Just popping my head in to say thanks for all the love. Glad to see people are enjoying it...
For those who haven't had the chance to check any of it out before deciding:
https://advent-prog.bandcamp.com/alb...udiophile-2496
A couple of tunes were also posted on YouTube as well recently (tho' not by us):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_SZKmC9-g0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-KQzqy1Ths
Give it a hit and see what you think - and if you like, well….then, you what to do.
Thanks again!
~ M
Just had my first listen and all I can say is WOW! Advent outdid themselves and that's saying a lot! I always knew Henry (sometimes with Mark co-piloting) was a great composer, but I'm really digging Alan's guitar pieces too! These guys really have a style all their own and apparently, they keep getting better. Looking forward to getting to know this album intimately. Big kudos, guys!
Hi Ernie,Originally Posted by No Pride
Just had my first listen and all I can say is WOW! Advent outdid themselves and that's saying a lot! I always knew Henry (sometimes with Mark co-piloting) was a great composer, but I'm really digging Alan's guitar pieces too! These guys really have a style all their own and apparently, they keep getting better. Looking forward to getting to know this album intimately. Big kudos, guys!
Thank you so much for the very kind feedback! It's wonderful to hear that you're enjoying the album this much already and hope that it continues to bring you joy for a very long time. Sincerely appreciate your mentioning our guitar pieces too--and I also want to highlight Greg's wonderful contributions on all of these acoustic duet miniatures as well (especially as we wrote two of them together and "12/12" is his composition entirely).
Take care, my friend, and thanks again,
Alan
Just wanted to express to the Advent crew how much I'm enjoying this release! Basically to echo other the positive comments:
There is a lot of music here to explore. It has an austere and imposing surface not unlike the Silent Sentinel itself (I love the CD artwork by the way!). Closer inspection reveals nooks and crannies, hidden places, brilliant snatches of melody and turns of phrase quickly passing by. References to the Enid, Gentle Giant, Procol Harum, (Beach Boys?!), etc. are superficial only. Advent uses similar devices but with a harmonic/rhythmic universe peculiar to the individual composers of the group. There are so many highlights that commentary on specific things would take a book. No one will doubt the sweat that went into this attention to detail. In the midst of being progressive, it’s really okay for complex music to be beautiful and powerful in the traditional sense. As all good music does, it takes me away and up for a while. Once again, thanks Advent!
That's a really beautiful commentary, Ken.
Thank you, my friend! Hope you and the family are well…
~ M
Hi Ken,
Thank you so much for this very kind review! It really warms my heart.
All the best my friend,
Alan
A very good album. With its own flavour, its own style and niche. I like the rocking hard-edginess of it, love the lush sound, vocal harmonies. Sometimes I thought that the best instrumental sections could be longer, but overall I like this. Bonus points for the way the keyboards are played and recorded.
Nice surprisehttp://xymphonia.aafm.nl/latest.html (Album Of The Month October!)
Great audiophile recording. I'm assuming that if I buy the digital with the 24/96, I can't play it on my IPhone without converting it on my PC to 24/48. Any thoughts?
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF STUPID PEOPLE IN LARGE GROUPS!
This is awesome. Thanks very much!Nice surprise
Cheers,
Alan
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the kind words. To the best of my knowledge, the iPhone audio engine is still limited to output CD quality audio--and, while there are apps that will allow direct playback of 24/96 FLAC files, the music will be downsampled to CD quality when played through the iPhone's internal headphone jack. There are external DACs available to overcome this, but I'm not sure how much they cost or how practical that solution is. For more details, please have a look at the following article:
http://www.macworld.com/article/2064...s-devices.html
That being said, my personal solution when purchasing 24/96 downloads on Bandcamp--and also playing Silent Sentinel with optimal audio fidelit--is to download both the (24/96) FLAC and high-quality MP3 versions of the album from Bandcamp after purchase. This way I can play the 24/96 FLAC files on my computers (PC or Mac) and $100 XiiO X1 portable lossless audio player while still being able to import the MP3 files directly into iTunes for native playback on my iPhone and iPad.
Also, just in case it helps further, here's the text I included when fulfilling the hi-resolution (24/96) digital album download during our pre-sale period:
(Sorry about the indentation not working properly above.)Please note that, in addition to downloading your 2496 FLAC (audiophile) files, you should also be able to repeat the download process with other options selected to obtain different resolutions/formats of the files (MP3s, etc.) if you’d like to have them as well. (The MP3s are a great way to add the music to your mobile devices, iPods, and other portable players that do not support FLAC/lossless playback, by the way.)
Also, here are a few pointers regarding optimized playback of the audiophile 2496 FLAC files to help you achieve the best possible fidelity while listening:
1. For Mac or PC playback:
a. Be sure to set your sound card to the corresponding 24-bit/96-kHz settings if available (Mac users should open Audio MIDI Setup, found in /Applications/Utilities, to view/change the “Format” to 96000.0 kHz and 2ch-24bit).
b. The most popular free programs that support lossless FLAC playback are:
i. VLC Media Player (http://www.videolan.org/) [PC/Mac/other]
ii. Winamp (http://www.winamp.com/) [PC only]
2. If you’re looking for a portable player that supports lossless FLAC playback, the FiiO X1 (http://www.fiio.net/en/products/18) seems to be the most popular low-cost option. (I bought mine for US $100 at Amazon, but note that this also requires a MicroSD card to store your media.) The PonoPlayer is another common alternative, but I believe it costs about US $400.
Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance.
Best wishes and thanks again,
Alan
Thanks for the info. I'll likely download on the PC, where I can convert to 24/48 using an app that I can't remember the name of. It does use a great FIR filter before down sampling. The impulse response of the filter was provided. I have got this to work on my IPods and IPhone.
For those who don't go (often) into the musicians sub-forum of PE (like me): http://www.progressiveears.org/forum...ew-Jersey-USA)
Thanks very much, Rene!
Maybe you can ask your friend Shunji Saegusa (Kenso) to live in your region again and play some gigs
Shunji2005-1.jpg
It seems Kenso isn't playing any concerts at the moment.
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