Thread: Ambiance

New electronic piece guys! This was composed as an assignment for my intro to electronic music class. The only things I used as the source of the sounds for this piece were my viola and my voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8h7iUM6tSA

Let me know what you think!

I prefer music with notes

Originally Posted by Couchie

I prefer music with notes

Every thing you heard in that piece was a note.

Let's just say I like your viola work better...but this was pretty chill.

Originally Posted by kv466

Let's just say I like your viola work better...but this was pretty chill.

Fair enough...lol

In my defense it was an assignment for school, so I had certain restrictions and parameters I had to work within.

Can you tell me any specific reasons you didn't like it too much? Maybe I could improve.

Originally Posted by violadude

Fair enough...lol

In my defense it was an assignment for school, so I had certain restrictions and parameters I had to work within.

Can you tell me any specific reasons you didn't like it too much? Maybe I could improve.

No specifics...just not my things...you do it well, actually...it was relaxing, just not me.

So when you gonna write a quintet with three violas, cello and double-bass?

Originally Posted by kv466

So when you gonna write a quintet with three violas, cello and double-bass?

Haha I will put that on my list just for you, Kv

I like the angle you were going for, although giving yourself two or three minutes to work is a pretty severe limit when you're doing ambient music. It's interesting how it's unclear whether natural sounds are imitating artificial ones or vice-versa (until I read how you made it).
For a second it kind of reminded me of a super-condensed take on this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo29PoLkoOM

Not speaking too technically here, but some of the elements felt a bit too separated; I'm hearing a handful of very distinct voices when I feel perhaps they should mesh a bit more organically, to be more true to the title. There's not much of a science to this besides having the right tools and tweaking the sounds like crazy until something "clicks".

Originally Posted by regressivetransphobe

I like the angle you were going for, although giving yourself two or three minutes to work is a pretty severe limit when you're doing ambient music. It's interesting how it's unclear whether natural sounds are imitating artificial ones or vice-versa (until I read how you made it).
For a second it kind of reminded me of a super-condensed take on this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo29PoLkoOM

Not speaking too technically here, but some of the elements felt a bit too separated; I'm hearing a handful of very distinct voices when I feel perhaps they should mesh a bit more organically, to be more true to the title. There's not much of a science to this besides having the right tools and tweaking the sounds like crazy until something "clicks".

Thank you for the feedback, Regressivetransphobe. It was helpful. To address some of your points,

1) The time limit: Yes, I agree, it had little time to develop. This was actually a homework assignment in which about 2 and a half minutes in length was a requirement. Perhaps since I am getting feedback confirming my thoughts about the time, I will expand this piece a bit.

2) The multiple voices: I kind of like all the different layers of things going on, personally. But you're right, for it to be true "ambient" music it should probably mesh a little better. Maybe once I expand it, since I will no longer be working within the assignments parameters it will cease to be ambient music and become something else. It does sound a little rough though because the only program I currently have to work with is garageband. I hope to get a program that is a little more advanced soon.

Thanks for your input! and I liked the link you posted too! That was a pretty interesting piece.

That's what I was thinking: maybe this isn't an ambient piece at all in spirit, and you'd rather grasp for more rigid structure.

I get behind what Couchie said, but i've been exploring this kind of stuff i like it man!

I liked it. I'm not much of one for technical terms since I go almost completely by feel, but I thought it sounded good. I would say my greatest gripe is that it was far too short to be effective. I had just started getting into it when it was over. Had the piece been closer to twenty minutes and continued to progress and shift as it did in this condensed piece then I would like it more.

@ Violadude, I definitely think if you had been alloted more time, the piece could have been developed more; I especially was being drawn into it when it suddenly ended! But I liked the mood it was starting to create--at least for me--near its close. Good work!

To me it's a bit too glitch-like in places to be a straight up ambient, but I see nothing wrong with cooking different genres into a stew.

So if you would be sleeping in mystical forest one day and by evening you would be awaken by Apollo and he would tell you GREEDINGS... ONLY MASTERS OF ART CAN SLEEP IN MY MAGICAL GARDEN... SHOW US YOUR MUSIC AND I, WITH MY MUSES, SHALL JUDGE IF YOU'RE WORTHY and then from the bushes there would come out all those awesome ladies fresh as spring dressed in light white robes gently moved by the wind and what, you would show them something like that, I'M ASKING YOU MAN, WOULD YOU SHOW THEM THIS PIECE