I got played on Radio Caroline the other night!

mike65

...and I did'nt even hear it!

I e-mailed Rob Leighton who prsents the Imagination show on a Thurday night a few weeks back, he sounded a little
non-commital in his reply but then this morning he sent a note saying a track of mine had been played on Thursday following a Frank Zappa tune.

Damn, famous for 5 mins and I missed it all!

Mike.

Gordon

Have you got some kind of link to your song? If so you can be famous for even longer on boards.ie!

mike65

I'm not even sure which song he played (I'm waiting he hear from him again), but it came from my page on besonic-
www.besonic.com/futuremusiccorp
and I'm guessing he chose the track "Nebulea".

Its a kind of space-ambient thing, sounds exellent in stereo, so make sure you download it!

Mike.

Gordon

That's great Mike, very Vaggelis as I'm sure you've been told. It could be longer with some more themes in my opinion but as it stands is a great soundscape.

Bah 5 minutes of fame, at least you know what your 5 minutes of fame sounded like, some people don't... maybe.

Talking about Vaggelis, I went to a recording studio in Greece and the Engineer said that Vaggelis recorded there some years back and had never touched a set of drums before. He got on the drums and played some beats like a seasoned drummer. It could be bollix as that can happen over there, but it amazed me at the time.

mike65

Funny you should mention drumming, I cant well not in midi anyway thats why, if I use a beat at all its just a loop or two.
That said if I had a real kit in front of me I'd proberly fancy myself as the next Bonzo or Moon...:) as for Vangelis yep I sound a bit like him insofar as his quieter stuff is concerned, my latest "IceAge" is very Blade Runner-ish.

Mike.

Gordon

ye, midi sounds crappy on drums but if you import the sounds into your sound editing program and feck them up with eq and reverb and phaze and reverse etc etc you can get them less midi sounding.

Your stuff would really benefit from some drum sounds, be it ride cymbals or percussion. But perhaps only after the listener has relaxed into the tune.

You've got to try it and then, who knows, maybe someone could give you some similar sounding loops. Maybe that's one theme that I feel that you are missing. When you play with midi drums it is a real "imagination" music where one has to "imagine" what the composer means when he plays it but heck you've got to get it out there into the world. Ever heard of Ozric tentacles, if not try downloading some.

Get your drums up there and lets see what we can do for you.


[edit -- is your stuff done only on midi Mike? if so what exact system do you use?]

mike65

Orzic Testicles yep I've heard of them!, I spotted a tape going cheap one day (Jurassic Shift) and though at that point I'd only heard of them I took a chance and was quite glad I did.

If I've had one steady criticism of my work its been "why dont you use more rythmic/percussive elements on your music?" and they're right but I'm lazy and I just find it hard work, whereas I can doodle a ambient melody in my sleep which is proberly my problem...

My kit is purely inside the PC, except for a Korg X5DR module,
and my creation process is either to play into midi then turn to audio or to go straight to audio, it depends on what sound source I'm using (I use demo gear alot, which usually has midi in/out crippled). My gear list is to be viewed along with everything else you need to know at my home page below. Take a look, I need the hit counter to look a little more healthy!.

Mike.

francie brady

Radio Caroline play Frank Zappa?????

punk

what's the Radio Caroline frequency ?

mike65

Punk, I was wondering if someone was going to bring that up!

It depends where you live and/or if you have a Sky dish, I live in Waterford and its availible in the city on 102.4 FM, the signal is as far as I can tell, being relayed by an ex-ABC guy (I could be wrong but I don't think so, as some Caroline guys know some of the old ABC chaps). The signal is also on Sky, reception details at the link below.

http://www.radiocaroline.de/reception.htm

Gordon

Yes, sorry Scon I guess I should have made myself clear. Quicktime Midi drums sound pants. Obviously if you have your own synths and sounds you can get great sounds, or even samples triggered by Midi. Midi is great I use it a lot and I even used quicktime midi sounds for a pro recording believe it or not.

At the end of the day midi is just numbers, just like we are... wooooooo twilight zone muzac....