answering machine

[paulwalshmusic]

A soundscape of telephone answering machine messages.
A newbie to electronica, please bash this.

[Bigduggieface]

Hell of an entertaining way to spend seven-and-a-half minutes. Great selection of loops and samples. The sound quality is top notch.

I was mesmerized the whole time by the constant stream of new attention-grabbing sounds. The overall dynamics of the composition itself builds and releases tension very well.

My only complaint may be an unfair one. I found the slap bass sample rather repetitive and it starts to become predictable after a while. I feel this is unfair because I can't offer a solution. You might be able to cut the length of the song, but that may do more harm than good. I'll leave that complaint for you to ponder.

My favorite part comes at 6:18 to 6:50 when the crazy psychedelic synth appears. The analog synth intro sucked me in, too. Good stuff!

Do you have any secrets you'd like to reveal about how you acquired the answering machine voice samples?

[paulwalshmusic]

Hi Bigduggieface,

thanks for your post and yes I agree the bass gets irritatingly repetitive. I was being lazy, what I shall do is rewrite the bass part with several different samples and make use of pitch shift.
Telephone answer machines have left me in apoplectic fury, especially on one particular occasion some years ago.
The gas supply had been accidently cut off, it was sub zero, deep winter. My 6 month baby, 2 year old and wife freezing.
I tried to contact the gas company by payphone, they kept me on hold for 35 minutes while I fed a mountain of change into the phone.
All the time a cheery voice was telling me 'how important my call was' and that they would 'answer it very soon'.
Just as a real human came on line, my last coin ran out.
I could have killed.
The samples used on this track, I got by putting 'voice samples' into google and the third entry down came up with a selection of demo answer machine messages.
Being from the UK I found the one about having to show your health insurance or pay up front a bit weird and makes me appreciate the NHS

Thanks again for your post

Paul

[fHumble fHingaz]

Cool sounds! Well put together & mixed... I enjoyed it - Yeah, the psycho-synth definitely appears on cue after the mention of insurance & money! Well done!

[captainL]

ha. How cool was that. You should try to make some money off of that. If I was on hold, I wouldn't help but think what the fuck is this (In a cool way).

[Bigduggieface]

You may have started a new genre of music. "Telephonelectronica"!

Your testimony attests not only to the fact that music is the most perfect artistic medium to provoke an emotional response from the listener, but also that music can provide a cathartic outlet for the composer himself.

[gg.gamble]

This is really cool. I enjoyed it. Personally i would have preferred more editing of the vocals, maybe chopping some of them up in a break beat style or something. but having said that the song doesnt really need it i liked it all the same.
cool stuff

You might like the second half of 'Calgone - Incubus'. its a brilliant use of samples

[paulwalshmusic]

Thanks for all your comments, much appreciated
paul

[captainL]

Originally Posted by gg.gamble

You might like the second half of 'Calgone - Incubus'. its a brilliant use of samples

haa. That is who it reminded me of too. I think their album "science" had a few songs that where like that. Don't know the name but might be colgone??

[gg.gamble]

It was probably 'magic medicine' I think thats a bit more like this.ahh i love that album.