Okta 4: community ambient project [express your interest!]

[codetocontra]

Interested in participating.

[moid]

Yay! I just got back from holiday and was thinking I wonder if there'll be another Okta compilation this year? Please count my son and I in (stick us down as moid please!) Thanks Heraclitus!

In terms of requests I have a couple of ideas that might help (well, selfishly, it helps the two of us, but hopefully others as well) - could we have some tracks that are recorded as dry and with effects if possible (same track, but one not so processed / not processed at all version, and then a version of it that has been sent through enough pedals to launch a Saturn V ILF stylee). It would be interesting to get some acoustic or non electric instruments maybe? And finally a general plea for the instruments to be in tune before being recorded? I know we won't be sticking to any particular scale / key of course, but it's much easier (for someone of my not amazing software skill level) to cut out notes and then repitch them a tone or a semi tone to the scale I want them to be in if they are in tune in the first place... otherwise it takes ages trying to figure out if a note should go up 37% of a semitone or not etc... or do you all have some software that automatically retunes some notes in a sample to a specific key? If so please let me know what that is, I do it all manually and it takes ages!

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

Huzzah, more folks! Welcome!

Let's make a (tentative) deadline! Six weeks from now is September 14th, but let's put it after a weekend for last-minute sounds... so say Monday, Sept. 19th?

I'll add more notes to the top post, but just other things to hash out:
- I will make a shared google drive again, but folks can always send me data in whatever way is easier for them (wetransfer etc)
- reminder to keep your files lossless! Submit wavs, 24-bit preferred if possible.

updated participants:
coldbrightsunlight
Paul_C
cantremember
D.o.S.
MrNovember
ognoy
Heraclitus Akimbo
Dowi
manymanyhaha
codetocontra
moid

[moid]

That all sounds good to me! I may get my son to play our tongue drum for some samples - it generates lots of weird but pretty harmonics so would be fun to process in software / hardware I think.

[coldbrightsunlight]

And finally a general plea for the instruments to be in tune before being recorded? I know we won't be sticking to any particular scale / key of course, but it's much easier (for someone of my not amazing software skill level) to cut out notes and then repitch them a tone or a semi tone to the scale I want them to be in if they are in tune in the first place... otherwise it takes ages trying to figure out if a note should go up 37% of a semitone or not etc... or do you all have some software that automatically retunes some notes in a sample to a specific key? If so please let me know what that is, I do it all manually and it takes ages!

In tune? But this is ILF...

I'd be surprised if your DAW doesn't have an automatic pitch correction plugin. I just use the default one in my DAW and it works well enough for the small number of times I need it.

[aedes]

Would like to try to try again...

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

Would like to try to try again...

Yasssirr, step rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrright in!

[aedes]

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

Attention Octa-oids:

Slipping out of August cicada mode and into September project administration mode!

All participants should have a PM in their inbox with a web link and sundry informations. Let me know if it somehow didn't manifest for you,

[codetocontra]

Cool. What sample rate for, um, samples? How many samples should we contribute? Does length matter? Found sounds vs instruments? Does any of it matter?

[Paul_C]

Perfect timing - I just logged on to see if there was an update (or if I'd missed it).

I shall record some bits this week.

[moid]

Thanks, just finished recording the last of our samples - my son wanted to record some tongue drum tracks, so they are all ready for your delight and delectation Ours were recorded at 32bit / 48Khz WAVs so that should be good I hope. Most of our tracks have a dry signal on one channel and the effected version on the other channel so you can use one or the other or even both depending on whatever you fancy. Looking forward to hearing what everyone is going to do with them! Also very interested in hearing what you guys record yourselves.

[moid]

In tune? But this is ILF...

I'd be surprised if your DAW doesn't have an automatic pitch correction plugin. I just use the default one in my DAW and it works well enough for the small number of times I need it.

Whoops I missed your reply! Yes I know that tuning is an unrealistic restriction that cramps people's personal artistic expression... but it also helps some of us! I'm mostly using Adobe Audition so I had a look and it does indeed have something called Automatic Pitch Correction - it isn't too bad on dry signals, as long as they aren't too complex (big chords etc) but it gets very odd on stuff that has been slammed through a lot of effects first... kind of glitchy / twitchy, maybe that's a new sound to play with? Let's see what happens

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

Cool. What sample rate for, um, samples? How many samples should we contribute? Does length matter? Found sounds vs instruments? Does any of it matter?

Everything matters, but everything is also flexible. I remember putting hard numbers on all of these the first couple rounds, but I dunno that it matters too too much.

Number of sounds: realistically, we're aiming for enough to give folks some variety to pick from, but not so many that people are drowning in 'em. A sliding scale that your experience will provide an answer for!

Length of samples: as discussed somewhere above in the thread, I think the rule of thumb is that is depends on density of sound... if it's, say, an uncomplicated drone, more of it can be useful for someone to use as a background layer, but if it's got lots of sonic frills, it's harder to pick through and shorter is better.

Sample rate, etc: lossless always preferred, 24-bit probably better, but we can all deal and cram what we get in our DAW-holes. (I mean, I like MP3's of bits of loose cassette tape that were unspooled and crinkled, so I can deal with anyone else's sonic imperfection.)

[Paul_C]

I've uploaded 5 2-3 min wav files to my folder, hopefully of interest/use to someone

They were done with iPad into two Habits and an Echosystem (set to an ambient patch) so maybe more "acceptable" than some of my previous offerings