Tibetan Tension

[Mike]

My first song of this kind.. I don't know what type of music you would call it..
I used the 7-tet tuning of Thailand with the sitar part.

I rendered the midi file using the computer of a guy down the street from me, he has Eastwest Colossus.

please give me your critiques =)

[Mike]

well at least I know it conveys the mood I wanted it too. =)
I wrote it shortly after watching a new report on the whole situation going on there. It just brakes my heart.

[Jack Pickett]

Spooky! Its good to hear someone genuinely politically inspired - there isn't nearly enough of it in music these days. Have you seen a film called Kundun by Martin Scorcese - its a film I never tire of and has truly spine-tingling music!

Your piece is cool - I'm not feeling the midi choir - but I guess these are constraints we all have to work within. There is a sense of loss in your work that reflects the situation well. The sitar is nice too - is that you playing?

[Mike]

I have seen kundun once in a class at collage. I think it was a philosophy something or other dont remember off hand it was a long time ago.
The sounds used are all from EastWest Colossus VSTi
the sitar is tuned to 7tet that means the octave is divided 7 equal divisions instead of the 12 that most of us are used to.

Im glad you enjoyed it. I agree with the sound of the choir.. if I actually had a copy of colossus I would be able to tweak it but I just took a disk with a midi file over to my neighbor and used his software.

[Mike]

the fun part is that it started as a study of alternative tunings and the sitar was composed first the rest was filled in later as a practice in using cluster chords (the vocal parts) and using the steel scraping noise as a timbrel texture. To further the exploration into texture, if you listen close the sitar is doubled and the double is run through a phaser and a slapback echo that is slowly increased in intensity. its fairly low in the mix but it adds texture and thickens up the sound.

[norah lorway]

This is wonderful! I've listened to it a bunch already. Good work. Are you using any electronics, btw?

[Mike]

Everything on this is composed and arranged with Guitar pro.
I exported a wave file from that running through Colossus. and yes that is colossus out of the box..

I did widen the stereo field a bit and I ran a very subtle compression when mastering it useing cooledit pro.