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Community => Free Music Downloads => Topic started by: cubaxd on May 02, 2009, 22:27:03

Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: cubaxd on May 02, 2009, 22:27:03
Hi.

I'm still alive sometimes and I have just finished a new album. It's quite big in size (almost 100 Megs) and I uploaded it three times today: at last.fm (in the hope that it will outlive my own site :-/ ), as single files on my site and as a zip archive. You can imagine that i spent the whole day uploading (ca 12 kBps upload speed). But I think it was worth it and I hope that some of you find some time to listen and like the album. But be warned: The music is for free! If you don't like it you won't get any money back. ;)

10 Tracks, MP3, 192kbps

Get the zip archive here (http://cubaxd.net/music/cubaxd_-_ambient_stories_2.zip) (97MB! offline playlist file and cover included)

EDIT: uncloned (http://www.soonlabel.com/) was so kind to host the archive on his site for a while. In case that the download above isn't working or to slow, you can download it here (http://clones.soonlabel.com/public/cubaxd/cubaxd_-_ambient_stories_2.zip). (Thank you uncloned)

Online playlist (http://cubaxd.net/music/ambient_stories_2/playlist.m3u)
Cover (http://cubaxd.net/music/ambient_stories_2/cover.jpg)

01 Finnef (http://cubaxd.net/music/ambient_stories_2/01-finnef.mp3); 5:00 -- 6.9 MB
02 Paper Plane (http://cubaxd.net/music/ambient_stories_2/02-paper_plane.mp3); 8:07 -- 11.2 MB
03 Blaue Töne (http://cubaxd.net/music/ambient_stories_2/03-blaue_toene.mp3); 11:45 -- 16.2 MB
04 Brummschleife (http://cubaxd.net/music/ambient_stories_2/04-brummschleife.mp3); 6:14 -- 8.6 MB
05 Olympus Mons (http://cubaxd.net/music/ambient_stories_2/05-olympus_mons.mp3); 7:53 -- 10.8 MB
06 Hallo Erdling (http://cubaxd.net/music/ambient_stories_2/06-hallo_erdling.mp3); 5:34 -- 7.7 MB
07 Alltag (http://cubaxd.net/music/ambient_stories_2/07-alltag.mp3); 10:04 -- 13.8 MB
08 Singing Machine (http://cubaxd.net/music/ambient_stories_2/08-singing_machine.mp3); 3:23 -- 4.7 MB
09 CU Later (http://cubaxd.net/music/ambient_stories_2/09-culater.mp3); 3:07 -- 4.3 MB
10 Nur Regen (http://cubaxd.net/music/ambient_stories_2/10-nur_regen.mp3); 9:47 -- 13.4 MB

EDIT: If you have trouble downloading, please try to get the individual files at last.fm (http://www.last.fm/music/cubaxd/Ambient%2BStories%2B%25232)


cu
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: Sam_Zen on May 03, 2009, 15:16:15
Well, the download goes like snail mail as well. But I will check it out.
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: Relabsoluness on May 03, 2009, 22:07:14
I also tried the download several times, and finally gave up on the zip archive and downloaded the files individually, with which there were also problems in the download. First impressions on the album tells that it was worth the trouble (although 'this is no folk album 2' could have been a pleasant surprise :)).
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: Sam_Zen on May 03, 2009, 23:21:27
Gave up on the zip archive too. And I had to activate/boost the individual DL's several times via pause/continue.
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: uncloned on May 04, 2009, 01:00:57
I was able to get the zip archive.

With your permission I can host it for a time to let people here listen to it.

However, I must warn you it may take sometime before I completely list to this because the first song has been looping now for over 20 minutes and I don't have much motivation to stop listening to it  :D

i.e. - I find it excellent!
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: Nahkranoth on May 04, 2009, 07:52:09
Downloaded the whole shebang, it took about an hour.
Now I need 2 days or so to listen and digest.
Glad you're still alive, cubaxd!
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: cubaxd on May 04, 2009, 17:13:10
That's odd :/ I've never had any problems with the site, none that I know of. If I knew that I would have added the last.fm link (http://www.last.fm/music/cubaxd/Ambient%2BStories%2B%25232), too.

Quote from: "Relabsoluness"although 'this is no folk album 2' could have been a pleasant surprise
I really was considering it, but later I decided to make it a "true" ambient/electronica album. And the folk song I've made by far doesn't reach the quality of the first one. You wouldn't be happy with it ;)

Quote from: "uncloned"With your permission I can host it for a time to let people here listen to it.
You'd do me a favor. I should rather ask you for your permission :)

Thank you all for listening and for your going through the trouble of downloading :(
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: uncloned on May 04, 2009, 17:16:29
its no problem cubaxd I'll put it up in my public folder today after work.

- I'd be more than happy to host anyone who needs it.



I just don't want to get into the business of being a public website. Less headaches for me  I think and LP chip and company do a fine job here.
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: Sam_Zen on May 05, 2009, 01:22:03
01- Nice slow swing in this.
02- Enjoying, but the 'close' centre sound is a fraction too loud. Good percussion.
03- Excellent mixing of speed and counterspeed. From ~5:00 some fine oscillator sync sounds.
   An outro of 4 mins, I like that.
04- Just experience. No need for comment.
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: uncloned on May 05, 2009, 01:45:10
ok,'Cubaxd's album available here

http://clones.soonlabel.com/public/cubaxd/cubaxd_-_ambient_stories_2.zip
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: Nahkranoth on May 06, 2009, 11:36:04
You know what? I could listen to "Alltag" for hours without noticing the time passes.
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: cubaxd on May 06, 2009, 18:11:15
@Sam
What is an oscillator sync sound :oops: There happens a lot at 5:00 and I can't figure out what is meant by that. When I do something I know how it sounds, without knowing its technical term. I should consider reading some books on this ;)

@Nahkranoth
Thank you :)
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: Sam_Zen on May 07, 2009, 00:21:24
2 cubaxd : '''oscillator sync sound" is more my own term, than a strict technical term.
Diff to explain, but something like the freq of OSC1 is forcing the freq of OSC2 to another level of harmonics,
by trying to 'sync' to the freq of OSC1.
The result sounds sometimes a bit the same as applying very specific band-filters.
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: Saga Musix on May 07, 2009, 18:31:01
Nice album once again!

Paper Plane is really nice. dreamy. trancy. wonderful.

i'll let the album run while coding, so more comments may follow later. :)

EDIT: When listening to "Alltag", I thought my player had switched to the Diablo 2 soundtrack. It sounds exactly the same. How the hell did you create this awesome sound? (Hint: mod versions of those two tracks would be appreciated :D)
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: cubaxd on May 07, 2009, 21:06:38
Sam, I don't get it. But the main thing is, it works :)

Thank you Jojo
I'd be glad to give you the mods. But are very heavy. Alltag is the biggest (62MB) and Paper Plane is 41MB. And all together are 222MB. How should I get them over to you? With a wheel barrow? ;) But I don't know if I actually cleaned up them. Maybe i can shrink them a little.
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: Saga Musix on May 08, 2009, 14:54:31
Well, if there's no other option, I can provide you with some FTP space to upload to. :D
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: cubaxd on May 08, 2009, 19:10:13
As Jojo requested them, here are the source files of the tracks "Paper Plane" and "Alltag".
After cleaning them up, downsampling some of the larger samples and converting some actual
mono samples from stereo to mono, it was possible to reduce the size of the mods dramatically.
The comments of the modules contain links to the needed VST plugins.

as2_paperplane_alltag.tar.bz2 (http://cubaxd.net/music/as2_paperplane_alltag.tar.bz2) (24MB)

If you're using Windows and don't know how to extract the archive, you can use 7-zip (http://www.7-zip.org/), a great free tool which supports many formats.

P.S.: Hope the download doesn't make much problems this time!

@jojo
It's not so much a question of space, than it is a question of my upload speed. No matter where I'm uploading it, it's just sloooooooow.
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: Saga Musix on May 08, 2009, 19:36:42
Can't be worse than the problems that i currently have with my DLAN. :) It took me quite some time to download that file (and I'm still on it) as it always loses connection. anyway, thanks for sharing!
(and it looks like i have to download it AGAIN because it doesn't want to resume after 95%.... ._.)
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: cubaxd on May 08, 2009, 20:09:04
Are you sure it's you DLAN (never heard of that before btw)? Because my site seems to have some trouble, too.
I would recommend wget (http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/wget.htm). And then enter in a command line window
wget -c http://cubaxd.net/music/as2_paperplane_alltag.tar.bz2
As long as you add the -c option, wget will continue at the position of the current file size.
(but to make it work that way, wget must be in a %PATH% (for example: copying all wget files to C:\WINDOWS\system32) or you must enter the absolute address (i.e. C:\Wherever\wget -c http:...))
There are of course tools that are easier to use, it's just that I don't know them :)
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: Saga Musix on May 08, 2009, 21:08:43
DLAN may also be known as powerline or homeplug. it's been very unstable tonight, i had connection timeouts everywhere all the time. got the file within a few minutes now. :)
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: KrazyKatz on June 20, 2009, 15:28:58
Way to go Cubaxd. You have a lot of really interesting ideas here. Your sense of patience given way to moments of loveliness is hard to find.

Great album. You should eventually get all your albums professionally mastered. They are certainly worth it.

Y.
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: Harbinger on June 26, 2009, 22:19:30
Notes as i'm listening:

Beautiful album! Could easily fit into the New Age category, but the sonic methods are too modern for that genre perhaps. (Maybe New Age should be redefined! :wink:) Anyway, most of the songs are too theme-driven to be called just Ambient, but that is clearly the intent of the music. Perhaps we should call it Rhythmic Ambient.

Paper Plane is also one of my favorites. And Sam_Zen is right -- you could keep this going for another 8 minutes and it wouldn't sound tedious, just very "hypnogenic."

Some the sounds in Blaue Toene were also a little bitter ma non troppo. But Brummschlieffe is one of THE most interesting compositions i've ever heard. At first i thought i was listening to a song of drippy faucets. Then a soft kick is added using a 7/8 rhythm that transitions into a 4/4 as smoothly as soft soap. I couldn't keep my mind on my work, it was so capturing.

Alltag: industrial ambience, but somehow keenly disturbing. Either i'm wandering around in a sewer, or within the mangled machine of a madman's mind. The mixture of reverbed sounds with non-reverbed ones really adds 3D perspective to this piece, and could serve as a teaching point for advanced users.

Singing Machine is as interesting as the others but it makes me yearn for the future technology when the human voice can be perfectly synthesized. This song is an excellent stew of phenomes (for me it sounds like a garbled group of syllables; if these are words in another language i wouldn't know). Needless to say this song is entirely too short.

And if you're weather falls into drought, play Nur Regen to be reminded of the music within rain. The composer introduces musical elements midway thru the song, but mostly keeps it in the background.

Over an hours worth of relaxing (or at least interesting) music that is good enough to be marketed. I could hear alot of these tracks as backdrop for movie scenes, they're that good. A well-thought-out collection of brainstrokers that is well worth the download (if Ambient doesn't bore you). And thanks cubaxd, for sharing it with us at no charge. You're a true artist in my book! 8)
Title: [Ambient Album] Ambient Stories 2 (mp3)
Post by: cubaxd on June 29, 2009, 16:48:56
@KrazyKatz
Thx a lot. As for the mastering, you've once said that I would make progress, so I'm still having hope that I'll get the job done myself one day.
On the other hand, it isn't that bad (in my opinion) if the mastering quality is "average" (as long as it's not poor ...).

@Harbinger
I like your review much more than my album :)

QuotePerhaps we should call it Rhythmic Ambient.
I call it "Electronica with a lot of Ambient in it", but Rhythmic Ambient would be an apposite term as well.

QuoteSinging Machine (...) for me it sounds like a garbled group of syllables; if these are words in another language i wouldn't know
I wouldn't know either. It is a simple text file with some commands the program txt2pho (German only) can read and convert to an mbrola file (mbrola supports many languages). I already wrote something about this programs in some other thread, but not how to make a voice sing.
This is some of the text of Singing Machine (it's really just gibberish, same as used by yodelers ;) ):

{SetSingingTempo:180}
{SetOctave:c}
{Singing:16,c;16,d';4,e;4,g}
hehurodi
{Singing:16,a;16,g';4,f;4,d}
jadalodi
... (and that goes on for a while :))

Each syllable has it's own note and txt2pho recognizes every syllable automagically. The numbers stand for the speed (ie 16 for 1/16), and a single quote after a note means this note is one octave higher than the others (the standard octave is defined by SetOctave)). It's obvious that one can make very interesting sounds with txt2pho, in both German and Gibberish (since it only supports German).

QuoteAnd thanks cubaxd, for sharing it with us at no charge.
No prob. Making money is one of the biggest problems of mankind. ;)