synthesized joy

track: 07

recorded: 20140411

duration: 14:22

this is a live performance, and this is a direct digital copy of the original piece, no editing, overdubs, or treatments of any kind were applied to the track - this is how it happened.

"synthesized joy" is perhaps, the rarest of the rare - recorded directly after the longest piece of the session so far, the ten-minute iVCS3 epic "timbre", where all the gods of recording and of live synth performance, smiled down on me greatly - I will be damned if it didn't happen again, immediately thereafter.

this time, for even longer. and while I probably had more physical input into this track than I did into "timbre", the amazing, ever-changing rhythmic base of this drone absolutely flabbergasts me, and as I was recording it, it was almost as if I was thinking internally, something has to go wrong - but, it never did.

instead, as I sat and altered parameter after parameter, changing the sound, rhythm, modulation and feel of the piece over and over again, I began to delight in my ability to set different rhythmic patterns "going", and then, speed them up and down in musical sounding ways; and it's remarkable how quickly you get the hang of it - and while I am more used to playing synth via the keys, I am getting this business of altering a track by using the synth controls directly.

so I might find a thin, short burst of sound, and then alter it's rhythm to something that bounces across the stereo image, or, repeats in bizarre time signatures, in patterns that you wouldn't or couldn't compose, but could only happen in a live performance, and only with this particular 1969 designed synth.

near the end of this nearly fifteen minute long storm, is a quiet eye, where I managed to get the piece to lay back, and I just listened for a while, to tiny bursts of white noise panning back and forth; a sound like a reversed timpani also on a frantic autopan; and then, once again, into the fray, I would begin tweaking the rhythms, I was so engrossed in the process, that I hadn't again realised just how long a duration it had....

eventually, I was able to orchestrate a very, very long fade out, very gradual, until the piece finally disappears - and a big part of me just wants it to go on and on and on. sigh.

to a large extent, the last piece, and then this piece, absolutely blow me away in terms of showcasing the sheer synthesizing power of the iVCS3, and I can believe now, that this will become a powerful tool that I can rely on for some of the most primitive, amazing synth music that I will ever create - long may it sound.

the iVCS3 - damn near as good as the real thing, at least, to my uneducated ears.