As a Xmas treat, a snippet of a track to give you a taste of what's coming in 2015. More news soon.

Music By Programmers 2.0 - Sneak Preview

A preview of the album in aid of educational programmes at Bletchley Park and The National Museum Of Computing.

Tracks by Chris Whitworth, Peter Camfield, Yuriy O'Donnell, Brian P Higan, Lance Walton & Jason Gorman

Mastered at Nagasaki Sound

Music By Programmers album preview

This track was created almost entirely using Lennar Digital's Sylenth1 virtual analog synthesizer - about a dozen instances - aside from the drums (done using Arturia's Spark drum machine) and some pretty wacky aethereal reverb effects in the break. Drums are punchy and very much to the fore, in an early 1980's style of mix. This track was inspired by artists who favoured a more rhythmic, poppy approach to electronica like Yellow Magic Orchestra and Thomas Dolby. The title is both a reference to the "golden age" of electronica and home computing, as well as Dolby's "Golden Age Of Wireless" album

Golden - Jason Gorman

The Fugue in D Major was composed in the early 1990s using a sequencer called Dr T's KCS that ran on the Commodore Amiga. It is my second fugue and I wanted to develop a subject that was 'invented', rather than 'inspired' and also to experiment with greater modulation than I'd used in my first. Although the fugal technique is limited, I think I achieved my goal. The major influence is of course, J.S.Bach.

Synth Arrangement: Jason Gorman

Inspired very much by the work of Wendy Carlos ("Switched On Bach") using Arturia Minimoog and Moog Modular virtual analog synths

Fugue In D Major - Lance Walton

This is a breakbeat track at 131bpm, largely influenced by Datassette, Com Truise and Hybrid. It is written in Renoise, using a combination of processed primitive wave forms (noise, square, saw-tooth, etc.) and contemporary software synthesizers.

Exception - Yuriy O'Donnell

When you think computer music one band springs immediately to mind. I am of course talking about Kraftwerk. Their track Computer World was used on the opening credits to the early eighties BBC TV Series ‘The Computer Programme’. With inspiration covered the next step was to dust off my midi controller and figure out how on earth to make some music. I downloaded the DM1 app, which is a rather good drum machine and used my morning commutes to put down the basis of the song. Good old GarageBand was used to assemble the rest of the track.

pntr=>rthmtc - Peter Camfield

This is heavily inspired by track I wrote a number of years ago; I listened to a lot of drum’n’bass in the late 90s, and the original was written as an exercise in drum programming in Cubasis on a creakingly ancient Windows 95 machine. This reinterpretation is somewhat more laid back, and was put together in Ableton Live 8, built around a big Vangelis-style pad from Native Instruments Reaktor.


Drift Again - Chris Whitworth

Lonely Heart was something that just came to me after throwing away three other tracks that sounded like I was trying too hard to get it right. I recorded the main melody on my iPhone first so I wouldn't forget it, and then recorded the complete song in about 3 hours using Ableton Live's Session view. My workflow is to lay out the song in clips on the session view and then record them to the arrangement view. This time I  found myself doing a lot more rearranging at the end, moving whole parts around, adding new transitions, and even adding a part. I can't really say where it draws its influences from because I've been listening to, and making, electronic music for a very long time. I've got a lot of musical influences, from classic rock to metal to early electronic stuff by Kraftwerk and early Depeche Mode.  

Lonely Heart - Brian P Hogan

This track sort of grew organically - which is a polite way of saying that I didn't have a plan. There's a range of virtual synths on this - many from Arturia's V Collection - and the ambient opening is mostly Native Instruments Absynth. Drums and percussion courtesy of Spectrasonic's Stylus RMX, and there's some Omnisphere in there, too. Subconsciously, I was probably channeling Jean Michel Jarre, though I'm sure he'd be mortified to hear it. There's some trademark Apes With Hobbies wierdness going on, so this is a little bit prog in places. Sorry - I just can't help myself. Just consider us lucky I didn't add a 10-minute guitar solo.

Decoded - Jason Gorman

Big, warm pads and chiming arpeggios are two of the most common staples of classic electronica, and that’s where I started with this track. However, I’m also a sucker for modern dance production, four-to-the-floor bass drums and side-chain compressors, and so the track ended up in quite a different place to where I’d originally envisaged. It was produced in Ableton Live 8, using the built-in instruments and effects. 

Petrel - Chris Whitworth

Electronica created by software developers to raise money for educational programmes at Bletchley Park and The National Museum Of Computing

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