Little Fluffy Clouds - How Was It Made?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 28 чер 2022
- An in-depth breakdown of The Orb's seminal dance tune 'Little Fluffy Clouds'
Here are some links to places where I got information about how this track was made.
www.whosampled.com/The-Orb/Li...
gearspace.com/board/electroni...
www.theguardian.com/music/201...
www.soundonsound.com/techniqu...
Join my Patreon to get access to the samples I made for this video and more exclusive content - www.patreon.com/gyubeats
his sort of music production was exciting in 2005 or at best 2010.... Also how does this deconstruction of Pop music serve any purpose.
Try deconstructing Venetian Snares or ATOM or something interesting, or worth learning. Adios!
Me m
You say delay, but its a sort of echo or reverb yes?
Great video! The synth at 16:00 is probably a filtered and pitched down orchestral chord sample. Was a fairly common source back then, over the years learnt that some of my favourite sounds were made that way - Awesome 3 - Don't Go, Wood Allen - Airport 89, Orbital's remix of Kinetic... and this sound has a similar kind of texture.
Where they got it from, that's a harder ask!
The snare always reminded me of the Hot Pants break but don't think it's that.
@@BogusNoise that sounds very similar to the one U96 used in the track "Tiefenrausch"
The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultrawotld is an absolute classic.
To me this track is the pentacle, the moment that the wave crest and broke for the whole underground electronic movement in the early 90’s. It was a magical moment in time only witnessed by those of us fortunate enough to be around at the time. True bliss! Beautiful breakdown, you made my night
Ah thank you!
I grew up in NorCal, so the scene didn't get going here until '91-92.
There were many "Techno" CD compilations floating around the shops everywhere then, but it wasn't until we heard the Detroit stuff and The Orb that we were all like : "okaaay....enough if that grunge-oid business - it's time to go raving :)"
in tucson we were getting a lot of british records, the shamen being selected as theme for the superbowl ('93 iirc) was kind of that breaking moment ime. gen x kind of dumped that shit faster than america forgot about the mkultra child rape verdict on the same day as the oj simpson verdict. it's like pwei never existed. there's not too much shit after '92 that means much, windowlicker maybe. shortly afterwrds i was developing vst and not listening to anything except experimental synthesis. between that and all the fing masons in the music industry, i haven't been able to take any of this shit seriously for decades. cevin key can stick those plastic dolls up his ass.
I feel like it was the closest the world ever got to utopia
Well today I learned the word _pentacle._
I was a kid who worshipped the Sex Pistols and The Clash and was still into some hair metal in the very early nineties.
One day, I was on the school bus and my best friend got on while wearing headphones. "What's that you're listening to?"
"The Orb."
"Give me a go."
Mind blown. All my pocket money went on Orb CDs etc.
Later I discovered Orbital and Aphex Twin. Another fanatical journey.
Sound’s almost identical to my own musical awakening!
Aphex Twin. I just can't get into his stuff
Those were the days! Do you get that same excitement today? I have never been able to recreate it. Maybe it's due to age and everything being new.
@haro82 I do occasionally get that excitement, yes. Maybe not with the same youthful energy, mind.
I definitely continue go down musical rabbit holes and play nothing else for weeks.
Nothing quite matches doing that in your younger days, though. Especially when you have much more free time to absorb the music and read every article you can find
Same here. Are there parallel spectrums??!?
As a very long time Orb fan, and a musician, I am just floored at these elements, where they came from, and how it was put together. Just astonishing
That Methany loop is an amazing sonic tewxture and makes the song so much bigger
You really do learn to appreciate the genius of this band when you hear the sheer complexity of each track. And, this is one of the simpler ones.
Yep 👍
Goosebumps when I hear that vocal sample... 30 years later
can you do something from future sound of london next?? their sampling work is also insane
I'm working on it...
Lifeforms is my favourite album of all time
FSOL mmm yes!
dead cities is completely insane
Above all others fsol is my favourite music. The My Kingdom maxi single in particular.
Q: How was it made?
A: Layering different sounds!
(on top of each other)
😉
dang it, i've been layering the same sound on top of each other
This has to be the geekiest video I have ever seen and I loved every minute of it. Brilliant. Well done.
lucky you! I loved it too. Also, if you spend a little longer on youtube... the geekiness... it goes deeper
once upon a time in the west opening sequence is literally a masterclass of how audio underpins story telling in film. all of the heavy lifting of that scene is done by the audio track. its still used to this day in audio-for-film classes. the good ones at least.
I exchanged more than few emails / messages with Kris Weston. The man behind most of early Orb works. He at one point mentioned the source of the loop at the Gearspace forum, but eventually asked us to take it down (the whole Q&A with him). The loop info was there. And no this is not some prank type of comment. In fact Kris mentions me in one of his blogs. And I know that he knows the loop source. He also sent me some recent audio works. It is beyond fantastic. He requested me to destroy that audio recording. Which I didn't, but eventually HD fell of the table and it got destroyed. I can't reach him nowadays or maybe I can...dunno we haven't spoken in yrs. I wish you could hear that music of his... no comparison to anything.
Wow I'd love to hear that. I don't suppose you can help me recreate the strings from FSOL Papua New Guinea? (I know you're a top sound designer) 🙌🎚🎛
I wish I could make music with Kris.
I remember being as knocked out by my first hearing of LFCs as I was when I first heard New Order's Blue Monday... both once heard, never forgotten!
I just watched your video on the Aphex Twin track, and when you spoke about a track that felt like magic, this song immediately came to mind. This is unquestionably the most important song I’ve ever heard.
I was a classical guitar major at uni, and thumb nosed the idea of sampling. By chance I was forced into a sound design class; where one day the lesson was on samples.
I snarled at the lecturer until he put this track on. Almost immediately, I had to fight like hell to not cry hysterically as the track played through.
After the class ended, I went home- smoked a joint (not the Purple Ohms everyone affiliates this song with, but close aha), listened to this song for 3 hours, and cried uncontrollably. This track changed my view on dance music, on production, and of course on sampling. I can’t imagine a universe where I can exist without this song.
It still baffles me to this day how viciously Ricki Lee Jones came after The Orb after this was put out; and how to this day she still refers to them as “Those Fuckers”. Steve Reich was apparently so moved, that he didn’t sue.
This was such a fantastic break down; thank you from the bottom of my heart for this video.
With that being said, May I request Squarepusher’s “Theme From Ernest Borgnine” next? Probably the runner up to this track, on my “Tracks that have made me, me” list.
Really powerful story, and I would never have imagined that the speaker of the sample could have a problem with this beautiful song
Totally one of the most iconic tracks when I started university. This definitely cracked open things. I think a decade earlier we had Blue Monday which I thought broke normality, but Little Fluffy Clouds was such a tapestry of samples and midi and just felt like an acoustic sculpture that took you places. You broke it down so well. Thank you. ❤❤❤❤. Although I preferred Towers of Dub. Loved the vocal sample at the start of that, and then it just dropped so well into the music.😊
One of the greatest pieces of music ever written. Still get goosebumps every time i hear it. edit: subbed immediately.
Yep 🙂❤🎵
Same here
Same here also. yt recommends something of genuine interest for a change.
Same here, really impressive work, amazing piece of music. Thanks!
thank god for whoever was getting them enough weed
This track is probably the most evocative ever for me of that period at the beginning of the 90s. Hearing it always brings back a lot of memories. I would say this and Papua New Guinea by Future Sounds of London.
FSOL were fantastic and are so evocative of that time and space! Here is the track for anyone who has forgotten of this masterpiece! ua-cam.com/video/IAvHjoLxxh8/v-deo.html
Also Orbital - Halcyon on and on .
The tribal break could have been from one of those early e-Lab sample cd's. The amount of samples that The Prodigy took from them is nuts
It's funny, The Prodigy came up today at work, and I remembered the look, and the feel, but after trying to listen to a few tracks at lunch, I didn't recognize ANY of their actual music...
Adventures in ultraworld,,One of the best chill out albums of all time,,,amazing piece of work..
Plane flyovers and a million other sounds / bleeps / atmospheres you'd recognise from this and the rest of the Ultraworld LP are all from the Digiffects CD Sound Library - (Disc 'J' being the biggest source). Astronaut samples mostly from '"For All Mankind" documentary (1989), 'Bobby and Betty got the Moon' LP and the NASA Gemini mission recordings. I have Disc J if you're interested :)
Wow! Nice one! Yeah I'm interested 🙂👍
@@GyuBeats Cool - I've sent you an email - hope spam filters haven't lost it :)
@Littlepixel Wow! I have been looking for Digiffects for quite some time. Where did you found them? I got a "couple" of sample CD's as well. Interested in "digital" exchange? :)
Where do you get the NASA/astronaut samples please mate?
@@erkbrc @erik bruce Most of them are on a 1989 National Geographic documentary called 'For All Mankind' (not the current Apple TV Show') - it's on UA-cam ua-cam.com/video/c3opxf1X3d4/v-deo.html - you can use JDownloader to extract the audio. Fun fact - the music is Brian Eno and was composed specifically (and used on his Apollo Textures LP)
I saw them play on Saturday. They actually played the whole of U.F.Orb (it being the 30th anniversary) but the first song in the "Orb classics" section at the end was of course Little Fluffy Clouds.
When I started listening to this I thought what's the point ? Telling us all about a classic we all already know note by note, beat by beat by creating a pretend version but I now hate myself for thinking that. This is a brilliant enlightening and utterly delightful odyssey. Kudos to You Good Sir, Wonderful 🙏😌🙏
The album was so ahead of its time.what an epic album a Psychedelic journey of pure class
Nice ... You can also find the beat you are missing on the Akai sample CD XXL Beats Vol 1 (also contains the stabs for Papua New Guinea) ... I've owned the whole range since the S950 was around ... East West is the company that was producing those sample CDs way back when :) You can also use a Juno Alpha / 106 / 60 or even an SH-202 or a Behringer Deepmind for the lead line ... The synth stab towards the end is an Oberheim OB-X or use the VST free plugin ... OB-X ... I own a slew of classic synths (Z1 / AN1X / D50 / Oberheim-X / Oberheim 12 / 303s / 909s / 808s / Alphas / Junos and a lot more - I'm a collector and user) :)
Knowledge! Thanks so much for the comment - I'll hunt for that break 👍
So much great music in that period late 80s to 90s when everyone was sampling without being sued. It encouraged a lot of creativity.
I used to think that too of the old days, but what I did not know until today, is that Rickie Lee Jones did not appreciate this at all: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Fluffy_Clouds. They "settled" it outside the courts, or whatever. Wikipedia did not exist in 1991 so we knew nothing. Instead there were rumors that the _woman_ in this track was maybe "stoned" or "high" on drugs, kinda, because of the way she talked about fluffy clouds. But I find nothing on that at all today.
I totally agree - i hope those days will come back
@@GyuBeats I dont think it will ever come back but Im so glad I was there to experience it in my youth 🙌. Cheaper technology has put music production into the hands of so many more people today which is good in one way but imo music quality has deteriorated as a result. Record companies no longer nurture talent. They sign those with the largest social media following. You always had to wade through an ocean of crap to find the gems but now the ocean is a billion times larger and the gems far rarer. Needles in a haystack is the term that comes to mind.
I've been listening to this song since I was a child. I'm 33 now. my mother was addicted to ecstasy when I was a child. even though I had it weird - I do not regret the amazing music I've picked up throughout it all. this is the first song I dropped acid to. seeing the Florida sunrise on the beach while listening to this on repeat was the most colorful moment of my adolescence.
15:49 sounds like an orchestral hit from a Fairlight or EMU which has been pitched down and had its envelope shaped.
This is brilliant - I've always thought KLF's Chill Out (1990), a seminal moment in ambient music/post-rave, deserves analysis one day too!
Spot on, F. S. O. L, orb and klf where doing the business back then.
@@twelvepetaledlotus1721 Well, technically Jimmy Cauty (half of The KLF) was initially part of The Orb, even though I think he’s only credited on a handful of tracks released under that name. From what I understand though, most of the album Space (released by Cauty under the name Space on KLF Communications in 1990) contains material originally made with Alex Paterson as The Orb (meant to be their debut album) but with all of Paterson’s contributions removed. Apparently Bill Drummond (the other half of The KLF) was also somewhat involved in the early formation of The Orb, along with Youth, during a period when they were doing a lot of live experimentation at London nightclub Heaven. The split happened mainly due to different views on signing a deal with Big Life vs releasing their material themselves on KLF Communications
This is AWESOME!!!!
This is fantastic, chap - absolutely fascinating. Thanks for making the video!
I love this video...thank you so much! All kinds of track breakdowns for rock. This is great look forward to watching more.
Great video. Love the song and it’s great to see it assembled bit by bit. Nicely done.
wow, so glad to have found your channel, this song has been such a big part of my life to see how you've reconstructed it is amazing.
thankyou
You have such an incredible ear for detail. Bravo! Looking forward to all of you future work. 🥳
I’ve been waiting for this since the first time I heard it. I spent a very long time trying to source one of the samples (radio conversation) to no avail but seeing you put it altogether’s just fantastic. Thank you.
This is awesome, subscribed. Would love to see more of these types of videos for 90s dance tracks, I think you've hit on something really cool here.
thank you for sharing this.
I made a lot of my own music back in the 1980s and the fun of it was coming up with your own sounds that you made yourself and not sampled from someone else's work like the Orbs and many others did during that time. I think it's harder to have to look around to find the exact source where all of these parts from the song came from then to just make something on your own. I guess to each its own but I like the feeling of knowing what I made is mine and accomplished something!
Fantastic work!
Awesome work, pal.
I adore this album - The soundtrack to a really special time of my life.
Nice breakdown of the track. I just love The Orb!
Man. I've been listening to the ORB for more for so many years and i've been a fan of this track. Thanks for this :)
Mesmerising!
AMAZING!
I'm absolutely loving this series!
I'm so glad! 🙂
Awesome!!! I'd love to hear some more Orb deconstructions!!
This series is incredible, amazing job!!!!!!
Ah thanks!
You actually made my jaw drop. Remember this song when it was released.
Fantastic efforts in this recreation of what has to be one of the seminal UK house/dance tracks. The "how to" (linked in description) was so comprehensive and the sound you got was so authentic to the original. One of my favourites just got a lil lil lil lil better. lillilililililililililiilililili fluffy clouds is awesome!
Glad you're doing this series, and hope you keep on doing em 😃
Cheers! I will :)
wonderful track, great breakdown.
Nice work mate! That's an excellent track from an excellent album I still listen to today quite often :)
Wow. Just wow. The original track framed a pretty great time of my life and hearing you remake it brought back a flood of good emories. Technically very cool to see how this was done as well.
Love this track, and loving this series!
Thanks! :)
Cool, so glad I caught this and your channel... always think of Little Fluffy Clouds when we have a hot summer.
Absolutely love this track 😅 The Orb! Brings back memories, so many great memories.
Sublime.
I noticed new things in the track from your dissection. 👍
Who the hell is unliking these videos? Good work man.
Amazing what you can do! One of the greatest electronic tracks of all time.
man, I randomly searched for this track after finding your channel with the hopes you broke it down and mostly if you uncovered the source of the elusive vocal sample. Thank you so much!
It's a bit weird to my ears hearing "Little Fluffy Clouds" on mastering-level headphones (DT-1990 PRO) and with pure undistorted digital new sounds of 2022, because that song I mostly remember listening in after-parties, while driving in cars, usually off the tape or from a CD on some shitty speakers. Much progress in the quality of the sound in the last 30 years is clearly audible. I love what you're doing, found you via your Leftfield reconstruction and now this! Keep doing it, it'a fantastic and it makes me go back in years to the fondest memories of my youth!
Yes, I know what you mean about sound quality. Thanks so much for the kind words 🙂
It got me too!
"after-parties, while driving in cars, usually off the tape or from a CD" Hey, you have to proof mixes/masters in various listening environments, right? So you were doing your due diligence!
I suspect the drugs had something to do with it too 😉
@@followtheboat little fluffy doves :)
Wow! Mate this is epic work and a tribute to The Orb! Kris Weston on those knobs made history! Iconic indeed! Really enjoyed this! Thanks so cool to follow when you know the track so well! xx
Amazing work!
Wow, what a fantastic reproduction! The version I became obsessed with as a kid started at ''what were the skies like''... so I never even knew there was anything before that. Fascinating insight :) thanks for a great video.
Aaah, this takes me back to my mushroom years during the early 90s 👀
I used to own a live cassette of The Orb & Steve Hillage doing a gig together which was a great recording. As much as I loved The Orb at the time, having Hillage playing with them took an already mind blowing set to a whole nother level of tripped out music, which hardly sounds believable when you listen to Little Fluffy Clouds. I probably lost that tape and I have no idea if it was an official recording or a bootleg, but if that recording is available then I'd recommend getting it 👍
Edit - that tape of The Orb & Steve Hillage IS actually on UA-cam would you believe.....it's called @ Brixton Academy 1991. Have a listen to that 😉
I was at that gig!! Used to go see Ozrics, Village, Michael Dog, Eat Static, Ozrics etc. at Brixton a LOT! Lots of acid and mushrooms and lots of dancing. Absolutely love Steve Hillage (I'm a guitarist) so to see him with them, and playing with System 7 and Eat Static was insanely good. Got me in to Gong, Daevid Allen and loads more. Green by Hillage is still one of my favourite all-time albums
Well done. Such an effort as presented here is commendable.
Incredible track, very interesting deep dive in the production loved it !
Excellent! Thanks Brother!
Awesome video man. One of my favorites. Thanks!
Brilliant.
Real skills and knowledge required to do this, fantastic job.
Superb stuff, looking forward to more deep sonic diving.
This is fantastic. Thank you!
Wonderful video of a beautiful song. Thabk you
Ace. Love this song.... Keep up the good work!
Excellent, loving what you do. Don't stop!
Thanks so much mate! :)
Another great insight into a classic track interesting to hear about the change in pitch on the master track,keep up the good work 👍🏼
The Orb are one of the biggest influences on my music, Bahbiss Cobb. They had/have such a great mix of good electronics and dub. So great!!!! Great job recreating.
"layering different sounds, that's what we do"
Great reconstruction! 👍
One of the best 🙂...
The orb is my favourite group of the nineties.
Love them since the first ep.. the roof is on fire back in 89..
Thanks for covering this track 🪬🙏👍
Amazing work, keep them coming!
Thanks! I will 🙂
Great job! And thank you for highlighting the pure craft that went into these tracks!! Pre-21st century tech. We struggled...
Spot on investigation of " fluffy cloud's " best I've heard!
Lifelong Orb fan. This is really awesome!
I love the fact that electronic dance music has matured enough now for people to be doing cover versions.
Also, back in the 90s you'd need a bunch of bulky and expensive gear like samplers to do this. Now anyone can do it on a computer, and screencast the creative process with a clear graphical representation.
This classic never fails to give chills for me, I appreciate greatly this informative examination, thank you very much!
You're welcome! Thanks for watching 🙂
First Leftfield now The Orb. Feeling 18 again and can’t wait what’s next. Always wondered if I should recreate one of these tracks for fun, but glad that watching your dissection gives me the same joy without the trouble.
Astonishingly Good!,,Awesome job!,,,i totally love that ladies voice sample,so nostalgic for me as the memories come flooding back from way back in the day!,,,thanks so much for sharing!!!🙏
A single comma is sufficient. What do the multiples add? How do you read it?
Just wanted to say this is a brilliant look at such an iconic track! Thanks for making these videos. Probably my favourite track from this era. Make music myself so understand everything you’re saying. 😁
Huge Metal Head here and this Album had a huge intact on my life back in 91 this got me into likes of Eat Static, Speedy J, Underworld and Secret knowledge plus many more. But listening to this on MM was a experiance I will never forget.
Just came across this channel and wow. I think the expression is “listening with new ears”. EP1 about Leftfield was great. This is equally as good. Love the Orb. Going to plow through the rest of your content now. Thanks !!
No kidding. As somebody who's not really a musician I'd always imagined that it was a just a matter of picking good samples and playing them together. The genius lay in realising that those samples in that order would work really well. i didn't realise just how much effort and skill lay in the mixing thm together.
As someone who's had a lengthy go at covering / deconstructing this myself- you really have delivered a superb effort - especially with the recreation of the synth line (which defeated me so I made a fun 303 line in the same key instead) Bravo!
Oh mAN!! this is so nice to find here. Legendary!! fairplay to you, serious research work all the same. I am going to enjoy checking these out.
Thanks!
This is really incredible content man
Very fun, great insight into such a classic!
I am deeply envious of your man shed! :)
Fantastic stuff. Subbed. To me that little flam you can hear on the on the snare is part the secret sauce of the original. Your breakdown is spot on, it shows the simplicity of the track. Yet it's one of the best songs ever. The Orb have a deft hand.
Outstanding work Sir, kudos 👏🙌👍
This is absolutely awesome. Please keep going.
Ah thanks so much!
I love your studio. I like lots of light and natural materials in the studio. Plus, the trees swaying outside the window… a very inspiring environment.
Incredible stuff! Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!