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Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

#5,581
ugly_bassplayer said:
I'm a huge "french impressionist" fan of classical music. (Debussy, Ravel, Berlioz, etc...)

Also funny that all these composers HATED the label of "impressionist". But I digress.

I just discovered this composer, and I absolutely love his stuff. He blends impressionism with traditional Japanese folk influences also. His name is Toru Takemitsu.
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yeah, he’s very cool

Feral Feline said:
Thanks people, you all continue to inspire me.


PPS:
Sister-in-law's friend in the Netherlands has passed, the closest thus far the scourge has come personally, and hopefully no closer.

Stay healthy everyone.
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good peeps here. sorry about the loss. sh!t is real. stay safe all.

Bob_Ross said:
"I imagine I am walking through a beautiful forest or garden, and I see something which catches my eye. A unique rock perhaps. I try to describe the rock in every way I know possible.

But then I walk a little farther, to come upon the same rock from a different angle. Now my perspective has changed; the rock, though the same, appears different. I try to decribe that difference."
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love the quote. and totally makes sense when hearing his music.
 
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#5,583
Bob_Ross said:
I got turned onto Takemitsu when I was a grad student at NEC in the 1990s and I had the opportunity to take a Master Class with him. Fascinatingly brilliant and insightful composer who had a mercifully fresh and non-didactic approach to fleshing out his aesthetic. While he was clearly in complete command of his materials, he rarely talked about the mechanics of music in technical terms; rather, he used lots of imagery and borrowed ideas from Eastern painting, calligraphy, and gardening to describe his motivations.

My favorite quote (I'm paraphrasing, it's been ~25 years) of his was when describing his approach to writing variations on a theme: "I imagine I am walking through a beautiful forest or garden, and I see something which catches my eye. A unique rock perhaps. I try to describe the rock in every way I know possible.

But then I walk a little farther, to come upon the same rock from a different angle. Now my perspective has changed; the rock, though the same, appears different. I try to decribe that difference."


But yeah: Gorgeous music, no matter how he comes up with it.
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Awesome share.
 
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#5,591
monsterthompson said:
What features are key? There’s a keystep pro that looks interesting.
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Ideally would like something that's compact that has both keys and pads. Aftertouch and velocity-sensitivity would be nice. I actually just took a refund for a preorder on the Keystep Pro, which I may end up regretting, but it seemed like it was more designed for live playing and overall a little much for my current needs
 
#5,595
monsterthompson said:
How do you approach building a piece like that? What are the key points and elements you consider?
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I have multiple approaches to building « noise » pieces like this one. I can’t go into detail of all « pieces » I’ve made cuz it’s going to take 5 pages.

I can explain in detail how this one was made as an example. Ok....here we go.

I used 2 JMT synths, UNVO-1 and the DNVO-1 (I also have a 6 voice JMT drone synth but did not use it on this « piece »)

I spent many hours twisting knobs on those synths so I « kinda » know what can happen but it’s very unpredictable by nature.For example, the osc 1 can affect the tone generator if set to EQ In\out.......then EQ range of sub osc 2 can affect output of next sub osc......then.....you get the picture. There even are variable CV knobs onboard the DNVO to create random general oscillation (speed, attack, release)

I plugged the 2 noise synths in my mixer and hard panned each one about 75% left and 75% right.
I did a little EQ with the mixer as the UNVO is more « mid » and the DNVO is much thicker and has more low end. Used the mixers onbaord FX and tweaked live when recording. I used my Joyo UD on the UNVO before going into the mixer to saturate the signal.

I improvised the set ( usually I do a couple takes) and recorded the L-R of the mixer into my DR40 4 track.

Then took the L-R wav and imported to Ableton to add my secret sauce mastering plugin. ;)
(Sometimes I dont do anything.......it depends how I like the outcome or how I feel that day.)

On one of the 2 tracks I added a special secret weapon plugin. It’s a crazy awesome weird noise mangling tape machine for the nuclear pits of dystopian proportions. ;)

I guess what I'm listening for is "sounds", a constant search for textures, colors vibrations.......generated in a supposed chaos of noise.

I think that about covers what I did on this one. I consider this « free jazz
Ideas with noise tools » maybe kinda thing. Will also build a band with these tools, adding live drums and vocals.

Thank you for taking the time to listen and my pleasure to answer any more questions about...well anything.
 
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#5,596
ugly_bassplayer said:
I have multiple approaches to building « noise » pieces like this one. I can’t go into detail of all « pieces » I’ve made cuz it’s going to take 5 pages.

I can explain in detail how this one was made as an example. Ok....here we go.

I used 2 JMT synths, UNVO-1 and the DNVO-1 (I also have a 6 voice JMT drone synth but did not use it on this « piece »)

I spent many hours twisting knobs on those synths so I « kinda » know what can happen but it’s very unpredictable by nature.For example, the osc 1 can affect the tone generator if set to EQ In\out.......then EQ range of sub osc 2 can affect output of next sub osc......then.....you get the picture. There even are variable CV knobs onboard the DNVO to create random general oscillation (speed, attack, release)

I plugged the 2 noise synths in my mixer and hard panned each one about 75% left and 75% right.
I did a little EQ with the mixer as the UNVO is more « mid » and the DNVO is much thicker and has more low end. Used the mixers onbaord FX and tweaked live when recording. I used my Joyo UD on the UNVO before going into the mixer to saturate the signal.

I improvised the set ( usually I do a couple takes) and recorded the L-R of the mixer into my DR40 4 track.

Then took the L-R wav and imported to Ableton to add my secret sauce mastering plugin. ;)
(Sometimes I dont do anything.......it depends how I like the outcome or how I feel that day.)

On one of the 2 tracks I added the Freakshow MISHBY plugin. It’s a crazy awesome weird noise mangling tape machine for the nuclear pits of dystopian proportions.

I think that about covers what I did on this one. I consider this « free jazz
Ideas with noise tools » maybe kinda thing. Will also build a band with these tools, adding live drums and vocals.

Thank you for taking the time to listen and my pleasure to answer any more questions about...well anything.
Click to expand...

I’m going to read that a few more times. I’m not familiar with all the gear you mentioned so I might hit the google.

I’m curious how we each feel around these pieces which can often have fuzzy definitions of rhythm or harmony/melody. I’m sure we each have markers we look for and use along the way. Like the last piece I posted had no “tempo” but it also did, in a complex and fuzzy way. The combined feedback and decay times of the various delays and reverbs generated a changing rise/fall. I only changed one mix parameter with the expression pedal so all the other time-based effects kept running on the same clock/interval throughout. I didn’t set a tempo but I still had to sense my way through how long things would take to decay and how much space to give each note. I ended up “collaborating” with the machines to create the end result. I probably couldn’t explain it, so I probably don’t even understand it.
 
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#5,598
lordradish said:
Another doc about ARP just came out yesterday, this one's a lot more detailed than the Reverb one I just posted, and isn't a commercial for the Korg Arp. I've seen Alex Bell's other synth documentaries, they're amazing.
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Watching now :)
 
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#5,599
I know this has been discussed before, but curious what opinions are these days for snagging a synth without breaking the bank. I am thinking one of the smaller ones like the microbrute or minilogue might be the ticket. Either that or a Chase Bliss Mood is next....though I’d also like to find a good portable amp solution so when I wanna mess around w music outside of my normal spot - Phil Jones makes an amazing solution, but too costly for my needs/purpose.
 
#5,600
cosmicevan said:
I know this has been discussed before, but curious what opinions are these days for snagging a synth without breaking the bank. I am thinking one of the smaller ones like the microbrute or minilogue might be the ticket. Either that or a Chase Bliss Mood is next....though I’d also like to find a good portable amp solution so when I wanna mess around w music outside of my normal spot - Phil Jones makes an amazing solution, but too costly for my needs/purpose.
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So you want a moodbrutesynthloguejones module??
I'm I getting this right?

;)
 
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