Sampling the Gamelan

During the second summer week at Heathlands, Matt (young music leader) and I recorded some of the gamelan instruments, getting a clear tone from each.

I then, with some help from Tom Leah, our studio composer, was able to sample the best sounds using Logic’s EXS24.

I then took the laptop and midi keyboard into Bewcastle school for their Big Sing Shadows session, and they wrote a rap for the Rheged show and created their own gamelan lines for it.

We came up with loads of different ideas – you can hear a couple of them here on the demo track!
It was a great thing to do, and because it is a small school everyone who wanted to got a chance to play the virtual gamelan on the keyboard!

Jilly Jarman