Fractal Heater Source Pack
Story of the Lie
This sample-pack may seem strange, but it has proven potential. I used it to make this binaural-beats meditation track, which happens to be the most popular track I’ve ever made (82 plays & 25 downloads baby!) and I’m sure you could use it in all sorts of other ways I haven’t thought of.
Ok, so now that I’ve hopefully piqued your interest, let me tell you about how this pack came to be. There was an evening in the winter of January 2020, when I had been outside listening to a 90s Art Bell show in which he was interviewing Robert Monroe regarding astral travel. When I went inside, I was suddenly struck by the sound of the hot-water heating pipes. The crackle was so random, but beautiful to my ears. I located my usb-stick mic and switched it to record as I crouched there in awe, holding the mic as close as I could to the register without bumping it. After a minute or so, I loaded the sound into Ableton and got to work. If you’re wondering how I managed to turn this 27 second, poor quality recording into a not-to-shabby 40min meditation track, continue reading…
I had the idea to play the sample at many pitches that were harmonically related to thicken up the sound as much as possible while maintaining the original character. I found a part of the recording I liked, which included some accidental noise I made while recording, and began duplicating, doubling the pitch (in re-pitch mode, so the length divides by 2), duplicating, etc… Then I loaded each of those samples into a sampler and set it to loop. The next step was to resample all the samplers playing the loops simultaneously, from the original sample to a loop of the same sample played 2097152x faster (only 21 doublings were required to reach this insane speed). I took that single, combined sample, pitched it down 4 octaves using Ableton’s Complex Pro warping engine, put it into a sampler, and pitched it down a further 4 octaves. Then I applied a LOT of moving filters and panning after the sampler and added 2 other tracks that each contain three versions of the same sampler with various modifications and modulations both inside and outside the samplers. Finally, I added binaural-beat bass and bell alerts that prevent you from drifting off to sleep while meditating. It took me a few days to complete, and the result was better than I could have ever imagined. I’ve listened to it countless times and have yet to tire of its beautiful calming effect.
Ok, so now that I’ve hopefully piqued your interest, let me tell you about how this pack came to be. There was an evening in the winter of January 2020, when I had been outside listening to a 90s Art Bell show in which he was interviewing Robert Monroe regarding astral travel. When I went inside, I was suddenly struck by the sound of the hot-water heating pipes. The crackle was so random, but beautiful to my ears. I located my usb-stick mic and switched it to record as I crouched there in awe, holding the mic as close as I could to the register without bumping it. After a minute or so, I loaded the sound into Ableton and got to work. If you’re wondering how I managed to turn this 27 second, poor quality recording into a not-to-shabby 40min meditation track, continue reading…
I had the idea to play the sample at many pitches that were harmonically related to thicken up the sound as much as possible while maintaining the original character. I found a part of the recording I liked, which included some accidental noise I made while recording, and began duplicating, doubling the pitch (in re-pitch mode, so the length divides by 2), duplicating, etc… Then I loaded each of those samples into a sampler and set it to loop. The next step was to resample all the samplers playing the loops simultaneously, from the original sample to a loop of the same sample played 2097152x faster (only 21 doublings were required to reach this insane speed). I took that single, combined sample, pitched it down 4 octaves using Ableton’s Complex Pro warping engine, put it into a sampler, and pitched it down a further 4 octaves. Then I applied a LOT of moving filters and panning after the sampler and added 2 other tracks that each contain three versions of the same sampler with various modifications and modulations both inside and outside the samplers. Finally, I added binaural-beat bass and bell alerts that prevent you from drifting off to sleep while meditating. It took me a few days to complete, and the result was better than I could have ever imagined. I’ve listened to it countless times and have yet to tire of its beautiful calming effect.