make-believe birdsong
from Shapes & Time by Lullatone
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about
Around the time I made this song there was a sentiment going around that it was too cliche to use the sound of birds in ambient tracks. To be honest, up until that point, I might have felt the same way… But being told that you can’t do something always feels like a challenge to try it.
So I thought of a loophole. I wouldn’t use any real bird sounds! I would try my hardest to make an authentic sounding field recording of a forest, but only use things around the studio to make the sounds.
Years ago some friends in Singapore gave us a big box of whistles - that became really useful. I also had this small wooden tool that squeaks when you twist and rub two pieces of wood together.
The secret to not just sound like a silly middle-aged man sitting in a room pretending to be a bird with whistles and wood is to use lots and lots of layering and guitar pedals. I shifted the pitch and direction of the echoes with a Count to Five pedal and suddenly it sounded more alive and unpredictable, like nature. A dash of reverb gave it a sense of space. To really glue everything together, I recorded all of the fake bird sounds onto an old cassette deck that made it feel more like something from an archive of antique field recordings.
But in the end I might have done it too well… No one that I played it for believed they weren’t real birds. Now most people just think I’m another guy that puts bird sounds in the background of songs.
この曲を作っている時、アンビエントな曲に鳥の声を入れるのはありきたり過ぎると思われていた。僕も同じ意見だったけれど、やってはいけないと言われるとますますやってみたくなる。
そこで抜け穴を見つけた。本物の鳥の声は使わない！
スタジオにあるものだけを使って、本当に森でフィールドレコーディングしたような音を作ってみる。
以前シンガポールに住んでいる友達から、笛がたくさん入ったセットをもらった。これがとても役に立った。ひねると鳥の声がするバードコールもスタジオにあったので使った。
笛とバードコールを使って鳥の真似をするなんてちょっとバカっぽいけど、ギターペダルでレイヤーを幾重にも重ねることで解消した。Count to Fiveのペダルを使ってエコーの音階と方向を変える事で、自然のようにより生き生きとして予測不可能な音になった。最後の仕上げに、偽の鳥の声を古いカセットデッキに録音して、アンティークなフィールドレコーディング感が出るようにした。
だけどうまく作り過ぎたかもしれない。誰にも偽物の鳥の声だと信じてもらえないから。鳥の声を入れて曲を作ってる奴だと思われちゃったかな。。。
So I thought of a loophole. I wouldn’t use any real bird sounds! I would try my hardest to make an authentic sounding field recording of a forest, but only use things around the studio to make the sounds.
Years ago some friends in Singapore gave us a big box of whistles - that became really useful. I also had this small wooden tool that squeaks when you twist and rub two pieces of wood together.
The secret to not just sound like a silly middle-aged man sitting in a room pretending to be a bird with whistles and wood is to use lots and lots of layering and guitar pedals. I shifted the pitch and direction of the echoes with a Count to Five pedal and suddenly it sounded more alive and unpredictable, like nature. A dash of reverb gave it a sense of space. To really glue everything together, I recorded all of the fake bird sounds onto an old cassette deck that made it feel more like something from an archive of antique field recordings.
But in the end I might have done it too well… No one that I played it for believed they weren’t real birds. Now most people just think I’m another guy that puts bird sounds in the background of songs.
この曲を作っている時、アンビエントな曲に鳥の声を入れるのはありきたり過ぎると思われていた。僕も同じ意見だったけれど、やってはいけないと言われるとますますやってみたくなる。
そこで抜け穴を見つけた。本物の鳥の声は使わない！
スタジオにあるものだけを使って、本当に森でフィールドレコーディングしたような音を作ってみる。
以前シンガポールに住んでいる友達から、笛がたくさん入ったセットをもらった。これがとても役に立った。ひねると鳥の声がするバードコールもスタジオにあったので使った。
笛とバードコールを使って鳥の真似をするなんてちょっとバカっぽいけど、ギターペダルでレイヤーを幾重にも重ねることで解消した。Count to Fiveのペダルを使ってエコーの音階と方向を変える事で、自然のようにより生き生きとして予測不可能な音になった。最後の仕上げに、偽の鳥の声を古いカセットデッキに録音して、アンティークなフィールドレコーディング感が出るようにした。
だけどうまく作り過ぎたかもしれない。誰にも偽物の鳥の声だと信じてもらえないから。鳥の声を入れて曲を作ってる奴だと思われちゃったかな。。。
credits
from Shapes & Time,
released November 11, 2022
license
all rights reserved
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