Cinema Volta: Daily Ambience

And one to grow on . . . 2006-02-14

This track is a summation of the entire year's output, rendered by iTunes Signature Maker. It examines a group of files, extracts what's similar and combines them into a single audio file.

If you want to stream all 366 tracks, here's an MP3 Playlist.

If you want to get the entire thing via RSS, here's a feed that covers the entire year.

This has been quite a project - at this point I can't believe it's finished. I'm not sure what comes next. I'll take a bit of time off, then plan the next project. I've really learned a great deal from creating in this fashion, and it's not something I want to give up. I will probably continue to create on a regular basic like this because it's a good way to stay on form.

I'll let you in on a little secret. Because I've been doing a lot of traveling in the last two months, I've had to work ahead in order to be able to publish daily. The 365th track was recorded on the 28th of January, so I met my goal of completing the project within a one year period, despite the 16 day hiatus.

Thanks to everyone who has offered encouragement and support, particularly my wife, Lauren Amazeen.

Vi ses,

-John

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Here it is, the 365th and final track of this project. This is a piano study placed in Gasverket. The timing and duration of the notes comes from the decay of the reverb. Each note was held until the sound had completely decayed, then the next note would be played, selected somewhat at random. At the same time, the piano was also being sent to Augustus Loop, which was set to a 25 second loop time.

2006-02-13

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Here's a quick and dirty didjeridoo track set in Gasverket, a huge, brick gas tank here in Stockholm. 2006-02-12

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

This is a pretty version of yesterday's track. 2006-02-11

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

This is a very simple, linear track that uses a MIDI gate and a MIDI controlled filter along with a harmonic generator and some simple patches. 2006-02-10

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Here's a MIDI loop piece with lots of delays, filters and reverb. 2006-02-09

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Still playing with filtered delays, but this time I got my didjeridoo involved. 2006-02-08

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

I used the same configuration as yesterday to record a new, dense track. By the way, it's my birthday. 2006-02-07

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

I took yesterday's track and added even more delays to it. This time ones with filters. 2006-02-06

We're in the home stretch now. Only one week left. Now might be a good time to consider a donation.

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

The danger with getting new looping software is that I will use it. In fact I'll use all of it at the same time. This is done with Augustus Loop and More Feedback Machine. 2006-02-05

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

I've added even more effects to the mix. 2006-02-04

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

I've taken the setup from yesterday and added some processing on top of the signal output from the feedback machines. 2006-02-03

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Back to exploring feedback. I've got two feedback machines running that are feeding into two multitap delays that have their own feedback circuits. The audio output of all this is then fed into an couple of envelope followers that control the parameters of the feedback machines. Then the result of that is also feed into the envelope followers, reinforcing the control that the machines have over themselves. 2006-02-02

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

I really liked the EBow track from yesterday, so I removed it, did a bit of tweaking and now's it's its own piece. 2006-02-01

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Here's another ambient groove track with my strat and EBow going into many layers of delays and loops. 2006-01-31

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

I added more feedback processors to yesterday's setup and this is the result. 2006-01-30

This now marks one year since the project began, but since it was suspended for two weeks following the death of my father, it has not yet reached 365 songs. So, I will continue for another 15 days to make a grand total of 366. That's a year plus one to grow on.

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Just funnin' 2006-01-29

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

I'm working on getting control of all the features available in Augustus Loop. This is an expanded version of yesterday's track, using the MIDI information from the voice to control the pitch of the loop, but delayed a bit. 2006-01-28

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

I now have a shiny, brand-new copy of Augustus Loop, thanks to the kind folks over at Expert Sleepers. It's a really great software looper, with lots of tweakable parameters and realtime performance control.

The thing is, it's an Audio Unit plugin and doesn't work with Cubase, which I use. However, thanks to Soundflower and RAX, I have been able to integrate it with Cubase. It took me all day to figure out how to get it working, and this little piece is the result of that work. I'm too tired to do any more.

2006-01-27

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

And the final pulse. 2006-01-26

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Even more pulses. 2006-01-25

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

More pulses. 2006-01-24

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Continuing with the pulse series. 2006-01-23

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Some different pulses with feedback. 2006-01-22

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Same pulses with some different processing and feedback. 2006-01-21

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Some quiet pulsing noises. 2006-01-20

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

I took yesterday's setup and tweaked it just a bit to come up with something a little more ordered and darker in mood. 2006-01-19

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Here's a very structured piano and a cello that's all over the place. This was made with phasing loops, MIDI arpeggiation and a nice little program that forces all the notes into one key. That was necessary for the arpeggiator to stay in tune with the rest of the piece. 2006-01-18

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

I'm using the same looping and delay setup as I have been in the last few days, but this time the input is my didjeridoo. The reverb comes from Laukyrkan in Sweden. 2006-01-17

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

And the last in the feedback series for the moment. 2006-01-16

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

And another in the series. Besides feedback, these tracks have a lot of multitap delays and three instances of Loopy Llama, one of them running backwards. 2006-01-15

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

And some more. 2006-01-14

We are now in the final month. There are only 30 more tracks to go.

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Even more feedback. 2006-01-13

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

I'm pleased to announce that this project has led to another collaboration. The Austrian artist Evelin Stermitz has used the track 2005-09-16 as the soundtrack for her video art piece "Red Velvet." You can read more about her at her website.

Posted by Cinema Volta at 06:33 PM | Permalink

Another feedback track. 2006-01-12

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

More in the feedback series. There will be several in a row based on the tracks from the past few days. 2006-01-11

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Same processes as the last two days, but a very different input and result. 2006-01-10

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Almost the same as yesterday. 2006-01-09

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

A bunch of noises in a big, glassy space. 2006-01-08

Posted by Cinema Volta at 02:52 PM | Permalink

Just a quiet feedback track. 2006-01-07

Posted by Cinema Volta at 01:08 PM | Permalink

This is what should have happened yesterday. 2006-01-06

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:54 PM | Permalink

This is a recording of me trying to use my EBow as the battery runs out of juice. 2006-01-05

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:22 PM | Permalink

Still pursuing the possibilities in the harmonized loop setup I've been using for the past few days. This time the notes from the track from two days ago are being used to control a gate and a filter inserted into a mutating harmonic drone. 2006-01-04

Posted by Cinema Volta at 05:32 PM | Permalink

Yes, yet another one of these. I'm just having so much fun playing with this setup. 2006-01-03

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:35 PM | Permalink

I took the setup from the last few days and stuck the feedback machine into it. I resulted in this, distorted, glitchy thing. I kind of like it. This will really get your subwoofer going. 2006-01-02

Posted by Cinema Volta at 04:14 PM | Permalink

Same setup as yesterday, but this time I'm playing piano. 2006-01-01

By the way - Happy New Year!

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:00 AM | Permalink

I'm still exploring the harmonized guitar delays. This time I'm using a new effect plugin called Loopy Llama. It looks as if my Echoplex is now obsolete - this plugin can do everything it can, and a lot more. I'm using three of them on this track, two are creating phasing loops and the third is reversing the loop. 2005-12-31

Posted by Cinema Volta at 02:52 PM | Permalink

This is using exactly the same setup as yesterday. This time I decided to mix EBow and picking. 2005-12-30

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

I'm really pleased with what I can do with the harmonizer/delay setup I've been using for the last few days. This time, it's with a very, simple, clean guitar line. 2005-12-29

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

After playing around with the effects settings from 2005-07-29, I decided to return to the track itself. This is a new version using additional harmonies, the reverb from the cathedral at Rouen and a slightly more complex delay structure. 2005-12-28

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

The effects setup from yesterday is quite fun to play with and I like it's simplicity. I've applied it to didjeridoo today without the looper (that's what circular breathing is for).

I'm using my oldest didj today - I bought it almost exactly seven years ago on Charing Cross Road. It's mouthpiece is in need of more beeswax and until it's warmed up it's almost unplayable. Still, I like what I can do with it and it's got sentimental value as well. 2005-12-27

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Since it's Boxing Day, we're having leftovers. This is the looping setup from last July 29th used for an EBow improvisation. I've adjusted it a bit so that the delays are harmonized before the go into the looper. 2005-12-26

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Hope however you celebrate the return of the sun has been fun. 2005-12-25

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Jag önskar ni en Glad Jul! 2005-12-24

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Going a bit further down the same path. The configuration is identical to yesterday, just slower and a different style. This one took a long time to do because I was using so much processing. 2005-12-23

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Almost the same configuration as yesterday, but all the parameters have been changed. I also added a bass track. 2005-12-22

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Another attempt at combining automatic processes with a grove. In this case, I generated a very active, very noisy set of waveforms and then ran that through a gate and filter that were triggered by the drum track. 2005-12-21

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Just another quick, fun little thing done with Garageband. 2005-12-20

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Here's a little Garageband track I threw together just to have a bit of fun today. 2005-12-19

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

The tracks of the last few days have been very static. I've been aiming for that feeling for a while. I've been looking for a way to have lots of activity within a piece and have it feel like a slow drone at the same time. I think I'm getting there.

Now it's time to take the next step. I thought it would be interesting to put a static track on top of a fairly active funk backing. This is the first result. 2005-12-18

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

This is a new version of the track from yesterday. I made a lot of changes to the processing to get closer to the concept of remembering. 2005-12-17

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

The is a piece about voice and memory. 2005-12-16

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Ten months later, I return to my obsession with bells. 2005-12-15

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

I threw a bunch of effects into the mix. The basic track is the same as yesterday, but the results are much different. Just me, my didjeridoo and the cistern. 2005-12-14

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Just me, my didjeridoo and the cistern. 2005-12-13

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

This is a reworking of yesterday's guitar piece. I've changed a couple of the effects and added some more to get more of a wash of sound. 2005-12-12

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

I'm still enamored with the effects chain of the past two days, so I decided to try it with guitar. I like how it turned out. 2005-12-11

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

I really liked the effects chain I set up yeserday, so I created a piano piece using it. 2005-12-10

By the way, this is track number 300. Only 66 more to go.

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

This is based on yesterday's track, but only echoes - the main signal has been removed. 2005-12-09

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

An EBow track with lots of delays. 2005-12-08

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Calming things down a bit, here's a feedback/delay piece using the track from the 27th as the source material. 2005-12-07

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Here's the computer getting funky. The feedback is generated by the drum and bass track running through the feedback machine and several multi-tap delays. 2005-12-06

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

More funk today. This time I'm using my EBow into Looplex. 2005-12-05

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

I had a lot of fun with yesterday's track, and it's inspired me to pull out the funk again. Today's is just a sketch for something I'm going to do a lot of work with. I'm using Cubase instead of Live, because it fits the way I work much better. Live handles tempo-locked loops really well, but is not so good with live recording. That's fine, because I'm not really interested in creating music out of other people's music.

With the exception of the drum track, I played everything myself. As I move along with these funk tracks, I'll build the drum tracks myself as well. 2005-12-04

Posted by Cinema Volta at 05:42 PM | Permalink

This is out of left field. I decided to play around with Live, which I've never used before. This is what happened. 2005-12-03

I don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but I used to have a funk band in New York in the late 80s - early 90s called, "Your Monkey's Not Funny."

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Here's another Delay Lama/joystick track because they're so much fun to do. This time it's two voices a fifth apart with harmonizing and filtering that are also controlled by the joystick. 2005-12-02

Posted by Cinema Volta at 01:26 PM | Permalink

And here's the version for marimba. There are two lines here, each doubled and phasing. 2005-12-01

Posted by Cinema Volta at 11:32 AM | Permalink

This is a piano variation on the original track. It's different than yesterday's variation in that it is not a layering of the same melody line - instead, the piano is playing the lines from all the voices. 2005-11-30

Posted by Cinema Volta at 09:42 AM | Permalink

This is a variation of the piece using only the voice line. It's back in the cistern. 2005-11-29

Posted by Cinema Volta at 03:02 PM | Permalink

I took yesterday's structure rules and applied it to a reverb with a shorter decay time. The piece is much faster and much shorter, but it still retains the space and feeling of slowness. 2005-11-28

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

This is a generative loop piece. Each instrument plays one of three notes, and then waits for the sound to decay to silence before playing the next note. The whole thing is placed in the reverb from the cistern which has a 45 second decay. 2005-11-27

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Here's six Delay Lamas singing in Upsalla's Domkyrkan. 2005-11-26

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Delay Lama is a free VST instrument that is perfect for using with a joystick controller. I had a great time with this one and want to do more. 2005-11-25

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Another joystick track. I'm just enjoying playing free and not thinking about structure or key right now. 2005-11-24

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Yesterday's joystick performance with different sounds. 2005-11-23

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Still more of the joystick controller experiments. 2005-11-22

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Almost the same setup as the last two days, but this time, the only sound generator is the filter itself. 2005-11-21

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

More playing around with the joystick setup. I changed the synth patch on this one, other than that, everything else is the same. 2005-11-20

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

I don't know about you, but I'm having lots of fun with these noises. I'm using a Junxion from STEIM (the old version) to control both a synth and a filter. Cubase lets me transform the MIDI input on different channels, so I can control more than one thing with the same gesture. There's a bit of a bug with Cubase and the way it handles virtual MIDI inputs on my Mac, so I have to send the stream from the joystick out through my physical MIDI interface and back in again. Other than that, it works like a charm.

I'm having a lot of fun getting away from using a standard keyboard to control MIDI. 2005-11-19

My Odeo Channel (odeo/76284a9ae40e4668)

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Another joystick piece. I'm starting to get a feel for the type of control that's possible with this. 2005-11-18

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

I'm doing a bit more experimentation with using a game joystick as a MIDI controller. I'm going to follow this line for a while to try to discover what's possible. Some of them will be more musical than others, but I'm having fun. 2005-11-17

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

Some more background ambience. Play this at an extremely low volume and just go about your day. 2005-11-16

Posted by Cinema Volta at 10:00 AM | Permalink

Just a simple track full of seemingly random atmospherics. Actually, it's not particularly random, I just worked hard to make it feel that way. All of the sounds were chosen for their harmonic richness, but they are hard to identify as specific notes.

This is also a totally "pure" mix - no compressors, limiters, reverb, etc. Just the synth patches themselves and a little dither on the mixdown.

2005-11-15

Posted by Cinema Volta at 11:04 AM | Permalink

This is a simple little piece that combines phasing lines and some random generation of sounds along with it. It fits well with this grey November day in Stockholm. 2005-11-14

I've reached the 3/4 point today. There's only 92 more tracks to go. Now would be a good time to consider a donation.

Posted by Cinema Volta at 10:37 AM | Permalink

Similar setup to yesterday, just a different sound source. Sort of an old si-fi movie vibe here. 2005-11-13

Posted by Cinema Volta at 11:38 AM | Permalink

This is really an ambient track - just let it play in the background at a very low level. It's a harmonic drone run through a filter that I'm controlling with a joystick. 2005-11-12

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:10 AM | Permalink

I took some of the feeling from yesterday's track and tried another approach. This is based a little bit on some of the ideas found in Steve Reich's works like "Piano Phase." All the voices use the same motive, but half of them slow down in tempo each measure. 2005-11-11

Posted by Cinema Volta at 10:24 AM | Permalink

I was really stuck and uninspired this morning, so I kept fiddling with technical stuff to avoid doing anything real. Anyway, I finally forced myself to record something. I used no tricks, no effects, just a single synth patch and came up with this little phasing piece.

I like it very much. 2005-11-10

Posted by Cinema Volta at 11:19 AM | Permalink

Here's a variation on yesterday's track. 2005-11-09

Posted by Cinema Volta at 10:24 AM | Permalink

I'm letting the computer run things today. 2005-11-08

Posted by Cinema Volta at 10:16 AM | Permalink

Just me, my didj and a big space. 2005-11-07

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:41 PM | Permalink

After finishing the last track, which was very structured, here's a guitar improvisation. Just a Strat, an EBow and a big, reverberant space. 2005-11-06

Posted by Cinema Volta at 12:34 PM | Permalink