You Will Miss Me When I Burn (Bonnie 'Prince' Billy cover)

A little twist on an old song Jolie and I created while living in Russell's Closet. 

The Setting Sun (Lyrics by Jolie)

Homemade Cover of "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley

Crazy (Emotions Have an Echo)

Andrew Mars: voice, piano
Jesse Sparhawk: electric bass
Yoomi Kwon: cello
David Anthony Parker: electronic drumkit

Bourbon & Branch 3-16-17

What (Live 3/16/17)

White Carpet (Live 3/16/17)

Hidden Moon (Live 3/16/17)

From the forthcoming Settled Arrows album: "INNOCENCE (Or, The Fall of The Fool)."

Andrew Mars: voice, piano
Jesse Sparhawk: harp
Yoomi Kwon: cello
David Anthony Parker: electronic drumkit

Recorded live at Bourbon & Branch 3/16/17

The Dark Wave (Live 3/16/17)

Settled Arrows Recorded live at Bourbon & Branch on 3/16/17

Andrew Mars: voice, piano
Jesse Sparhawk: harp
Yoomi Kwon: cello
David Anthony Parker: electronic drumkit

Another Year (Live 3/16/17)

from the forthcoming Settled Arrows album: "INNOCENCE (Or, The Fall of The Fool).

Andrew Mars: voice, piano
Jesse Sparhawk: harp
Yoomi Kwon: cello
David Anthony Parker: electronic drumkit

The Scene (Live 3/16/17)

I am noodling around on this track.  I was experimenting (and continue to experiment) with Audified AmpLion Free, a cabinet modeling plugin, and I am slowly making practical sense of something I've known for a long time.  Clara's unique theremin sound that we hear in recordings is not just the sound of her instrument.  There's a combination of devices that make up her recorded theremin tone. The Lev-built theremin's tone was/is an important starting point, but the characteristics of her custom speaker, tube amplification, microphones, and technical choices of the recording engineers all played a part in the 'sound' that makes up her theremin's voice as we now hear it...

I do not want to replicate that sound, but I noticed when I was experimenting with some of the plugin settings, that some uniques effects would happen that remind me of Clara's sound...   

My tone's low register doesn't really sound anything like her sound, but I noticed the upper register, when making fast note transistions exhibited vocal characteristics similar to Clara when she made a fast wide interval leap.  The other thing that sticks out to me is the vibrato (when oscillation depth and speed are consistent, mine is not super great yet), the vibrato, especially in Clara's recorded sound exhibited more of an amplitude oscillating, than it did pitch oscillating. This helped lend to her unique sound, IMO.

We know that the oscillation is (and can only be) produced from the pitch hand on the theremin, but when the sound is amplified by certain kind of speaker/tube/mic combination and the sound is recorded in a particular way, there is this crazy pscho-acoustic side-effect that makes the listener perceive the vibrato as more of an airy breath-like amplitude oscillation.  It's the same airiness and effect we associate with humans singing vibrato.

My hypothesis is that the oscillation sounds airy and yields the sensation of compressions on our ear-drums because our human ears are detecting phase shifting of the upper harmonics of the tone... If the tone has more brilliance in it to begin with, then this effect is more noticable.  This is also why theremin tones that are more sinusoidal in wave-shape sound so lifeless , even when vibrato is added... also, the pitch oscillation of the vibrato is noticed before the amplitude oscillation in those pure sine-wave-like tones.  

This hypothesis could also explain why listening to a direct recording  theremin tone is the most dead-sounding lifeless thing  you'll ever hear...  I think  that understanding (in a practical sense) how all the compontents fit together and influence the final sound is the golden key to creating a human-like theremin tone...   Or at least a more interesting one.


A called this Some Clara-Like Flare, not because I think sound like Clara, but because my technique somewhat makes the Clara-Like Flare pop out of the sound.  If you can't play with similar note transition efficiency, then you can give up comparing your sound to Clara's...  Also, intonation is important, but I guess anyone listening to this probably understands thats the hard rule of theremin playing.  play in tune or else!

Some Clara-like Flare

There are only 2 very brief guitar parts that I recorded and then messed with a lot on an old program called SoundForge in 2005.. Does SoundForge still exist?! 

Anyway, I took both tiny little audio clips of each guitar sound and slowed them down, sped them up, twisted them around, blended them together, added crazy effects, then I put vocals on top & messed
with them too....
 
It's called "workspace"...
 
Here are the lyrics:
 
tiny spaces on my lap i see it
little things i used to know, i bleed..
knees are flaking over...
time is taking over
 
time is taking over (courtesy of Kat Miller's voice)
 
and i don't know where to go..
and i don't know who to show..
and i don't know when to run...
cause i never heard the gun shot
 
people dancing, people laughing,
everywhere i look, they're clapping..
rainbow traces, empty spaces,
even in their smiley faces..
little girl with swirling eyes,
"your lips are perfect suck-me size.."
dinner plates, dimension gates..
question not, just trust in fate..
we'll pull you down a happy hall,
where there is no happy wall..
and by-the-by the soon you'll fall..
and just who do you think you'll call?
just who do you think you'll call?
 
(just who do you think you'll call - played backward)
 
(old dialoug i found on my computer)
 
...time is taking over...
 
music...
music...
music...
music...

Workspace

Midnight Ocean

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