# There's fashionably late, and then there's............



## Krisemm (Aug 1, 2017)

.......arriving and replying to an 11 year old post 

I've been online a long time, but for some reason, I'd never seen VI Control until today.

I record as Carbinax. Some may possibly know me as 2ndMOUSE.
I've released 10 albums of electronica that aimed to be 50 parts experimentation and 50 parts melody.
Im now composing specifically for music libraries, and have recently abandoned facebook, with no plans to return. 

Im an avid collector of VSTs and currently have over 1500 ( all legal ), and reaktor ensembles.

Good to be here, albeit very late to the party


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## jonathanparham (Aug 1, 2017)

welcome


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## CGR (Aug 1, 2017)

Krisemm said:


> .......arriving and replying to an 11 year old post
> 
> I've been online a long time, but for some reason, I'd never seen VI Control until today.
> 
> ...


Welcome - looking forward to hearing some of your music. BTW, I like the crop circle graphic you've used for your profile.


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## Krisemm (Aug 1, 2017)

CGR said:


> Welcome - looking forward to hearing some of your music. BTW, I like the crop circle graphic you've used for your profile.




Thanks. Never considered my logo looking like crop circles before 

I tried to put a link to my music in my sig but wasn't allowed as the spam filter went into buzzkill mode, but i think its in that lil section under my avatar.


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## CGR (Aug 1, 2017)

Maybe it's a subconscious thing. It reminded me of this formation which appeared a few years ago in England:


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## Krisemm (Aug 1, 2017)

CGR said:


> Maybe it's a subconscious thing. It reminded me of this formation which appeared a few years ago in England:




Ok I confess......it was me. It was the only cost effective way I could think of to promote my albums.


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## Krisemm (Aug 1, 2017)

my music lives here --->10 albums at www.carbinax.bandcamp.com

similar ballpark to Plaid, Boards of Canada, Orbital etc...


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## CGR (Aug 2, 2017)

Krisemm said:


> Ok I confess......it was me. It was the only cost effective way I could think of to promote my albums.


Aha! Mystery solved. Now, if only someone could explain to me the Pyramids of Giza . . .


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## CGR (Aug 2, 2017)

Krisemm said:


> my music lives here --->10 albums at www.carbinax.bandcamp.com
> 
> similar ballpark to Plaid, Boards of Canada, Orbital etc...


Just listening to some tracks as I type this. Wow . . . so many great ideas going on - wonderful stuff!


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## Krisemm (Aug 2, 2017)

CGR said:


> Just listening to some tracks as I type this. Wow . . . so many great ideas going on - wonderful stuff!



Thanks. Much appreciated. Its creative and I enjoy having a "what does this button do?" kinda attitude, but I'm now having to dial that back and make more practical / functional music like stings, beds, and proper cues, so although I'd love to keep going, that kinda stuff doesn't put food on the table because the market is just so completely saturated, so Reset was my last publicly available album and im just targetting music libraries now.


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## CGR (Aug 2, 2017)

Yeah, as much as I love multi-layered arrangements, many times the simple statement is what cuts through and is memorable. Many years ago my first boss in a graphic design company told me that intentionally restricting your palatte (_"What if I gave you 3 colours to work with instead of 48?"_) often forces your to distill a stronger idea into something with more integrity (less is more, blah blah blah), but I feel this approach is valid in many areas of the arts, and life in general.


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## Krisemm (Aug 2, 2017)

yeah I get that totally. I always refer to the beatles because they were masters of simple arrangements, and even though they didn't have anything near what we have now, they still outsell everything. Their melodies were as simple as nursery rhymes and they stick. In electronic music, melody is pretty much an afterthought a lot of the time, and I think "yeah great production, nice snare....very slick....wheres the melody?" and never listen again.

I do really admire artists like Biosphere, or The Blue Nile, who have minimalism down to a fine art. Music is sometimes just as much about the space and air between the notes, as the notes themselves


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## CGR (Aug 2, 2017)

Krisemm said:


> yeah I get that totally. I always refer to the beatles because they were masters of simple arrangements, and even though they didn't have anything near what we have now, they still outsell everything. Their melodies were as simple as nursery rhymes and they stick. In electronic music, melody is pretty much an afterthought a lot of the time, and I think "yeah great production, nice snare....very slick....wheres the melody?" and never listen again.
> 
> I do really admire artists like Biosphere, or The Blue Nile, who have minimalism down to a fine art. Music is sometimes just as much about the space and air between the notes, as the notes themselves


Yes, I think about this more and more given we are exposed/inundated/saturated with music, noise, imagery, stuff, opinions and lies so often. If I hear another incessant faux-orchestral/epic drums music bed under a reality TV show I think I'll throw my dog at the screen (not really, but maybe a shoe). By the way, if you're interested in minimalist music with soul, check out this band I've been a fan of for years:


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## Krisemm (Aug 2, 2017)

I like that. very simple and uncomplicated, but very potent. For some reason the vocalist reminds me of Billy McKenzie of the smashing pumpkins.
Kinda reminds me of this too...one of my favourites from the 80s


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## Krisemm (Aug 2, 2017)

CGR said:


> Yes, I think about this more and more given we are exposed/inundated/saturated with music, noise, imagery, stuff, opinions and lies so often. If I hear another incessant faux-orchestral/epic drums music bed under a reality TV show I think I'll throw my dog at the screen (not really, but maybe a shoe). By the way, if you're interested in minimalist music with soul, check out this band I've been a fan of for years:



I just had a look at your website. I can play a bit of piano...just simple triads mostly, and I program notes in and alter velocity, timings and stuff to make it sound more human.
Is there anything you'd recommend for someone who doesnt read music, to build a more advanced working knowledge of interesting chord progressions ? 
I play completely by ear, and most of the time I build chords a note at a time in a piano roll, but couldn't actually play them. I dont do notation at all, and prefer seeing those keyboard-with-dots pictures rather than all that quaver-stave-clef stuff.


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## CGR (Aug 2, 2017)

Krisemm said:


> I just had a look at your website. I can play a bit of piano...just simple triads mostly, and I program notes in and alter velocity, timings and stuff to make it sound more human.
> Is there anything you'd recommend for someone who doesnt read music, to build a more advanced working knowledge of interesting chord progressions ?
> I play completely by ear, and most of the time I build chords a note at a time in a piano roll, but couldn't actually play them. I dont do notation at all, and prefer seeing those keyboard-with-dots pictures rather than all that quaver-stave-clef stuff.


Being able to read notation certainly helps, and I've learnt a lot by pulling apart chord voicings and harmonic movement in printed music. I've been inspired the last few years by the late Swedish Pianist Esbjörn Svensson, and his trio E.S.T. Have a listen to the first piece in this live clip (Seven Days of Falling) and take note of how he builds subtle harmonic movement as the tune develops. A very 'open' sound, where he maintains a chord/triad and changes the motion of the root note to cycle though different shades of sound. A lot of this can come about simply by playing shapes on the keyboard, and experimenting without thinking about the theory of it all (although the theory will certainly fast track your understanding in achieving what you hear in your head). I'll sometimes play piano with my eyes closed, and I often surprise myself by only letting my ears and hands guide me.


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## CGR (Aug 2, 2017)

Krisemm said:


> I like that. very simple and uncomplicated, but very potent. For some reason the vocalist reminds me of Billy McKenzie of the smashing pumpkins.
> Kinda reminds me of this too...one of my favourites from the 80s



Yeah, I can hear the similarities. Those big reverb-y 80's drums and synths haven't dated well unfortunately


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## CGR (Aug 2, 2017)

One final thing before I shut down the laptop - here's a short idea I wrote yesterday, using the same approach of alternate root notes, and harmonic related changes (so a little bit of conscious theory at work when I played it). The piano part was improvised in one take, and the other sounds added later. Soundcloud's conversion has flattened the sound somehow, but you'll get the idea:


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## higgs (Aug 2, 2017)

It's like you're writing music for silent films... 

Try reposting the link?


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## mc_deli (Aug 2, 2017)

CGR said:


> Aha! Mystery solved. Now, if only someone could explain to me the Pyramids of Giza . . .


Well, I was having a cup of tea the other day... and... the rest is history!

Welcome Carbi!


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## CGR (Aug 2, 2017)

higgs said:


> It's like you're writing music for silent films...
> 
> Try reposting the link?


Hmmmm . . . is the Soundcloud file not displaying in my post? I can see & play it here.


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## Krisemm (Aug 2, 2017)

mc_deli said:


> Well, I was having a cup of tea the other day... and... the rest is history!
> 
> Welcome Carbi!



I think the pyramids were made by Paul Gascoigne

No..wait..I thought it said Pyramids of Gazza


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## Krisemm (Aug 2, 2017)

CGR said:


> Hmmmm . . . is the Soundcloud file not displaying in my post? I can see & play it here.



Its playin fine for me. Very nice Ivory chops !!

* also, soundcloud streams at 128kb. Hasn't evolved from dial-up.

Try www.hearthis.at 
Its half the price of soundcloud for a pro membership. Waaaaay mmore customizable. Same waveform display / comments setup. They made "groups" the same week soundcloud butchered theirs. And.....if you want, you can stream at full lossless quality...like 24 bit 48 files. 
Heres my profile so you can get a look at it. I had about 30 tracks but i deleted all but 4 of 'em

https://hearthis.at/carinax/


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## higgs (Aug 2, 2017)

CGR said:


> Hmmmm . . . is the Soundcloud file not displaying in my post? I can see & play it here.


Oh whoops! My ad blocker must not like soundcloud.


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## CGR (Aug 3, 2017)

Krisemm said:


> Its playin fine for me. Very nice Ivory chops !!
> 
> * also, soundcloud streams at 128kb. Hasn't evolved from dial-up.
> 
> ...


Thanks for listening. BTW, the La Campanella track on my pianoproducer Soundcloud page is from an old classical piano MIDI collection I bought years ago. I'd need some serious woodshedding to get my skills up to that level. The other Soundcloud pieces are played by me, along with all the demos on www.pianoproducer.com (except the Demo B Rachmaninoff piece for Piano no. 2). Also, I didn't realise Soundcloud was still at 128kb - thanks for the hearthis info & link.


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