Composing : A new work by one of our own: Allen Constantine’s Opus ’85. by Linwood Bell

Listening and loving it. Thanks for sharing, Linwood Bell!

Linwood Bell Listening to "Origins" now. Beautiful.

Leonardo Ramirez Allen is quite good, right?!

I've been playing it in the background off and on all afternoon Linwood Bell .

Thanks for sharing Linwood Bell! This is fantastic!

Hey everyone,

I just woke up. Here in Bucharest is 5 AM but I thought I'd join the discussion.

First of all, many thanks for sharing and listening.

Appreciate it!

This album is mostly based on my life's journey as a composer and human being.

Linwood, to answer your questions, most of the string sections were recorded in London by my friend Elliot Kempton who is a great performer and human. He played the cello, viola and violin and after I received the raw files, I edited them for about 2-3 months and also added some cello parts in my studio.

After the hard mixing process which was done by myself through my Adam S2V monitors, I decided I'd use Samplicity's Berlin Studio Reverb(to glue the whole section and make it sound similar to the Teldex room), which is fantastic by the way and you should all try it.

The glockenspiel that is heard on the recordings has been sampled by myself using my iPhone and added the recordings to Soundpaint from 8Dio, altered them with effects just to make them sound space'y and ethereal.

I tried recording my own upright old piano, used a bit of the bass from it but I've found that for this album, Noire from Native Instruments worked the best therefore I decided to go with that.

Most of the electronic parts are done with U-he Zebra 2 and custom sounds created with my Korg Minilogue XD analog synthesizer.

All other parts are samples mostly taken from Orchestral Tools Berlin Strings and the percussion if I'm not mistaken it's custom crafted from the XO vsti plugin by XLN Audio.

Mastering was done in Copenhagen and all the tracks were run through a real tape machine just to add that vintage feel.

In the end, by sharing Opus'85 with the world, I hope to connect with listeners on a deep and visceral level, offering a glimpse into my soul and inviting everyone to explore the conplexities of their own inner lives.

Once again, thank you very much for taking the time to listen and in the end, I wanted to share two reviews for the album, just in case you'd like to read more about it.

link below:

https://www.allenconstantine.com/press

PS: I have 3-4 more albums in the same genre that need to see the light of day at one point.

Each one with it's own story, next is "Little Arguments" which focuses on human interactions.

It's a bit more deeper and more romantic. I'm sure you'll love it.

All the best for everybody and feel free to drop a line whenever you feel like it.

Allen

Thanks for answering my questions. This project sounds really good. Congrats on the mix! I’ve been meaning to pick up the Berlin Studio Reverb and I’ll grab it soon. I watched the James Youtube review when it came out. I should have grabbed it long ago, but I've so many reverbs. lol

I’m glad you mentioned the editing. When I listened I thought about it because the strings and piano were so tight where they needed to be. So I was wondering if it was done together in the same room and if you played or conducted. Fantastic job on that. Sounds and feels so natural.

Elliot did a great job on his contributions. What a gold mine he is. Keep his number handy.

Fantastic work, Allen. Bravo Sir!

Thanks so much, Linwood! Regarding Berlin Studio, definitely a must have. I think it's the best reverb out there at the moment and the possibility of having EQ for all mics, it's fantastic.

RE editing, thanks. A lot of placement has been done and while I still used some samples from Orchestral Tools Berlin Strings for layering, I only used the close mics and used the decca's and outriggers for the real recordings with Berlin Studio.

Elliot is a fantastic performer. You can find his services on Fiverr. Just search his name whenever you need him. Make sure to let me know and I'll drop him a note telling about you.

Thanks again for your time listening to my album and I hope that the next one will be of the same quality if not better.

Allen

It's great to meet you, Linwood Bell. Beautiful music. My favorite is "Momentum." I bookmarked your Spotify page. I like to listen to music sometimes when I write.

I'm tempted today to pony up for the Abbey Road 1st Violins. Jeez, what a money pit we're in. I can resist today, but by the 28th Paul will have my money I'm afraid. lol

Linwood, don't fall for Spitfire's Abbey Road, please! It's not worth it. The legato is very bad and to be honest, Spitfire is just marketing. I still prefer Berlin Strings from Orchestral Tools and an update will come - they just said it at one point on V.I control.

Maurice Vaughan Thanks for your kind words. Glad you enjoyed my music. Best wishes,

Allen

You're welcome, Allen Constantine. Best to you on your projects.

I thought the blakus walkthrough was nice. Like everyone else, I've been waiting for these for a long time. At first I wished it was the whole section, but this is a nice way to test the waters. I can get the pro ver 1st violins for $300 and that's pretty easy for a fool with a credit card. I can see how they feel under my fingers and how they react. It's great that both Spitfire and OT have updates coming. Both players could use a tweak or two.

Linwood Bell - check out Embertone strings!/ great wood and solo sounds. Under $500 - sometimes w / discount around holidays.

Kerry Kennard I've almost bought the J. Bell violin a few times, but never did. Maybe I'll grab it in November. I did pre order the Abbey Road 1st violins. In a couple weeks I've got to do some things for an aging 80's pop star and I'll use them. Although having them wont get me the gig, I know people will like hearing that the sampled strings are from Abbey Road when I mention it. As Sly said, Different strokes for different folks and so on and so on and scooby-dooby-dooby.