Freesound Forums

Retro minimalist

I have previously themed a dare around 'minimalist' where I used the word to mean 'limited resources' for the construction of the musical piece. That again is the meaning of the word in this dare.
'Retro' because we are going back to the 1960's...

As we turn back the clock of time you suddenly realize that a hobbyst musician of the 60s had access to far less goodies than we do today - most of which we take for granted. (say goodbye to all of that now!)

So, you are a hobbyst musician in the 60s. You have a very avant-garde perspective on music and you want to make electronic (or, perhaps best described as electroacustic music).
These are the means and the tools at your disposal:
- you can have up to 2 instruments (but not a synth, explanation of why on 'technical details' below) edit 6-Feb-2013: by popular demand guitars are now allowed! Still read technical details below
- You have a decent set of microphones and a portable reel-to-reel. So you can do indoors and outdoors recordings. - Edit 6-Feb-2013: You are allowed to record sounds for this dare (only stuff that would realistically be around in the 60s). You can also use suitable sounds already in Freesound.
- You have an 8 track reel-to-reel and a small mixing desk, so you can mix different recordings and you can mix live and recorded sounds. The mixing desk has a high and a low shelf per channel - that's your EQ!
- You can have a tape delay unit OR a spring reverb (but not both).
- You have 3 filters (low pass, high pass and band pass). You are an avant-garde musician and you want to make extensive use of these units in yout music.

TECHNICAL DETAILS
basically: what else / what not / thinks to remember...

- Remember: a synth in those days costed as much as small house. So you don't have one.
- As far as electronic sounds go, early music often used phone dial tones and, especially, shortwave radio sounds. You could have access to a DYI synth, but this would be no more than a tone generator (no built in filters, envelopes, LFOs...)
- Electric guitar is allowed but please stick to clean or slightly overdriven tones only. You should also make an effort to use emulations of 60s amps (or a real one, if you have it!)
- Of course, when using sounds from Freesound please limit yourself to sounds that were around at the time...

- When composing/preparing your piece remember:
....you have no sequencers or automation or LFOs: everything that goes into that piece is either a recording (from tape) or a life performance. So, if you have a piano that you want to filter through a LP filter and have the cutoff frequency change in time you either need 1 person playing the piano and one person controlling the filter OR 1 person records the piano to tape, then plays it back while adjusting the filter.
.... So try and imagine how you would physically accomplish the results you are trying to create. You might get one or two friends to help, but consider everything has to fit in a garage studio.(say, they play the instruments and you control the filtes, for example)
... we are not trying to emulate the sound of tape (although you can, if you want). We are trying to emulate the process by which such a music piece would be created.
... Also, forget all the things that are not technically possible with tape: beat-slicing, ultra-perfect timing, neatly trimmed samples...
... Remember also that you can play a sample at different pitch/speed from the original recording, BUT this is done by changing the tape speed. You are certainly not going to be able to play a tune chromatically using a single recorded sound - that kind of trick would require a sampler - which hasn't been invented yet.
... Of course, you are expected to build this piece in your DAW and modern software but thinking of these limitations.

EDIT:
Usual participants know this but others may not: You will need to give attribution for the samples you use.
The place for uploading your entry is Soundcloud (and post with link on this thread).

Deadline for submissions is 22nd Feb 2013, at 10pm GMT.
Edit on 20 Feb: Please note deadline extended to 25th Feb 10pm GMT time.

For questions please use the DISCUSSION thread.

Please note the edits in bold (dated of today) relaxing some of the rules.
I don't normally change the rules half-way through... but I just could not resist the pressure this time!

Deadline extended to 25th Feb 10pm GMT time.

I have had a go. I recorded myself live on the 'piano' which was a midi-keyboard. I added some distant church bells and a recording of our Valentine's Day Meal. It's not quite long enough, but some may say it's actually too long lol

https://soundcloud.com/snapper4298/valentine-meal

My dare 18 is available here https://soundcloud.com/kyster/thinkers-tinkers

I hope it's within the dare rules, which i'm not sure i fully understood. I've made two recordings of me playing my guitar (an old las paul copy) directly plugged into my computer, so no modern amp. I turned the treble way down, and bass knobs way up on my guitar. I also added reverb. Only thing is, i couldn't find any spring reverb in my daw, so i've used a plate reverb (sorry).

Hmmmmm.......
despite the extended deadline, looks like it is just the three of us!

My entry is here.
http://soundcloud.com/alienxxx/finding-purpose

This dare is now closed.

If you missed it remember: There is always the next dare !

Wait, there's one more! I forgot to leave a message here to share my dare (doh!) I did upload it to SoundCloud before the deadline, if that means anything. I will to post an introduction in the Dare's "tell us about yourself" thread soon, but for now...

Here it is- my first Freesound dare contribution:

https://soundcloud.com/ubikphonik/atomic-noise

btw, is the Freesound Dare Group on SoundCloud active? I added my track to it last night, but I guess the groups's stream needs to be updated?

Sorry everyone, I didnt make it AGAIN!!! $%^^*(&^%
Maybe next dare I make 2 entries to compancate a little.........

Nice entries everybody!!
Thanx!!, some of them seme to have started my own inspiration again......

UbikPhonik wrote:
Wait, there's one more! I forgot to leave a message here to share my dare (doh!) I did upload it to SoundCloud before the deadline, if that means anything. I will to post an introduction in the Dare's "tell us about yourself" thread soon, but for now...

Here it is- my first Freesound dare contribution:

https://soundcloud.com/ubikphonik/atomic-noise

btw, is the Freesound Dare Group on SoundCloud active? I added my track to it last night, but I guess the groups's stream needs to be updated?

Hello UbikPhonik !
Welcome to the dares !

I listenned to your piece yesterday. Nice!
Sorry I left no comments, I listened on my mobile. But I will leave some comments tonight.

Do make yourself at home and feel free to tell us about yourself and the gear / software you use here
http://www.freesound.org/forum/dare-the-community/32171/

We have a new dare out there (excuse the pun)
http://www.freesound.org/forum/dare-the-community/33480/

escortmarius wrote:
Sorry everyone, I didnt make it AGAIN!!! $%^^*(&^%
Maybe next dare I make 2 entries to compancate a little.........

AlienXXX wrote:

escortmarius wrote:
Sorry everyone, I didnt make it AGAIN!!! $%^^*(&^%
Maybe next dare I make 2 entries to compancate a little.........

Sounds like you need a strict collab partner to beat you into shape!

Auch.... Thats evil......