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Link to Streaming Service
https://soundcloud.com/aven-gelic/the-hidden-portal
Description
The Hidden Portal
Water Spirits from the Far Reaches of the Hidden Portal in Amida Falls.
Observing the reference image "The Amida Falls in the Far Reaches of the Kisokaidō Road" by Katsushika Hokusai, I perceived the painting as a sacred place. To me, the waterfall resembled a central nervous system and a portal. Exploring other works by the artist, I discovered several depicting yōkai. This led me to imagine that the painting conceals a yōkai, represented by this "nervous system," a coded message indicating the presence of a portal between our world and that of the yōkai, envisioning it as a hidden message within the artwork. I imagined the waters of Amida Falls flowing through both worlds, linking them together through this hidden portal, symbolizing the waterfall as a bridge between the visible and the invisible, which in Japanese spiritual culture is associated with the realm of yōkai. A yōkai is a specter, spirit, or demon, which in some cases has animal, human, or both parts simultaneously. They are also often representations of nature and invisible forces. Waterfalls and other natural elements are frequently associated with the supernatural in Japanese folklore. For example, there are yōkai related to water, such as mischievous aquatic creatures, and dragons, which are guardians of rivers and lakes.
For the sound design, I was also inspired by the movements and flows of water, waterfalls, spirits and underwater monsters like ryu dragons, and especially images of light reflections on and under water. Except for the percussion, all sounds were designed by myself. The overall sound design represents the presence of light in the dark depths of water. Light also symbolizes life, energy, the portal and the channeling between the two worlds. The deep darkness, in contrast, symbolizes the inner world, the hidden, rest and solitude.
Since this is an impressions jam I decided to go for something very experimental so I tried to push the boundaries with the sound design and decided to make a blend between different styles and genres that would represent this idea about the portal at Amida waterfall.
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Comments
Sound design is absolutely, completely, 100% possible using software synths. Sound design is possible using a Casio Keyboard. It's possible using a $30,000 Eurorack Modular Synth. It's possible using a Sure SM57 and a styrofoam cup. There is so much evidence supporting this that it's not even worth arguing, but the best evidence is right here in this submission.
Not only did you heavily experiment with sound design and synthesis, you formed it into a cohesive song. This thing is bangin. You got me praying for that kick to hit again and got me begging for a bunch of spicy frequencies to hit my ears. My only critique is that I want more of your percussion, because you're damn good at it. The ending segment with snare on the 3rd beat felt like ecstasy. I wish there was more "oomph" in the bass during this section, like the insane cerebral kicks around 1:25.
Nice work!!
You talk about designing the sounds yourself but the plugins / vsts used are visable in the DAW screenshot, I'm also confused by how the names of those are all cropped. It's quite difficult to tell what exactly is happening in your daw, since the piano roll doesn't quite match up with a melody or line from the track?
I think a more clear picture of your daw would be super helpful for folks wanting to actually grade your composition, mixing, and sound design.
Otherwise, the track is a bit to electronic for me. Way to Dance club and not really giving deep dark Japanese folklore vibes.
However it is a nice track, and a good submission.
I dont know what you mean, I sounddesigned every sound in virtual synthesizers. And the screenshot is from the track I uploaded.
Sound designing and just using a virtual synth aren't quite the same thing, is what I was trying to say. Typically when someone says they designed a sound it means from a waveform or audio file themselves, in something like a sampler or wavetable editor.
I said virtual synthesizers not virtual synth and I didn´t use external presets. I designed every sound in wavetables virtual synthethizers, like serum and vital.
If you had a better picture of your DAW we'd be able to actually see what software you used, was my point.