Disquiet Junto Project 0575: On Ice
The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it.

Welcome to a new year of Disquiet Junto communal music projects. This week’s project is as follows. It’s the same project we’ve begun each year with since the very first Junto project, way back in January 2012. The project is, per tradition, just this one step:

Step 1: Please record the sound of an ice cube rattling in a glass, and make something of it.

Background: Longtime participants in, and observers of, the Disquiet Junto series will recognize this single-sentence assignment — “Please record the sound of an ice cube rattling in a glass, and make something of it” — as the very first Disquiet Junto project, the same one that launched the series back on the first Thursday of January 2012. Revisiting it at the start of each January ever since has provided a fitting way to begin the new year. By now, it qualifies as a tradition. A weekly project series can come to overemphasize novelty, and it’s helpful to revisit old projects as much as it is to engage with new ones. Also, by its very nature, the Disquiet Junto suggests itself as a fast pace: a four-day production window, a regular if not weekly habit. It can be beneficial to step back and see things from a longer perspective.

Disquiet Junto Project 0575: On Ice

The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it.

Welcome to a new year of Disquiet Junto communal music projects. This week’s project is as follows. It’s the same project we’ve begun each year with since the very first Junto project, way back in January 2012. The project is, per tradition, just this one step:

Step 1: Please record the sound of an ice cube rattling in a glass, and make something of it.

Background: Longtime participants in, and observers of, the Disquiet Junto series will recognize this single-sentence assignment — “Please record the sound of an ice cube rattling in a glass, and make something of it” — as the very first Disquiet Junto project, the same one that launched the series back on the first Thursday of January 2012. Revisiting it at the start of each January ever since has provided a fitting way to begin the new year. By now, it qualifies as a tradition. A weekly project series can come to overemphasize novelty, and it’s helpful to revisit old projects as much as it is to engage with new ones. Also, by its very nature, the Disquiet Junto suggests itself as a fast pace: a four-day production window, a regular if not weekly habit. It can be beneficial to step back and see things from a longer perspective.

More on this 575th weekly Disquiet Junto project — On Ice (The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it) — at: https://disquiet.com/0575/

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0575-on-ice/

Disquiet Junto Project 0575: On Ice

I always look forward to the beginning of the year when this project comes around.  This year I used this piece as a study for a much larger work - specifically using it as a way to experiment with a complex scripting language I have built on top of the RTcmix (www.rtcmix.org) scripting language, MinC.
My scripts allow me to create algorithmic musical patterns in a large number of dimensions:  volume, pitch, sample selection, tempo, placement in a simulated room-space etc.  Each dimension can be moved about in via an algorithmic plug-in, for example, random choice, sequential access, fixed value, etc.
The Psychedelic Ice Machine uses three sets of ice sound samples I have recorded over the years.  The score loops, creating an ever-changing set of patterns.  The relationship between these is sometimes clear and sometimes obscured.

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More on this 575th weekly Disquiet Junto project — On Ice (The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it) — at: https://disquiet.com/0575/

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0575-on-ice/

The Psychedelic Ice Machine

The Psychedelic Ice Machine [disquiet0575]

I always do the "ice" junto,  This is my 12th.

Cold Facts was made from ice recordings loaded into the iOS program Samplr with various pitch and loop options selected, and then run through my boxes.  

This year's boxes are the Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork+ (set on 1 to 2), an Empress Echosystem (green Tape with various knob settings), and an Empress Reverb (green Ghost with various knob settings).  That's my rig.  Everything fits perfectly in a laptop bag.

Find out more about me at https://www.markrushton.com

I'm a 100% independent recording artist who has been publishing original music in the ambient, electronic, and avant-garde genres, as well as environmental field recordings.  

I have over 2800 recordings distributed worldwide under more than 20 band names and pseudonyms, including my own name.  Member of ASCAP since 2002.  I've produced and hosted the Ambient Rushton Podcast since 2004.  Songtrust is my worldwide administrator for mechanical and publishing royalty collection.  Airtable manages my catalog.  I use DISCO.AC for sync library and licensing submissions.

Making music should be fun.  That's why I keep doing it.

*

More on this 575th weekly Disquiet Junto project — On Ice (The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it) — at: https://disquiet.com/0575/

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0575-on-ice/

Cold Facts (disquiet 0575)

Disquiet Junto Project 0575: On Ice
The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it.

Welcome to a new year of Disquiet Junto communal music projects. This week’s project is as follows. It’s the same project we’ve begun each year with since the very first Junto project, way back in January 2012. The project is, per tradition, just this one step:

Step 1: Please record the sound of an ice cube rattling in a glass, and make something of it.

Track notes:

Happy new year all! 

For this year's ice challenge, I put about ten ice cubes in a large  wine glass and filled it with water. I placed an Aquarian hydrophone into it and routed it into my little modular skiff, using an ohcd LFO,  DLD(stereo delay) and Morphagene module.

Recently I'd been playing around with Karpus-Strong delay effects on the DLD, which is in essence 'resonance feedback', which is useful for generating plucked string sort of sounds from an incoming signal.

One of the things I like about experimenting with resonance feedback is how very transient and discrete sounds can become powerful (and unpredictable) impulses when used in conjunction with the effect.

With an ultra-short delay and high feedback threshold set on the stereo delay module, I rattled the ice in the glass and recorded the very end of the tail of the rattle to the Morphagene and used a couple of LFOs to control the CV of the sample's grain and morphology. 

Because the sample captures the tail-end of the rattle, there's only a little movement interspersed with very discrete crackles, squeaks and pops.  

For recording this track, the dry/wet of the Morphagene was set to 50/50 so that the ongoing 'quiet' action within the glass is heard in conjunction with the granulated sample. At a couple of points, this develops dramatically, with some incidental ice movement, followed by a large crack. The final part involved me turning the Morphagene mix to 100% wet and attempting to break the sample apart, so that only vague traces of the original sample recording can be heard.

[Disquiet_Junto_0575] Ice Murmur

This is my submission to Disquiet Junto Project 0575: On Ice
The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it.
It is also my recording for the 5th day of Jamuary.

I recorded the ice cube using my recently purchased Zoom H1n recorder. In Ableton Live, I turned the recording into a drum kit using the Slice to New MIDI Track function (splitting up the recording into equal segments instead of splitting at the transients).

Meanwhile, I took a MIDI file I had made earlier(a recording of a folk song I had written 11 years ago that was fed into the WIDI Audio to MIDI plugin), doubled its tempo and used the Canonize function in XX to create a second track that duplicates the original but with a delayed start and a higher MIDI pitch.

Finally, I placed the two MIDI tracks in Ableton Live, one panned left and one panned right, both playing the ice cube drum kit. I duplicated each of these tracks and applied Dieter Zobels Resovative IV Reaktor ensemble, a resonator effect that creates the strumming sound. Ableton's reverb was applied to everything.

More on this 575th weekly Disquiet Junto project – On Ice (The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it) – at: https://disquiet.com/0575/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0575-on-ice/

Jamuary is an annual challenge in which participants aim to make music every day in January, posting the results online. For more information, go to jamuary.org/

Glacial Strum [disquiet0575]

Enhanced recorded sounds of ice cubes in a glass, edited with Audacity.

More on this 575th weekly Disquiet Junto project – On Ice (The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it) – at: https://disquiet.com/0575/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0575-on-ice/

Metallic Ice (disquiet0575)

Disquiet Junto Project 0575: On Ice
The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it.

I always wanted to do the ice project, but year for year I missed it because of … reasons. Last year I even build a diy hydrophone (see here https://www.instagram.com/p/CXoJtm5tR_w/ ) for this project (and missed it again). Now I tried to melt the ice with the frozen contact mic inside, and record it 'from inside'.

I made some videos: In the “red part” of the video I hoped to create (and record) a crack in the ice, in the “ice inside a glass” part you may even see the bubbles of noises you will hear in my track (not in the video, it's meta only): https://www.instagram.com/p/CnFbiOiNIV3/

The results were … unspectacular. By whatsoever reason the ice didn't click or make interesting noises and because I had to amplify the signal from the contact mic of the hydrophone, there was a lot of noise and hum in the Zoom H5 recording. 

I used a 1 minute sample from the recordings, reduced the noises and the hum and tried to isolate the sound of the slowly melting ice, which was a sound between cooking water, eating popcorn, burning wood. It didn't work well, because the noise frequencies were mostly on the same range. But you can hear them in the background noise floor, which I doubled time-displaced for having stereo. I added some Supermassive FX, because it worked.

I could have lived with that alone, but decided to add some bass. Fortunately there was the f…ing 50Hz AC humming in the recording, which I had filtered for the melting ice noise tracks – and which I amplified for the bass track. Maybe not the most interesting bass lick, but I liked it for its endurance. 

I used another, unfiltered version of the sample to add rhythmic elements with the help of Audiomoderns Stepfilter and Gatelab plugins, which are always nice for something like that, and here I used two instances with different speeds (1/4, 1/8T) for creating some unexpectedness.

I think I clearly failed recording "ice in a glass". Next try next new years eve … but I really like the resulting track, because all is made with a single noisy humming 1 minute recording sample. If someone wants to add some solo or remix it – be my guest ;-) 

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More on this 575th weekly Disquiet Junto project — On Ice (The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it) — at: https://disquiet.com/0575/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0575-on-ice/

Krakenkraft On Ice [disquiet0575]

Step 1: Please record the sound of an ice cube rattling in a glass, and make something of it.

Background: Longtime participants in, and observers of, the Disquiet Junto series will recognize this single-sentence assignment — “Please record the sound of an ice cube rattling in a glass, and make something of it” — as the very first Disquiet Junto project, the same one that launched the series back on the first Thursday of January 2012. Revisiting it at the start of each January ever since has provided a fitting way to begin the new year. By now, it qualifies as a tradition. A weekly project series can come to overemphasize novelty, and it’s helpful to revisit old projects as much as it is to engage with new ones. Also, by its very nature, the Disquiet Junto suggests itself as a fast pace: a four-day production window, a regular if not weekly habit. It can be beneficial to step back and see things from a longer perspective.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0575” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0575” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.

Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0575-on-ice/

Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #DisquietJunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.

Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Step 8: Also join in the discussion on the Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to marc@disquiet.com for Slack inclusion.

Note: Please post one track for this weekly Junto project. If you choose to post more than one, and do so on SoundCloud, please let me know which you’d like added to the playlist. Thanks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. How long until the ice melts?

Deadline: Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, January 9, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, January 5, 2022.

Upload: When participating in this project, be sure to include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.

Download: It is always best to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).

For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:

More on this 575th weekly Disquiet Junto project – On Ice (The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it) – at: https://disquiet.com/0575/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0575-on-ice/

Cold as Ice - disquiet0575

More on this 575th weekly Disquiet Junto project — On Ice (The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it) — at: https://disquiet.com/0575/

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0575-on-ice/

Boiling Hot Ice (disquiet0575)

[disquiet0575] Thin

Saturday morning in La Pampa, Argentina. It is going to be a very hot day. Family is doing their thing, me in the dormitory putting together the disquiet track. “Please record the sound of an ice cube rattling in a glass, and make something of it”. Well, this was some coffee, three and a half ice cubes, three chords on my Spanish guitar that lives ins this house.

Ice Cubes - disquiet0575

Disquiet Junto Project 0575: On Ice

Ice storm in a tea cup (disquiet0575)

Using the same sample I recorded back in 2013, treated with a bit of reverb here, some multi-tracking with pitch drops, (mmm, pitch drops), some copy ‘n paste, a bit of The Mangle and a smattering of various Audacity effects, I have created something pleasing (to me), if a bit hurried and unoriginal.

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The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it.

More on this 575th weekly Disquiet Junto project — On Ice (The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it) — at: https://disquiet.com/0575/

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

Ice storm in a tea cup (disquiet0575)

5 Layers of a single sample of ice cubes in a glass fulfilling various functions alongside a single rhythmic synth line audible near the end.

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More on this 575th weekly Disquiet Junto project – On Ice (The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it) – at: https://disquiet.com/0575/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0575-on-ice/

On Ice (disquiet0575)

patched up for this week's disquiet junto (https://soundcloud.com/caustic_gates/disquiet0575-ice-burst) - playing around with the controls to arrive somewhere more ambient

jamuary 2023-01-08

Fresh batch of ice samples for this year's Junto - longer sample frozen (heh) in Beads, with burst triggers and an envelope scrubbing through it, and two shorter samples clocked through Marbles.

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More on this 575th weekly Disquiet Junto project – On Ice (The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it) – at: https://disquiet.com/0575/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0575-on-ice/

disquiet0575 - ice burst

This is the track I made for the Disquiet Junto Challenge themed 'On Ice' - the sound of ice in a glass and making something with it...

IDEA
I started with stretching, pitching, auto tuning, reversing and reverb-ing (shimmer!) the hell out of the 'icy' recordings. Letting the famous PaulX-stretch plugin work its magic it gave me a surprisingly decent pad sound. I decided to improvise some parts over it, and that was pretty much it. In terms of mood, I tried not to think too much of Vangelis' Antarctica, so I chose something more uptempo.

COMPO
I started with Dminor7 and tried some chord combinations. I'm not exactly sure which mode of Dm I was actually playing, but I wanted it not to sound 'too sweet'. Since the disquit is kind of a playground for ideas and techniques, I didn't mind using some weird echo-y stuff as the basis for the percussive part, topped off with an 808 kick, snare and crash.

GEAR
DAW: Samplitude X3
VST: Arturia Jupiter-8 + Mellotron, NI Kontakt instrument, PaulXstretch, stock plugins
HARDWARE: Arturia The Laboratory, Icon AIO6

IMAGE
I used a stockphoto that I edited for the cover image.

2023

Icy World [disquiet0575]

This track is my contribution to the traditional first Disquiet Junto Project of every year: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it.

All sounds in this track were derived from recording an ice-cube in a champagne-glass and in a whiskey glass.

More on this 575th weekly Disquiet Junto project – On Ice (The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it) – at: https://disquiet.com/0575/ 1

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0575-on-ice/

Love  Melts Ice (Disquiet0575)

[Disquiet0575] On Ice, Etude

My contribution to Disquiet Junto Project 0575: On Ice.

A recording of an ice cube tipped between a glass and vase spliced and arranged in Ableton Live.

More on this 575th weekly Disquiet Junto project – On Ice (The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it) – at: https://disquiet.com/0575/

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0575-on-ice/

disquiet0575 On Ice

The sound of an ice cube in a glass, time-stretched (among other things...)

More on this 575th weekly Disquiet Junto project — On Ice (The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it) — at: https://disquiet.com/0575/

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0575-on-ice/

ice cycle [disquiet0575]

This was an audio challenge from the llllllll.co forum which I thought I'd have a go at.

In this case, the challenge was to take a sample of some ice cubes falling into a glass of water and create a tune out of it.

I took the sound, split it and gave each piece its own track. I added ping and pong delay in Ableton for the high pitched percussive sound and the ringing sound you hear throughout. Same instrument, different scale.

I ran part of the sample through the Paul Stretch plugin to create the drone type pad and down pitched another part of the initial sample to create a bass drum type sound.

The ringing sound was added later and played live on a Push 2 controller.

Submergence

My 33 1/3 series book about the Aphex Twin album <i>Selected Ambient Works Volume II</i> was published in 2014. The book was one of the top 5 bestselling titles for the calendar year, and in 2015 was ranked by Pitchfork as one of the "33 best" of the 100-plus books in the 33 1/3 series. It has subsequently been translated into Japanese (2019) and Spanish (2018)

Since 2012 I have moderated the Disquiet Junto group, which began on SoundCloud. More at disquiet.com/junto. 

I've written for Nature, Pitchfork, The Wire, Down Beat, Boing Boing, NewMusicBox, Red Bull Music Academy, Art Practical, the website of The Atlantic, and many other publications. 

I've exhibited sound art at galleries in Los Angeles (Crewest), Manhattan (apex art), and Dubai (DUTAC), and I had a audio-visual installation at the San Jose Museum of Art as part of its 45th anniversary.

And since 1996 I've run the website Disquiet.com about the intersection of sound, art, and technology.