#18

Hi all,
here’s my track.

The process: recorded myself breathing through the nose in different strengths, lengths and directions. sliced the recording and played the samples with a step sequencer. I equalized the samples differently to bring out their unique features and have them more drum-like, but I faded the EQs in and out during the track. There’s a cat purr field recording as well (to have something in the lower range, but still kind of breathing) and some simple synth arp.

The thoughts: Since a very long time, maybe ever, I “play drums” using my breath, as in blowing in or out of the nose. Maybe everybody plays nose breath drums, I don’t know, I haven’t asked yet. Do you?
In any case that’s a quite silent noise but inside my head it sounds like a couple of snaredrums, maybe even in a big room. It is comparable to that silent crowd cheering noise that I heard other people do.
So while I am not happy about Junto assignments that should make stuff out of nothing or just hissing noises, I was excited for this one.
I made something, however having an instrument does not mean you can virtuously play it. I could think of either more careful beat construction using a drum machine with breath samples, or making them all myself. Now this is a compromise, the rhythm is partly recorded, partly by sequenced/looped samples.
I may revisit this idea from another angle.

7 Likes
#19

I think breathing is the essence of music and I have used breathing or breathing-like rhythms many times, but mostly subtile. This mission however called for an obtrusive LISTEN TO THE (in my case, as mostly: slow) BEAT OF THE BREATH! and I decided to make it’s presence unmistakeable.

It’s my own breath (which I found hard to record), used in a handful of samples for some variety, recorded with a Zoom H1N and a dead cat. I added some gongs starting around 1:00, because I like their meditative character, plus some cosmic noise … the main work was done in Caustic for Android with some mixing in Reaper.

3 Likes
#20

Oddly this isn’t the first track I’ve made using my breath as a rhythm but the other one was years ago and I can’t find it off hand - is on a hard disk somewhere…

anyway:

Recorded my self doing various breathing things (quick, slow, softly etc) in a single track on my Zoom h6, sampled directly from the zoom into Norns MLR. Played the main part of the track on MLR (on the first take - but there was an unrecorded ‘first go’ to familiarise myself with the samples I’d made). Brought it into Ableton - added some sends with filters/reverb. Wasn’t quite sure if it needed more - but the serum track seemed to add something to me. Added the Samuel Beckett quote. messed about with Eq etc. uploaded

2 Likes
#21

I’m really fond of how you tied this assignment to an emotional impetus.

2 Likes
#22

Of all our fundamental activities, breathing requires nothing but the heart.

1 Like
#23

I recorded an inhale, an exhale and a whispered “where’s the mic on this thing” with my ipad mic and tweaked that recording with Borderlands Granular. Compression and normalization in Audition.

2 Likes
#24

not the glitchy micro-sample thing i maybe should have done, but the abstract soundscape with a soundbed of cold metalic sounding breaths

2 Likes
#25

A slight twist on the instructions - I didn’t like the sound of my own breathing, so this piece is instead based on the sound of my dog Nira sleeping :slight_smile:

I’ve often wondered what she is dreaming about as she twitches and moves about in her sleep. Perhaps she is still dealing with the massive transitions in her short life - being surrendered with her pups, living in a shelter, then being adopted and moving from a small country down to the Big Smoke.

To make this piece, I layered the original recording with time-stretched and manipulated versions in Ableton 9, then used the Sennheiser Ambeo plug-in to pan the layers across the sound field.

Layer 1: Original [looped]
Layer 2: Original slowed 800%
Layer 3: Original slowed 800% + Moscow Resonator
Layer 4: Original slowed 800% + Ring frequency shifter + Five grain delay + Around The Head pan effect
Layer 5: Sound of one breath slowed 3200% + Brooklyn Resonator + Five grain delay
Layer 6: Sound of one breath slowed 3200% + Rome Resonator + Five grain delay

3 Likes
#26

haunted :slight_smile:
nice work

1 Like
#27

https://soundcloud.com/ethanhein/breath-rhythm-disquiet0384

My plan was to use the amplitude envelope of my breathing to control various synth parameters, directly via vocoder, and indirectly using Max For Live CV to control filters and arpeggiator rates on a couple of Ableton synths. Mainly, I wanted this to be relaxing and not anxiety-producing. You be the judge.

2 Likes
#28

I love the 800% stretching. I have ableton live, but I don’t know if that’s an option. I definitely want to explore this tool.

2 Likes
#29

Weirdo track this week. Recorded myself breathing, then used that (processed) as a background track and to gate the drums. Synths are all sourced from Legowelt sample packs.

3 Likes
#30


iphone recording

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#31

:yum: You are not alone. I breath rhythms. Often before I fall asleep. Not popular with my wife… #wearenormal

2 Likes
#32

My interpretation is probably too literal but here goes anyway! I started out using breath through my trumpet to make rhythmic sounds rather than musical notes and I ended up making the whole track - percussion and music - using the trumpet. No other instruments! The breath sounds throughout the track are from pulling the mouthpiece away early before a note is finished and letting the air carry through. I do enjoy the Disquiet Junto project thanks.

5 Likes
#33

I actually participated this week. I don’t usually manage such a thing:

The short version of the process: I recorded my breath (something closer to a breathy vowel), then cut it up into slivers, then enacted some alterations on those individual slivers, then triggered them, then recorded a second variation triggered differently, then combined the two tracks by overlaying them, and then uploaded. When working with the sample-triggering, I set the pace of this to 60bpm, which is sort of my happy pace. I didn’t think of the start of each breath as the pace, but instead various moments within the breath.

I did the whole thing on my iPad: AudioShare -> ReSlice -> AUM -> Autony -> Cubasis 2 -> AudioShare.

More details at the link.

9 Likes
Your iOS arsenal
#34

Process:

  1. Microphone fed into guitar looper pedal; breathing looped and layered ‘live’ resulting in an increasing layer of breaths…
  2. Take the recording, reverse it and overlay it on the end of the first part;
  3. Add a little Absynth (Native Instruments) to indicate where part 2 starts.
  4. (Oh, and shoved the whole thing through a Cathedral reverb)

I’ve been suffering from a heavy cold/flu these last couple of weeks, so it was all I could do to not cough and splutter through this one!

1 Like
#35

hehe cool, I knew it :wink:

#36

cool sounds
:slight_smile:
dig the iOS system notes, nice work

1 Like
#37

Thanks very much. I put up more details and some screenshots, mostly for my future reference, here:

https://disquiet.com/?p=54431