Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

[JES]

So I listened to it and now I have questions. @dukeorock -- is the whole thing programmed and made with the M8? Or is it a combination of stuff? It seems very "composed" to my ears. The glitchy rhythms are especially great and the tracks sound quite different from one to the next, but all with a bit of that same rhythmic vibe.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

26560336[/URL], member: 37282"]So I listened to it and now I have questions. @dukeorock -- is the whole thing programmed and made with the M8? Or is it a combination of stuff? It seems very "composed" to my ears. The glitchy rhythms are especially great and the tracks sound quite different from one to the next, but all with a bit of that same rhythmic vibe.

i dunno but that album seems heavy on the 90´s tracker influences, but I could be wrong. still loving those Autechre drums btw, those are always awesome
i’m often wrong so……
maybe modular, mixed in with tracker with a little Octatrack would be my guess if I know our friend @dukeorock here.

 

[lordradish]

Still alive, and jeezus I miss y'all. Been a hectic month. Got a lot to share here, so I'll put it in two posts.

First off, if you ever get a chance to go to an Ambient Church performance, GO. It was INTENSE. I saw Steve Roach finally, at the one in NYC. What a day. William Basinski is doing one in LA really soon, so if you're in the area, GO!!

The church was on Central Park East, near all the museums. I was gonna go to some museums, so I first stopped in and checked it out, just to see what was going on. They were still getting ready, but Steve's gear was there and set up. I asked if I could go up and look, they said sure. He had a pretty minimal setup, due to the travel - no modular. There was a Nord, an old Electribe(!), an Oberheim Expander, what looked like two ancient sequencers, and a few other things I can't remember. No Volcas or Pocket Operators, for sure.

Anyways, just as I'm leaving, who comes up the stairs but Steve himself. Not trying to fanboy it here, but damn, the guy's been probably one of the biggest influences on my current musical journey, so needless to say, whoa. I gracefully bowed and said thank you for the music and having so much influence and impact. He was so gracious, stopped to talk to me and my wife for a bit about gear, mountain biking and my upcoming album, and also got a pic with him. I then spent the next two hours asking my wife if I was acting like a pathetic fanboy (she assured me I wasn't, but certainly found the whole thing amusing).

So the thing with Ambient Church is they use some sort of tech to make a 3d architectural map of the church (or at least the front quarter of it). So the light show is intricately in sync with the contours. There was a typical round stained glass window at the top of the church, and I still am floored with what they did. It would look like there was hellfire light coming through the window one minute, and then it would melt and then later the lead that holds the glass in would have lines of motion in it, and a bunch of other stuff. Sometimes the entire front of the church looked like it was made of a gold rock, or a lump of granite. Now, I'm no stranger to psychedelia (or psychedelics) and this was without a doubt, the trippiest thing I've ever seen in my life. It was about two hours long, with no stops... he did sequences and soundscapes. My mind's still blown.

The next day, the wife and I found an abandoned mental asylum upstate that we spend the day infiltrating (yeah, it's a thing we do) then Tuesday we saw McCartney at Fenway (I'm sure you weirdos don't wanna hear about that so I'll spare ya, but it was awesome beyond belief for different reasons). So I guess you could say I had a great week. And still didn't get COVID.

 

[lordradish]

On to that other thing.
Album drops 7/30. What a road this has been. Not even gonna get into all the promo stuff I am still figuring out, but mixing this was really a challenge, simply because I've never done it at this level before. I went through a series of three mixes. Things started sounding better once I got better with the panning, paid more attention to the frequencies and realized how low in the mix some things needed to be. For example, I had one piece where about halfway through, a Moog bass drone comes in. I took it out after the first mix, I thought it was too much. Come mix three, I put it back in, but barely there, and it worked.

You'd think, having listened to so much of this stuff that I'd be more in tune with what I needed to do, but the 'make it barely there' is what really saved so many of these mixes for me. Then there was the high-freq prob in the left ear, which I've mentioned, ad nauseum. I found some good ways to work around that, too, although I did have a few nights where things were just too irritated and I had to bag it.

Anyways, it's called Mostly Gray. Six tracks of gray ambient, inspired by ruminations on nature, this (*#*&$# pandemic, and just contemplating the gradients that make up life. There is a guest appearance by @ugly_bassplayer on one of the tracks from our early pandemic compilations, too. Onto the duo album next, then my next album of decay-style pieces.

I've dropped a video for one of the tracks. This one was done mostly with the 6 string through the board, as well as a bit of Iridium. I spent a lot of time dialing in that main texture but it's one of the favorite sounds I've ever gotten out of the board.


Also a few excerpts here:


If ya follow on Bandcamp, it'll let ya know when it's out.

 

[dukeorock]

So I listened to it and now I have questions. @dukeorock -- is the whole thing programmed and made with the M8? Or is it a combination of stuff? It seems very "composed" to my ears. The glitchy rhythms are especially great and the tracks sound quite different from one to the next, but all with a bit of that same rhythmic vibe.

Thanks for taking the time to listen! It’s a combination of stuff for sure. I’ll break down the gear as best as I can recall.

1. What Remains- Verbos Complex Oscillator/Verbos Amp & Tone/Make Noise Mimeophon/Mannequins Just Friends for modulation/Intellijel Noise Tools for SH. Sequenced by Qu-Bit Bloom
2. Collide- Elektron Model:Cycles
3. It Started As A Weed- All Octatrack except vocals and some bass parts that were done in Logic.
4. Closing The Doors- Mostly eurorack. Doepfer A-110-4 for the Main lead and Verbos CO for the bass. The drum stuff started in eurorack, then got sampled into the Octatrack. Sequenced by Qu-Bit Bloom and Octatrack
5. Remains- 100% Kodamo EssenceFM sequenced by Octatrack.
6. Listen To The Devil On Your Shoulder- Old Korg Trinity sequenced by Octatrack. Bass guitar played into Octatrack as well as some percussion from the Trinity
7. Supervised- Eurorack for sure but can’t remember which modules!
8. Jazz Foot- M8, but I made a few samples on the Korg Trinity. Mainly, that organ sound. Some samples from eurorack as well.
9. Slave Labor- sequenced by M8. There were some samples from eurorack and Norand Mono loaded in though.
10. Resistance Is Fertile- that was 100% my own vocals sung/yelled/grunted into the Octatrack. Even mixed inside the Octatrack.
11. Hard Lesson For Gamblers- 100% Kodamo EssenceFM sequenced by Octatrack
12. Travel Tips- M8. I made several samples and loaded em in. Norand, eurorack, etc. as well as some of the internal synths.

 

[dukeorock]

i dunno but that album seems heavy on the 90´s tracker influences, but I could be wrong. still loving those Autechre drums btw, those are always awesome
i’m often wrong so……
maybe modular, mixed in with tracker with a little Octatrack would be my guess if I know our friend @dukeorock here.

Thanks as well for taking the time to listen!
There’s actually not a ton of tracker sequencing on the new record and I was largely unaware of the tracker scene in the 90’s. What little I listened to of that kind of stuff struck the same then as it does now. Occasionally very impressive programming, but kinda dopey, jokey music. It might be more fair to say Aphex Twin was a huge early influence and he often used trackers, but I didn’t know that at the time Iwas really impressed with AFX, Photek, Squarepusher and DJ Shadow as programmers back then, but apart from DJ Shadow, I didn’t have the slightest clue how they did all that crazy stuff. I really more or less stopped doing electronic stuff in the early 2,000’s and didn’t pick it back up again until around 2016-2017 apart from dabbling a tiny bit here and there.

 

[dukeorock]

@lordradish- lovely sounds! Looking forward to the release!

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

@dukeorock
Told you guys I was often wrong!!!


&;&(&; good job btw!!!

 

[JES]

Sounds great @lordradish ! But you'll have to tell us when it's up on Bandcamp, as I keep getting an error when I click "follow."

On to that other thing.
Album drops 7/30. What a road this has been. Not even gonna get into all the promo stuff I am still figuring out, but mixing this was really a challenge, simply because I've never done it at this level before. I went through a series of three mixes. Things started sounding better once I got better with the panning, paid more attention to the frequencies and realized how low in the mix some things needed to be. For example, I had one piece where about halfway through, a Moog bass drone comes in. I took it out after the first mix, I thought it was too much. Come mix three, I put it back in, but barely there, and it worked.

You'd think, having listened to so much of this stuff that I'd be more in tune with what I needed to do, but the 'make it barely there' is what really saved so many of these mixes for me. Then there was the high-freq prob in the left ear, which I've mentioned, ad nauseum. I found some good ways to work around that, too, although I did have a few nights where things were just too irritated and I had to bag it.

Anyways, it's called Mostly Gray. Six tracks of gray ambient, inspired by ruminations on nature, this (*#*&$# pandemic, and just contemplating the gradients that make up life. There is a guest appearance by @ugly_bassplayer on one of the tracks from our early pandemic compilations, too. Onto the duo album next, then my next album of decay-style pieces.

I've dropped a video for one of the tracks. This one was done mostly with the 6 string through the board, as well as a bit of Iridium. I spent a lot of time dialing in that main texture but it's one of the favorite sounds I've ever gotten out of the board.


Also a few excerpts here:


If ya follow on Bandcamp, it'll let ya know when it's out.

 

[JES]

Wow. Thanks for the detailed breakdown! Seems like what I was hearing was a lot of Octatrack (in terms of rhythm and sequencing). Now I will listen again.

Thanks for taking the time to listen! It’s a combination of stuff for sure. I’ll break down the gear as best as I can recall.

1. What Remains- Verbos Complex Oscillator/Verbos Amp & Tone/Make Noise Mimeophon/Mannequins Just Friends for modulation/Intellijel Noise Tools for SH. Sequenced by Qu-Bit Bloom
2. Collide- Elektron Model:Cycles
3. It Started As A Weed- All Octatrack except vocals and some bass parts that were done in Logic.
4. Closing The Doors- Mostly eurorack. Doepfer A-110-4 for the Main lead and Verbos CO for the bass. The drum stuff started in eurorack, then got sampled into the Octatrack. Sequenced by Qu-Bit Bloom and Octatrack
5. Remains- 100% Kodamo EssenceFM sequenced by Octatrack.
6. Listen To The Devil On Your Shoulder- Old Korg Trinity sequenced by Octatrack. Bass guitar played into Octatrack as well as some percussion from the Trinity
7. Supervised- Eurorack for sure but can’t remember which modules!
8. Jazz Foot- M8, but I made a few samples on the Korg Trinity. Mainly, that organ sound. Some samples from eurorack as well.
9. Slave Labor- sequenced by M8. There were some samples from eurorack and Norand Mono loaded in though.
10. Resistance Is Fertile- that was 100% my own vocals sung/yelled/grunted into the Octatrack. Even mixed inside the Octatrack.
11. Hard Lesson For Gamblers- 100% Kodamo EssenceFM sequenced by Octatrack
12. Travel Tips- M8. I made several samples and loaded em in. Norand, eurorack, etc. as well as some of the internal synths.

 

[lordradish]

@lordradish- lovely sounds! Looking forward to the release!

Thank ya!

 

[lordradish]

Sounds great @lordradish ! But you'll have to tell us when it's up on Bandcamp, as I keep getting an error when I click "follow."

Right, it's released 7/30. What kind of error are you getting when you click follow? I definitely need to figure that out! Are you signed in when you click?

 

[JES]

Yes, I’m logged in. I sent the support team a note. I don’t think the issue is you.

 

[lordradish]

Yes, I’m logged in. I sent the support team a note. I don’t think the issue is you.

Thanks, please keep me updated. I logged out and tried it, when I clicked on it, I didn't get an error, just asked me to log in.

 

[hieronymous]

Thanks, please keep me updated. I logged out and tried it, when I clicked on it, I didn't get an error, just asked me to log in.

I got an error too, but it also looked like I successfully followed?…

 

[lordradish]

I got an error too, but it also looked like I successfully followed?…

Thanks. How strange. What did the error say?

 

[hieronymous]

Thanks. How strange. What did the error say?

I think it was a pop up proclaiming the error but just as I was about to try again, I realized the “follow” button now said “following”

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

@lordradish
You seem to have linked the “follow” page and not the album one.
Maybe that’s the issue?

don’t forget the thing where I’m always wrong ok!?!?

 

[steubig]

i may be wrong, but you have to use a “consumer” (not artist) account to follow someone on bc?

 

[lordradish]

@lordradish
You seem to have linked the “follow” page and not the album one.
Maybe that’s the issue?

don’t forget the thing where I’m always wrong ok!?!?

The album's not officially released yet, and I don't have any other releases, so that's what it comes up. When you follow, it gives you an announcement when I release it.