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They Have Always Been Here
With all of the recent controversy about drones and UFOs, I thought this might be appropriate. I have a slightly different take on the subject. What if they have been here all along? They have been waiting for us to develop to a point where they could introduce themselves. They have been living deep below the ice cap of Antarctica. That would explain the light years of space travel required to get here. No need to travel if you’re already here.
I mixed this yesterday, but it sounds entirely different to my ears this morning. I am hearing things that I missed. Not really sure if I like it now.I would welcome your thoughts. Have a great day!
Comments
Will have to come back for a constructive comment as one listen isn't enough.
That is a fucking incredible piece of music! 🤯 It's so layered and complex but also very listenable. It's worthy of studying to apply to my own music. Got any advice on how to produce Ambient a bit more like that? Or at least some insights as to how you came about making this piece?
I agree with @Fruitbat1919. One listen is never enough for your tracks, @Paulieworld, you put in
so many little nuances. A lot of the the fun for me listening to them is hearing out all the little subtle things that poke out now and then. Busy in a good way. Mysterious is a good description. Was expecting it to break into a beat, but that stayed out of reach, like ufo’s do. Is the choir voices at the end a blocs wave pack? I’m about to pick up some blocs wave packs, thought it would be a good way to finish off my iTunes gift card.
Thank you so much, Jim. You made my day! Regarding the process, you’re already there. I use Cubasis, just like you did in your latest post. If I were to try this in AUM, the screen would be 10 feet wide and difficult to control. This one started out with a simple pattern in Piano Motifs. I liked the pattern so I used it several times. The primary synth is the mighty Mitosynth. It may be IAA old school, but it has great sounds for this genre, and it never gets old, at least for me. I used AUM to route it into Cubasis, and recorded the audio. I recorded several tracks, each being 8 or 16 measures, plus a little “tail” for a fade out. When I had a few tracks for measures 1 - 16, I just clicked Add Audio and repeated the process for measures 17 - 32. I finally ended up with about 40 tracks over 106 measures. The project window looks like a descending staircase. I usually shoot for 3 - 4 minutes, but I was having a good time and pushed it to 6 minutes. Then I came back and listened to it. If a section started getting repetitive, I clicked Add Audio and threw in something about 8 measures into the section. If you listen now, you can hear it plain as day. Sometimes I would put a little tail on it to fade into the next section. The nice thing about recording audio is that I can set effects and volume for each section. When I want a fade, I just use the Fade out in the audio editor. No need for any automation! The mixdowns go really fast. When I do use MIDI, I always Freeze it. If I want to change it, I just Unfreeze and try again. This is pretty much how I do everything. It’s a bit unconventional, but it seems to work for me. As you probably know, I don’t use any keyboards, guitars, or MIDI controllers, and this approach lets me approximate something resembling a real band. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.
Like I said, I came back to this a day later and it sounded completely different! It has some hotspots that I missed first time around. You have a good ear. Let me know if anything sounds funky.
Weather here has been rather balmy for December. But as they say for Chicago, if you don’t like the weather… just wait a minute. Have a great day, buddy!
Edit - thanks to @MadeofWax for the little narration bits. I tried a free text-to-speech that I found on the web. Like they say, you get what you pay for. Mac used some of his AI magic to create what I was looking for.
Thanks @Dav. You have a good ear! Yes, those are from Blocs Wave. I love Blocs Wave. I probably have close to a hundred of their sound packs. They are all around $2.00/each and they often discount to $1.00. For somebody like me that doesn’t play actual instruments, they are a great source of ideas. Their license agreement is quite generous. As long as you use two or more together, they won’t sue you! I hope to have that problem some day. Not holding my breath. I really liked that picture you posted. I would love to wake up to that. Thanks for listening. Have a great day!
That was great. That's ambient that I can really listen to. Atmospheric, but with enough going on to keep my interest.
My only suggestion is I felt I had to work a little bit too hard to appreciate the bass in the body of the piece. I think it could be boosted just a tiny bit, at least in the transients if boosting the body makes things too muddy.
It's funny that you said it sounded completely different. I tend to get that a lot whenever I make something. Even if I sit on it a couple of days, the minute I post something all the little flaws that I didn't hear or see suddenly show up.
I don't hear anything wrong with this. You've got better ears than I do but I would be proud to have created it.
I played it for Lena and she was curious about how the little bits of speech were layered into your music. I gave her a crash course about DAWs in Cubasis 3.
Thank you for confirming that! After many listens, I think my eardrums got burned out. It needs a bass sound with a bit more attack. I have a nice Fender electric patch that I think would sound good. I’ll probably do a remix tomorrow. I have the day off. Happy New Year!
This one had 40 tracks. Those vocals were on tracks 11, 12, and 13. Each one has slight different EQ, volume, and effects. I could have put them all on one track, but I wanted each to sound slightly different, like real people talking. Probably huge overkill that nobody else would have noticed, but it was fun and easy to do. I am so glad that Lena is getting involved. I wish Karen would take an interest, but she already does so much for me. New England Clam Chowder tonight!
I actually like the sound a lot. It might be enough just to bring it up just a little in the mix.
I will try both. I enjoy doing this stuff. In my previous life as an equal band member, everything was decided democratically. With this iPad, it’s my way or the highway! I miss playing in bands, but I don’t miss the late hours and the driving. I don’t think I could have gotten a band to play this stuff. Thanks for listening and your comments. Much appreciated!
Paulie - the weather here is pretty chilly and getting colder. At least tomorrow there's sun predicted, so it'll be nice to go out and enjoy that while it lasts.
I love using Cubasis 3! My workflow for the past couple of pieces in Cubasis is to record some sort of improv on my SMK-25 (or use Harmony Bloom and an empty MIDI clip to set the length of the audio I'll freeze), freeze the track to commit it to audio, delete the MIDI track, edit the audio further, then rinse and repeat. It reminds me a little of using the OP-1 Field, except Cubasis works with non -destructive audio editing, which I like. I can also utilise send effects after committing something to audio in order to mitigate the load on the processor.
Nothing sounds amiss to my ears regarding the mix. I don't hear any "mistakes" (or as Bob Ross calls them, "happy accidents"). All sounds good to me to be honest.
@wim I took your advice regarding the bass sound. I tried adding a duplicate track using a Fender bass and an acoustic bass. It didn’t sound quite right. A bit too much. So, I just made some mods to the existing tracks as you suggested. I used the Studio EQ and the Channel Strip. Changing the threshold a little resulted in hearing individual notes as opposed to mud. The changes are subtle, bit I think it makes it better. Thanks for the suggestion. Happy New Year!
This reminded me of the series of books by the (Nobel prize winning) writer Doris Lessing: Canopus in Argos: Archives -
http://www.dorislessing.org/canopus.html
Filled with interesting and unusual ideas about, "they've always been here". Your music could be the soundtrack; [maybe minus the voices].
I'm not familiar with that series. I just did a quick search. Sounds like a good read. There is certainly no shortage of theories on the subject. It's fun to speculate. Thanks for listening. Best wishes for the coming new year!
I’m not one to fall into conspiracy theories, unless for the fun. But @rs2000 picture got me thinking. I dunno man, pope gregory the XIII might have been just an alien implant, playing the long game
I have alien invasion and zombie apocalypse on my 2025 bingo card
Bingo!
WTF... never noticed that before. Another theory I heard is that "they" have the ability to pop in and out of time/space. Anywhere and anytime. Edgar Cayce and Albert Einstein both said that time is just an illusion. I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea. Sometimes I think I get it for about a millisecond, then I lose it.
Haha, yes it is, it's made by man, maybe driven by the desire to keep things under control
Enjoyed very much with my java and oats this after-morning.
It’s less than a millisecond, but I bet time has a definite ppq resolution, like the plank constant. It only looks linear because of our limited perception and the brain filling in the blanks. I’m also smoking a joint
There’s also this if anyone still harbors any doubts https://forum.loopypro.com/discussion/comment/1376321/#Comment_1376321
You guys should read Robert Anton Wilson, or the comic series invisibles by Grant Morrison, or going even back Aleister Crowley‘s works (I could go on)
Not that I believe any of that, but I find those to be fascinating pieces of pseudo reality. And if you think about it, all reality is “made up”. No living being sees reality as it is, some “animals” may see it even closer to absolute reality because they don’t have opinions like us
Lately my brain is mostly blank. A few years ago I would have said “pass that over to me”. It’s legal where I live now so I tried a bit. This new stuff is certainly not like back in the day! I think I’ll stick with a nice, cool, refreshing Martini. Thanks for listening to my spacey music. Happy New Year!
The stuff I was smoking doesn’t even compare with the good days. It’s mostly nostalgia, I mean it smells a little like before, but coconut milk gives me the same kick
Thanks! Mom used to make oatmeal for us on cold winter mornings. I liked it lumpy. Haven’t had any for quite a while. We have some instant in the cupboard. Thanks for reminding me!
They do like to be in control. Remain in view citizen!
Dang man this is awesome!
I love ambient music that has percussive elements , clear bass lines, lots of lil blips and blops…. and with more than just sleepy time pads! This covers a lot of territory , keeps you paying attention and is quite the journey!
Excellent job!
Thank you so much! That is exactly what I was hoping to hear. I wasn’t really a big fan of ambient until I tried it myself. Unfortunately, I have a short attention span so I like adding assorted “stuff” to hold my own interest. It’s a lot of fun to do and every one turns out different. I recently posted something dedicated to my little niece and her vivid imagination. I called it Olivia’s Time Machine.
Thank you for the encouragement. Happy New Year!
Oatmeal isn’t really a breakfast we do here, but I’m always up to learn something new. I tried it before with less than satisfying results. I have oat flakes, do you just stir it with milk? Maybe fry them a little before with butter or some fat and then add the milk and keep stirring? Then go the fruit or whatever?
I like oat flakes with sunflower seeds and a choice of minced nuts, quickly fried in butter then add some tasty honey at last.
I then mix it with half milk, half coconut milk and add bananas and some cinnamon powder. Plus whatever fruit I might feel like killing.