unknown music

Hello psybient friends,
 
Please let me know if you are someone who likes to use open source audio editor or operating system to work on your music.
 
Personally, I like to use the Reaper software on a customized operating system (Arch Linux).
 
In order to make Reaper function on the unix-like operating system, the Wine package is used to run the program and VST plugin. To route the sound output, jack audio is used in combination with wineasio, qjackctl, cadence, ALSA, etc. This allows me to have extremely low latency and full usage of the typical ASIO output including MIDI. By recompiling the Linux kernel using special patch, it is possible to reconfigure the scheduler optimizer for audio purposes (instead of default server configuration). This way, latency can be reduced further for real-time purposes.
 
Now I have switched to this setup for almost a year already, it is the only setup I use now.
 
It works very well and I am very satisfied with the level of audio control I get.
 
Some of the newest VST plugins may not work, but most robust plugins designed in the past work excellently, 64bit or 32bit is your choice.
 
If anyone is considering a setup on alternative OS like GNU-Linux or BSD, I highly recommend to do it! The time has already been ripe!
 
Let me know your thoughts..

Most of the music software I like to use is proprietary as well, but I have managed to get this software working on the open source OS, so that is a step in the direction.

I started back in the days of FL Studio 7 through 10. Now I'm using Reaper for all my projects, all of my new dream scatter material is all fully made with Reaper. Used to think that FL Studio had me covered and it served me really well for a long time. It kinda became very natural for me and was easy to use and flow with. I never thought I'd use anything else until I started getting into reaper gradually and realized that so many of the limitations that held me back in fl studio were solved in reaper. I'm forever reaper now.
 
I've given a shot at Cubase and Ableton and a few others but none of them really felt right with me as FL Studio did and Reaper does. Cubase is too slow and bulky for me, it's bloated like a new PC loaded with microsoft windows. Ableton just didn't suit my production style, but looks interesting for being able to play around live. I think it's ultimately up to you and how how you prefer to work and what sort of plugins you want to get bundled. FL Studio is a real nice way to start off and has a lot of creative possibilities especially for beat making. For me currently, FL Studio looks like a toy compared to Reaper; however, reaper doesn't come bundled with any instruments or vst plugins--which is okay for me as I prefer certain third party plugins. Reaper comes in a mere 9 mb download but provides an excellent fully customizable audio production environment, aside from the vst plugins.

In the start, I used to listen to much "underground" hip-hop music, so I've always had an appreciation for beats. Years ago I used to hang out with bboys in my area and we predominantly listened to soul and funk music from the 60s and 70s, especially breakbeat music. Later when I got into electronic music, I discovered psy-trance and was very interested in the melodic madness going on but could never understand why the beats had to be so regular and boring. When I discovered jungle, drum & bass, hardstep, darkstep, IDM, etc I wondered why nobody was mixing all those elements together with trance, I checked out many, many dnb artists from all periods. Then later on when I discovered ambient I realized that all these elements are necessary together and so I got into psychill, encompassing also the drum & bass origins I am interested in as well as the idea of beatless and ambient music.

follow rabbit hole @ central nerve or discogs
 

 
all songs are streaming online on our wesbite and bandcamp
 
current official releases:
2011 - IC3BERG | Blastoff
2012 - IC3BERG | Deviation
2014 - Dream Scatter | Transient Phase
2014 - Dream Scatter | Side Space
2014 - Dream Scatter | Break Stream
2016 - Dream Scatter | Spectral Radius
 
upcoming: in 2017?
Dream Scatter | Cultivation Theory
Dream Scatter | (un-named album)
 
Please feel free to respond to my music and I am interested in collaborations and networking with similar minded individuals //
Crucial Flow Research is available for hire, Composing, Mixing, Mastering, Album Artwork, and Digital Artistic Expression ~

I think a better question is 'what techniques are possible for achieving stereo sound?'
 
it is important then to understand stereophonic sound and phase space
 
Panning - changes the volume balance from left and right signal, leaving the spectral phase correlation intact Delay - changes the milisecond timing of the left and right signal without affecting the panning or volume balance, altering the frequency response with what is effectively a comb filter Reverb - simulates stereo reverberation reflections from a room, there are various types (Convolution / Impulse Response, Algorithmic, Spring, etc), this alters the phase space Mid-Side Processing - using L+R and L-R signals it is possible to convert a stereo Left/Right signal into a stereo Mid/Side signal. From here, there are many possibilities, such as mid-side EQing or multiband-dynamics, effectively also giving you a modified stereo field, depending on what you do Interaural Time Difference - there are some interesting algorithms from NUGEN plugins for stereo phase correlation modification Experimentation - using my own experimentation I've created stereophonic signals by generating signals at 44.1 khz and 192 khz and summing them together in creative ways. This works well because of the high frequency distortions present in lower bandwidth spectral calculations, which can be used creatively if studied and understood These are just a few points about stereo processing. I highly recommend studying what the nature of stereophonic sound is in order to manipulate it creatively.
 
Stereo effects have inherently to do with the similarity and phase correlation between the left and right signals, which is mostly achieved through shifts in phase by various stereo time-delay related effects.

I do all of my audio processing at 64 bit and save them as 32 bit float. This is the best format to work in due to the higher numerical precision that your calculations will retain. If within your editing process you dither down to 24 or 16 bits all the time... then you are adding cumulative error, quantization noise, and dither noise to your mix and re-processing it at later stages with less precision. However, when storing a final work for distribution and no further changes are intended, dithering to 16 bits should be fine at the very last step (such as for CD). The reason I only upload 24bit files for my distributions is because for online streaming and mp3 conversion that many sites do, it is better to work with 24 bit or 32 bit files. This is because the mp3 algorithm works with 32 bit data regardless and will perform a bunch of more calculations. So if you convert to mp3 from a dithered 16 bit file, you are also introducing extra dithering noise and quantization noise into the filtering algorithms of the mp3 conversion.. due to the truncated data it is not going to be as numerically precise. This is why it's always better to directly convert to mp3 from either 32bit float or 24 bit files. For websites like bandcamp and spotify and soundcloud, etc, I always work with 24 bit so that I get the highest probability of having a good quality mp3 stream due to this reason. I don't know what format people prefer to download but the way I see it, I want to deliver the most exact sonic waveform possible.
 
On a side note, I don't believe in storing audio data at a higher sampling frequency than 44.1khz or 48 khz but I do perform most of my calculations with 512x over sampling to avoid high frequency phase distortion...

The title should be self-explanatory.
 
For me it's the following:
 
1. Obviously, the slow tempo. I love it when it's  around 70-100 bpm.
2. The pads. Extremely important for me. It feels like swimming or diving in an aural sea.
3. The layers. Although I can appreciate some minimal psybient, like some Virtual and Robert Rich releases, it sends me to other worlds when there are arpeggios and effects around the main themes.
4. The melodies. I can't enjoy purely weird or experimental music for too long.
5. The ethnic element. a. Vocals, Arabic, Far Eastern, Tuvan, almost anything goes. I know they are anathema to a lot of listeners, but I love them as a part of the whole. Not so much as the main focus, although I do like Entheogenic, for example, who sometimes tend to overuse them b. Instrumentation: I enjoy all manner of traditional instruments, but I have a soft spot for tablas, stringed and wind instruments.
6. The emotional aspect. This might be my favourite element.
7. The "fractal" quality of some of the music. As it says on a sample I heard recently (but can't remember where    ) "self similar, but not the same," when I get deep into a tune it feels like getting ever deeper into the Mandelbrot. I know it's the most typical example there is, but that's what it feels like. And it also gets progressively brighter, with various visual effects that look like tricks your eyes play on you on a sunny day, following the effects. I don't often have the will to focus inward for too long though.
8. Nature sounds from field recordings. What would Matt Hillier's music be without them?
9. Some artwork is fantastic and deepens the experience in its own right. I adore the art on Dakini releases, for instance.
 
As I've said elsewhere, I used to value the spiritual aspect, but now it's not as important for me anymore.
 
And you?

If you have pads in 432Hz and arps in 440Hz they'll be hideously out of tune with each other...
 
Kalya Scintilla wrote a post about the importance of tuning to 432Hz a while back but it seems to have been removed. I tried it myself for a while and to be honest I stopped because all the tunings seemed to be off with each other, but obviously it can be done right if you're dedicated to implementing it. The jury's still out though. If you think it's worth your while to perfect the art of retuning everything then it probably is.
 
I'd agree with Crucial Flow Research that you should seek out music in 432Hz and compare for yourself (and also with Monsterhed and pangani that you need to make sure it's not just been repitched - listen to artists who you know use 432 tuning).
 
And if you want an equal tempered scale frequency table, here is a link to one I made ages ago when I couldn't find one anywhere on the web: https://www.facebook.com/notes/maia-snowdrop/a432hz-equal-tempered-scale-frequencies/278721692283800?pnref=lhc

making a living off of music is really difficult in my experience... especially with this music scene. nobody taught me anything, every chance I could get I learned more and did experiments and tried to figure things out. I happen to have spent many years working on my craft and over time I've built up my music and worked on projects for free to learn and to hope to gain more experience so that I can make a living out of it someday in the future, when momentum builds up. my goal is to try to turn it into a business but I'm still in the early phases of it. however, I don't believe that making money should be the primary goal when expressing oneself, but if people believe in it and want to support it, that's always a plus... the primary goal is to learn and reflect, stay true to the music and what you want to emit
 
what's most important to me is the sound and the message of the music
 
I don't know where this life will lead me in the near future but I just simply go one step at a time..

Something I've learned over the years is rules of life are followed, not for personal honor, reputation or gain; but namely for life itself. However, we all need a starting point to get us going down the path of light.
 
The Golden Rule is such a place to start. In my view, all things start from this point.
 
Treat others as you would have them treat you.
 
A simple starting point but the more you follow it, embrace it, understand it, the more you realize this simple concept has what is Infinite within it.
 
Pax!
 
DJ Lorn

I think a better question is 'what techniques are possible for achieving stereo sound?'
 
it is important then to understand stereophonic sound and phase space
 
Panning - changes the volume balance from left and right signal, leaving the spectral phase correlation intact Delay - changes the milisecond timing of the left and right signal without affecting the panning or volume balance, altering the frequency response with what is effectively a comb filter Reverb - simulates stereo reverberation reflections from a room, there are various types (Convolution / Impulse Response, Algorithmic, Spring, etc), this alters the phase space Mid-Side Processing - using L+R and L-R signals it is possible to convert a stereo Left/Right signal into a stereo Mid/Side signal. From here, there are many possibilities, such as mid-side EQing or multiband-dynamics, effectively also giving you a modified stereo field, depending on what you do Interaural Time Difference - there are some interesting algorithms from NUGEN plugins for stereo phase correlation modification Experimentation - using my own experimentation I've created stereophonic signals by generating signals at 44.1 khz and 192 khz and summing them together in creative ways. This works well because of the high frequency distortions present in lower bandwidth spectral calculations, which can be used creatively if studied and understood These are just a few points about stereo processing. I highly recommend studying what the nature of stereophonic sound is in order to manipulate it creatively.
 
Stereo effects have inherently to do with the similarity and phase correlation between the left and right signals, which is mostly achieved through shifts in phase by various stereo time-delay related effects.

For organizing my music library I use a modified version of the application foobar2000, as well as a bunch of other third party software for editing tags, converting audio formats, etc.
 
The folder structure goes somewhat like this [Genre] / [Album Artist] / [Year] - [Album Name] / [##] - [Track Name]
 
On Discogs and last.fm I look up a lot of the relevant information for the album, like release year, country, record label, album artwork, style tags, background info (so that it can all be searchable and easily identifiable). I follow certain structures, like if an album is a compilation album released by a label and no particular artist, I make the album artist the name of that label and group them together that way. For the genres and styles I use the modern id3 v2.4 standard, which is not widely supported but allows for multi-genre and multi-artist tagging. The first main categorical genre determines the genre folder it lands in. All the other genres and styles are stored as extra descriptors so that everything can be browsed and queried using foobar's wonderful adaptive and re-programmable user interface.
 
Using id3 v2.4 tags, I neatly write all this information to the files and adhere to a standard for the whole library and make sure that I have at least between 600x600 and 800x800 pixel size artwork
 
My modified version of foobar displays a waveform seekbar, allowing me to visualize the current listening position of the song super imposed on top of the peak waveform of the whole song. This gives me extra insight when studying the dynamics of music and instantly allows me to see how a recording was mastered. Also, there is a high quality VU (peak and rms) combined meter, loudness normalized around -18LUFS using the EBU-R128 loudness normalization algorithm. This meter gives me a relativistic perspective on peak and rms dynamics and mastering quality of a song. Aside from this I have a very large display of the album artwork for more visual contemplation as well as a real time stereo fourier transformation of the audio signal, allowing visual cortex analysis of the temporal stereo frequency spectrum changes in the music I am listening to.
 
Of course, I only listen to everything using ASIO soundcard drivers. The windows sound module alters and muddies up the sound as it is known to use weak resampling algorithms to mix multiple sources of audio together, myself and others have confirmed this through listening tests. When I listen through direct ASIO driver output I get more clear sonic quality and I can properly make out all of the finer details in recordings. Often times, I think most people don't realize that the difference between playing back a 24 bit lossles audio file and a decent quality mp3 file is negligible compared to the difference in sonic quality you get from switching to proper ASIO soundcard drivers. In other words, if you're not even using ASIO drivers, who cares if it's mp3 or wav? I say, make sure your digital signal processing chain and audio equipment is set up proper, then worry about which compression algorithms to use. In my experience, I am fairly happy with high quality mp3s for my music library; but of course I only work with at least 32 bit floating point wave files for all my serious audio editing work and do my calculations in 64 bit with 512x oversampling.
 
Using my knowledge of computers, mathematics, and programming, I have learned certain truths about computer digital audio over the years and combined all this knowledge into my customized workflow with audio applications to really allow me to study and appreciate music in all its details.
 
That's it for my music library. I have separate libraries for percussion hits, audio samples, recordings form portable recorder, etc. I primarily now use Reaper to compose, arrange, edit, mix, and master all my audio.
 
Reaper is like a swiss army knife for the studio work and foobar2000 makes an excellent music exploration and studying tool ~

We started this whole psybient.org project, because we believe that psybient downtempo music has a positive impact on human mind and it reconnects us both to ancient world of sounds and to eternal cosmic energy of the universe! We all know that good music is beneficial for body, mind and spirit! 
 
psybient / psychill music is often based / integrate elements of traditional instuments, talks about counscioness shamanic rhythm and so on. In general spirituality and trance music and events are highly interconnected. I would like to remind you about this wonderful documentary about spirituality and electronic music. It is called "Electronic Awakening" and it was released in old 2011. 
 
I was going to buy the DVD but i manage to wathc the full version online by using some a browser plugin.
 
You can watch he full version here, unfortunately it is available only to people that are in USA. I actually managed to watch in from EUrope by using some browser "proxy" plugin.
 
Electronic Awakening (2011) video
http://www.hulu.com/watch/477301
 
Teaser

 
6 min sample

This is a recording of a new Lab's Cloud track.  First writing the filter in the arpeggio and after recording some melody keys.   There is no name for this song, any suggestions?  

For organizing my music library I use a modified version of the application foobar2000, as well as a bunch of other third party software for editing tags, converting audio formats, etc.
 
The folder structure goes somewhat like this [Genre] / [Album Artist] / [Year] - [Album Name] / [##] - [Track Name]
 
On Discogs and last.fm I look up a lot of the relevant information for the album, like release year, country, record label, album artwork, style tags, background info (so that it can all be searchable and easily identifiable). I follow certain structures, like if an album is a compilation album released by a label and no particular artist, I make the album artist the name of that label and group them together that way. For the genres and styles I use the modern id3 v2.4 standard, which is not widely supported but allows for multi-genre and multi-artist tagging. The first main categorical genre determines the genre folder it lands in. All the other genres and styles are stored as extra descriptors so that everything can be browsed and queried using foobar's wonderful adaptive and re-programmable user interface.
 
Using id3 v2.4 tags, I neatly write all this information to the files and adhere to a standard for the whole library and make sure that I have at least between 600x600 and 800x800 pixel size artwork
 
My modified version of foobar displays a waveform seekbar, allowing me to visualize the current listening position of the song super imposed on top of the peak waveform of the whole song. This gives me extra insight when studying the dynamics of music and instantly allows me to see how a recording was mastered. Also, there is a high quality VU (peak and rms) combined meter, loudness normalized around -18LUFS using the EBU-R128 loudness normalization algorithm. This meter gives me a relativistic perspective on peak and rms dynamics and mastering quality of a song. Aside from this I have a very large display of the album artwork for more visual contemplation as well as a real time stereo fourier transformation of the audio signal, allowing visual cortex analysis of the temporal stereo frequency spectrum changes in the music I am listening to.
 
Of course, I only listen to everything using ASIO soundcard drivers. The windows sound module alters and muddies up the sound as it is known to use weak resampling algorithms to mix multiple sources of audio together, myself and others have confirmed this through listening tests. When I listen through direct ASIO driver output I get more clear sonic quality and I can properly make out all of the finer details in recordings. Often times, I think most people don't realize that the difference between playing back a 24 bit lossles audio file and a decent quality mp3 file is negligible compared to the difference in sonic quality you get from switching to proper ASIO soundcard drivers. In other words, if you're not even using ASIO drivers, who cares if it's mp3 or wav? I say, make sure your digital signal processing chain and audio equipment is set up proper, then worry about which compression algorithms to use. In my experience, I am fairly happy with high quality mp3s for my music library; but of course I only work with at least 32 bit floating point wave files for all my serious audio editing work and do my calculations in 64 bit with 512x oversampling.
 
Using my knowledge of computers, mathematics, and programming, I have learned certain truths about computer digital audio over the years and combined all this knowledge into my customized workflow with audio applications to really allow me to study and appreciate music in all its details.
 
That's it for my music library. I have separate libraries for percussion hits, audio samples, recordings form portable recorder, etc. I primarily now use Reaper to compose, arrange, edit, mix, and master all my audio.
 
Reaper is like a swiss army knife for the studio work and foobar2000 makes an excellent music exploration and studying tool ~

i have never used platinum notes, as i know "Platinum Notes" will modify the files. i prefer to modify volume by ears, to keep the files "original". But i have to say that with "ambient" music the sound volume differences could be not easy to notice. 

you are not the first to give a very positive feedback to Reaper. And what is incredible is really accessible price of 60 usd for a "discounted" licence.

I started back in the days of FL Studio 7 through 10. Now I'm using Reaper for all my projects, all of my new dream scatter material is all fully made with Reaper. Used to think that FL Studio had me covered and it served me really well for a long time. It kinda became very natural for me and was easy to use and flow with. I never thought I'd use anything else until I started getting into reaper gradually and realized that so many of the limitations that held me back in fl studio were solved in reaper. I'm forever reaper now.
 
I've given a shot at Cubase and Ableton and a few others but none of them really felt right with me as FL Studio did and Reaper does. Cubase is too slow and bulky for me, it's bloated like a new PC loaded with microsoft windows. Ableton just didn't suit my production style, but looks interesting for being able to play around live. I think it's ultimately up to you and how how you prefer to work and what sort of plugins you want to get bundled. FL Studio is a real nice way to start off and has a lot of creative possibilities especially for beat making. For me currently, FL Studio looks like a toy compared to Reaper; however, reaper doesn't come bundled with any instruments or vst plugins--which is okay for me as I prefer certain third party plugins. Reaper comes in a mere 9 mb download but provides an excellent fully customizable audio production environment, aside from the vst plugins.

I think a better question is 'what techniques are possible for achieving stereo sound?'
 
it is important then to understand stereophonic sound and phase space
 
Panning - changes the volume balance from left and right signal, leaving the spectral phase correlation intact Delay - changes the milisecond timing of the left and right signal without affecting the panning or volume balance, altering the frequency response with what is effectively a comb filter Reverb - simulates stereo reverberation reflections from a room, there are various types (Convolution / Impulse Response, Algorithmic, Spring, etc), this alters the phase space Mid-Side Processing - using L+R and L-R signals it is possible to convert a stereo Left/Right signal into a stereo Mid/Side signal. From here, there are many possibilities, such as mid-side EQing or multiband-dynamics, effectively also giving you a modified stereo field, depending on what you do Interaural Time Difference - there are some interesting algorithms from NUGEN plugins for stereo phase correlation modification Experimentation - using my own experimentation I've created stereophonic signals by generating signals at 44.1 khz and 192 khz and summing them together in creative ways. This works well because of the high frequency distortions present in lower bandwidth spectral calculations, which can be used creatively if studied and understood These are just a few points about stereo processing. I highly recommend studying what the nature of stereophonic sound is in order to manipulate it creatively.
 
Stereo effects have inherently to do with the similarity and phase correlation between the left and right signals, which is mostly achieved through shifts in phase by various stereo time-delay related effects.

follow rabbit hole @ central nerve or discogs
 

 
all songs are streaming online on our wesbite and bandcamp
 
current official releases:
2011 - IC3BERG | Blastoff
2012 - IC3BERG | Deviation
2014 - Dream Scatter | Transient Phase
2014 - Dream Scatter | Side Space
2014 - Dream Scatter | Break Stream
2016 - Dream Scatter | Spectral Radius
 
upcoming: in 2017?
Dream Scatter | Cultivation Theory
Dream Scatter | (un-named album)
 
Please feel free to respond to my music and I am interested in collaborations and networking with similar minded individuals //
Crucial Flow Research is available for hire, Composing, Mixing, Mastering, Album Artwork, and Digital Artistic Expression ~