HappyAmbience




hardware:   Apple MacBook M4 Air, Behringer model D synth, Eurorack modular system/hardware
software:   Apple Logic Pro X, Max/MSP, RTcmix (rtcmix~) paulstretch.app

The paulstretch.app app/algorithm is so powerful in its effect that it is hard not to 'ambientize' everything with it. As I mentioned in the original web page for this HappyAmbient piece, the final cycle through the chord progression had an ambient-like character to it already, so I let the paulstretch rip!

Also as I described in the original page, I was hoping to build a set of artificial 'environments' with a few of my new Eurorack modules, specifically some of the more chaotic ones. This would expand the piece beyond a simple application of paulstretch, or so I thought.

I've had limited success in trying to do the environments thing, for example in my places pieces the environmental character of the sounds didn't quite make it for me. Probably the best artificial environment piece I've done is an older one (from 1998), part of a set of 'Small Pieces' I did on my SGI computer at home one summer: number 4 (go about 4 minutes in). I also made a few artificial enviroment simulations that weren't too bad as part of the KEAR residency I did at Bowling Green State University in 2014.

I wasn't too impressed by my environments AS environments in HappyAmbience, but they did work ok as subtle elements in the piece. I'll keep poking at the environmental sound thing, though. I like it as a way of making music.

Piece website:

Brad Garton
June, 2026