Archive for February, 2016
Grant
February 20, 2016
Day 178: Saturday 20 Feb 2016
Standing To Attention:
A Beatscape.
I’m still in a drum app frame of mind. Today it’s my first attempt with Arturia’s new iSpark. So far it seems well suited to my Beatscape concept. Here I made a simple beat with three variations in the patterns bank and then jammed those into AudioShare.
Grant
February 19, 2016
Day 177: Friday 19 Feb 2016
Friday/Grumpy:
Beatscape.
A pure Beatscape today, nothing but iMaschine 2, with Auria to arrange it.
I have been seriously grumpy the last few days; lack of sleep I think. Anyway I was not in the mood for pissing about with melodies or ambient niceties. So… drumbeats was the order of the day.
Hitting things! Oh yeah!
I made quite a few, this was the fifth or sixth I think, I had calmed down a little by now 🙂
I made this slow, sparse beat in iMaschine 2, and really liked it but was not sure how to do the arrangement I wanted in the app. So I exported each of the four layers separately, and imported them into an Auria project so that I could arrange it.
I’m definitely in a drum mood, so expect a plethora of Beatscapes over the next few days 🙂
Grant
February 18, 2016
Day 176: Thursday 18 Feb
DoubleU DoubleU DoubleU Dot Alone:
Again this is one that I have trouble placing in one of my little genre holes.
This began with that slow bass arpeggio in Poseidon, which I put into Auria and then added a simple beat using Patterning. I then did my usual trick of adding some interest to the simple drums by adding two more tracks of it with different sounds and slight variations, and then arranging those.
I then came up with a simple melody using a layer of Poseidon, a Cello from ThumbJam, and an Oboe from ThumbJam; they sounded like an Erdu to me and that affected the melody very strongly.
I then added another two tracks of Poseidon; one of drum hits and one for the intro.
Grant
February 17, 2016
Day 175: Weds 17 Feb 2016
Can’t Stop:
A Spoken Word Soundscape.
Today began with these words; a sort of stream of consciousness ramblings-of-a-madman sort of monologue. I recorded them into AudioShare with AltiSpace and then tried to prepare a soundscape for them. I began with a Grain Science recording that I made a month ago and kept in a folder for just such an occasion, I slowed it and lowered it in TwistedWave. Then combined the two files in Auria. Next I added a Sparkle recording that I made using TC-11 and Figure. The vocals required some cutting up and arranging but that was all 🙂
Grant
February 16, 2016
Day 174: Tuesday 16 Feb 2016
Sunset Stains The Snow:
Sort of a light ambient jazz piano piece. Which is cheeky of me given I can’t really play either piano or jazz 🙂
This is a straight jam on the keyboard using Korg Module‘s ‘Dark Sine EP’ patch. It relates to Day 169 which began with a similar jam (it’s something I have been slowly developing, and use to practise with), a little C minor blues scale thing. But here I’ve developed the left hand part slightly, and this is more angular. Also that track had additions and alterations; this is just the piano straight and simple.
Grant
February 15, 2016
Day 173: Monday 15 Feb 2016
Keening For The Lost:
An Abstract Soundscape.
TC-11, Figure, Sparkle. Really loving how Sparkle allows me to generate these Soundscapes. Wish I’d tried it sooner.
Grant
February 14, 2016
Day 172: Sunday 14 Feb 2016
Circumspect Circumstances:
An Abstract Soundscape.
Today I explored Sparkle by Apesoft, an app that I haven’t used before but always intended to explore. I haven’t read the manual or watched any vids, so I’m not really sure what it does but it takes two sounds and combines them in some way. Whatever it is I had great fun and immediately got several good results. Here I have combined two of those results: At first I loaded an earlier version of yesterday’s track into one slot (so that’s using Gadget) and a bassline from a Reggae sample CD into the other, then I used the Gadget file and a TC11 jam from a few weeks ago for the second play. I layered both in Auria and used AUFX:Peak to try and tame the lower end.
Grant
February 13, 2016
Day 171: Saturday 13 Feb 2016
4 Thousand 4 Hundred & 4 Teen (Ways To Stay):
An Ambient Beatscape, slow and sparse ’cause that’s how I roll.
Another Gadget track. Like yesterday’s this was sitting in Gadget when I opened it for the first time in nearly a year; so I finished it today.
Grant
February 12, 2016
Day 170: Friday 12 Feb 2016
Hurry Up & Wait:
An Ambient Beatscape.
Today’s track is all Gadget. It’s not an app that I’ve used much but I have been intending to work with it a little more, so today I tried it out again. There were four small projects in there from my previous attempts to get acquainted and this is one of those; worked over, rearranged, slowed, and added to.
Grant
February 11, 2016
Day 169: Thursday 11 Feb 2016
Sunset; Light Snow Falling:
An Ambient piece today.
Mostly electric piano; I used Korg’s Module to jam a slow and sparse Cm thing which I then slowed in TwistedWave by 70% (because slower and sparse equals better). I also reversed it and loaded both versions into Auria where I selected a few bits from the reversed version and blended them together. Finally I went back to yesterday’s track and cut out one sound of me whacking the bass strings with the pick (Bias FX), which I then added in a few places here.