My cover of the legendary song "Hide and Seek" by the great @imogenheap, featuring a custom vocal harmonizer that I designed myself. I also recorded the ethereal layers of cellos in the background and mixed and mastered everything in Ableton.

This song was what inspired me to start learning how to build my vocal harmonizer in the first place, which started my entire journey into electronic music. This is where it all started -- and I haven't stopped since.

Covers

Hide and Seek

Free download!

Hide and Seek (Imogen Heap cover)

My cover of "Woods" by @boniver, featuring several electronic effects I designed myself: custom reverbs, auto-tune style pitch manipulators, and vocal timbre manipulators. I mixed and mastered everything in Ableton.

Bon Iver is one of my favorite artists; I have been inspired time and time again by Justin's elegant songwriting, use of timbre to develop the forms of his songs, and of course his poignant lyrics. I hope I am able to do this song justice!

Woods (Bon Iver cover)

This very experimental track began with the first two verses of lyrics, which were fueled by political & financial anger and anxiety. When I began producing the music, I realized I didn't want to convey anger at all, but rather a sense of undeniable dread. The dark EQing and resonant bass frequencies combined with the slow toiling along of the lazy kick drum are meant to create an atmosphere of inescapable doom. welcome to america.

***

wake, rise, leave
work
home, sleep, repeat.

rent, food, car
not cheap
none to keep.

is this how it's supposed to be?
is no one looking out for me?

read, watch, hope
vote
but still no change.

stable health care
out of reach
unless you can pay.

is the best that we can do?
no help for folks like me and you?

this is the american dream.

stay home please
unless you're essential.

your wage will be the same
but now your life is the gamble.

is that too high a price to pay?
don't you want your insurance to stay?

we're all free to work and free to die
they could save us, but what's the fee to try?

is this the dream that we deserve?
or maybe we should get our turn...

this is the american dream.

american dream

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My cover of 715 - CR∑∑KS by Bon Iver, featuring the custom vocal harmonizer instrument I designed, created, and mixed. This audio was created using only Max/MSP and a couple free plugins inside Ableton Live.

I allowed some of the vocal formants to get a bit robotic -- for this song, I wanted the timbre of the Harmonizer to be a balance between human and robotic, and with even a touch of a synthesized feel, reminiscent of a Vocaloid. Timbrally, I took a lot of inspiration from Bon Iver's live performances of this song. I achieved this sound by running multiple kinds of live shifting inside Max/MSP and mixing them together into one instrument.

To support me by becoming a patron today, visit my Patreon page: patreon.com/benvining.

Watch the video!

715 - CR∑∑KS (Bon Iver cover)

One day I heard my friend Julianne singing "Girl" by the Beatles, and I thought the melody was so hauntingly gorgeous that I just knew we needed to create a harmonizer cover! My partner Kristian played the keys to control the vocal harmonies on this track, which I produced, mixed, and mastered. Click the link above to watch the video!

PERSONNEL
Vocals: Julianne Colwell (@julianne-nicole-colwell)
Harmonizer keyboard: Kristian Rodriguez (@kristiansrodriguez)
Audio mixed & mastered by Ben Vining (@benvining)

To support Julianne's music, like her Facebook page at this link: https://www.facebook.com/juliannecolwellmusic/

To support Kristian's music, visit their website: http://www.kristiansrodriguez.com/

Girl (Beatles cover)

This EDM-style track is inspired by my nostalgia for 90's rock and 8-bit video games. After spending so much time producing vocals and vocal harmonies, I wanted to showcase some badass synth sounds. I hope you enjoy it -- like and repost if you loved it <3 

All of my custom built digital instruments and effects are on sale now at benvining.wixsite.com/software.

Learn more about me at benvining.wixsite.com/music.

Buy on Bandcamp

Race to Utopia

Fanfare for the Common Man was composed by Aaron Copland to honor the working class people of this country. Now, more than ever, I believe they deserve our respect, and they need us to fight for them. We are in this together. 

This track is dedicated to all of America's essential workers, and everyone forced to work during this crisis. They really are heroes, even if they're being treated more like wage slaves. All working people deserve health insurance, access to healthcare, paid sick leave, and free COVID-19 testing, not to mention a $15 minimum wage at the LEAST.

Fanfare for the Common Man

Fanfare for the Common Man (composed by Aaron Copland)

Rush hour traffic

reflection

traces of neon, etched
in electrodes invisble
carving through aural 
--landscapes,
electric spaces, reduced
to vibrations in fragrant
--atmospheres
gleaming in digital words;

binaries, dissolving 
into spectral 
----galaxies.

*

	Introspectralism is a digital tone poem. It tells of the making, undoing, and resurrection of humanity and their world. Though no words exist in the album, except for the poem comprised of the album’s song titles, Ben tells the epic of a world through disembodied synthesized voices. Introspectralism is both nostalgic and futuristic, and submerges the listener into a mythical, ethereal world of inner contemplation. 

*

Composition, mixing, sound design & production by Ben Vining
Mastered by Daniel Maldonado
Liner notes by Kristian Rodriguez

Cover art:
Original drawing by Cadence Stewart
Digital editing by Ben Vining

Introspectralism

the last breath of a dying world.

to cleanse with electric rain

In God's Eyes

a planet to save

a land to claim

to mine, to harvest, to drain

In Mourning, A Hope:

Hi, I'm Ben! I'm a producer, composer, DJ, and songwriter from Phoenix, AZ. I love experimenting with unconventional production techniques, and also creating my own custom digital instruments and effects. 

I believe that good music should be ear candy — it should make you want to turn it up loud and be enveloped by the sound. My music encompasses trance, ambient, and ethereal as well as experimental techno, EDM, and electroacoustic synthpop. I love exploring the intersection between a very expressive, human performance and the rigid digital roboticism of computerized effects.
 
The first instrument I built is still my personal favorite: my vocal harmonizer, Imogen. (Named after @imogenheap, the legend who inspired me to start creating my very first effects.) Imogen is a 12-voice real-time vocal harmonizer, timbre modifier, looper, and freezer.  

My favorite artists to listen to are @porter-robinson, @flume, @madeon, and @boniver.

I will always have my entire discography available right here on my SoundCloud account, because I want everyone to be able to hear my music for free -- and those that wish can click the links below and support me on Spotify, or buy my music on Apple Music or Bandcamp.

Learn more at www.benvining.com.

Ben Vining

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