Cue Apple Cafes (disquiet0431) by Nate Trier

This week's challenge was to add a third part to a duo. I downloaded https://soundcloud.com/lawrence-frazier-1 Larry Frazier's keyboard part that he added to a guitar part. It was already pretty nice and full, so I went full ambient and added a drone/soundscape underneath.

I started by taking the original track and pitch-shifting/time-stretching it down a perfect fourth. Then I added Michael Norris' Spectral Dronemaker to turn it into a pad. I added Ableton's Resonator tuned to the same key as the instrumental part (D major...I think?). I automated the drone's width in the stereo field to expand and contract during the piece, and also automated a little bit of EQ to make room for the instruments when they are playing. Finally, I added Klevgrand's DAW cassette to get a little bit of a lo-fi feel, and I busted out my new copy of Soundtoys effect rack set to the "Boards of Vermont" setting to double down on the soundscape.

We weren't supposed to process the original recording, but I had to in order to get everything to fit. I split them up for processing using an Ableton effect rack and the Utility tool. I added a little bit of a saturation to the organ and EQ'd it. The guitar got a fair bit of compression to smooth out the peaks and I notched out one frequency to make a space for the organ. Both of these instruments went through Ableton's Flanger to give them some motion and unity.

Finally, for the mastering, I used a mid/side encoder rack and added some more compression in the middle and some delay on the sides. I did a little EQing based on a Streaky webinar I watched recently, and then at the end absolutely everything went through Waves' J37 tape simulator.

* * * * *
More on this 41st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Disquiet Junto Project 0431: Solitary Ensembles x 3 — The Assignment: Complete a trio by adding a track to an existing duet by two other musicians — at:

https://disquiet.com/0431/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0431-solitary-ensembles-x-3/

There’s also a Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Image associated with this track is by Abby, used thanks to a Creative Commons license and Flickr. The image has been cropped, colors shifted, and text added.

https://flic.kr/p/8LopPe

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ 1