In Conversation With Rain [s o n i c b r a t]

Have you ever watched the rain from the comfort of shelter, and these little tear drops hit helplessly on your window pane... as if they are yearning for you?

Today it rained magnificently. The rain washed our land as it cleansed our tired souls, sending whispers that slipped into our concrete lives impishly. I had a conversation with the rain. But it ended abruptly. A mindless improvisation in response to what the rain told me; with no form nor structure, just reactions. It's an imperfect track that's random... but I guess that's the beauty of it...

A home brewed DIY minimalistic video clip of the track, using my mini casio digital camera, oh well... :) Do listen with headphones, thank you!

THE UNSPOKEN TALE OF RAIN

It tapped on my window
Asking to be let in...
Told me a tale of tomorrow
And slipped away unseen...

COMMONTONES PHASE II

Three musicians...
Three minds...
One song...

A weekly affair between the trio. Their first music making effort as an entity rather than solitude contributions. They will be working on a single piece weekly, a song a week, for the entire month of July. This is their next step, something they had in mind for a long time... and finally materializing. This is only the beginning.

PHASE DESCRIPTION:

In PHASE II, one musician will be appointed the "musician of the week" at the beginning of each week. This renders the other two "contributors". At the beginning of each week, the "contributors" will provide short audio samples of their own creations, anything goes (sounds, guitar, synth, etc), uploading to COMMONTONES. The "musician of the week" will collect these samples, and over the course of the week, compose and arrange a piece with the samples, plus his own input. The song will be uploaded here at the end of each week in the month.

This makes three songs, in three weeks, with the trio taking turns to be the "musician of the week". In the final week (week 4), all three will be contributing at the beginning of the week, and all three will be cutting a track from all the samples provided. Rendering three songs by the end of the week and loading them up on COMMONTONES. At the end of the project, there will be 6 songs in total.

Please join us in this journey of creating music on cyber-space.

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PHASE SCHEDULE:

WEEK 1:
Musician of the week - Sonicbrat
Contributors - Eric, LDT

WEEK 2:
Musician of the week - LDT
Contributors - Eric, Sonicbrat

WEEK 3:
Musician of the week - Eric
Contributors - LDT, Sonicbrat

WEEK 4:
Musicians of the week - ALL
Contributors - ALL

DAY 31: s o n i c b r a t

"NOTHINGNESS"


Tempo: NA
Colour: Black

Humbucker, Alesis Ineko, Roland XP10, an antique bell, faulty connections and cables.

Looking back at the 31 days, it's been such a journey... A song a day. Sounds crazy but we did it. Thank you Eric and LDT.

DAY 31 : Eric

This is the last day.
Phase 1 over.

Thanx for listening.

DAY 30 : Eric

Tempo : 118
Color : blue LED



I finally managed to use my Monome as a note sequencer thanx to the MonoChrome VST plugin in FL-Studio host.
It's nice but not all that I dreamt.

DAY 28: s o n i c b r a t

"MICROBES"


Chemical reactions of microbes communicating.

Tempo: NA
Colour: All

Doepfer A100 Modular System through KORG Kaoss Pad III. Some sound designs. Feel free to comment.

DAY 27 : Eric

Tempo : 88 and 120 BPM
Color : warm green

Individual patterns recorded on Palm TX with Bhajis Loops in Parc Montsouris, sequenced/mixed with 64_step with Monome, and added reverb and some phaser with FL-Studio (no mastering with Izotope this time).
I like the pure sound of sine waves...
Second track features thunder sound recording from my home and washing-machine sound from my parents home.

DAY 26 : Eric

"How much time did you take for composing Rage Hard ?"
"About five minutes."

DAY 24: s o n i c b r a t

"Près de Toi [Glitch Remix]"


Tempo: 80 bpm
Colour: Brown

Did a remix of the earlier Plogue Bidule creation "Près de Toi" using Reaktor 5. I used it for Piana gig. I've wanted to develop this piece and this is another stage.

Feel free to comment.

DAY 23: s o n i c b r a t

"Dyspneic"


Tempo: NA
Colour: Cold Blue

KORG Triton ST88, sound designs... all effects processing onboard the Triton.

Feel free to comment.

DAY 22: s o n i c b r a t

"Back In Time"


Tempo: NA
Colour: Mouldy

I never stop wishing for the time to stop...
What a contradiction by reductio ad absurdm...

Sound Designs on Sound Forge, synth from KORG Triton ST88. Feel free to comment.

DAY 21: s o n i c b r a t

"Euphoric Ping"


That little bit of difference
Can make the world go round
It was in it's darkest hour
That sweetness tasted sweeter

Tempo: NA
Colour: Musty

Plogue Bidule, Audio Mulch, sound designs... We are counting down to the end of the month...

Feel free to comment.

DAY 20 : Eric

J'ai besoin de rêves.
Between sweet warm and fresh cold.
I need to make dreams.


A simple tune made with only my guitar, an automatic volume pedal (the SV2, since my regular volume pedal seems to now make cracks :-( I should buy an optical one), and delay on FL-Studio, and then just few cuts on the track.
Using an A/B box is quite useful for me : I can rehearse/preview the notes on another amp (for instance my bass amp (yes !)) while the loop/drone is running, so I didn't make false notes ;-)

DAY 19: s o n i c b r a t

"MAYHEM"


Tempo: NA
Colour: Dark Purple

Gears: Doepfer A100 Modular System.

Nothing else used, not sequencer, no effect processor. Everything was explored using only A100 synthesis. It's not music really, just doodling around and learning new things with it. Do listen with a headphone.

Feel free to comment.

DAY 18: s o n i c b r a t

"INSOMNIA"


Tempo: NA
Colour: Metallic Green

Gear: Doepfer A100 modular system

A sound piece again. My virgin night with Doepfer A100 Modular System. Do note that the sounds may cause discomfort and no post effects added to this one. Just purely exploring the new A100 doing random patchings. There's sub-bass oscillators going on so be sure to put on the head phones... I like the versaltility of it. What seems like noise to some may be music to others :)

DAY 17: s o n i c b r a t

"Candid Confusion"

Tempo: NA
Colour: Blue

Plogue Bidule synthesis again... Another experimental sound piece for today. For a view of the designed patch click HERE

DAY 14: s o n i c b r a t

"Près de Toi"

Tempo: 20/40
Colour: White

Plogue Bidule; employing Crystal synth and Remedy synth (they are free downloads by the way)... For a view of the patch click HERE. Take it as a "work in progress" piece; there's definitely more room for adding things on but at this point I like keeping it simple and sweet.

A hypnotic, minimalistic and experimental piece. I wanted to do something "softer" using the PB platform, to paint a surreal but beautiful feeling. So here's trying something out for myself. It's meant to be listened to softly, best through headphones for the stereo images. The layers were added slowly and subtly... I actually like the granular synthesis (all the clicky random tones) quite a bit may explore more of it in future post.

Feel free to comment...

DAY 14: LDT

"The Border Lands"

Tempo: NA
Color: NA

LDT: Novation XioSynth, DOD Dimension 12, Digitech Digi Delay, Boss Giga Delay, Zoom MRS8, assembled in Acid Pro and Sound Forge.

Feel free to comment.

DAY 13: s o n i c b r a t

"Flottements"

Tempo: NA
Colour: Pale

Flutters in the mind...

Plouge Bidule synthesis. Picture of the patch designed for this session. There is sub bass ambient going on so be sure to turn up your sub or use a headphone for best effect of this piece.

Feel free to comment.

DAY 12: LDT

"The Defeat of Apollyon"

Tempo: 70 bpm
Color : none

LDT: Novation XioSynth, Sherman Filterbank, DOD Dimension 12, Digitech Digi Delay, Zoom MRS8, assemble in Sound Forge and Acid Pro.

Feel free to comment.