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#678288 10/18/21 05:21 PM
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The Dioxin Waltz

https://soundcloud.com/mark_hayes/the-dioxin-waltz

This is created by me under the influence of American composer Charles Ives. It is polyrhythmic and polytonal to beat the band, and the band is in the box, as described below. It is loud and noisy.

It is based on a MIDI sequence of “Cogs In Cogs” by the great prog band Gentle Giant (https://freemidi.org/download3-3459-cogs-in-cogs-gentle-giants) but inverted, scale-quantized, rearranged, and otherwise mutilated before feeding to Band-in-a-Box, which extruded Bass, Guitar, and Drums. The final product is so thoroughly transformed as to be unable to repel my attempts to claim it as my own.

For guitar, bass, drums, piano, organ, 2 violins, and recorder, all virtual, using BIAB and Logic.

BIAB Song Summary *************
Style is _THRASH1.STY
RealTracks in style: ~387:Bass, Electric, Metal Ev 085
RealTracks in style: 642:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm HardRockThrashHollow Ev 085
RealDrums in Style: RockThrashHalfTimeEv16^1-a:Snare, Bell Ride , b:Snare, Crash Ride

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I half imagined it starting with
"The night they drove Dioxin down..."
My favourite GG album is the much maligned Interview.
This may be a mutation but I can hear/feel the origins.
I like it... the chugging guitar is a constant and gives everything else a jumping off point.
COOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

Last edited by rayc; 10/19/21 11:50 AM.

Cheers
rayc
"What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
rayc #678416 10/19/21 01:36 PM
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Originally Posted By: rayc
I half imagined it starting with
"The night they drove Dioxin down..."
My favourite GG album is the much maligned Interview.
This may be a mutation but I can hear/feel the origins.
I like it... the chugging guitar is a constant and gives everything else a jumping off point.
COOOOOOOOOOOOOOL


Hey, thanks, I was all set for a no-commenter with this rude baby.

I've had that GG MIDI around for years, played with it once or twice, but never thought to try any kind of rearrangement. I mean, what would be the point? It's something I would never have bothered with without BIAB, BIAB completely reconfigures the space of possibility for MIDI noodlers such as I.

The addition of that chugging BIAB guitar band gives this something of a late King Crimson flavor, I think.

PS – "Interview" has its crud but "I Lost My Head" has always been one of my favorite tracks. The final bridge to the closing headbanger section is as good as bridges get, and that guitar figure following "took my time / and I didn't rush in to anything" is a mini-masterpiece.

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Okay, this is up there on the most creative use of BIAB, beyond my imaginations. Great work.


Frank

Some tunes from me and my collaborator: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvGqM6ktMW5ltTnyit1KWPg/videos


Band-in-a-Box Ultrapak 2019, Windows 11, Reaper, Behringer u-phoria UMC404HD, Kali LP-8
Frankp #678428 10/19/21 03:25 PM
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Originally Posted By: Frankp
Okay, this is up there on the most creative use of BIAB, beyond my imaginations. Great work.


Thank you!

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I think I would like to self-comment on the making of material such as this.

I experiment a lot. I post a lot here but people, you have no idea how much I trash. I am your Last Line of Defense for what of mine makes it to this forum, and I take that responsibility seriously.

So here is a Proposed Primary Compositional Aid.

If you create a polyphonic / dissonant / "modern" composition with multiple parts / lines / voices, ask: Can my listener HEAR each individual part? They may have to try, but if they try, can they do that?

If the answer is NO, that may be fine. That kind of isolation may not be essential to overall value.

But if the answer is YES, that is definitely fine.

What suggests to me that this piece, "The Dioxin Waltz", is hopefully not just a bunch of random poop, is that I have, I think, put it all together and produced it so that you can track individual voices even within a very dense musical pea soup.

I think that is a value unto itself.

And that is my thought, on this particular occasion.

It's my version of, "I can only tell the story in my heart."

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This is certainly an... interesting bit of music.

Despite the harmonic collisions, the mix is clear and has direction.


-- David Cuny

My virtual singer development blog
Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?

BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
dcuny #678491 10/20/21 03:17 AM
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Originally Posted By: dcuny
This is certainly an... interesting bit of music.

Despite the harmonic collisions, the mix is clear and has direction.


Thanks, I hope!

My current artistic mission is to rule the "Interesting" genre.

The main advantage being that if people like something in that category, they'll call it "interesting", and if they can't stand it, they'll still probably call it "interesting", so it's win/win. =8^)

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Hi Mark,

I hoped the song wasn't an instrumental. Some experimental singing on it would have been wonderful...
I read Ray's post "the night they drove..." and that made me very curious, because the original song I like a lot.
Your song is a bit difficult for me. It's a psychedelic kind of song with repeating sounds in it that are not out of tune, but do tease my nerves. But I heard this kind of song a lot more through the years, so there is a market for it. And your song has very bright sounding instruments. I listened to the whole song, Mark!
But you guess it right; not really my cup of tea.

Have a nice day and stay healthy,
Hans


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Originally Posted By: Birchwood

I hoped the song wasn't an instrumental. Some experimental singing on it would have been wonderful...
I read Ray's post "the night they drove..." and that made me very curious, because the original song I like a lot.
Your song is a bit difficult for me. It's a psychedelic kind of song with repeating sounds in it that are not out of tune, but do tease my nerves. But I heard this kind of song a lot more through the years, so there is a market for it. And your song has very bright sounding instruments. I listened to the whole song, Mark!
But you guess it right; not really my cup of tea.


Hans, I am honored and grateful that you listened to the whole thing! I see you even put a comment on SoundCloud at 2:01 – right before the end at 2:02 – to prove it! =8^)

Seriously, I very much appreciate both your interest and your comment.

I did have the idea of inviting vocalists to join in, but it'll always be a long way from "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (probably my favorite Band song.)

This is the original Gentle Giant song, from their album "The Power and the Glory", it may or may not be more to your liking than my mutation of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gV3kSY8FAw

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Hi Mark,

You gave a great answer. grin
Thanks!!

Hans


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Sorry my pun "The Night They Drove Dioxin Down" has misdirected...I'm an old man & puns amuse me.


Cheers
rayc
"What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
rayc #678579 10/21/21 12:25 AM
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Originally Posted By: rayc
Sorry my pun "The Night They Drove Dioxin Down" has misdirected...I'm an old man & puns amuse me.


I knew it, I knew it!

Sorry Mark, but i had to respond to that guy from down under...
Hans


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Originally Posted By: Birchwood
I hoped the song wasn't an instrumental. Some experimental singing on it would have been wonderful...


Here you go, then, from my upcoming Christmas album!

https://soundcloud.com/mark_hayes/dioxin-vox-atmos

I took out all the BIAB stuff and have been fooling around with Logic 10.7 and Dolby Atmos.

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Whoa!
Lots goin on there!

Not sure I can digest this, it's like a giant smorgasbord of music.

moto

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