Okta - ILF collaborative ambient/drone project

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

Okta is here!

Come and drift in the sky with us!


OLD INFORMATION / TOP-OF-THREAD SUMMARY:

deadline for source tracks: July 1st
deadline for mixed tracks: Labour Day

All source tracks should be at 24 bit 48k resolution / under ten minutes.



Okta participants:

Heraclitus Akimbo
Aedes
Moid
cantremember
Dowi
JM Charcot
Dapper Bandit
MrNovember
shikawkee
chamberpain
Paul_C
ProCarstenNation
coldbrightsunlight
aquietcabin1978
Dandy13
Ognoy

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Original post below:

Hey, let's try something!

I was reading a news story about cloud cover (there's been lots here) and it passingly mentioned that cloud cover is measured in Oktas. So I looked that up (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okta) and the little "band name" bell rang in my head. I almost posted it to the band names thread, but then I realized: I wanted that band name for myself... evocative of cloudy skies, it just sounds great for an ambient project. I dug around to see if anyone had taken this (there's a German rock band named Okta Logue, but nothing else that immediately popped up), so I immediately created a bandcamp page (https://okta.bandcamp.com/). But I don't really need a band name for that right now.

So what if I shared it?

I'm proposing a collaborative project, open to anyone here who wants to get in on it and share the general vibe, which is ambient, drone-y music. I don't have many other stipulations than rhythmic elements should be absent (or strongly minimized) and the guiding aesthetic principle is a cloudy sky.

The idea that comes to my mind is that the collaboration would be a twofold process:
1) everyone contributes a number of sounds/stems ranging from 1 to the total number of collaborators
2) everyone then gets to create a track, drawing from the bank of the submitted sounds. (I think it would be cool to have some mixers get some sounds exclusively, but also to maybe have some re-occur in different tracks? This is open to discussion.)

Submitted sounds should be free of ego attachments, as the mixer should feel free to manipulate the sounds as they see fit.

Completed tracks will be posted as an album to bandcamp with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Licence (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

If there is any interest in this, I will offer to co-ordinate, which will mean setting some deadlines for submitting sounds and then mixes.

Thoughts? Comments? Interested in getting on board?

[Dowi]

I like the idea that we all send some sounds and then everyone gets to take those and mix them in different ways, maybe there could be some very large guidelines abou duration or we might end up with 24hours of generative ambient files to be mixed

I'm not sure I'll be able to have the time to mix and create a track but I would love to try and I'm surely willing to send some audio files to be processed.

The name fits well with the idea of the project.

[jrmy]

I always WANT to participate in these kinds of things but never manage to work it out. Argh. Still, this sounds rad!

And it's a great bandname / projectname for sure.

[Errant Tiger]

Cool name, cool concept. I’m in.

[shikawkee]

I dig this idea. Very cool.

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

All right! I wasn't sure if there'd be anyone into this, so I tried not to ramble too much in the intro post, but maybe I'll put some more focused thought into it now.

Further thoughts:

1) I'm going to try and keep some time constraints on this, but I don't want to crack the whip too much. Instead of a hard deadline, I'm going to do a check-in with everyone who's submitting tracks by July 1st. In theory, then, the second stage could be done in time for this to be completed by Labour Day.

2) The Sesame Street rule very much applies here: don't worry if you're not good enough for anyone else to hear. If you can produce and record sounds and you're into the vibe you are fully qualified to be involved. Lurkers who worry they're not adequately ILF cool are welcome — if this is a way in for you to engage with this community then it's all good.

3)

I like the idea that we all send some sounds and then everyone gets to take those and mix them in different ways, maybe there could be some very large guidelines abou duration or we might end up with 24hours of generative ambient files to be mixed

Let's say as a rough rule of thumb source files don't need to be longer than 10 minutes. If someone mixing it likes it, they'll find a way to loop/extend it.

4)

I'm not sure I'll be able to have the time to mix and create a track but I would love to try and I'm surely willing to send some audio files to be processed.

If someone wants to contribute source material but doesn't want to mix a track, I'm cool with that.

I'd also like to genereally reinforce that you don't have to be studio wiz to take a shot at mixing something. I'll just be using Audacity, for example.

5) Other ways to participate: graphic designers/artists are welcome to pitch in... otherwise the album art will probably just me finding some stock photos of clouds to futz with.

6) When I have time later today I'll put together a google form for people to sign up on, just so I can keep track of who's in and establish a chain of communication. I assume a shared Google Drive works for every one for a file hub?

7) In the unlikely (but not impossible) event this ever makes anything in Bandcamp album sales, the money will be donated to ILF. Maybe if we go triple platinum we can fund a youtube tag that isn't so finicky.

[aedes]

Count me in please.

[Errant Tiger]

This might be naive of me, but what formats/parameters should we use for sound submissions?

[shikawkee]

This might be naive of me, but what formats/parameters should we use for sound submissions?

Wav please IMO.

And wholeheartedly agree with HA: Keeps tracks under ten minutes.

[shikawkee]

BTW-I have a 1TB subscription with Dropbox if everyone is okay with sharing files that way.

I reckon everyone posts some stuff and we overdub to each?

[shikawkee]

Oh yeah, and please 24 bit 48k resolution at least please?

[coldbrightsunlight]

BTW-I have a 1TB subscription with Dropbox if everyone is okay with sharing files that way.

I reckon everyone posts some stuff and we overdub to each?

I also have big dropbox and already use it for music so that would be nice.

The previous "open source" projects have been awesome fun, and I like the idea of aiming for a theme instead of the random bizarro mix that came out of both of those.

Count me in!

[Chankgeez]

Does this count? (Probably should've used my Oktava mic instead of the camera mic.):



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_KG9xwmNTs

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

Oh yeah, and please 24 bit 48k resolution at least please?

This seems reasonable to me — if anyone else has other preferences, you can say so in the sign-up form.

BTW-I have a 1TB subscription with Dropbox if everyone is okay with sharing files that way.

Works for me if you're cool to share!

I reckon everyone posts some stuff and we overdub to each?

In my mind, I was thinking more like building a little nest... you gather other people's sounds and weave them into something new. But I guess there's no reason you can't add in your own sounds if you have le bon bruit.

And the line between remixing/overdubbing gets pretty blurred here... like if I take something you recorded and run it through my effects, which am I doing?

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

If you want to get involved, please sign up here!

Edit: signups now closed!