Marc Weidenbaum

outside

krishna

More quiet stuff

disquiet. Mark Weidenbaum

Music Study Journal

I've wanted to get a white-noise module for awhile, and finally added one to my setup. This module has 7 different noise sources, including white, red, grey, and blue. Each is being triggered by a different sequence. They're all in sync, though one is slightly delayed, which lends a tiny bit of character to the cadence, I think. The only reason I skipped pink is because I don't have any pink cables right now, and the color-coded cables helped me keep track of things.

You can blame this on someone who's listened to too many Chain Reaction releases, too much Consolidated, and too many scores to Michael Mann films.

Slightly more technical information: The sequences are all in CV Toolkit (a piece of software running on my laptop), and they're getting to my modular synthesizer via an Expert Sleepers ES-3 module. The noise-source module is the Quantum Rainbow 2. The white, red, and grey sources are all receiving sequences directly from the software. The blue source is getting a slight trigger delay (and a slightly extended length to the trigger), thanks to the Doepfer A-162. The whole thing is being mixed in an ADDAC 802 VCA Quintet, and out through a Pittsburgh Outs, through a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4. It was recorded in Audacity. 

White Noise Beat

I was asked by the Dutch musician Michel Banabila to contribute a remix to Marilli Remixed, a collection of reworkings of tracks from his very first album, Marilli, released in 1983. I selected the fourth track on the first side of the LP.

The original was elegant, but had percussion throughout. I wanted the ambient quality more formalized, and the percussion a little more muted and arhythmic.

. . .  

Here are some notes on my remix. I’ll note in advance, they’re fairly technical, as a notebook entry on what went into this, and what I learned in the process.

I used the my modular synthesizer (mostly filters, and a little triggered live sampler), the software Audacity (to sequence it, and also for some effects), and my Monome (running the mlr patch in the software Max). 

First I stretched a relatively percussion-less segment of the original track to get an ambient bed, yielding in the end something about 30 seconds long. I set it to run eight times in a row, overlapping to varying degrees at each repeat. 

Then I extracted a small percussion loop from the original. I did a "live performance" of that percussion loop with the Monome (four simultaneous tracks: one straight through, two running tighter sub-loops against each other a little quieter, and one in reverse even quieter still, though it's also the last bit to fade out of that sequence, so it has a little moment in the sun). The loop ran a little slower than the original, and I used a small Novation Launch Control to manage the relative volume of the four tracks within mlr.

And then I used my modular synthesizer to create variations on the ambient bed, which I layered in at various stages. 

In the end I had eight tracks in Audacity:

The 1st and 3rd tracks are the eight sequential repeats of the ambient sound bed, each intersection overlapping to varying degrees.

The 2nd track is a filtered version of the ambient bed, which has a slow LFO on it (giving it a light Laurie Anderson–ish "ha ha ha" feel) and some echo. This was done on the modular using a filter (either the A-121 or the A-136 or the Z2040 — my notes are unclear — influenced by a digital LFO, the Hikari Sine, and then run through an Eko module).

The 4th is the "live performance" on the Monome of the percussion loop, running mlr. It has four tracks of the loop doing different things. I used a Novation Launch Control to balance the volume of those four tracks.

The 5th is a copy of the ambient sound bed, pitched lower for the full length of the loop. This gives it that deep vibe for the penultimate repeat of the ambient bed. In track 1 at that same stage the volume of the original ambient bed is a little quieter, to let the deep version sound even louder than it is, in relative terms. 

The 6th track is a copy of the ambient bed but pitched higher, and I just use it for a very short moment, a final peak before the track fades out. 

And the 7th and 8th are two different instances of the same tweak of the ambient bed, which I did in the modular using a Harvestman Polivoks. It's a tingling, slightly irritating sound, a momentary breach in the ambience.

The whole idea is it opens with this expanse, and then goes to something a little tribal, and then returns to the expanse. I'll be honest about my influences here. The ambient bed is striving toward Brian Eno's Thursday Afternoon, and the rhythmic part has Peter Gabriel's soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ in mind. The first appearance of the Polivoks "irritant" is then repeated toward the end to provide a sense of reflection on where the piece started, but in between is that percussion performance. The deep vibe in track 5 gives an orchestral sense of closure, and the peak in track 6 is little filigree, like the clouds breaking, before it all ends.

At least that's where I ended up. It wasn't where I started. When I started, it was all gonna be about this firecracker/rattle sound in the original, but in the end I went a totally different direction.

Free Album Download

"A4. Marilli Rmxd 14"

disquiet 0245
Disquiet Junto Project 0245: Practical Music
Write a piece of music for getting things done, suitable for playing on repeat.

Clean up, routine, tiding up....that leads me to repetitive stuff.
I played a simple riff on my “diaz custom5”  drake bass guitar, very repetitive and yet variations going from A to D to D/E with no real structure.
Added a synth bass drone, and a Wurlitzer A200 electric piano improvising a bit.
Then some repetitive voices (tah-tah-tah-tah...) in four part harmony/
My usual rhythmic delays played a big role, here in 1/8th and 1/4th notes.
You can loop this, there’s no lead in or lead off.
Love
DD
Recorded in Paris, France September 9th  2016.

More on this 245th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Write a piece of music for getting things done, suitable for playing on repeat” — at:

http://disquiet.com/0245/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

http://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0243-synth-trial/4288

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Image associated with this project is by jurek d. and is used thanks to Flicker and a Creative Commons license:

http://flic.kr/p/npLwcU

clean it and loop it - disquiet0245

This is based on a Pure Data patch I made called "Oval Noise" because it reminded me of Markus Popp's ovalcommers-era sound. 

The patch is a mess since I just kind of threw it together with 3 oscillators playing one of four pitches randomly, with 2 of them summed up and the other being sent to another effect along with being summed with the other 2. 

Pure Data measures tempo by millisecond, so I started at 500 (i beat every half second), then divided it by 2, 4 and 6. The last little bit is divided by 8. 

Recorded into Audacity where I cropped it and fixed some clipping issues. 

||||

More on this 246th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Compose a piece of music that increases speed in stages as it proceeds.” — at:

http://disquiet.com/0246/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

http://llllllll.co/t/double-quadruple-sextuple-music-disquiet-junto-project-0246/4549

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Image associated with this project is by Oliver Gouldthorpe and is used thanks to Flicker and a Creative Commons license:

flic.kr/p/sMDxq

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

Latticeworks (disquiet0246)

A little after-hours experiment, running my electric guitar through my modular synthesizer. There is small looper picking up elements of what's being played live on the guitar and then replaying them, warping the tune a bit as it goes. The percussion is simply a side effect of all the signals being sent to the looper. There's also some high end and low end being cut off, thanks to a filter bank, and somewhere in the middle of the audio spectrum a slow triangle wave is manipulating a narrow frequency band.

Four Strings Patch

For the second week in a row, I've participated in Weekly Beats. Whether I make it the remaining 50 is yet to be seen, but I've enjoyed it so far. Unlike the Disquiet Junto, the weekly music composition prompt series I've moderated since 2012, there is no set theme in Weekly Beats. There are optional themes, but the main idea is simply to encourage making music as a way to learn to make music, along with the support that comes from other people doing so at the same time, and commenting on each other's work.

My second Weekly Beats track is, like the first, an attempt to combine electric guitar and modular synthesizer. The glitchy under beat is a bit of trigger sequencer, along with the byproduct rhythmic noise inherent in the looper. The guitar line is heard with various aspects of the audio spectrum being modulated by medium-paced LFOs, and being sent through the looper for additional effects, all echoes and stutter. And then at the end of the track a snippet of a chord is sent through a different looper, providing a simulated tape-loop fade-out. There's more going on, like the primary guitar line being put through a filter, but that's the gist of it.

. . .

More on this 315th weekly Disquiet Junto project (First Chair: Record the first third of a trio) at:

https://disquiet.com/0315/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0315-first-chair/

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Image associated with this project is adapted from a photo by Martin Kenny and is used via Flickr thanks to a Creative Commons license:

https://flic.kr/p/neoFUH

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

Fever Pitch (disquiet0315)

Short version: guitar -> Minidisc -> split into sections -> shuffle play.

Detailed version:

I have an old Sony MiniDisc recorder I’ve been meaning to sell or trade for the longest time. After watching one of the recent videos by the musician Hainbach, however, some hidden potential was revealed to me. Hainbach has been exploring unique characteristics of the MiniDisc, such as the granular quality of its fast-forward and rewind artifacts, its ability to easily break tracks into segments, and its gap-less playback.

The second and third of those three features are the ones I was most immediately interested in pursuing. That third one, the gap-less playback, isn’t present on all MiniDisc devices, though it was an impetus for Gescom’s ingenious 1998 album Minidisc — Gescom consisting of Autechre working in collaboration with Russell Haswell. Fortunately, my MiniDisc recorder, a Sony MZ-R50, has gap-less playback.

This simple little evening project turned out to be a learning experience in more ways than one. I wanted to record from my acoustic guitar into the MiniDisc, which seemed easy enough, but as it turned out I couldn’t find the microphone that originally accompanied the device. I spent some time looking on eBay and discovered that lots of people selling old MiniDisc recorders have also misplaced their microphones. I thought briefly about skipping the acoustic guitar for now and recording from a little iOS synth into my MiniDisc just as a proof of concept, which is when it occurred to me to record my guitar into an ancient iPod and to then record from the iPod into the MiniDisc. This worked fine.

The audio was me plucking and strumming a D chord on the guitar for about 30 seconds. I used a standard audio cable to go from the headphone jack of the iPod to the Line In of the MiniDisc. Once the 30 seconds were on the MiniDisc, I used the “T Mark” function on the MiniDisc to subdivide the track into little fragments. This took the one single track and turned it into about 25. After listening to it on shuffle/repeat, I whittled away and deleted a handful of silences, ending with about 19 pieces of varying lengths. In the end, the guitar material played out in little slivers and proved, to my ear, quite pleasing, as soft tones end suddenly and chance permutations render momentary melodies.

The question then became: how to transfer the audio from my MiniDisc to my laptop, or back to the iPod for that matter. This isn’t as simple as it sounds. The macOS software Audio Hijack didn’t seem to recognize my headphone input, and neither did my iPod. As it turns out, that’s because the standard headphone jack is different from the sort that laptops and mobile devices recognize these days. The standard audio headphone mini-jack has two little lines on it, if you look closely. The jack of the now-standard (well, until the imminent Bluetooth apocalypse) headphone-with-microphone cable actually has three little lines on it. I need to order a converter for future recordings, but I wanted to finish this tonight. So, I used a cable to connect my MiniDisc player to my Zoom H4n recorder, and then took the SD card from the H4n and put it in my laptop. I used Audacity to lower the treble on it, and then — just to try it out, because the software is new to me — Adobe Audition to trim the close, where the track initially ended too abruptly.

The track’s title, “Aida Facing Shimmy 353,” is an anagram of the word “MiniDisc” and the model of my acoustic guitar, a Yamaha FG-335.

"Aida Facing Shimmy 353"

I recently reworked about half my modular synthesizer, with some key priorities in mind, among them (1) introducing some modules with their own strong personalities, notably the 4MS Spectral Multiband Resonator and the Ieaskul F. Mobenthey Swoop, and (2) having a means to be always recording. I added an Expert Sleepers Disting MK4 between the mixer and the output to use as an always-on recorder. This track is a first attempt I made at using the IFM Swoop. Here the Swoop is producing a triangle wave, bounds of which are changing as the track proceeds (among other variables I'm just beginning to wrap my head around). It's secondarily being sent through a low-pass filter, to take the upper edge off. The attached photo shows the patch, though some of the knobs were fiddled with as it ran. (Perhaps the main thing I learned today was that it's sort of a hassle to get the SD card in and out of the Disting. The always-on recording was nice, though. This is the end of a longer segment, the opening part of which was even lower on the learning curve. When I was done, I just edited off the opening half and introduced a fade-in. The fade-out was done manually with my in-rack mixer.)

Module Learning: Swoop (Bounce Parameters)

Module Learning: Swoop (Bounds Parameters)

An experiment with filterbank beats:

An experiment with another recent module acquisition: a spectral filter. It’s like my previous filterbank, the one that this rainbow-colored module (from the 4MS Company) replaced, in that it divides the incoming audio signal across the spectrum and helps you focus in on one narrow band or sliver of that sound, but it has many additional superpowers I’m only just beginning to learn. 

Heard here is a little melody produced by the sequencer, the Monome Grid in the foreground, which is directing the notes played by a triangle wave via a module called Ansible. A trigger module (the Trigger Man) is setting the pace of the Grid, and also correlating some short sharp square waves from an LFO (the Batumi module) that are, in turn, creating little blips in the triangle wave (emanating from a Dixie II oscillator). 

This is sort of the third stage of this experiment. Earlier in this process I was using other devices to add more variables to the sound, but I whittled back some of that spaghetti to settle on what I posted a short video of to Instagram last night (https://www.instagram.com/p/BoIkWsoBvrh/). And then this morning I built it back up again. 

The three main things this has that the Instagram didn't have are: (1) the rhythm from the Trigger Man is a little more complex now, giving the melody a bit more of a herky-jerky beat; (2) the melody itself has some randomization going on (more like probability: will a note play or will it not); and (3) there's a heavily subdued version of the audio that plays at the open and close (it's running through a low-pass filter). There's a bit of noise in this recording, and I'm not sure why.

Module Learning: Spectral (Rhythmic Bands)

A huge thank you to freddiehangoler for adding his wonderful orchestrations to my song sketch! This new recording was created for September’s SoundCloud Community Collaboration... the theme of this collaboration project is Fall. We wanted to create a track that reflects the feelings and sounds of Fall. Here's a link to the SoundCloud blog about the collaboration and how you can get involved. There's still time! ;)

http://soundcloud.tumblr.com/post/30954133132/septembers-soundcloud-community-collaboration
Share your track here by September 30th. Don’t forget to credit stem creators:http://soundcloud.com/groups/soundcloud-heroes-collaborations

Let me know if you have any questions about the collaboration project for your own submissions, I'd be glad to help :)
~Heidi

http://soundcloud.com/freddiehangoler

Music and Lyrics - Heidi Harris 
Orchestral arrangement - freddiehangoler 
Sound editing and mix - Heidi Harris & freddiehangoler
original recording here: http://soundcloud.com/heidi-harris-1/unfair-song-sketch

Unfair with freddiehangoler

Lcoma’s latest EP “Evolve” is, as the track list suggests, a pilgrimage: Birth – Lost – Experiment – Evolve. Lcoma (Liam Coleman) describes the EP as an “audible representation of a long winded and reoccurring battle with anxiety.” The first two tracks swell between harsh, distorted tones and ethereal synth that affect a restless and entangled state. This first half is destabilized and troubled – as was intended. On the latter two tracks, the prominent sounds offer a contrast; Lighter and more contented they ultimately allude to the growth signified by the title track, “Evolve.” On “Experiment,” a playful and Arabian influenced guitar stands at the forefront, and the surge of synth strings on the final track, “Evolve,” could easily be described as light-hearted and uplifting. Yet there is more to this release than the simple binary between tension and comfort. Inherent to humanity we find within any struggle or attempt at growth, a path that is far from linear. Beneath the lighter inflections of the final tracks, a bit reduced sweep will suddenly overwhelm the soundscape before, once again, fading beneath the more cheerful tones. The medium for presenting this EP is, unfortunately imperfect: the distinct and ordered tracks should be cyclical. This is by no means a critique on the artist; Coleman finds a way around this. The sudden interruptions on the latter tracks revive the sharp degraded resonance of the former for a reason: the past will always be alive, even with maturation.

Lcoma - Evolve

Joining me In this recording is Pamela Martinez of http://soundcloud.com/teletextile on supporting vocals and violin. 

Event link here: 
https://www.facebook.com/events/406674119401374/?ref=notif&notif_t=plan_admin_added

Musicians joining me on Jan.16th:
http://soundcloud.com/eve-blackwater
http://soundcloud.com/debzep
http://soundcloud.com/teletextile
http://soundcloud.com/laloopmusic

Unfair (live rehearsal) with Teletextile

A Childish Late Autumn Moment
from <a href="http://bc.haloproject.co.uk/album/scenes-from-the-four-seasons">Scene from the four seasons</a>, now out on bandcamp. :)
----------------------------
http://haloproject.co.uk
http://facebook.com/halosphere
http://twitter.com/halotwtr

Halo - Scenes from the four seasons - 1.Late Autumn Melody

New York, Country, Winter, Day, Wind ORTF front

New York, Country, Winter, Day, Wind ORTF rear

New York, Country, Winter, Night, Wind ORTF front

New York, Country, Winter, Night, Wind ORTF rear

Lymstock is a town with more than its share of shameful secrets – a town where even a sudden outbreak of anonymous hate-mail causes only a minor stir.

But all that changes when one of the recipients, Mrs Symmington, commits suicide. Her final note said ‘I can’t go on’. Only Miss Marple questions the coroner’s verdict of suicide. Was this the work of a poison-pen? Or of a poisoner?

Buy 

The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie, read by Joan Hickson

Heidi Harris and guests live at PIANOS // 3 piano songs by Heidi Harris Jan.16 2013 debut performance for new song, "Crow Cry".

Featuring: http://soundcloud.com/eve-blackwater  on singing bowl, thunder maker, chimes and vocals 
http://soundcloud.com/teletextile on violin and vocals
http://soundcloud.com/debzep  on bass clarinet and vocals
and http://soundcloud.com/laloopmusic on clarinet and flute 


Event link with more details from the show via fb: https://www.facebook.com/events/406674119401374/?ref=notif&notif_t=plan_admin_added

Photos from the show: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151295100879504.478982.251475934503&type=1

Audio compliments of "Movette Pictures" http://www.movettepictures.com/

Heidi Harris and guests live at PIANOS// 3 songs jan.16 2013 debut 4 "Crow Cry"

The sound of one dishwasher rumbling. 

Perhaps the most widely distributed domestic generative audio device.

Associated image via Creative Commons from <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/2476450625/">flickr.com</a>.

The Generative Rhythms of Domestic White Noise

A remix of Disquiet's Library Drone:
http://soundcloud.com/disquiet/the-library-drone

Library SyFy Drone (20130212-ssu3012)

Sometimes quiet sounds are the most jarring, such as hearing what could be a stream while walking down a particularly cement-lined and tree-less street in a large city. It's a sunny winter Friday in San Francisco, not far from the ocean. There's a strong wind, and passing planes and cars, and yet the sound is there, for certain, the sound of a small stream. Of course, it isn't a stream, not in the general sense. It's a drain, whose holes let the passing water echo above. A struggling bit of microfoliage, tiny weeds making their way to the sunlight, confirm the liquid below. 

Track recorded on my Nexus 4 cell phone using Easy Voice Recorder Pro on Friday, February 22.

The Urban Stream

Every Tuesday at noon the Outdoor Public Warning System (OPWS) rings out around San Francisco. It has two stages. First there is a siren. Second there is a spoken announcement: "This is a test. This is a test of the outdoor warning system. This is only a test." 

As of October 2012, there are 111 speakers set up throughout San Francisco to broadcast the message. The majority have the message in English, but there are 2 in Cantonese and English and 17 in Spanish and English. See the attached image for a map of the OPWS speakers.

Because of the city's famously hilly terrain, as well as the speed at which sound travels, and the apparently inexact timing of the system's triggers, the sirens and announcement can often be heard to overlap, creating an artificial echo effect in addition to the actual echo. Also, because it rings at noon, the sound of the warning often overlays with another form of announcement: the bells of churches and other institutions.

I made this recording on Tuesday, February 26, 2013, in the backyard of my home in the Richmond District of San Francisco. This was an especially clear day. It was made on an H4n, recorded directly to a WAV file. At five of the hour I placed the H4n in the backyard and set it to record. Only after the announcement had fully trailed off and been replaced by the bird song and church bells did I approach the H4n and turn it off. Then I trimmed the length of the recording to focus on the runtime of the OPWS.

More on the OPWS system at the website of the City and County of San Francisco Department of Emergency Management: <a href="http://sfdem.org/index.aspx?page=55">sfdem.org</a>.

Outdoor Public Warning System (San Francisco, CA)

remix of disquiet's sample http://soundcloud.com/disquiet/siren-san-francisco-tuesday

working on a soloed single channel in Alchemy vst.

thanks for the audio 

Sfsiren song [disquiet remix] -alchemy

The waiting room at the doctor's office is self-enclosed. It contains a handful of chairs and is lit by two large windows, their blinds tucked just below a high, generically tiled ceiling. No one else is in the room. A tiny speaker sits on the windowsill, nearly a dozen stories up from the busy city street. The speaker emits barely perceptible music, a tinny whimper of sodden melodicism, as if the Whoville Pops is being overheard. What the speaker itself fails to do service to is further muffled by the incessant drone of the building's ancient HVAC system, and the whole resulting thick ether of white noise is punctuated by the thuddish tic of an unseen clock. 

In the audio recording made on a cellphone, the noise-like elements are greatly emphasized. They are far more prevalent and evident than they had been in person. It is as if the texture of the open road, so uniform when seen through the windshield of a fast-moving car, has been cast in high relief.

Track recorded on my Nexus 4 cell phone using Easy Voice Recorder Pro on Friday, March 1.

(Image via <a href="http://pixabay.com/p-22952/?no_redirect">pixabay.com</a>.)

The Waiting Room

My 33 1/3 series book about the Aphex Twin album Selected Ambient Works Volume II 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.