Archive for the Beatscape category
Grant
February 8, 2016
Day 166: Monday 8 Feb 2016
Sunday Slowly Sinking Again:
A Beatscape. One of those where I try to blend elements regardless of beats-per-minute etc, but where I approach the elements as a collage.
I have several folders in AudioShare where I get bits and pieces, various elements that I have used or may use. Today I raided my ‘Beats’ folder, taking several elements that I thought would work together and put them into Auria for arrangement.
The elements came from ElasticDrums, DM1, Figure, FLUX:FX, and PhaseRings. There may be some effects apps used, I’m no longer sure.
Stay tuned for some more developments 🙂
Grant
February 7, 2016
Day 165: Sunday 7 Feb 2016
Sooner Or Later (Pessimism Edit):
An Ambient Beatscape with Spoken Word.
This began with Arpeggist and Addictive Synth. Once I had something I liked, I loaded Addictive into Auria along with Poseidon and TF7, designed matching sounds in each synth, and recorded them all playing the slow sparse arpeggio. I also copied two of the synths to new tracks. applied some distortion with Muckraker, and panned them.
The beat is from Patterning, I knew I wanted something simple with only a few variations.
Next I loaded up MitoSynth for the ghostly slow lead sound (I don’t often use presets, preferring to make my own, but this suited the track so well).
I pasted the lyrics to iSpeech TTS, slowed them in Twistedwave and added some AltiSpace in AudioShare; but when I added them to the track I was unhappy with them so they got relegated to backing vocals.
The final touch was me reading the lyrics straight into Auria with reverb and delay from the inbuilt effects.
Grant
February 4, 2016
Day 162: Thursday 4 Feb 2016
The Abyss Talks Back:
An Ambient Beatscape.
I began today by making a beat in ElasticDrums which I recorded into Auria. Then I loaded up Patterning and made a matching but slightly different beat which I recorded into several tracks using different drum kits. An arpeggio from Poseidon provided the occasional bass, and the ambience is from Ondes and Addictive Synth played together from Ondes and slowed by TwistedWave, and an Absynth jam that I imported from my MacBook and treated with Dedalus and AUFX:Space before time stretching it in Auria.
Grant
February 3, 2016
Day 161: Weds 3 Feb 2016
Encryption/Decryption:
A Beatscape, sparse and slow. Just like I like them.
I loaded three tracks into Auria; two midi tracks for Poseidon and Addictive Synth, and one audio track for my MicroBrute. I played both apps from the Poseidon keyboard while I played the abstract sounds from the MicroBrute. The midi was then copied to another track and given an acoustic piano sound.
Next I bounced the Poseidon and Addictive Synth tracks to audio and loaded another midi track for each. I chose new sounds for them and jammed them in.
Arrangement ensued.
Grant
February 2, 2016
Day 160: Tuesday 2 Feb 2016
My Dreams Have Been Dark Of Late:
A Beatscape.
Today’s drums began in iMPC Pro, were slowed and lowered in TwistedWave, effected with Dedalus and AUFX:Space, and then slowed again.
The background was made in Grain Science using a recording of my voice made with the AudioShare and AltiSpace combination.
They were collaged in Auria with two old recordings made with my iPhone years ago: one of my office chair creaking, and one of my fretless Fender Jazz.
Grant
January 30, 2016
Day 157: Saturday 30 Jan 2016
Once Upon A Time:
I’m not sure how to classify today’s track, some sort of electronica, that’s the best I can do. Any suggestions anyone?
It’s a whimsical piece anyway, fun, slightly silly.
Only three apps were used to make this; it all takes place within Auria, the beat is from Patterning, and all the other sounds are from Poseidon which is fast becoming one of my favourite synths.
I began with the bell-like tinkling arpeggio and built up from there adding sounds and arranging as I went.
Grant
January 29, 2016
Day 156: Friday 29 Jan 2016
Shut Up And Ampersand:
A Beatscape with Spoken Word. That seems to be thing lately 🙂
I have a few Sector files sitting around that I have made using different drum apps; for the purpose of cutting them up into arrangeable chunks. I took one of these, made using a heavily distorted DM1, and cut out some promising sounds which I loaded into Patterning and made a beat. I jammed this beat into AudioShare and treated it with Dedalus, then loaded it into Auria and used it as the backbone for today’s track.
I had earlier sung some half prepared words into AudioShare with Altispace as effect. Not as a final recording but as a memory aid for the rhythm and phrasing, I decided to load this into Borderlands Granular to use as a carpet of sound for the beat. The resulting file was slowed by 50% in TwistedWave, and both versions put into Auria and mixed low with lots of reverb.
I had also earlier given some classic B grade movie cliches to Trudi (if you haven’t been following along Trudi is a fictional character I have been developing, voiced with iSpeech TTS, AltiSpace, and TwistedWave), I now loaded these and sprinkled them along the timeline.
The final two elements were a drone from Addictive Synth and some piano chords from Lyra.
Grant
January 28, 2016
Day 155: Thurs 28 Jan 2016
Non Interference Policy:
Part Ambient Part Beatscape. Today’s track was difficult to pull off; partly because it took awhile for me to give it a shape and a story, partly because I can’t keyboard very well, and partly because I had various technical difficulties. Midi always gives me trouble.
One of the issues with trying to finish a track a day is that sometimes I feel the track needs more work. That is the case today. Perhaps I will return to this one day and try to polish it some more. Perhaps when, and if, I get a little more comfortable with midi 🙂
Anyway I used my Axiom Pro midi keyboard to record the synth line which was the start of this track. I began with TF7 but it refused to play nice with Auria (dropping out the sound and requiring restarts) so I moved to Poseidon. My keyboard skills are rudimentary so a little midi tweaking was required, after which I copied the midi to three more tracks: one to iSem for bass, one to Lyra for piano, and another to Lyra for electric piano.
The drums are from Patterning, one track with high hats was effected with Muckracker, and the other without the hats was effected with Caramel.
Grant
January 27, 2016
Day 154: Weds 27 Jan 2016
Returned Mind:
Beatscape/Spoken Word.
TC-11; synth abstractions. iSem; bassline. Patterning; beat. TwistedWave, Auria, and AudioShare; utilities. AltiSpace; effect. Auria also supplied reverb, delay, and compression.
Grant
January 22, 2016
Day 149: Friday 22 Jan 2016
Heaven’s Smile:
A sparse Beatscape with drone and sung vocal (sorry about that).
A little silly perhaps, but I tried to sing one of my poem/lyrics. I began by using VoiceJamStudio and trying to build up something but I could not make it work (perhaps i am misunderstanding the app) anyway, I gave up and moved to Auria where I sang the main line and then tried to harmonise.
I then added a drone from Poseidon, a beat from Patterning, another beat from DM1, and a small segment of an earlier beat that I made with Cyclop, AUFX:Space, AUFX:Dub, Dedalus, and AudioShare.