Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Everything & the kitchen sink: Saga, Springs, Bubbles, and Magma - No Gods Above, No Devils Below
“One always dies too soon - or too late. And yet one's whole life is complete at that moment, with a line drawn neatly under it, ready for the summing up. You are - your life, and nothing else.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit
So I was thinking of old Sartre this morning, as pretentious tw@ts are prone to do (twits, I meant twits!), specifically , Huis Clos / No Exit, his famous play about a group of people slowly realising they are trapped in Hell - and that ‘Hell Is Other People’. Maybe this was something to do with the student bass player in the house next to mine, who is a kindred spirit, in the sense that his musical reach also exceeds his grasp, though he has a tenacious approach to practice which I lack. But OMG… I have resorted to cranking the modular up as loud as it will go and counterblasting him with my own delicate er, ‘soundscapes’, and when that gets old, a playlist of my own greatest hits at deafening volume. I put it on, and go for a walk. This could be a rare example of students coming round to complain to the retired lady about the noise she is making…
Anyhoo, it got me thinking, so this piece, using pretty much all my latest app purchases, comes from the heart:
Note - the guest vocalist is another Talker creation, but the only synth used was the Saga, which @Gavinski’s piece brought to my attention. (I think I must have initially seen it and thought: ‘meh - chip tune’, and moved on. How wrong I was - it’s great.) Though I feel I can say confidently that whatever else this is, it is not your usual cheery chip tune. I particularly liked the choir noise thing I somehow got out of it, being sequenced by the track title in Textquencer.
Fold, spindle or mutilate as is your wont… I will hang on every word.
Comments
As Ariel says in The Tempest: “Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
This is a fiendishly fine piece of work. I commend you, @Svetlovska!
Very good. Reminds me a bit of Coil.
Hi @Svetlovska ,
Recording is superb, and the vocals is so lovely!!!
Quite intriguing, and so interesting.
This is definitely exquisite work.
Very well done.
Rene
Ominous and fantastic at the same time.
I'd prefer it without the voice, but it's just me.
Heartwarming story, take that students 😂
You’re really developing in the old beats element these days, no wonder that you’re getting gig offers! Lovely use of the chip synth too 🙌
A big room with all of the "damned" forum members ! For all eternity! 😱
I'm not going to mention any names but there are definitely some people on this forum who could learn a lot from you about how to rant with intelligence, wit and charm. Maybe you should make a YouTube channel or podcast called how to rant lol. The backstory here absolutely cracked me up 😂
The kind of choir sounds here are great BTW - those came from Saga? Nice! With a ton of added fx I'm assuming? Guessing that Magma may have been part of that particular sound. Nice!
@Gavinski : Yup, the Saga preset called Tone D-Light, lightly tweaked and run through Magma random ‘no idea what I’m doing’ mode, and Springs GBS Mono 6 Springs preset, tweaked, sequenced by the phrase ‘ No gods above no devils below: only us.’ in D Aolian.
@rottencat : another totally excellent quote. I’ve,put it in my commonplace book, I’m sure it will come in handy for something soon!
Thanks for the listen, and the comment.
@scrape : now you mention it, I see what you mean. I’ll take that as a compliment - I was a massive fan of Coil since I was at uni with John Balance, who I knew by his real name of Geoff Rushton. A tragically short life. Thank you.
@ReneAsologuitar : thank you! I always feel like I’ve dragged something shiny and perfect through the mud when I think of your work, then you listening to mine.
@jo92346 : yep, it’s a tough one. I came across a vocal-less version of my recent track Strega, and tbh ended up thinking it was better than the version with vocals. I like doing the Talker thing, to flesh out the story of the piece, but I also know that my own fave Dark Ambient artists are pretty much instrumental only. I think I’ll start keeping mixes of both in future…
@Krupa : thank you! Yes drums are another thing I usually avoid but dammit, Hammerhead is too good and I love the way it can be set to improvise… my main issue with drums is they get boring fast without such variation.
@Stochastically : I have no idea what you mean!
@Svetlovska sometimes I really envy you!. Your freedom in structure, tone and rythm…
You get to try out all the new apps and go wild. An appaholic dream.
There’s only so much “weirdness” you can squeeze in if limited by a “song” mindset. I realize I have that mindset, even if I push it I’m in what I consider “pop” structure. Obviously what I consider pop can be like devils math music according to current standards…
This is really great. The percussive elements add a lot, good work. Sounds in the very best way like an 80s video nasty soundtrack.
@tahiche: Thank you! I don’t know what I don’t know, I guess? ‘Beginner Mind’, and all that? I spent 40 (!) years trying and failing a) to learn various instruments, and b) to construct ‘well made songs.’
I’d about given up when I discovered Dark Ambient, a genre I unabashedly acknowledge is one in which an absolute and total lack of musical talent appeared to be no barrier to actually making noises. I am still faking it until I make it… ‘Devil Math Music’ meanwhile sounds like a great genre you can be the first and best proponent of, mind… The new genre hotness
@sevenape : I love 80s video nasty soundtracks! (The one to Texas Chainsaw Massacre by Wayne Bell, utilising synths, power tools, metal and, er, - a cat? - is a classic.)
I loved that most of them sounded like one guy, probably a college roomy of the director, with a Radio Shack synth and a reel to reel making like a pound shop John Carpenter. Superb!
Sorry to hear about your tenacious student bass player, but I have to admit it makes a great story. You truly have a gift for telling stories.
I liked the vocal bits with Talker. I really liked your previous use of Talker on Intimations of mortality: Cyanosis. I guess that track is no longer on SoundCloud. I went to listen to it and it was no longer there. Shame, it is one of my favorites.
I'm amazed by the sounds you wring out of Saga synth. Your unique approach to different sound sources is what keeps me coming back to your posts.
The Texas chainsaw score has been a huge source of inspiration for me! If I recall, Tobe Hooper helped create that as well.
Love the piece! Someone mentioned Coil and I can hear that and some Swans in there as well. Great as always 🤝
I don't know if you remember but among her other jobs, Svetlovska used to be a journalist, music journalist if I remember! I agree, especially on an internet forum, it's a great pleasure to read something that was written with care and nuance - personally I tend to be a bit rough and fast with my writing in posts here. Too much to do, not enough time! I read posts super quickly here as well as writing quickly. But yes, Svetlovska's writing ftw, so when I see one of those Svetlovska stories it's a pleasure to kick back and go into slow mode.
Great track, I can imagine it without the vocals but it would just be different, not necessarily better (imho).
Unfortunately ‘This is Hell’ made me think of Maarvin the paranoid android for some reason, which made me smile, which probably wasn’t the intended outcome 😊
@GeoTony : argh! I can’t un-hear that now! Another vote for no vocals registered as a result - mine!
Though I was ( until now, anyway) quite pleased at what I took to be an edge of desperation in the computer voice I achieved, by tweaking the end of the sentence up in pitch slightly… ah well!