ANGELUS

After some coders,finally a musician! the compo#7 winner: Angelus, another great tracker from spain...

http://psycle.free.fr/Photos/angelus.jpg

Angelus

1 )Q:hi Angelus ,introduce yourself please!

A:Hello. I'm Angel M. Vazquez,I'm 33 years old and I live in Santiago de Compostela, a nice city in the northwest of Spain. I work as a pathology technician in a hospital. This is one of my passions (too much hours I spend working in the laboratory). The others are digital photography and, of course, computer music (and music in general).

http://psycle.free.fr/angelus/DigitalCamera/SantiagodeCompostela.jpg

The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela

2 )Q:how did you knew Psycle?

A:It was a September afternoon in 2002.I was searching for alternatives to Buzz. I worked with Buzz but I never had the feeling I'd got with my previous trackers. I needed any sort of tracker whith the modularity of Buzz but without its confusing patterns with lots of columns to automate the machines.Then Psycle appeared. I started loading some plugins and putting some notes in the patterns. It was the love at first sight. Since that moment, I never used fasttracker again.

3 )Q:oh!and...what have you used before it?

A:Since I was a child, music was in my blood. With my first computer (an Amstrad CPC464), I made so me BASIC code to play melodies although, as you can already imagine, they were too simply and rudimentary. With my first PC, I searched for some kind of music software to compose and then I knew the Trackers.A friend of mine give me a copy of my first tracker (please, don't ask me for its name... I can't remember it). After this one I worked with ScreamTracker and, as you already know, it was followed by Impulse Tracker, Fasttracker and Buzz.

4 )Q:what is the feature you like the most?

A:It's hard to decide... I'm sorry, but I can't say one and only feature: modularity, sound quality, clean interface, ... they are some of the characteristics I love in Psycle.But right now I must to add as a feature its Community and Development Team, I think this is a strong point we must to value. Also its opensource background makes it to be an open project for everybody. I'm really delighted that you can participate in its development with suggestions, improvements and bug reports.

5 )Q:and what do you wish to see in the future?

A:We all will be agree if I say that some of the features I'd like to be added in Psycle are the following ones: multipattern & sequencer (I think this is a necessary step in a kind of tracker like this one), the upcoming rewrited VST host and an improved sampler (currently both in development by JosepMa), multi I/O (TranceMyr is on it too),...But I think that one of the most important features I want to see in the future is the migration from the current only-for-Windows environment to a multiplatform environment. Only then Psycle will be a really free software.

6 )Q:I agree I want that new VST host too!ok..you are the compo7 winner,are you happy? heehe,NO seriously,talk about your emotions….

A:Ha ha ha... It was a surprise for me. Yes, it's true. As I have already said in the forums, the style of the song isn't too much... (how could I say it?) ... too much 'conventional'/'popular'. All the more since the quality of other entries: MfM's, Taika's, lastfuture's,... anyone could be the winner.It was great to know that other people likes what you do. A new sensation I never experienced. By the way, I want to seize the oportunity to thank everybody for their votes. Even so I never compose/write music to win anything, only to enjoy and share with others.

7 )Q:your song got a lot of votes(165),how have you composed it..and where did you found the inspiration?

A:I love guitar (even though I don't play guitar). I started composing the main melody with a simple sample of guitar. After this I changed the single sample for a multisampled acoustic guitar (8 samples) to give more realism.Then I started to structure the song: an introduction based on pads and the guitar, the main melody with a e-piano and the acoustic guitar, a transition with a drum that starts to mark the rythm and strings that grows and fills ambient, the full orchestrated part with all the elements plus drums section and an e-guitar as lead singer, and a finale part that ends in the main melody ambiented with strings and a fade out with the initial pads.After this I started to master the song into Psycle (I wanted that the song you heard with Psycle would be the same of the rendered version). I decided then to make a multiband compressor for the acoustic guitar and for the master compression to obtain better results in the mix. To test it I heard the render with other speakers (my home hi-fi, my car audio, my job computer's speakers,...).Inspiration? Usually I start playing melodies with my MIDI keyboard, but I must to confess that Mike Oldfield is one my favourites and, of course, it's reflected in what I do.

8 )Q:ok good!but generally,where do you find the inspirations for your song?

A:Any song I listen to, any place I go to, any state of mind,... can inspire me everywhere a song. But mostly when I listen songs I have more ideas to compose. And whichkind of songs? Every style or genre I listen to. Although I have some prefered music genre, I have no problems about listen to others.

9 )Q:your tracks are a mixture between: ambient and newage.these are your favourite musical style I suppose,but which other genre do you compose?

A:Yeah, newage is one of my prefered genres I talked above. But it's not the only one. From Classical music (including some movie soundtracks), ethnic (african, hindu, arab,...), celtic/folk, jazz (classical, modern, acid,...), funky, central-southamerican music (salsa, bossanova,...), flamenco,... to chill-out, lounge, some trance, house.... ufff!!! As you can see I can't say one and only genre as long as I like a lot of them. I could say that I prefer to talk about songs themselves instead of genres: songs that I like to listen to or not.

10 )Q:when you are in front of your psycle,how do you start a song usually,have you some plans or what? 

A:Sometimes I start with some ideas I've got previously as I said before (mainly after listen to other music). Othertimes I start playing some chords or melodies in my MIDI-keyboard with soundfonts or plugins loaded in Psycle without any plan in mind.

11 )Q:is there a musician or a group that you used to listen when you need some inspirations?

A:As you can see above, I have a lot of musicians I like to listen to. But If I must to emphasize someone, I have to talk about Mike Oldfield. And you could ask me "What do you find in Mike Oldifield you like?". The capacity of innovation (rock, pop music, classical music, celtic music, techno, chillout... he has no damages to use one or other genre in his songs), his ability as producer (the way he uses the instruments, arranges the songs,...), and so on. That is not only because his music itself, but the way he composes.

12 )Q:and psyclers? 

A:I love to listen any song that psyclers make. Any song from any psycler can give me new ideas, this is the best of a Community: to share. Any prefered psycler?... Ufff!... I can't say one: alk, taika-kim, quantinuity, MfM, sampler, ... please please don't make me this kind of questions. It's too hard to answer.

13 )Q:a bit about the privat life of Angel Manuel,not so privat anyway…LOL,what do you do on your free time? have you some hobbies or sports? 

A:ha ha ha... Any free time I have I spend playing in Psycle. Yes, I'm currently learning some basics about sound engeneering (compression, EQ,....) into Psycle. That's why I started a small tutorial in Psycle's Wiki page about this subject: I want to share what I'm learning with others. Other hobbies... digital photography (I always take my digital camera with me), to go out with my friends, to drive to nowhere, to read, to watch movies,... and, of course, to listen music.

14 )Q:eheh,I’m a fan of some Spanish foods like:paella and tortillas,are you a good cooker? 

A:I can't say if I'm a good cooker... other people must judge me. But I must to say that I love the "empanada gallega" (a typical Galician pie) or the "tortillas" (omelettes) I cook. My mother is a really good cooker (I must to say that it is her job)... then I try to let her always to cook. ;-D

http://psycle.free.fr/angelus/DigitalCamera/EmpanadaGallega.JPG One of the "empanadas" cooked by Angelus

15 )Q:well I have no more questions,wanna add something Angel?

A:I want to thanks everybody because Psycle and its Community. In special to the current main developers JosepMa & Bohan because to listen us. I want to add one and only thing: The best is not what Psycle has become, but what Psycle will be.

I totally agree,a big thanks to devs....and also thanks to you mate, see you!!

 made by MfM on 11/02/2006