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WeeklyBeats.com / Music / laguna's music / Polygonal bloodstream

Polygonal bloodstream

By laguna on January 10, 2016 8:18 pm

A huge hello to all weeklybeaters out there!!! Glad to see both regulars and new faces around!!!

This is my first submissision, including some original CGI artwork (just started with Blender...)

The whole melody is quite simple, so I ask all of you real piano players out there not to laugh at my really lousy playing. I Kept the uneven timing to give some human feel to the whole thing (I guess) smile

I've been working lately on what I call the "fake modular" technique, which really is just sampling semi-random audio snippets from modular synth videos from Youtube into my brand-new second-hand '94 Akai s3000xl sampler. Then I try to mess with the audio until I have some usable patch (no UNDO and not too much thinking). All samples should be small and fit into one floppy disk if possible. Later I create a simple sequence, bounce it to the DAW, leave it to rest, so next day I could chop it or maybe even dump it back to the hardware sampler and repeat the process.

Audio quality should be OK, but I'm more concern about having fun than "not leaving the digital domain".

The track started with that bass drone you could hear in the backgroud, then I added another fake 606/808 beat made with a Yamaha RM1x (get one, guys, is one of the most underrated cheap boxes out there) and chopped up with the Akai sampler into simple drum breaks. Finally the piano, which with my limited harmonic knowledge was difficult to fit along with the bass. I did some trial and error until it was "kinda listeneable".

All sequencing, FX and mastering was done in Ableton Live 9.5. Four tracks and 3 FX sends with various cross-sends inbetween so feedback was always around the corner, much inspired by fellow WB synthetist OneZero.

Hope you enjoy it. Looking forward to hear your new stuff!!!

Audio works licensed by author under:
CC Attribution Share Alike (BY-SA)

Good to see you back this year.  Since I don't listen to much of this style outside of WB, I'm never sure what to say.  But I always enjoy your work just the same because everything works so well together which is still something I struggle a bit with.

I dig your process, how long did it take to get this track together? Kewl artwork too.

Indeed it all fits together nicely.
Tight stuff!

P.S.
You probably realised this by now, but the closing tag for embedding images is /img smile

Spacious. Great sounds, too.

I'll have to try some images.

SO GLAD TO SEE YOU AGAIN! This is great. Real when the beat comes in.

Really excited to see what you come up with this year.

Edmund Snyder wrote:

Good to see you back this year.  Since I don't listen to much of this style outside of WB, I'm never sure what to say.  But I always enjoy your work just the same because everything works so well together which is still something I struggle a bit with.

Thanks for listening, Edmund. Really glad to see you back in 2006!

Sounds like a very interesting technique and creative process, with a very good musical result.

scottux wrote:

SO GLAD TO SEE YOU AGAIN! This is great. Real when the beat comes in.

Really excited to see what you come up with this year.

Thank you indeed, Scott. Your piece was very touching also, and you got me intrigued of what the OP-1 could do in the right hands

iLKke wrote:

P.S. You probably realised this by now, but the closing tag for embedding images is /img smile

Yes indeed! smile You should have told me in your cracktro's scroller wink

Thanks for listening, mate. Your work (both visual and musical) has been a true inspiration all week! By the way, which is your C64's tracker of choice?

It is awesome to see you back! I love the piano sound, just the right amount of modulation, but giving it lots of room to breathe. Also have to say, that's an interesting process. Reminds me of Murakami's approach to his first novel, lots of translating between different languages.

But really, I'm just thrilled I get to listen to some new tracks by you :-)

colorful grey wrote:

It is awesome to see you back! I love the piano sound, just the right amount of modulation, but giving it lots of room to breathe. Also have to say, that's an interesting process. Reminds me of Murakami's approach to his first novel, lots of translating between different languages.

But really, I'm just thrilled I get to listen to some new tracks by you :-)

Thank you man, indeed!

I do hope we could make some collaboration this year. Watch your Soundcloud mailbox because I'd love to send you that ambient EP preview I mentioned. I'd appreciate your feedback smile

laguna wrote:
colorful grey wrote:

It is awesome to see you back! I love the piano sound, just the right amount of modulation, but giving it lots of room to breathe. Also have to say, that's an interesting process. Reminds me of Murakami's approach to his first novel, lots of translating between different languages.

But really, I'm just thrilled I get to listen to some new tracks by you :-)

Ha, should be easy to spot among all the rabid promoters trying to have me headline their local gigs!

Thank you man, indeed!

I do hope we could make some collaboration this year. Watch your Soundcloud mailbox because I'd love to send you that ambient EP preview I mentioned. I'd appreciate your feedback smile


Hey Laguna, good to see you back. This is gorgeous, it reminds me of stuff done by Aquabassino (check him out I think you'd like it) and a touch of Kevin Yost. Really great

This is gorgeous--excellent piano, loving the melody over these chords, and the pseudo-modular atmosphere makes this hypnotically alien.  Thanks for the insight into your process--this is a great result, and a very original way of working.    I'm honored to be a bit of an inspiration, too!

º

Robroy wrote:

Hey Laguna, good to see you back. This is gorgeous, it reminds me of stuff done by Aquabassino (check him out I think you'd like it) and a touch of Kevin Yost. Really great

Man! Kevin Yost, what a nice compliment (love his stuff) smile

And yeah, I also dig Aquabassino. Thanks for listening and the good work, Robroy

onezero wrote:

This is gorgeous--excellent piano, loving the melody over these chords, and the pseudo-modular atmosphere makes this hypnotically alien.  Thanks for the insight into your process--this is a great result, and a very original way of working. I'm honored to be a bit of an inspiration, too!

Well, thank you, Maurice! Your experimentation always remains me that the "modular" stuff is in the attitude and the ideas, not in walls of expensive Eurorack gear. If you got "that sound" with just Ableton, then I have to push harder until I master feedback and subtle detuning like you do smile

I think we could always share more production tips. It's very interesting to see different approaches

Plantrain wrote:

Sounds like a very interesting technique and creative process, with a very good musical result.

Coming from you, I'm flattered. You got me really intrigued with your drum machine mangling this week.

Gald to have you back in WB, Plaintrain smile

Very attractive piece. The syncopated beat sounds great dude

Brackleforth wrote:

Very attractive piece. The syncopated beat sounds great dude

Thanks man! It started from a very regular 808-esque pattern, so I chopped it in 5 slices and repitched them slightly different, so it gives some shuffle ans swing smile

Lyons wrote:

I dig your process, how long did it take to get this track together? Kewl artwork too.

Thanks for checking both the music and the artwork, Lyons smile

I "stole" a couple of short notes from a Synthrotek Eurorack modular clip on youtube, and built the bass... So that took a long afternoon, until late evening. Let's give it a whole day because I basically build the main effect chain there, trying to use that weird loop as the center of the song (I failed miserably at it).

It rested in the hard drive for almost 5 days, and I built the drum loop and all the piano in another long evening (yeah, I know you instrumentalist could play in like... 2 minutes?) smile

I mixed everything on Sunday morning, so maybe let's say two complete days for everything.

Anyway, my "sampling and resampling" process comes better when I'm uninspired, so I just tune the TV, Youtube or whatever, sampling semi-randomly, until something catches my ear. Maybe those samples sit ready (as a playable patch) but unused for a while. Sometimes it's better to revisit everything after a short while instead of making it in one take... at least for me smile

laguna wrote:

By the way, which is your C64's tracker of choice?

I use defMON
Here's a link to quick interface overview that I made: http://toolsforscholars.com/defmon/doku … e_overview

If you want a REALLY low learning curve (but limited flexibility) you can try John Player.
It's what I used for week 1 track, that was my first attempt in the program).

The big thing is to learn how the SID chip itself works. Or just put numbers in registers and hope for the best smile

Beautiful track m8!

I love your style! big_smile

fantastic piece, the mix meshes together really well. somehow simultaneously gritty and airy in the best way possible.

my fav parts in this are drum less

In der Kürze liegt die Würze. Brevity is the soul of wit. One of my favourite pieces of the first round here on WB. Great atmosphere, mucho absorbing.

If you need help with Blender, I've been using it since before WB was a thing, so don't hesitate to ask me.

Devieus wrote:

If you need help with Blender, I've been using it since before WB was a thing, so don't hesitate to ask me.

Really appreciated, Devieus! I'm
still learning the basics, trying to generate my models from Processing sketches. Soon I'll have to add some Python scripting.

I'm not even using textures yet. This week's artwork was procedurally generated and the horizon is just a custom "material".

I'm afraid I've got a thousand questions smile

Sweetness on the atmospheres and I love your out of the box approach using an external sampler to dump stuff into a daw. I'm trying to get the same effect in Ableton, using samples and chopping/stretching them for interesting textures rather than endlessly tweaking midi/vsts. thumbs up!

Awww, your image isn't loading!
Cool track though!

Ipaghost wrote:

Awww, your image isn't loading!
Cool track though!

Thanks for listening, man!

I'm using my personal Dropbox folder as host for the image... Any better suggestions for some artwork hosting? (I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to sharing services)

laguna wrote:
Ipaghost wrote:

Awww, your image isn't loading!
Cool track though!

Thanks for listening, man!

I'm using my personal Dropbox folder as host for the image... Any better suggestions for some artwork hosting? (I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to sharing services)


Oooh, it's back now! I usually use my own server, but imgur, tumblr or other places might be good.

Fantastic first entry, my favourite so far!  With my limited knowledge I thought the piano sounded great and fit in very well, I like the idea of sampling YouTube videos

Ah it's beautiful stuff! I'm definitely not complaining about your piano playing. Sure it's spare - but it's enough for this track. I love the mood.

Such a nice idea with the fake modular, and sounding great. Looking forward to next week smile

laguna wrote:
Devieus wrote:

If you need help with Blender, I've been using it since before WB was a thing, so don't hesitate to ask me.

Really appreciated, Devieus! I'm
still learning the basics, trying to generate my models from Processing sketches. Soon I'll have to add some Python scripting.

I'm not even using textures yet. This week's artwork was procedurally generated and the horizon is just a custom "material".

I'm afraid I've got a thousand questions smile


Sure, ask away; ideally on Discord or something.

Diagamblic wrote:

Ah it's beautiful stuff! I'm definitely not complaining about your piano playing. Sure it's spare - but it's enough for this track. I love the mood.

Simon Koehn wrote:

Such a nice idea with the fake modular, and sounding great. Looking forward to next week smile

Thank you guys for listening and commenting. Yeah, "fake modular" allows me to have a collection of infinite gear, as long as I don't abuse of it and try my best not to steal that many ideas smile

The piano and slick beat go together very well smile

Tone Matrix wrote:

The piano and slick beat go together very well smile

Thank you Tone Matrix. I had to have a beat as guisanc bcause  I didn't found a "reference" to follow in the synth drone, so my previous piano attemps were too "abstrack"

laguna wrote:

The whole melody is quite simple, so I ask all of you real piano players out there not to laugh at my really lousy playing. I Kept the uneven timing to give some human feel to the whole thing (I guess)

It works, it's a nice contrast from the synthetic elements, like a lone human wandering a foreign planet sparsely populated by machines. Very nice!

Lovely crusty cymbals!

That image is perfect!  I like the timing of your piano playing.

one complaint only: too short! I wanted more...

I enjoyed your piano progression very much! Sometimes simplicity is preferred over complexity.

very soothing, quite like it

Max Normal wrote:

Lovely crusty cymbals!

Thanks, they're just crappy 808-esque Yamaha emulations pitched down and a little bit saturated smile

orangedrink wrote:

That image is perfect!  I like the timing of your piano playing.

Oso Feo wrote:

I enjoyed your piano progression very much! Sometimes simplicity is preferred over complexity.

Glad you liked it, guys. I'm not a skilled player at all, so I was very afraid it would suck

CrazyBob wrote:

one complaint only: too short! I wanted more...

Glad you liked it that much, CrazyBob

XC3N wrote:

very soothing, quite like it

That was the idea, XC3N. I'm a little bit chilled by nature smile


Good TripHop vibe! big_smile

Gorgeous piano. Awesome track.

Really like this, had to come back and have another listen... wicked stuff smile

Excellent start for the year! Your process sounds like a lot of fun.

Love the vibe.

Naikymusic wrote:

Beautiful track m8!

I love your style! big_smile

Late response to your comment, Sorry: I like yours too smile

Parallelis wrote:

fantastic piece, the mix meshes together really well. somehow simultaneously gritty and airy in the best way possible.

Those are kind words smile Thank you. Glad you like the ghostly atmostphere

Kyarorain wrote:

Good TripHop vibe! big_smile

Nimble Cipher wrote:

Gorgeous piano. Awesome track.

Podling wrote:

Really like this, had to come back and have another listen... wicked stuff smile

r2me2 wrote:

Love the vibe.

Thanks guys for listening. I'm coming back to these comments so sorry for replying so late! Cheers

cfurrow wrote:

Excellent start for the year! Your process sounds like a lot of fun.

Well, Thank you. Your process, which seems quite different from mine, always intrigued me, specially on how you're able to come with that rich pop stuff smile

Peace!


Ohh i Like !this! Track is beautiful!
It´s very emotional and reminds me of my trip in an Abandoned Hotel,

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