Hidden Beneath the Flesh

“Hidden Beneath the Flesh” is rather simple. The only instrument I use is a bass guitar. The track became a mix between minimal improvisation, drones, and sound design. The sound design itself is not terribly complicated. It is just me playing a bass improperly by slamming the strings above the nut with a metal ring and scratching the strings at the bridge. These few, simple parts in combination create an ominous, melancholy texture that is supported by distant reverbs and echoes.

https://soundcloud.com/samraymond/hidden-beneath-the-flesh

Source: soundcloud.com

Reflecting Upon a Vanishing Legacy

“Reflecting Upon a Vanishing Legacy” is another vertically implemented piece of music born out of me just wanting to experiment. I was listening to “Frame by Frame” by King Crimson one day and heard Adrian Belew playing this really great guitar riff with Robert Fripp. Apparently, Belew was playing a figure in seven while Fripp played the same figure up to the sixth beat. They start out in sync, quickly play out of sync against each other, and eventually wind up in sync again. I thought this sounded really cool, so I had to try it.

In this piece, I have an Irish bouzouki and guitar playing a 7/4 phrase in D pentatonic while a hammered dulcimer and second guitar play the first six beats of the original 7/4 phrase. The result was a strangely satisfying cascade of tones that I felt sounded somewhat ironic against the melody I ended up playing on bass guitar. Ultimately, I liked how the whole piece sounded after I added in some English horn, flutes, pipe organ, and a few synth pads I designed.

https://soundcloud.com/samraymond/reflecting

Source: soundcloud.com

Hyperthymesia

“Hyperthymesia” is a rare condition where one’s autobiographical memory is abnormally precise. What that has to do with the track? Well, technically very little. I made a full-on drone that had a wispy, rewinding aesthetic. Then, I sort of branched off a bit in thought and considered someone recalling aspects about their past. I figured why not run with that?

So, I guess my track “Hyperthymesia” is an embodiment of the abstract concept of thought. That sounds exceedingly pretentious, so feel free to just say, “No, that’s a bunch of droning.” That is fine by me, because you wouldn’t be wrong. It is a bunch of droning. However, I enjoy it.

As for sharing any neat little notes about how this was made, well there are a couple. Mostly what you hear is the result of feeding buses back through themselves via a send. There are a few different ones. Some have excessive distortion, others have complex delays, and others have stacked reverbs. The source material they are being fed is one of two things:

1. A time-stretched recording of me saying, “I remember when I was a little boy”. I know, I am an unfathomably deep and inspired individual. That would be intense sarcasm in case you didn’t pick up on that.

2. A short, time-stretched sequence of a click track. Seriously, 80% of this track is just me playing Logic’s click tone generator “Klopfgeist” as an instrument and then cleverly processing the result.

That is it. Nothing special, just a nice bit of trance-inducing drone.

https://soundcloud.com/samraymond/hyperthymesia

Source: soundcloud.com

As They Fade Away

“As They Fade Away” is a continuation of a concept album I am working on for my own entertainment. Any residual entertainment experienced by others is however much appreciated.

The track consists of bass, drones, noise, double bass, cello, piano, celesta, vibraphone, and tubular bells. I was really trying to bridge a gap between classical sounding instruments, pumping bass, and drones. I threw some 1/3 octave noise in there as well to glue the textures together. I think this was executed pretty well because I enjoy the product. That is pretty much my only criteria.

https://soundcloud.com/samraymond/as-they-fade-away

Source: soundcloud.com

Phantasmagoria

“Phantasmagoria” is the second half of my other track “Voices Underfoot”.

“Voices Underfoot” was a minimal, ambient drone created from the bass lines of this song. They are intended to be a two-part track that play off of each other.

https://soundcloud.com/samraymond/phantasmagoria

Here is a link to Part One, “Voices Underfoot”:

https://soundcloud.com/samraymond/voices-underfoot

Source: soundcloud.com

Voices Underfoot

I haven’t really made any drone music for a long while. I get that not everybody is a fan of it, but I think it can be an extraordinarily emotive genre. I enjoy how it can make you space out and concentrate very intently on something that seems simplistic. Then you dig in, and you find a hidden complexity.

“Voices Underfoot” is my revisit to the world of drones. Very basic, soothing, yet oddly unsettling is always my favorite aesthetic, so I applied that formula to this track. This was originally a four bar bass line, but I time stretched it and layered its own harmonics. I know it isn’t exactly an inventive process, but it was an effective one. After all, it doesn’t matter how you got there just as long as you got it done right.

As for the title, they often mean nothing with me. This one is different. I named it “Voices Underfoot” because I started to hear singing voices and screams buried under the drone. It was a little creepy, but they sounded sort of inviting. The track also has a very slow, downtrodden march to it. I pictured a group of gravediggers walking away after burying the dead soldiers on a war-torn battlefield.

I know that is a little weird, and you may find it to be idiotic. However, that is what I love so much about drones and sound art. The compositions leave themselves wide open for interpretation, so every individual’s experience is vastly different.

https://soundcloud.com/samraymond/voices-underfoot

Here is a link to Part Two, “Phantasmagoria”:

https://soundcloud.com/samraymond/phantasmagoria

Source: soundcloud.com

Charade

Charade was created as a result of my love of Hammond B3 Organs and my wish to hear more of it in Punk music. Now, I don’t own a B3 or even a decent B3 emulator, so I made due with the stock Logic Instrument. It sounds dirty and trashy enough for my purposes.

The majority of the song consists of a drumset, one bass guitar, and the B3. Only later does a second bass start up. The bass is just two stereo splits of the same signal. In the end, you hear two different clean tones panned left and right, and you hear another two distortion tones panned left and right. It just makes one bass sound big, nasty, and complex.

Despite my lack of bass playing prowess, the result was a super aggressive, driving, Thrash Punk song.

https://soundcloud.com/samraymond/charade

Source: soundcloud.com

Half-Life

One day, I had my H4n out and was recording random things. One of the sounds I recorded was this antique clock ringing. I decided to run it through PaulStretch and then an Electro-Harmonix Freeze. Next, I sent the drone through an Eventide PitchFactor’s “Harpeggiator” function. The result was a cool, panning rhythm that I decided to build an entire track around.

Along with samples of vinyl noise, glitched-out drums, and more mangled re-recordings of the clock, I added in some vibraphone, upright bass, and piano with some whacky delay. All in all, it turned out really cool. I’ve wanted to get back to making more experimental music for a while now, so this was a refreshing change of pace.

https://soundcloud.com/samraymond/half-life

Source: soundcloud.com

Small Synthetic Bird

Trying to record animals is a notoriously difficult task. You either have access to them, and they suddenly go silent when around a microphone; or they always making noise, but you need to get your clunky field recording kit out and deal with a whole mess of issues outside.

What if all you need is a typical, small bird chirping? Well forget the microphone and don’t bother chasing birds around outside. Grab a synth and use an old trick. You don’t need an oscillator at all. As long as your VCF self-oscillates when you crank the resonance and you have a Sample and Hold setting on your LFO, you are good.

Now, I am not acting like I am some synthesis genius and that this is a revelation. Like I said, it is an old trick. However, I still love this trick for its simplicity. It is super quick and sounds quite convincing! I made this with a Minibrute in around five minutes. That’s from turning on the synth to bouncing the file. That’s both effective and efficient!

https://soundcloud.com/samraymond/small-synthetic-bird

Source: soundcloud.com

Witch Doctors

“Witch Doctor” is a revisit of a jam session of a band I used to be in called “As Their Sails Burn”. We weren’t amazing, but we had a lot of fun. That is the only realistic goal when you are a Metal band out of Orlando, Florida.

As I do not possess an ounce of talent when it comes to playing the guitar, I called up the old guitarists to lay down some tracks. Will Orr was kind enough to record the rhythm part. I believe he used a solid-state Marshall and Sennheiser e609. Luke Powell laid down the supporting rhythm track and all of the solos.

The funny thing is that Luke has next to no recording equipment. He apparently had to set his computer on a stack of books next to his busted Fender amp and use this cheap, kit version of a Rupert Neve Stereo Mic to record. He also had no distortion pedal.

That said, I got weirdly recorded, clean tracks. Once the distortion was put on, it sounded pretty great considering what he went through to record it. Luke did a good job. I got to do some cool mixing with his solos. I did some crazy chorus rate automation. It made a great wailing, siren effect.

Originally, I would have been playing drums live for this. However, I don’t own a decent set of drums or drum microphones. So, I spent an hour or two programming the drums into MIDI. I don’t feel great having to do this, but I can say I transcribed the part exactly the way I used to play it.

I loved this jam when we first spontaneously played it. Needless to say, I am very excited to have it recorded and mixed more appropriately!

https://soundcloud.com/samraymond/witch-doctors

Source: soundcloud.com