How To Sound Design Ecosystems | BIOTA

Biota is a completely synthesized, procedural / generative alien soundscape that I sound designed in Ableton Live. In this video I'll break down how I created various geophysical and wildlife sounds generatively, and discuss other factors that go into creating a soundscape.

MY LINKS

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - What is Biota?
1:57 - Soundscape Ecology
3:44 - Analyzation
6:08 - Probability & MIDI
10:59 - Modulators
13:39 - Designing Geophony
17:49 - Designing Biophony
25:57 - Acoustics
30:08 - Epilogue

SONGS USED
Ravel - Une Barque sur L'Ocean
Ravel - Toccata
Debussy - Pagodes
Ravel - À la manière de Borodine
Ravel - La Vallée des Cloches
Liszt - Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude
Ravel - Ondine
Amfivolía - Esse Solum
Amfivolía - Signa Stasis
Ravel - Jeux d'Eau
Debussy - Clair de Lune

RESOURCES/REFS

MORE REFERENCES

CREDITS
& special thanks to friends: stasys, popbot & lukasipo for reviewing this video before release

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If you want to get in contact with me, you can do so via Email or Discord:
Discord: amfivolia

[Amfivolia]

Hi everyone - I want to firstly say thank you to everyone that took the time to watch this video and supported it! I wanted to quickly write a comment about some things I didn't discuss in this video, as well as what to expect from this channel.

I want to clarify that this video is just a surface level introduction to all of the concepts I've discussed. There are so many factors that go into ecological behaviors and sounds, it'd be impossible to capture all in one video. With that being said, I hope this video acts as the entrance to a rabbit hole if you will -- There are so many fields to explore like soundscape ecology, bioacoustics, etc. There are also interesting ideas adjacent to the topic of this video, such as: The acoustic adaptation hypothesis, auditory filter hypothesis, etc. which may change the ways you think about soundscapes and creating them.

As for what's next, I'm currently working on my next tutorial. I've made a community post explaining what it is, but to summarize it's a tutorial on writing realistic and convincing piano MIDI.

Again, thank you all for the support on this video! 💙

[buckycore]

Dude. You're a genius. I don't know anyone who knows this arcane level of sound design, let alone someone who could explain it in an easily digestible format which inspires me to want to make things with this knowledge, let alone someone who is 18 doing all this stuff. Most 18 year olds I know in the music community are all making the same sounding beats in FL Studio (which is still rad. Not meant as a put down) But seriously, you're totally next level protege stuff

[lucnejame]

This is game changing. Like seriously please keep posting about this. We need more novel production and sound design perspectives!

[edwardlonin]

this makes the possiblity of living in a simulation more of a reality than I wanted it to be

[Musiikki-jdez]

Incredible soundscape, incredible analytical approach, incredible presentation. This is better quality than 90% of master's level university coursework of me or any of my friends (completely unrelated field but anyway)

[AzuriumOfficial]

It's such a treat when game devs have a consideration for proper sound design.

Hope to hear more from you both.
The lesson was intriguing.

[RainbexTheRain]

This is like a college class i would definitely take

*Takin notes rn*

[Dynamicz.]

In highschool I did a beginners presentation on sound design and even played my first track for the class. I said because all sounds are sine waves with enough skill you could recreate any sound. Really cool finally finding a video about recreating the sounds of nature

[cicilubibilo]

Professional sound designer here but man this is gold! I'm really impressed. Great explanation and the work itself is very inspirational.
Thank you and please keep it coming, this type of extreme quality content is rare on sound design.

[linusalexis]

this video should be shown in a planetarium. amazing work!

[AA_MusicGuy]

Honestly this is the most interesting video I've ever seen that's been made in the 21st century

[SithLordCP]

This is well thought out. I always saw when I produced music as making an ecosystem of sound, or like a little pocket dimension, where my sound design dictates how everything interacts and functions or where it's specific place in the "story" I'm telling is supposed to be. I think of that almost like the laws of physics in a musical sense

[frrrkstr]

Oh my god, i'm studying 8 disciplines this semester in music composition bachelor and this is the best class I had this semester. Thank you! You just Blow my mind! <3

[juanmartinbarrera]

Good lord, I’m blown away by your approach on how to recreate (and redesign) an ecological soundscape. Not only it’s the technicality info absolute gold, but the fvcking approach!!! The study, the analysis, the intuition you put into this. My man, I admire you completely. Thank you for putting this out there. It definitely serves me as creative and even human developing, to create. To f*cking go and do the thing.

Seriously thank you, thank you for sharing this which reflects how much you love to do all this stuff. Thank you for sharing this from the bottom of your heart, if I may assume.

Your work won’t, and hasn’t go unnoticed ❤️

[ChronoMune]

This along with your music you’ve put up, you’re one of the easiest subscriptions I’ve ever chosen. Can’t believe how much work you’ve put in at your age, and I can’t imagine what amazing things you’ll be doing in just another 10 years

[FabianGonzalez]

crazy mastery in such a digestible manner, thank you

[HexxedOfficial]

I hope this video goes viral. This is really educational and nicely descriptive.

[HristoGoleminov]

Videos like this are what YouTube is meant for. Great job and thank you!!

[MikeOxmellsGrimm]

I have a feeling you're going to compose the music for a lot of my favourite indie games of the next 10 years...

[PiercingSight]

This is the kind of creative sound design that the world needs more of!!

Fantastic work, and beautifully edited video!!! Well friggin' done!~