Well sometimes a song kind of writes itself and this time a song and Video came to me fast and furious.. A few months ago I wanted to learn a John Martyn song (Run Honey Run) and it was in one of those crazy folkie open G tunings so I tuned my old Yamaha acoustic (which doubles as a canoe paddle) to that tuning and I'd pick it up a few times a week and noodle away. Unlike keyboards there are many different tunings open to guitars and every one changes the chord positions and patterns so a new tuning can be like a whole new instrument. Every time I picked up this guitar a clear cut bit of structure would come to me and over a few weeks I had a complete song with verse/chorus/bridge structure and I didn't feel that it would be a song with vocals but I had a name "I Agree". Last week I just had an inkling to get it out of my head and I fired up a recording program that I don't normally use and between live guitars and programmed keys and drums the song was done in a few days and the song impressed on me a need for a more visual kind of presentation. I have to admit the current perplexing times we are living in have been weighing on me of late and I'm sure I'm not alone in that regard. So with the bits and pieces at hand I had an idea to put together a little visual pep-talk for myself to accompany the song which has an affirming kind of mood to it and this led to the Video presentation. I should note the backdrop footage is from a Video service I subscribe to called 'Storyblocks'. Anyway... 'motivational speakers' and the like aren't my usual bag baby but the Muse was very insistent so I went along.. If you find it too earnest I won't argue, but if you find it helpful or of some comfort please share it with others.
You may be very surprised to learn this song was recorded and produced with energyXT 2.7 (native Linux). I absolutely LOVE this program for MIDI work, it's also competent but not great for Audio work... I'm sorry but Ardour is untouchable for Audio work but it still isn't even in the neighborhood of this circa 2010 program for MIDI work (IMNSHO). A huge amount of credit must go to @robbert-vdh for providing a special 32bit build of yabridge which has allowed me to keep the 32bit/single-threaded energyXT on life-support as well as run all my U-he and Fabfilter stuff since there are hardly any remaining Linux 32bit VST Plugins that work with energyXT so yes it's a bizarre franken-sequencer but it works VERY well for me still. Thanks also to @marbangens who did a QT5 transplant to energyXT's innards for the libaam-jack setup functionality. The Video was edited with Cinelerra-GG.. Oh... and drums are the SFZ version of the AVL-Drumkits Blonde Bop..
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Without further ado, here is "I Agree", as always thank you for your time!
This is your best song to date. The lilting nature of the acoustic strumming is elevated beyond mere harmony by the use of those leading note nineths. And the sustained sixth in the background strings adds some nice harmonic complexity/tension (functioning as a 13th chord against those 9ths). The syncopated bass line gives a solid rhythmic pulpulsion, which allows the subdued drum beat to sit back in the mix and not intrude upon the light, atmospheric nature of the arrangement. I think I would have like to have heard a rhythmic string arrangement in place of the hammond organ part (although the leslie speed changes do add some harmonic interest, I think a rhythmic string part would really complement the acoustic guitar, and add some extra "weight" to the chorus).
By the way, apparently EnergyXT is sort of alive again. They only have a Windows build right now, and they don't appear to have any plans to support Linux but it may be worth sending them an email about. It's now finally 64-bit, and with CLAP support.
Thanks, much appreciated! If I (a) knew anything about synthesizers and (b) knew anything about playing keyboards there are probably a lot of ways I could have taken it further, it just kinda felt complete to me but it certainly got me back into MIDI work which I hadn't done much of for many years.
@robbert-vdh
Thanks again for the custom yabridge! Yes I had posted about the energyXT 64bit update in the 'non-linux' forum section a while back. It appears the early betas don't support Audio recording, only sample import. I have emailed Jorgen the developer several times about Linux support and even about releasing the the old Linux 2.7 build fully functional for free since the 2.X series has been discontinued. I even distributed energyXT back in the early days of AV Linux but I never get a response so there seems to be no will there to release a Linux port of the new version.
Hi @GMaq , MMM, more shimmer... Ah, it's a song to float in and feel good. Top production, as usual. I don't know what it is about the organ that gives me goose bumps, but it does.
Thanks for sharing this song!
Very much enjoying this - totally different to your other work, but sometimes that's what the muse tells us to do.
Thanks! I wish I knew even 1% of what you do about synthesizers, just dipping a toe in but they are fascinating! I can see why Yoshimi is a labour of love..
This post is a recommendation for midi sequencer in linux, too: Energy XT. @GMaq you have a mod version of that app, so How to try it? and What app do you recommend for midi work in linux?
This post is a recommendation for midi sequencer in linux, too: Energy XT. @GMaq you have a mod version of that app, so How to try it? and What app do you recommend for midi work in linux?
Well sadly energyXT 2.7 for Linux which was released around 2010 has been taken down off the new energyXT website so you can't buy a license any more so even if I did make my custom hacked build distributable you wouldn't be able to license it and use it to it's full potential.
I still do stand by it as a very light and powerful easy to use Sequencer but it was never deployed properly on Linux and immediately had to be hacked to work with JACK because it's native ALSA backend didn't support recording. I think even 5 years ago it still had something to offer but in the meantime Qtractor, MuSE, Ardour, Zrythm have all improved exponentially and we are spoiled for other choices with BitWig, Reaper, Waveform etc.. I like energyXT's interface and as a MIDI dummy it makes getting stuff together quick and easy but I think it's moment in the sun is long passed... although the new Windows beta energyXT successor 'EXT64' does run decently in Wine..
I'm an Ardour user through and through but have never been comfortable with it's MIDI side but I think that is all about to change...
There was a time when I wondered if I should use Qtractor with its good MIDI editor as a MIDI sequencer only and Ardour for its audio routing capabilities but as I didn't hit any audio routing limits in Qtractor that I couldn't work around I use Qtractor both for MIDI and audio.