700円 Breakfast Outing in Japan: Ambient Soundscape

This ambient piece is all about the recorded environment sounds, as I left home, walked to the station, catch the train, walk to the café in the local Mall, and then the reverse. A real "time machine" for me. First thing I have made to place such importance on the environmental recorded sounds, even if the previous project lead to this.  

Use my Zoom H1 recorder set to auto level, usually with the low cut filter on and with a "dead cat" wind shield.  I found the wind shield is vital to any outdoor recording. For most of the walking outside the recorder is held in my right hand and I just walk normally, just not swinging my right arm. The H1 is all I have ever needed in a portable recorder.  

The 24bit WAV file were copied via USB from the H1 to the project directory, and were dropped on a track in Reaper, then sections selected, cut, fade in/out and level adjusted together. Color coding some clips helps with keeping track of things.

The first quarter is basically the sound of me walking to the station from home, with birds, insects, distant traffic noise and the sound of passing other people. It does set up a kind of rhythm and tempo. The sound of the train pulling into my local station, then cuts to outside the destination station walking past the bus stands, past some apartment building construction, up the café steps, then the sound of the coffee machine grinding the coffee beans and espresso steam. Then the café serving robot saying take the tray with your order and thank you in an anime style voice.

Some sounds in the Mall, then the sound of the train leaving after I arrived at my home station and the beep of the station exit gate as I pay with my contactless travel card. Then the walk home and close the front door. 

Will anyone else find it interesting? No idea at all, except some outside Japan may find a breakfast that good and cheap an impossibility.

It uses the VST synths with the addition of an ARP 2600 this time similar to the last few Ambient Music tracks. 

The music is not the focus at all. Just all adlibbed one take parts, not recorded to a grid at all.   

Have previously considered getting Roland Binaural Earphones with Microphone CS-10EM to use with the Zoom H1, for this kind of environmental sound. They probably aren't any good if there is any wind though.

This GUSTO café has the best value Morning Sets around and a Bellabot server robot. For that price you also have unlimited use of the drink bar, but a freshly ground hot or ice coffee is all I ever have.  Same breakfast without the sausage and beacon is 550円, and that is what I actually had yesterday. In all cases I get 5% off for being over 60, as are most in GUSTO having breakfast.  

The hip young things are over in Starbucks paying more for a sugar loaded Frappuccino.

I did a little 1 page comic on the Bellabot here: 

The image is a photo of the breakfast, and is slowly warped using the MOHO Pro 12 Bone method.

The track is also in our "pay what you want" (even 0円)  Spirograph Album on Bandcamp.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

Japanese Railway Melodic Ambient Soundscape & Video

About 2 years ago I used my Zoom H1 and recorded an hour or so of local railway and station sounds. I didn't go into the station at that time, and got many train sounds from along the local park along side the rail line to Osaka.  That is far enough away from a rail crossing to not get the DING DING DING of the bell when a train is coming and passing.   But there is such a crossing next to my local station, so any recording of a train coming into or leaving the station taken on the platform gets that included. FOR FREE!    

After pulling out those old files and putting together an initial track, I decided to ride the train, and get on platform recordings on the platforms and in the train at our, and the next much larger station. While I was there got some environmental sound in the Mall as well.   And had a small Frappuccino. I find it strange people here will spend so long in a Starbucks. I much prefer being at home, and always sit outside, even in the heat or cold.

The wind shield on the recorder probably looked like I was torturing a small animal...

For this type of thing I generally have the mixed and mastered track WAV file looping at a really low level for an hour or so. If something stands out and annoys me, I go back and fix/ change what ever it is, then repeat the play on loop while doing something else.  It is annoying small noises or sounds, or the way a melody goes seem fine until you do this loop play thing.

I  revised this track 10 times today.  I just upload it again and say "it is what it is". It will take me many weeks away from it to get any perspective on it.  I must be 80% happy with the way it is at the moment.

I put a steep notch filter on local platform recordings to suppress the main DING to clean them up a little, but used other announcements this time when a train wasn't arriving or leaving, that didn't have the DING.

The motion graphics video uses this railways route map graphic element. I pulled it out of a PDF of their route map.  Shows what speed trains stop at what stations. It is pretty too.  Four copies of that graphic element was animated in MOHO Pro 12. I initially tried using pictures of the railway lines trains, but the result wasn't interesting or abstract enough. For something where the music is the main element, I think it works well enough.

The track is in our Spirograph Album on Bandcamp.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

Play: Don't Know Where You Will End Up

 

Thinking about the creative projects been working on in the last 3 years being back in Japan.  "Don't Know Where You Will End Up" kind of describes it.

I cycle through my "creative" interests, among other things, of making music, illustrations, comics, videos and models/ sculptures. Not working fulltime anymore means there is more time to do these things. The first time in my life since being a little kid before I started the eternal boredom of school. But it isn't the doing more, but the doing what that has surprised be.  I have combined these interests, with enough technique to be interesting, in recent works.

Recent Melodic Ambient Soundscape videos have combined my animated illustrations with long synthesizer/ guitar pieces. The In The Asteroid Belt videos combined sculptured stop frame puppets and models with rock guitar and synth music. 

Also did 3 comic books using vector and ink on paper illustrations, in what looks like a quite unique manner. Two vehicle related and one Sci-Fi.

Before I started each project, I had no more direction than, I want to do a comic now, or lets try some soundtrack/ ambient music, write and sing a metal pop song, or do a Sci-Fi music animation.

They all came out of play. 

Hans Zimmer talks about play in his HOLLYWOOD REBEL documentary and I think it is why these things occur the way they do. And been fun. None are project managed or have detailed planning before hand. Such a change from my working life that had all been about schedules, time management and deadlines.

So in the last 3 years, I have discovered how significant Play is. 

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

UFO Kyoto Dusk

 

So did another melodic ambient soundscape yesterday, and put together this animation of the dusk sky with a photo I took out the window of my office/studio here in Kyoto a couple of days ago.  Put my phone against the window, pointing up to avoid most of the houses across the street, then cropped the roof tops out. A day or so before TYPHOON#7 came through. 

The Reaper project looks like this:

Still just adding little things to the end of the same project, but I do save it with a new name each time. MS-20mini and SQ-1 used to make some noises with additional motion in them.

The Animation is very simple, with zooming in on the the sky, with the black oval "UFO" zoomed around the screen to add additional interest.

The sky today is cloudy with brief thunderstorms passing through. The view from my desk chair is more this:

Our cat is admiring the view, until I stand. Then he will steal my desk chair and immediately fall asleep.  

I don't mind these melodic ambient things at all. Will play one on a loop for hours, while doing something else. 

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

Soundscape Spirograph: Machine

 

At 5min 20 seconds, it is short for a soundscape piece.  The music is all synthesizer and sound effects in this.  The Reaper project looks like this, and shows the VSTs being used. 

Also Reverb, Delay and Flanging from ValhallaDSP.

The video is 4 images animated with rain and a slow pull back. 

Originally did the vehicles as dry marker sketch concept art in the 1990s. Very inspired by Syd Mead and Rob Cobb at the time, and still am.  

Revised that into a comic panel a few years ago for Terraform, and revised that panel by extending it on the left to get the HD (1280x720) aspect ratio to animate. 

The rain is a particle effect in MOHO PRO12, and as I have now seen, a common thing to do in an Ambient Music video on YouTube. Low effort motion on a still image.

The music has been uploaded and in our Bandcamp Spirograph Album. 

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology