> Step by step

4. Get it together

1

We’ve now got enough material, so let’s start arranging our project. We’ll begin by muting our three most recent tracks – the hand drum and chimes. To save some time, we’ve created a stereo sub-mix of our Tibetan bowl and bell recordings, which we’ll place at around two minutes into the project.

2

We want the instruments to fade in and out very slowly and deliberately. As our bowls and bells begin to fade out, we’ll bring our first chimes recording in at around 2:46. It has a natural fade-in, but we’ve used our DAW’s clip fade function to bring it in even more gradually.

3

We need a little something more as our chimes fade out, so go back up to your Alpha CM track and play a low, droning note or two just after the 3:00 mark. An ambient track ought to have some actual ambience, so instantiate Reverberate CM on an aux and call up the Chamber preset.

4

Set the reverb’s Dry/Wet mix fully wet. Now, unmute and send the hand drum track into the new aux bus. Crank the send, drenching the drums in reverb. Go ahead and move your drum clip out to around 3:30 or so and loop it until just around the 5:00 mark.

5

Using your DAW’s clip fade functions, fade the drum loop slowly into the mix, let it play for a while and fade it out again, just as slowly. Unmute your second chimes clip. Loop it, and fade it in as your drum clip fades out. You can sync the clips, but we’ve elected to leave them as-is.

6

Consider sending your second chimes clip through the reverb, as well. While you’re at it, a bit of delay on, say, the Tibetan bowls and bells might serve to smooth out some of the rough edges. Ditto for the first chimes track. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy the music!