Posted by Grant
Grant
November 6, 2015
Day 72: Friday 6 Nov 2015
Nigel Hasn’t the Foggiest Idea:
Ambient.
Todays Nigel is closely related to Day 69’s post, which included 3 tracks with different patches from Waldorfs Nave at 300bpm.
Today I have experimented with combining different speeds. 4 different Nave patches: 1 at 60bpm, 1 at 120bpm, and two at 240bpm. Plus I have also experimented with adding a simple drumbeat, from DM1 at 60bpm. They were all recorded into AudioShare and then added to Auria for arranging etc. Nigel (if you haven’t been following the series) is a pattern in Fugue Machine.
I think this is my favourite Nigel so far.
The Video:
Two days ago it was foggy at 7am when I walked the dog and it remained foggy all day. Something I’m just not used to; after a year in Norway I still find the weather very exotic.
I took these photos and movies as we drove up the valley to home about 4pm. I thought they would suit this music. Filmed on my iPhone in ProCamera and complied in Pinnacle Studio.
Peace Out.
Grant
November 5, 2015
Day 71: Thursday 5 Nov 2015
Into The Long Dusk:
I guess it’s a Soundscape; there is some guitar and some bass, but I still think they exist within the Soundscape rather than making it something else. Any thoughts?
Today I began with iPulseret, a great granular app; but as I built up elements around that beginning, the whole thing moved in another direction and I eventually had to remove the initial framework. It’s funny how it sometimes works that way.
I used a guitar file from an abandoned project recorded with ToneStack, then I added two Soundscaper tracks and two CubeSynth tracks, and finally I added a sparse bassline with iFretless. It was a mess.
But when I removed the iPulseret tracks (thanks to some great advice from my amazing wife Lene) the whole thing suddenly swam into focus, and just needed a few tweaks to finish off.
I still love those IPulseret tracks by the way, maybe I’ll start with them again tomorrow and see what happens.
Grant
November 4, 2015
Day 70: Weds 4 Nov 2015
Nigel At Night:
The return of Nigel. An Ambient piece.
Yes I’m working with Nigel again today (for those who don’t know Nigel is a pattern in Fugue Machine which I am subjecting to varied treatments), I have been working at 60bpm but today I pushed it to 300bpm which is Fugues fastest speed. Surprisingly it’s still a slow gentle piece, at least with these sounds.
I use Waldorfs Nave synth today, three different patches recorded into AudioShare, that I then blended in Auria.
The Video:
Photographs taken on my iPhone of Drammen at night and simply blended in Pinnacle Studio.
Grant
November 3, 2015
Day 69: Tuesday 3 Nov 2015
Needless To Say:
Beatscape with vocals.
Experimenting with iMPC Pro today, I bought it as soon as it came out but haven’t come to grips with it. I still haven’t, but I got something anyway.
As I was fumbling around trying to figure things out I made a mistake and ended up with this weird beat. Which I then looped in AudioShare with Dedalus and AUFX:Dub. [Cause I was sick of not knowing what was going in :)]
Then into Auria where I added some finger clicks, recorded through Amplitude, some MitoSynth droneness, me saying some stuff, and two tracks of Soundscaper.
Then it was back to the real world of cleaning dishes, cleaning clothes, taking out the rubbish, sweeping, cooking, walking the dog, and driving son and wife to and from work.
You know the important daily stuff that we all need to do.
So ‘Needless To Say’ here’s cheers to finding and maintaining our balance between the important stuff and the important stuff 🙂
Peace Out.
Grant
November 2, 2015
Day 68: Monday 2 Nov 2015
Submariner:
An Abstract Soundscape.
AnalogKit, Caramel, AltiSpace, ElasticDrums, AUFX:Dub, and Auria were all used today. May it please you.
Grant
November 2, 2015
Musing on Stuff and Supplementary Post
I often make more than one track in a day, sometimes they are exploring different apps or different approaches. But often I think they must reflect my mood because they end up in the same place, or at least feeling like they belong together.
Todays post (Day 67) was a very minimal ambient piece made entirely with one patch in one synth and just played. Very much as I might play a guitar, no switching apps or collaging, just two notes interacting.
Which brings me to a thing that I have been musing about.
How much or how little is needed for a track? How simple can it be? How do we tell when something is finished? When it doesn’t need any more? Would spending more time on these things improve them? Is perfection necessary or just annoying and counter productive? Perhaps these are two different states of being?
These are some of the questions that I am probing with my ‘Year Of Posting’. But as yet I have no answers.
Your comments and ideas would be appreciated.
As an example I include a playlist of all yesterdays tracks. The first three are all made with one patch in CubeSynth and definitely belong together as minimalist pieces. The fourth went through a more complicated journey; CrystalSynthXT, Dedalus, FLUX:FX, TwistedWave, and Borderlands Granular (more like my usual mode of working though without the trip to Auria for collaging), and yet somehow it feels like it belongs here.
Anyway Peace out peeps.
Grant
November 1, 2015
Grant
November 1, 2015
Day 67: Sunday 1 Nov 2015
Whole Tone:
A very minimal Ambient piece today.
A bass patch with overtones of Steel Drum or Hang Drum perhaps, that I made in CubeSynth. It seemed to call for slow minimal treatment so here is a jam using just two notes a whole tone apart, occasionally switching the octave.
One synth, one patch, two notes.
Sometimes you don’t need a lot.
Peace Out.
Grant
October 31, 2015
Day 66: Saturday 31 Oct 2015
Disjointed:
A Beatscape with vocals.
I made a beat with Xenon a few weeks ago and left it. Today I revisited it and slowed it down in TwistedWave 🙂 Then I ran it through most of the effect apps I own, really just experimenting. In the end I used three different versions with Korvpressor, Flying Haggis, Master FX, and FLUX:FX. I loaded these into Auria and mixed them together adjusting volume and panning.
It was okay, but to be honest I felt I’d wasted a couple of hours.
I had a look through my Beats folder, the place I put interesting sounding drumbeats that I might use later, and found two that I liked and slowed them down. I decided to jam all three beats together regardless of their tempos etc and see what happens. So into Auria they went and I cut them up and arranged them as suited me.
I wrote some words on the theme ‘disjointed’ and gave them to iSpeech TTS which I loaded into AudioShare and applied some AUFX:Space and slowed it down, then added it to Auria and cut it up etc.
Finally I loaded Fieldscaper into a track in Auria and recorded some soundscape type background. Twice.
Peace out.
Grant
October 30, 2015
Day 65: Friday 30 Oct 2015
Oliver Misheard:
A Beatscape with bass. (BassScape?)
The backbone of this is a Beatscape made with Patterning, Dedalus, and AltiSpace which I loaded into Auria and combined with pieces of a Grain Science jam I had done earlier. Then I jammed over it with iFretless Bass, and effected that with Dedalus and Emo Chorus.
I also played with AnalogKit and Samplr today; they didn’t make it into this track but may appear over the next day or so. Project ongoing.
The Video:
One of my usual modus operandi was employed again today: draw in Procreate saving several versions, blend them in Pinnacle Studio, effect that in Generate and CinemaFXV.