Phase47

I thought this was interesting. Sam Rosenthal (Projekt Records) posted this a few days ago re: his label's revenue per vendor. No surprise that iTunes is #1, but it's great to see Bandcamp at #2.
 
 

One thing, and this is more of a philosophical notion, and maybe too obvious, but that's to ruthlessly pare down your plugin collection to only those synths and effects that speak to you as an artist. Don't be taken in by the flavor of the month. Demo, demo, demo - and then keep only the ones that are essential to you in creating your work.
 
Trash the rest and don't look back

I think the reason you don't see many 24bit audio files out in the wild are for the same reason as always - size. 
 
I work in 24bit and don't go to 16bit until mastering - at the very last step with proper dithering. You can absolutely hear the difference between 16 and 24 bit files if you have good ears (meaning, you have the ability to listen critically) and a good source, good monitors in a good room. I do most of my casual monitoring on Dynaudio monitors through Apogee conversion and I can tell a/b between 16 and 24 bits, but I've been mastering records for 20 years I'm not sure it's a factor in the vast majority of people's music listening, where oftentimes poorly encoded mp3s are the baseline listening experience.
 
Higher fidelity is always better, but it comes at the cost of size. Size means more space on your phone (we aren't there yet) and faster speeds for download (we aren't there yet either.) As size and speeds increase, it's reasonable to believe that audio files will increase in size (and thus fidelity) and the digital distributors and record labels will have another opportunity to sell you those Beatles albums one more time at least.

Ultimae seem to understand that some of their listeners will choose quality over convenience and have begun releasing their catalog in 24 bit versions. I think that's awesome. 

Greetings everyone, 
 
I thought I would give a proper introduction and not steal any of the spotlight from my partner Phase47 on his thread. 
 
My name is Chris, and I'm one half of Ascendant. My earlier work was created under the name S1gns Of L1fe which I still keep as a personal moniker. These days though I'm 100% Ascendant.
 
Along with producing, I'm also owner of the forum Ambient Online (www.ambientonline.org). To my knowledge, we are one of the largest forums out there dedicated to ambient music and it's producers. We have the most friendly and welcoming community I have ever seen so stop by sometime and check it out! I also host the podcast (The Ambient Online Podcast) where I interview a new artist every other week and feature music from the community. You can check out the archives on my SoundCloud page. 
 
Really excited to be here and continue the journey with all of you on the psybient forums. 
 
Cheers and see you around! 
-S1gns
 
 

Hello to both of you Just listening to Ascendant now... truly lovely stuff!

i suggest you to add soundcloud or bandcamp players of some of your music here, it so nice to put the music on the face
you can "edit" previous posts to add players.

Great article, great track

Greetings. My name is Don Tyler. I'm a Grammy-Nominated mastering engineer by day, and produce music under the names Phase47 (ambient) and Ascendant (psybient/psy-chill) by night. 

I found this site called Light Lab through their pairing of one of our Ascendant tracks with one of their articles on spirituality. 
 
http://lightlabcreations.com/wisdom/spirituality/awakening-happens-all-ways/

Have this on in the background just now. Loving the chilled vibe.
 
Liquid...

Phase47 and S1gns Of L1fe have entered the building! 

I haven't played live outside since highschool punk bands, but I was struck by the power of a recent occurrence. 
 
This (attached) is Chris Bryant (S1gns of L1fe) and I playing live @ Fuzzyland as Ascendant. (I'm hidden behind the giant ornament!) Tom Rothrock puts on an amazing event a couple times a year up on the edge of the Angeles National forest in CA. 
 
It's impossible to gauge the scale of this place from pictures. The stage is up in this massive, multi-level treehouse that's built around a huge ancient tree. All around are small hills and plateaus where people perch in mini-tribes - almost like playing in the round in some kind of natural amphitheater.
 
There is something completely transcendent about playing in the open-air, under the stars. There's definitely another connection being made. The perfect kind of venue for ambient / downtempo music in my opinion. People laughing, dancing, having a great time, all connected by the music. Indoor / theater-style gigs can be amazing, but I'm not sure they can completely break through the same way.
 
Thoughts?
 
(You can hear our music here.)

Greetings. My name is Don Tyler. I'm a Grammy-Nominated mastering engineer by day, and produce music under the names Phase47 (ambient) and Ascendant (psybient/psy-chill) by night. 

iTunes for collection organization.
 
Traktor for playlist creation.
 
Portable library on iPhone or iPad.