Archive for the Uncategorized category
Grant
July 6, 2016
Day 313: Weds 6 July 2016
X Marks The Spot:
An Asymmetric Riff Moves Through The Jungle Leaking Jazz.
Xynthesizr, Auria, Mersenne, Patterning, Firo.
Grant
July 2, 2016
Day 309: Saturday 2 July 2016
Concrete Jungle:
Something a little different from me today, in fact this is to quote Monty Python ‘Something completely different’.
Firo is an app that I’ve barely used, I had a play with it today and this is the result. I didn’t start out to make something like this, it just happened.
After jamming in Firo I exported the midi to Auria where I separated the bass part and gave it to two different instruments, added a little reverb, and adjusted volumes. Then I ran the result through Dedalus.
I’m surprised by this track but very pleased with it.
Hope you enjoy.
Grant
May 11, 2016
Day 257: Weds 11 May 2016
Cast Off/Cast Away:
I began with Patterning today, recording to AudioShare with ApeFilter and FLUX:FX, building the beat up with the effects until I was happy with it; jamming as I went until eventually I got the arrangement I needed. I then loaded that into Auria where I recorded a bass drum only version to another track (effected with Caramel), and another bass drum only version (effected with FLUX:FX). I panned them both left and right and mixed them low enough to just provide a little edge.
Next came the guitars; three tracks recorded via BiasFX with different settings. And the bass; two tracks also via BiasFX. I had no plan here and no idea what I wanted but I found the end result pleasing so I have left it as it is.
To finish off I ran the final mix through TwistedWave to slow it by 70% which began to really sound like the sounds in my head and my gut.
Grant
May 10, 2016
Day 256: Tuesday 10 May 2016
Trudi Muses #1 (Clementine):
Today is a bit of an experiment for me in a couple of ways.
Firstly I began by playing with Blocs Wave which I bought as soon as it came out but had never gotten around to using before, in fact I could’t even remember what sort of app it was so I began by watching a few vids before I plunged in.
If you don’t know; Blocs Wave is a looper app by Novation who also brought us LaunchPad which I have used a few times in this blog. Now I’m not really a huge user of looper apps like these, especially using the inbuilt loops or the in-app-purchase sound packs, mainly because it’s hard to feel something is yours if it’s made up exclusively of other peoples loops. I do it from time to time though. Both LaunchPad and Blocs Wave allow you to import your own loops into them and Blocs Wave allows you to record as you are playing, and that is where they both get very interesting to me. But for today, as I had my first feel around with the app, I did use the built in loops, and I must say I had a ball. I love the way this app works and I can imagine many ways of using it in the future.
I loaded loops at random until I got a combination that I liked then recorded a jam into AudioShare with Dedalus and FLUX:FX in the effects chain. Then I started from scratch and did it again. Next, and this was really to assuage my guilt about using pre-made loops and to make it sound a little more like me, I put them into TwistedWave and slowed them by 80%.
Now I had two loops with the same key and BPM but with different feels because of the different drum and percussion loops used, so I decided to load then into Auria and see if they made sense together (I suspected that they would). I arranged them by going backwards and forwards between them as I felt fit, and though I liked the results I felt there was more lurking within this track.
The next step was to include a simple beat from Patterning to tie everything together.
The final element I added was the words and this is where the second experiment came in.
If you are a regular ‘Tracker’ you will know that when I add words I sometimes speak or ‘sing’ them myself and I sometimes use the Female UK English voice in iSpeech TTS. In fact I’ve used her so much that I call her Trudi and have developed a character and ongoing back story for her. Well she put in an appearance today but instead of reading a lyric or poem I gave her part of a musing that I have been writing, a little autobiographical rambling on my childhood and road to music making. I wasn’t sure if this would work, and though I’ve had it mind for a while I’ve kept putting it off, but today was the day.
Anyway I’m really happy with the results and I hope that you enjoy.
Grant
May 7, 2016
Day 253: Saturday 7 May 2016
Filibuster:
A few days ago I began this track playing my Bass along to a simple Patterning beat in Auria, I used ToneStack to make the bass sound but I had trouble with it so I put the track aside and moved on.
Today I re-approached it.
I still couldn’t get ToneStack to work nor BiasFX; I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong but I often have trouble with these apps. Anyway I resorted to a combination of FLUX:FX and Caramel to approximate the distorted Bass sound that I was after. I also made a variation of the Patterning beat by recording it into AudioShare with a variety of FLUX:FX settings then loaded that back into Auria and used the bits that fit best.
Next I copied the Bass onto a new track, pitch shifted it up two octaves and effected it with Emo Chorus. Then I copied that and effected it with Swoopster and panned both.
Finally I added a Sparkle file that I made this morning using an iMashine file as source and a TC-11 file as target. I don’t pretend to know what that means or how Sparkle works (I am manual allergic after all), I just play around until I get stuff that I like. Anyway I thought that the random abstractness of this track would work well and it did 🙂
Peace Out Hip Chicks and Dudes and remember ‘do no harm but take no shit’.
Grant
April 26, 2016
Day 242: Tuesday 26 April 2016
Tacoma:
Somehow things sound a little different whenever I use a physical or hardware instrument along side the iPad.
Today I was MicroBrute-ing. There are three tracks from the MicroBrute in fact; recorded into Auria with BiasFX. Plus one from iSem, plus the jackhammer type sounds which are from iSpark.
Grant
April 25, 2016
Day 241: Monday 25 April 2016
The Silver Lining:
Everything was done inside Auria today. Beginning with Patterning, then two layers of Poseidon, then two layers of Bass both playing Michelle into BiasFX.
The Video:
Stills made in iColorama, arranged in Pinnacle Studio then run through Generate, both versions layered using Vjay before being run through CinemaFX.
Grant
April 24, 2016
Day 240: Sunday 24 April 2016
Of Ships And Their Passing:
More of my Bass today, though she takes a back seat in this one.
Patterning for the drum duties, helped by: Caramel, AUFX:Peak, DubFilter, AUFX:Dub, FLUX:FX, and AudioShare. Addictive Synth for the other sounds. All assembled in Auria. The final mix was slowed by 90% in TwistedWave because…reasons.
Grant
April 18, 2016
Day 234: Monday 18 April 2016
Scat Me Scale Me ‘Scuse Me:
Some acappella singing using VoiceRackFX into Auria with a beat from iSpark. I had some trouble with VoiceRack (probably me) so just added inbuilt Auria reverb and delay to the bare vocal, then ran the result through Sector.
So far so ‘fun but just okay’.
What do I do when things aren’t working? You guessed it. Slow it down! I ran it through TwistedWave for some slowing down and some lowering, Then put it back into Auria for some cutting and arranging.
I think it’s fun.
Grant
March 21, 2016
Day 207: Monday 21 March 2016
Faux Classiqué:
https://soundcloud.com/grant-horsnell/faux-classique
Something a little different from me today. This sounds like an avantgarde or experimental Classical piece.
I hear cello, violins, treated piano, possibly bass flute or bassoon, with maybe overtones of oboe in there somewhere. Actually its all Shoom (still in beta) effected with Sliver, jammed into AudioShare, and then rearranged in Auria. It uses a whole tone scale which maybe contributes to the out-there vibe, but the Shoom sounds themselves led me down this path. I’m liking this synth more and more as I get to know it better. I’ll definitely be buying it when it comes out.