Celestial WindowPane FAQ and Manual

Celestial WindowPane FAQ and Manual

Thanks for purchasing Celestial Windowpane CD Rom from SoundCravers Lab.  The disk has been a product of much hard work but was lots of fun.  Now its your turn to have some fun.  May you have some exciting journeys deep in the cosmos of our collective mind. 

I want to point out a few things to enhance your trip.  When ACID loads, it defaults to 120 BPM.  I advise that you start your session with Windowpane at 135 BPM.  Most of the sounds were constructed at that tempo and that is where they deliver optimum quality.  Typically ACID can go about 10-15 BPM either way before the sound starts breaking up.  I chose this tempo to allow for optimal translation of space music to trance-oriented dance music.  

You can uses these sounds straight off the CD and make great space music.  If you are creatively inclined to edit your own sounds, I discuss some of acid's advanced techniques below that will help you get the most our of the Windowpane, or for that matter other ambient-based acid cd rom.  

Advanced Techniques for Making Space Music Using Acid.

1.  Creating Custom Pads and Space Textures

I chose to give you a variety of different textures from the coldest most sterile digital to the warmest sweaty analog.  Pads take up lots of your RAM. Here's a creative way to get really thick sounds out of Windowpane without choking your system.  Open a new song.  Set the BPM to 135.Layer up the pads you want.  Mix them tastefully with volume, pan , envelopes and FX.  Set the Play Looped tool for the meaningful area of the sounds you want.  Go to the file menu.  Do a SAVE AS Mixed wave file with the box checked for save the audio in the looped area only checked.  

You now have a massive pad in one wave file that is uniquely yours.   

2. Making New Sound FX

I included a large selection of sound effects from my Mystik garage CD Rom and Ice Kold Tekno CD Rom.  These samples were chosen simply because they have unusual timbral characteristics and can be transposed in acid to get otherworldly sounds.  Here's how to make a custom effect.

Step one:  choose 2-10 FX files that are interesting to you at the moment.  Set your looper tool for 4 bars.  One at a time add the FX files to the loop area.  Hit the plus (+) or Minus (-) keys to raise or lower the pitch.  Acid does this incredibly fast so use it.  When you get a sound that you like add file #2 and repeat till you find its cool pitch.  Keep going if you want.  hen you really have something that you like, go to the file menu.  yep, same as before.  SAVE AS mixed wave file, the make sure you check that little box for "looped area only".  Congrats!  You have a new custom sound effect.    

Other Sources of Space Sounds

There is a wealth of LO FI Space Sounds on the internet.  These will blend well with Windowpane. Use the following urls to download real countdowns from NASA, wav file clips from real space transmissions and other strange sounds.  I gave you a bunch of lo fi sounds in the communications directory.  Go get some more.  They will really add to the fun factor.  

 

I'd be happy to post any .ACD songs on this web site for us all to share.  

 

Thanks once again for supporting SoundCravers Lab.  If you want to send me feedback please do.  

 

All the best to you and your music,

 

Rich the TweakMeister