New frontiers - a challenge track
I like to set myself challenges. It is a learning experience, and it is play time, and hopefully something is created that has some use.
Recently I have been creating several tracks with a space theme. A kind of story in sounds. I don’t think that you can call it music, it is more sound design to create a story with atmospheric sounds.
After creating five tracks I sat down tonight and in quite a short time created a sixth. There is possibly one more to come. I deliberately in tonight’s exercise wanted to us a majority of free or very low-cost software instruments, and in this instance a handful of very specific ones. Ones that at first glance don’t seem to work for what I want to create.
The first is Forms:Steel by Venus Theory. I use a number of sampled instruments from Venus Theory who is a very talented and respected musician and sound designer. He releases a large number for free and others at a very low cost. Forms:Steel is his latest (as I type) release, and I really wanted to find a project to use it in. Forms:Steel is created from a Hang drum. It looks something like a cratered old Scfi film UFO if you don’t know what one looks like (which I didn’t from the name if I am being honest). It is a distinctive sound and one that I wanted to somehow use and work with the sound. Many of Venus Theory’s instruments appear in my tracks.
The remaining three instruments (one used on two separate tracks) are from The Crow Hill Company.
At this point I am going to go slightly off track and say that both Venus Theory and The Crow Hill Company make some excellent Videos.
The Crow Hiil Company more about what they create, Venus Theory about sound design, music and some very thoughtful videos around the subject matter of creativity.
(Postscript - The Crow Hill Company actually on further investigation produce lots of videos on creativity!)
The Crow Hill company release smaller mainly free, although after a while paid for at a minimal fee, sampled instruments. Their latest is Lyre. A sampled instrument unsurprisingly created from a Lyre which they call ‘an evil instrument’. They also include the bagpipes in the evil catagory - I concur! It certainly again has a very distinctive sound and one that would seem to have a limited application. That was my challenge. They also create more complex instruments for a reasonable price and which I have used on other tracks. I must say that I really like the interface of their sampled instruments and using faders assigned to the various options as an extention of the creative process. The Venus Theory Forms: plugins also have a really nice clean and intuitive interface. I also appreciate that neither take up the whole screen when accessed! I also very much appreciate that non of these sampled instruments require massive amounts of computer resources. As someone who creates using a fairly low specification laptop with only 16Gb of RAM this is an important consideration for me.
The last two instruments are also from The Crow Hill Company – Harmonic Piano and Tuned Gongs. Again, the Gongs have a very distinctive sound, and I wanted the challenge of using the instrument and making it fit into a ‘space’ themed ambient piece without sounding like a gong.
Out of the ten tracks in the piece these four instruments take up five. The remaining five are paid for instruments from Steinberg and FrozenPlain. The one Steinberg instrument only being in the last few seconds of the piece, and the four tracks using FrozenPlain instruments used throughout the piece.
It was a challenge if only a relatively short one, maybe three hours to create. Sometimes I just want to get something down without overthinking it and the result is what it is so to speak. It is easy to get so envolved that you overwork an idea and it looses something, or everything. It is easy to second guess yourself, decided what you do is trash and to measure your creations against others. I try not to do that. These pieces are my creative outlet and experiments, and sometimes my sanity buffer. Yes, my creations maybe are rough around the edges and lack the finess of the professional, but I am not trying to aim for that level. It’s about creating without over thinking or the shine.
Back to the experiment!
There is heavy usage of several effects, granular, reverb and convolution on individual tracks, along with pitch and frequency shifting on the Lyre to make it sound, well… less of a Lyre. Here again a mix of paid for and free plugin effects. It has been very much a case of taking the sound and then just playing around with effects until it starts to ‘sit’ in the mix and as part of the whole. A straight Gong, Lyre and Hand drum would have sounded very strange indeed in this creation, and this was my challenge – to work with them until they ‘fitted’ my design. This again is a learning process of what works and in which situation. I have been experimenting with a handful of new effects plugins to see which are more intuitive for me to use and which will provide a simpler route to where I want to be with a sound.
Overall, I am quite happy with this quick challenge for myself. I wanted to create an uncomfortable, discordant and desolate feeling piece while expanding the ‘sound story’, as well as creating something that could be listened to, even if only by a few folks - which I feel that I have achieved. You may think differently. I also wanted to challenge myself to use instruments that might not be the first choice (the Lyre and Gong) and to take Forms:Steel for a metaphorical drive.
I think putting constraints on yourself - the laptop power being one beyond my control, and using limited instruments or ones that might sit outside of the box for what you are trying to achieve actually makes for a more worthwhile experience as a creator and possibly for the final piece.
You can find Venus Theory here https://venustheory.com/home and The Crow Hill Company here https://thecrowhillcompany.com/
Tonight’s challenge ‘Adrift’ is below.
Forms:Steel can be found here https://venustheory.gumroad.com/ as both a free version and an expanded paid for version. (The paid for version was used in Adrift).
Lyre, Harmonic Piano and Tuned Gongs can be found here https://thecrowhillcompany.com/shop/#free Harmonic Piano and Lyre are currently free and Tuned Gongs is a low cost plugin on the same page.
FrozenPlain (an independent developer) can be found here https://www.frozenplain.com/
Finally I just want to say how grateful I am for these either free or very affordable and unique instruments. Often using the more let’s say ‘major players’ instruments ends up giving a less than unique sound. A sound that you recognise on a TV series or film.
While it’s great I guess to have that kind of access, I really do however enjoy the more individual sounds of sampled instruments from folks like Venus theory and the Crow Hill Company. Instruments driven by passion and to create something unique and available to all.
Until next time...
If you are interest in talking about sound design and music requirement for a project, please contact me at blackcreekpodcasts@gmail.com
Free to use music and soundbeds can be found on my SoundCloud Artistspage.
