ORBITAL - Halcyon and On and On - How Was It Made? Ep 6 

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years ago I bought a three day festival ticket in Berlin just to hear that one song live and it was worth every cent. I'm still so in love with that tune.

The intro pad is definitely a Wavestation - Try this :) * Load RAM1 performance 'DebussyOnWheels' (#49) * In the Wave Sequence editor change 'Unison' for 'DreamSq' (RAM1, #12) * Hold down B and F#

The live version where the guy yells "Play some fucking Bon Jovi" is everything.

I once had a conversation with a guy who thought that taking stuff apart ruined their majesty. It reminded me of Keat's accusation of Newton that he was ruining the rainbow by trying to explain how its colours were formed. It led me to Dawkins' Unweaving the Rainbow, which argues how much more beauty can be appreciated once you understand what's going on. Great work here on one of the majestic tracks of all time.

The preceding albums are good, but In Sides is Orbital’s crowning glory. Some of the greatest electronic music ever recorded.

Kirsty Hawkshaw starred in the original video for this track. This track was also written and dedicated to Pauls mother who was addicted to Halcion, a tranquilliser.

Me and my brother played this at a HIFI show where they were showing off a load of incredibly expensive systems. Blew everyone’s socks off

I absolutely love these 'how it was made' videos. I've got not technical understanding at all but they are absolutely fascinating. Your choice of songs so far is just perfect too. If you are interested in 'requests' then Papua New Guinea or something from Underworld would be avidly appreciated!

One of the most magical pieces of music ever created - in three hundred years, people will talk about Orbital like we talk about Mozart. Great job replicating it 👍

it is my favorite track EVER made. I don’t know how many thousand of times i listened to it. Thank you for doing this, fascinating.

It's a fine day by Opus III is one of my favourite tracks of the 90's, absolute classic.

In 1995 I was eleven years old. This track is seared into my brain and my goosebumps because of a very specific film opening sequence. I still remember every bit of that sequence and every bar of On and On. Thanks for this. Long overdue.

Man - this is my favorite band. Isn’t it amazing that even with today’s tools it is so hard to recreate the detail and nuance? To think Paul / Orbital created works like this before they ever existed just blows my mind.

This was my all time favourite song for many many years and I spent hundreds of hours in Fast Tracker II trying to remake it with the acapella from the Opus III CD, and I also came to the conclusion that some of the vocals were from somewhere else and listened to everything Kristy sang to try find them. When I discovered Spleeter it was the first track I split the vocals from to see if I could figure it out. Thank you for this.

I highly recommend the original mix called Halcyon, on the self-titled EP and also on another little EP called Radiccio. Sorta gives more space to hear the samples than Halycon On & On allows. Either way, some of the best and most iconic vocal sampling ever put together imo.

I can’t wait for your new videos this is an absolute classic and one of my favourite tracks of all time. Keep it up and thanks for your efforts.

Another absolutely sterling effort with a little assist from the venerable Paul H. no less. Very well timed for the Orbital *"30 Something"* release today (Friday 29th).

It went from being a kooky techno song (the original EP) to perhaps being, arguably, the most spiritual electronic song ever made (The Brown album) by rearranging the same sounds and adding some incredible string arrangements and new vocals. If not the most, then at least second with _Unfinished Sympathy_ being #1

Three things that come to my mind when I hear Halcyon - Orbital On and On 1. Mortal Kombat 2. Hackers 3. 1990s

The drums in this track are sampled breaks and layered on each other. One sample is from Hot Pants by Bobby Byrd and the other is We Dub to Scratch (Be Bop Scratch Mix) by the Imperial Brothers. I spent a day or so doing this very song about a month ago. One of my all time favorites from my all-time favorite band. Great work!

My mind is blown. I had no idea this was It's A Fine day. I love both this song and the Miss Jane song.

This is the track of my life

Orbital are the absolute masters of progressively layering sounds.

Oh man! If I remember correctly I picked up the Radiccio ep totally on a whim. Had never heard of Orbital, let alone heard them. (Maybe Chime on some compilation, not sure) Once I got home and popped the cd in the player, I fell in love. Still am.

Been waiting for this one!

Great series, thanks!

One of the most beautiful songs from my techno times in the 80ies. In switzerland.

This was really cool! Love it!!!

I was an Indie Kid early 90s and someone at work gave me a mixed tape of electronic music and told me to have an open mind. It was just after the infamous Glasto gig in 94 and Orbitals Live set opened up the genre for me. The intro for Halcyon on and on feels like the track is breathing. Not many electronic acts back then made me look twice and think that their work is way ahead of it's time! Underworld were another that were ahead of their game.

Another awesome video!! Many thanks Gyu!!

Love these vids !

Its a Masterpiece.

Yet another awesome vid. Fantastic stuff.

Great stuff. Love your recreations man. ❤

Amazing work! this one brings back memories

I love this song, it is an absolute classic. Great job breaking it down for us. I can't wait for your next video.

This is actually incredible and super interesting, great video

Amazing AGAIN. Great selection of tunes I love too throughout your vids. Thankyou!

Really love this channel and how down to earth you are. Great stuff.

You’re doing all my favorites. Thank you.

This track also brings back some great memories. Thanks

Woooow❤❤ incredible! ❤❤😊

Your attention to detail is nothing short of Brilliant as is your work!! Great stuff again.

I could listen to this amazing song a million times more

Awesome walkthrough of my fav Orbital track. Keep up the great work!

This is so cool 😍

How have I only just found your videos!? These are amazing.

Halcyon and On and On is my favourite tune of all time - thank you so much for diving into this awesome track. Keep up the good work your videos are excellent.

This song gives me so many emotions, one of the best tracks ever made and I love how it takes me back to that time, and I miss it.

Love this record… timeless so glad you did it thanks 😊

Absolutely love the intro to this song

You my friend, have an absolute fantastic taste of music. I was looking at your vids, and the list you have made so far is exactly the music I like. Keep up the good work, thumbs up from here :D

Killing it with the reconstruction! Nice work! The vibe in this track blew my mind when I first heard it as a kid in the mid 90s. Even to this day I get goose bumps when I listen to it.

I love these videos. You get every track absolutely bang on. This is my 3rd and you absolutely nail it every time. I was expecting it to be so good. I knew it would be after your 1st video I watched. Hats off to you mate. You're an absolute legend.

Please consider trying to recreate FSOL’s “Papua New Guinea” w/ the Liz Fraser vocals

Bravo, man. The discovering of the puzzle pieces while you're making these awesome vids makes them more beautiful. Love this song. Cheers from LA! Gracias.

Your channel is awesome fella.. Such a great track

I've loved this track for years too - you choose such great tracks! Good effort. Recreating songs is next to impossible - in some ways it takes a lot more talent than creating original tracks

One of my favourite pieces of music. What a treat to see and hear a break down of how it was made.

I asked and you certainly delivered! Awesome video!

I absolutely think what you do is a homage. This tune is one of my all time favs and so important to my group of the day, very happy to get into the DNA. Bravo.

You choose all the classic tunes! Nice work!

This is amazing!!! you earnt a new subscriber, please keep doing these.

Epic. I learned so much. The choir puts a huge smile on my face. Keep it up. Stay rad.

Brilliant video 👍🏻. Have loved Orbital since the 90s, so many great tracks over the years with so much emotion and feeling in them. Great to see a breakdown of this track 🙏.

Man, seeing the technical work itself (let alone the initial artistic effort) that goes into these songs gives me renewed respect for the artists. So many layers! Well done, Gyu Beats! 👍 Well done, Orbital! 👍

One of my fave songs, ever!

Truly 1 of my favorite tracks EVER!!

Another one of the greatest pieces of music ever written - goosebumps as soon as i clicked this video. Love it. Paul Hartnell helping you?! Great work man. So glad YT algo sent me here when it did. edit: I have used that first pad preset multiple times with varying degrees of success.

I couldn't produce a track if my life depended on it but I absolutely love these videos! I can't wait to see your future uploads, I appreciate all of the work you put into these videos.

So lush is right...amazing work on this beautiful track!

Awesome!

You helping me to progress in making music more than any online masterclass, because in your videos I can see the whole process in real life, and vid montage is superb. Thank you so much for your work, so glad I've found your channel!

Great video! I love how these older iconic tracks are actually incredibly simple. I think a lot of it just stems from the sheer cost of synths back then so artists really dig deep to get something original. I did a similar excercise to you a few years back on a Global Communications track called 1431. Luckily there was an article where Tom Middleton explains exactly how the tracks were created and I ended up on a 2 year journey actually buying some of the old (now very hard to source) equipment. And yeah, they just eeeked as much as they could out of it and a lot of the time, using the kit in ways it was never intended to be used. Keep on the videos, I love this kind of stuff 😊

Absolute masterpiece of music. Always knew it was great but never realized how complex it is.

Thank you for making this video, I always wanted to see it. It's amazing how you replace the bass. First time I heard Halcyon is when I was a kid in Mortal Kombat on original vhs, and it was beautiful. I was replaying that part just to listen the song.

One of the greatest electronic tracks of all time. Awesome commentary / exploration of this fine track!

Timeless track this one, still one of the favs from back then. I don't remember much of the 90's as busy partying but the music still echoes around. That opening pad sound is amazing, didn't realise it was a wavestation. Just happen to have a SR in the rack, I've been meaning to get it fired up again :) Found your channel a few weeks back, watched a few of these now :)

Thank you for this, one of my all-time favorites - the song itself has helped me through some of the roughest times in my life, and it will continue to do so I hope.

These videos are absolutely cracking, loads of my favourite tunes from the 90's and the stories around how they are made are so cool!

Funny story is that i dreamed avout listening this song a few years before I actually listened to it for the first time, kinda Deja Vu. For a long time I thought this song didn't existed

Holy mother of whatever! Orbital is out of this world. But you are just amazing as well. And I feel so close to you seeing you appreciate these subtle and sublime properties of this song. Just amazing video to watch. Thank you!!

Recently subscribed and "How Was It Made" has become my favorite series on YT!

I don't know why RU-vid recommended this to me, but I really enjoyed this video. Such a great song, takes me back. I've subscribed 😎

Top work

I couldn't be happier with this video

Why Have I only just discovered this channel now 😮

Every one of your likes on this video has "felt" your fudge moments!! You're such an inspiration... So you get the original Then you get your version Then you get us aspirators Love it

You've made my day; this is one of my favourite pieces of music and I really appreciate the attention you've given it, particularly Kirsty's iconic vox. - And the bonus of getting insight from the genius Mr H himself! Wow!

Yeah this is a great series. Anything 90s-00s electronic/club/house/ambient/trance/etc. will definitely be nostalgia and completely awesome. Halcyon, Song of Life, Little Fluffy Clouds.... yeah you're on the right track. Keep this up.

Absolute bliss is what this track is. 😎❤️

Great job by the way

I think you did an amazing job! It’s a fantastic song, far ahead of its time. You are a modest guy who puts the credits where they belong. Wish I had your skills when it comes to producing and reverse engineering. Keep them coming! 👍🏻👍🏻

I can't get enough of these! One thing that might be interesting to supplement these how it's made videos would be if you were able to do short companion videos interviewing any of the original artists who are willing, just to hear their thoughts on the original arrangements and whatnot. A tall order tho! Anyway keep putting out these banger how it's made clips.

THANK YOU for this !

One of Orbitals best & they're my favourite musicians, this is an interesting video :)

Hey. Are you a big fan of the film hackers? I found you through the soundtrack which is a favorite and I’m loving that you’re breaking down all my favorite tracks from the album. As someone who can’t make music but dabbles a bit here and there… your Channel is new obsession. This song is one of my favorites. Thank you for this.

Your channel is awesome

This was a fascinating breakdown of one of my favourite tunes. The depth and complexity that Paul programmed into this back in the day is mind boggling! You've just got another sub, looking forward to future videos!