I released an album made with the help of Amiga

[Ral-Clan]

Hi fellow Amigans!

I've released an album under the moniker “The Ovoids: Fate of the Country” which the Amiga has played an important role in creating.


(click to enlarge)

First of all, I must make it clear that this is (mostly) not MOD, tracker or PAULA video-game type music. This is original acoustic-electro music of my own composition. I use the Amiga as one part of my greater recording setup. I'm honestly not sure what genre my music falls into. It's not mainstream music, but there are bits that sound a little like Kraftwerk, Devo & Beck. It's quirky and a bit synth-poppy with acoustic elements and a great deal of whimsy.

I like to use vintage electronic instruments: old analogue synths, obsolete drum-machines, primitive sequencers, cheap 1980s electronic toys and 1970s/80s home keyboards for their naive, simple and artificial sounds. Also, I integrate even older acoustic instruments such as button accordions, wooden flutes, mandolins, etc.

Of course, there's the beloved Amiga in there as well. Almost every song on this album has been touched by the Amiga in one way or another (see song notes below). Even the album artwork was drawn and/or modified in Deluxe Paint IV and ImageFX.

The album is available now as a digital download or physically on Compact Disc or on (very-retro and cool) Compact Cassette. Physical media purchased through Bandcamp include a free immediate digital download.

You can listen to and/or purchase the album at various places:

Bandcamp.com (offers digital download in MP3 or FLAC, plus free digital download with physical album purchase on CD or cassette).
https://theovoids.bandcamp.com/album/fate-of-the-country

Kunaki.com (a no-nonsense, but reliable and secure vendor which offers physical CDs only. All my CDs are manufactured by Kunaki, so if you purchase a CD from here it will be slightly cheaper and arrive more quickly than the other vendors):
PayPal: http://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00OFQYWS&pp=1
Non-PayPal: http://kunaki.com/MSales.asp?PublisherId=139851

CD-Baby (both digital and physical CDs):
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/theovoids

In a few weeks this album will also be available via Amazon, iTunes and Spotify.

If you don't want to purchase a copy, you can still listen to most of the tracks in their entirety at the sites mentioned above, or via my SoundCloud page (see signature).

Here's how the Amiga plays a role on the album tracks:

1. Arpeggio Dream: Manipulated in Bars & Pipes
2. The Right Direction: Manipulated in Bars & Pipes, final editing of audio in Samplitude
3.  Tear Down the Sink, Dear: Manipulated in Bars & Pipes
4. Coffee Maker: Manipulated in Bars & Pipes; Amiga speaking with “SAY” command at end.
6. My Piano: drum & bass loop sampled via Parallel port sampler, song composed in Bars & Pipes
8. I Blame You: composed in OctaMED Sound Studio, samples made with parallel port sampler.
10. Going Outside: mix editing done in Samplitude
11. Now That We Have Hands: graphic elements for music video done with ImageFX ( view on YouTube: http://youtu.be/WtVzInojang )
13. Oyster: mix editing done in Samplitude.
14. Cool Like Oscar Goldman: composed in Bars & Pipes

I apologize if the above sounds like an advertisement. I surely don't mean it to! I just thought the Amiga's involvement might interest some. This is not a money-making endeavour for me and if I manage to cover the cost of production I will be pleased.

From now until December 26th, special 50% discount code on digital download at bandcamp for Amiga.org members. That's $2 for the digital album from the regular $4 price!:
PROMO CODE: amiga2000
https://theovoids.bandcamp.com/releases

Thanks very much!

[Ral-Clan]

Cool, good tunes.  I guess it's a sort of "electro-folk".

That's exactly what I had been thinking - but I didn't think it was an actual genre.

[Ral-Clan]

Oh, I also forgot another Amiga step.  I used "Normalize", the command line program for Amiga to do the final levelling so all the tracks were the same volume during the mastering process.

http://normalize.nongnu.org/README.html
http://sourceforge.net/projects/amiga/files/Normalize/0.7.7/

[Ral-Clan]

From now until December 26th, special 50% discount code on digital download at bandcamp for Amiga.org members:

PROMO CODE: amiga2000
https://theovoids.bandcamp.com/releases

That's $2 for the digital album from the regular $4 price!

[Ral-Clan]

On first hearing this, I wasn't sure what to make of it. But, it's growing on me. I do applaud the project though. Neat ideas.

I'll be the first to admit it's not for everyone. It's got a bit of a niche audience, but if you like bleepy music that's not afraid to embrace its geekiness, then this might be for you.

[Ral-Clan]

OctaMED and B&P - now that takes me back. =)

Fair play to you sir. I threw the towel in years ago as far as recording on the Amiga goes.

Thanks for the encouragement. Yes, I'm a bit of a sucker for older tech. I do use modern DAWs like Reaper, too, but as far as a pure MIDI-only sequencer goes, I still think Bars & Pipes was the pinacle on any platform (even by today's standards).

[Ral-Clan]

hi!! i love the songs and i have bought the album  bye!

Thanks so much, Cobale! You have no idea how much this encouragement means to me! I hope the album brings you a lot of enjoyment.

Agreed and I still have a copy installed on each of my 3 working Amigas.
I'm just too lazy to switch any of them on these days when I can usually do what I need from my laptop.

Maybe one day, I'll return................... ;-)

Wilse, Bars & Pipes runs very well under WinUAE. You should also be able to sync it with any DAW running on the same machine under Windows with the use of the free utility "MIDI-Yoke" - it's a virtual MIDI patchbay that can link WinUAE's MIDI output to the input of your DAW - with MIDI Time Code or MIDI Clocks running the two pieces of software should (in theory) be able to lock to one another.  You'd want to make sure that WinUAE is running in a window, rather than in full-screen mode, so that you can see both pieces of software at the same time (or better yet, on a multi-monitor system, each would have their own screen - that would be very nice!).

[Ral-Clan]

Hey ral-clan this is awesome my friend and you really must have put some time and effort in creating this masterpiece ,I have just bought ,and downloaded the Digital version...

Thanks Mr. Moonlight! I must return the compliment and say your positive outlook, enthusiasm and the love of the Beatles you shown here on Amiga.org have been much appreciated by me!

Sent 5$ and are downloading! I will put this on a CD and listen to when I do my 250km (155 miles) long boring drive to work so thank you

Thanks so much som99! Wow, what a long drive to work! If my music can make the trip any more enjoyable than I'll be very happy!

[Ral-Clan]

Just adding a quick and final note that the 50% off sale for the digital download of this album ends in five days (December 26th, 2014).
That's a total cost of $2 for this album for you if you use the code "amiga2000" when purchasing at Bandcamp:

http://theovoids.bandcamp.com

Now also available on Amazon.com:

http://tinyurl.com/lempnl8

Thanks very much to all those who have already supported The Ovoids!

[Ral-Clan]

klx300r and Rednova,

Thanks very much to you both.  Have a great holiday (whatever you celebrate).