4 Track EP released on YouTube- "Flying Home"

[Sonic Bodhi]

While on vacation in Canada, I composed 4 tracks of ambient (and ambient-ish) entirely on an iPad Pro with an M-Audio 25-key Oxygen midi keyboard (because it was small enough to fit in my carry-on back pack) in GarageBand iOS. Plugins used were DXi FM, Sunrizer, and Korg iM1 synth apps. Proof that you can do ambient in GarageBand, despite what some may believe. The EP is 25 minutes long, so hopefully you will have time to listen to it all- video footage was shot on various United Airline flights from the U.S. to Canada in August of 2018.

I will be uploading these tracks to my Bandcamp account as well, for free downloads to those that wish it- at which time I will update this post with the link.

As always, all comments, thoughts, observations, and criticisms are welcomed.

[blackivan]

interesting stuf :-)

[annode]

Hey Avery. I'm very impressed with this. Not the noodling style I've grown to expect.
This music seemed inspired. I loved your flight video. I just love take offs the best. Loved how we were in the clouds the whole trip...nice job...glad you took the time and had the patience to hold the device all that time so we could all share in your flight.

I'll have to listen to track 1 again. Can't comment yet. Really, 'Dance of Maya'? you know it's a well known McLaughlin title? OK.
When track 2 started I was delighted to hear how well it fit with the vid's floating above the clouds feeling. I really enjoyed track 2.
Track 3 was very fitting as well, but the drone tones were resonating the hell out of my small(but good) table-top PC speakers. Maybe a few notch filters would solve that.
Track 4 was good too. I want to listen to the whole thing again.(that's the ticket!)

Yeah, post this for dload.
You really held back the unnecessary while just focusing on the music this time. Maybe restraint, maybe a little bit the limited time of your holiday or the limitations within the iPad? In any case it worked out very well. Congrats!

[Sonic Bodhi]

interesting stuf :-)

Thank you for listening and commenting, Ivan!

[Sonic Bodhi]

Hey Avery. I'm very impressed with this. Not the noodling style I've grown to expect.
This music seemed inspired. I loved your flight video. I just love take offs the best. Loved how we were in the clouds the whole trip...nice job...glad you took the time and had the patience to hold the device all that time so we could all share in your flight.

I'll have to listen to track 1 again. Can't comment yet. Really, 'Dance of Maya'? you know it's a well known McLaughlin title? OK.
When track 2 started I was delighted to hear how well it fit with the vid's floating above the clouds feeling. I really enjoyed track 2.
Track 3 was very fitting as well, but the drone tones were resonating the hell out of my small(but good) table-top PC speakers. Maybe a few notch filters would solve that.
Track 4 was good too. I want to listen to the whole thing again.(that's the ticket!)

Yeah, post this for dload.
You really held back the unnecessary while just focusing on the music this time. Maybe restraint, maybe a little bit the limited time of your holiday or the limitations within the iPad? In any case it worked out very well. Congrats!

Thank you for your comments, they are greatly appreciated!

Hmmm.. As big a fan I have been of McLaughlin and Mahavishnu Orchestra, I should have realised this was a Mahavishnu title. I guess sometimes things float up from the subconscious when picking a title, so I can only say 'mea culpa'.

There was some slight resonance going on in the final mix on my iPad Speakers, but when I was composing this, I used a set of bluetooth headphones. I will have to go in and take another listen to track 3 and see if I can fix the mix as you suggested.

Maybe the reason the collection is not too 'busy' was because I didn't have the option to take one of my guitars with me, LoL. I just decided to leave the mixes 'as is'- as a 'whats done in Canada stays the way it was done in Canada' thing.

I was trying to get footage of the complete landing on my phone (which are the sequences at the beginning and the end) but ran out of storage space on the phone, so what you see is what I got. LoL.

[Sonic Bodhi]

annode I discovered the problem with the track- the mix level was WAY too high, esp for ambient, so when I upload the fixed mix to bandcamp, the resonance should no longer be a problem. I also toned down the bass frequencies to help reduce the cause of the resonance. Hopefully when you download it, you'll be happier with the result.

[Jan Roos]

For a work while travelling this is truly amazing! Makes me very optimistic in regards to working full projects (minus mixing and mastering) on ipads and such. Getting a sweet sound on bluetooth headset with plane noise must have been a challenge? Did you use presets or design the sounds, or tweak? The quality is very good, that´s why I´m asking. Like Annode said further up here; it has direction and seem inspired, not just ambient noodling, which most of us can be guilty of from time to time. Thumbs up!

[annode]

annode I discovered the problem with the track- the mix level was WAY too high, esp for ambient, so when I upload the fixed mix to bandcamp, the resonance should no longer be a problem. I also toned down the bass frequencies to help reduce the cause of the resonance. Hopefully when you download it, you'll be happier with the result.

Really happy to hear it wasn't too late to doctor the track issues. After a 2nd listen to the EP yesterday, I found I liked track 3 as much or even a bit more then track 2. edit-(both tracks are very good)
I found I also like track 1 as the opener.edit-(and musically) It's effervescent energy enhances the aftermath exhilaration of the lift-off and jettison into the wild blue yonder.
I think it is in track 1 where you at one point mix out the plane engine that is quietly humming along with the music. At that point, the quiet is powerful and really brings out the tonal aspect of the music and a sense of floating...nice touch.

I really like watching the flight vid along with the music. Having the music dload higher quality is a plus indeed, but also knowing I can watch it on Utube is cool too.
Whether you update your Utube audio or not, I know I can run the hi-q audio while also running the vid without having to deal with syncing them up...haha.
EDIT - Oh, and track 4 is just as good as the others. All tracks work well together. keeping an uncluttered space, using just a few instrument personalities across the whole EP worked out well.
EDIT - If you were feeling like you want to charge for this EP, I feel the same way. Two or three bucks for it is not greedy in my mind.

[dreamware]

Love it! I'm impressed by this level of quality from an iPad!

[Sonic Bodhi]

Really happy to hear it wasn't too late to doctor the track issues. After a 2nd listen to the EP yesterday, I found I liked track 3 as much or even a bit more then track 2. edit-(both tracks are very good)
I found I also like track 1 as the opener.edit-(and musically) It's effervescent energy enhances the aftermath exhilaration of the lift-off and jettison into the wild blue yonder.
I think it is in track 1 where you at one point mix out the plane engine that is quietly humming along with the music. At that point, the quiet is powerful and really brings out the tonal aspect of the music and a sense of floating...nice touch.

I really like watching the flight vid along with the music. Having the music dload higher quality is a plus indeed, but also knowing I can watch it on Utube is cool too.
Whether you update your Utube audio or not, I know I can run the hi-q audio while also running the vid without having to deal with syncing them up...haha.
EDIT - Oh, and track 4 is just as good as the others. All tracks work well together. keeping an uncluttered space, using just a few instrument personalities across the whole EP worked out well.
EDIT - If you were feeling like you want to charge for this EP, I feel the same way. Two or three bucks for it is not greedy in my mind.

Thanks, and I will p.m. as soon as the bandcamp links are up!

[Sonic Bodhi]

Love it! I'm impressed by this level of quality from an iPad!

Thank you, it is an iPad Pro, which gives me a version of GarageBand that is not available on the other versions of iPad on the market- meaning, I get extra tools to work with- but even at that, there were still issues with the audio that I will be correcting for the bandcamp upload. Unfortunately, due to the time involved in rendering the video, I won't be re-doing the audio for that, the 'corrected' tracks will be available for download on bandcamp.

[Sonic Bodhi]

Bandcamp links are now up as 'pay what you want' download.



I have fixed the problems with the resonance in some of the tracks, and the audio should be much higher quality in general. Enjoy!

[George Johnson]

Very nice.

[Sonic Bodhi]

George Johnson Thank you! Glad you liked it!

[Sonic Bodhi]

For a work while travelling this is truly amazing! Makes me very optimistic in regards to working full projects (minus mixing and mastering) on ipads and such. Getting a sweet sound on bluetooth headset with plane noise must have been a challenge? Did you use presets or design the sounds, or tweak? The quality is very good, that´s why I´m asking. Like Annode said further up here; it has direction and seem inspired, not just ambient noodling, which most of us can be guilty of from time to time. Thumbs up!

Wow, I can't believe I missed responding to this comment, so sorry about that! None of the composing of the music was done on the plane, LoL- I only recorded the video portions on the plane, the music was composed separately at the house where I was staying while on vacation, so no plane noise to contend with. Everything just mixed together in After Effects when I got back home from vacation. I did use presets some of which were tweaked with modulation. There is also an FX pad in Garageband which allows you to tweak the sound in real time- I believed I used the repeater filter on 'The Stillness of Time Stopped'. Anyway thank you for the great comment!