Ancient Hovercraft

April 29, 2012 8:04 PM

More experimentation with "ambient electronic" music. Now with mellotron flutes!

I like the idea of someone finding the remnants of a super-advanced civilization, thousands of years later they come upon this moss covered pock-marked machine and as it sense human life it slowly powers on of its own accord, for reasons completely incomprehensible to the people who just discovered it. And this this the soundtrack playing in the background. Or something.

posted by Doleful Creature (4 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite

This is really good. I love the layering with mellotron, crackle/static, and the electronic elements. Could you tell me what you used to record this and the techniques you used? It really is a beautiful, haunting piece.
posted by tunewell at 3:50 PM on May 1, 2012


Thanks, that's really nice of you to say. Here's what I used:

Everything was done in Logic Studio.

Mellotron sample is from IK Multimedia's SampleTron. The crackle effect is a built-in effect of IK Multimedia's SampleTank engine (which SampleTron uses). It's simply called "phonograph."

I'm pretty sure the rest of the synth sounds came from Native Instruments Retro Machines MK2

The drums are some basic synth drums in Logic Studio's Ultrabeat. I programmed the main rhythm but the second rhythm I sniped from a stock MIDI loop that came with Logic.

I bussed all the tracks into a few different reverb settings using Logic's Space Designer. My favorite preset was the one called "Parking Garage" or something like that.

The choir is just the basic VSL Choir that comes with Kontakt 5.
posted by Doleful Creature at 10:07 PM on May 1, 2012


The mellotron samples can't help but remind me of David Bowie's Warszawa, though, of course, you achieved something totally different here. It's a bit like if Boards of Canada and Wendy Carlos did a collaboration. I would pay good money for that.
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 11:04 PM on May 1, 2012


It's definitely new territory for me, and I really appreciate the references to Bowie and Wendy Carlos. Boards of Canada intimidates me a lot in that I'm never quite sure that I could pull something like that off, but it's good to remember where the giants' shoulders are.
posted by Doleful Creature at 11:31 PM on May 1, 2012


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