For this concept I wanted to try to combine the atmosphere of the seabed with that of the seaside. To do this I aimed for an aquatic aesthetic using a kick drum with delays and reverbs, sending this to a resonator on the return chanel to create harmonic chord textures.

For the seaside I used field recordings from the Ayrshire coastline, chopped up and processed through the Crystalizer plug in. This gives a feeling of the seaside while also providing rhythmic qualities.

The Jellyfish will spend its time between both of these places so hopefully I have recreated some kind of hybrid the captures both. Who Knows :slight_smile:

7 Likes

The giant jellyfish lives in the sea, mostly in the dark. Does it percieve time? What is up, what is down? Floating, pulsing, sensing the environment through long tentacles, trawling and entangling prey. Does it sense a body or is it part of the ocean? Is it light covered in darkness? The giant jellyfish floats in the sea, doesn’t know fast, doesn’t know slow
just hunger
just being
just pulse.

I wanted to create a weightless feeling, something that moves without moving, just ocean inertia, so I ran different things through a flanger that created textures and different harmonies. Everything is centered around a massive pulse which is the timeless existence of the jellyfish. This is sidechained with other elements in the composition creating a breathing pattern.
I used fieldrecordings from a small harbour in southern Sweden and my car used as a massive resonator during a storm. These were filtered and pitched so they sounded like the deep ocean. Listen to it on something that goes deep.

4 Likes

Nice depth building. I enjoy the subtle marching rhythm. Keeps things moving perpetually forward

3 Likes


Objective:
Compose a piece of sound/music that summons up what a moment, or an instance, or a day in the life of a jellyfish is like to the jellyfish.

Process:
Set the scene by building vast openness. Long, slow evolving notes. With long attack times on the volume envelopes. No one is in a hurry here.

Project bpm set to: 8.000.

Add subtle water sounds to give the feeling of being submerged.

With the atmosphere set, time to add the jellies. They mainly open and close while drifting along.

So I added constant side to side panning drift to my top layer synth. And a filter that slowly opens and closes as the note sounds.

Then added another layer over that with different notes and panning. Sometimes one jelly passes by. Sometimes a few.

Sometimes they’re in unison.

And sometimes they’re not.

6 Likes

I’ve had a bit of an odd time with music of late. In the sense that Fripp talks about it either the music hasn’t been available to me or I’ve not been available to the music. It’s starting to return though which is good.

Meantime I wanted to share a brief Jellyfish piece I made in 2017. Film by me as well

4 Likes

Idea

Jellyfish and related organisms make me think of their slow gracious underwater dance. I looked in particular at myxozoa, the smallest animals ever known to have lived. Parasites.

Process

It’s a brooding waltz made entirely on the Polyend Tracker using its built-in samples, all but the kick are wavetables. You can get the zipped project here: myxozoic waltz.zip (3.4 MB)

There is no post-processing besides some subtle loudness maximization courtesy of Waves.

4 Likes


several passes on a modified and highly effected “krell” patch.
Realized on eurorack synth system, digital EQ, and minimal processing.

Krell patches originated as an evolving / self generating patch to represent the “krell” alien race in the film Forbidden Planet.
jellyfish are very alien, so i made the jump to modify that patch for this project.
Thanks for listening.

2 Likes

I used temperature signals from wind, along with recordings of quiet piano sounds, to guide this piece. I had in mind a jellyfish exploring shallow depths, encountering humanity, and then retreating feeling a bit less safe.

5 Likes

It has a very nice vibe to it and the strings are great, well done!

2 Likes

Tried to keep it very simple this time. Only some different sounds with reverb at different settings. Ok, and an LFO here and there to add movement.

4 Likes

Very effective, conjours a nice underwater feeling.

2 Likes

I had jokingly posted a picture of this anemone last week and said “wet things say hello” in response to the initial posting of the prompt on the Junto Slack, and it was obvious to me that I was going to have to make good on that.

I didn’t feel like I’d be playing fair unless I used appropriate source material, so I started with a short surf clip from Asilomar State Beach, recorded at one of the tide pools last week. (Week two of a holiday that started with too much hot and way too much smoke; fortunately things got nicer the second week.)

I loaded the sample into Live, and slathered it in processing several different ways, including absolutely dry. I added a little Arturia Buchla Easel for continuity, hit record, and faded tracks in and out, and retriggered samples as appropriate.

A fun exercise, and much more intense than I expected the final result would be. It does approximate the cumulative effect of being right down at the water’s surface with so many lively denizens.

4 Likes

Hi Hi, first time here.

I sliced up a couple of youtube videos in the Ableton sampler - including “Jellyfish and Sound” by Charles Edward Fambo here; and made something that sounds something like a jellyfish coming down after a real rager.

Can’t wait to listen and learn from this community I’ve been meaning to contribute to for a while!

JH

2 Likes

Coool. Would love to hear what samples you’re using/what settings you used on the reverbs/LFO

1 Like

I knew I wanted some downward arpeggios on piano that ended with the root vs. a sustained drone a 9th above. I played them as high as possible on my piano and then pitch-shifted them down a few octaves, then used the Pitchproof VST to double the sound an octave higher. Lo-fi deliciousness.

For the B section, I just came up with some polyrhythms I liked.

Overall I think this is ok. I wanted it to feel a little more gentle and flowing (like you’re floating aimlessly around the ocean), and I didn’t quite get there. If I had more time to work on mix and sound design, I think I could have gotten there. Oh well - this was still fun!

3 Likes

For this assignment, I focused on locomotion, which I imagined to be much of a jellyfish’s experience. A jellyfish moves by alternately contracting and relaxing its umbrella, expelling a jet of water during the contraction phase. I represented this by compressing and expanding the bellows of a bayan, a Russian button accordion, at a frequency that roughly matches the pulsing of the jellyfish on the live Jelly Cam at the Monterey Bay Aquarium website.

Their tentacles don’t really contribute to motion – They dangle beneath to paralyze prey. These are represented by four simultaneous tinkling sequences.

3 Likes

Nice! The Bayan really provides a nice sense of locomotion as it bops up and down, sounds almost like a engine. Was the Jellyfish having a good or a bad bay?

2 Likes

Thanks. I am using in Ableton a combination of sound generators in parallel, wavetable instrument with ping-pong delay and modulation on the filter and noise, and another two with sawtooth oscillator plus different settings on delay, distortion and chorus. Reverbs are different Valhalla ones, as return track and on the tracks themselves, with EQ and compression over them to moderate.

1 Like

I’m a bit late on this one but this pandemic has had a strange effect on my perception of time. My jellyfish has a song stuck in his head. Lots of guitars, a thumb piano and some samples from freesound. Also a bad pun which I hope doesnt offend.

https://soundcloud.com/widdly/om-shanti-disquiet0455

1 Like

I can relate all too well. This piece is great.

1 Like