Eleusinian Mystery
August 22, 2009 10:14 AM
The premier performance of my beloved Pearl Bass Flute. AskmeaboutLOOM is up to his usual tricks on delay.
posted by pheatherwait (15 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
posted by pheatherwait (15 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
The whole thing was improvised, on the spot. Action shot (taken by man vs sun during the recording)!
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 3:58 PM on August 22, 2009
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 3:58 PM on August 22, 2009
Nice tone! Very mysterious, indeed. Some of the stuff that LOOM's doing with the noises and the stereo field is cool as well.
How does the playing of the bass flute compare to the C flute? Is the transition difficult?
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 2:33 AM on August 23, 2009
How does the playing of the bass flute compare to the C flute? Is the transition difficult?
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 2:33 AM on August 23, 2009
Great tone. Flutes are great acoustic sources for electronic processing.
posted by phrontist at 5:49 AM on August 23, 2009
posted by phrontist at 5:49 AM on August 23, 2009
It's also in C, just an octave lower, and giant. Apparently, it uses a lot more air, because after this, she kind of curled up in a ball on the floor to keep from completely hyperventilating.
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 7:18 AM on August 23, 2009
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 7:18 AM on August 23, 2009
Very atmospheric stuff. Is the idea that you were playing while askmeaboutLOOM was tweaking things live? If so, it must be an interesting and challenging and fruitful thing -- to hear stuff happen to the sounds you're producing as you're producing new ones. For example, just playing a phrase and then hearing it come back via a delay effect as you're in the middle of a new sequence, which then maybe takes a different turn to stay in the same harmonic space as the previous phrase, etc.
posted by edlundart at 9:09 PM on August 23, 2009
posted by edlundart at 9:09 PM on August 23, 2009
I did not have a problem switching to bass. All the fingerings are the same. I've heard some of my flute playing friends say that it's too heavy to hold and that it takes too much air. I never had a problem with air until the night we recorded this piece--but that was the first time I picked up a bass in about four years (the university took theirs back when I left the flute studio).
Yep, everything was done on the fly. It was pretty cool to be thinking/working with the different layers as they were happening.
And I thought I had a lot more than four minutes down, but apparantly my stamina really took a hit during my exile. That's something that will have to be worked on.
posted by pheatherwait at 9:23 PM on August 23, 2009
Yep, everything was done on the fly. It was pretty cool to be thinking/working with the different layers as they were happening.
And I thought I had a lot more than four minutes down, but apparantly my stamina really took a hit during my exile. That's something that will have to be worked on.
posted by pheatherwait at 9:23 PM on August 23, 2009
If you think working with just delay is tough, give this a listen. It's literally just flute solo while I was sitting on the floor fiddling with knobs on the MF-102 Ring Mod. Reverse Delay was also there. All still live. You're pretty fantastic, PW.
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 10:08 PM on August 23, 2009
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 10:08 PM on August 23, 2009
give this a listen
Thanks, I just did, and left a comment there. I like what you guys are doing. It's not normally my cup of tea, but I'm into the live interplay between the flute performance and the producer performance. There is something very cool about that, a very pure musical conversation.
posted by edlundart at 10:32 PM on August 23, 2009
Thanks, I just did, and left a comment there. I like what you guys are doing. It's not normally my cup of tea, but I'm into the live interplay between the flute performance and the producer performance. There is something very cool about that, a very pure musical conversation.
posted by edlundart at 10:32 PM on August 23, 2009
Very beautiful. The bass flute has an amazing tone, no doubt because of your abilities! I do like the interplay between the "live"/dry flute, and the delay.
Also, I like hearing the moments when you took a breath, and how that worked with the flute line.
If you don't mind divulging the secret, what are you using for delay? Was it the Digitech Digidelay?
posted by baxter_ilion at 9:16 AM on August 24, 2009
Also, I like hearing the moments when you took a breath, and how that worked with the flute line.
If you don't mind divulging the secret, what are you using for delay? Was it the Digitech Digidelay?
posted by baxter_ilion at 9:16 AM on August 24, 2009
Really interesting this. I think I'd like to hear a little bit of reverb on the delay tails (which would deepen to the feeling of mystery and broaden the sound out) and maybe backing off the mic a little (there's just a tiny bit of high-end distortion evident, although that may be the naturally "breathiness" of the flute). I really like hearing the breaths between each phrase - makes it evident that someone is actually playing this rather than some fancy sample. Lovely job.
posted by MajorDundee at 1:20 PM on August 24, 2009
posted by MajorDundee at 1:20 PM on August 24, 2009
The little crackles at 1:13-4 are my fault, by the way. I made the mistake of tweaking the "time" knob slightly. Bad idea.
Major, if you're talking about what I think you are, that's just the breathiness of the flute, itself. It's a very airy instrument. Some of the overtones speak in a way that, on most other instruments, would be a sign of distortion, or over-gain. In this case, that's the absolutely natural sound of the bass, and I love it.
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 8:58 PM on August 24, 2009
Major, if you're talking about what I think you are, that's just the breathiness of the flute, itself. It's a very airy instrument. Some of the overtones speak in a way that, on most other instruments, would be a sign of distortion, or over-gain. In this case, that's the absolutely natural sound of the bass, and I love it.
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 8:58 PM on August 24, 2009
Oo... it's haunting and awesome in every way.
posted by spiderskull at 11:31 PM on August 25, 2009
posted by spiderskull at 11:31 PM on August 25, 2009
oooooooh, I have to send this to my brother right away. He is a flute performance major and will be VERY jealous of such a beautiful sounding instrument.
Props!
posted by CarrotAdventure at 1:25 PM on August 26, 2009
Props!
posted by CarrotAdventure at 1:25 PM on August 26, 2009
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posted by kylej at 12:08 PM on August 22, 2009