Archive for the Audio category
Grant
November 9, 2015
Day 75: Monday 9 Nov 2015
Three Friends Arguing While Dancing The Tarantella:
A Beatscape. Lighthearted fun and quirky. Not something you get from me everyday 🙂
Like Day 66, this is the result of throwing some different beats and timings together and seeing what happens.
I began with DFX an interesting effects app that hasn’t seen much action lately as I haven’t been able to get it to work in AudioShare for a while.
Still no go…even after deleting and reinstalling, butI found that I could import from iTunes so I loaded in a drum file from an old playlist I have there (unfortunately it’s from last year before I began keeping a work diary so I have no idea what app I used to make it), and processed it. Next I loaded another beat, this time from a pack I downloaded (again it’s so long ago I’ve lost the details), and processed that differently.
Without paying attention to beats per minute, or feel, I threw them at each other in Auria. It kind of worked but it felt like an argument; one was quirky and fun, the other aggressive and bossy.
For some reason I was reminded of a file I made a while ago using Dedalus, AnalogKit, and Turnado; which I had cut up into pieces.
I found it and loaded one piece into Auria and tried to arrange the three so it made some sense. This file seemed to be the friend who was trying to reconcile the other two and then got caught up in the argument 🙂
I wish I could do animations (it’s on my list ok!) because I can just visualise how it would be.
Peace Out
Grant
November 7, 2015
Day 73: Saturday 6 Nov 2015
Programmed To..
An Ambient Soundscape. (I think)
Sunrizer, Dedalus, Emo Chorus, FLUX:FX, Konpressor, Auria, TC11, Xenon, AudioShare, Xynthsesizr, Argon, AUFX:Space, AUFX:Dub, ApeDelay.
You know it’s been a hard day when you just get a list of apps.
I’m tired…Goodnight World.
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 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
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 22, 2015
Day 57: Supplementary Post
Perspective: A Drama In Three Parts:
Musing:
Each track I make is a journey; there are usually twists and turns (often wrong turns), there are decisions made, decisions rescinded, backflips, and surprises. I never know when I start where I’m going to end up.
Sometimes the result is close to the initial idea or intention. Sometimes the work takes on a life of it’s own and I have to hold on for dear life while it works itself out. Often I have nothing in mind, but just begin and try to keep myself alert for the possibilities and signs of life that unfold.
I am anthropomorphising I know. So be it.
The creative process does seem to be out of my control; but I’m too much an atheist to attribute it to spirits, or muses, or being receptive to some god or other. Perhaps it’s something to do with Freud’s Subconscious, or Jung’s Collective Subconscious, or perhaps I’m being all Zen, or attuning myself to the Tao. Whatever. Take your pick, or use your own metaphor. It’s great fun! It’s the stuff of life!
Anyway…takes a breath…
Todays track had three way stations on it’s journey, three moments of clarity, almost like shrines along a pilgrimage: one near the beginning, one in the middle, and one at the end. As it should be I suppose.
If you so choose, come journey with me.
The Tracks:
Part One is the original Beatscape that started it all.
Part Two is how I clothed the Beatscape but with the Beatscape removed.
Part Three is the resolution, the arrival, the conclusion.
Cube Synth, Patterning, iFretless Bass, Dedalus, Emo Chorus.
Grant
October 21, 2015
Day 56: Weds 21 Oct 2015
Nigel Seemingly Remote:
A Soundscape.
Nigel began the day dressed in iSem, still slow at 60 bpm, a bass pad patch in which I occasionally switched the arpeggiator on and off; recorded in AudioShare with Dedalus, AUFX:Space, and AUFX:Dub. I then added two patches from TF7 (recorded in the same way) which I panned left and right when I put them all into Auria. Next I added two bass drones, on the tonic note, from Cube Synth; in both of which I slightly changed parameters and added an octave occasionally.