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Man In The Rain Group: Members Posts: 405 Joined: April 2002 Posted: April 11 2002, 17:41 looking back in hindsight, since Voyager Mike seems to have completely abandoned the more traditional recording methods that he favoured in the days of yore...TB3 and TMB are both very 'computerised' as were TB2 and TSODE before it, and even Guitars was a little electronic...the question is, does anyone think that Mike will ever return to a more basic sound when he gets MVR out of his system?...will the Celtic warrior return?...because as much as I love the likes of TB3, I long to hear another mont st.michel or wild goose flaps its wings...the music seems contented, at peace, whereas his more recent music sounds like he is searching and unsure of what to find...anyway I throw this out to you, the trusted diehard fans to debate...has mike been lost to new technology, or will the beating heart of a traditional musician and composer resurface?... Oliver -------------- Hergest Ridge 165 - Ommadawn 038 - Incantations 243 Back to top

Korgscrew Group: Super Admins Posts: 3511 Joined: Dec. 1999 Posted: April 11 2002, 18:49 I think Mike has always been attracted by technology, not least computer technology... I think it all started with the Fairlight CMI - by the early-mid 80s, he was using that at pretty much every opportunity (I beliebe that the CMI was his main compositional tool for Discovery, with a large number of the parts being sequenced on there rather than being played by hand). Earth Moving is perhaps the most extreme case, which seems to have a very large number of programmed/sequenced parts. When making Amarok, Tom Newman encouraged Mike to put away all his electronic toys and gadgets and play things in by hand (he's said before in interviews that he feels Mike can be very lazy with his use of computers) and succeeded in the most part, though some parts were apparently still sequenced (something that Tom newman wasn't too happy about). But it seems that he couldn't keep his hands off them for long - the electronics returned on Tubular Bells II, at the encouragement of Trevor Horn, and haven't really gone away since (though rumour has it that Voyager was originally a far more acoustic sounding album, before people at Warner suggested sofetning the edges with more synthesisers and things...). So anyway, my thought is that if he can be dragged away from it all once, it can happen again - it just needs the right person to do the dragging... Back to top

raven4x4x Group: Members Posts: 1535 Joined: Jan. 2002 Posted: Aug. 19 2002, 05:10 I definately agree that a less manufactured would be great, and being able to put Mike into that sound would be a great victory. However, I know what he feels like with the atraction to technology (I'm a tech-head too! ) If technology is used properly, it is able to give a very natural sounding album, but I agree that it is better to just do it naturally to start with. -------------- Thank-you for helping us help you help us all. Back to top

qjamesfloyd Group: Members Posts: 1351 Joined: April 2001 Posted: Oct. 28 2002, 02:33 I think Mike will alway use the best and most upto date technology he can find for his music,because by his own admission,he is obsessed with the stuff,but i agree that i would like to hear him leave some of this more modern computerised stuff behind,but Mike was and always will be an inovator,so,it is nice to hear him try no things,and he has been in this mood since the early 90's,the good news is,that with Mike re-making Tubular Bells,he will be releasing an album that is all hand played in the old stlye that we all want to hear,and then maybe this will give him a new lease of life,into maybe writing this kind of music again,because by the time the new album comes out,he would not have had to do any writing for a long time,but knowing Mike he is probably already writing music for an album after Tubular Bells. As a Mike Oldfield fan,i think the future looks really bright. Back to top

raven4x4x Group: Members Posts: 1535 Joined: Jan. 2002 Posted: Dec. 23 2002, 04:03 Yeah, he has said that he is using real instruments for the new Tubular Bells, and not fancy computer stuff. It would be good if he stayed that way: I don't have much of a problem with computer sequencing, what is important is what it sounds like, not how it is played, but often it just dosen't sound as alive as when it is played by hand. -------------- Thank-you for helping us help you help us all. Back to top

Korgscrew Group: Super Admins Posts: 3511 Joined: Dec. 1999 Posted: Dec. 23 2002, 16:49 I suppose that when playing by hand, it's easier for the character of the musiciand to come through, while working with sequencers, it's the character of the machine which comes across first; the musician has to work a lot harder to get a more personal feel to the music (incidentally, I find that what I've heard of Moby can be quite personal feeling, despite his use of sequencers and other music technology). Back to top

TOBY Group: Members Posts: 1562 Joined: May 2002 Posted: Dec. 24 2002, 16:56 I think at the end of the day it's what you do with the musical insrument that counts. There are quite a few people out there making extremely emotive soulfull music using sequencers and synth's , Moby being a good example and Massive Attack being another, there are plenty more. Part of Mike's problem in recent years, for me, has been that some of the synth sounds and drum sounds he uses don't sound particularly well researched they just sound like the first patch he's come across that sounds vaguely 'Oldfieldy' on one of his Roland keyboards. TL had a few nice synth textures, I liked the voccorder sound on Viper and Sirius and one or two others sounded liked he was trying new things. The problem from a critical point of view is that when you listen to what other musicians are doing like Moby etc they do sound way ahead of a lot of Mike's contemporary stuff. Like we've said before maybe the new TB will inspire Mike to play to his stength's more. Back to top

qjamesfloyd Group: Members Posts: 1351 Joined: April 2001 Posted: Oct. 16 2021, 05:17 It's me again, reading old posts It is interesting as people on this thread (me included) were speculating if Mike would go away from computerized recordings after Tubular Bells 2003 well, history now tells us he went even further into it with Light & Shade, and completely the other direction with Music of the Spheres, and carried that on for his latest releases. That is the thing with Mike, he can change direction at any time, I like that about him. Back to top

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