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Post by thetechnobear on Jan 28, 2019 11:58:55 GMT
Journey thru Space Theme:Create an ambient track that reflects a journey thru Space. Submission window: Monday 28th Jan -> Monday 4th Feb (23:59:59) Background: There have been some fantastic ambient tracks made by AE owners already, so lets explore this together. if, like me, you've never tried your hand at ambient, there are quite a few AE based tracks to get some inspiration from, and Im sure its going to be a fun experience. if you have made ambient before, then please consider leaving some comments/links/resources on how others might approach this... (preferable in first few days)
Imagine your travelling thru space, in the background, you hear just the routine noises of the ship, you look out one of the windows, and your mind starts to wander, to drift off... 
this image is free from license so you are free to use if you wish (download here) but your mind is wandering  - so you are free to go in any direction you wish.. using whatever imagery you wish.
The challenge is set, and runs during the submission window set out above, however, please feel free to add entries or leave comments after the initial challenge has ended. Each entry should contain:- Link to audio or video example (embedded preferred)
- Short (or not so short) patch notes, explaining how you have built on the above theme
Your entry can be as short/long as you wish, a simple sound or a track, use external fx or synths, do what you can in the time you have - go wild, make the challenge yours! You are welcome to use previous entries, as inspiration, build on them to form something new, or just use in a different way, you are welcome to submit multiple entries. If you are posting on social media (youtube, soundcloud) , please tag with #AEChallenge and #AEModular, and include a link back to the challenge thread here on the AE Modular forum. Everyone is actively encouraged to comment on entries, provide feedback and ideas... you are welcome to continue commenting/discussing outside of the submission window. the more we discuss the more we all learn
This is part of the AE patch challenge series - if you would like more information, or have ideas for the challenge, please post on the patch challenge thread.
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Post by spacedog on Jan 29, 2019 17:32:44 GMT
Journey thru Space Theme:Create an ambient track that reflects a journey thru Space. Submission window: Monday 28th Jan -> Monday 4th Feb (23:59:59) Background: There have been some fantastic ambient tracks made by AE owners already, so lets explore this together. if, like me, you've never tried your hand at ambient, there are quite a few AE based tracks to get some inspiration from, and Im sure its going to be a fun experience. if you have made ambient before, then please consider leaving some comments/links/resources on how others might approach this... (preferable in first few days)
[...] I do like a dabble in the more ambient side of life, I must admit. Now I just need to find a good slug of time to really play with the modular. With apologies if I'm stating some really obvious points, here are some of the things that I do when I'm making my sounds: - It's likely that you will need several passes to create the dense, and changing atmosphere - unless you have both a lot of gear and the ability to tweak a lot of parameters at the same time. I like to create change within the music, even if it's at glacial pace.
- To create the right vibe, I need live effects and preferably ones with which I can interact in real time. An interesting reverb is my starting point, followed by at least one delay (which can be from within the modular, if you've got the right modules). Then at least one modulation source, such as a phaser or a chous really adds some depth - again, with some subtle tweaking the sound can come alive. My preferred path is reverb last, although sometimes I set up parallel paths and mix them down to stereo when I record live.
- Next, there is modulation within the modular itself. For me, sound design ideally has that movement and when you're asking the listener to take on board a piece that focuses on a beatless form, this interest is key.
- Sequences... well, yes, I do like to use them even for the slow evolving sounds - it's important not to make it obvious that something is effectively looping, by changing sound design parameters at a different rate to the sequence. Again, huge apologies if this is obvious.
- Adding beats... yes, they can be there. As I am a fan of Berlin School, my up-front beats almost always involve syncopated delays and different length sequences. Filter sweeps are essential and you will be asked to leave the Berlin School Club if you don't have them
There's likely a load more that will come to mind once I hit "Create Post". Most of the time, I set up the right environment (i.e. effects, sound design, modulation sources, etc.) and then I just start to experiment. Sometimes it all starts with a simple 8-note sequence and before I know it, there's 30 minutes of recorded sounds in Reaper. Being in record mode and just ensuring that you capture all of the happy accidents ready for some editing later means that you can layer some really interesting sounds. I do set up specific rigs to concentrate on doing just one thing, although it is all live at that point. With enough equipment, and with the AE Modular at the heart (the point of this challenge), it's quite possible to do some one-take wonders, just remember to have those effects in place to capture the live vibe. Some examples of where I've applied this, and used the AE Modular specifically, would be "Ice on Mars, "Extended Mission" and, in particular, "Beyond Pluto" - all are on my Bandcamp page, here: sovietspacedogproject.bandcamp.com/In the spirit of sharing (and because I'm not here to advertise), I've make the downloads for those albums free until this time tomorrow. I only had to charge in the first place as I ran out of free downloads, the most recent one is free anyway, but there is no AE Modular on that. You have to enter your email address to get the free download, but for me that's just to stop the bots and I don't use the list. If anything else comes to mind - and if there is interest, I'm happy to put some more thoughts up here. |
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Post by NightMachines on Jan 29, 2019 18:30:14 GMT
Spaaaace! I already posted some ambient music with the AE Modular, so I made a spacecraft sound effect patch for this challenge. Lots of noise going through the Nyle filter with audio rate cutoff modulation. Some sample & hold blips with Delay. Some drones, one of which is the SVFilter self oscillating. Very slow SEQ16 pitch sequencing. And of course the Deep Space MultiFX reverb  |
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Post by spacedog on Jan 29, 2019 21:32:35 GMT
Spaaaace! I already posted some ambient music with the AE Modular, so I made a spacecraft sound effect patch for this challenge. [...] Lots of noise going through the Nyle filter with audio rate cutoff modulation. Some sample & hold blips with Delay. Some drones, one of which is the SVFilter self oscillating. Very slow SEQ16 pitch sequencing. And of course the Deep Space MultiFX reverb Now THAT was good, and lots of fun, NightMachines. I'm really impressed that you got so much out of one setup. I liked the self-oscillating SVFilter, that added lots. Great fun camerawork as well, like an old episode of Star Trek |
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Post by spacedog on Jan 30, 2019 0:18:48 GMT
It's snowing (lightly) in London, so I took the opportunity to work on something quickly that uses the results of my Bastl Kastle/AE Modular experiments and some earlier saved AE Modular sequences - then I just had a quick play over the top.
Everything except the improvised lead line involves the AE Modular. The levels are a bit rough as it needs a proper mix at some point.
 I will find some time to produce an AE Modular only track, and I will make some notes on the patch and the process. |
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Post by admin on Jan 30, 2019 11:11:34 GMT
Here is my first attempt at this. There are only two voices and one noisy attempt on getting some kind of drum, but I had used all my oscillators and filters and had only the noise and VCA left. I really need more filters and the LOPAG or a drum module  There is the Nyle filter in self oscillating mode that is going through a VCA and then into the delay, but also straight into the delay as a second input which gives it a bit of an offset. The "melody" moves at near glacial speed and is one OSC that goes through the Wasp filter and a long envelope to VCA. All is then sent to the MultiFX Deepspace effect ... I think it sounds a little bit like Bladerunner, but would need a bit more bass. This video went straight from my iPhone to youtube, no post editing! |
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Post by spacedog on Feb 1, 2019 17:32:03 GMT
Here is my first attempt at this. There are only two voices and one noisy attempt on getting some kind of drum, but I had used all my oscillators and filters and had only the noise and VCA left. I really need more filters and the LOPAG or a drum module There is the Nyle filter in self oscillating mode that is going through a VCA and then into the delay, but also straight into the delay as a second input which gives it a bit of an offset. The "melody" moves at near glacial speed and is one OSC that goes through the Wasp filter and a long envelope to VCA. All is then sent to the MultiFX Deepspace effect ... I think it sounds a little bit like Bladerunner, but would need a bit more bass. This video went straight from my iPhone to youtube, no post editing! Great stuff, admin, I enjoyed that. That MULTIFX does seem to have a lot going for it to make the modular a bit more stand-alone. I have come to appreciate that raspiness of the Wasp filter, although combining it with another does seem to produce some good results. |
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Post by NightMachines on Feb 1, 2019 17:44:42 GMT
Finally having some time to check out the forum again! Really cool stuff! adminThat’s a really nice mood you got there! I like how slow everything is. That’s something I often underestimate when patching and playing. Pauses and as you put it, glacial change. Great textures as well, especially the main sound from the Nyle! spacedogI like those melody sequences and layers! You always seem to get catchy note patterns out of everything. Been listening to your Bandcamp music recently again while programming and it put me in a very good mood. Now, waiting for thetechnobear to post his entry, and anyone else who’s got their AE Modular at hand |
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Post by thetechnobear on Feb 1, 2019 22:48:17 GMT
wow, all the entries this week are so cool... Ive listened to them all multiple times.. here is mine ... not sure its really ambient ?! if Im honest, it kind of ran away from me, since I didn't organise myself properly ... and the mixing also leaves a lot to be desired but it was fun, and something really different for me to try... look forward to another go at ambient in the future. ok, so this uses a few things, but front and centre is the AE modular. the FX/Drone track you hear is the AE modular - using a kind of noise/fm/feedback patch, with some odd stuff going on with the multifx (shimmer iirc) - the patch was fun to tweak live, to get all sorts of effects from pad, to other "things" the Arp is also done on the AE modular, fairly simple, mainly NYLE filter with a bit of envelope fun, and then using the delay module and multifx (with dual delay). fun... looking forward to the next challenge |
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Post by spacedog on Feb 2, 2019 15:06:44 GMT
wow, all the entries this week are so cool... Ive listened to them all multiple times.. here is mine ... not sure its really ambient ?! if Im honest, it kind of ran away from me, since I didn't organise myself properly ... and the mixing also leaves a lot to be desired but it was fun, and something really different for me to try... look forward to another go at ambient in the future. [...] ok, so this uses a few things, but front and centre is the AE modular. the FX/Drone track you hear is the AE modular - using a kind of noise/fm/feedback patch, with some odd stuff going on with the multifx (shimmer iirc) - the patch was fun to tweak live, to get all sorts of effects from pad, to other "things" the Arp is also done on the AE modular, fairly simple, mainly NYLE filter with a bit of envelope fun, and then using the delay module and multifx (with dual delay). fun... looking forward to the next challenge I really enjoyed that, thetechnobear, and it definitely counts as Ambient to me
The extra description available from the YouTube page was worth a read as it gave me that little bit of extra detail (and I commented on your page as well). The different controllers gave the piece a lift for me, whilst keyboards are one way to get there, those two that you used really worked well and put you more in touch with the performance than a keyboard can sometimes do - IMO, of course. |
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Post by admin on Feb 2, 2019 20:13:36 GMT
here is mine ... not sure its really ambient ?! I love this track thetechnobear! You have such a good way with melodies which kind of makes sense when I look at our videos where you play the Eigenharp. Great stuff and the video was really good, too! |
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Post by admin on Feb 2, 2019 20:16:03 GMT
Spaaaace! I already posted some ambient music with the AE Modular, so I made a spacecraft sound effect patch for this challenge. Woah! I've sat down and listened to this in full just yesterday and really like how you got the spacecraft to start up and fly away into space. Closing my eyes I could really follow the journey and feel the excitement of exploring new lands and the terror of the rattling machines that keep my hurtling forward and shielded from the void. Awesome stuff! |
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Post by admin on Feb 9, 2019 23:45:40 GMT
OK, I had my friend Arati over who is an amazing singer and has never seen a modular synth before. I showed her my last patch which I made for Patch Challenge #5. Her first comment was: this is really cool! Her second comment was: why is all of this out of tune? So I showed her all the ways you can affect pitch on the OSCs and on the SEQ16 and she went to tuning it. Then she started humming along and half an hour later she was singing into a microphone which was patched right into the AE Modular and we were jamming ... The recording went straight into my iPhone and no audio post processing was made .. again all live and in the moment. I only added the slideshow with some corny effects to make it "spacey". |
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Post by thetechnobear on Feb 10, 2019 13:39:45 GMT
thats really great, she has lovely voice, and it goes so well with what your playing... hope we get to hear some more in the future! Her second comment was: why is all of this out of tune? I thought the standard response, was something along the lines of "tuning is a mere convention, and we want to break free of such limitations" but more seriously, yeah find keeping things on a modular in tune is tricky. Even if I tune oscillators against something else, I find I still have to keep an eye (ear!) on them, and retune (not just on AE, but also on eurorack too) on the flip side, its nice to have them off sometimes, creates a different mood... (last week, on Turell, I spent a good few hours playing with tuning and quantising... fun, but feels like you are chasing your own tail half the time ) |
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Post by spacedog on Feb 10, 2019 23:06:03 GMT
OK, I had my friend Arati over who is an amazing singer and has never seen a modular synth before. I showed her my last patch which I made for Patch Challenge #5. Her first comment was: this is really cool! Her second comment was: why is all of this out of tune? So I showed her all the ways you can affect pitch on the OSCs and on the SEQ16 and she went to tuning it. Then she started humming along and half an hour later she was singing into a microphone which was patched right into the AE Modular and we were jamming ... The recording went straight into my iPhone and no audio post processing was made .. again all live and in the moment. I only added the slideshow with some corny effects to make it "spacey". Apologies that I missed this. My first comment is "Wow, I love this". It's straight back to those early 70's days of invention in Berlin. I even started playing a few more space sounds live over the top as I have my AE Modular hooked up at the moment.
A great trip through space, thanks to both of you.
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Post by arti on Apr 26, 2019 12:41:52 GMT
My take on this challange was less muscial but more experimental and kinda scientific. Maybe the result isn't spectacular, but it was a GREAT fun to do. I've tried to mimic (or reinterpret) the actual sounds of cosmos using AEM only. My reference was this amazing collection of Solar system's sounds. I watched it in awe and I think it would be very helpful to hear it first, to compare the original with my attempt. I would recomend to compare one by one. Listen the first sound on the reference file, pause, listen the first sound on mine track, pause and so on. Of course You may do as You like or prefer. This is Your captain speaking, fasten Your seatbelt. We're about to start our Solar System tour in a minute. edit: here's the shedule: 00:00 Sun 00:56 Mercury 01:51 Venus 02:58 Earth 04:11 Mars 05:26 Jupiter 06:25 Saturn 07:55 Uranus 09:05 Neptune 10:15 Pluto So untill space travels will be more affordable I'll visit space on a budget using AEM sound space craft |
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Post by admin on Apr 27, 2019 1:11:32 GMT
This is great arti I've taken off with NightMachines rocket and then skipped from planet to planet on a journey of sound. I think you captured the individual sounds quite well. What I don't quite understand though is, and it's not explained in the original video, how have the original sounds been recorded? Surely they are not real sounds, but audible representation of some data that is collected from the planets. Is it their colour spectrum or movement or something else? |
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Post by arti on Apr 27, 2019 11:46:20 GMT
This is great arti I've taken off with NightMachines rocket and then skipped from planet to planet on a journey of sound. I think you captured the individual sounds quite well. What I don't quite understand though is, and it's not explained in the original video, how have the original sounds been recorded? Surely they are not real sounds, but audible representation of some data that is collected from the planets. Is it their colour spectrum or movement or something else? Thank You. I was wondering myself, as there is no audible sound in space, but as far as I've managed to establish they used some kind of data with recorded waves emited by celestial bodies and transposed them into the audio range |
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Post by spacedog on Apr 27, 2019 15:20:55 GMT
This is great arti I've taken off with NightMachines rocket and then skipped from planet to planet on a journey of sound. I think you captured the individual sounds quite well. What I don't quite understand though is, and it's not explained in the original video, how have the original sounds been recorded? Surely they are not real sounds, but audible representation of some data that is collected from the planets. Is it their colour spectrum or movement or something else? Thank You. I was wondering myself, as there is no audible sound in space, but as far as I've managed to establish they used some kind of data with recorded waves emited by celestial bodies and transposed them into the audio range Good stuff, arti, I enjoyed that. An interesting idea.
I remembered this from a couple of years ago, which goes some way towards describing the "data sonification" technique. Whilst there, I found this of a Marsquake - now I have an idea for that bag of contact mics that arrived this morning... |
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Post by arti on Jun 17, 2020 13:01:09 GMT
After some time I've craved for space tourism again. Keeping a safe distance guaranteed! This time it was a trip into some icy territories, which suddenly became quite vivid. Here is my sonic postcard from the journey and the photo of the spaceship interior.  |
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Post by admin on Jun 18, 2020 0:04:15 GMT
After some time I've craved for space tourism again. Keeping a safe distance guaranteed! This time it was a trip into some icy territories, which suddenly became quite vivid. Here is my sonic postcard from the journey and the photo of the spaceship interior. View AttachmentHello arti, it's really good to hear from you again! Your "spaceship" looks awesome, I'm sure it can do Warp 9 speeds to places yet unknown to humankind. I love the varied sound textures in this piece ... instead of a Journey it feels like slow walk through an intergalactic swamp .. bubbles popping up from below, space vines ahead and above, leaving trails of cosmic dew as you pass, and the mist of dying stars all around us ... |
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Post by arti on Jun 18, 2020 7:10:06 GMT
After some time I've craved for space tourism again. Keeping a safe distance guaranteed! This time it was a trip into some icy territories, which suddenly became quite vivid. Here is my sonic postcard from the journey and the photo of the spaceship interior. View Attachment... instead of a Journey it feels like slow walk through an intergalactic swamp .. bubbles popping up from below, space vines ahead and above, leaving trails of cosmic dew as you pass, and the mist of dying stars all around us ... Yep - that's the place 🙂 |
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Post by moruial on Aug 31, 2020 13:17:33 GMT
And here we go.
I've made this one today to test my abilities to apply what I've learnd from music tutoral over the past months.
First I've recorded the melody using the keystep playing live. The patch consist of a Saw from VCO to the WASP Filter and tehn to the MULTIFX via the fantastic Deepspace reverb. The SAW is also modulated by a LFo that goest into the waveshaper module. A bit of TAL reverb was used in Reaper, with a bit of EQ.
Then I add the drone pad playd also with the keystep live. It consist of a Square wave that goes to the VCA and then the NYLE Filter to end into the MULTIFX with a Flanger. There is a slow LFO that also use the WAVESHAPER to the 2ATT/CV that modulate de Flanger a little bit. A lot Of reverb for lush sound and EQ were add.
After that I've recorded some weirdo crackles from the noise module with a weird patch way. The NOISE and LFO goes to the S&H then to the LOGIC and to en ENVelope and back to the CV to the Noise to ad some modulation. The CR OUT of the noise goes to the WASP Filter, then VCA and Delay and finaly end up into the mULTIFX with Resoverb. The same Envelope is used to move the CV of the WASP Filter and the VCA.
I played live twisting the filter and delay to add some randomness to the sound. At first I wanted to have a pan pingpong but I didn't manage to do it properly in Reaper so I re-record another pass and put the first one to the left and the second one the the right. And a bit of EQ to cut off the muddyness in the Low end.
And finally I add another layer of fat bass, but I don't remember the patch. :/
A bit of EQ there and there, some attempt to mastering to have the level alright and it's done
I must admit I'm way too much happy with this track. Hope you enjoy.
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Jihel
Full Member
knobs, knobs, and knobs !
Posts: 240
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Post by Jihel on Aug 31, 2020 13:28:25 GMT
It's snowing (lightly) in London, so I took the opportunity to work on something quickly that uses the results of my Bastl Kastle/AE Modular experiments and some earlier saved AE Modular sequences - then I just had a quick play over the top.
Everything except the improvised lead line involves the AE Modular. The levels are a bit rough as it needs a proper mix at some point.
I will find some time to produce an AE Modular only track, and I will make some notes on the patch and the process. Nice track ! Very "Schulzy" |
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Post by slowscape on Sept 1, 2020 22:59:59 GMT
Well done moruial! Your track seems to tell a story! |
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- so you are free to go in any direction you wish.. using whatever imagery you wish.
