Pack: Wind chimes — half-speed versions

This pack is for half-speed versions of any of my recordings — most likely entirely of those in my Wind Chimes in the Wild series —, which have not undergone further transformation to become members of my elite category, my Nature-Symphonies.

A reduction of speed has wonderful effects for some types of sound, particularly wind chimes. Typically, the notes you hear from normal-size wind chimes, at least outdoors when there's a significant breeze, come in rather a high-pitched jangle, with individual notes flashing past and their 'decay' tones generally masked by further notes all rushing through. Once all that is down to half-speed (unless you've used software that retains pitch during the conversion), the pitch is an octave lower, and you can really listen to the beauty of each note, and hear the harmonics and the interactions between both the 'singing' tones of different notes and the most delectable interactions between those notes' harmonics. This can often involve slight mis-matches, so one effectively gets various microtonal intervals, which cause shimmering effects from the slight 'beats' caused by the interacting waveforms. A whole new and mentally stimulating and invigorating musical soundworld is thus opened up.

More than that, though. When pitch is an octave down, and especially when even lower, we hear each note differently from before. We're used to listening to the fundamental pitch of a note as being the genuine note sound — the exact timbre shaped by the 'profile' of harmonics (tones at various intervals above the fundamental). But now we're listening to the notes an octave lower, our ears are naturally homing in on particular harmonics rather than the fundamental as being the 'real' note pitch. So we hear some of the chimes notes as being musically quite different in effect from the same at natural pitch, and bearing a strong 'undertone', which is actually the lowered 'real' note pitch.

This is great news of course for creative musicians, because whole new soundworlds can be opened up even on that point alone.

No wonder, then, that it was half-speed versions of some of my chimes recordings eventually seduced me into launching into my Nature-Symphonies project!