Altered States Opus 5 - Video

Altered States Opus 5 - Video

Track on: 19/01/2010

Video on: 30/09/2010
13:06 Minutes/sec. Track

Equipment:

WAVDJ VM108 + Kaossilator

The sounds in the tracks are progressive. This is live music and is not made on the computer, will take time to have all the tracks constructed.

I am making this fractal video to see how it works and because I always can send a message with the music.

To make these images, it take a long time and patience. The videos take lots of images too, so I will be short of images soon unless I get a different program to make fractals with different scripts.

I think is a good idea to have images and video at the same time. A big projector will be good.

The first video (altered states opus 4) was about art in Dadaism.

This one is about Albert Hofmann and Timothy Leary.

The images will tell you :)

Music, again, is a minimal progressive (live) 

Please note that this is only the first track I am posting.

I have plans to make different music, not just the minimal, ambient, industrial, and experimental, I am doing at the moment.

Enjoy it ;)

Altered Stated Opus 5

(Industrial Ambient)

DOWNLOAD

http://www.sendspace.com/file/weebte

Chapter 17 - Track structure (part 2)

Track structure (part 2)

NO BASS !
After some experiments with bass in the tracks, I decided that bass is not very good to be included in this type of track.
The track's structure is minimal, when I drop the bass in the track, most part of the other small sounds are inaudible. I don't know why, but this could be due to the frequency of the sound.
Another thing that put me off the bass was the minimal feeling of the tracks changing totally, and I was forced to have a melody; I wish to change all the direction I want to take on this project.

Currently, I am selecting the appropriate sounds for the Kaossilator for each background sound and drum loop. More updates soooooooon :)

Chapter 16 - Track Structure (part 1)

Track Structure Experiments

Finally, I catch up with myself :)

This is where I am writing as I do the things!
I am at the moment in the music structure, I have recorded the sounds, I have listened, I have made some decisions, and I will need to change:
1* Start of the track
2* Use more bass
3* Make more unrecorded sound movements with the Kaossilator

4* End of the Track

The reasons are:

1* The stars of the tracks are always the same way.
This is because I am working with no synchroniser.
First, I play the Improvised sound made in the Kaossilator, next
The Drums, next
The background, next
more sounds.
This is okay and probably will be the total structure of the track, but listening to 10 tracks that start and finish the same way can be too much. I think!


2* I listen to the tracks and they need bass... again, my girlfriend says no !
I will add more bass to the tracks and listen to how it sounds.

3* Make more unrecorded sound movements with the Kaossilator.
Some low parts in the track need to use more (spare) Sound FX, which helps to create movement in the track.


4* The end of the track, like the start, it's always the same way.


  The end of the track is the same, always.
Always start with the drums and finish with the drums.
At the end, I have to switch off
The background, next,
The FX and at the end,
The drums.

I can find different ways to finish the track; the structure will always have to be this way, but I can use other effects to cover the basic structure at the end.

* Track Structure
I start with a Kaossilator sound, and next come the drums. The sound looping with the drums will sound desynchronised at first, but after some time, looping together, they start to transform into a synchronised rhythm.
Next comes the background sound, which works exactly at the same tempo as the drum loop.
Here, the melody is created already from nothing, and I am just following the vibe by now:)

This makes all the difference because all the music produced is recorded just once and is never the same again, totally unpredictable. Although the sounds may be the same, the melody and effects are always played differently, creating a charming and mental ambient vibe to hear.
Yes, very nice  :)

BUT
Start the track with the drums, it's too violent!
For this reason, I start the track with the FX sound of the Kaossilator.
This even though the drums will come next and not synchronised with the sound played, but the drum loops + the FX, soon start to make sense in your head :) :) And at this moment, it is just a melody created with the FX and the drums.
After the first two sounds play together, I come in with the background sound. Then, after the background sound, I apply more sounds, change the rhythm, and so on.

Very fun :)

Chapter 14 - Loops VS Kaossilator

Him and Her !!

Kaossilator and WAVDJ.
Now I have the background sounds in the buttons (by now I have 18 backgrounds)
I have six different drum loops assigned to the six drum buttons. This makes:
18 background sounds
6 drum loops
= 3 background sounds for each drum loop, so that I can change the background sound 3 times in 1 track.
They are all at the same 110BPM.

Putting all together and start to play....

After I have both playing at the same time, I start the kaossilator at the exact BPM and I make some sound effects; by now, the drums and the background are looping at the same time and the kaossilator sounds are giving a colour to the music as I add many other effects.

As I go along with the sounds and loops, I can adjust the mixer on the machine (WavDJ) and toggle the drum loop, background sound, or Kaossilator on and off.
This helps prevent the same sounds from looping for too long.

The kaossilator is a very nice complement for the wavdj.
I have been constructing this track with a vision of an Industrial Ambient style, so I have been looking for Industrial sound loops for the background. I made the Drum Loops sound Industrial, too, but the sounds of the Kaossilator make the track much softer and more Ambient.

My Drum loops are a bit too (breaks) even at 110BPM.
(Later I will write about the Track structure)

This explanation of the track construction is the result of my first experience; I will likely modify aspects such as the structure of the tracks, tempo, or other elements.

Chapter 13 - Project Start

 Project Start - The Intro

After all the story and all the WaveDJ and Kaossilator presentations, I will now be more specific about the project and what I am doing.

First, I need to make:
1 - Background sounds
2- Drum loops
3- Ad 3 background sounds for each drum loop
4- Make short keyboard melodies
5- Make the background sounds at the same tempo as the drum loops in Ableton
(No sounds synchronised here.)
6- Found the best sounds in the kaossilator to use in each track.
(I will specify all this later)

This sounds easy, but it is not!
The wavdj software has too many bugs and dont work as a professional music program.
The wavdj (machine = console) makes a delay in the sounds.
(NOTE)  Delay is the time it takes for the sound to actually be heard on the speakers after I press the buttons of the wavdj (machine)

For a delay example:
If I press the keyboard, the sound takes about 2 seconds to be heard in the speakers. (delay)
If I press the FX buttons, the sound takes about 1 second to be heard in the speakers. (delay)
If  I press the drum loop button, the sound takes about 3 seconds to be heard in the speakers (delay)
This makes it a hard job to get the music all synchronised (drums + background sounds + keyboard)
In this case, I have to know precisely the tricks of this machine, but the most important thing is to have the sounds and drum loops at the same tempo.
IF I press the FX button (background sound) just 1 second before or after the beat of the drum loop, the sound will start out of tempo... I really need to be precise here or all the music will go into a mess!
Luckily, I can stop the sound if I press the button at the wrong time and restart again, which plays a sound intro while the drum loop continues to play.

Experiments to start.
My first experiment was to create Minimal Ambient music, but I soon realised that the drums of the wavetable don't allow me to make much, as the sounds are the same and only the loops can be changed (as I mentioned earlier). However, I did give it a try anyway.

My second experiment (still ongoing) is to make Minimal Industrial. A'm a bit more satisfy with the results but still a long way to go as I have to search a lot in the web to find some good free sound loops and after that, I have to put the loops on Ableton to make some arrangements and get the background sounds at the same tempo (bpm) of the drum loops of the wavdj.

My last experiment will be minimal Ambient, but this time without drum loops, just sounds.

I would never have got into this if I hadn't found the Kaossilator to be a good supplement for the WaveDJ.
One time, I had the WAVDJ looping the sounds and the drums at the same tempo, I would have time to go into the Kaossilator and add more sounds.
After I have enough sounds playing in both machines, I can return to the wavdj and adjust the background sounds, create short melodies, pause the drum loop, and drop in another sound or any other playing sound, because the wavdj features a 6-channel mixer where the sound can be turned on and off.

In fact, I can go mad and connect all this to my CD decks mixer, which has a surround button and will give me the possibility to equalise the sound while I am playing (low, med, high).
But I am not that mad... am I !?
If so, it's just a music issue! :)

Chapter 12 - Kaossilator

Kaossilator - The other off

After all the explanations about WAVDJ, I'd like to move on to this little Korg.
Kaossilator is a Dynamic Phaser Synthesizer.

Specifications

• Programs: 100 sounds
  
• Program Categories: “NOTE” Sound = LEAD: 20, ACOUSTIC: 10, BASS: 20, CHORD: 10
  “SE” Sound = SE: 20
  “DRUM” Sound = DRUM: 10, DRUM PATTERN: 10
  
  
• Musical Scale Patterns: 31
• Key Range: ±12
• Types of Gate Arpeggiator: 50
• Connectors: LINE OUT jacks (RCA phono jacks), PHONES jack (Stereo mini phone jacks)
• Sampling Frequency: 48kHz
• DA Conversion: 24-bit Linear
• Power Supply: four alkaline AA (LR6) batteries (6 V) / AC Adaptor?Sold Separately?
• Battery Life: approximately five hours (with alkaline batteries)
• Included Items: Owner`s Manual, parameter sheet, four AA “test” batteries
• Dimensions: 106 mm (W) x 129 mm (D) x 29 mm (H) / 4.17" (W) x 5.08" (D) x 1.14" (H)
• Weight: 154 g / 5.43 oz. (without batteries)
  

Options

AC adapter ( DC4.5V )

I took a look at YouTube and chose this video to show how the Kaossilator works.

 

Later, I will make a video of all that is happening and post it on YouTube.
For now, my mission is to get background sounds to add to the wavdj and make drum loops.

Kaossilator already has drum loops, but I'm creating them directly in the WaveDJ software. This way, I can drop the drums and background sounds in and out at any time, and they don't need to repeat all the time.

I obtain background sounds from websites that offer free loops and samples, and I select the most suitable ones to create this music project.
These background sounds (loops) I create with the help of Ableton software before adding them to the machine.
Like that, I can make the loops as long as I like, and I can add different patterns and other sounds.

Back to Kaossilator
As part of all the technical explanations above, I have to specify something for people who dont know about this techy stuff:

The kaossilator has 
7 sound categories
1- Leads
2- Acoustic
3- Bass
4- Chords
5- Se (FX)
6- Drum (single beats)
7- Drum (Patterns)
This is the basic 100 sounds.

Scales (key)
Kaossilator have 31 different keys, like C / C#/ D / E #/ E# / G/ G# etc...
Some examples are:
Chromatic
Ionian
Dorian
Majore Blues
Major Pentatonic
Gypsy scale
Arabian scale
spanish scale
Egyptian Scale
Octave interval
And go on, and on, and on..........

Gate Arpeggio Patterns
Some effects can be added to the sounds apart from the typical effects, which cut the sound into short beats.
The kaossilator has 49 different arpeggio patterns.

More can be said about the kaossilator, but for now, I have explained it to the best of my knowledge.


More about this in the next chapter ;)