Galen Stephenson
The internet phenom you’ve never heard of….
Masterpiece
Come Sail Away (Styx)
Other Files
Presented in chronological order, so better ones appear later.
Theme to Knight Rider
Self-rating: (6/10)
Michael: This was the file that started it all. Galen showed there was much more potential in AMS than the straightforward transcriptions we had thus far been producing.
We even showed it around town, taking it to other people’s houses on a kind of tour.
Down Under (Men at Work)
Self-rating: (6/10)
Michael: Whereas the Knight Rider theme demonstrated a fade envelope, this demonstrated the first bell/xylophone envelope. Percussion was in its infancy at this time, being implemented merely as an envelope within one voice at the same pitch rather than a separate voice in the high-distortion bass notes of AMS. So there is less eye candy for the percussion than in later files.
Beat It (Michael Jackson)
Self-rating: (7/10)
Michael: Similar to my own rendition of Billie Jean, here Galen dedicates two voices for the bass. This introduces the technique for the first time of using a short high-volume bass note to simulate a drum. There’s also an interesting envelope in the beginning simulating the gong.
It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me (Billy Joel)
Self-rating: (5/10)
Michael: For the first time, there is an attempt to simulate a short drum fill toward the middle of the song. It’s not a good simulation in this first effort, but replicating drum solos and guitar solos would later be some of Galen’s hallmarks.
There are a few good envelopes in it, but just not as much pizazz as some of Galen’s later work.
Halloween Film Theme
Self-rating: (6/10)
Halloween Film Theme Medley
Self-rating: (6/10)
Michael: What, more Halloween? What’s going on? Well, my next-door neighbor, Howard Hochhalter, was a big fan of horror films, so Galen had a built-in audience.
Synchronicity I (The Police)
Self-rating: (7/10)
Galen: Acquired a book of Police songs and sort of went to town trying out various techniques on different songs. This one exhibits a series of two voices overlapping each other on the chorus.
Synchronicity II (The Police)
Self-rating: (8/10)
Galen: Somewhat of an atonal nightmare and had to dedicate a lot to the bass work. Could have benefited from at least one more voice.
Wrapped Around Your Finger (The Police)
Self-rating: (7/10)
Galen: While a nice song, it suffered from the music and voice notes being too similar.
King of Pain (The Police)
Self-rating: (6/10)
Galen: An attempt was made here. The song was a little too complex to be rendered well into AMS.
Urgent (Foreigner)
Self-rating: (7/10)
Galen: This rendition really needed more distortion in the midrange.
Jukebox Hero (Foreigner)
Self-rating: (7/10)
Galen: This rendition really started to show some the unique effects that could be achieved using fast volume fluctuations and enveloping.
Pop Muzik (M)
Self-rating: (9/10)
Galen: A very fun piece to transcribe. Lots of interesting fast changes going on here.
Magic (Olivia Newton John)
Self-rating: (5/10)
Galen: Admit this came off boring.
Shock the Money (Peter Gabriel)
Self-rating: (9/10)
Galen: This song is a favorite. Just really hard to translate effectively with only four voices. However, came out pretty well.
I Can See It in Your Eyes (Men at Work)
Self-rating: (6/10)
Be Good Johnny (Men at Work)
Self-rating: (6/10)
Queen of the Broken Hearts (Loverboy)
Self-rating: (7/10)
Galen: Good use of distortion to simulate guitar on this one. The chorus came out pretty nice.
Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ (Michael Jackson)
Self-rating: (6/10)
Galen: A little too repetitious to make an entertaining rendition but interesting effort.
My Sharona (The Knack)
Self-rating: (8/10)
Galen: Very entertaining. Good rendition using enveloping and distortion to achieve realism.
Major Tom (Peter Schilling)
Self-rating: (9/10)
Michael: There is a story here. Putting the song into AMS was originally attempted by a friend, Joe Hart. But the attempt became a laughingstock (we were cruel) because the quick electric guitar strum that punctuates the end of each lyric was rendered within that file as a single-voiced high-pitched beep.
In answer, Galen created his version, which devoted an entire three voices to play that guitar strum. Overkill — just to make a point.
This also has nice time-multiplexing to create the phantom fifth voice.
Galen: Nothing inspires like failure but I found that using notation is just the first step. You have to listen and try to imitate effects from the actual song. With a limit of four voices, sometimes you have to select what notes are most prominent too.
99 Red Balloons (Nena)
Self-rating: (9/10)
Galen: One of the fad eighties songs that just begged to be rendered. Lots of fun and effects to be had here.
Heart of Rock & Roll (Huey Lewis and the News)
Self-rating: (9/10)
Michael: There’s a lot going on in this file — so much, that a friend of ours, John Baker, actually objected to its busyness! That’s just personal taste, but there is a lot of technical skill that went into rendering this into AMS.
Galen: I probably should have avoided this band since it had some many instruments but it is a great song.
Unchained (Van Halen)
Self-rating: (9/10)
Michael: When Galen brought this over to demo, he announced a little smugly that it’s a Van Halen song I might not have heard of, but that it was a good one. He was correct on both counts. This is the one case where I heard a song first on AMS, and it has since become my favorite Van Halen song in real life.
Tom Sawyer (Rush)
Self-rating: (8/10)
Michael: Nice modified laser sound effect to start out with, plus improvised drum and guitar solos. This was definitely a song that showed what effects could be achieved with AMS even though it really wasn’t designed for it
Galen: I really enjoyed bringing this to life. Rush is one of my favorite bands. I always wanted to try more – like Xanadu, YYZ, and Limelight.
Ghostbusters (Ray Parker Jr.)
Self-rating: (8/10)
Just a fun song from a funny movie.
Heartbeat City (The Cars)
Self-rating: (5/10)
Michael: Makes a valiant, yet unsuccessful, attempt to capture the ethereal mood of the song — most notably with the unique envelope toward the end that oscillates between maximum and minimum loudness.
Galen: I should have chosen a better Cars song to do.
Out of Touch (Hall & Oates)
Self-rating: (9/10)
Michael: This song is a real challenge for AMS because Daryl Hall’s tenor vocals are lower in pitch than the harmony chords. If it were rendered in all pure tones, it would be musically confusing to listen to. But good use of enveloping here, as well as ensuring the vocals are rendered in the blue-colored voice, make it easy for the ear to pick out the vocal tune.
Additionally, as with most latter-day AMS files from us, there is good use of time multiplexing for the phantom fifth voice.
You Might Think (The Cars)
Self-rating: (7/10)
Galen: At least this is a more entertaining Cars song. Ric Ocasic’s vocals are somewhat hard to capture though.
Rainbow in the Dark (Dio)
Self-rating: (8/10)
Galen: Interesting but pretty repetitious. I mainly did this because I liked the song and the vocals were timed a lot differently than the melody.