Disquiet Junto Project 0612: Drum Vector
The Assignment: Walk the listener through variations on the same percussive instrument.

Thanks to Mahlen Morris for having proposed this project.

Step 1: Pick a single percussion instrument.

Step 2: Record between 4 and 12 different short examples (roughly 20 to 60 seconds each) of playing that instrument. Imagine that each recording is by a different musician exercising a different aspect of the instrument. Make no deliberate attempt to match key or tempo or sonic quality between them.

Step 3: Imagine moving through space over the course of time, and encountering the sounds — overlapping somewhat — as you proceed. Arrange the recordings over the course of a track so that at least one and at most five of the examples are audible at any one time. To further the spatial movement, each could fade in at the beginning and fade out. They might, as well, move from position to position within the stereo field.

Step 4: If you wish, consider adding a noise bed underneath the entire piece to sew all of the pieces together, to provide a sense of the space one is moving through.

. . .

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, September 25, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, September 21, 2023.

More on this 612th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Drum Vector (The Assignment: Walk the listener through variations on the same percussive instrument), at: https://disquiet.com/0612/

Thanks to Mahlen Morris for having proposed this project.

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0612-drum-vector/

Disquiet Junto Project 0612: Drum Vector

Electronic percussion sequences created in Pure Data with a touch of reverb & additional noise.

More on this 612th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Drum Vector (The Assignment: Walk the listener through variations on the same percussive instrument), at: https://disquiet.com/0612/

Thanks to Mahlen Morris for having proposed this project.

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0612-drum-vector/

Drum & Hum (disquiet0612)

This was my contribution for Disquiet Junto Project 0612: Drum Vector

Here’s a copy of my post on the Disquiet Junto 0612 discussion thread:

At first, I wasn't sure how to approach this project. Briefly fooled around with various ideas and percussive instruments, till I finally settled on composing this in Ableton Live. Not sure how accurately I followed the assignment though but at least I had fun.

Five tracks were created using Ableton Live's Wavetable synth, all with the Mallets/Crockhausen preset and Max for Live Octopulse sequencer. Different parameters for the synth and sequencer were adjusted for each track to try to emulate five different musicians. Audio was processed with Minimal Audio Cluster Delay and Arturia LX-24 reverb. Background noise/drone from AudioThing Noises. Image by Neosiam via Pexels.
 
More on this 612th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Drum Vector (The Assignment: Walk the listener through variations on the same percussive instrument), at: https://disquiet.com/0612/
Thanks to Mahlen Morris for having proposed this project.
About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1
Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0612-drum-vector/

Five Radials At Obtuse Angles [disquiet0612]

Recorded, mixed & mastered 22-23 Sep 2023 by Jim Lemanowicz at Blissville Electro-Magnetic Laboratories of Massapequa, outside.

Snare drum, landscaping equipment & effects

This original version of "My Resistance Is Not My Personality" was submitted as part of Disquiet Junto Project 0612: Drum Vector. The Assignment: Walk the listener through variations on the same percussive instrument.

More on the Disquiet Junto at: disquiet.com/junto/
Conversation took place here - https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0612-drum-vector
Artwork/photography by Jim Lemanowicz, 23 Sep 2013, Bryant Park, NYC, NY, USA

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This track was originally released under the artist name "The David Conspiracy."

Music & art ©2013, 2023 Jim Lemanowicz

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My Resistance Is Not My Personality (disquiet0612)

• Key: F min / C min /A min     BPM: 95     Time signature: 4/4     DAW: Reaper
    • Instruments: Xiaoluo
    • Plug-ins: NI East Asia, Komplete Kontrol, Izotope Neutron, Ozone
    • The Assignment: Walk the listener through variations on the same percussive instrument. 
    • Used the Chinese Percussion Instrument “Xiaoluo”
    • Played the instrument for different lengths of time
    • Layered the items 1 to 5 deep
    • Length of Song = 4:12 approx.

More on this 612th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Drum Vector (The Assignment: Walk the listener through variations on the same percussive instrument), at: https://disquiet.com/0612/

Thanks to Mahlen Morris for having proposed this project.

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

disquiet0612 - Xiaoluo Route

Disquiet Junto Project 0612: Drum Vector The Assignment: Walk the listener through variations on the same percussive instrument.

More zither.
When recording with a contact microphone, the different parts of the zither — the wooden body, the metal pegs, the strings; all of them hit, scraped, scratched, bowed and plucked in different ways — can produce a wide variety of quite striking, percussive sounds. From small and pretty, to huge and menacing. Contact mics are great at making relatively small objects sound big, which combines well with the fact that the zither strings act as resonators, so sounds get a very long tail: like a tuned reverb.

As the prompt suggested, I made a couple of improvised recordings, trying to get a bunch of different sounds out of the setup. Most of them are loops consisting of several layers. One recording used a sampler where different zither sounds were loaded into memory and then played using a step sequencer. I used some relatively straightforward software effect chains for audio processing: combinations of compression, saturation, delay, reverb. I used them mostly in a static way. That is to say: my playing was focussed on the physical instrument and the various techniques of playing it, rather than on audio mangling.

For the final piece, I edited and arranged the different recordings. I liked the notion of ‘moving through space over the course of time, and encountering the sounds’ as suggested in the prompt, so making everything sound as if it could have been played in a single space was the main objective;  playing with timing, loudness, filtering, spatial effects, stereo width and stereo positioning. Interesting challenge!

More on this 612th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Drum Vector (The Assignment: Walk the listener through variations on the same percussive instrument), at: https://disquiet.com/0612/

Hit me with your rhythm whisk (disquiet0612)

This is my submission for this week's Disquiet Junto assignment.

More on this 612th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Drum Vector (The Assignment: Walk the listener through variations on the same percussive instrument), at: https://disquiet.com/0612/

Thanks to Mahlen Morris for having proposed this project.

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0612-drum-vector/

Mauna Kea Cycle [disquiet0612]

My music asks listeners to be like dreamers uncovering hidden patterns in passing clouds. Support me @ patreon.com/blisterpop