Thursday, August 7, 2014

New music video for a classic and more!

Yes, currently I really put the pedal to the metal to make all my old works available on YouTube. And since still images are rather boring, as announced, one or the other real music video is created. For example, for the title "Victory Dub" from the debut album "Reggae Xperimental WorX". Yepp, a really old track, which back in the days made the purists go berzerk and also still triggers the WTF? Effect for not just a few. Yes, quite unusual. As "Xperimental Reggae WorX" is none of the free downloadable albums, I've decided to give this track a real music video instead of a still picture of the cover art. I have been experimenting a lot lately with audio visualization and by a friend was made aware of the fact that I already own a great tool for this: With FL Studio ships a plugin with the strange name "ZGame Editor". Yes, some time ago I already came across this thing, have played around with it for a while but then forgot it pretty quickly. Why? It was buggy and that is actually an understatement. Let's rather say it was dysfunctional. Moreover, it swallowed such an amount of CPU time that you could actually only see jerky still pictures... until the thing either froze FL Studio or crashed it. So I was somewhat skeptical when my friend told me that he could well imagine, given my love for experimentation, I could get something good out of it. And indeed, although the ZGame editor is still anything but stable, not just sometimes surprises with difficult to understand behavior and is still quite resource hungry, you can actually work with it quite well. One just needs to save often and from time to think outside the box. With that in mind, it is a fantastic visualization tool with almost unlimited creative possibilities. Well, after all these words, here it is: My latest music video! Have fun!
And since, as I said, I want to get all the old chestnuts up on the alionmind Youtube channel as quickly as possible, I have also uploaded a still picture video for an absolutely dusted creation today. On that occasion, I also want to clarify something: One or the other asked me if it wouldn't be embarrassing for me to present my early works, which of course do not match my current quality standards. My answer is clearly NO! These are my beginnings. This is how everything started and I think not only I have a wide grin on my face when listening to those old tracks. I'm not ashamed that I had to learn a lot. Everybody who wants to get somewhere has to start at some time and also has to learn a lot. Also, there are not just a few, who remember the "good old days" (eg the original Versionist Reggae community) when listening to these old songs. Yeah, nostalgia. So, now that this is also clarified, have fun with a real beginner part of my works. If you want it, it is available on the, now free downloadable, Album "Excursions in Time & Space":

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

2 new video channels and more!

Not much is happening regarding to music recently here and I know that one or the other dislikes this a bit ;). But currently I want to try some stuff I always wanted to try. And since I test whether you really can make money with Youtube lately, currently just about anything circulates around Youtube and videos. But promised: New music will also be created again soon. Look at it this way: Right now I just have a little time off from being a musician. Constant change keeps the brain fit ;).

Sonny is gaming! My Let's Play Channel AlionLiveLP
You do not know what a Let's Play is? You can be helped. Just click here! I am with my 46 years certainly the oldest Let's Player of the multiverse and in the way I'm doing the whole probably also otherwise unique. Currently, there is just one video on my channel, but that will change very soon when I have time for an extensive gaming session. As the first game I have chosen the old classic "The Elder Scrolls III - Morrowind" extremely modded. Unfortunately, for the people who do not understand German, my first Let's Play is in German. Sorry, but my version of Morrowind is in German language. But I will for sure do some English Let's Plays also, because I also have some English games. In the future you will not read any further information about the Let's Play channel here, as it is part of the AlionLive project. It is therefore advisable to either subscribe to the AlionLive blog, like the AlionLive Facebook page or to subscribe to the Youtube channel if you want to stay up to date. Here is the first video. And I was indeed as nervous as it seems ;).


Life long learning ... and teaching! My Tutorial Channel "Multiversity of Alion"
I was asked several times if I could make a video tutorial about this or that. Mostly, these questions based on my activities in the area of ​​3D graphics in Blender or making music in FL Studio. And so it is not surprising that the currently only video on the new channel is a Blender tutorial. A fairly modest one, but it is also only the introductory part of a series on audio visualization using Blender. More coming soon. And it will not only be Blender tutorials: I will also make tutorials about making music in FL Studio, Web design, programming in various programming languages ​​etc. My repertoire is quite extensive ;). However, news concerning the tutorial channel will be posted for the time being here, because I do not have plans for an independent "web identity" for this project yet. Certainly one day there will be a separate blog and a Facebook page, but currently I have simply no time for that. Have fun with my first tutorial. Nervous? Never! ;)


The alionmind records video channel
This one (LINK) I introduced already in the last two blog entries in detail. However, also a lot has happened here. 22 pieces of music are now already available and there will be more. Today I have just uploaded an old classic from 2006, which is also on the free album "The Alion Archives". You find more information about the track in the video description on Youtube.


So, that's it so far. Stay tuned, because it will always get more interesting ;)

Friday, July 25, 2014

New music video "alionsonny - Message To Planet Earth"!

The song "Message To Planet Earth" is somewhat old ... well ... somewhat is a total understatement. In fact, this work is from the year 2004, ie the year of birth of the alionsonny project. And it was one of my first works published. Therefore, the sound is "somewhat" dusted ;). A few days ago I decided that this song deserves its own music video. After all I have my new, sparsely attended, Youtube channel on which I want to slowly upload my complete repertoire of about 300 songs. I do not mention the video editing software I used, because without compensation, I do not advertise any commercial products ;). However, I like to mention that a large part of the visual effects were created with the help of the free 3D graphics software Blender. The video footage is from my travel reports from 2012 and 2014 about the island of Madeira. The full video footage can be viewed (for those who do not know) on my Youtube channel AlionLive. If you like the music, maybe you should think about purchasing the album "XperiMental Reggae WorX", which is available on the following platforms:
I would be happy. Alternatively, the album is available as a free stream on Spotify:

And now have fun with the video!

Sunday, July 6, 2014

The end of the alionsonny music video channel!

Now you have to be very brave: The alionsonny music video channel with the old SD videos will cease to exist. It was somewhat hard for me to kill this legendary institution. Thank you for 7614 views and the 26 subscribers for almost 7 years of loyalty. Why is that now? The reason is a very good one, and I am sure you will like it: There is a brand new alionmind records Youtube channel, on which you will from now on find the music videos of the projects alionsonny, Cimelium and Willma Poppen. This is mainly because of "organization reasons". On this channel you will be able to watch all the old videos in one place. But the best is yet to come: I'll try to upload videos for all released tracks of the 3 projects. Is this guy now completely insane? To create elaborate videos for the whole repertoire is a work that takes forever! Yes, absolutely right! And that's why there will not be elaborate videos for all the tracks. Most so-called music videos on Youtube are on the  ​​visual side just still images and no one seems to care about that much. For the very old tracks, especially those on the free albums, I'll do exactly that. For the newer ones, I will decide depending on the case, whether I will create a simple visualization or an elaborate video.

So, these are the news. Please don't forget to subscribe to the new alionmind  records channel, so you are always not up to date. This is especially true for those who had already subscribed to the old channel. See you on Youtube!

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Oops! I simply forgot to tell you something! New song "Farm Dub" is here and more!

I know: It went "a bit quiet" around the alionsonny project since the release of the "Continuity" album. And that was now a heavy understatement. Almost three months have passed since here since something new has been reported here... and then I simply forget to write an update here if something happens. I'm sorry for that, but as you can read in the monthly news on the alionmind records blog soon, I was anything but idle.

And while we are on the topic: Quite a few probably have not noticed that news concerning the other projects are no longer mentioned in this blog. I handle that very strict recently. This means, that there will be no longer news reported regarding the projects "Willma Poppen", "Cimelium" and new "AlionLive" videos on Youtube. So if you have thought these projects would be dead by now: No, they are very much alive and have made great progress. It is just, that news regarding to these project are posted only in the dedicated blogs, and of cause also on Twitter and Facebook since quite a time. I want to use the alionsonny blog solely for news concerning this project. And exactly this is why this blog does not get as much updates as back in the days. If you do not yet know the blogs of the other projects, here they are:

Willma Poppen Blog
Cimelium Blog
AlionLive Blog

And if you want to monthly (well , more or less ;) ) read my entire activities in the summary, it is recommended that you check the alionmind records blog.

Ok, and what he told of a new alionsonny song? Yes, actually the first track after the release of the "Continuity" album has been completed as a pre-release version. It is a work in the good old traditional way, ie one that will drive the purists crazy ;) . In fact, it is so traditional that one feels transported back to the early years of the alionsonny project. Of course, it is again not really Reggae. There is so much dubbing going on, that many will get vertigo. Also, I once again implemented a funny collection of rhythm changes. Overall it is, so to say, "colorful". After I - believe or not - have followed a more serious approach with the last tracks, I thought it would be time again for a little sillyness ;). Yeah, and there's are actually not more to say about it. Listen to it and judge for yourself. As with everything I upload to SoundCloud, this is a so-called pre-release version, ie a version that is good for now, but not really finished. The final version is created when the next alionsonny album is to be released... but that is still very far away. But for now, here is "Farm Dub". Have fun!

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

"Continuity" is now available on iTunes and Spotify!

Yeah, who would have thought this? This went quite fast. Big thanks to the Routenote team, because they managed it to set a new "speed record" for making an album available. For "Heroes of the Popp-Culture" and "Mesopotamia" it took a little more than two weeks back then. Now it took just 11 days! That's the way I like it (aha aha) :). I have just checked Amazon. There, the album is not yet to be found, but they always need much longer. I am absolutely ok with that, because from every download sold on iTunes I get a bigger share than from Amazon. Additionally, Amazon squanderes, at least the albums by independent musicians, in my opinion, at ridiculously low prices. Also on Emusic, the album is not yet to be found, but who really uses Emusic? If I remember it right, not a single download of my works has been sold there since June 2012. It seems, that this platform is not very popular. I can not say anything about the availability on the streaming platforms Rdio and Deezer, because they do not offer free access and the catalog can be viewed only by paying customers. I will not pay a single cent, just to see if my album is available there. If you, dear reader, are a customer of these platforms, it would be nice if you could have a look and see if the album is available there and let me know about it. Thanks in advance.

So, I have yet again written a lot. I did not actually expect that ;) So, here are the links, so you can shop comfortably. Make me rich! ;) :)

"Continuity" on iTunes
"Continuity" on Spotify

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Album release! "Continuity" is here!

Yes, it has happened: Today, the album for which you have waited so long has been finally released. However, again I have to disappoint you a bit: Currently, it is only available in my Routenote Direct shop. Do not let the awful design of the shop and the fact, that, due to the lack of a playlist, you cannot can not pre-listen the songs, scare you away . Something is not working with the shop currently and the Routenote guys are most probably already on the job to fix it. I have already "complained" about it ;). And don't be puzzled about the fact, that the album is on position 3 of the album list. So if it is not visible on your superduper Smartphone -> please scroll down a little. It is definitely there. I also do not know why this is. You can also click here . This takes you directly to the album page. You can pay conveniently via Paypal or credit card. If you can wait, the album will soon be available on iTunes , Amazon, and many other well known shops. How long will that take? On average, 4 to 6 weeks, but for the album releases in fall of 2012 it took only 2 weeks for iTunes. Yes, so much time has passed already since "Heroes of the Popp-Culture" and "Mesopotamia".

Oh yes: And of course you can, as always, order the album directly from me for 10 Euros. Simply transfer the money via Paypal to alionsonny@alionsonny.com and to be sure, also send an email to the same address. Sending this mail is also a good idea, because otherwise I can not send you the download link. But if you want to transfer me money and get no album, you may also omit the part of sending the mail ;).

So, now that was a long wait full of ups and downs. I have good reasons to hope, that it will not again take three years until the next alionsonny album will be released. Of course, the work at the other projects will ensure that I cannot release another alionsonny album in just a few months, but I have learned some new strategies. Yeah, next is the "Willma Poppen" album "Willma im Wunderland". And next after this is Cimelium's "Madeira" album. But I also have some tracks for the alionsonny project almost done. How will I the next album be titled? Make some suggestions ;).

EDIT: To make up for the missing Routenote playlist, I embed the Soundcloud playlist here. But NOTE: This is NOT the final product. All tracks in this playlist are (some improved) pre-release versions of the tracks and most of them do not match the quality of the album. And please note another thing: On Soundcloud (at least for the free accounts) the audio is compressed to death. So this is just for a slight pre-listening. You have been warned ;)