S1gns Of L1fe - "35,000 Feet"

[S1gnsOfL1fe]

https://soundcloud.com/s1gnsofl1fe/35-000-feet-see-description


I went on vacation to Hawaii a few weeks ago and decided to take my iPad2 along on the journey to create some pieces while I was away from the studio. This is the result.

I've never really considered myself to be very familiar with creating music on iOS. The concept itself is still fairly new, so with my audiobus compatible apps loaded and ready, I made use of the 5 hour plane ride there and back.

There are 4 distinct "movements" in this piece. Each one was a separate track that I since have stung together to create the final track. Everything you're hearing was created on the iPad2 using Alchemy Pro, Sunrizer, Magellan, and Beatmaker 2 all running through Audiobus. Only light EQ, reverb, and some leveling was applied in the studio.

Because it was created on an older iPad2, there are some pops, distortion, and other noises that wouldn't have been there had I had some better hardware. This is only a sketch that I wanted to share and not an official "track" meant for release.

That being said, I hope you enjoy it!

Cheers,
-S1gns

Don't forget to purchase our brand new "Ambient Online Compilation: Volume 1" out now on Bandcamp! All proceeds go directly to supporting the site.

http://ambientonline.bandcamp.com/

[Ambient Indigo]

Hei S1gns ----
This is great stuff, what a way to spend 2 long flights - don't you ever REST?! ;-) You'd come up with something stunning on a flight to Europe right?!
I was thinking of trying out my iPad which has some connections with Omnisphere I've not made use of yet. Is the old iPad not so good as hardware? Might get a new one for work soon.
Does the iPad have a keyboard to play manually for example chords in Alchemy?

[S1gnsOfL1fe]

You are so talented, one of the big names of ambient. I can't create something like that with all equipment at home (or in some studio... or world). And I like pops and distortions, they add some rough authenticity of the moment.

Honored and touched by your words jespis. Thank you so much!

You are very talented too and I really enjoy your music and your contributions to the site. I'm also glad you like the pops and distortion...I'll remember that the next time I work on the ol' iPad!

Cheers to you my friend,
-S1gns

[S1gnsOfL1fe]

Hei S1gns ----
This is great stuff, what a way to spend 2 long flights - don't you ever REST?! ;-) You'd come up with something stunning on a flight to Europe right?!
I was thinking of trying out my iPad which has some connections with Omnisphere I've not made use of yet. Is the old iPad not so good as hardware? Might get a new one for work soon.
Does the iPad have a keyboard to play manually for example chords in Alchemy?

I do rest...but I never stop working! That's the honest truth.

The old iPad (iPad and iPad2) are definitely inferior hardware wise to the newer iPads (3 and 4). Design specs, internals, processor speed, more ram...they upgrade these things every year but when I was in the midst of a full ambient piece running sweeps across the alchemy pro remix pads with my finger I finally got the sense that my current iPad (iPad2) was underpowered. If I had something more top of the line (like you're thinking of getting) I would have been better off.

Each softsynth seems to have it's own "built in" keyboard. Some are more flexable than others meaning you can resize them to your liking, or even alchemy (which is the best, in my opinion) allows you to restrict the keys to certain scales, etc.) That helped sometimes, but I'm more of a traditionalist...I like to use my own knowledge of the keyboard and see if I can pull it off.

Have fun once you get something running! By the way, audiobus makes the whole thing possible. Don't forget to pick that up once you get your new tablet.

Cheers my man,
-S1gns

[Ambient Mechanics]

Really nice set there, Chris, for a "sketch"..you're too modest, my friend..they are really, really cool as they stand currently. I understand the pops and clicks can be annoying, but given the specs you were working with at the time, then these still shine in their own right. Nice work, my friend. :tu:

[S1gnsOfL1fe]

Really nice set there, Chris, for a "sketch"..you're too modest, my friend..they are really, really cool as they stand currently. I understand the pops and clicks can be annoying, but given the specs you were working with at the time, then these still shine in their own right. Nice work, my friend. :tu:

Thanks man! I really appreciate you taking the time to listen and provide some positive feedback. Hopefully I'll acquire some better hardware down the line and those pops and clicks will be a thing of the past. Either way, this is a really fun way of working. Highly recommended if you own an iPad! Oh and one more thing...use good headphones.

Cheers,
-S1gns

[Ambient Mechanics]

Really nice set there, Chris, for a "sketch"..you're too modest, my friend..they are really, really cool as they stand currently. I understand the pops and clicks can be annoying, but given the specs you were working with at the time, then these still shine in their own right. Nice work, my friend. :tu:

Thanks man! I really appreciate you taking the time to listen and provide some positive feedback. Hopefully I'll acquire some better hardware down the line and those pops and clicks will be a thing of the past. Either way, this is a really fun way of working. Highly recommended if you own an iPad! Oh and one more thing...use good headphones.

Cheers,
-S1gns

You're more than welcome, mate..really nice work there, like I said..and I know what you mean about the iPad. I, personally don't own one, but one of our daughter's has one and it's there to use if I want..but it's v.2..which, as you already know, isn't so great for this kind of thing, if you want to have full control over everything in your production process, due to my being basically a "Windows boy"..and I don't really want to splash out on all iPad compatible software at this point..but it's something I have and still and thinking about doing later down the line.

For now, I only tend to use it for controlling the Orb in Omnisphere, which gives you some cool real-time control feature..very handy for tweaking stuff live.

[Gloomer]

I listened to it the whole 20 minutes and it was amazing.. I'm very restfull now. You did a great job ! And thanks a lot for your review on my Afterworld :-)

[S1gnsOfL1fe]

I listened to it the whole 20 minutes and it was amazing.. I'm very restfull now. You did a great job ! And thanks a lot for your review on my Afterworld :-)

My pleasure. Keep up the good work!

Cheers,
-S1gns