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Orchestra + HW Organ Premiere: Breath of the Pipes


Premiere Announcement

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I'm proud to announce that one of my most important works, "Breath of the Pipes", has now left the mixing stage, has been equipped with some gameplay stills and, to say "Thank you!" for more than 500 subscribers, is now waiting for its premiere on Youtube!

The compilation features 28 tracks from the original game soundtrack with a total run length of 1h45m, onto which I dubbed an extra "organ track" that I played and partially improvised by ear using MDA's 1903 Mutin/Cavaillé-Coll sample set from Notre Dame de Metz. The two primary challenges included: First, to find out the correct key of each piece and add some adequate riffs as well as accompanying melodies on spot and, second, to support the orchestra as their "backbone" with a certain "gravity", but never predominate them as a solo instrument.

During the premiere, there will be a live chat where I'd be happy to answer further questions about any details. You may schedule a reminder for next Saturday directly on YouTube using the video link below. I'd be happy to see you at the premiere!

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https://youtu.be/8xvwNNcMb-k

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If you'd like to look up the premiere start for another time zone, here's a conversion tool:
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20200606T201500&p1=1010
by woody-mc
May 31, 2020 12:57 PM

Replies (7)

RE: Orchestra + HW Organ Premiere: Breath of the Pipes


P.S.: If you'd like to know what you can expect to witness, here's a 2~3 minutes teaser:
https://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/39539

The audio contains the solo organ part, while the video features the combined result with the orchestra on top of it.
by woody-mc
May 31, 2020 01:12 PM

RE: Orchestra + HW Organ Premiere: Breath of the Pipes


As the premiere is coming closer, here's a bit of background info on how it all started and what this release is all about:


Finally, I managed to get the technical stuff up and running to return to my old habit of playing along with video game soundtracks, which was not possible for some years because of hard- and software limitations. Now that this feature is working again, I thought that 500+ subscribers would be a nice occasion to put it to a good use.

What you can experience in this compilation is an extra "organ track", which I played and recorded in parallel while the OST was playing and which was dubbed onto the OST later in a post-processing stage. This felt exactly like being part of the OST orchestra, where I would have the duty of contributing to the game music. Nonetheless, this had a bit of "adding even more gravity" to a score that was already perfect -- and to make things even more difficult, I played along solely by ear, i.e. without any sheets. The tricky part for me, albeit I had listened to the OST many times before, was to instantaneously react to chord changes and a melody which I roughly had memorized, but not exactly note by note.

Adapting the organ registration (i.e. selecting appropriate stops) to find a volume/dynamics level that was compatible with the orchestral part was another challenge that came on top of "just playing matching notes and/or an additional voice". While the intention was to make the organ present of course, it was always thought as an enrichment and strong foundation backbone, which should never speak over the orchestra too aggressively to achieve the impression that the organ would feel "natural", as if it would always have had its place and role in the original score right from the beginning.
by woody-mc
Jun 3, 2020 01:30 PM

RE: Orchestra + HW Organ Premiere: Breath of the Pipes


Thanks to all attendees for having a great time at the premiere! :-)
by woody-mc
Jun 6, 2020 06:26 PM

RE: Orchestra + HW Organ Premiere: Breath of the Pipes


I was not "in attendance" but I always listen to your work, as one of your admirers.

BRAVO and CONGRATULATIONS, Carsten - on your talent and on your achievement!

Peace,

David
by Agnus_Dei
Jun 8, 2020 02:14 PM

RE: Orchestra + HW Organ Premiere: Breath of the Pipes

Agnus_Dei wrote:

I was not "in attendance" but I always listen to your work, as one of your admirers.

BRAVO and CONGRATULATIONS, Carsten - on your talent and on your achievement!

Peace,

David

Thank you so much for your feedback, David! Hope you could still enjoy most of the details in the pieces (in terms of physiology) -- and picked up the little message that I especially left for you in the "Epilogue" piece.

by woody-mc
Jun 8, 2020 02:56 PM

RE: Orchestra + HW Organ Premiere: Breath of the Pipes


Just added a DVD ISO image of the YT video with AC3 5.1 and AC3 2.0 audio streams to the MEGA cloud space at http://via.woody-mc.de/to/botp-album --- the upload should finish at around Jun 11 2020 04:00 UTC.

(Trivia: This would be exactly 100 years after my grandma was born. Too sad I can't hand over her "birthday present" in person since she died over a decade ago, but my thoughts are still with her. RIP.)
by woody-mc
Jun 10, 2020 05:36 PM

RE: Orchestra + HW Organ Premiere: Breath of the Pipes


The "Breath of the Pipes" DVD has finally found its place in the discography!

[DE] http://wpoa.de#WPOA-BOTP
[en] http://en.wpoa.de#WPOA-BOTP
by woody-mc
Jun 11, 2020 01:56 PM

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