A great set with helpful write up, thanks. I was particularly intrigued by the 3rd variation.

This was my contribution for Disquiet Junto Project 0636: Left (1 of 3)

Here’s a copy of my post on the Disquiet Junto 0636 discussion thread:

Created this generative ambient track using SDKC Helical on my little ALM 3U 52hp rig. No other modules were used except for a bit of reverb with FX Aid. Manually adjusted note spread, envelope, filter cutoff, etc. while recording. Mangle, chop up or do whatever you’d like for your creation. The main thing of course is to enjoy the process. Busy few weeks coming up so not sure whether I’ll be able to participate 100% in this series, we’ll see.
This is in C# Major.
River image by Nitish Kadam via Unsplash.     

More on the 636th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Left (1 of 3) — The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio — at https://disquiet.com/0636/

View From The Left Bank [disquiet0636]

Disquiet Junto Project 0636: Left (1 of 3)
The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio.

Please note: While this project is the start of a three-part sequence that will unfold over the course of three weeks, you can participate in any or all three of those parts.



Step 1: This week’s Junto project is the first in a sequence intended to encourage and reward collaboration. You will be recording something with the understanding that it will remain unfinished for the time being. Your part will be done, but more will happen. Read on.

Step 2: The plan is for you to record a short and original piece of music using any instrumentation of your choice. Conceive the piece as something that leaves room for something else — other instruments, other people — to join in. (Keep in mind that your piece would appear panned to the left in the finished recording, after three weeks.)

Step 3: Record a short piece of music, roughly two to three minutes in length, as described in Step 2.

Step 4: This is important: be sure to make your track downloadable because it may be used by someone else in the next Disquiet Junto project, and then after that.

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Track notes:

One of the few things I haven't been doing much of this year is playing guitar, which is my 'primary' instrument. However, since late last year the one guitar (within reach) has been a Danelectro electric 12-string, stripped back of its thick strings to only six strings and put through through a variety of modal open tunings. A few years ago I listened to Lee Renaldo talk about this kind of retrofitting, which was called an Angel Hair guitar and was pioneered in the 1960s by country guitarists to create a light, jangly accompaniment, that in some ways is reminiscent of a pedal steel guitar's upper timbre.

I don't know how much open tunings figured at this time, but I could certainly appreciate Lee's attraction to all things unconventional and open-tuned. My current set up for this guitar is a D-A-C-E-A-E tuning, which gives it a kind of pentatonic, suspended tonality. Given the unconventional order of string gauges from bottom to top, the unison notes have an especially interesting appeal. From a fingerpicking approach, it all opens up the guitar in unexpected ways, since a regular picking technique can be inverted by the string gauge order and also feels quite different too.

So with this in mind, I recorded a repeated fingerpicking figure which exploits the unique qualities of this setup, such as the unisons and harmonic attributes of the tuning. The main guitar (soft left) is run through an EHX Holy Grail Reverb with a smidge of spring reverb, whilst an accompaniment (same guitar and tuning) is on the soft right, also run through the Holy Grail, but with the weird 'Flerb' reverb, which is a kind of modulated effect.

It's at 72bpm and runs just a shade over 2 minutes, starting a fade at the 1:46 mark.

[Disquiet_Junto_0636] Epochs (Left 1 of 3) 72 BPM

Disquiet Junto Project 0636: Left (1 of 3)
The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio.

My idea for this first part of the trio was to create something that sounded like a single acoustic instrument, while sounding like no known instrument.

The piece was basically made with a home made version of the Vietnamese Dan Bau instrument, which I played with a bow (non traditional). I selected some recordings that sounded interesting and re-recorded those played back through a software effects chain with a resonator (physical model of a pipe) and a feedback mechanism. I played this feedback-resonator-device using a 3D midi control surface, mapping the many parameters of the physical model and feedback mechanism to the 3 of the controller by using a technique called preset morphing. Finally, I collaged several recordings together to get the final piece, trying to leave room for contributions of others — i.e. sparse arrangement, minimal stereo image, hold back on reverb.

More on the 636th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Left (1 of 3) — The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio — at https://disquiet.com/0636/

The Creature From Left Field (disquiet0636)

Recorded, mixed & mastered 09 Mar 2024 by Jim Lemanowicz at Blissville Electro-Magnetic Laboratories of Massapequa.

Process notes
This is my Danelectro 12-string electric guitar in four similar variations in Live 12 Suite.

Each variation is through Live's 2x12 Near On-Axis amp preset and my own channel strip, including compression, sometimes high. I quantized these pretty close to whatever grid I was using at 76 bpm, if that matters to anyone. Use them as you would like!

Variation 01 - three notes, stretched out a bit in the Texture warp mode, with one note stretched a bit more. Live's overdrive is on here at mid-high frequencies.

Variation 02 - five notes, I think I left the speed alone here. Just put it through Beat Repeat in mix mode, my second-gen deconstruction of their Deconstruct preset with some fading decay, a 12 tone octave  and almost 100% chance of glitching.

Variation 03 - sped this up, slowed it back down and re-quantized this a few times. Then I used the newer Live distortion device, Roar, and edited/adjusted their Alien Symphony preset.

Variation 04 - I left the speed alone but applied reverse and fades to this one. This one is through the Redux at 4 bits and 11.7 kHz at a modest 20% wet.

Further variations will probably work their way into a future Heatsink track when I am ready to compile my next album under that name. 

Artwork: From the LIRR or somewhere in NYC or the Upper East Side, 09 Mar 2015 

©2015,2024 Jim Lemanowicz - music distributed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DEED

This original version of "Four Variations for Left" was submitted as part of Disquiet Junto Project 0636: Left (1 of 3). The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio

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More on the Disquiet Junto at: disquiet.com/junto

Subscribe to project announcements: https://juntoletter.disquiet.com/

More on the 636th weekly Disquiet Junto project at https://disquiet.com/0636/

Four Variations for Left (disquiet0636)

A battery of sine oscillators, slowly moving out of tune. A bass drum keeping pulse. Distortion and convolution. A foundation. 
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More on the 636th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Left (1 of 3) — The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio — at disquiet.com/0636/

Mound (disquiet0636)

This track is a slow drone using 11 different panned Logic Pro X organs. 7 play bottom C1, 2 play Aflat1, 1 plays A1, 1 plays G1. Added are arpeggiators, reverbs and other effects to give texture and pulse.

This in response to the first of this year's three part @disquiet collaborative project. More on the 636th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Left (1 of 3) — The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio — at https://disquiet.com/0636/

left 1of3 disquiet0636

[disquiet0636] DRMA

Composed and created in Ableton 12. This was a great excuse to play around with some of the new instruments in Live 12.

There is a lot of spatial quality to the instruments. Best probably to pan the sound to the left if you like, or if extreme, take only the left side. Combining L+R to make a mono track will alter the tonal quality considerably.

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Created for the Disquiet Junto

More on the 636th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Left (1 of 3) — The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio — at https://disquiet.com/0636/

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Image credit:
"Day 8 - Winter forest at night" by Vladimir Agafonkin
CC BY 2.0, https://www.flickr.com/photos/80849382@N00/3347741916

2024 - 03 - 10 Night Walk - disquiet0636

More on the 636th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Left (1 of 3) — The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio — at https://disquiet.com/0636/

Left to Drone [Disquiet0636]

Jupiter 6 patch midi from Ableton. layered. & post processing with various effects phasing etc...

Jupiter - 6 Phased Noise Pulse For Disquiet0636

Key: C
BPM: 103

More on the 636th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Left (1 of 3) — The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio — at https://disquiet.com/0636/

Lucky Link (disquiet0636)

Sound artist.
Freedom from being unknown.
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Four Variations for Left (disquiet0636)

Jimmy Lem

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