Archives: Music
My Albums of 2010
January 4, 2011 at 17:37 by Mike McQuaid
Inspired by John, Steve and Gareth I thought I’d detail my favourite ten albums of 2010.
None of these were actually released in 2010 but they were my soundtrack to the year. The album titles link to Spotify or another location to listen online (where available).
Paradise Lost (Symphony X, 2007)
Based around John Milton’s poem of the same name, this was the first Symphony X album that has really grabbed me. I found their previous work filled with too much shred and not enough melody. That’s not to say the shredding here isn’t as crunchy and technically fantastic (Michael Romeo on excellent form) but here it ties a bit better into a cohesive album structure and helps to elevate songs rather than distracting from them. My highlight is probably the title track which with Russel Allen demonstrating his voice sounds even better when he isn’t thrashing it.
Music Of The Spheres (Mike Oldfield, 2008)
The Songs Of Distant Earth is one of my favourite instrumental albums so I was interested to find out what Oldfield would produce when given a full orchestra to play with. The result is a beautiful and at times haunting album that doesn’t try to do too much. I’m no classical connoisseur but enjoyed this more than most classic music I’ve heard in years. Oldfield’s compositions bring me to a peaceful place and help me focus on higher things than the busyness of my day.
A Tribute to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (Rewiring Genesis, 2008)
I’m pretty skeptical about cover versions of songs and incredibly skeptical of projects like this that rerecord an existing album, particularly one I’m already a huge fan of. Something about Nick D’Virgillio’s varied vocals and the strange but brilliant addition of a horn section actually help to remind me what I loved to much about the original Lamb and produce one a re-imagining of an album I thought impossible to change without ruining.
Wallstreet Voodoo (Roine Stolt, 2005)
This has been a year I’ve found myself pulled further into politics and examining the global recession and this album has been a soundtrack to that process. Released two years before the banking system started spiralling down the toilet some of the lyrics seem sadly prescient of what would occur. Neal Morse’s addition and the bluesy feel add variation to what would have already been an interesting album.
On This Perfect Day (Guilt Machine, 2009)
Most progressive rock I listen to is accused of being overcomplex and unemotional but anyone would struggle to say the same about Guilt Machine. This Arjen Anthony Lucassen side-project about the psychology of guilt found him and his current girlfriend (and lead guitarist on the album) creating something deeply personal about struggles they’ve overcome. I didn’t find it instantly accessible but the sheer passion and emotion that emerges from the album make it truly brilliant.
Calling All Dawns (Christopher Tin, 2009)
I found Christopher Tin through his writing of the menu track in Civilisation 4, a beautiful version of The Lord’s Prayer performed in Swahili by a gospel choir. The album tracks the changing periods of a day and each song is sung in a different language. I’m not normally into classical music but was entranced by the contrast between the tracks links and their impressive variety.
Black Clouds and Silver Linings (Dream Theater, 2009)
I’ve been somewhat unimpressed with everything Dream Theater has done since Metropolis Part 2. There has been a few good tracks here and there, a few good riffs but it has just felt like the emotion and melody gave way to influences by boring metal. This album was a refreshing return to form with a variety that hasn’t been seen in an album other than Metropolis Part 2. The Count of Tuscany has an fantastic opening section where Petrucci manages to create something far prettier than he has in a long time by keeping his riffs simple and The Shattered Fortress brings a heavy but emotional conclusion to Portnoy’s Alcoholics Anoymous-themed suite. Sadly, Portnoy has now left the band so Dream Theater’s future is looking uncertain but I’m glad they got to release such a great album before that happened.
The Human Equation (Ayreon, 2004)
Arjen Anthony Lucassen’s main project Ayreon is an awesome set of concept albums that have an overarching crazy science fiction plot and feature many guest instrumentalists and vocalists. The Human Equation is a bit different as it focuses on a man reliving his life in a whilst in a coma and tracks him through his various emotional states. James LaBrie from Dream Theater provides the main vocals and we see his character regret and eventually come to terms with his life before awakening. As with Guilt Machine I was drawn more to this album by the emotional connection with the characters and writers than Ayreon’s other work and even although this album does not feature my favourite Ayreon riffs or songs I feel it’s probably the best released so far.
Space Metal (Star One, 2002)
Yet another Arjen Anthony Lucassen side project, I listened to this album a lot on Spotify before eventually buying the CD for £40 (as it was out of print) which illustrates how much I loved this. It’s heavily influenced by 70s and 80s Space Metal (hence the name) and is a lot more mainstream rock than the other prog here. The songs are each themed on a science fiction movie and stand alone so this is a concept album but without any linking between songs. This album has so many fantastic riffs and choruses that you can’t help but sing along (or at least try, I’m not exactly operatic). As a lover of pretty much everything Lucassen does it’s nice to see him write great songs rather than a great album and feature a consistent band between tracks. The 2010 followup Victims of the Modern Age is also very good but was released so late last year that it didn’t feel like it should quite make last year’s top 10.
The Whirlwind (Transatlantic, 2009)
When I heard Transatlantic were recording a new album I was beyond excited. Pete Trewavas, Mike Portnoy, Neal Morse and Roine Stolt are all great musicians in their own right whose contributions to their own bands are irreplaceable but it’s with Translatlantic they excel. There is a real sense of humility here, each musician allowing the space for everyone to get their centre stage moments but also coming together to produce incredible vocal and instrumental harmonies. The entire album is meant to be listened as a single continuous song and it really rewards the listener who does so; themes and riffs fade in and out, bringing almost instant familiarity. I was also lucky enough to see them live in London last year and they are as fantastic live as they are recorded.
Posted in Music
Using .asoundrc to remap ALSA channels for Audacity
July 17, 2008 at 01:50 by Mike McQuaid
My sound card (a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2) has got lots of inputs, especially with the nice drive bay expansion port.
Unfortunately, the default ALSA device seems to have no way to access the “Line 2/Mic 2” channel on the front drive-bay expansion which I use for recording due to it seemingly being the lowest-noise channel.
If you point JACK’s “Input Device” to “hw:0,2” then it will pick up the 16 channel inputs and you can connect them nicely to be able to access this port (channels 9 and 10) in JACK-enabled applications.
I’m currently working on some voice acting for The Nameless Mod (which is looking like it’s going to be spectacular, check it out) and the best program I’ve found to do this recording in is Audacity. Audacity however seems to stubbornly refuse to let me use it’s JACK support (which is apparently buggy beyond use currently anyway).
I found that if I point Audacity to record 16 channels from “hw:0,2” then I can access all the Audigy’s input channels (as JACK does) but unfortunately this means that every time I record I get all 16 channels (a PortAudio limitation from what I can tell from the source). This isn’t ideal as it means, to record a bunch of lines in rapid succession, I need to spend huge amounts of time deleting the unwanted 15 other channels. As it’s not possible to select the channels to record from Audacity I needed to get a little more creative and ended up with this:
pcm.mic2 {
type plug
slave.pcm "hw:0,2"
slave.channels 16
ttable.0.8 1
ttable.1.9 1
ttable.8.0 1
ttable.9.1 1
}If you add the above to your “~/.asoundrc” or “/etc/asound.conf” then you will find that in Audacity’s “Recoding” dropdown you will now have the option “ALSA: mic2“. This is simply the same as “hw:0,2” but with the 9th channel swapped with the 1st and the 10th swapped with the second, thus allowing you to select “2: Stereo” or “1: Mono” from the “Channels” dropdown and get the Line/Mic 2 input(s) in Audacity without the need to constantly delete unwanted tracks.
Enjoy!
Note: You probably also want to ensure that Audacity records at the Audigy 2′s native rate or 48000Hz and using a 16-bit sample format.
