Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[AMR]

Try this one:

http://forum.nk.free.fr/GeeJee.-.Memories.Of.Orange.mp3

High Quality = Large File Alert

K,

It was faster to download than to listen to... WTF, 9 mins?
Trend is getting smaller (trick is dividing it in parts).

Now for the review...

Well, sounds like if a DX7/SineWave fourier synth is all over the place.
Sound very warm except in the low octave range... whereas sines need a lot more power to bring in impact.

Now... where are you going with this?
If just improvising... nice... but the EPiano could use a bit more "space" from far left to far right, and reverb is robbing it of it... so it sounds "back there".

Very nice and impressive lightneing fast chromatic/bluesy fingering run up's and downs, but where are you going with it? BTW, I assume you have a light keyboard (not wood/hammered one) for the trills on single key you do at one point... A heavy key takes longer to release... on a wood really heavy progressive keyboard. :-p

I like the CS80 like "stabs", though they sound "FM'ish" too, nothing agaist that, but a bit of dirt add's an edge.

All sounds a bit monochordic too a point where you drop a chord (but not the bass) and still play the same scale... and again, the keyboard is too light for your talent, dinamics distort your intention (the passing notes sound louder than the preceding or landing one).

As for percussion, get's a bit by... except the bass drum pattern and the IRRITATING hi-hat, not that it is that irritating, but pan it back left.

You once told me your could do better than:


http://files.alvaromrocha.com/videos/am ... peste.html


Which ain't hard, but better ain't more. Better is ... er... better.

I like the way you travel at the end through alternative minor progressions, but still the FM sound is too.. er... aliased... I don't know what you used, but strongly recommend FM7 (native) BUT at 96khz so the down octaves sound more... er... less aliased (with no hiss and lack of bottom end).

So:

Where are you going with it?
What's the purpose? To show off your technical habilities, use acoustic dinamics and a heavy keyboard, to go "jazzy", you need more swing and a bass that goes of scale and not a scale that goes off bass... the light keys also affect the swing and overall "speed" balance in some runs.

That said, I've enjoyed the overall quality a lot, but it's not sticking to my ear as your previous ones where the audio/space issue was cleary over the notes per/second issue.

The talent is there alright, now temper it.

Kind Regards,
AMR
http://www.alvaromrocha.com

[GeeJee]

I don't know what you used, but strongly recommend FM7 (native) BUT at 96khz so the down octaves sound more... er... less aliased (with no hiss and lack of bottom end).

Sample-based... (JD800)...

Where are you going with it?

It was just a jam...

the light keys also affect the swing and overall "speed" balance in some runs

Well, I'd like a weighted keyboard, but... you know... 'money, money, money.. isn't funny... in the rich men's world'...

Thanks for your opinion..

[BnM]

Music is first & foremost about spirit.
Capturing a moment in spirit.

Technical details matter very little where spirit is concerned.

This simple concept is infact very hard for a lot of people to grasp
simply because they lack a grasp of what "spirit" entails.

Well done GeeJee with MoO.

[Velodynamic]

I have had this file on my desktop for a while now and after I've listening to it a couple of times I can clearly hear some "Jan Hammer moves".
Some CS80, Vangelis like strokes here and there. Are you sure you wasn't inspired of the GOL album?
I'm not into Jazz and for me this is "Jazzy". I understand this is a middle-of-the-night jam, cause I'm just getting very confused by the melody. As soon as I've heard the piece my head is completely emty...not a single "memory of orange" is left there, not even a tone. That's very strange and unusual, so I can gratulate you for that.
I can't complain over the technical part. The sound is allright for me.

[AMR]

Music is first & foremost about spirit.
Capturing a moment in spirit.

Technical details matter very little where spirit is concerned.

This simple concept is infact very hard for a lot of people to grasp
simply because they lack a grasp of what "spirit" entails.

Well done GeeJee with MoO.

Everytime I hear Vangelis's "Missing" or the last track in "Antarctica" (Deliverance) I am so so sorry he used such a lame "piano" sound... the songs are awsome, but due to that, I rarely listen to them... Or China's album opening "Chung Kuo" which is brilliant looses to that high pitched solo koto-like-violin-like-screaming whatever it is...

To me, audio and sound matter, as much as the melody.
If you are whistling, and someone is whistling the same as you but does it with more "vibrato" and "dinamics", and both whistle the same "music"... guess which I'll prefer?

Both things go hand in hand, audio and melody, they add up.
It's not natural in an orchestra to ask a tuba to play in a flute register, now is it? For the same reason the EPiano "sample" sounds harsh in low octaves (the DX7 won't. it will sound warm, because it's generating the sound in realtime, with sinewaves, it's not sampled and mapped, as will FM7 at 96khz for the calculations it performs at that speed won't allows for aliasing).

The music would be same, but it would sound... er... like there was care for the sound, which is part of the expressiveness of the musician, and his responsability too, to express what he wants the best way he feels he can, and sound does that - I don't mean audio engineering, I mean attack, sustain, modelation, byte, impact, in sum: sense.

Geejee did a good work, the JD800 is imposing limitations, and that, to me, is a bad thing, it should be expanding horizons. :-p (Don't use it for the EPiano, or dinamic piano-like fingering (velocity), use what it's good for, synth sounds, creative velocity and design them to fit your "jamm") - that's what I ment... not that it was bad, it's not, by all means, it's pleasant and dark, but it's not pushiing my buttons, and I know GeeJee can push'em - he did, he will do it again, this is just a Jam for Pete's sake. Not a court.

Kind Regards,
AMR
http://www.alvaromrocha.com

[BnM]

True Inspiration is such
that it has neither beginning nor end.
It is a point outside of time.

To be able to translate that Point into a form
: whether music, painting, poetry, sculputre or any art format ... is what its about.


As regards whether one rarely listens or not to an excellent piece of music
due to the sounds used
says more about the listener : how open & "out of the box" they are
in their listening, perceptions, and ability to grasp the "spirit" of the music.


With Art Form that is True
No buttons need to be pushed for anyone.
Since this Truth comes from deep inside the artist and as such has its own beauty.

Whether other persons can perceive this Truth, will again depend
on that other persons capacity for Truth in Art Form.