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Koala Ambient | Negative Space Challenge |
First of all, a massive shout out to @jwmmakerofmusic, who has been inspiring me for the past few years on this forum. I have been genuinely encouraged by his irrepressible positivity, generosity, and enthusiasm (especially when it comes to Koala, and I ambient made using Koala). I probably don’t say it enough, but on all those days when I’ve been too exhausted to reply, create, or properly join in, simply reading JWM's posts has often been a real boost to my mood and motivation. That kind of presence matters more than people always realize. Thanks, man (°̃ ͜ʖ°̃)) (°̃ ͜ʖ°̃ ) (°̃ ͜ʖ°̃)
Anyhow = - = here are the rules for the Negative Space Challenge:
- The piece must be created completely in Koala.
At least 50% of the piece has to be carried by leftover sound: no new notes, just decay, drift, and resonance. (It does not have to be the first half or the last half. The space can be interspersed throughout.)
Anyone can join in. Of course you can run it through a final compressor/limiter after Koala, but the idea is to use Koala for effects and everything.
Comments
So since I'm the one who laid out the challenge. I'll go first.
I kinda threw out that challenge on a whim, not realizing how hard it was gonna be. It was a struggle - I didn't really know Koala all that well. But once I got over the learning curve, and some frustrations, I figured out that the Stretch function was my best friend for ambient.
I wanted to keep everything in the box, so I bought the 'Soon Come Dub' IAP sample pack, and messed with those samples quite a bit. The hardest part was keeping things sparse. Even so, I think I got carried away and played too many notes (hopefully I stayed within the challenge parameters).
Then I was eyeing up that Visual Synthesizer 2 app that just came out, so I went and bought that and hit another learning curve.
After all is said and done - I think I did alright. Give it a listen and let me know what you think. Cheers
I like this piece very much, the sounds and the sights.
I accept your challenge and I will have something for you soonish.🙂
I'm looking forward to that! I was inspired by your work with VS2 - the slow framerates/movements and abstract images.
Tubespace, you're absolutely kind and wonderful, mate. ❤️ I can't wait to join in on this challenge. Will be fun! I will also catch up with the pieces already posted here tomorrow or Tuesday.
Wow. That was a piece that demanded full attention. It was like viewing a particularly deep sculpture at an art gallery. I like how there is a harmonic following the vocals. What are the lyrics? I'm so curious, now.
Thanks @tubespace!
The “lyrics” as you say, are little snippets of some ad lib samples that @egobeats very kindly gave me.
I’m glad you liked it!🙂
@tubespace This piece is so understated, beautiful, lovely. You got some amazing sounds out of Koala with this one.
@rottencat This is beautiful. The best way I can describe the vibe is "Enya Deconstructed", and as an Enya fan, I mean that in a super positive way. ❤️
As far as I go, I think I will make something 100% in Koala Sampler with additional limitations being no imported samples, only using a MIC and resampling of Koala's internal synths, and only using Koala's effects.
I do however wish to master my live recorded performance in Cubasis 3 using TAIP, BarkFilter, Cubasis' Brickwall Limiter, and Youlean's Loudness Meter (aka my usual mastering chain) before posting it to Soundcloud. But now enough yapping out of me. Time for me to get creative!
Showoff!🙂
And thanks for you kind words @jwmmakerofmusic .
Enya Deconstructed. I like that!🙂
LOL! 😂 And of course, I'm glad you dig "Enya Deconstructed". I'm a huge Enya fan as I said, and your piece reminded me of that so much.
Here's mine. It's...not...exactly Ambient I don't think. It's more Experimental. Regardless, it doesn't have a time signature. 🫠
And, I think we all can agree that laundry is a right pain in the arse.
Impressive! How did you get that didgeridoo sound? Is that the ringmod in Koala's mixer? It is so cool and otherworldly! And yes, I can see you kept the challenge parameters. Very nice piece!
Thanks kindly mate.
The "didgeridoo" sound was a random patch in Valis, resampled into a pad, and given a little time stretch treatment. 
And...I may try another one of these either later this evening or tomorrow, because it was a lot of fun to do.
Same! There's something about Koala that is so satisfying. The workflow is very intuitive - I think that is one of it's stronger points. Lots of pinch-zooming - makes it so quick and easy. So often I think, "hmm, what if I do this" then it works. Many apps seem counter intuitive by contrast.
Let's make some more!
Exactly, mate!
Let's have a bit of fun. Although my ears are spent after starting work on a sports-styled song I'm titling "Here Come the Champions".
Agreed. So here’s another.🙂
That was so cool. And yes, laundry sucks.
Oh what the heck…one more🙂
Very haunting piece, rottencat. I love the sparseness of the notes. The mood is very cloudy and melancholic. Are your emotions heavy this week? Do you find creating ambient like this is a way of venting your stresses and struggles?
Oh gosh, I definitely need to catch up. I didn't produce a second piece in accordance to the guidelines of this challenge, instead creating a piece of Ambient due to being pissed off at the unfair treatment of the "Dark Park" app. 😂 So yeah, perhaps tomorrow I'll give this challenge another go.
I would love to hear that!
Here is my next entry in the challenge. I sampled an acoustic guitar - just playing a few chords - stretching them out and putting two loops together Frippertronics-style. I also added a few synth samples from one of the IAP sample packs.
This was really hard to control myself - I wanted to play more notes - to fill it up.
I've been listening through these the past few days. I was in kind of a funk working on a piece of music that just wasn't coming together the way i wanted and this offered a great opportunity to reframe and try something new. thanks to @tubespace for throwing this out there.
@tubespace: really nice work. overall both are very pleasant to listen to. piece1 - the pad in your piece is lovely. i especially like the little textural bits that float in every once in a while. piece 2 - i like the bowed string sounds, plucks, and reverses.
@rottencat: your work is lovely as always. equal parts beautiful and haunting. i still don't know how you create in the quantities you do with such high quality. piece 1 - is haunting in the best way and the modulated vocal chops fit really well. piece 2 - so different from the first, i love the little reverses sprinkled in.
@jwmmakerofmusic: i love that your take is different. yours is creative and unexpected. didgeridoo vibes for sure. and the vocal adds a fun touch. we all hate laundry!
Here's my attempt. Nowhere near as polished as the other pieces posted so far, but it's really cool to see how everyone took their own styles into this. No actual notes just tails repitched and stretched in Koala.
I want to join, but I don’t understand the rules. Sorry for being dense
@Mojotele65 you're not being dense, it's kind of a confusing process. So the way I took it, i resampled the tails of sounds in koala and trimmed the actual sound out of the resampled portion and that became the sample I triggered to make a song. I didn't include any of the sample that i originally played, only the decay. Think of it like the sound that happens after the your intentionally triggered sound...that becomes the new instrument you're using to compose something. And please someone smarter than me feel free to chime in.
Some fascinating work here… I also don’t understand the rules but then again I don’t have Koala so it doesn’t really matter 😊
If I’m allowed to pick a favourite it’s the first one from @tubespace 🙏
Got it! Thank you!
Oh wow - great concept! I want to try that. I really love what came out of your work on these samples - just the tails. These are healing sounds.
Well thanks @tubespace
What are y'all using for visuals?