A Japanese Garden Soundscape

Creations & Ideas
1

Nothing clever really, just a bunch of free-running samples.

However, it’s begging for a little OSC project to control
everything… I’ll leave that to someone else.

I deliberately didnt use all the .WAVS, it would have been
too cluttered… as it stands I can sit in the cool evening in
my garden, with a cold beer, and imagine.

The awesome flute is called a Dizi, and the Odoshi started
life as a deer scarer, before evolving into a crude water clock.


# Eli... June 2021.
# Based on the Japanese Garden soundscape at: https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/japaneseGardenSoundscapeGenerator.php
# using samples downloaded from Freesound - Be careful with Freesound samples, many are Attribution licensed.
#
# Samples converted to .WAV and available at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8gme0ps9fyfkjzf/garden.zip?dl=1
#
# On Windows, unzip in C:\ to produce C:\garden... On Linux, put it somewhere and adjust paths to samples.

'--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'
'|                                             Japanese Garden                                                |'
'--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'



set_volume! 2
use_bpm 60
use_random_seed 242424


# Depending on your 'sound card and speakers you may need to adjust
# volumes of the various sounds.

stream_vol = 3
waterfall_vol = 0.5
chime1_vol = 20
chime2_vol = 2
flute1_vol = 0.5
flute2_vol = 0.25
odoshi_vol = 0.25
dove_vol = 0.25
bird_vol = 2
cicada_vol = 1


flute1_pattern = [0,1,0,0,1,0,0,1,0,0,0]

live_loop :stream do
  s=sample "C:/garden/stream.wav", start: 0, finish: 0.9, amp: stream_vol
  sleep sample_duration "C:/garden/stream.wav", start: 0, finish: 0.9
end

live_loop :waterfall do
  s=sample "C:/garden/waterfall_1.wav", start: 0, finish: 0.9, amp: waterfall_vol
  sleep sample_duration "C:/garden/waterfall_1.wav", start: 0, finish: 0.9
end

live_loop :chimes1 do
  sample "C:/garden/chimes1.wav", amp: chime1_vol
  sleep sample_duration("C:/garden/chimes1.wav")
  sleep [4,8,8,16,].choose
end

live_loop :odoshi do
  sample "C:/garden/odoshi.wav", start: 0.9, finish: 1, amp: odoshi_vol
  sleep sample_duration "C:/garden/odoshi.wav", start: 0.9, finish: 1
  sleep 16
end

live_loop :flute1 do
  if flute1_pattern.look == 1 then
    sample "C:/garden/dizi2.wav", amp: flute2_vol
    sleep sample_duration("C:/garden/dizi2.wav")
    sample "C:/garden/dizi1.wav", amp: flute1_vol
    sleep sample_duration("C:/garden/dizi1.wav")
  else
    sample "C:/garden/dizi1.wav", amp: flute2_vol
    sleep sample_duration("C:/garden/dizi1.wav")
  end
  sleep [4,8,8,16,].choose
  tick
end

live_loop :dove do
  d=sample "C:/garden/dove.wav", start: 0, finish: 0.25, amp: dove_vol
  sleep sample_duration "C:/garden/dove.wav", start: 0, finish: 0.25
  sleep [8,16,32].choose
end

live_loop :bugs do
  sample "C:/garden/cicadas.wav", start: 0, finish: 0.25, amp: cicada_vol
  sleep sample_duration("C:/garden/cicadas.wav")
  # sleep [4,8,8,16,].choose
end

Eli…

3 Likes
2

That is delightful !

3

Really lovely, thanks so much for sharing - this has me whisked away to a tranquil space :slight_smile:

4

Sounds very nice and peaceful. I put in a path variable + samplename. makes it easier to change location. Only one line to change.

5

@Eli - I can only echo what’s been said already: lovely - thank you! it’s very tranquil :relaxed:

6

Wow. Back in '86 I was TA at the electronic music studio at my college and we got in an early rack-mount sampler… I want to say it was an E-Mu Emax, but I can’t really recall… but I do remember, for sure, one of the demos it came loaded with was a tea garden soundscape that sounded exactly like this! Running water, shakuhachi, wind chimes, as I recall. In 1987, this was spectacularly impressive.

Even today, it is.

The classics never die!

1 Like