Disquiet Junto Project 0604: Heaven’s Gate 
The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound.

Step 1: Think about the use of a gate in music production. A gate can be described as an “on/off switch, allowing signals over threshold to pass while muting everything below.” (It’s likely that discussion will occur during this project regarding useful explanations of the concept.)

Step 2: Take a picture of some clouds.

Step 3: Think of how to interpret the clouds as a model of a gate.

Step 4: Record a track employing the approach you determined in Step 3 using the picture from Step 2.

I took the cover photo in Ashland, Oregon, earlier this year; no filters were employed. Regarding the title, I’m a Michael Cimino admirer.

Source: https://tapeop.com/interviews/33/noise-gates/

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, July 31, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, July 27, 2023.

More on this 604th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Heaven’s Gate (The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound), at: https://disquiet.com/0604/

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-0604-heavens-gate/

Disquiet Junto Project 0604: Heaven’s Gate

release date: 27/07/2023
More on this 604th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Heaven’s Gate (The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound), at: https://disquiet.com/0604/

About the Disquiet Junto: Disquiet Junto F.A.Q. – Disquiet

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0604-heavens-gate/

Heaven’s Gate (disquiet0604)

More on this 604th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Heaven’s Gate (The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound), at: https://disquiet.com/0604/

About the Disquiet Junto: Disquiet Junto F.A.Q. – Disquiet

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/ 1

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0604-heavens-gate/

3-Zone-Heaven(disquiet0604)

Clouds and fog march in over the north shore of Lake Superior.

In The Way disquiet0604

The photo is of a radio tower in downtown Des Moines located behind the old Ma Bell building and the space of what used to be the KRNT Theater before it was torn down.  

I don't know anything about gates, but one of my boxes is an Empress Echosystem that's run into an Empress Reverb and a Electro-Harmonix PitchFork.  I decided to twiddle with the knobs on the Echosystem after coming up with synth noises in an app on my iPad.  The alteration is the difference between "Delay & Reverb" and "Reverse".

The way I interpret the picture and the music is that the radio waves from the tower are quickly zapping away the clouds.

There's a bit of weird folklore on Reddit where people think some of the various nearby downtown buildings are "weather deflectors".  A few think it's the ugly rusty Ruan building.  Others think it's 801 Grand, the Principal Financial tower, but I think it's this radio tower zapping the clouds.  Read more at:  https://www.reddit.com/r/desmoines/search/?q=weather+deflector

More on this 604th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Heaven’s Gate (The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound), at: https://disquiet.com/0604/

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-0604-heavens-gate/

The Real Weather Deflector in Des Moines (disquiet0604)

An electronic sequence created in Pure Data & subjected to a touch of reverb & Noise Gate.

More on this 604th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Heaven’s Gate (The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound), at: https://disquiet.com/0604/

About the Disquiet Junto: Disquiet Junto F.A.Q. – Disquiet

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/ 1

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0604-heavens-gate/

Gate of Clouds (disquiet0604)

I took this cloud photo last week whilst sitting on the beach in the early morning attempting to gather my thoughts, just before work. I had just captured a field recording of the sea when I noticed this cloud looming above the cliff edge, so I’ve chucked that in here too for good measure. 

I wanted to somewhat try to capture the mood I was in when I noticed the cloud. 

In response to the prompt I used:

Free image to MIDI Max for Live device in Ableton - to turn the cloud photo into midi data

https://tomcosm.gumroad.com/l/ZiGjZ

(White areas of cloud photograph image were rendered as absences of MIDI data i.e. 0s)

Probability gate on a Kontakt Irish Harp freebie VST I picked up recently which I'd been curious to try out and the prompt seemed as good a time to do so as any. I don't normally used sampled instruments much but this one was quite fun to work with. The multiple probability gates helped to make the rendered image to MIDI data less dense and more listenable to:

https://maxforlive.com/library/device/6982/mm4l-probability-gate

Disquiet Junto Project 0604: Heaven’s Gate
The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound.

Step 1: Think about the use of a gate in music production. A gate can be described as an “on/off switch, allowing signals over threshold to pass while muting everything below.” (It’s likely that discussion will occur during this project regarding useful explanations of the concept.)

Step 2: Take a picture of some clouds.

Step 3: Think of how to interpret the clouds as a model of a gate.

Step 4: Record a track employing the approach you determined in Step 3 using the picture from Step 2.

I took the cover photo in Ashland, Oregon, earlier this year; no filters were employed. Regarding the title, I’m a Michael Cimino admirer.

Source: https://tapeop.com/interviews/33/noise-gates/ 2

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0604” (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 “disquiet0604” (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-0604-heavens-gate/

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 fast are those clouds moving?

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, July 31, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, July 27, 2023.

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).

Cumuliform disquiet0604

Disquiet Junto Project 0604: Heaven’s Gate 
The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound.

It was a cloudy day. I had a migraine clouding my mind. I took a cloud image and narrowed it down with a threshold function. The idea seemed to be to lose something. I stirred it all together, sort of, more from my gut. Then I made cloudy sounds, used Kilohearts Gate, and manually changed its threshold parameters over five recorded tracks so they would stutter. I wanted the acoustic image to be recognizable, but partially destroyed by the loss.


More on this 604th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Heaven’s Gate (The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound), at: https://disquiet.com/0604/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0604-heavens-gate/

Lost Clouds [disquiet0604]

Love in the Time of Cumulus Clouds disquiet0604

Given that it is late July in Ontario, clouds usually lead to thunderstorms and quick and intense bouts of rain. Either that or soul crushing humidity. The image was taken in the morning, with a "chance of a thunderstorm" being announced on my weather app and the track is intended to capture the sounds and feeling of a mid to late summer storm. As for the technicalities, it's all about the low pass gate on the Easel, which provides the drones and tones, such as they are. The crunchy electric and at times thunderous bits come from the Landscape HCTT. The tape used is a mix tape I made back in the 90s of the "Revolting Cocks," which was more or less grabbed at random from an old box in the attic. Part of the mix was passed through Christopher Jacques "Cosmic Grains" patch on the Zoia.

disquiet0604

More on this 604th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Heaven’s Gate (The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound), at: https://disquiet.com/0604/

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-0604-heavens-gate/

Gateway To The Clouds (disquiet0604)

I took a photo from the roof of my office and used the clouds as a sequencer by putting a grid over it. I then placed six tracks at heights with interesting cloud patterns and filled the grid where I deemed the clouds dense enough. The pattern went into Drambo without editing and with all notes the same length. In Drambo it powered six guitar samples and - with a much reduced probability - six percussion samples. I played the pattern three times and gradually brought in some distortion. The result sounds nothing like the fluffy clouds it was based on. Maybe a bit Neal Young with a one string guitar? I tried to make a “happy summer jam version” out of it by using different samples or synths. Alas as ever so often when I try to really aim for a happy “The Tough Alliance” kind of sound, I end up even more merzbowy than before. Those fun sunny summery jams appear once in a while without any intent or effort - just like that cloud that looks like a humming bird or … an ice
cream van? Happy summer to everyone!

More on this 604th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Heaven’s Gate (The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound), at: https://disquiet.com/0604/

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-0604-heavens-gate/

Disquiet0604 - Distorted Cloud Sequencer

Disquiet0604-gatesofheaven

Passing last week's Disquiet Junto track through Ableton's vocoder, being used as a spectral gate, with a carrier based on a Photosounder wav file created from a cloud photograph.
--
More on this 604th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Heaven’s Gate (The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound), at: https://disquiet.com/0604/

About the Disquiet Junto: Disquiet Junto F.A.Q. – Disquiet

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0604-heavens-gate/

aloft in translation (disquiet0604)

[disquiet0604] Frequency

manual switch - main gate - into logical gates letting through a sequence of regular triggers
- main sound source is a pitched down sample being played back on repeat
- sample goes into beads, which is triggered by a delayed version of the main gate
- main gate also steps through a sequential switch, sending modulation to different destinations

photo of clouds taken on 29 july 2023

field recording layered in + some automation and processing in ableton live

--

More on this 604th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Heaven’s Gate (The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound), at: https://disquiet.com/0604/

About the Disquiet Junto: Disquiet Junto F.A.Q. – Disquiet

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/ 1

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0604-heavens-gate/

disquiet0604 - gates kept

This was my contribution for Disquiet Junto Project 0604: Heaven’s Gate
Here’s a copy of my post on the Disquiet Junto 0604 discussion thread:

There is an abundance of crows in the neighborhood where we live. They're extremely smart and fun to watch as they go about their daily antics. So when it came time to take a photo of some interesting clouds for this week's project, a crow flew  by and photobombed the scene.

I used the Max For Live MIDI effect, Rhythmorphic by Dillon Bastan, as the foundation for this piece. It uses an image source to morph Euclidian sequences into non-Euclidian rhythms. A grayscale version of the crow/clouds image I shot was used. Gate sequencing, notes and modulations were created by the device using the light and dark values of the image. Here's Dillon's video link that better explains the device: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFrhJ0KcqzQ.

Slate+Ash Choreographs was used in Ableton Live for all the sounds/textures within Rhythmorphic, as well as a separate melody track. Additional gate modulation was created using the free plugin Gatelab by Audiomodern.

More on this 604th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Heaven’s Gate (The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound), at: https://disquiet.com/0604/
About the Disquiet Junto: Disquiet Junto F.A.Q. – Disquiet
Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/ 1
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0604-heavens-gate/

Crow Chasing Summer Clouds [disquiet0604]

Disquiet Junto Project 0604: Heaven’s Gate
The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound.

Step 1: Think about the use of a gate in music production. A gate can be described as an “on/off switch, allowing signals over threshold to pass while muting everything below.” (It’s likely that discussion will occur during this project regarding useful explanations of the concept.)

Step 2: Take a picture of some clouds.

Step 3: Think of how to interpret the clouds as a model of a gate.

Step 4: Record a track employing the approach you determined in Step 3 using the picture from Step 2.

I took the cover photo in Ashland, Oregon, earlier this year; no filters were employed. Regarding the title, I’m a Michael Cimino admirer.

Source: https://tapeop.com/interviews/33/noise-gates/ 6

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0604” (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 “disquiet0604” (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-0604-heavens-gate/

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 fast are those clouds moving?

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, July 31, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, July 27, 2023.

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 604th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Heaven’s Gate (The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound), at: https://disquiet.com/0604/

About the Disquiet Junto: Disquiet Junto F.A.Q. – Disquiet

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/ 1

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0604-heavens-gate/

I am the Cumulus - disquiet0604

Disquiet Junto Project 0604: Heaven’s Gate
The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound.
More info on Disquet Junto: disquiet.com/0604

This week I didn't find a moment that was stimulating to find a picture, so I got an old one from 2019 that suited my needs. I decided to start creating a sound in Ableton, so I took that picture, converted into a wavetable with Image2Wavetable and then processed it with Pathways. I recorded a minute and then loaded it in Morphagene to work on it with modular and norns at the end of the chain, with Massif and FX mod with resonator on.
I am continuously searching for ways to have discontinuous sound, so I decided to use 0ctrl for this purpose.

After exporting the tracks I reminded myself of a beautiful documentary I watched on art brut where I discovered the artist Julius Bockelt and his wonderful works which take inspiration from sounds and the structure of clouds. https://christianberst.com/en/artists/julius-bockelt#artworks

Morphagene L-R Out -> Mimeophone in Zone 0 -> Out 1
Maths EOC Ch. 4 -> QPAS L in -> QPAS HP LR out -> Out 2

0ctrl clock out-> Wogglebug CLK in
0ctrl pitch out -> Morphagene Gene Size in
0ctrl strength out -> Morphagene Slide
0ctrl time out -> QPAS Q in
0ctrl gate out -> mult -> Moprhagene Play in, QPAS ¡!¡! R in

Maths INV -> QPAS Freq 2
Maths SUM -> QPAS VCA in
Maths OR -> QPAS Radiate L
Maths Ch. 4 Unity out -> Maths Ch. 1 in

Morphagene CV Out -> Maths Ch. 4 in
Morphagene EOSG -> QPAS !¡!¡ in

Wogglebug Stepped CV -> Maths Ch. 4 Both
Wogglebug Smooth CV -> Maths Ch. 3
Wogglebug Woggle CV -> 0ctrl dir
Wogglebug Burst out -> 0ctrl clock in

The Structure of Clouds (disquiet0604)

The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound.

Step 1: Think about the use of a gate in music production. A gate can be described as an “on/off switch, allowing signals over threshold to pass while muting everything below.” (It’s likely that discussion will occur during this project regarding useful explanations of the concept.)

Step 2: Take a picture of some clouds.

Step 3: Think of how to interpret the clouds as a model of a gate.

Step 4: Record a track employing the approach you determined in Step 3 using the picture from Step 2.

More on this 604th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Heaven’s Gate (The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound), at: https://disquiet.com/0604/

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-0604-heavens-gate/

gatekeeper [disquiet0604]

layers of sound generated from cloud image, 
blended with Min and Max processes (my interpretation of cloud gates), randomly mixed

More on this 604th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Heaven’s Gate (The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound), at: https://disquiet.com/0604/

About the Disquiet Junto: Disquiet Junto F.A.Q. – Disquiet

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/ 1

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0604-heavens-gate/

disquiet0604 Cloud Gate

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.