How I Did It
Sad for a Timeby ephemeral rift
Uses samples from:
Tools I Used
Reaper. Shure SM58 microphone. PC.
Samples I Used
The ocean sample is actually a recording I made years ago that I completely forgot about. It's available here: http://www.freesound.org/people/Paul%20McNelis/sounds/83929/
Original Samples
Native American Flute in F minor.
Process
Reaper with no effects. I left wnm's guitar work pretty much in tact but just separated the parts. I left Panu's spoken word intact.
I spent about 6 hours from 9PM to 3AM not only working on this, but the last 3 hours or so trying to get the right flute recording to go along with wnm's guitar.
Other Notes
Panu has such a beautiful voice and his lyrics are equally just as pure. WNM's guitar work is again on the same level. Two of the amazingly talented artists here at ccM.
As soon as I heard wnm's guitar sample I just knew I had to do something with it, just wasn't sure what I could do that would be good enough to honor such a recording. So I downloaded it and saved it "for a rainy day". Once I heard panu's spoken word, however, I knew that was what the sample I was waiting for.
I put the two together and was thinking of just having panu's spoken word play over wnm's guitar. But then I liked the more powerful effect of separating them. It seems more dramatic to me. More reverant. Each sample playing on its own, yet together..
I then wanted to add something to both samples to fill it out, besides my flute accompaniement. I was thinking some kind of ethereal pad or synth. But then one line in panu's spoken word where he says "they came down to our level shores.." stuck in my craw and that's when I remembered the ocean recordings I made years ago. Luckily they were uploaded to Freesound.org since I know longer have them stored anywhere.
Once I laid down the ocean to the mix, to me that was all that was needed. I didn't think the recording needed any reverb or any other effects. It seems to work at least in my mind. It sounds like an oceanside, reverant poetry reading accompanied by guitar and flute. And that's just how I like it. Though if someone can do better that would be great. Always room for improvement!
I also wanted to separate the flute and guitar somewhat in the left and right stereo channels. Also to have wnm's beautiful guitar work more separated and pronounced from my flute since the two together can kind of blend a little too much and make it hard to distinguish the nuances of the guitar.
I wanted my flute recording to accompany wnm's guitar. Not drown it out, distract or take away from it. I hope I achieved that. It's in F minor and I have no idea what chord/key wnm's guitar is in. But they sound alright together at least to me...
Lastly, I am not Native American. But for whatever reason I am drawn to the Native American people, their culture and their history, which to me is one of the greatest in our history, yet also just as tragic.
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