BQFM Classical Radio - Orchestration Infestation

BONEQUEST FM does occasional multi-day specials. I've partaken in two of these; one with a Japanese Jazz theme, the other with a Classical Radio theme. If you're reading this sentence, you already know which of the two we're talking about today! My goal with BQFMCR / Orchestration Infestation was to show off a few cool orchestral albums I've had laying around for years and years. I think the newest recordings on this show are from 2017. Most are closer to the mid-2000s. Hell, the first hour of the set is stuff I personally recorded!

Which I guess leads us nicely into the setlist. I'll figure out a way to display it below:

The original selections up for showing totaled close to 60 hours! Once I had figured out a good order and trimmed the overall length down to the 6-hour compilation seen above, it was time for the hard part of this process. Re-learning how to arrange music in a new Digital Audio Workstation.

There was quite a barrier I had to overcome while putting this one together, tech-wise! Since I started making music digitally ~15 years ago, I've used a program called Reason to produce almost everything. I used a studio with Pro Tools, that was servicable. Occasionally I'd touch Ableton for early VST use, but it felt like a struggle. Reason was definitely what I was most comfortable with. It has physics on the cables! Propellerhead eventually added VST support in Reason 9 or 10; I didn't need Ableton after that! So, my primary DAW was and is Reason. But then Windows got really shitty and I moved to Kubuntu.

Ever since moving to Linux, I've been stuck without Reason. Years ago, I saw a thread about someone trying to use WINE to install and run Reason 6 or 7 or similar. Nothing came of it, and nothing substantial since, to my knowledge. Maybe I'll give the recently released free version a try, if that works I'd happily go back.

But alas, I was stuck looking for a solution. How do I arrange multiple tracks of pre-recorded audio into a show, without the use of my primary DAW or Audacity (which also got really shitty)? I needed a DAW for Ubuntu of all things. There were a lot of options, but I only came across one DAW with a native Linux build.

I wound up going with Bitwig Studio. It's good! I sent in a bug report and something was fixed! Reminds me of Pro Tools most. I'm still getting used to handling it the way the developers intend, but each session I get a little faster. I've yet to dabble with VSTs on Linux, so that testing'll be after seeing if Reason can be tricked into working or not. 

Sprinkle in a bit of research on each orchestra, the conductors, recording years, and so on, and I learned a good bit. But was it worth it? Kind of!

^{Overview of the entire project in Bitwig Studio.}

Now that we have the background out of the way, what exactly do we have here? Easiest thing would be to just go through the show in order. 

THE OVERVIEW!

The show opens (and ends!) with local radio tuning recorded off a busted Walkman. This was recorded exactly how you think it was. I dabbled in BQFM callouts, since I knew the rest of the show would have them very sparsely for SFW-listening, like at work. 

The first intentional music you hear is something I recorded myself for bonus credit in college. A nearby orchestra was looking to have their season recorded for broadcast, something I and exactly zero other students was/were interested in at the time. [editor's note: was? were? this sentence is weird. i'm not great at english, please pretend it's endearing and not annoying.] This concert was the orchestra's opening night for that year, and I got to attend them all for free. I guess I got paid in getting to keep the recording? As far as I know, this concert might only exist in full on two or three other hard drives. It's honestly quite lovely and nostalgic; I was originally going to conclude with it. Instead it felt more proper to have it as the opener, the listener tuning in right as the first note is struck by the timapni. (Part of this decision was helped by the fact that despite emailing, I never got any information back about the conductor nor soloist for this concert...) I particularly love the Poet and Peasant Overture (something I later recognized as being from Roller Coaster Tycoon's carousels!) and American Symphonette #2.

Second is another case of desperately needing to force others to listen to something I love. This is the first exception I made to the "must be a performance of a full orchestra, no more no less" rule for the set. I'm a trombone player, and the brass choir is a sound that commands respect! Seriously, listen to that tone! So good. Even while lacking strings and other things, this performance of Three Brass Cats / Kraken: Another Cat / Three More Cats fills me with joy. Good kitties! Pretty kitties. Fun fact, I've performed most if not all of these pieces at one point or another!

Right after rule breaker one is rule breaker two. Fitting with the brass theme, but still lacking strings despite adding winds and consistent percussion. I wanted to show off a concerto for trombone that I've aspired to play since high school. Mind you, I'm not this good, but I still can play a good bit of it. The fast stuff just needs to be slower...
^{Zoomed-in section of the project file.}

Next is Kirby! You know Kirby! You love Kirby! He is shaped like a friend, and his music is always stellar. This was a later addition to the show, only just beating out a set of Pink Floyd covers by the London Philharmonic. 

I wanted to feature a bit of Star Trek since I have collected a large pool of albums and soundtracks. I picked two of my favorite episodes, along with what I thought was recognizable. Mudd's Women and The Trouble with Tribbles. Beautiful classics.

The Super Smash Bros. Melee soundtrack on Smashing... Live! is the only instance of breaking another rule on the show, keeping things in order as presented. The only complaint I had with doing this was that the title theme, which is probably the most recognized piece for players of SSBM, was held back until track 8 instead of being up front. I don't mind this when listening to the album alone, but the theme helps establish what you're listening to better if it's up front rather than halfway through. Perks up the ears to go, "Oh shit! I know that!" It's also the first full album that's played in the set. Everything prior has at least one track cut, but this and Symphonic Legends at the end deserved their full runs.

Another Star Trek! I wanted DS9 in the set as a way to show the unique methods used during the pilot's soundtrack. Also, the piano theme at the end from the documentary is so good! Really rounds everything out well before the final section.

Which is Symphonic Legends! I have no idea where or when I found this album, but it was somewhere online shortly after it was released. It sort of haunted me for a long time, as there was a collection of audio rendering errors and pops and thunks and MP3 artifacting and oh god why is it so bad!? Eventually I found the Internet Archive copy of it, and re-spliced it for my own listening. This later came in useful for this show! Lots of German narration in the original recording.

And, of course, closing out is another special song. Finlandia, which you may notice has been an inspiration for user and domain names lately. The song cuts out with the same radio static as the start.

CLOSING THOUGHTS!

This may strike you as weird, but overall I feel like this isn't a set I care for. It's composed of all things I've listened to a great deal in my own time. I wanted a chance to share these things with others. In that regard, it's a "success"; even though I try not to think of my shows in such a binary way. I actually don't mind that part. What I do mind is how long and samey it came out. I probably could've done a better-polished version if it was three hours instead of six, but in the moment six felt best. Not to say it's bad. Just not one I'll listen to repeatedly, because of how long it is. 

Music, as an art form, is inherently more demanding to "take in properly" than visual mediums such as paintings or drawings. This doesn't make it any better or worse than any other art. It just raises the barrier to entry relatively, I think. You're less likely to listen to a new album someone recommends than you are to look over a new piece of art someone sent you. Visual arts take only as long as you want to look them over. A movie can be easy to get into with both moving visuals and sound, but at the "cost" of the time taken to watch. There's plenty going on visually to keep your audio-video senses occupied with movies. Music doesn't have the visual to help keep one hooked. It's like a video without sound. Takes your time, and doesn't even fulfill more than one sense! How selfish! (This is partially why the Vinyl Vibes sets have video. [prospector voice] Keeps 'em hooked if the noise don't do it. Heh heh.)

All this to say, I understand if you don't sit down and analytically listen to this show. I don't mind if you just look up individual albums or tracks from it. If there's a single piece you hadn't heard of before that you enjoyed, I did my job. Music is fun and cool and everyone should enjoy and share it, though it can be a pain in the ass with how it takes so much damn time. In the words of someone impersonating the late great Barney Rubble: "It's, uh, too bad we're gonna die someday." There's better ways to spend what time we have left than listening to this mix. May as well spend your time listening to something else I've done!