Nearly all the sounds used in this come from a small sample taken from an earlier work, http://soundcloud.com/tuonela-1/oscillatrix, which was itself taken from some rather crude noises I managed to produce on some free synth software.
There are five stereo tracks. These were produced by stretching the sample using different settings and techniques, some for the first time – an experiment, as many of my tracks are.
The first (full length) is a deep, hollow, subdued roar, not unlike the sound of distant thunder (funny how Pink Floyd provides so many references…) It is a dark, velvety sound, quite intense and disturbingly oppressive.
The second, also full length, is a furry-edged, organ-like sound with a subtle ululation which helps provide some of that pulsating, “vocal” effect. It would probably make a good drone on its own.
The third, a stretched and modified sample from another track, is a sound which I re-use occasionally, always modifying it further – a favourite sound, if you like, which keeps evolving. Here it provides the “rain” sound as well as a distant, hollow sound; it fades in at about 30 seconds and continues throughout, and is the last sound heard as the track fades.
The fourth is a shorter, more complex track derived from the Oscillatrix sample – it has a more musical quality, rising and falling like someone slowly rolling a bowling ball up and down an organ keyboard. It fades in at 2:30 and out at 14:30.
The fifth is a shorter version of track 4, treated with some delay, mild phasing and reverb. And possibly reversed, I don’t recall. It fades in at 7:30 and out at 15:00. The timing here, and in track 4, was more instinctive than scientific – once laid, tracks can be “slid” around and listened to, so this exercise probably took several hours.
It is the overlaying of these different tracks, slightly out of phase, that produces the “breathing” feel, as Mira put it so well; a mournful sigh that moves from a choral effect to an orchestral one under the effect of the fifth track. The rise and fall, as well as the feeing that an alien key is being used, is largely dictated by the shape and nature of the initial sample. That doesn’t mean this result was deliberate – I always know something is going to happen, just never exactly what… The rest is a matter of balancing the different sounds so that each contributes to the overall effect without dominating.
