The Soothing Sound of an Alternate Space
By Ashtom on January 25, 2026 9:46 pm
I kept going with recording on cassette tape with the Portastudio 424 Mk2, and drastically slowing it down, and this time I added an additional which was sped up instead, taking full advantage of varispeed possibilities.
For this track, I started with an improvisation of chords playing a pad on the Hydrasynth Desktop (patch name Dark Simple). Then I clipped a contact microphone on a Kalimba that I bought last year in Japan and recorded it on 2 different tracks: one that was then slowed down a lot (as much as the Hydrasynth) and another one sped up a little bit.
I struggled finding a good balance improvising with the Kalimba (and sometimes it might even be out of tune). It was hard to get the level of presence I had in mind, without it being too much in front while keeping the whole track interesting.
Eventually, I ended up mixing everything out of the Portastudio down to a single track on the Zoom L-12 (like last week) but this time, I added 2 send effects: a Strymon Nightsky for the reverb and a Korg Monotron Delay (to add even more dirt!).
I had an ambulant surgery done this week so it was not easy finding a moment to practice but, overall, I'm quite satisfied with the end result. I hope you will find it as soothing and enjoyable.
Thanks in advance for any feedback and have a great week!
Audio works licensed by author under:
CC Attribution Noncommercial No Derivative Works (BY-NC-ND)