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For the last two or three years or so, I've been limiting pieces to shorter than four minutes, as a way of enforcing focus. This one, though, seemed to need to exceed five minutes, so I'm gradually letting myself free from some constraints.

The first themes I recorded Friday night were the second and third themes in the finished piece. I wanted to do something that formed out of more sparsity, thinking of Slowdive's "Rutti." While I recorded something in that direction, it didn't quite fit with the rest. In a second session Saturday night, I recorded the two themes with harmonizing melodies, followed by the long first theme in the finished piece, which fit much better than the earlier one. This one seemed to work best as a long build, and inspired by the example of jwh's week 20 piece, I gave myself license to include the whole thing as a unified, mood-creating intro.

The first several things I recorded seemed to start on the 4 of the first measure, beginning with a rest, so getting this to fit together required a few shifts in relation to the expected start of the measure. The harmonized lines needed a little shifting as well: I'd gone for intuitive timing, but they worked better when tightened up.

The signal chain: three tracks of home-built Res-O-Glas Belmont with Lace Alumitones. The left and right channels went straight into the UA Volt, but the center-panned channel went through a JHS Colourbox 10, with the lows boosted and mids attenuated. This time, I kind of embraced overdriving the input, another change from the stay-clean approach. 

There's a moodiness and determination about this that I kind of like. The title comes from the prominence of the Early Winters Spires, at 647 m.

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Had less time for this than I did for the discord challenge this track was born form.

I actually spent less time making this song than the song itself ;)

Like the title suggests, I took the track I submitted for the m8 discord challenge with theme of 'Animals' and reversed the track and slowed it way way down. then added Arturia rev plate 40 and Soundtoys little plate as well as Echo boy sandwiched in-between.

The OG track was already and included the amazing sausage fattener/ decapitator chain I love so very much!

Hope you enjoy this weird weird track.

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Very fast session in Koala since I just didn't have time this week and the deadline is in 45 minutes. Percussion is all pitched mouth sounds and me hitting a book. The two synth sounds are both samples from a Microfreak. I love Koala but I am RUSTY.

Sorry - hopefully I will do better next week!

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Fieldwork aka. field research describes a qualitative or quantitative method of collecting primary data outside of a studio or laboratotry, directly within a subject's natural environment.

πεντηκοστὴ ἡμέρα

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### Lore

You seek guidance. The Old Wise Ones can surely help. You find the right spot in the the forest and kneel down, sitting on your feet, your eyes closed. You lower your whole body and touch your forehead to the ground, your palms feeling the raw earth. Your soul calls out. Once. Twice. Three times. No response. You don't give up, though. You know this is the right place. They can't have left. They just can't. Your throat starts to clench up and your eyes begin to well with tears. They can't have left... They can't have... Then you start to hear it. So softly that, at first, you question if it's just your imagination. The sound gets louder. Not only that, but you can feel Them. Their wisdom so deep it generates a protective and soothing aura. You even feel their footsteps as they approach. An enormous brown paw touches your shoulder with unspeakable tenderness, beckoning you to get up. You abide and the spirit wraps you in a massive hug. You are safe. At least for a moment.

### Production details

Howdy folks!!!

I tried something super different this time. I was inspired by Huabun's "Descent" (from WB2026 W20) and others like PeterM and Tone Matrix (among others) who often have these super pretty improvisational sessions, so I decided to try my hand at doing the same! I thought it would also be a good way to incorporate the Expressive E Osmose synth I got a while back but rarely use in my compositions.

Since the M8 Community Jam's theme was "Animals", I wanted tried to find a bowed or fluted preset that sounded like a wounded animal in a forest pleading its hunter for mercy. But then playing around with the presets, I found this one I really liked called Arcadia Pan and shifted gears - instead of a wounded animal, I thought it made more sense to have something more spiritual and mysterious. So I started playing around in A-minor (easy to remember because it's all white keys) and after a while, I got a 1-ish minute take that felt self contained enough that I could call a song. I then put that through the M8 to add lots of reverb and OTT, then I exported it to Reaper. In Reaper, I also added another layer of the original take, but pitched up an octave. 

Super happy with the results, but MAN is it hard to make a continuous take properly, holy crap! Hahahahaha... Keeping time is so, so hard!!!

Anyways, hope y'all had a great week!!!

Cheers, folks!

Link to M8 Bundle

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estimated wait: eternity

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Hi gang!

i was close to miss my first week this time, due to being super tired. :D

Not super stoked about this track tbh, but really happy i did something. :)

Now off to dreamland...

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I don't normally work with samples outside of a DAW, so decided it was time to learn. This one was done in Koala Sampler, and many mistakes were made. But I like the workflow so will keep at it :)

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Aevara - “At the Gables”

@ThisisAevara

I’m on holiday with a group of friends and they are all really talented. I managed to record this little snippet on my phone, and I really love the idea and execution.

I usually have someone guest post when I’m on holiday and I’m really pleased that Aevara has allowed me to continue this tradition.

Check out his insta linked above and tell him Philly sent ya! He’s a ledge.

@ThisisAevara

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I was trying out a new plugin by Virtual Riot called Bismuth on this one. But I wish that I had started with designing a sound in there first. I found I was trying to blend it into the existing ideas, rather than making it the main element. It's "twinkly" synth at the start.

I'll feature it more on the next weeks track

(vocals are splice samples)

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