More on this 137th Disquiet Junto project — “Produce an original piece of music that fits the genre ‘old-time electronica’″ — at:

http://disquiet.com/2014/08/14/disquiet0137-oldtimeelectronica/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/junto

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:

http://disquiet.com/forums/

Photo associated with this track, of a working Babbage Engine, by Larry Johnson, courtesy of a Creative Commons license at:

https://flic.kr/p/8uw1KJ

Disquiet Junto Project 0137: Old-Time Electronica

Really vague about what electronica means but it suggests "pop" to me rather than experimental. "Old-time" brought to mind the Wendy Carlos "Switched on Bach." Disco music also came to mind. 

I used a Kaosillator with 2 patches that sounded retro to me, created 2 tracks and then aligned them in Logic and wrapped it up using a Channel EQ preset called Boombox, a word which for me conjures days of yore.


Rather goofy, was not sure if I should post it, but it is mercifully short.

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More on this 137th Disquiet Junto project — “Produce an original piece of music that fits the genre ‘old-time electronica’″ — at:

http://disquiet.com/2014/08/14/disquiet0137-oldtimeelectronica/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/junto

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:

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Heckuva Pile  [disquiet0137-oldtimeelectronica]

This is a remix of the Edison Concert Band's recording of "Nearer, my God, to Thee" (1902). The original recording was downloaded from archive.org. I did "electronic processing" on this old-time hymn to create something impossible at the time it was created: a time-stretched version with a drone created from part of the recording as well, and a phasing effect created by slightly different stretch lengths. My hope is that this version helps people hear this hymn in a new way. (Apologies that I went over the time-limit guidelines a little.)

More on this 137th Disquiet Junto project — "Produce an original piece of music that fits the genre 'old-time electronica'" — at:

http://disquiet.com/2014/08/14/disquiet0137-oldtimeelectronica/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/junto

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:

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Nearer, my God, to Thee (remix) [disquiet0137-oldtimeelectronica]

Disquiet Junto Project 0137: Old-Time Electronica

Pineal Pionears [disquiet0137-oldtimeelectronica]

For me, this means going back to composers like Louis and Bebe Barron and their 1956 magnetic tape soundtrack to “Forbidden Planet” (check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNKhju6Pryg ), as well as Morton Subotnick, Walter Carlos and all those records from the Princeton University computer music workshops that I got my hands and ears on in the 60s.

Steps taken:

In the spirit of minimalism, I worked only with 2 sine waves and a click track, both generated by Audacity. These were modified using plugins and pitch shifting, with shorter more heavily modified sections used to create a gradually changing soundscape.

(See the whole Forbidden Planet poster here: http://cdn-images.9cloud.us/476/piccit_the_forbidden_planet_poster_1296502960.jpg


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The Assignment: Produce an original piece of music that fits the genre “old-time electronica.”

All Disquiet Junto projects employ constraint as a means to stimulate creativity and productivity. Sometimes this means limiting oneself to specific source material, other times to a conceptual approach, and there’s always the additional constraint of time: the deadline is approximately four days, depending on your time zone.

For this Disquiet Junto project, the constraint is a matter of terminology. This week we’re exploring how the concept of “genre” can itself serve as a restraint, and we’ll accomplish this by pushing back at genre conventions.

The project instructions are straightforward: Record an original piece of music that you feel belongs within the genre of “old-time electronica.”

Restrictions: You can use any source material, any instrumentation, except the human voice.

More on this 137th Disquiet Junto project — “Produce an original piece of music that fits the genre ‘old-time electronica’″ — at:

http://disquiet.com/2014/08/14/disquiet0137-oldtimeelectronica/ 

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/?p=16588


Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/    




Pineal Pionears [disquiet0137-oldtimeelectronica]

As a solo parent this weekend, my plans to hook up gear and produce handmade electronica haven't eventuated. So I returned to an earlier idea to work with a MIDI file and honour my introduction to electronic music as a child listening to Wendy Carlos' Switched On Bach.

This piece uses Lokomotiv, Absynth and the Minimojo Reaktor VST synths and was edited for brevity.

More on this 137th Disquiet Junto project — “Produce an original piece of music that fits the genre ‘old-time electronica’″ — at:
http://disquiet.com/2014/08/14/disquiet0137-oldtimeelectronica/

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

Join the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:
http://disquiet.com/forums/

Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Johann_Sebastian_Bach.jpg

Switched on Joy of Man's Desiring [disquiet0137-oldtimeelectronica]

My interpretation of "old time electronica" was to take a song associated with the dawn of pop music and treat it as the raw material for an electronic track. My choice is "Daisy Bell", a public domain song written in 1892 by Harry Dacre, and used in the first computer speech synthesis at Bell Labs in 1961; Arthur C. Clarke saw this demonstration and incorporated it into the screenplay and novelization of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The first section of the track is the original chorus melody and chord progression played on soft synths in Ableton, with a light percussion track made from samples from Beats & Breaks. For the second run-thru of the chorus melody  the chord progression is replaced with a version made using the Coltrane Changes; John Coltrane pioneered chord substitutions in his performances that used a major third movement to give an odd, airy quality to the harmony. For "Daisy Bell", which is in C major, the original chord progression follows the melody closely, as is the custom for most popular music. In its place I used the Dm7-G7-C progression. 

The jazzy timbre of those chords reminded me of Squarepusher's record Hard Normal Daddy, which used chords and melody combinations usually associated with jazz in conjunction with breakbeats. This track gradually adds more percussion elements, all chopped up from samples from Beats & Breaks.   

Once the new chord progression is introduced, the softsynth playing the melody has a random MIDI note generator, C major scale effect, and Bass-Beat Decoder added to it, with MIDI notes being triggered at the same rhythm as the original melody. The random notes were played & recorded to a separate track, and that MIDI information was placed in the initial softsynth track, with the MIDI effects removed. 


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More on this 137th Disquiet Junto project — “Produce an original piece of music that fits the genre ‘old-time electronica’″ — at:

http://disquiet.com/2014/08/14/disquiet0137-oldtimeelectronica/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/junto

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

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Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:

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Daisy Hell [disquiet0137-oldtimeelectronica]

String ensemble, brassy lead, chimes, and found sound percs.
(NuSofting StringDreams, Fabfilter Twin, Chromaphone, SoundDust modular chaos engine #1 going through an array of SonicCharge Permut8 and Volcano filter, and a few Live effects)

More on this 137th Disquiet Junto project — “Produce an original piece of music that fits the genre ‘old-time electronica’″ — at:

http://disquiet.com/2014/08/14/disquiet0137-oldtimeelectronica/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/junto

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:

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CoaT Remembering Old Time (disquiet0137-Oldtimeelectronica)

Conjecture of a Time