On its voyage beyond the bounds of our solar system, the Voyager 1 recorded two bursts of sound, which NASA has uploaded...
Those sounds will serve as the source material for your track. Now that Voyager 1 has left the solar system, you will write a short piece of goodbye music to send it on its way, using these sounds recorded in the outer space. You can add whatever you want to them, and you can transform the noise as you see fit, but you should retain elements of the original source material so that it remains recognizable to the listener. In particular, pay attention to the source audio's melodic content.
On Friday night I developed the basic elements of my track, manipulating Voyager's recordings to create percussive elements and a pitched down loop for the bass. This bassline was then treated using Sinevibes' Reactive and Frequency effects, which are great for making noises into something more musical.
Then I added a few notes using one of Ableton Live's organ instruments, thinking it was the sort of sound that came from the decade of the satellite's construction. The 707 drum machine came about a decade later though.
Sunday morning I started arranging the parts, settling on introducing the Voyager loops first and keeping a grainy texture throughout. Live's Utility effect was used to invert the phase of some loops for stereo effect and Autopan was used to exaggerate this width. Aside from the subject matter, creating space has been on my mind since the last Junto.
Valhalla's Shimmer was used to create the synth-like reverb effect on the organ at the beginning and I automated the shift function towards the end to create that descending sound. Tape delay effects can also be heard as I've read the satellite uses tape.
Guess I reversed the melodic content of the recording, dropping pitches rather than raising them like the plasma waves in the Voyager recordings but I'm happy with the result.