“…in those quiet spaces”


track: 01

recorded: 20140105

duration: 17:51

type: ambient

tempo: 17 bpm

chords: Am Em

mixer sounds:

01 Pads: Horizon
02 Pads: Bliss
03 Pads: Grain Clouds
04 Pads: Atmosphere
05 Pads: Saturn

the first recording session went like a dream, it was almost surreal – I set up a 48 Khz 24 bit session in SONAR, I plugged the ipad directly into the sound card – and away I went. for the first piece, which I titled “…in those quiet spaces” before I’d even played a note, I simply updated my one saved drone, which I’d made a couple of weeks previously.

it’s basically an a minor drone, I set all of the chords in the sequence to a minor, except for one occasional instance of e minor. with the tempo set at 17, in this case, the chord sequence moves very slowly indeed, so what you end up with is a long, constant a minor, with a very, very occasional e minor section. because of the low tempo, this initial piece is a piece with space, where silence can be as much a part of the music as the music is.

due to the fact that many of the sounds are not “straight” instrument sounds, they are more complex waveforms with additional sounds blended in, including sounds that could be considered to be more “drones” or “noise” than music, you get the curious effect of there being no chord pattern at all, because these atonal noises keep washing over the constant a minor chord – so half the time, I’d call it “no chord” really. by setting all the chords to a minor, with that one lonely e minor just for a small change, this set “…in those quiet spaces” into a very singular musical space, basically one unchanging, droning chord. once I’d selected my five instruments, and set my chord pattern and tempo – all I had to do was press “play” – and the app generated the piece, which I recorded in real time as it played.

I was pleasantly surprised with the way the tool created this début piece of music based on my instructions, and the resulting piece has an undeniable ambient mood. also, because the tempo is so, so slow, there are places where the music almost stops, or actually does stop for a second or two…and then slowly, gracefully resumes with more waves of beautiful, endless a minor chords.

and, when it hits that e minor chord – that’s a lovely moment each time, too – a nice way to break up the otherwise unrelenting single note/chord drone. the instruments fade up and down in a very ambient and wonderful way, they also pan and auto-pan beautifully (I did not give the device any pan instructions, yet, it did an enormous amount of panning just based on it’s own internal instructions – which I love!) and overall, I am so pleased with the way this piece turned out.

the chord sequence and tempo were set, and the piece was allowed to run – which includes a number of significant silences, which in turn gives you several beginnings, which all inevitably lead to one single ending. the drone fx tool is completely different in design to the more familiar scape and mixtikl generative music tools, but for a first piece, I believe I’ve captured an inkling of what I will be able to accomplish when I have more experience with this exciting ambient / generative music creation application – wonderful stuff!