Dear, MarcE.
Once again another year has shot past way too fast, and here I am again just before Christmas (in a mad panic amongst other doing so many other things) writing the introduction to another MarcE tribute.
MarcE, I hope you don’t mind us surprising you again with another tribute, but as last year’s tribute seemed to hit the mark (no pun intended!) as we had hoped, as indicated by the heart touching post made by your daughter on EX5Tech last year, I knew back then that I would wish to organise another one this year. So I have!
I did wonder if we could generate the same support as we did last year. Well, what a collection of songs we have this year; we have so much material that we couldn’t fit them all on one CD!
Just like last year’s this collection of songs is diverse in style, and made by people who wish to give something back to you after you have given so much to us. Music from the heart in my opinion.
Anyway, once more I would like to wish you all the best and I sincerely hope (as do all who contributed) that you overcome your difficulties, and maybe this new tribute will help you in some small way. As ever, you are in our thoughts, and be sure to drop in on us at EX5Tech every now and then.
Best Regards
Derek Cook,
On behalf of EX5Tech and all Tribute Contributors.
PS: I’d like to say a huge thanks to those who contributed, and a special thanks to our
Mixmaster, Fuse, for sweating over the mastering of this compilation.
Note: some submitted songs were cover versions of other artists' tunes. Where this is the case, for copyright reasons, they are not included in this web version of the tribute. Some songs also may not be available because the artist does not want their work to be publicly available.
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No |
Title |
Artist |
Links |
Artist/Compiler Message |
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1 |
Ode To Jamie Sullivan |
Uncle Vic |
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2 |
Amianspeace |
Jazz Minister |
This is a piece (no pun intended) I did with Marce in mind about a month ago. I wanted it to have some sense of seasons, thus the spring rain in the beginning, the summer nasty insects in the middle, then the music itself (one Coltrane's more "plaintiff" melodies called "Naima" which spelled backwards is "Amian") which I felt had some degree of serenity and peace about it, the latter feeling being muchly augmented by using Marce's Tangerine Dream voice from the second set (probably is also in others too), along with piano, bass and a light smattering of drums. It was hard to decide which of his voices to use, as so many of them are just great! The last section uses the bass flute from the recent VL releases to end the song. |
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3 |
Strange Dreams |
Cerys Cook (aged 8) |
This is my daughter, Cerys, “noodling” away on the keyboard, which I recorded without her realising it! It sounds quite haunting so we came up with the song title “Strange Dreams”. I have done nothing to this apart from recording it. MarcE Voice used: I1-20(B04) “Reincarnate” from “Dreamscapes” |
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4 |
Relaxing |
Pro |
In my simple tune ‘Relaxing’ I used following MarcE patches:
All other patches are Internal Presets. MarcE, I want to thank you for all your patches, especially for pads. They are really beautiful. I wish you quick recovery and hope that one day you’ll surprise us with new sounds!!
Pro |
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5 |
Star Cycle |
Derek Cook |
The roots of this song developed from an idea I had whilst messing with the wonderful "Play It Slow" performance from “The End Of”. The intro of this song before the melody comes in is just me holding down one chord and all the movement is coming from this wonderful performance. For some reason the sounds of this performance reminded me of Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” series, shown in the late seventies, which was about the formation of the cosmos. Whilst playing this performance I had this vision of stars being formed in a giant cosmic dust cloud. So I was going to call that idea “Star Birth”. But I then decided to develop it further and have three parts to the song, so I developed the initial idea into the three part song that you can now listen to:
Hopefully the distinction between the three parts is fairly obvious. MarcE Performances used:
MarcE Voices used:
Other Voices used:
MarcE, once more I can only say thanks for all of the wonderful sounds you have provided us. They never fail to give me inspiration as I hope you can hear. God bless you, and I hope you come out on top of your illness. |
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6 |
Silent |
Leethal |
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7 |
Heal The Child |
Berhang |
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8 |
Holy Night |
Leethal |
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9 |
Fi Fy Hun |
Cerys Cook |
Cerys (now aged 8) recently learnt this song to sing at her School’s harvest festival, where praise is given for the autumn harvest that has just been gathered in. It was the first song she has sang on her own with just her teacher accompanying on acoustic guitar. We were really proud of her singing this and decided we wanted to record her singing this for posterity. The song is a traditional Welsh song praising both the senses with which we experience the world, and the learning experience of life. I think that Welsh is a very poetic and flowing language, especially when sung, and although I am naturally biased, I think that Cerys has done a smashing job in singing this so full of confidence considering it’s the first time she has sang into a microphone and has been recorded. It took just two takes to get the vocal right. I decided that it would be nice for this song to form part of the MarcE tribute, as I think that there is something uplifting when you hear young children singing as it’s pure and from the heart. So I got the sheet music for the song from the school, recorded a rough piano guide which Cerys sang against, and I then replaced the guide with the music you now hear using MarcE voices. Below are the words of the song in Welsh, along with an approximate English translation. We’ve translated the song as best we can, but quite often there’s not a direct translation of words between the two languages, and also Welsh is a bit of a “back to front” language (adjectives come after their nouns and not before, e.g. “flowers nice” instead of “nice flowers”) so we’ve had to swap the words around in a quite few places for it to make sense in English (Glyn and Siân are Welsh names).
Dau ly-gaid dis-lair sydd gen i
(I have two eyes shining,)
Dwy glust i wrando sydd gen i,
(I have two ears to hear,)
Trwyn i arogli sydd gen i,
(I have a nose to smell with,) MarcE Voices used:
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10 |
Hope |
Derek Cook |
I’ve had this idea kicking for a few years now and finally decided to record it! It uses just one MarcE performance. All the sounds you hear are just coming from a left hand chord progression and a right hand melody line. Every time I tried adding something to this idea it just didn’t work, so I decided this was definitely a case of “less is more” and I left it unadorned. And this shows how clever MarcE is at getting the most out of the EX. That one performance as all I needed! MarcE Performances used: 054(D06) "Gitaro's SD" from MarcEIV |
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11 |
RelExt |
Jeroen |
From the first sound sets MarcE released I loved the sounds in them. When I was asked to make a song for him using his sounds I didn't hesitate. He meant a great deal for the EX community, so now I could do something for him. Making the song was not as easy as I expected it to be. Most of the MarcE sounds are songs in itself; they're finished pieces of music. It's hard to think of something that I can add to the sounds. After an evening of browsing through all the sounds he made I found quite a few sounds I wanted to use and the song became reality. With the exception of the Rhodes (EMagic EVP73), the drums (various sample loops) and the vocal sample during the interlude (from a Dutch relaxation CD, hence the title of the track) every sound is made by the Yamaha EX5. Two sounds are not by MarcE: the lead sound that plays the theme is a great expressive sound programmed by Ski from one of the soundsets coming from www.ex5tech.com, and the bass line is played with a preset sound I like very much. Every other sound has a MarcE stamp on it. It was hard for me to not get carried away on the intro and the ending, I kept finding more sounds from this brilliant soundscaper that I could use. I just played a chord on the blue beast and new ideas popped up. The song was sequenced using Cubase SX with a little use of some plug-ins. I just hope that someday MarcE stumbles upon an abandoned EX5 and starts to produce more of these great sounds, because he's clearly very talented in this regard. |
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12 |
As Light As Ever Mastered |
Isaari |
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13 |
Equinox2 |
Berhang |
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14 |
Heritage |
John Doran |
MarcE I wrote Heritage last Easter. I love your pads and think the voice I used was called “What Can I”? Your pads seem to glue the rest of the instruments together. I want you to know that I keep you in my prayers. May God's peace be with you and your family this holy Christmas season. |
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15 |
Mind Music |
Fuse |
It was an honour and privilege to help out with this tribute. The song I’ve composed is made after listening to a lot of these wonderful songs. Ambient like abstract music to enjoy when you’re sitting down in your chair at home and reflecting about how wonderful life can be. |
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16 |
In The Dark |
Laurent |
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17 |
The Journey |
Paul Wade |
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18 |
Marce Dawn |
Jazz Minister |
MarceDawn is a song I did last year named "Susies Sleeze", using the usual piano bass drums, electric guitar plus muted trumpet and flute, as I recall, in the chorus. After MarcE’ last set of sounds appeared, I wondered how the beginning chord changes would sound slowly with some of his new (then) patches. I liked the result, so that became the basis for an intro and out of the song itself. I renamed it MarceDawn as I felt like maybe he needed a "new dawn" of something in his life, and I wanted him to know that I was thinking of him in the context of the song. He certainly left us quite a legacy in his mastery of the nuances of voices! |
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19 |
Nothing Stays The Same |
Iggy |
Here’s a made up almost exclusively with MarcE sounds. The only exceptions are a dram loop and the EX5 factory preset “Tech Kit” drums. I used a lot of MarcE patches from the 3rd and 5th collections of MarcE sounds. They include:
MarcE, life on earth is only part of the journey. The words for “Nothing Stays the Same” are:
Nothing stays the same
The physical life I led is something that could never hold me
You might only remember my name
And I won't stand here on this bridge forever
I'm towering up above far beyond the starlight
So don't feel lost when there's nothing to gain
And I won't stand here on this bridge forever
Don't be worried there's no pain
And I won't stand here on this bridge forever |
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20 |
Electic Fantasy |
Adaptus |
The MarcE created patch used on my song was called “WAKE UP!” from the “MarcE Dreams” collection, originally an arpeggio, the song was done entirely on the EX5 sequencer with it’s own sounds and sampler alone. One lead sound was provided by another synth driven by the EX sequencer. The goal was simple to make a song for MarcE, the inspiration - to make the most of the patch, the situation and my limitations. My hope is nothing less than the prospect of world peace and sanity I have received and am grateful to have. My track may be simple, repetitive, out-of-sync, even unfinished.... perhaps it was the wrong track to pick... but such is life. I’m not ashamed to say, that playing his EX5 sounds have brought me to tears on a number of occasions. |
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21 |
Breath |
goTra |
The whole song is made on EX5R and Cubase VST, mainly from samples and MarcE’s voice collection called DreamScapes. MarcE is the best voice programmer for our lovely EX5. We all want him back. MarcE, take a BREATH and fight the disease! It will be yours and our greatest victory! |
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22 |
Member:re |
Steven West |
Well it took a while to track him down again, but not only did I get another song from the reclusive Steven West for this tribute, I also managed to get some words out of him this time as well. Here are his words of support to MarcE.
Well, Steven West is sure good at songs, but I’m not so certain about that pun in the song title and the last sentence! |
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23 |
Blue Magic |
Staffan Ohman |
Around 80% of the sounds in this song are taken from the MarcE_4 release, and shows that the sounds can also be used for techno/trance influenced music. Mostly when I'm using your sounds, it often becomes ambient tunes. Therefore, I thought it was nice to show that your sounds also can be used for other genres. All the techno songs that I've uploaded at www.mp3.com/beyondthelimits so far consist of 80% voices from the MarcE_4 release. Thanks for those voices, they have been VERY useful. Equipment Used:
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24 |
Reaching In |
Jason Tai |
Dear MarcE... My little contribution is really an approach to an atmospheric piece layered with simple beats. What inspired me most was your pad patches. One word -- beautiful! It just takes me some place else every time I play some chords or even just one note. I can't count the times I've ran out of ideas for a song, and a few minutes with some of your sounds (esp. pad and string patches) brings me right back to the creative path. I hope you like the song. I've named it Reaching In -- The MarcE Tribute. Stay strong and music heals people in different ways. And again, thank you for your contribution to all of us EXers. |
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25 |
Very Shy... |
Laurent |
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26 |
Movement Of Doubt |
Merv Levy |