Anything (1988 to 2024) original Demo vs. AI

I will not go into too much detail on music production, but already in 1992 I purchased a programme called "Band In A Box" for the Atari ST that would basically give you all the stems for drums, keys, bass according to the key, tempo and style you entered. That was MIDI-data and had to be fed to an assortment of MIDI-devices like samplers, synthezisers, romplers and drum-machines.

Even earlier, auto-accompanyement of organs already did that and was always used by artists instead of a real band. Many of the early synthezisers classics actually have these rhythms and bass in there, just very cleverly produced.

I don't see any difference between "Band in a Box" and the AI, as both are automations, helping solo artists to make their visions real. When I became more and more capable of playing the instruments myself, I dropped "Band in A Box" (around "The Crimson Dance E.P." - which does not use automation). But the AI is much more versatile and competent. Given the standard of production these days it is very, very much work to make a song listenable and competetive to modern standards. This is not what this blog is about. The proper CREAMVIII-releases will still be recorded and mixed and mastered, but these demo-reinterpretations exist because otherwise, you would be not able to hear anything of them at all.

Trapped is one of the songs written with "Band in A Box".

I found two archive-tapes in my basement lately. These archive tapes were good-quality VHS cassettes and I used my 6-head VCR to copy all the MCs I had lying around. I nearly threw them away, thinking they were extra copies of concert-videos, but as always, had a look into them. And so I found out. The first VHS-cassette basically covers the time from 1987-1989 with the first "real" songs I demoed, the second contains the masters for "The Burning Town E.P" and - to my big surprise and delight - a copy of the "Stompin' Crash"-Studio recording with Henning Köster on guitar of "Ivory Tower".

The demos on the first VHS-Cassette range from cringe to unlistenable to not bad to really ok. To demonstrate the difference between the demos and the AI-versions, I chose "Anything" which later evolved into two songs called "Never Shine" and "Wish". This was recorded live with a Casio SK-5 Sampling Keyboard, the CZ-1 I had just bought and a microphone through a spring-reverb on a common SHARP Cassette Deck. At this point, I did not have a sequencer, as the SK-5 did not have MIDI. So this is played completely live,  there are no overdubs, sound quality is actually quite ok, nevertheless, RX11 from Ozone ran over it.

The original 1988 demo

The AI version is meant to sound like it was 1988. 

Anything 

(words and music 1988-2024 by Boris Brosowski)

I have been here a thousand years

Won't you come over?

I've never seen the sun 

I never felt the rain

I never did ---

Anything 

I never did anything

I never did ---

Anything

Anything

I have been here a million years

You won't come over!

I never touched your lips

I never felt your wings

---

Anything

I never did anything

I never did ---

Anything

Anything

Anything

Anything