The story
This is my submission for the LABS Afrorack competition!
I’ve recently been listening to some of Brian Eno’s Ambience albums, and was attracted to the way he used random loop lengths to encourage a sense of interplay between the various sounds introduced. And while essentially without human involvement once started, and without a discernible musical structure, they remain interesting and engaging. I’ve tried to take an element of that into this pack. I’ve created four separate samples from the Afropack sounds provided, processed them a little, and allowed for them to be blended within the sample player. The loop configurations vary between samples, so the blend will never repeat exactly the same way on looping. I’ve also included options for the variation of attack, release, delay, reverb and tone.
Enjoy!
Interface
Reviews for Guffland 1234
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
Four deep thrilling layers
This instrument comes in the tiny size of 25MB, but the actual sounds coming off of it can easily trick you to think this is big. That's because the four included layers are long and detailed, with a big and evolving sound signature that can definitely give you the chills right away. You can mix and match all four layers however you want, and with the help of the included GUI settings, you have all the control you need in order to create a unique sound every single time.
Sounds from the deep!
I very much like the fact that the sounds have been confined to the lower octave. Had these have been stretched beyond C3, it would have degraded what is a fantastic curation of 4 different tones. The GUI is simple but effective! The only note I would have is the sounds as a whole seem to be quite limited to dark textures- but overall it is a fantastic pack!
I n s t a n t A m b i e n t . . .
I'm hugely encouraged by the rampant diversity in the entries in the June LABS Challenge so far, and this is E-no exception!
Taking varied, cryptic and convoluted influences from Kings Lead Hat, Avid Dew Bio's 'Low', One Brain, Indiscreet Music, Airports For Music, After Science Before, and more, this goes beyond the 'found sounds' in Avebook, moves into 'emergent sounds' and almost does a slow swarm. Initially I was concerned, because the 4 underlying samples are all the same length (1,056,000 samples each - I suspect there is deep significance there as well...), but the groups element in Slam Precedent (anag.) lays bare enough variation of start point and end point for the looping to ensure that the composite repeat time is going to be huge. It is probably time to scour the antique shops for Victorian brass scale weights again, because they make perfect heavy little objects to hold keys down... (Oops, another trick of the trade revealed! No cross words, please...)
(And to continue giving away secrets - stick felt (green of course!) onto the underside of the weights so you won't scratch the keys...)
There are four source sounds, extracted and curated from the vast resource that is the Afrorack samples, and covering diverse fields: rhythmic (reversed as a bonus), industrial, distorted/overdriven, and a melange that is probably intended to defy categorisation. Luckily, Mark has simplified the naming convention to just numbers. So, you just mix Eno, Tow, There and Oruf to taste, and hold down some keys. (Of course, in a DAW, you can modulate those four 'mic' sliders with LFOs to give additional long-term control, so that long time for the permutations to play out just gets even bigger). The McGurk Effect rules, of course!
The effects selection is more or less perfect. Delay smears in the time dimension, and reverb smears it in the spatial dimensions. Using a low-pass filter cutoff frequency via the Tone control will allow coarse control of the high frequencies, and give access to 'Low' tones - although I tweaked my version to remove the keyboard range limits. When I go Low, then I like to go Avid Dew Bio-Low! (Editor: Martin, stop these references now!)
So, what do we have here, really? It's a celebration of the scope and breadth that Pianobook.co.uk brings to the world! The sound generation abilities of this single plug-in probably exceed the lifetime of the universe (I'm sure Christian H could use that as click-bait: A Pianobook instrument that lasts longer than forever!) But I don't need to Return From Forever to know that this is an audacious inverse library sample pack resource, and long may it play! CC SC AdM SG ...
Do I prefer Precedent Slam? A decent enough name to sample, methinks... Arrr!
Fantastic creepy ambience generator!
4 evolving sounds derived with varied character, ideal for a creepy sci-fi / post-apocalyptic vibe (here is some of the 'grit' I was missing from Fred's pack!). The first tone has a fairly short-lived pan-flute type sound which means you can layer some melody over the top of the evolving texture from the other sounds. The scope of the instrument may be a little limited, but it is very good at what it does!
Dark Ambient Machine
Should I ever be faced with the challenge of making music that is dark, oppressive and threatening, I now have the right tool at hand!
A simple but useful UI meets here four different sounds, which can be mixed as desired. A few but sensibly chosen setting options
(reduced amp envelope with attack and release, filter, reverb and delay) complete the package. A good instrument that follows a clear sonic line!
