I remember it so clearly now: it was the day the Rainbow Bridge was closed for repairs and we knew, in our hearts, that Mr. Sushi, was out there, somewhere. After having attended college and going on to a distinguished career as a feline seismologist, he'd lived a long and fruitful life. He'd grown a lot, growing from a loving lump of black coward. His little sister missed him very much, and we were thinking to bring another into our fold. But just not yet.
We each stood on the edge of the bay which divides this world from theother, clasped our hands together and watched as the giant crapcatchers rolled in, accompanied by equally impressive cloudage. It looked like Columbus' invasion of 1492 all over again, a plodding, insistent rhythm underpinning each stretch forward.
Often, the key to being expressive – in life or death – is not to convey the same emotions as others, but articulate how you are really feeling. It didn't make sense for me to cry at Mr. Sushi's, or my father's funeral, because that would've been pandering to the crowd. I was sad, but even happier this let me write tribute songs to them. My doppelganger put his hand on my shoulder and reminded me this is why I wake up while he sleeps.
On the way home, we took the CS80 train, the gravlev pulling us back into the heart of sign-riddled Fake Chinatown, where we'd celebrate Mr. Sushi's life and times with – what else? – the best sushi in the village.
And there are couple musical instruments that I can't really tell where I can get it from. It is the famous flute sound from Enigma, I hear that all the time , even other artists using it sometimes. Another one is the Electronic Brass sound from Vangelis, I guess that is his signature lol. Just lovely.
TWO OF MY FAVES TO SOUNDSPOT!
The Enigma flute is an old E-mu Emulator II shakuhachi sample, as featured on Famous Sounds. It's funny how people call it expressive, because it seems to be a single sample. Play it for less than the full duration, and the airy "chiff" is absent – therefore, the lack of loop points allows for perceived dynamicism when used in a performance. I don't have the sample with me but I used it in "Lovers' Dance":
Vangelis has used a lot of different brass sounds but if I were to single out a signature, it'd be the rich, detuned sounds coming from his Yamaha CS-80. Arturia makes the CS-80V (I have Analog Factory which contains some selections from this, including very Vangelistic sounds) and East West Quantum Leap's Goliath actually has a few sounds dedicated to this, too. Here's me playing one of them, infact. I use far more pitch bend that Vangy tends to, but that's me compensating for lack of a ribbon controller:
“You learn a few things with each company. With Korg, for instance, I got graded on my sounds. It was like being in a college class. The Japanese developers would grade you on how well the sound played. How expressive is it? How musical is it? How much animation does the sound have? How much is going on? Can you hold down one key and it tells a story? With each project, I learned new things that I applied on the next project with another company, or with a new piece of technology.”
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The intriguing thing about this is that the traditional cultural expectation, especially in Japan, is to work for one company for a great many years. This is more true of business management than sound design, however.
But Richard’s observation of incrementally accumulating each set of experiences into the whole of what you’re capable of doing the next time is refreshing, and stated with clarity.
The end product isn’t all you take away from doing work.
