I wasn't happy with the previous "mastering" job I did on the track (I actually made it sound worse!), so following some study I made another attempt, which is rather better.

During the remastering it became obvious that the piece really needs to be remixed, which I might do at some point. In the meantime, the remaster has ameliorated the worst problems with the mix to some extent and the overall sound is far better balanced and more pleasing.


ORIGINAL TRACK DESCRIPTION
Instrumental symphonic progressive rock, perhaps vaguely reminiscent of Goblin or other horror soundtrack music. Mostly in 10/8 and 11/8.

I wrote this piece to get to know my new ARP Pro Soloist synth and do a demo of it. The Pro Soloist is a preset (non-programmable) monophonic synth with aftertouch from the 1970s, probably most famously used by Tony Banks of Genesis.

It was interesting trying to wrestle some more "normal synth" sounds out of it and building layers up to achieve different timbres. Consequently, the recording session grew to be insanely huge with all the multi-tracking required.

There are also drums, hand percussion, electric 6- and 12-string guitars and acoustic 12-string. All other sounds come from the Pro Soloist. It's also the first time I've recorded my electric 12-string, which I think has come out nicely.

Spiral Torso Op (remaster)

Instrumental symphonic progressive rock, inspired by some of my favourite bands and personal memories. 

I'm putting this up for the sake of completeness and also because someone asked. It's a work in progress, in the sense that whilst the writing of these sections is finished, the entire piece is very far from completion and this mix – from 2009 – leaves a lot to be desired!

I have a hell of a lot of ideas to work together to finish this piece, to the extent that it's taken a lot of work to just categorise the ideas in a spreadsheet and much work still remains to be done, both musically and with planning and mapping in spreadsheets :-)

Lovatnet (parts 1–4) [WIP]

JQ is a collaboration with my good friend Julien Claassen, a German musician who is a fairly well-known name in the Linux audio community.

This was recorded at our first recording session (and second ever actual meeting) in August 2010.

The piano and a guitar part were laid down together and the string machine part immediately overdubbed. Drums were overdubbed the next day, followed by the bass (not something I was comfortable doing, improvising on a fretless!).

The lead guitar was overdubbed on the last full day in the studio, as it was beginning to dawn that it would soon be time to go and something needed to be laid down. It was again improvised – which is way outside my comfort zone and not something I normally do, except to garner a few ideas that might be useful. Had I known how it would turn out, I would've taken more care over recording it. But everything just fell into place and the playing didn't turn out too bad – the first take was a keeper.

A quick rough mix was done in 2010, but the piece has languished until summer 2013, at which point the other details were added during pre-production, prior to mixing. It was recorded in Ardour 2 and mixed and mastered in Ardour 3.

J: Black Grand piano, Virtual String Machine, drums
Q: guitars (SA503TVL), fretless bass, ChamberTron (female voice, male voice), M-Tron Pro (boys' choir, female choir, male choir), Little Phatty SII, Dark Energy, percussion

Music: J&Q
Engineering, mixing & mastering: Q

Julius Quintus: Time To Go

JQ is a collaboration with my good friend Julien Claassen, a German musician who is a fairly well-known name in the Linux audio community.

This was recorded at our first recording session (and second ever actual meeting) in August 2010.

The main bulk of this piece – the drums, bass and keyboards – was written in the studio. The flute was added later in August, following the main session. The take was only ever supposed to be a placeholder until a performance could be recorded, but so far that hasn't happened. 

The guitar overdubs were the last to be done, being added in September 2010.

A very quick rough mix was done in 2010, but the piece has languished until autumn 2013. It was recorded in Ardour 2 and mixed and mastered in Ardour 3.

J: Black Grand piano, Virtual String Machine, M-Tron Pro (three violins, eight choir), drums
Q: guitars (SA503TVL, Les Paul), fretless bass, flute, percussion

Music: J&Q
Engineering, mixing & mastering: Q

Julius Quintus: As A Cloud Passes The Sun, So My Life Turns Grey

Demonstration of the factory preset sounds on the new Waldorf Streichfett String Synthesizer.

The presets are played in the order: bank A preset 1, bank B preset 1, bank C preset 1, bank A preset 2, and so on.

No external effects or post-processing, the effects are the Streichfett's in-built Animate, Phaser, Reverb, Tremolo, Ensemble and Chorus effects.

The Streichfett is a modern take on the classic string synths of the 1970s and early 1980s.

Videos demonstrating the basic sound of Streichfett (without any effects) can be found on my YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/QuirqUK

[Demo] Waldorf Streichfett factory presets

Instrumental symphonic progressive rock, perhaps vaguely reminiscent of Goblin or other horror soundtrack music. Mostly in 10/8 and 11/8.

I wrote this piece to get to know my new ARP Pro Soloist synth and do a demo of it. The Pro Soloist is a preset (non-programmable) monophonic synth with aftertouch from the 1970s, probably most famously used by Tony Banks of Genesis.

It was interesting trying to wrestle some more "normal synth" sounds out of it and building layers up to achieve different timbres. Consequently, the recording session grew to be insanely huge with all the multi-tracking required.

There is also drums, hand percussion, electric 6- and 12-string guitars and acoustic 12-string. All other sounds come from the Pro Soloist. It's also the first time I've recorded my electric 12-string, which I think has come out nicely.

Spiral Torso Op

This is a solo piano piece, instrumental progressive rock. It's inspired by the scenery of Norway and the music of Änglagård and other Scandinavian prog bands.

I started writing it around April 2009 and aside from a few brief attempts to work on it, it mostly sat dormant until I picked it up again in late 2011/early 2012, finally completing it in April 2012.

It stands alone as a piece, but will eventually form the final section of a prog epic I have in mind.

It was recorded live, using the Sampletekk Black Grand in Linuxsampler.

untitled piano piece

Instrumental symphonic progressive rock. Work in progress, in the sense that these sections are finished, but the entire piece isn't.

The basic idea of the first section (and an as-yet unrecorded finale) dates from around 1998/99ish. A few years ago I decided to develop it more fully and do something with it. The second and third sections came about in 2010/11 after the first section was worked up. 

Part 1: 0.00 to 2.35
Part 2: 2.35 to 4.22
Part 3: 4.22 to 9.29

I've many ideas for further sections, I just need to make the time and put in the effort to work them out -- don't hold your breath! The sections here will be remixed when the piece takes its final form.

Beyond Triple Point (parts 1–3) [WIP]

I make symphonic progressive rock music. I'm inspired by modern and classic 70s prog bands alike but don't slavishly try to sound like anyone in particular. I've been told that my music always sounds like me... I think that's a good thing! It takes me an age to write and complete pieces, so this is going to be sparse for a long time.

I learned flute, violin and piano growing up and picked up the guitar, self taught, in my late teens. These days I play guitar, bass and keyboards and occasionally attempt to play the flute. I'm into hardware synths in a big way and have a modest collection, ancient and modern.

I got a MiniDisc 4-track when I left university, but it's difficult to write prog on only four tracks! Thanks to modern computers and software I can now write and record to my heart's content and have been doing so at a snail's pace since about 2005. All my music is recorded and mixed using Ardour under Linux, although I do use a few Windows virtual instruments.

Quirq UK

Popular tracks