proper house feel. The good thing about looperman is that I can experiment freely.
Regards, A.

thanks for your comment. I do not actually make so called mainstream music. Basically the style of this composition is inspired by german electronic here is some good example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I3B3xLAhSE
My compositions are rather quite unusual so I do not have any idea of possible connections with the music style you can hear in the tv or something.
Thanks again.

hello Cru
Thank you so much for playing my music and writing such a nice comments! I have to go through some hard times at the moment and your words really helped me to stay sane today. Not sure when I will return with something new regarding my music-making - for now I keep uploading some loops on this site only.

Vocal is by TaraToxic http://www.looperman.com/acapellas?mid=TaraToxic Those are 2 tunes I made with a german guy who skilfully programmed that guitar solo. The drumming is a midi performance of EZdrummer with some single additions of mine. I was aware of the 'different key' thing of the vocal part and I am glad you liked my vision - it surely might appear as something obviously unusual for some other people. I much appreciate your opinions and am happy that you like that special airy musical style I am doing.

Mentioning 'I wish I could fly' brings some nice memories - I really liked some of your older tunes I came across the moment when joining this site - especially 'Bedroom Games'. I think I might be able to make some better 're-orchestrations' as I progress with my arranging work (still learning a lot) in the future. Some themes from your songs are great - your synth work was really inspiring to me as well.
Truly I am doing all this stuff only because of this site - in 'a real life' I sometimes take a chance to play and record church organs (as it is a part of my work by actually restoring them). The music became a hobby to me but I plan to do something more with it at some point. We will see...

Thank you once again for your support and very nice comment. I much appreciate that.
Best to you, Alex

Thank you so much for a nice review!

I came up with this musical piece after practicing gospel sheet piano arrangements and there are some progressions here inspired somehow by those arrangments, I think. The main 'e-piano' is a particular preset of Blofeld called 'Yamlitzer' but it is still a synthesized piano sound. Those piano upper additions at the end of the piece are from Roland synth which has some really fine e-piano sounds (but quite shitty keyboard action in my opinion). Overall I couldn't help but just 'color' the track by adding all that candy arpeggios.
I am glad you liked the overall atmosphere as it was my main focus truly! - I really spent much time adjusting things very carefully here and I am happy you found the connection with the proper 'tuning' aspect! I always play everything from a keyboard (here by using the Roland to trigger the Blofeld sounds) - it is almost an 'intuitive approach' to music I present here. Also I want to incorporate more true analogue drums and synth sounds in the future!

I played some videos to get the idea of a Concertmate synth and I really liked it's sounds and the lovely microkeys. Although apparently this can't be compared to the Roland sound-engine quality but still the 'key' is in actual 'playing', I think. I do not know much about the mechanics of a sampling software but I think I achieved some relatively satysfying results when using a particular Boesendorfer multi-velocity sample-based piano in 'Kontakt'. It works to me somehow when connected to the Casio keyboard with weighted keys - at least when using some very special 'velocity' settings. Blofeld's e-piano sounds can react really weirdly when pressing keys unproperly. Same Roland patches. It almost feels lika a new instrument to learn and practise each time for me.

I am glad I could provide some enjoyable moments for you. Thank you for nice words!

hi Dave!

Thank you so much for listening and a nice review!

Do not worry - I won't lose the connection with the proper rhythm (I just acquired a mechanical metronome ha!) and definitely will go somewhere further with swinging eights for sure in latin styles next days (I have few days exclusively for myself and much space as well as some perspectives on eventual developing subtleties in playing yay!).

I simply need more time to internalize the proper variations of different 'rhythm patterns' in latin styles. I am practising both comping and soloing at the moment (ok, just simple 251 licks and basic pentatonic runs exercises when comping same time lol).

I am practising 16th note funk grooves as well but this is an another story. I am far away to get the proper swing of 16th notes. Those are 2 separated and very different things (I mean latin and funk). I am still struggling with connecting rhythm ideas.

I am happy you liked my track!

Alex

hey Ronabo! thanks for nice review. I like your playing too! I simply played everything from the sheet piano arrangement but I also plan to develop an improvisational soloing skills. Lot to learn ahead haha

Glad you enjoyed the song.

Best, Alex

hey Mykael

I'm happy you liked this little recording!

I plan to incorporate more stylistical jazz elements into my playing and will be uploading more stuff like this to looperman - we can always do a collab when the genre is jazz.

Thank you for nice words!

Best to you, Alex