Part 1: Reflection and Remorse (80 BPM) – 4 mins 00 Secs
Part 2: Pleiades Vista (120 BPM) – 2 Mins 20 Secs
Part 3: Acceptance and Inner Peace (80 BPM) – 1 Min 36 Secs
The rest of the crew are dead. Somehow the meteor storm got through the defence shield. There is debris floating all over the inside of the craft, hot shards of metal and meteorite shrapnel, water from ruptured tanks, cables lashing and sparks flying.
It won’t be long now before I’m dead too. I only have what is left in this air tank, and the gauge is broken.
BEFORE IT ENDS, I will have time to look back on my short life, the good and the bad, the joy and the pain.
BEFORE IT ENDS, I know that I will cry, because I am too young to die.
The ship is rotating slowly, a moving hulk that becomes my coffin, destined to carry all our bodies for centuries or longer through the void of space.
BEFORE IT ENDS, I will cry for my husband and children on earth, who I will never see again.
I have loved and served my family and friends, my ship, my country, my species and my planet to the best of my abilities, and now I must become a part of the stars I reached for as a child.
BEFORE IT ENDS, as the ship rotates, I will see the most beautiful of views – the constellation of Pleiades. What better place to die, what better grave to rest, what better ending than the sight of the Pleiades.
When you look through your telescopes, through the light years of space, to the Pleiades, please think of me, a light extinguished amongst the beauty of the stars.
So now I will make my peace BEFORE IT ENDS.
Equipment
Pulsar: Mixers, Mod II Carpet Saws, Mod II Pad Machine, Uknow 007 bass notes in part 2, Sample Player for the choirs.
Cubase: Mixers, all effects (reverb, delay, eq, stereo spread, mastering etc), M-Tron strings, Invader-II for effects, Neon for the sequencing.
“Air Tank Breath” – JV1080 patch sampled and adapted.
Choir Samples courtesy of Spectrasonics “Symphony of Voices”
Notes
Fairly standard minimalistic Berlin School – long slow intro, sequencer section, slow outro.
I’m not entirely happy with this yet, especially on Part 1, so I’d appreciate contributions both positive and negative as usual. I seem to have overcooked the gain on the Mod II Carpet Saws, but even when I re-recorded it, it didn’t sound right once the polyphony went to 7 notes. I wish sometimes that the synths had lights to show when you’ve overdone the output volume/gain! Ears are not always to be trusted! Mind you, I don’t understand the Modulars much anyway.
There are a couple of spikes and glitches that I’ll remove later, care of my central heating thermostat.
Timings and note lengths may seem “out” in parts 1 & 3. I did this on purpose to represent the way time was passing too quickly, then too slowly for the dying astronaut. It’s made it seem a bit laboured at times so I may try something else. Having said that, it does produce the unsettled feel that I was after.
The main objective of this track was to get more into Cubase mixer automation and the Controller Editor. I also wanted to get it as “old, warm analogue” as possible and a bit less “crisp-digital”, but I seemed to have just made it a bit muddy instead. I have no other ambitions for the track. I felt that the best way to research was to develop a track that I could play about with the automation and this was the result. Anyway, I’ve learnt from it so far and perhaps you can improve my learning (again).
I enjoyed pulling the old TD sequencers and mellotron strings out of the cupboard again though
And “Yes”, the ending is intentional.
So, does anyone like it, but more importantly, what have I done wrong this time please, and is it worth finishing?
