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by Johnny Stone

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Lao Jia

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An experiment in using Photosounder which is a spectral editing tool.

This track started as a sharp tin can hit which I turned into a droning gong. But I had no idea where to go next.

So I started rifling through my collection of samples and came across an incredibly noisy sample (that my Dad recorded for me) of some Chinese radio station playing pop songs.

I grabbed a chunk and used Photosounder to clear up some high energy noise around 5KHz and 10KHz, then messed with the gamma and pixel rate (effectively spectral timeshifting) to give it a slower, darker, feel.

I layered it all up in Live and added some delay, reverb, and re-layered the radio sample mangled over itself. The latter uses the very handy Arpeggiate-slice-to-MIDI trick.

All a bit haphazard but fun to make.

Guest said

Sounds like the soundtrack to someone being slowly drugged at a carnival. Very effective! Love the underground gong sound. Deliciously dark!

skiks/bruce hamilton's avatar
skiks/bruce hamilton said

thanks re skree. the thing about noise (for me) is it can be so fun! there's a built-in visceral excitement and the challenge is harnessing it into musical contexts. man, Lao Jia is hypnotizing me!

Johnny Stone's avatar
Johnny Stone said

Cool mate very cool.

skiks/bruce hamilton's avatar
skiks/bruce hamilton said

very cool.

Guest said

I'm Michel Rouzic and I approve of your use of Photosounder and the result for this ;).

kirklynch's avatar
kirklynch said

Very interesting! Some of the sounds almost sound vocal

mmi's avatar
mmi said

Like CS said, VERY COOL. And I don't have a clue what you're talking about in your description (probably cause I'm old and unhip). Inspired me to make some odd guitar noises too.

Guest said

poetic clustering sounds that whirl in a perfect sense of time place and matter. i could relate to that! nice piece of work Sandbags!

Cave Street's avatar
Cave Street said

*VERY COOL!*

Guest said

Sounds like the soundtrack to someone being slowly drugged at a carnival. Very effective! Love the underground gong sound. Tess

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