October 20, 2015
Give Me All Your Money:
I don’t know how to categorise this. Is it genre able?
I did a jam in Alchemy, just using some presets, I don’t really know how to use Alchemy, but it has some great sounds (yet another app that I need to learn). Then I added AUFX:Space and AUFX:Dub, looped it, and jammed while turning Dub on and off, and playing with the frequency slider.
Next I loaded both into Auria and used the unaffected version as an intro and outro. Then I added one of yesterdays Granular Borderlands files and cut it up and distributed it around the track.
Now I felt it needed some words or vocals so I called upon the British Female voice in iSpeech TTS. I composed a little lyric/poem/rap for her, slowed it down by 80% in TwistedWave, and added some AUFX:Space and Dub. I used both the effected and the straight versions, and again cut up and distributed them about the track to make the composition.
October 18, 2015
Sunday Is To Blame:
Todays track is actually a playlist of 5 tracks; it wasn’t intentional, things just sort of happened that way.
They are on the Soundscape and Noisescape side of things.
This took all day and involved a lot of going backwards and forwards between apps and ideas before it took shape, so it is difficult to track the exact movement of things. Therefore I’m just going to list the apps I used today: AudioShare, Auria, TwistedWave, Borderlands Granular, Dedalus, Bias FX, Flux:FX, Cyclop, iMS20, Addictive Synth, Patterning, Sector, AUFX:Dub, AUFX:Space, Caramel, AltiSpace, MobileConv, Emo Chorus, iFretless Bass, PhaseRings, ThumbJam, ApeDelay.
Phew. Now I need a lie down.
October 17, 2015
Nigel Unadorned:
A slow and minimal take on Nigel today.
Fugue Machine drives iFretless Bass and iFretless Guitar. The only effects are the ones in those apps. Recorded with Audiobus and AudioShare.
October 15, 2015
Nigel Interruptus:
An Ambient Soundscape.
Back to the Fugue Machine Project.
Today I have my sequence controlling several Synths that I loaded into AudioBus.
Korgs iPolySix, FM4, TF7, Laplace, Addictive Synth, Thor, and iSem all loaded into Mimex and recorded with AudioShare.
With a setup like this I can really sculpt the sound of the performance by blending synths in and out, muting, changing the pan etc.
This was a sort of proof of concept today. I plan to spend more time selecting and writing patches to really make this a polished performance piece.
October 14, 2015
Beating Against The Cliffs:
A Soundscape.
Today a short break from my Fugue Machine Project, that is still progressing, but I’m working on a number of things at a time.
So this is a track that began in AnalogKit with a Drum Sequencer made by the very talented Clif Johnston of Apptronica Labs.
Check out his projects in the Swap Meet if you have AnalogKit.
Also check out his music at mood481; and indeed have a look at the Apptronica label http://apptronica.co.uk/artists for a look at some of the best iPad and iPhone musicians on the planet.
After recording a jam into AudioShare, I selected the best bit (the last third), and transferred that into Auria where I added some files from Hexaglypics, did some chopping and arranging and voila!
October 10, 2015
Sanitorium:
Ambient.
An almost abstract ambient piece; long, slow, and meditative.
This is entirely made with one patch in Addictive Synth. I love making, and listening to tracks like this; simple but hypnotic,slowly evolving, subtlety changing; a few elements interacting but still managing to convey a mood, and tell a story.
I love Addictive Synth for this, it seems very well suited; small changes on a variety of parameters give great results. I could’ve played all day.
October 7, 2015
Untitled:
https://soundcloud.com/grant-horsnell/analogkit-trial-no2
A Soundscape.
Todays track is all about AnalogKit the new modular app from Bitcount. http://analogkit.com.
I’m hugely interested and intrigued by all ways of music making, and analogue modular synthesis is no exception. If I could afford it I’d be delving into that world for sure. But in the meantime there are a number of apps that take the same approach, and Analogkit is the newest.
I hope to spend some time learning how to use this app but so far it’s all greek to me 🙂
However there are some very talented people making and sharing projects which noobies like me can use from within the app, and thats what I’ve done today. If you have Analogkit and want to try these for yourself I used ‘Randomness Cubed’ and ‘Lemon Cello’ by Red Sky Lullaby (keep a look out for his presets in other apps as they are always great), and ‘Drum Sequencer Mod 001’ by Apptronica.
Basically I played around with each preset, then loaded Analogkit into AudioShare with some effects (Caramel, AltiSpace, and ApeDelay), and jammed away to my hearts content. Then I loaded them into Auria where I arranged, and cut up, and manipulated, and eliminated until I arrived at the conclusion you can hear.
September 28, 2015
Drum Meditation (YouTube Edit):
A Beatscape.
Today I created a simple beat in ElasticDrums, which I then jammed into AudioShare with Dedalus in the effect chain.
When I say I ‘jam’ a beat from one of the iPad drum synths, I mean that I create a landscape (or story) by muting and soloing the various parts, live as it record.
ElasticDrums has 6 drum parts; so I create a mixture of those six voices, spontaneously in one go. But it may take several attempts to get a good mix: and today it was my fourth jam that yielded good results. So good in fact that I felt I had arrived at a finished result; a complete Beatscape that told a story, took us on a journey, without need for any additions.
But it was here that my nerve failed me. How could I present a complete track that was just a drumbeat? Even though I was convinced that it was a finished piece?
So carry on I did, and indeed I could add stuff. But to tell you the truth I think I could do better, if I had the time. But it is ‘A Track A Day’…so here is todays track…I have added a bass jam with iFretless Bass, and one from Addictive Synth. Plus a high synth part, and a drone, both from Addictive Synth. But I do have the niggling feeling that I could push this further.
So here is the original ElasticDrums jam. Tell me what you think, is it better left alone? Is it better with additions? Can it be better yet?
The Video:
A series of pictures from iColorama, sequenced with Pinnacle Studio, run through PicFrame, back to Pinnacle etc etc.
September 22, 2015
The World Is Breathing:
An Ambient Beatscape today. With me reading a poem at the end 🙂
I found an old beat that I recorded in Feb, I don’t know what app I used. I cut out a small segment that I liked and looped it with Dedalus effecting it. Then I slowed it in TwistedWave (that old trick again).
I loaded that into Auria and jammed a baseline from iFretless Bass. Only a small segment of that was successful, so i cut that out and arranged it (and bits of it) along the timeline.
Next I jammed four different sounds from Addictive Synth. Did some rearranging. Then recorded myself reading an old poem that seemed to fit the mood.
September 18, 2015
Random Syllables:
Electronica.
Something a little different today, an arpeggiated synth track.
I don’t use arpeggios, sequencers or midi much. Partly because I find it difficult to make the sounds I want, and partly because it begins to have a cliched ‘electro’ sort of sound. But I’m keen to explore all the possibilities on offer. So here goes 🙂
I started with an arp patch in iSem which I recorded into Audioshare while altering parameters. Then I did it again, then again.
Next I loaded them all into Auria and lined them up as best I could.
Then for a little spice I imported a track I had created earlier with iSpeech TTS reading a random group of phrases. I cut that up and spaced it around the track as it seemed to fit.
My mixing is flawed here, some distortion is creeping in; I think because some frequencies are overloading (there is no distortion on individual tracks). But I’m coming up against my lack of skills in the mixing department here.
Some research and learning to be done.
But thats part of the fun 🙂