Posts by Schrottrocker

  • What's Your Weather Like?

    Pictures speak louder than words:

    https://web.de/wetter/lage-kri…huften-tag-nacht-35994668

    (click the yellow button in the centre of the preview picture, then you can navigate through the gallery)


    Floods turned parts of the German mid-west into a war zone. Other parts of our country have been flooded too in the mean time, however not as bad. Neighbour countries Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland seem to face similar problems, Austria might be next.
    Meanwhile: only yesterday, an American friend told me about the crazy heat wave in Florida. Which is still nothing compared to California - or Canada. Same seems to go for Northern Africa, and, to a milder extent, to Russia.

    At this point I am finding myself thankful I am not drowning nor getting fried.

  • What's your preferred medium for music listening?

    I enjoy my music from CDs, vinyl records, and yes cassettes too. I have a fine stereo with good components for these three media.
    I completely can't get into streaming or MP3 downloads, except for youtube or some free site if I'm not sure if a CD is worth purchasing. When I like what I hear I order a CD or maybe vinyl.

    A friend of mine recently gave me their entire CD collection (~300 items) because all they listen now is streaming. They even gave their stereo away, they prefer a bluetooth speaker to their phone.

  • The Synths: A Quest For Specific Types of Synths Used On Songs

    Thank you for all this information! Fascinating stuff. Where did you learn how to identify synths like this?


    For WCD and CAS it would be interesting what kind of keyboards Tony used in the first place.

    Also I never knew Mike used a guitar synth, it makes sense though. Of course he always his bass pedals too which would qualify as another synth.

  • The Synths: A Quest For Specific Types of Synths Used On Songs

    As far as I was aware the "Enossification" was the sound effects on Peter's vocals on Cuckoo Cocoon, In The Cage and The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging. Possibly, but not sure, a humming sound in the very beginning of the album. It has been a myth for long times that Eno played keyboards on this album, probably tracing back to clueless journalists who knew Eno primarily as the keyboardist of Roxy Music.

  • The building of every (insert artist)'s song

    How every Alan Parsons Project song is built:


    1. Hey guys, let's record this really cool mellow rock song I wrote!

    2. Let's add the blueprint for any good guitar solo

    3. Let's add some notes with this instrument I built which is NOT a mellotron

    4. Let's add some lyrics based on something by Edgar Allan Poe.....again

    5. Did you know we can enhance every rock song with a full symphony orchestra - without making it pretentious? Let me show you

    6. Did you know French horns were meant for rock music? Let me show you

    7. Did you know our main song writer can sing every song while he's falling asleep? Let me... err, Don't let it show

  • The building of every (insert artist)'s song

    How every Steely Dan song is built:

    natural blend of every style of American 20th century popular music - chord changes no human being can comprehend that still sound easy-peasy as anything - obscure sarcastic lyrics about historical figures playing losers of today's American society - pile of nervous wrecks of world-class session musicians

  • The building of every (insert artist)'s song

    Maybe you have seen these memes that show funny diagrams about how "every" song of genre XY is built, like "every jazz song: intro - lots of noodling - outro" and the likes. I thought this would be much more fun with artists or bands rather than genres. Disclaimer: this is just fun ;)


    Let's try:


    How every Frank Zappa song is built:

    Intro in 5/8 - piss take on country music - "the CIA guys are so retarded" - "the US president is so retarded" - blues guitar solo (20 minutes) - vibraphone solo in quintuplets over a 15/8 signature - outro: piss take on Frank Sinatra

    How every Pet Shop Boys song is built:
    Intro: lots of orchestra hits - disco beat - something about a dysfunctional relationship - some cynical bites at politics and society - catchy chorus guest starring The Russian Village People - fake applause sample to a spoken one-liner courtesy of Chris Lowe - repeat chorus - more orchestra hits

    How every Tony Banks song is built:
    shortened 'Watcher of the Skies' intro - standard 80s pop rhythm - "I'm just a random pop singer" type of vocals - totally cryptic lyrics - chorus that tries to be catchy over some really weird chord changes - crappy synth guitar solo - 3 bars of 6/4 - repeat chorus and fadeout

    You go ahead! :P (Feel free to move this in the games section or elsewhere if this doesn't fit in here)

  • Age And All That Goes With It

    I have a friend who shares your cousin's fate. Rona is the woman who was the match maker for my ex and me 12 years ago, we stayed friends, later on she became close friends with my mother too - she is only in her 50s and has been diagnosed with some kind of cancer that leaves her only a few years at best. Right now she is traveling with her husband, working through her bucket list and making the most of her leftover time. It was a huge shock for all of us when we learned about it. Meanwhile we're joking about it, it just feels better to treat such bad news with humour; but I know once she is going to leave for real it will be another shock. One of the good sides of something like this is it brings people back together: she and my ex had always been best friends but they had grown apart in the last couple years, now they renewed their friendship. I had to think of the song 'The Living Years'.

    Btw we had a section for topics like this in the old forum, "Hand in Hand", it was only visible when you were logged in. Maybe Christian might put sth like this here too.