Loopy Pro: Create music, your way.
What is Loopy Pro? — Loopy Pro is a powerful, flexible, and intuitive live looper, sampler, clip launcher and DAW for iPhone and iPad. At its core, it allows you to record and layer sounds in real-time to create complex musical arrangements. But it doesn’t stop there—Loopy Pro offers advanced tools to customize your workflow, build dynamic performance setups, and create a seamless connection between instruments, effects, and external gear.
Use it for live looping, sequencing, arranging, mixing, and much more. Whether you're a live performer, a producer, or just experimenting with sound, Loopy Pro helps you take control of your creative process.
Download on the App StoreLoopy Pro is your all-in-one musical toolkit. Try it for free today.
JWM Jam-uary 2025 Journal (To be updated daily)
I decided to enter Jamuary as a challenge to produce at least one piece of Ambient per day. Since I don't want to clutter @GeoTony 's thread with my daily entries, I will post them here.
From 1 Jan...
...I didn't label this with the "Jamuary" as I didn't think I'd want to enter a daily music production challenge, but this was indeed started and finished yesterday (as of this writing).
From today...
...this was started and finished today. As you can probably tell, it was more of a rushed production that isn't as well-edited as I'd have liked it to be. 😅 Only took me about 45 minutes to complete from start to finish.
I utilised Cubasis 3 as my main creative environment for these two pieces (and will most likely use Cubasis 3 for the rest of my Jamuary Ambient pieces). Sometimes I will program the MIDI instruments by drawing in notes, but I've also been using generative MIDI apps such as Ioniarics and Harmony Bloom. I'm also planning to improvise a bit using my SMK-25.
My main goal with this challenge is to come up with new-to-me methods and ideas of producing Ambient (or music that loosely falls in the Ambient category).
Tomorrow I'm going to use only Beathawk instruments to produce a piece of Ambient, and Saturday I plan to use only Bleass apps (instruments and effects, with the exception of my mastering chain). Looking forward to that. We'll see what next week holds, but I'm marking down simple one-to-two-sentence prompts in a notepad file in IA Writer to help aide my journey.
Comments
Today's entry is something a little different.
I listened to what was labelled as "traditional Japanese" music on Youtube (or at least that was the claim lol), and it was very calm and serene, making use of this particular scale. So I decided to try and mimick that a little, but just add a bit more reverb to it. 😂 So this isn't traditional music, but rather is inspired by it.
All instruments and percussive sounds (they're very sparse, not rhythmic) were from Beathawk. The fifth track has two instances of this one vocal, but heavily bathed in reverb and set far into the background. I used a Bleass Shimmer send to add a bit of higher end to a couple of the elements, and Stratosphere Reverb for the other send. Everything was created, mixed and mastered in Cubasis 3.
Hope you all enjoy.
Tomorrow's challenge is to make Ambient using only Bleass apps, although I may "cheat" a little and use Cubasis' Studio EQ to aide in the mixing down process.
One major thing I've learned is that how I shape the EQ of a sound heavily affects how it interacts with the reverb, regardless of which reverb(s) I choose to use. I know that may come as a shock to most nobody else, but it's a realisation I didn't consider before. 😂 So while it is wise to start a mixdown without the reverb send(s) and track reverb(s) and delay(s) being affected (aka "dry mixing"), it's also wise to turn on the reverbs and delays to adjust timbres further until everything fits well.
This is definitely far different than mixing EDM where the reverb is more of an afterthought to make a sound more lush (like a Trance lead) rather than using a reverb as part of the actual composition.
A musician friend (not from here) also told me tuning is very important and just a slight bit of tuning can greatly affect the reverb(s) and delay(s)! Also told me that if a synth can import a Scala file, to make use of it for less dissonance. And they're absolutely correct! Tried this in Twin 3 using a sawtooth wave, playing intervals, feeding Twin 3 into a reverb, and holy shit. A different tuning can really make a huge difference in how the intervals affect a reverb! 🤯 I didn't know that either.
Although tomorrow's challenge will be mostly making use of Bleass apps (the exception is Cubasis 3's Studio EQ and my mastering chain) (Bleass' synths afaik don't support Scala files), so equal temperament it is. 😂
This was to be tomorrow's entry, but I have a very busy weekend coming up ahead, so here is the fourth Jamuary entry.
As the title suggests, I created this piece in Cubasis 3. The original goal was to use nothing but Bleass' plugins (with the exceptions of Cubasis' Studio EQ, and my usual mastering chain of Doctor Vibe, Grand Finale 2, Cubasis' Brickwall Limiter set to -1dB, and Youlean's Loudness Meter), but for whatever odd reason, Bleass Filter's parameters didn't show up in the automation list after I attempted to record the automation (turning on read and write and then playing back while moving a parameter). So I subbed out Bleass Filter with Cubasis' filter. 🫠 Very odd shit indeed.
But that said, I used Alpha, Omega, Monolit, and Megalit, and Bleass' plugins (including the phaser and the flanger). I'm really chuffed with how this turned out despite that one snag regarding the filter. 🙃 At least all sound sources came from Bleass, so that's a win.
Anyways, hope you all enjoy this one. Cheers.
Your production pace is impressive my friend, and so are your skills. Don’t forget to breathe, eat and sleep😁!
All the best,
DMfan🇸🇪( that manages to get a track out once in a while….😂)
Thank you so kindly, my friend. ☺️ My secret is Ambient is far easier to produce than EDM. 😂 Not only does Ambient require less strain and time to produce, it's less taxing on the ears. Plus it doesn't drain my mental health any. It's quite fun.
But then again, tomorrow's (Sunday's) planned Jamuary entry isn't necessarily Ambient, so I filed it under "Electronic", tagged it with "Ambient" (besides "Jamuary" and "Jamuary 2025" that is), and then calling it a day.
So yeah, this one was more experimental (for me anyways) than other pieces I've done. Made it in Cubasis 3. The guitar and voice are from this "KK Slider" soundfont (if you ever played Animal Crossing, you already know 🤣 ). The glitchy drums are Fractal Bits (I've wanted to use that plugin for the longest time), the strings are Iconica Violins 1 with the Tremolo setting, and the bass is Twin 3. Mastered this time with DAW LP, then Doctor Vibe, Grand Finale 2, Cubasis' brickwall limiter set to -1dB, and finally Youlean's Loudness Meter.
As I said, this weekend is a busy one. I'm lucky I was able to squeeze this piece of music out in under an hour. 😂 A bit more midrange cack than my other works, but what do you expect when I'm pressed for time? So much shit to get done here, it's ridiculous!
For whatever reason, I'm still having a difficult time trying to figure out why Cubasis 3.7 isn't exposing AUv3 parameters for me to automate. It also doesn't work when I press "W" to move a parameter to write automation. It's rather frustrating. @LFS do you have an answer as to what's going on here and why this bug is showing up? (When I start my next project, if I remember I will screen record what's going on.)
Even your midrange crack is worth listening to Jim, some lovely work here 👌
Thank you so kindly Tony.
Yeah, midrange cack has its place I agree, and we all churn out a dud on occasion, lol. Hope you will enjoy this piece I just finished and uploaded.
https://forum.loopypro.com/discussion/63741/jwm-bending-reality-30-minute-ambient-in-cubasis-3#latest
This is for tomorrow's entry, but a day early. I'm shocked I created this. 😱
My next Jamuary Ambient challenge for tomorrow is to make it rhythmic. That doesn't mean fast rhythms, nor does it mean using drums. I mean incorporating rhythmic elements in a more subtle manner. I got a few ideas I want to try out.
I also plan to use my iPhone only for this experiment as a fun little challenge to myself. (I kind of miss producing on iPhone to be honest. 😅 )
Anyways, I started this thread...
https://forum.loopypro.com/discussion/63746/best-iphone-plugins-for-ambient-in-2025#latest
...to find some top plugins for Ambient, and thanks to @tubespace and @bleep I have added to a nice selection of delay and reverb effects. Now I just need a couple "modulation monster" synths and off I go. 😂
I'm not entirely satisfied with this piece of Ambient. It is quite minimal, and I like it just okay, but producing on the iPhone just doesn't have the same luster as it once did. The only reason I was iPhone only for so long is the iPhone I have has 1TB storage. However, I prefer producing on my 512gb iPad Mini 7.
That said, what I did enjoy was using Flowtones for the first time in a long time! I used it for the midrange sound. Flowtones is truly a modulation monster synth with three mod envelopes and four LFOs. Setting the LFOs is as easy as long-pressing on a knob and revealing the mod menu and adjusting the amount from there. If you have no access to Twin 3 (due to being stuck on iPhone and/or monetary issues), Flowtones is an excellent alternative.
The piano is just Cubasis' Lofi piano, and the sub bass is Bleass Alpha.
All that said, the true stars of the show were Cascade and Stratosphere Cloud Reverb on the send bus. Cascade is god-tier! Thank you @bleep for this suggestion! Same developer as Velvet Machine, and Cascade is more than just a simple reverb. It's an effect designer! @jakoB_haQ shows this off quite well in his video here that Bleep linked me too.
And of course I love Stratosphere Cloud Reverb. Has a bit of an otherworldy effect to it I simply can't quite describe.
Well, that said, back to iPad for me personally. I'll probably produce another Jamuary piece of Ambient sometime today.
Just watched this video by Red Means Recording.
I think I'm starting to better understand miRack and even Solderbox in general.
(Yes, he uses VCV Rack, but miRack uses a lot of the same modules, and honestly the principles taught in this video apply to any Eurorack situation.) Been looking for a "modulation monster" synth, and what better than a software Eurorack for unlimited LFOs, envelopes, etc?
(And yes, I know miRack is afaik a mono synth, but that's okay. It doesn't have to be poly in order to make a complex drone sound. 😂 )
The second project of today which I'm about to begin will use TB Flowtones as my singular sound source. And I want to try rhythmic elements (not drums per se but rather subtle rhythmic elements). Okay, and away I go...
And therefore, I finished this piece in about an hour. Four instances of Flowtones set to 432Hz tuning. Cascade and Stratosphere on their own respective send busses. (The bass and 16th note pattern worked best with Stratosphere, but the pads and upper melody worked best with Cascade in this case.)
Anyways, hope you all enjoy this one. I like it better than "A Minimal Attempt".
My next entry. Okay, here's how this one breaks down. The piano was a piano sound from Cubasis' Halion pack. The bass is this FM patch from Cubasis' FM Classics. The bass figure during the third section is Micrologue. And the pièce de résistance...Waldorf Microwave for the pads! ACK! I really love this synth!
I made this piece with a three-act structure. So basically an E7 chord, an AMaj7 chord, and an E7 chord. 😂 My plan for today was to make use of said three-act structure. Now there we have it. Anyways, hope you all enjoy this entry.
Many thanks to @peanut_gallery for the heads up on the sale on Moog Mariana synth. I made good use of it here...
...as the sustained bass sound. The pads and arp are Animoog, and the stab synth driven by Ioniarics is Model D.
On the master buss, I used Pitch Drift to help destabilise the overall sound just a little bit, then Doctor Vibe, Grand Finale 2, Cubasis' Brickwall limiter set to -1dB, and to finish off...Youlean's Loudness Meter.
I also discovered a bit of a "hack" if you will. I admit that Cubasis' filter, which is a lowpass-only filter, isn't the best. It doesn't really cut out all the frequencies at its lowest setting. You know what does act as a great filter for high pass and low pass automation? Cubasis' Studio EQ! That really gets the job so much better than the Filter. So I can have one Studio EQ as my filter, and another Studio EQ as my EQ for mixdown. Quite handy if I do say so myself.
Anyways, hope you enjoy.
Today's challenge was for me to create a longform piece of Ambient using the replies I got from ChatGPT, and these are the results.
As explained in the SoundCloud description, no AI was used for sound generation nor anything else except asking ChatGPT for a key, scale, time sig, and which acoustic instruments and synths I should use. This was a fun experiment, and I'm really chuffed with the results.
And yeah, one of the acoustic instruments chosen was indeed a kalimba, but I couldn't be faffed searching for a oneshot of that on Freesound after I just loaded a glass harmonica sound into Cubasis' MiniSampler. 😂 I found this "Meditation Bells" patch in Cubasis' Halion pack, and I feel that fits in better with the vibe of the piece than a kalimba would've.
So yeah, for the pads, ChatGPT chose Bleass Alpha from my list of synths. I used the trusty triangle wave with a bit of drive and bit reduction to make the pads sparkle. It also chose Bleass Lowtone for the bass synth. An excellent choice as I hadn't used Lowtone for at least a few months if not in roughly a year!
The celli were driven by Ioniarics, but everything else was programmed in. I'm rather chuffed with the results!
Hope you all enjoy.
Forgot to mention, Cubasis' Studio EQ works better than the Filter for automating cutoffs.
Edit: Also, Stratosphere Cloud Reverb has become my goto Ambient reverb. 😅
Just a second piece for today. I can't believe I'm averaging 2 pieces per day! This is exciting.
Yeah, this one was a quicker-made piece of Ambient. I used only the plugins and sounds that come within Cubasis 3 itself, except for my usual mastering chain of course. I decided that I'd use a patch from FM Classics for the bass (but a soft one, not a harsh one), and three Halion instruments for the other instruments.
Hope you all enjoy.
A third Jamuary piece today?! Technically, it was started on the same day as the previous two pieces, but production went through midnight. See, I had a long evening (attended an exciting hockey game, but we lost), and I needed to wind down. What better way than to produce some sort of Ambient to listen to before bed?
I called the piece "Old School", because it harkens back to the era Brian Eno coined the term "Ambient Music" in the 70s. All three sounds come in Cubasis 3, and I treated each instrument to Klevgrand's DAW Cassette to give it a nice tape feel. (For me, it's the easiest tape emulation on iOS which also sounds very nice.) There's a soft piano from Halion, a marimba for the low end also from Halion, and I used a Tape Flute from Microsonic (yes, Cubasis has Mellotron sounds in it!)
For the master buss, this time I added Pitch Drift before my usual mastering chain of Doctor Vibe, Grand Finale 2, Cubasis' Brickwall Limiter set to -1dB, and Youlean's Loudness Meter.
And now, it's time for sleep.
My latest piece of Ambient for Jamuary is pretty damn long.
https://forum.loopypro.com/discussion/63778/jwm-spending-time-at-the-coffee-shop-longform-ambient-done-in-cubasis-3/p1?new=1
So yes, I'm pretty damn proud of this one. Plenty of production notes in the thread and on SoundCloud.
If this is the only Jamuary piece I make today, I am satiated. Although let's be real, Lunar Lander was just updated, and I'm going to use that on my next piece of Ambient instead of Stratosphere Cloud Reverb.
https://forum.loopypro.com/discussion/63769/p930-lunar-lander-by-pulsar-modular-released#latest
Now for some rambling. I really love the phasers in my Ambient toolbox. I have Cubasis' own phaser which isn't half bad, although a bit light, but sometimes that's all one needs is something lighter. FAC Phazer is less subtle, but has a nice finish to the effect. Real Phaser (to my ears) replicates those old 70s phasers Jean-Michel Jarre used. Finally, the least subtle phaser out of the bunch is Bleass Phaser. Definitely a more "modern" phaser effect, but it has its place in my toolkit.
About SoundCloud, I really wish they'd recommend my longer Ambient works to people rather than limit me to under 10 minutes. I think it's rather silly if you want my honest opinion. I love my shorter Ambient works, don't get me wrong, but those pieces tend to be too short for me personally. I don't mind producing Ambient under 10 minutes when I'm crunched for time on a given day for Jamuary, but when I have the time, I prefer to produce longform Ambient. I wish I could get these pieces out to a wider audience of Ambient-lovers on SoundCloud.
Getting back to today's Jamuary entry, Cubasis' UI certainly struggled when I zoomed in and out on the timeline after having 5 tracks frozen in place. A bit fiddly, that, but then again this piece went for over 1000 measures in 3/4 time at 72bpm! Kind of wild to think about to be honest.
Lately I love using a cello sound in my pieces. I grew up listening to Yo-Yo Ma's immaculate playing, and even though I could never match the expression and emotion he puts into his performances with just MIDI notes, I still love using the sound in Ambient. Especially driven by Ioniarics.
And when it comes to generative MIDI plugins, I'm still stuck on Ioniarics. I love Harmony Bloom, don't get me wrong, but Ioniarics is crazy good. I set it to "toggle mode", select "random" from the "order of notes" section, press a few keys to set a scale/set of notes, and voila. Ioniarics is probably one of my favourite MIDI plugins, and I've used it for Ambient since my Summer of 2022.
Speaking of that old era of Ambient (Summer 2022), that era was live Ambient in AUM, relying on PaulXStretch for instant soundscapes. It was less melodic and more cacophony. I said before when in my EDM era last year that I can barely listen to most of those old pieces (other than "I Shall Guide Thee"), and now that I'm back to Ambient? I still consider most of those old pieces to be rubbish. 😂 What I produce now far surpasses that old midrange cack.
Honestly, this is all I felt making today. 😂 Yesterday's entry was far more complex and difficult and took about 2-3 hours accumulated to finish. Today's entry is just a Jazz Piano, Marimba, and Cello, all driven by Ioniarics, with Stratosphere Cloud Reverb added for the ambiance, with simple lowpass filter fades in and out. It's definitely nothing fancy or groundbreaking or experimental.
But sometimes, Ambient doesn't need to have all that fancy shit. Brian Eno certainly didn't set out to make complex Ambient music back in the late 70s. So long as it's listenable, that's what counts. And unlike the midrange rubbish I produced in Summer 2022, "Lazy Afternoon" is indeed listenable (for me at any rate). 😂
So yeah, I really like this piece better than yesterday's Jamuary attempt, but I probably shouldn't have used string basses for the lowend. Too much mud in the mix. Probably should've stuck to a filtered sawtooth if I'm being honest. 😂 Ah well, at least I experimented a little bit. More notes in the SoundCloud description.
Yes, I perform a gig tonight which is why I made yet another rushed piece of Ambient rather than actually making an effort. I'll assume that I'll do a better job of making something Ambient tomorrow rather than rush the process to cack something out just to say "I didn't skip a day of Jamuary". 😂
Okay, so the past two days I created rushed shit rather than something decent. This time, I did the opposite. I decided to take my time to create a piece of Space Ambient I call "Stellar Drift". Sometimes it's tough to keep track of when parts are to be faded in and out to create an ever evolving soundscape, but this time I jotted down a "flow chart", or unconventional "musical notation", or whatever you wish to call it.
EDIT 1 - As you can see, the pen I was using was drying out.
That said, this size notepad is fine for my Ambient pieces under 10 minutes (aka the pieces I want SoundCloud to recommend to others), but it doesn't necessarily work for longform Ambient, so I'll be getting some sort of college ruled notebook and a fresh pack of pens as soon as I finish jotting all of this down. And as you can see, I write with pen, so mistakes are bound to be corrected (and seen). I'm still developing this "notation system". 😅
EDIT 2 - I just got home from purchasing three Composition notebooks and a cheaper pack of pens. Easy peasy. Now I should be able to plot out my pieces of Ambient without much hassle.
Anyways, for the bass I used this organ sound from Cubasis' FM Classics IAP pack, adjusted some settings, and made sure the bass was boosted nicely before freezing.
For the first pad (the sparkly one you hear come in right away), I used Waldorf Microwave! I fucking love that synth for sparkly sounds, lol. 😂 On the effects I added Cubasis' phaser as well as FAC Phazer before freezing to ensure decent movement and variety in the timbre.
For the second pad, I used BA-1 and slapped on Quantovox's Real Phase. (I normally don't like to use the same phaser on the sounds I want to use a phaser on. Gotta keep that variety.) Yes, I used BA-1's default patch, but tweaked to my liking.
For the cello, I used Iconica Sketch's "celli" patch, and for the piano, I chose one from the Halion IAP.
The reverb is my usual Stratosphere Cloud Reverb (my favourite for lighter Ambient, whereas FAC Alteza is better suited for darker Ambient with its slightly rougher textures). And of course I used Doctor Vibe, Grand Finale 2, Cubasis' Brickwall Limiter set to -1dB, and Youlean's Loudness Meter for the mastering.
Do enjoy. ❤️
My second Ambient piece today. This one is a longer piece of Ambient. I wanted to create something that was like a lullaby, but instead I made this. 😂 I think I missed the mark of the intention, but I enjoy the piece I made at any rate.
There are six parts in total. The bass synth is Cubasis' Micrologue. The high pads are Bleass' Megalit. The harp, flute, and glockenspiel are from Iconica Sketch, and the toy piano is from Beathawk's "Musical Toys" pack (I think it's called "Michael's Grand", but I honestly can't be arsed to open Beathawk to find out lol).
I tried out something just a bit different on the master track. I placed Pro-R2 on there, making sure to scoop out the lows with its internal EQ so that the bass isn't muddy. Then I used Doctor Vibe, Grand Finale 2, Cubasis' Brickwall Limiter set to -1dB, and Youlean's Loudness Meter to ensure the levels averaged around -14LuFS.
Hope you all enjoy this piece I made.
A tribute to my late parents, this one sounds more like a lullaby than "January Lullaby" if I'm being honest. It's a bit cheesy, which is perfectly fine for what it's supposed to be. I wasn't looking to make serious/Dark Ambient with this piece. Just something light and heartfelt.
That said, I used Cubasis instruments for this piece. The Celeste, Celli, and Violins are Iconica Sketch, and the Synth Bass is Micrologue. That's basically it in a nutshell. Enjoy.
I saw this video during lunch...
...and I decided to create something that sounds bad. I decided to try something a bit more experimental with an unusual sounding scale consisting of G, A#, B, C#, and E, and to make the root note G. Just three instruments - Moog Model D on the bass, Monolit on the Pads, and Buzz Zone driven by Ioniarics.
Yeah, this piece wasn't meant to be anything serious. 😂
So I watched this video about how to make Ambient like Oneheart, and in many spots in the video, I kept hearing this Trap beat in my head underlying the melody. 😂
So I came up with a quick chord progression with brass, the melody and bass, and then laid the Trap beat I heard in my head underneath.
The reason I used brass (the horns from Iconica Sketch) is a lot of Trap music makes use of brass hits. However, I used sustained brass instead. The sinewave melody was inspired by Oneheart's sinewave leads. The bass is just a simple bass flute preset from one of FM Classics' roms. The drums were the 808 from Classic Machines. Quite handy, that.
And of course I used Doctor Vibe, Grand Finale 2, Cubasis' Brickwall set to -1dB, and Youlean's Loudness Meter.
Hope you all enjoy this one. Yes my New Year's resolution was to not create EDM until the Spring Equinox at earliest (with the exception of any client work), but I never said anything about HipHop.
This is a tribute to David Lynch who sadly passed today. One of my inspos for more experimental works. I'm not sure this would be classified as "music" per say (all up to one's own subjective viewpoint), but rather more of a dark audio experiment/soundscape.
I used a couple recordings I found from freesound.org (the wind recording with Stratosphere Cloud Reverb, the other drone one with Cubasis' built in reverb), used FM Classics to render this one drone and stretched that (that one also received Cubasis' built in reverb), and used a Meditation Bell for the bell sound (which received Blackhole reverb). On the master, I put DAW Cassette first to imitate those older experimental recordings, followed by Doctor Vibe, Grand Finale 2, Cubasis' Brickwall limiter set to -1dB, and of course Youlean's Loudness Meter.
If you enjoy the strange and unusual type of experimental works, then I hope you enjoy this. If not, that's fine too.
I'll be returning to more tonal Ambient tomorrow.
And now, for something completely different than Ambient. A straight-up HipHop beat. (I'm still sticking to the "no EDM until Spring" thing, but as I said, I never said anything about "no HipHop" lol).
Honestly, I wanted to see if I could produce a HipHop beat in Cubasis since I landed a music commission from a client who paid me good money and wants an exclusive beat. 😎 This isn't the commissioned beat, but it is a "test beat". See, normally I'd do my client work in Nanostudio 2, but honestly I like my "commit to audio and edit" workflow in Cubasis and want to use Cubase's "lil cuz" for said client work.
@LFS and team have done an incredible job with this DAW! Much love to them. Cheers and enjoy this Jamuary entry.
Good news, and bad news. Bad news is, I didn't get a chance to do an official Jamuary entry for today, lol. Good news is, it's due to the fact I worked on client work today in Cubasis 3. The client paid me to create an private HipHop beat. This means the beat remains private until he releases the song he'll be recording overtop the beat.
Tomorrow, I'll be making two pieces of music. One will be a quickly shat out piece of Ambient. The other will be client work for another client. He wants me to make the piece "simple and sweet" but not "genre specific" (so long as "it's not Pop or HipHop"), so I'm thinking something like an 80s Easy Listening tune along the lines of Kenny G, Yanni, etc. I'll tag that piece with the "Jamuary" hashtags and consider that the second entry to make up for not posting today. 😂
Edit: Ope, the client said "not Kenny G", and he's never heard of Yanni! 🤯 Who hasn't heard of Yanni? Holy shit! 😂 So I just asked him to just send me a couple Youtube examples of the vibe he wants.
https://forum.loopypro.com/discussion/63872/jwm-desolate-planet-drone-ambient-in-cubasis/p1?new=1
Today's Jamuary entry (there may be a second entry, idk) is a drone piece. I really love how this one turned out. Like crash landing on a desolate planet, trying to survive the harsh landscape.
A bit of a sequel to yesterday's piece of Ambient, where the astronaut is still stuck on that harrowing desolate planet, his oxygen tank running near empty, but then...the rescue ship arrives and rescues him!
So, here's what I used for the instruments in Cubasis 3. I used Bleass Monolit for the bass, Bleass Alpha for the mid pads, Bleass Megalit for the high pads, Poison 202 for the "sci fi" lead, and Halion for the solo trumpet. I think I'm improving as to how I use modulation to subtly affect timbre in different, interesting ways.
My favourite aspect of this piece is how the chord remains at D# Minor for about half of the piece, and then it shifts to D Major, as if to denote the arrival of the rescue ship! And suddenly, the crew rescued our astronaut friend.
EDIT: I also tested out Dynabit from @CaelumAudio on elements in this track, and it was rather brilliant! Will definitely purchase upon release.
Since yesterday's Jamuary was a bit of a sequel to the "Desolate Planet" piece, I decided to complete the trilogy with "The Flight Home". Hope you all enjoy this piece. Tomorrow, I'll finally get started on my client's work (a lot of pre planning, lol).