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JWM - Ascension (Ambient in Cubasis 3)
Now for something a little different. This piece was a lot of fun to make! I'll explain why.
Of course the bass needed to be programmed in, but I kept it rather simple. I used Buzz Zone for that. The middle synth pad thingamabob is where I started adding in Harmony Bloom to drive another Buzz Zone. I have never played with a generative MIDI sequencer this fun before. I love that it has a probability function so notes don't always have to play all the time!
Finally, for the top melody sound, I also used Harmony Bloom to drive FM Zone for those lovely shimmering sounds. Of course I made use of filters on the top melody and middle ground to add a little movement at the beginning of the piece.
I didn't play much with the timbre outside of the filters as I wanted this piece to be a bit more serene and "uninteresting", something to blend in the background of whatever else the listener may be doing at the time. I used two send effects - Timeless, and Pro-R2.
All of this was crafted in Cubasis 3 from start to finish. Whereas I find Cubasis 3 isn't so great for me personally for producing EDM and HipHop, it's absolutely perfect for Ambient pieces. My favourite thing is the fact I can use freeze to print parts to audio and manipulate things further from there. Simply wonderful.
Anyways, cheers, enjoy, and Happy 2025!
Comments
Hi @jwmmakerofmusic What a wonderful creation!
btw.....if you want a 1st class hardware generating device, I can recommend you the Oxi One. It's great for generating ambient music. And via Bluetooth it can be connected to the iPad/iPhone.
Mercí. ☺️
Cool! Gonna look this up.
Really nice
Well done
Glad to see a new genre fit you
Great stuff, Jim. I’m hearing a bit of Brian Eno influence in this. Love the graphic.
I’m trying something similar. Pure “structured” ambient.
I’m enjoying this genre!
Peace.
Me too.
And Cubasis 3 is the perfect fit for Ambient. For EDM, maybe not exactly, but for non-live produced Ambient, it can't be topped. (Of course AUM for live Ambient jamming is top for me personally. Some swear by ApeMatrix, and some swear by Drambo, but I find AUM to be the least fussy for me, but ofc ymmv.)
I've tried to produce Ambient in the past back in Summer 2022, and most of what I produced was pretty subpar I'm not gonna lie. It's why I was turned off from Ambient for over two years. But then I got back into Jean-Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream, and then Brian Eno, and suddenly I'm back down the Ambient rabbit hole, but much better this time around. I'm not trying to live produce Ambient, so I can be more thoughtful about what sounds go where and such.
Thank you. Well, the graphic was just some rushed AI generated art. 😂 I didn't have time today to create my own visual art when working on a second piece for the upcoming "Heavenly" EP which focuses on beautiful-sounding Ambient, or at least the best I can do in creating sonic beauty. 😅
And if you think this piece has a Brian Eno influence, I just literally created a piece called "Oney Ianbrey" (yeah, stupid title lol) which kind of steals a little from the vibe of "Music for Airports", using the same lofi-sounding piano from "1/1", and the same Mellotron choir patch from "2/1". It's in D Major, the same key as "1/1", although the piano riff uses a different sequence of repeated notes, and the choir comes in here and there with a nice descending melody.
The Balinese bell sounds were driven by Harmony Bloom (my new favourite MIDI toy). And somewhere a little past the center of the piece is an FM synth 16th-note bass (although at 64 bpm, it's more of a slow rhythm rather than a fast and choppy rhythm).
And unlike the above piece where I used Timeless and Pro-R2 on the send effects, I simply used Stratosphere Cloud Reverb for my reverb send for "Oney Ianbrey".
That said, I may either release that tomorrow, or produce something completely new to release in time before the ball drops in Times Square.
I'm curious to know more about this thought process, my friend.
Or at least can you defined "structured"?
Man, you and me both!
Cheers. 🍻
I’m still trying to figure out a process. It may already be an existing style, but it’s new to me. I would like to create something that, on one level, is pure, random, ambient sound. On another level, it’s very structured and intentional. That is, everything is planned. It reminds me of a line by Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau. “Every move I make is carefully planned”. Then he immediately slips and falls!
There are quite a few people that enjoy pure random soundscapes. Others like a beat and a backstory with direction. I would like to combine both, if that’s even possible. My last post about the aliens is one of my first attempts. One of the forum members said that it was constantly changing, and that held his interest. That was exactly what I was hoping for!
I started something yesterday to try and follow up on the idea. It will be called Olivia’s Time Machine, dedicated to my little niece. On one level, it’s four minutes of ambient sound. On the other level, it’s very intentional. The tempo is 100bpm throughout. You could actually tap your feet to it. It’s built from two sequences that I generated in Piano Motifs. The key alternates between CM and Dm. In “theory”, any combination should sound good, right? It has four “parts”. The structure is ABCDABCD. Every iteration of the parts is slightly different, using different instruments and sound effects.
That’s as far as I’ve gotten. We’re taking one of Karen’s elderly lady friend out for lunch today, and I plan to resume when we get home. I doubt if I will make it to midnight. I have celebrated many, many of these and it’s just not the same thrill that it once was. You’re a young dude, and I’m sure you will be awake for the big moment. Lift a glass for me. Happy New Year!
Oh dear goodness, I just finally read this. 😂 My brain is lazy. Now I understand a bit more what you mean by "structured Ambient". I combined both techniques in Cubasis 3 to created my recent "MMXXV" piece of Ambient, although mostly the "structured" sort of elements. Anyways, I'd wager an argument that there are a few types of ways of creating an element for Ambient rather than simply two...
Regardless of how I lay down a track, everything is committed to audio via freezing (except for field recordings which already are audio 😂 ) in Cubasis 3. I'm really digging this type of workflow as it reminds me of the days I used to have an OP-1 Field to record music on. The difference is in Cubasis 3, I have the advantages of being able to stretch audio, add more than two effects to the master buss, the ability to have a dedicated wet reverb as a send effect, utilise the fades at the ends of each audio clip, etc. And with my SMK-25 controller, I get back that ability to improvise like I used to be able to do on the OP-1 Field.
Your recent ambient work is excellent Jim, very enjoyable 👌
I'm so happy to hear that, my friend. Thank you so much. I really love making Ambient. As I said elsewhere, it's easier on my mental health. I am just fed up with producing EDM. I vowed as a 2025 resolution not to produce any EDM until the Spring Equinox at the absolute earliest (outside of client work that is, because money is money afterall). I need this aural respite to better my mental health.