Sound Experiments 7 (2020)

 

More sound and light twiddling crumbs.

Mike Pinder and The Mellotron

Mike Pinder was a founding member, and once the keyboardist, of the band The Moody Blues.  Pinder passed recently.  Mr. Pinder was an acolyte of the weird instrument, The Mellotron.  

What was The Mellotron?  I asked ChatGPT to provide some illumination.  Here is what they said:

A Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in the early 1960s. It works by triggering prerecorded sounds stored on magnetic tape when a musician presses the keys on its keyboard. Each key on the Mellotron is connected to a tape playing a recording of an instrument, such as strings, flutes, or choirs, allowing musicians to produce orchestral sounds and effects that were difficult or impossible to recreate in live performances at the time. The Mellotron became famous for its distinctive sound and was prominently used by bands like The Beatles, The Moody Blues, and King Crimson, particularly during the 1960s and 1970s, adding a unique, ethereal quality to rock and progressive music.

Mike Pinder adopted the instrument to create some unique and memorable passages for the Mellotron.  Witness his use of the instrument on "Nights in White Satin", "Tuesday Afternoon", and "Legend of a Mind".  Symphonic, atmospheric, haunting.  Awesome work!  RIP, Mr. Pinder.

View the very interesting documentary on The Mellotron by clicking on the link below.

A Brief History of The Mellotron 

Swirl

 A youthful remembrance....

Music played in the background at the party.  A soundtrack playing half noticed and casually acknowledged with the occasional lyric sung and some part danced to by some of those gathered at the event. The music creates an atmosphere that is familiar and welcoming to the group gathered.  Sounds become louder or dampened depending on one’s proximity to the sound source.

I remember a party that we tagged along to once.  My friend knew some people who were having the get together at a house and we were allowed to attend.  The major attraction was that there would be live music from a rock band.

The band members didn’t all show up so the band never played.  There was a novice guitar playing kid who played “Ain’t Talking Bout Love” by Van Halen on an electric guitar as the organizers tried to decide how to salvage the evening.    The kid was learning the part so he started and stopped often and would start repeating the opening riff again.    

My buddy and I looked at each other.

“Why does he keep playing that riff?”

“Probably doesn’t know anything else.”

We had gotten semi wasted before entering the place and decided we would go back out to the car we arrived in a sip on our beers.  We were a little tired, bored and drunk.  We went to a safe haven away from the strangers, our car.

The party people started playing CDs to fill the silence which appeared after the kid with the guitar stopped his noodling.  The music swirled skyward.

We only stayed about another hour but the memory stuck with me over the years as it was another adventure during my teenage life. 

We would never visit that particular place in time again.

"Can...can...can....you...you...you....hear...hear...hear....me...me...me...me?????

 I went to a stand up comedy event held at the SAP Center in San Jose, California recently.  There was an immediate problem with the show that persisted for over an hour.  The various performers using a handheld microphone were unintelligible to the audience due to an uncommon amount of slapback echo.  Now, I know there should be rehearsal time and the setting of audio levels and testing that take place well before the public fills their seats.  Maybe this happened.  Maybe it didn't.  Another possible reason for the bad audio was that the SAP Center audio crew was filling in for the usual stand up tour's audio team.  I think I heard that excuse but I am not sure because the audio was all a difficult to understand wash of noise.

This is a VideoGPT video loosely based on that event.  lol.

A Symphony Of Wind (Desert Suite)

 The sound of the howling of wind can carry with it many sensations.  Consider the emotional response to the forlorn, singular wail that accompanies its passage.  There may manifest in a mind loneliness, fear, apprehension.  The usage of these wails as a sound effect to support tales of the supernatural or lonely, empty environments in movies is a favored device.  I think of the giant crawly creature movie "Them" and its barren desert landscape perpetually being scathed by the strong winds.  "Gargoyles" which has remote desert regions being engulfed in raging canyon winds.  The Three Stooges' comedic short "Spooks" and the buffeting of a haunted castle by an incessant, pounding whoosh of stormy breezes.  Whatever its many manifestations, wind as a sound and presence can carry a heavy emotional impact.

So enjoy this trifle I dreamed up and which resonates in my mind of the lonely wind coursing through a desert landscape.

Sound Experiments 6 (2020)

For this segment of the series, iphone apps are used to generate some noise.  The apps used were bent.fm, Moog Filtatron, Moog Model D and Synthmaster One.  The Magic program was used to generate some audio activated effects.  Listen up.

.  Also used the Magic program to get some sound activated graphic response.

Orbital Drum???

 I just watched an old episode of "Nasa's Unexplained Files".  There was a story about an astronaut orbiting Earth solo in his space capsule.  Out of a relative calm, the astronaut heard loud banging on his vehicle!  The striking of the capsule's metallic surface from some unknown source went on for a small amount of time and severely frightened the astronaut who called out for a reply to whatever was responsible for this racket.  Seems pretty incredible but the astronaut was convinced that he had some manner of lifeform shadowing his mission and as a consequence, messing with his head, Big Time!  Eventually, the outer hull racket abated and no answers were to be had of who this potential intruder was, but, HOW CREEPY!!!! Was the space capsule being used as an Experimental Musical Instrument?  An Orbital Drum, if you will?  We can only speculate....

Here is a VideoGPT AI retelling of the situation in its own analysis!  Enjoy.