ontol : The Wood Duck Variations (1993)

[aoVI]

I recently have been going through and cleaning up old recordings to get more of my past work into this century.

The Wood Duck Variations are remixes of a session from 1993, originally titled "A Woodcutter's Dream of Ducks". The participants from this session were Brian Scheuerle, Mike Luttkis, and myself--recorded on a Peavey AMR64 or System 1 (cassette 4 track) as they were sometimes called.

The instruments are guitar, bass, DX7IIFD, and DD5 drum machine. Original treatments were an Alesis Quadraverb and a selection of foot pedals.

There are a lot of similarity between the pieces; I did 3 main variations and then mutations from each of those into about 30 pieces, and all of those come from the same 4 tracks of about 4 minutes each.

Hope you find something in here interesting!

[S1gnsOfL1fe]

Had a listen this morning. The second track "Forever Afternoon" is beautiful beyond words. Really enjoying it.

Just goes to show how deep your ambient roots really are...

Cheers,
-S1gns

[bvsmv]

I really loved Sunlit II/11. Just the perfect amount of warmth to the sound. Really great work and thanks for sharing this! I'm really glad I signed up here for this reason. Can't wait to check it all out again with some headphones, not my earbuds.

[aoVI]

I appreciate both of you checking it out.

It is mixed using headphones, so I hope the experience is even better for you.

[Boqurant]

Wow! :listening:

Just listened to tracks 1-6: really great stuff I have to say. The music has a wonderful aura of warmth around it. I also like the slight pumping in the sound BTW; normally I hate heavy brick wall limiting in certain music genres (dance) but a moderate amount of it in ambient music can work really well. Despite the use of a DX7, never do I get the impression of a digital synth being used (although I suspect most of what I'm hearing are guitars?). It's all very organic and earthy (?) sounding. Sometimes I hear some faint echoes of Hassell, like in the background textures he sometimes uses (which is good BTW).

Good move to release this!

[GaryG]

Enjoyed that a lot. Very organic sounding, not lo-fi for sure but kind of a 'rounded' sound that gels very nicely. Maybe it's tape origins helped mold the sound (limiting etc)?

[bvsmv]

Well it's good to know I'm not crazy, two more comments about the warm, organic sound. Can't beat sound the gives you.

[aoVI]

Yes, we hit the tape fairly hard (on a 4 track cassette, it wasn't hard to do). The pumping...I am glad it works but I am still figuring out how to use compression properly. The album I released in 2012 has more pressure per square inch than a truck tire.

Most of the foreground is guitar, delayed, reverbed, and probably delayed again. Very little DX in these to be honest. With the track bouncing we did back then some things are irrevocably married and it was hard for even me to tell sometimes. The session started out trying to find the sonic landscape My Bloody Valentine sometimes danced through with guitar.

Perceptive with the Hassell comment; the texture of the electronic percussion was directly influenced by Eno/Hassell's Delta Rain Dream. Hassell often had a jungle full of sounds, things so distant you weren't sure you heard them. Always loved when he'd do that.

I hope to release several of these 'variation' albums using sources from decades past. I currently have 4 more in the pipe but I seem to be running them through too similar a system; and my results are varied, but almost too subtle for the average listener. I also don't want to put out too much too fast; several of these will probably just be added into the library on bandcamp without any fanfare since they are mostly back-catalog stuff.

I really appreciate all the comments and critiques--especially since I know I am not particularly active in that area myself. I get wary when trying to discuss music and recording because I feel at any minute I will be exposed for the fraud I am--lol.

[Dutch Oven]

Wow ! From 1993 and tape cassette recorded !

This sounds brilliant, particularly enjoying Along the shore and Lakeside.
I know others have already used the words "warm" "organic" and "natural" but that is genuinely how it sounds ! Awseome sounds, really enjoyed it.

Thank you so much for sharing this with us all.

[synkrotron]

I've just listened to, and enjoyed Prelude... I want to check out some different peeps tunes next, so I'm come back later to check out the other seven

[Boqurant]

Yes, we hit the tape fairly hard (on a 4 track cassette, it wasn't hard to do). The pumping...I am glad it works but I am still figuring out how to use compression properly. The album I released in 2012 has more pressure per square inch than a truck tire.

Now you made me curious. What album are you referring to? Can't be "the other field's flowers" or is it? (I really like that album BTW).
I made the remark about the compression also because I rarely use it while I think I should use it more often but just like you I'm not really experienced with it; I know how it works but I'm always a bit scared to really use it effectively :eek: (say musically), after all it can ruin your mix.

[aoVI]

Yes, there are some places on The Other Field's Flowers where in hindsight, I feel like its too compressed.

The only track on that album whre it is excusable is the opening, Elder Rise. I played Warcraft for many years and ran a guild of the minotaur-like beings in the game (Tauren). Our home base was the capitol, and the backing soundtrack there has a hiss to it, which I (over) replicated, giving it a pressurized feel.

Maybe I need to mix louder and give a little dynamic range up during mixdown, rather than trying to steam the wrinkles out of the full mix. I know better, but sometimes I get lazy.

lol - and having someone reference a previous album I did makes me feel like an artist; thank you for the smile tonight.

[synkrotron]

I'm back again and I'm listening to Forever Afternoon now. I like the almost dissonant feel to this, that doesn't quite come through, and is resolved quickly. Again, listening to other people's works here is filling my head full of ideas on what I would like to do myself

cheers

andy