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Alone in Space

You are alone in the spacecraft. It is your turn for the solitary night shift as your companions are fast asleep. As the ship circles Terra you are amazed at the beauty of your planet. Yet you wonder will the natives kill this wonderful world? Your timer rings thus it’s time to get back at your job but you will be back at this viewing station shortly.

This piece tries to captures those moments in music. The beauty, the doubt, the panic of seeing this destroyed by evil as the sounds of space moan in the background.

The BiaB style used was _M16SPNO.

1-the bass track was deleted, I played the bass
2-the piano track was duplicated with one sounds being an EP and pad
3-the drums are virbatim
4-both the guitar and strings tracks were converted to pad sounds
5- I played the guitar part using a midi controller Casio strat. The guitar signal went into Amplitude 3 while the midi signal was sent to a soft synth
6- I played some sections on my keyboard midi controller

I hope you like it.

Very cinematic, I liked it a lot. Thanks for sharing Mario.

I could visualize your story
listening to the "soundtrack".
Very well done.

Guenter

Nice, Mario! You continue to be quite "cinematic". Cool stuff all over the place. Love the pads and your guitar! (though from 2.25 - 2.45 I thought it got a little "too wordy" - if that makes sense - though that may have been the evil guys..)

Great mix, too.

floyd

Nice work again Mario. Very tastefully and cleverly put together. The choice of guitar patch/tone was just right.

"Telstar" (60s pop instrumental) meets "Atmospheres" (by Ligeti, from 2001: A Space Odyssey). Fairly brilliant, my friend. I like it for pushing outside of the boundaries of BIAB, both in terms of added instrumentation as well as breaking away from the pop-sounding stuff that is often typical. (I'm as guilty of that as anyone.) Loved the synth work, especially the choir patch. Please, sir, may I have more?

Very evocative! My only thought is that it would be very effective to drop the guitar for a bit, and let the pads take over. It might not match the "storyline", but it would be a good contrast. I liked how you used the bass, yet didn't swamp the mix in mud.

Anyway, very nicely played and put together.

You captured the feeling exactly....I dno't know how I can say that..not sure anyone of us has ever been in this exact situation! Very creative use of all the tools and real open-minded thinking about where the music can go. My only comment is that, in some spots, the drum sounded a little too drum-tracky...but, at the end, complimented yoour build-up just right. Yes, more please!!

3001 Space Odyssey. Nice aural texture.

hi MarioD guitar sounds great what are you useing and effects and i love the peace very creative thanks eric

That took me back to making M3 CD's, utilizing two Korg Oasys PCI Sound Cards in one computer, as well as music keyboard "mastery" utilizing my Karma Keyboard...all of
this chiming in with my Triton Keyboard, etc.

...and of course my Roland G-303 Synth/Jazz Guitar.

I thought you might (half way through) blast in with your Casio Synth Guitar...like
Pat Metheny (or me), would shake the rafters as we take "Alone In Space" home!

Great Job, as always.....

KARMA (Kay Algorithmic Realtime Music Architecture) is a parameter-based approach to generating musical effects, rather than a musical data based approach. It is not a system that plays back prerecorded MIDI phrases through Note Transposition Tables, like most arranger systems (or phrase generation systems). However, it is also not a system where you set up parameters, press a button, and sit back and listen to the "music" it generates. It is not the type of system that is supposed to "evolve" a piece all by itself, according to parameter settings. One of the ideas behind KARMA is that the user is always in control of how the music is generated. If you want the rhythmic complexity to increase at a certain point, well then, you hook up the parameter(s) that can cause that to happen to a real-time control, and you twist it at the point that you want it to happen. Although a timeline kind of input control could be a possibility in the future, the basic idea of KARMA presently is real-time. (And actually, you can achieve the timeline kind of thing simply by recording your control movements into a sequencer. But again, the user determines what changes and when it changes.) You cause it to start by triggering it – you determine which notes it plays and in which key by the input notes you give it. You determine when it changes activity or settings by changing the parameters at a certain point – be it a scene change (which can change a whole slew of parameters at the same time), or moving one parameter.

In its simplest form, this "parameter-based approach" is similar to what we have come to expect from the term "arpeggiator": you play some notes on a keyboard, you have a few parameters you can adjust, and notes come out in some kind of pattern. For those who must compare KARMA to an arpeggiator, I like to say that KARMA is like "multiple arpeggiators on steroids, after being given adrenaline injections, and doing LSD." Really, I feel it has very little in common with any conventional arpeggiators, and I think you will agree after reading the architecture description that follows. But if it makes you comfortable to think of KARMA as "an arpeggiator on steroids", then by all means do so. It can certainly arpeggiate, in just about any flavor known to man, if that’s what you’re looking for.

How about Karma integrated into the music already possible for the BIAB?

I was gonna say Space Odyssey but all y'all already did. I'll just say awesome.

BTW, we're never alone... jus' sayin'. ;-)

Thanx all for listening and the very kind comments. Again this genre of music is not very common on this forum. I like to show that BiaB is not just limited to jazz, country, bluegrass and pop and that with a little imagination you can change virtually any style into something totally different. Thank you Dr. Gannon for such a versatile piece of software!

Floyd – I did try to deviate from staring out the window scenario to doing your work during that time span. Maybe I over did it?

David – I never thought of that but having the pads take over makes a lot of sense now. I’ll remember that for my next song like this. Thanx!

F.M.M. – my guitar is through Amplitude 3 preset Blues JTM with GR-EQ, Right Fizz and Echo Man as effects. These all come with the purchased version of Amplitude.

Don – of course you are correct. By alone I meant away from other humans!

Surreal and edgy arrangement. Good job Mario.

Thank you Josie for listening and the very kind comments.

Mario,

This one belongs in a movie. Very nice all around...

Bob