The River, The Rocks, The Sky

[windspace]

I started working on this while we were visiting the Grand Canyon in November. When you're actually there, there is so much more of each of these things than a photo or a song can really express. Still, one wants to try...

https://soundcloud.com/windspace/the-river-the-rocks-the-sky


I started with a drone created with Animoog. Then added field recording clips that I found. Mostly from freesound.org. But I found some sounds on the National Park Service website as well.

Then I added the melodic parts, one each from iProphet, Animoog, and Iris2.

[Sky High Diamonds]

Can I ask, how much was foley/field recording and how much was prerecorded from freesound.org? I'm just trying to get a picture of the sound ratio.

[windspace]

All of the field recordings were either from freesound.org or from the US National Park Service Grand Canyon website. Freesound.org is a wonderful resource. But, if you plan on releasing work containing the samples commercially, be cautious and read the licensing carefully.Many of the sounds there are licensed under Creative Commons for NON-COMMERCIAL use only. All of the ones that I used fall into that category.

[Sky High Diamonds]

Ahhhh sorry, I misunderstood, I thought it was a mixture of your own field recordings with others. Are you pleased with it?

[windspace]

Ahhhh sorry, I misunderstood, I thought it was a mixture of your own field recordings with others. Are you pleased with it?

I am generally pleased with it. I'm at the point with it that the returns from tweaking at it are becoming minuscule, so it's time to let go. I wish that I could have used my own field recordings, but I'm ok with the sounds that I found. I did need to work them over to make them work for me. For instance, for the river sound, I slowed the sound down and doubletracked it with different EQ'ing on the two tracks so it would sound like a larger river. And the wind sounds needed EQ'ing to drop out the bottom frequencies. I was a little stumped for "rock" sounds until I found the rockfall recordings. I wanted to convey the feeling of immensity that one feels looking at all the exposed rock in the big ditch. That would be a lot easier visually than with sound. I guess an echoing sound would work…
While in the Southwest, I found a CD of flute music by Paul Horn and R. Carlos Nakai that they recorded in the Canyon de Chelly National Monument. They capitalized on the natural echoes off of the rock walls. It's a wonderful recording! And I was inspired by their music further in this piece, as I found one of the scales used by Mr. Nakai for his
Native American flute music, and used it for the melodic bits.

[Jim and Jillian Graham]

River, Rocks and Sky. Very beautiful. Large, wonderous sound. Haunting at times.

[Sky High Diamonds]

I am generally pleased with it. I'm at the point with it that the returns from tweaking at it are becoming minuscule, so it's time to let go. I wish that I could have used my own field recordings, but I'm ok with the sounds that I found. I did need to work them over to make them work for me. For instance, for the river sound, I slowed the sound down and doubletracked it with different EQ'ing on the two tracks so it would sound like a larger river. And the wind sounds needed EQ'ing to drop out the bottom frequencies. I was a little stumped for "rock" sounds until I found the rockfall recordings. I wanted to convey the feeling of immensity that one feels looking at all the exposed rock in the big ditch. That would be a lot easier visually than with sound. I guess an echoing sound would work…
While in the Southwest, I found a CD of flute music by Paul Horn and R. Carlos Nakai that they recorded in the Canyon de Chelly National Monument. They capitalized on the natural echoes off of the rock walls. It's a wonderful recording! And I was inspired by their music further in this piece, as I found one of the scales used by Mr. Nakai for his
Native American flute music, and used it for the melodic bits.

It is so hard to know when to let go! I struggle with that one.

it really sounds like you customised and personalised the sounds for the track and finding those recordings, what a gift :thumbsup:

I love the melodic elements, I think I said that on your sound cloud.

[seismic1]

Great piece. I liked the minimal sound and the way you still managed to impart the scale of the place. Good use of sound samples too.

Good work

[windspace]

Thank you everyone for the nice comments I'm open as well for criticism. How's the mix, etc. I mixed with headphones so I have no idea how it sounds on any other type of speakers.

[seismic1]

Sounded great on my monitors

[windspace]

Sounded great on my monitors

Cool! Thanks for the feedback. I always wonder, as I can only mix using the headphones.

[alias9593]

Nice one, you have to go more to the Grand Canyon. :thumbsup:

[Thought Experiment]

Stunning, truly evocative piece of music. There's a real sense of ancient mystery, of Nature's power. Sounds good on my headphones too :D

[windspace]

Thanks for the kind comments guys Glad you enjoyed it!

(And I would LOVE to go to the Grand Canyon more often...good idea :D)

[Sampleconstruct]

Lovely track!