Feb 2022 reverberatingfawm ambient noise
This song was inspired by @quru's "Konsepti" (https://fawm.org/songs/126593/). I wanted to extract the sounds that already exist inside musical equipment. What's inside of them?
For this song I created a feedback loop in my mixer, by simply plugging the right output into the main input. The left output then goes to a spring reverb.
There's also physical feedback: the sound is fed to a speaker which sits on top of the spring reverb, introducing more noise and feedback into the system.
I also had a coil input connected to one of the power supplies. This was a nice way to introduce more hum into the arrangement.
Once I had everything setup I recorded a live set, playing with the different knobs. I loaded the recording into my DAW, added some compression (the noise levels would suddenly jump when the feedback engaged!), EQ to remove some high end noise, and more reverb.
Ohhhhhmmmm
@tuneslayer Feb 2022
Those lyrics are too complicated. Do you think you can simplify them just a bit?
This is a cool track. Makes me want to try some feedback-as-instrument but I'm not sure how I'd do it with my setup. My friend Gary and I tried doing something similar back around the time Sgt. Pepper was released but we never got the hang of controlling it and it just drowned everything else out. Maybe time to try again.
@guatecoop Feb 2022
Oh yeah this is too cool. Focusing in on these sounds is such great practice on being present in our lives. I just love that about music in general, but this is mesmerizing. SO great and I'm glad that you are exploring these sorts of things.
@xfloorpunchx Feb 2022
Love that soundscape! Specially the noisy parts (04:15), awesome!
@mosley Feb 2022
This is totally awesome
@standup Feb 2022
Now this is mysterious. Reverb on 60 cycle hum, THAT'S what we should all be doing. I like the slow buildup into feedback. Something like this is much more what I envisioned when I read the prompt, and I was thinking of Heinbach-style experiments. Nice crescendo into the 4:00 area. My only criticism is it could have had a longer decay at the end.
This is my favorite. Dragondreams comes in 2nd with his recorder piece.
@fuzzy Feb 2022
Haha yeah, this is great, and a wonderful approach to generative music.
Sort of relaxing and anxiety-provoking at the same time.
Sounds good in the headphones.
Gosh, now I want some pedals just so I can do this too!
@headfirstonly Feb 2022
This is so cool. The way the waves of sound come and go is gentle and soothing and hypnotic. And I'm smiling at the "and more reverb" in your liner notes, because honestly, that's always a great idea. This reminds me of the work Paddy Kingsland (RIP) and his pals in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop would do for radio drama productions back in the 70s, which was when I first started to realise that sound design was a thing; I've been fascinated by it ever since.
I really must read Koestler's book again.
@kendrakinsey Feb 2022
@fonte no! That's such a fun idea too!
@kendrakinsey Feb 2022
Oh what a cool concept. And the sound is really great. Did you read David Byrne's How Music Works? I'm in the middle of it. The medium/venue forms the music and what is possible to create
@nuj4x Feb 2022
Your lyrics made me bust out laughing lol this would have never occurred to me in 1000 years. This is so cool! It almost feels to me like it should be the backdrop sound to a spoken word monologue for the Twilight Zone or something like that.
It has high highs and low lows, which is not something I would have expected from musical equipment and feedback. I would have just expected it to be a screechy or miserable mess of interference and feedback.
Very cool experiment. I actually feel like my life has been enriched upon being able to hear that. That you so much for this experience, no joke. This was cool AF.
@dzdandcunfsd Feb 2022
I'm impressed you kept that under "control" so to speak, ah there it goes LOL. Very cool putting the speaker on the verb tank! I'm not gonna lie, this is how I get just about all my inspiration. I fiddle with pedals and knobs saving it all into a looper until something happens that makes me want to play over it.
@chroes Feb 2022
What a fun experiment! The way the feedback / sound wanders, swells and ebbs, is mesmerizing.
@jjmickey Feb 2022
Interesting and quite eerie. You must have a had a lot of fun making this, I know I would with all those tools to play around with.
@axl Feb 2022
Lovely. I often feel there are deep truths about nature in feedback. That picture looks so inviting. I could sit at this table for hours playing.
@dock Feb 2022
Atmospheric seems like the wrong word for it, since it all comes from the internal electrical impulses of the machines. It's like listening to neurons in a mechanical brain. I think it should be call something like cyber-neuro-phonic.
@kenmattsson Feb 2022
This isn't a song to listen to, but to feel instead. I just have to experience it and not to try process it at all. Cool concept.
@gilhari Feb 2022
Really Interesting concept… nice control of the scape to bring it around to being a real atmospheric treat. I am always fascinated by feedback and it’s possibilities.
@coolparadiso Feb 2022
Interesting idea, so those tools are waiting and practicing for us. Sound is amazing thing as is lack of sound! Others have rightly said it has a fairly eerie feel
@aeye Feb 2022
This is a really cool. Very eerie and otherworldly but a neat sound design idea. Using a feedback loop as an instrument was pretty genius to be honest
@ductapeguy Feb 2022
Decades ago, I worked night shifts alone in a pump house substation of a huge tar Sands refinery. This sounds and feels like that. Thank you for the memory.
@gardeningangel1 Feb 2022
This was the first song I listened too today and at first I thought I didn't have my speaker plugged in all the way or something. Fine example of how understanding the 'rules' of how things work allows you to break the rules without breaking the machines. Fun spooky spaceship sounds... like a soundbath for androids.
@quru Feb 2022
Great work! I've experimented with no-input-mixing techniques too, Koma Field Kits are for sure great for it, even though I traded my FX for Echophon. It's hard to get the sound nuanced but still organic enough on these kind patches and compositions, but you've nailed it. That mic on the power supply is a genius idea.
@pvk2020 Feb 2022
I embrace the natural sounds and vibrations all around us. Some may not be able to sit that long immersed in the sound, thus ommm. Many of my recordings have unusual and unexpected background sounds, consciously put ther or not. This is slendid.
@yam655 Feb 2022
This is lovely. It reminds me a little of 50s era science fiction movies.
@atam94 Feb 2022
I appreciate how detailed you are in the description of the song. The sounds that you recorded are really interesting in their own unique way, for sure. I can appreciate it more since you explained how you achieved these sounds. Also, I laughed when I noticed the "lyrics" for the track.
@fonte Feb 2022
Ahh what a cool idea! Sonically this is lovely. This reminds me of last farm where I ended up mic'ing up my freezer lol
That feedback is gorgeous. This is kind of like how I imagine the instruments themselves hear things....Does that sound mad?