8th (white noises in your head)

[Arpee Ong]

Hi Guys, just want to share my 8th ep, hope you guys will enjoy:

http://soundcloud.com/arpee_ong/sets/8th/

The tracks are purely digital this time, did not involve guitar/bass and mainly glitched-focused.

Software: Ardour2, JackD via QJackctl, zynAddSubFx, Hydrogen, LMMS, Mixxx, Rakarrack

[DoosC]

Hi !

I really enjoyed listening to theSynthesist
It will be on my regular playlist as soon as I sync it.
I wonder how do you manage to get such deep synth sounds and such dreamy breaks ?
Nice piece of work anyway.

[Arpee Ong]

thanks for feedback DoosC..

for the deep synth/glitch sounds, routing zynAddSubFX to rakarrack does wonders , the dreamy breaks might be the result of applying sub-delays and reverbs via rakarrack + line6 pocketpod which I route back to the main mix during recording for the beats/drumtrack from hydrogen.. i've been fond of doing that since my 1st ep..

by the way I just googled impulse tracker from your sc profile, sounds really interesting and will try it out via virtualbox or dosEMU, i've been into retro computing some few years back (2001-2005) and have been using DOS when it is already out-phased, it enabled me to survive college with a cheap pentium1 computer [16GBram,1GB harddisk] when everyone else is on pentium4 already

[DoosC]

thanks for feedback DoosC..

No no no, thank you for sharing !

for the deep synth/glitch sounds, routing zynAddSubFX to rakarrack does wonders

I noticed that too but I haven't managed yet to produce such fat sounds. I guess I'll have to try again !

, the dreamy breaks might be the result of applying sub-delays and reverbs via rakarrack + line6 pocketpod which I route back to the main mix during recording for the beats/drumtrack from hydrogen.. i've been fond of doing that since my 1st ep..

I haven't tried much of rakarrack with breaks but it is definitely something I should try too !

by the way I just googled impulse tracker from your sc profile, sounds really interesting and will try it out via virtualbox or dosEMU

Then you should better try schismtracker (look for package schism) which is a perfect impulse tracker clone running on linux with either pulse or alsa over SDL.
It can be hard to get the interface at first but if you give it some time it becomes apparent that it is a very efficient and comfortable way to work.
The only (big) drawback to me is a lack of externel sync or jack support...

[Excds]

Very nice!

I'd find it very interesting if you could describe your sound creation in a bit more detail.

Cheers!

[Irwin J. Cespedes]

Pretty nice sounds! I'm new into Glitch and this kind of genres, but I found this as very well done. congrats!

[Arpee Ong]

Very nice!

I'd find it very interesting if you could describe your sound creation in a bit more detail.

Cheers!

hi Excds, i don't follow a certain process, but heres what I have been doing so far

Beats/Glitches:

i commonly sequence them using hydrogen, and export the drumtrack directly off it as wav, however, what i did mostly with this ep is i played the beats live using mpd18 as midi controller, the reason behind is there are some sound samples that I want played and be immediately cut-off when I let go of the MPD pads (eg: for playing the sample from the beginning up to only specific range suited for the part).

As for the beat samples, I am using the drumkits available for hydrogen (synthie, techno, hip-hop kits), and mix them with other samples I find free on the internet and further tweak via ardour by applying ladspa plugins. Most of my samples are straight out of zynAddSubFx and further tweaked via "edit instrument" and enabling ADD/SUB/PAD synths, there are a lot of knobs and graphs to be slided there, sound customization is almost close to orgranic when not enough, i finish out by routing zynAddSubFX output to rakarrrack in for further effects processing, the ending sounds/samples are then exported individually as wav and compiled as hydrogen drumkit via "createH2kit_V2.py" script.


Synths:

Similar with the beats, I use the built-in zynAddSubFX banks, and enable ADD/SUB/PAD in edit instruments for further tweaking, I also route them to rakarrack if i am still not happy with the final sounds, however unlike with the beats/glitches preparation, I do not have to export the individual sounds as wav, what i do is play them live via m-audio keystation 32 (midi controller).


Ambients and Auxilliary/Supporting Sounds

I am using a second usb soundcard where my main output is duplicated (via jacks -> alsa_out), and then I connect this output directly to a hardware effects processor (line6 pocketpod) which is then looped back to a mic-in for recording back to my main sound card (which is a xenyx302USB), the end result is I can add another layer of Synths/Beats duplicated from an existing one but with eerie effects (reverbs/delays/vibratto/fuzz etc)..

Sometimes i add another voice layer (again taken off the internet eg: twilight zone narrations, accapellas etc), etc.. which I control via korg nanopad via mixxx (assigned queues). Sometimes I do scratches as well using my numark mixtrack via mixxx (eg: http://soundcloud.com/arpee_ong/deadweight)


Recording:

Every element mentioned above may have multiple tracks/buses via Ardour2.. sometimes I record them one by one, but what i've been enjoying lately is playing the base beat on my right hand (mpd18), and the framework melody/synths on my left (m-audio keystation) at the same time, and then I add the other elements one by one by overdubbing.

For post processing, I sometimes duplicate the tracks whose presence/tube i want to tweak, and apply further ladspa filters.

And finally, use lame to convert the exported wav output of ardour2 to mp3.

Sorry for the long post You will notice that I have a very crude method, actually this is the 1st time i wrote my process down. I can dig deeper to certain sections if needed.. thanks for the feedback man

[Arpee Ong]

Then you should better try schismtracker (look for package schism) which is a perfect impulse tracker clone running on linux with either pulse or alsa over SDL.
It can be hard to get the interface at first but if you give it some time it becomes apparent that it is a very efficient and comfortable way to work.
The only (big) drawback to me is a lack of externel sync or jack support...

I will definitely try that out one mate! thanks for the reference. However currently I haven't figured out doing even my base stuff w/out jack, currently aside from ardour2, it is the foundation of how I compose tracks.

Pretty nice sounds! I'm new into Glitch and this kind of genres, but I found this as very well done. congrats!

Thanks man

[autostatic]

Very nice EP Arpee Ong! And also thanks for explaining your workflow, that's always very enlightening and inspiring.

[Excds]

Sorry for the long post You will notice that I have a very crude method, actually this is the 1st time i wrote my process down. I can dig deeper to certain sections if needed.. thanks for the feedback man

Very interesting writeup. And keep making those glitches!

Very nice EP Arpee Ong! And also thanks for explaining your workflow, that's always very enlightening and inspiring.

I think it would be a great idea if we whenever posting a new tune would describe the workflow and setup a bit. Help with workflow is probably one of the biggest hurdles to get over for people trying to get into the whole "working with Linux and music" process...

[Arpee Ong]

just posted a new one just few minutes ago, although the track isn't really dubstep, i heavily used Autostatic's dubstep bass zynAddSubFx instrument (a bit tweaked) for the base framework.. for the "unstable" wobbles, I used amSynths dirty pulsating bass (a bit tweaked as well) with the "Modulation Rate" mapped to a hardware knob.. 1st time i used amSynth, the mappable controls will come handy in the future and now im gassing for a nanoKontrol

http://soundcloud.com/arpee_ong/ward-6d

the track will be a part of my 9th release, planning to do a 12 track this time..

[autostatic]

Like it! All sounds and samples blend very well and it seems as if there is a lot going on, even though I guess it's about 5 or 6 instruments at once max. I like music that creates that kind of suggestion.