malcolmb
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A Lament
I must admit I hesitated before posting this new piece and video as I have no wish to offend anyone. The views expressed pictorially in the video are mine and mine alone and I am not posting it in any way to seek to influence or change your views. It is simply a personal statement of my sadness at the environmental damage done to our lovely Planet. Even if you do not agree with the sentiment, I hope you still enjoy the music and as always, any advice as to how the music and mix can be improved will be greatly appreciated. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G80FzOXP1Nw Best Regards Malcolm
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Freddy J
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Hi Malcolmb. The music and video complement each other very well and certainly make a statement. Having been in the environmental field for almost 40 years, I can appreciate the sentiment.
Well done.
Freddy J
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morenoise
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Hi Malcolm, this is a hauntingly beautiful lament. It's inherent sadness is unfortunately precisely reflected in the pictures. The truth hurts.
Rik
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drumstixkev
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Hi Malcolm
I agree with Rik the truth hurts. The piece is very well written. I couldn't stop watching the video only because of your music. FINE JOB!
Kev
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malcolmb
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Hi Freddy J - Sincere thanks and I take off my hat to you; 40 years in what I am sure has often been a thankless but so crucial vocation is humbling.
Hi Rik - Sincere thanks and as always, you sum up the whole matter perfectly in just a few precisely pertinent words. And I know only too well that I have no right to cast the first stone.
Hi Kev - Sincere thanks and so very pleased you liked it.
Best Regards
Malcolm
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Purple Rhapsody
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Hi Malcolm,
The composition is superb and combined with the pictures really tug at the heart strings.
I was wondering what package you use for the 'cello? It could do with being smoothed out a bit but obviously that's only possible with higher priced sampler packages.
Just wonderful.
Thanks for sharing,
Terry.
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malcolmb
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Hi Terry - Sincere thanks and so very pleased you liked it. In fact, the 'cello' is a solo violin (!) although I fully understand why it could very easily be taken for a cello. It is a VSL solo violin with just a little reverb. I very rarely use VSL as I find the samples rather raw in sound but on this occasion, I wanted that rawness. I am sure this rawness comes primarily from my lack of knowledge in how to use complicated soft synths like VSL in which there are a huge number of facilities that I have no idea what they mean! The last time I tried playing with them, Sonar froze and went into a sulk that lasted two days before I could get it going again! Hence why I now approach VSL with considerable trepidation!
Best Regards
Malcolm
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Purple Rhapsody
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Ooops... now I've shown my complete ignorance of orchestral instruments to the world!!! lol :-$
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Wookiee
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 There is but one thing wrong with this world, it walks on two legs and considers its self to be the superior race.  The music made by some makes some measure of compensation. Thanks for sharing
Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain.
Karma has a way of finding its own way home.
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Janet
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I agree this is quite beautiful and very well done. Perhaps Terry thought the violin was a cello because it was played in the lower registers. I could have been fooled too. You can achieve the smoothness he mentioned with some CC work (cc 1 or cc 11). If that's Greek to you, like it was to me until a short while ago, I'll try to explain it.
Anyway, a beautiful composition!
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BretB
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Humans are the superior race to have produced such a beautiful piece of music. Nice work Malcomb.
Sonar Platinum - A&H ZED R16 - KRK VXT4's - Yamaha DTXpress IV & Gretsch Catalina Maple kits "Music is what feelings sound like" https://soundcloud.com/bret575b
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malcolmb
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Hi Wookie - Sincere thanks and totally concur - I am sure it would do the human race the world of good to go back to the trees for a few millennium - assuming there are any left by then!
Hi Janet - Sincere thanks and I would be very interested in and most grateful for any advice you can offer. Suggest by PM when you have the time.
Hi BretB - Sincere thanks and very much agree there are just a few things that make we humans worthwhile! But I don't know of any composer who has come even close to the beauty of a Nightingale singing.
Best Regards
Malcolm
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bapu
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Evocative to say the least Malcomb.
Nicely done.
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malcolmb
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Hi bapu - Sincere thanks and so very pleased you liked it.
Best Regards
Malcolm
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Scottytunes
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Lovely piece Malcolm. It fits the video well. It's sad to see the oil slick and its victims. The other pollution was hard to take also.
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malcolmb
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Hi Scotty - Sincere thanks. Odd thing is that I started writing the music as a "Mort d'Arthur" for part of an Arthurian cycle. But after chatting to my Druid friends at the weekend about the meaning of life (concluded "42" was certainly a possible answer but lacked precision!) and the state of the world, universe and everything, the piece evolved into something even more bleak - and perhaps relevant!
Best Regards
Malcolm
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Chappel
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Very well put together tune. I'm sure the mice and dolphins would approve.
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malcolmb
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Hi Chappel - Sincere thanks and I very much hope the only two truly intelligent species of this planet that you mention do approve - and agree to take me with them when they evacuate the planet in I suspect the very near future!
Best Regards
Malcolm
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guitartrek
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Very nice job. The instrumentation was superb. You certainly captured the emotions in the song and the images.
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SteveStrummerUK
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Hi Malcolm
This is a beautiful, evocative, melancholy piece.
It complements the mood perfectly for the images you've set it to, although it stands up on its own as a powerful passage of music.
Steve
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malcolmb
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Hi Geno - Sincere thanks. I do try and put emotion into this sort of music when I write it and I am extremely grateful for your comment that it does come through.
Hi Steve - Sincere thanks. I suppose music is all about mood and I was certainly rather melancholy when I wrote this piece and produced the video - difficult not to be with the subject. But I have cheered up since - possibly!
Best Regards
Malcolm
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chasmcg
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malcolmb
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Hi chasmcg - Sincere thanks.
Best Regards
Malcolm
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mgh
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lovely tune Malcolm. Just listened, didn't watch the vid. This is a very cinematic piece, y'know, Frodo thinks Gandalf is dead, Dobby the elf is buried, t'pit closes in Brassed Off...for me the solo violin is a little loud and 'synthy' but i wouldn't have a clue where to start in terms of CC info to alter...nice to hear one of yours outside the Celtic genre, too!
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malcolmb
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Hi Mark - Sincere thanks. (Gandalf I can cope with, but please don't tell me Dobby is dead. He isn't, is he? Weep, Weep!) You are completely right about the solo violin but I suppose I mixed it with the video in mind where I wanted a feeling of outrage and heart-aching rawness within the Lament to match my feelings on the subject. Hence the reason why I used a VSL solo violin instead of my usual GPO. Janet has given me some excellent advice on how to deal with VSL soft synths so hopefully I can do better next time!
As for the Celtic genre, it is good to move away from it (just a little!) for a while. But I will be back!
Best Regards
Malcolm
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vechung
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Beautiful melody. The production is wonderful.
I have been to China, Mexico, Central America and Europe. Let me say that in the US and Europe we do a pretty good with the environment. Still lots of room for improvement. But the rest of the places I have been, oh my! The third world countries really, really abuse it big time.
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malcolmb
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Hi Vicente - Sincere thanks and so very pleased you like it. I very much agree with you about the difference across the world; I suppose a case of history repeating itself. There was a song back in I believe the 60's called "Where have all the flowers gone" which had a chorus of "When will they ever learn". Sadly, I suspect the answer is "Too late".
Best Regards
Malcolm
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