Posted by Grant
Grant
November 23, 2015
Day 89: Monday 23 Nov 2015
Directions: Enter Stage Left/Exit Stage Right:
Yes it’s a Dyptch of Beatscapes today.
Both were created in Patterning using the same drum kit, my own. Both were jammed into AudioShare with Dedalus. I love working this way; the composition is made by turning on and off individual parts, as well as altering elements within parts. So even though the kit is the same, each time you play it you improvise a new version.
Though I used the same kit in both tracks, as you can hear, I have altered the properties of some of the sounds as well as some of the patterns. Also Exit Stage Right has had a little judicious sprinkling of AUFX:Dub added; cause FUN.
Peace Out.
Grant
November 22, 2015
Day 88: Sunday 22 Nov 2015
Nigel Keeps A Weather Eye Out:
Ambient.
Yes Nigel returns. My ongoing project of doing many things with one project in Fugue Machine. Today I used 80 bpm and began by clothing Nigel in one of favourite Addictive Synth presets. Then I loaded up Poseidon and searched for some sounds that I thought would work; I did this by hitting the random button until I was happy with something, recording it with Nigel in AudioShare or within Poseidon for 5 minutes or so, then moving on. When I had 7 files to choose from I loaded them all into Auria and had a play. In the end I used the Addictive Synth sound as the basis and brought the others in and out for extra colour, form, and texture.
The Video:
One photo of a bridge through the fog taken with ProCamera on my iPhone, loaded into Pinnacle Studio and very slowly panned. The titles were done in Procreate and Phonto. When assembled I ran it through CinemaFXV.
Grant
November 21, 2015
Musing & Bio… On Loving Bass
I am a Bass Player.
It’s a funny fact about myself. Like my love of black jelly beans, or my inability to learn Norwegian 🙂
But to me it is quite fundamental.
I am a Bass Player.
‘Hello my name is Grant and I am a Bass Player.’
Except (though it is a sort of addiction), it’s not a problem, but a strength. Or at least an interesting fact for me to recognise.
(segue alert)
I began my musical journey at 15 or 16 by learning Bob Dylan songs on a three quarter size guitar that my parents had given me when I was 6. Apparently my mum would lose me in the city and find me staring transfixed at the guitars in the window of the local music store. Unfortunately what my parents failed to recognise, or more likely they didn’t have the money to realise, was that I was staring at the beautiful hollow bodied electric guitars, with dreams of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. It took two years for my parents to get around to music lessons (procrastination must run in families cause it’s a vice I too suffer); but again my dreams of musical coolness did not really include riding in the winter on my push bike, to an old lady whose house smelt of stale urine, to learn ‘Oh my Darling Clementine’. I only lasted a full term because my mum insisted that it was already paid for.
Anyway, by the time I was 15 I couldn’t hold back the desire to play. So long evening hours in my bedroom with Bob Dylan songbooks ensued. And eventually I was a guitarist in a couple of bands with high school friends at 19 or so.
BUT..
Life really began for me when I despaired of ever being able to play.
Looking back on it now I think this was my first severe depressive episode, though it wasn’t severe compared to what was to come (but that’s another story). Anyway, crippling self doubt and all that; I thought I was shit and I should just give up. But I decided to give it one last try; I had sometimes swapped instruments with the Bass Player in my first band and enjoyed it thoroughly, so I went into debt and got a bass and amp. In my mind this was it the final throw! If I can’t do this I’m giving up.
What a revelation!
After a false start or two I realised that this was what I was meant to be. The two instruments are superficially similar (after all the tuning is almost the same) but their roles are very different. The very fact of the register difference is crucial here. (A fact that was reinforced for me years later when I learned the mandolin). You are playing a very different instrument.
So… for eleven years or more I was almost exclusively a Bass Player. For a lot of that time I didn’t even own another instrument. I did flirt with my first Synth in there somewhere (but again that’s another story). I thought as a Bass Player, I breathed as a Bass Player, I dreamed as a Bass Player, I moved as a Bass Player…you get the idea.
Where was I going with this?
Oh yeah… bass lines have been creeping back into my music lately. I don’t even have a bass. I mean I own several but they are on the other side of the world. More and more I realise how much I miss my bass. A bass. Any bass.
Grant
November 21, 2015
Day 87: Saturday 21 Nov 2015
Next!:
A Beatscape.
Two elements, one smooth and one chaotic, vie for attention…
I took the beat that I made yesterday in iMaschine 2, slowed it down and added more elements; a few more drum hits and a bassline. All within the app.
Then I recorded it to AudioShare while muting and unmoving parts to make a composition. Then I ran it through AUFX:Dub and then through Dedalus, both times manipulating the effect over the course of the track.
Finally I moved it to Auria so I could add an iDensity track to it. I felt it needed some more random element. Some of the iDensity didn’t really work so I cut out bits and moved things around and faded things in and out till I was happy.
Grant
November 20, 2015
Day 86: Friday 20 Nov 2015
What Matters Matters:
A Beatscape.
iMaschine 2 was used again today, one beat jammed into AudioShare with AUFX:Space, done 4 times using different sounds. And twice with just the bass drum. Then all 6 versions were loaded into Auria and layered and arranged and collaged and manipulated and manicured until they behaved. Dedalus also played a role here.
Then a Poseidon drone/simple melody with Johnny (from Holderness Media) added for some tremolo goodness, then an iDensity piece that I had prepared earlier.
Grant
November 19, 2015
Day 85: Thursday 19 Nov 2015
The First Day:
An Abstract Beatscape.
I began today in AnalogKit with Stuart Kilbride’s Synthanator project, which I recorded into AudioShare with Dedalus and AUFX:Dub.
Then I popped it into Auria and added some beats that I had prepared earlier: First was one made using Diode-108, Frobulator, Dedalus, and AUFX:Space. Second one made using Borderlands Granular, Turnado, TwistedWave, and AUFX:PeakQ. Then a third that I can’t remember how I made.
This is another instance of me experimenting with throwing together different beats of random speeds and seeing how they interact; even the AnalogKit track has a rhythm from the LFO. The four rhythms interact in unpredictable but not chaotic ways, and some judicious arrangement brings out a feeling and a story. I think anyway.
Grant
November 18, 2015
Day 84: Weds 18 Nov 2015
Interference:
Soundscape with vocal.
Today I took a file that I made in October using AnalogKit, Muckraker, and AUFX:Dub. Thanks to Stuart Kilbride whose ‘Synthanator ‘ patch I used. I loaded it into Auria, reversed it, duplicated it on a second track, and effected that with Emo Chorus as well as the inbuilt reverb and delay.
Next I recorded Figure into another track and time stretched it within Auria, I did a fairly random and extreme time stretch as I was looking for added artefacts.
Finally I recorded myself speaking some words. I tried using the voice from iSpeech TTS but couldn’t get it right, so did it myself.
Grant
November 17, 2015
Day 83: Tuesday 17 Nov 2015
Mr Black’s Rude Awakening:
I began todays track in the same way as yesterday by working with Nick Lau’s Drum TX project in AnalogKit. I programmed a variation on yesterdays beat and recorded it twice to AudioShare with AUFX:Space; each time with different settings.
Both went into Auria and were panned. The next step also echoed yesterday; I added a kick drum from Patterning for emphasis. The third step too; I added the clashy klangy preset sound that I made in Addictive Synth yesterday.
I finally moved in a new direction by programming an arpeggio in Addictive Synth and recording it twice with different presets that I had made earlier.
And last but not least I recorded myself reciting a line from the 1963 film A Comedy Of Terrors.
I had fun 🙂
Grant
November 16, 2015
Grant
November 16, 2015
Day 82: Monday 16 Nov 2015
It’s A Modern Condition:
Two movements; one a Beatscape, the other Ambient.
I began in AnalogKit with Nick Lau’s DrumXT, I added a beat from Patterning, a bassline from Addictive Synth, a crash sound also from Addictive Synth, and a drone from Poseidon.
A big thank you to Trudi for her review 😉
“A track in two movements. Opposites. Depicting the dichotomy of the human condition in the 21st Century; mired in the urban decay that the modern (post)industrial lifestyle spawns, we nevertheless yearn for a peace and tranquility that, alas, is available to few.” Trudi McBoody, Station FCKU Art Attack.