Thread: Calling all Musicians...

Originally posted by SKA
I was hoping there are some musicians on these boards.
I thought perhaps together we could record and compose an entrancing Lucid Dream aid Track.


I Play a great deal of guitar and some Piano and I like creating mysterious melodies. Now if you can play anything: Percussions would be very nice, piano, Bass, Trumpet, Didgeridoo...anything you think may be a good sound to add to an Ambient Lucid Dream aid MP3.

You can record beat/melody-samples with simple free downloadable programs like:
AudaCity which is what I use.
Perhaps some of you can create ambient sounds with Cubase or Reason or such programs. We could work together in making something very ambient by sending eachother our recorded samples and recording something over it on another track.

Perhaps some people here can add Bineary beats and Theta waves and such.


My idea is to make entrancing music that really calms and clears your mind and keeps you focussed and undisturbed when you close your eyes and listen to it.
So if you can play something mellow and entrancing on your Djembe or Bongo.or whatever... Let me know if you're interrested to compose an ambient track with it.

I'll contribute the monural beats and background sounds. We need a nice female voice to contribute which ever mantra we proposed to use.

http://www.phoensnd.com/

Thanks!

If I created a score on Noteworthy Composer, would somebody be able to record it on something better?

I might be able to help with the creative suggestions part. I have some experience mixing in Audacity too. I'm not a big fan of binaural/monoaural beats. I might be able to pitch in on the mantra, too, if Ophelia's not available

Originally Posted by Distant

I might be able to help with the creative suggestions part. I have some experience mixing in Audacity too. I'm not a big fan of binaural/monoaural beats. I might be able to pitch in on the mantra, too, if Ophelia's not available
[/b]

Yeah well we should kinda try all sorts of different mantra voices to see what mantra seems to penetrate more and catch your attention better. You know, just like some music just forces you to listen to it more than other music.
The music should be of the same nature. Really catchy. And same thing for the Mantra words...They should be very catchy.

I remember a kind of fearytale-like themepark attraction in De Efteling here in The Netherlands where an old Man, former bandit/cultmember, telling about how his house got cursed by a female angel as they raided a monastry, the house of God. He tells the exact words of the curse and as he starts saying that curse one could suddenly hear the high, female voice saying the curse with him.
Somehow that sounded very impressive. The whol story was impressive.

Perhaps we could create a small poem-like Mantra to remember you that you are dreaming by means of a very catchy poetic line of words such as:

''All that happens between sleeping and waking is but a Dream,
Reality is instable and utterly bizarre it seems.
Let lucidity open your eyes, point out dreamsigns and make you realise,
You are Asleep; you did not awaken yet,
Therefor everything that is happening around you is all just a Dream in your Head.
Don't follow the path chosen, STOP it's all still-frozen, Act as you wish''

Something like that...an Eye opening, penetrating message anyways. I'm open to suggestions.


Question your reality and Recognise you are in a DreamState

Hey everyone first post WOO

I'm a dedicated musician and this topic kind of got my attention. I'm really into ambient music and have quite a good collection of songs that will just completely send you away. I'll just list some that I highly recommend.

Floatilla by Spacetime Continuum

Most songs on the "Druqks" album by Richard D. James

Anything from "Selected Ambient Works" album by Richard D. James (Blue Calx is my favorite on that one)

The Wall of Light by Steve Vai

State of Grace by Steve Vai

Autumn in Nepal on the Album "Various Artists - Archives Vol. 4" (sitar played by Steve Vai)

Ok there is a radio program on NPR every night at 9 that plays the coolest ambient music you'll find.

www.hos.com ~ Probably the best place to get your ambient fix. Really awesome stuff on there. If you browse around on that site you can find all the stuff they’ve played plus you can listen to the radio programs they've played.

Well there's all the best ambient style of music you'll ever need. I make a lot of...weird music. Some could be ambient but most is just...weird. Click my signature picture to listen to 4 of the...probably about 50 songs I’ve made. I'll try to make a really ambient one today.

Oh and also if you have trouble attaining all the aforementioned songs I would be happy to send you some preferably via AIM if you have it.

Peace

Originally Posted by GiraffeToothbrush

If I created a score on Noteworthy Composer, would somebody be able to record it on something better?
[/b]

possibly

what's Noteworthy Composer?

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

possibly

what's Noteworthy Composer?
[/b]

Possibly? Well that'd be great cuz I own a crappy PC with some crappy soundcard (S3 pro-Savage I believe, terrible) so all it can afford to run is AudaCity, a simple recording program which uses my external mic. But if you, or anyone, could finetune and edit my recording so it sounds smooth as a baby's butt that'd be great.

I also had a couple of other ideas:
1. perhaps before the ambient mantra part starts we could make a spoken story-intro about dreaming with entrancing and suiting ambient sounds. A short one so it won't get annoying to hear it every night again. Something dream/conciousness related. See when words are spoken they kind of subconciously Force us to listen to them. Perhaps a good way of focussing attention before WILDing.

2. Perhaps we could make transitions in the ambience (Percussion dropping in and out, flute melodies, strings and classic guitar picking harmonies) that synchronise with certain sleeping stages.
You could play it all night and leave it on. Hopefully as you reach your last REMsleep, the lighter sleep, the music would simultaniously become a bit more attention demanding.

Music is an intricate mindtool. I know it does miracles with me anyways, but I'm sure I can apply this magic in Lucid Dreaming Aid.

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

possibly

what's Noteworthy Composer?
[/b]

It's a simple MIDI program. Its sound isn't of the greatest quality, so it's really only good for composing/copying scores. You can get a free version here:

http://www.noteworthysoftware.com

It says it's a 30-day trial, but there was an error in the coding, (shhh&#33 so you can keep it as long as you like. If you run out of saves, you can always copy it onto a new file.

Just as long as you can read the score and you have a MIDI keyboard, there shouldn't be many problems. I don't care if the voices need to be changed for whatever reason.

Don't think I'll be any help composition wise, but can certainly help production wise

you've first got to decide how professional you want to be with this
now, I don't mean this in a nasty way
but I can see this going horribly wrong from the get-go

low bitrate mp3's being passed between people, being mixed together and re-compressed, and passed on to the next guy

in the end, it'll sound like arse

what you need is a set format agreed upon that everybody adhears to
so when the elements are mastered and mixed down to a single track, it's as nice sounding as possible.

also, it will help if everybody sets down what they do, musically
any strengths / weaknesses they have
whether you play an analogue instrument (drum kit, guitar, etc.) or digital (midi keyboard into computer)

I know Ynot.
It'd be best if it was made by one person in a program. All I'm trying to exchange with people here are musical ideas and recordings of it. If you, or anyone round here, can take those ideas and melodies made up by different lucid musicians here and mix them into something that sounds really smooth that'd be great.

The Idea with the home made, simple, lowquality recordings is so that FIRST the melodic schedual and basic idea for the song is created. These would be our melodies, speaking more to us than most other melodies.
Now anyone who uses a professional recording/mixing program could Then take this song and work it out smoothly to a professional deep entrancing MP3.

However, My father owns a very very professional Studio. I can send high quality guitar, vocal and Piano recordings to people who can in turn export it into their music program and doodle around with sound effects and mix it into a long MP3


BTW. My Weapons of Choice:
ANALOGUE:
-My Semi-Accoustic Ibanez Guitar
-Vocals, I do alot of singing...always and everywhere. I'm into Ska, Reggae and DnB alot but I like mysterious eastern melodies alot too as well as celtic vocals. I often create choirs of myself with AudaCity
DIGITAL:
a Yamaha B200 digital synthesizer
-My Semi-Accoustic Ibanez Guitar again
-My dad's Fender StratoCaster ( from 1956 ) I can play it for a recording
-My dad's synthesizer which has like COUNTLESS wicked sound effects

I have professional software so I could definately mix all your tracks down with better instruments and effects (like reverbs and delays). I use fruityloops to make all of my music. I don't know how the programs that you guys use work but the easiest way for me to make everything sound great is for you to save it as a .WAV which allows me to import the track directly into my software.

Just a suggestion....

by the way I wrote a little melody that could be used at some point possibly maybe who knows...wrote it in 30 seconds and took an overall 5 minutes to finish...

http://www.webpost.net/ch/Chibi519/untitled.mp3

There's just a possible route we could go...we could scratch the drums and add whatever we want but thats just the framework. Just a little taste of what it could sound like.

edit: if the link doesn't work the first time you click it just refresh the page it should come up.

Don't get me wrong
I think different people doing different elements of the track is a great idea
I meant more along the lines of:

All recordings to be at 32bit, 48kHz

no compression (export to Wave)
by all means sent mp3's over the net for feedback / opinion, but only use PCM Wave for the final recording

everyone keeps the recording as clean as possible (no reverb, distortion, other crap) that can all be added later

make sure you know how to set up your levels properly (keep absolutely everything in the green)

if your recording multiple elements (drum kit, for example) record each element on it's own track (plus a couple of overall tracks)

Also, more importantly than using good software, is knowing how to use it properly
particularly when it comes to the mix-down

******
might be worth moving this to the lounge or artists corner, btw
******

Just a quick suggestion to add to Ynot's requirements. I think all tracks should be multiples of the same number of samples. All tracks should be divisible by a number like 2^10, which boils down to about 2% of a second. That way, we can put them together like building blocks. It really cuts down on the number of places where tracks can line up, now approximately 1 out of 1000 possibilities are suitable. Also the edges will line up the nicely, which should make mixing easy. The only side effect is that any blank space will cause any overlapping tracks to sound relatively more quiet.

As far as creatively, I think the track should have gongs/bells and lots of echos. Also, use the voice as an instrument so it doesn't stick out. Hopefully an effect that simulates that zoning out sound when you fall asleep in the middle of class. You know, how the (teacher's) voice gets loud and blurred sort of like Charlie Brown's teacher.

gongs ?
serious ?!?

nice wishy washy aural landscape
feeling sleepy
wishy washy
nice and snug
wishy washy
BOSHHHhhhh

Gongs sound good at the beginning of crescendos.

Minor melodics will do well in the way of composing something "mysterious" (just a thought).

Originally Posted by SKA

...Didgeridoo...[/b]

I have a homemade Didgeridoo but I only know how to play one note on it.

Originally Posted by EVIL

I have a homemade Didgeridoo but I only know how to play one note on it.
[/b]

Make your lips tighter/looser. That should make some different notes.

YellowCalx777,
Just wondering.. have you played the games 'homeworld' or 'x2 the threat'?
Some of the best ambient music ive ever heard on those games.. also try Aphex Twin - Stone In Focus.. very repetative but relaxing...

Originally Posted by RooJ

YellowCalx777,
Just wondering.. have you played the games 'homeworld' or 'x2 the threat'?
Some of the best ambient music ive ever heard on those games.. also try Aphex Twin - Stone In Focus.. very repetative but relaxing...
[/b]

No I haven't played those games but I've heard of em. And yeah Stone in Focus is really great. Richard D. James has some awesome ambient stuff. Stone in Focus is a good example of what we could make...repetitive melody; simple at first and then adds sounds/instruments/voices as it delves deeper into the song. Also this this has got to be long...like 7-10 minutes.

Some people were talking about having a mantra start the whole song out. We could probably have someone with a deep relaxing voice record themselves speaking "Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream" or something...then I could add some reverb or a slight flanger to it it would sound cool.

Just some suggestions... :yumdumdoodledum:

well id be happy to help as i also play piano and guitar (piano quite proficiently) I actually was in the process of writing a song that was slow and hypnotic though i don't think it would be considered ambient. I have dial-up so I probably won't be able to help much. I can record live things on sound recorder with my synth, piano, or guitar and then remove the noise with FLStudio, but otherwise I don't have any music programs to make wavs with. Also, I'm not incredibly active on this site and once school starts I definitly won't be. But supposing all of the above isn't a hurdle, I'd love to do something! lol...

The mantra thing sounds cool, and gongs can be used as ambient stuff as long as they are stroked and not bashed. We could just as easily add noise instead of actually using a gong...the latter is a bit of a hassle.

Oh and I sort of made an ambient/chillout song that you can find on soundclick. PM me if you want the url. I warn you though--I'm a pretty lousy producer.

Should everyone stick to one key signature/chord progression? I figure it will save a lot of time and energy when creating the final track.

E minor a good key signature. I've already started a score in that key, although mind you it consists more of melodies than effects. (Noteworthy is very limited in that area, but my hard drive has no room for something better.)

I picked A lydian for what I've wrote but no ones said anything about it...so I'll just repost the link in case you guys missed it... :yumdumdoodledum: http://www.webpost.net/ch/Chibi519/untitled.mp3

edit: refresh the page once you open it to hear the song

E minor would sound nice...I might just mess around in that key for a bit tonight...maybe somethin might happen. I'm anxious to hear what you've got down GiraffeToothbrush because the more I think about it, what I've written may not be ambient enough....maybe because of the drums.

By the way does anyone know of a good free site that I can upload songs on? The one I'm using now only lets me upload 1 megabyte which isn't enough...

http://media.putfile.com/DreamViews-Track

That's all I have right now. It's poor quality, which is why I ask that someone who has better software record it for me from the score. The way it sounds isn't necessarily the way I want it to go, either.

Putfile is free, just so you know.

I was thinking the same thing about ambience, although I can't get to yours right now.

EDIT: I found it. I like it better than mine...

Heres a variation in E minor: http://media.putfile.com/dreamViews-1

By the way I liked yours GiraffeToothbrush. save it as a .wav and send it to me if you can.