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qjamesfloyd Group: Members Posts: 1353 Joined: April 2001 Posted: April 16 2004, 16:11 Was Amarok released on LP?if so,when does it break for each side?and if it was released on LP,is that a very rare Mike item?. I just love all the various climaxes on the album,it's one of Mike's real trademarks for me,but the final one at the end of the album is just amazing,how many instruments are there being played,and how many tracks of vocals?. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: April 16 2004, 17:43 The side break is at exactly 30:00. I think it's as rare as any Mike LP. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

Jammer Group: Members Posts: 641 Joined: April 2000 Posted: April 16 2004, 19:08 The Amarok player section list says it's at 30:00, though this is right bang in the middle of a section, even not a complete phrase. I thought it could logically be when Mike's muttering the section names and the health warning at around 26 minutes, but looking at Richard's information on Amarok on his discography website we are reminded that the album was supposed to be as uncommerical as possible. This was achieved by collaging lots of small sections together so that no small part of it could become an accessible, sellable single on its own. Clearly the feature of skippable tracks on a CD is ignored too! Having the LP break exactly at 30 minutes would tie in with this ideology. Perhaps LPs can't have sides that exceed 30 minutes? As for the ending that clips the recording meters! I know that Mike overdubbed his 12-string at least twice to create the rich strumming sound that appears as early as the first climax. There is a piano and the African choir. Don't think there is any percussion from my memory That leaves the question of how many African musicians there are. It sounds like a four-part harmony, but in the initial Xhosa chattering before the end there are many more voices than just four. I'm guessing something the size of 20 to 30-strong depending on how big the recording studio was! Do Clodagh and Bridget sing at the end as well? Back to top

Tati The Sentinel Group: Members Posts: 3360 Joined: Feb. 2002 Posted: April 16 2004, 19:15 Amarok on LP should be a not quite good experience,since it breaks up the music and concept flux. -------------- "But it's always the outsider, the black sheep, that becomes the blockbuster." - Mike Oldfield, 2014 "I remember feeling that I'd been judged unfairly and that I was going to prove them wrong." - Peter Davison, 2011 Back to top

qjamesfloyd Group: Members Posts: 1353 Joined: April 2001 Posted: April 17 2004, 06:06 Thanks for the answers,yeah,Amarok on LP would be a really bad thing,the piece demands to be played from start to finish,i hate when i listen to the album in the car,and the car journy is less than an hour,because i can't hear the whole thing but when i get out of the car,i usually carry on listening to it in my head Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: April 17 2004, 08:14 Quote (Jammer @ April 17 2004, 01:08) Perhaps LPs can't have sides that exceed 30 minutes? Well, I have earlier (70s) compilation LPs which go well over 40 minutes per side, so it's not likely to be that. I think it's more likely that Mike intended Amarok to be exactly one hour of duration [and it actually is... ], so the most logical split on a two-sided medium (LP or cassette) seems to me to be at 30:00. I've listened to the cassette version of it, which a friend of mine owns (and I was told it's quite rare too) and realized that the track, at the end of side one, simply fades out (the fade starts at approximately 29:40 on the CD). @ Tati: I don't think the 'flux' of the music is really broken by the split -  the footsteps walk away from side 1 and come walking back in on side 2. I think it's nice. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

Sir Mustapha Group: Musicians Posts: 2802 Joined: April 2003 Posted: April 17 2004, 13:16 The problem with too long LP's is that they tend to severely reduce the sound quality. Thursday, I bought The Cure's "Disintegration", and each side goes nearly at 30 minutes, but when I played it for the first time, I had to pump up the volume of my PC speakers to the max, so that I could hear anything. (! But yes, one side of an LP can go longer than 30 minutes with no prob, but the ideal length is 18 minutes (so I hear). It's quite logical that the LP fades out at 30 minutes, but I think it would be nicer it it ended at the very last piano note of the "Boat" riff. That's how I made it in my homemade cassete recording of Amarok. (I would love an Amarok LP, btw) Also, did you notice that, at the footstep section of Amarok, the first, loud guitar line plays EXACTLY at 30:00? And that the rhythm is exactly 120 bpm? -------------- Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds. Also check my Bandcamp page: http://ferniecanto.bandcamp.com Back to top

olracUK Group: Members Posts: 1683 Joined: June 2003 Posted: May 27 2004, 09:02 there must be some differences in which program is used to rip the cd, 'cos i get very slightly different timings using realplayer and windows media player. The half-time loud chord comes in at 30:08, not exactgly 30:00. a bit of splitting hairs, but when there is so much to listen out for, and some sounds last just a few seconds, it gets frustrating. Amarok can be heard "at a distance", as a piece of music, but it can take up hours when analysed and studied. Anyway, following the glass of water/tea making section, mike lights up, so I'm going to follow his lead now -------------- The answer is 42 - but what is the question? Back to top

Sir Mustapha Group: Musicians Posts: 2802 Joined: April 2003 Posted: June 11 2004, 08:30 The timing thing... Perhaps that has more to do with the program not keeping an accurate timing, really. My Winamp, for example, ALWAYS ends up keeping a wrong timing - it goes too slow. When I analysed Amarok with Cool Edit, I confirmed it: the guitar line starts PRECISELY at 30:00. In fact, there are a few quiet fractions of seconds at the very end to make the timing match, and the whole rhythm of the Intro Reprise matches the upbeat with the turn of the seconds - the Big Ben style synthesizer riff, for example, matches each note with the turn of a second. It's a really cool effect. -------------- Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds. Also check my Bandcamp page: http://ferniecanto.bandcamp.com Back to top

Thea Cochrane Group: Musicians Posts: 445 Joined: Nov. 1999 Posted: June 11 2004, 14:06 Back when I used to make tape copies of my CDs, Amarok of course didn't fit on one side so I did my own break - a fade out just at the end of the Tubular Bells Intro-like figure and before the layered "so-fa-so"s and footsteps (I can't remember the name of the section). Then I'd have side two fade up just as the so-fa-sos were starting. I remember listening to that cassette on the way to school one day (bus journey took 1 hour so it was just finishing as we arrived) and the state of mind I was in would probably only be otherwise achievable with some kind of illegal drugs. Back to top

Mitchell Benham Unregistered Posted: Dec. 06 2004, 01:24 I have a copy of the HDCD Amarok and it clocks in at 60 minutes and 2 and a bit secconds according to Cool Edit. Do you think that may be the HDCD version or are some copies different? A friend's original-release Amarok cd comes in at 59:58 and my brother's (also original) is 60:01. i have also noticed that the original (the 59:58 one) is slightly higher in pitch than my HDCD copy. i checked this on my Boss Orchestral tuner (the one i tune my oboe with) and it is indeed slightly higher in pitch. I have no idea how 2 cds can be 'out of tune' with each other... any suggestions? Back to top

Sir Mustapha Group: Musicians Posts: 2802 Joined: April 2003 Posted: Dec. 06 2004, 05:20 It's a wild guess, but it could be that the HDCD release is slightly, very slightly slower than the original. So that explains the "extra" four seconds in the HDCD release. By the way, if the original clocks at 59:58, with the two seconds of silence at the beginning, the album does measure 60:00 full! -------------- Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds. Also check my Bandcamp page: http://ferniecanto.bandcamp.com Back to top

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