[disquiet0601] No Dice

Usually when I try to make a piece of music, I set out with a rough goal. For Disquiet 600 it was “Ska” (ridiculous and I instantly got off tracks), for this prompt it was “light summer jam”. Alas, the numbers were against me, so it became more of a mood piece.

I recycled the clarinet recordings of Disquiet 599, loaded them into iDensity and rolled a dice for each recording. I applied the numbers to granular density, length and speed. Because high numbers led to a dominant, dense, high pitched sound, I applied a stutter effect to all numbers above 4, to sort of even the odds a bit. I did a live recording by varying the volume of the six tracks a little.

The result reminds me a bit of Windy & Carl’s song “Dedications to Flea”, which includes a field recording of the musicians walking their dog (in my track, I “walk myself” by just breathing through the clarinet).

More on this 601st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Hard Six (The Assignment: Let a roll of the dice determine the relative prominence of various parts of a track), at: https://disquiet.com/0601/

The project was inspired in part by recent correspondence with Junto participant Robert Precht. More to come in that regard.

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-0601-hard-six/

Disquiet0601 - Ode To Windy And Carl

This week's prompt was to choose six brief segments of sound that I recently recorded and then to arrange them, semi-randomly, in descending order of volume.

I am teaching at a summer music camp in New Hampshire, so of course I have been recording lots of sounds! I pulled 5  off of my recorder and used one sound back from my home in Connecticut.

I assigned them numerical values and then rolled an online 6-sided die to arrange what sounds would be louder, quietest, and in the middle. The results were, in descending order of loudness:
1) A recording of rain falling on the other side of a door
2) Some weird AM radio static playing from the speaker of a small bus
3) The alarm of a truck backing up
4) The sound of me walking in my apartment and opening the window to record some birds
5) 4th of July fireworks
6)Some crickets by a pond

I quickly adjusted the volume of each track to put them in order. 
Then, I added a small amount of volume automation via sidechaining so that track 2's volume dipped down when track 1's volume peaked, track 3's volume dipped when track 2's volume peaked, etc. 

Next, I added a little panning to make space for everything.

I tried a LITTLE bit of EQ, but found myself running into the interesting problem of things with less high frequencies "feeling" quieter. So, I was pretty minimalist with the EQ.

After that I added a small amount of FX for some ear candy, including making a delay for the AM radio static, panning the crickets from left to right, and adding some flanger and granular delay to certain points in the rain recording.

There's a lot of percussive sounds in here, which makes it sound pretty dense, but hopefully it will stand on its own as a listening experience!

Soundscrape (disquiet0601)

I took my most recent Junto submission from a few weeks ago, randomly spliced it within Ableton, then selected and mapped 6 modified samples to 6 midi controller pads. 

For each pad I rolled the dice - the number determined how many bars each pad's content would occupy in the the total composition.
I found it a very interesting way to approach structuring the sounds, it made me a bit more disciplined than I otherwise might have been.

Image credit: National Marine Sanctuaries https://flickr.com/photos/44124469278@N01/43863888325

Disquiet Junto Project 0601: Hard Six
The Assignment: Let a roll of the dice determine the relative prominence of various parts of a track.

The project was inspired in part by recent correspondence with Junto participant Robert Precht. More to come in that regard.

Step 1: Choose six brief segments of sound that you have recently recorded. Or record some new segments now. Either way, select six of them, and label them one through six.

Step 2: Roll a single die for each of the six segments chosen in Step 1.

Step 3: The result of each roll in Step 2 represents the relative presence of that given segment in a finished piece of music. Think about how the pieces might relate to each other. This idea of relative presence can mean whatever you want: frequency of appearance, relative volume, intelligibility etc.

Step 4: Record a piece of music in which the relative presence of the segments chosen in Step 1 correlate with the results from Step 2.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0601” (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 “disquiet0601” (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 1:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0601-hard-six/

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.

Kelp Forest disquiet0601

See https://disquiet.com/2023/07/06/disquiet-junto-project-0601-hard-six/

I made it difficult for myself and selected 6 unrelated eurorack improvs. And to make it even harder, the dice showed 4-3-4-2-4-2, which meant I had to use all of them a lot. I think the result is a hot mess, but at least it resembles music. And that is good enough for me.

disquiet0601

Vocazione / Berufung / Vocation - After a dear friend of mine who had a call. Made with ❤️ on a Synthstrom Deluge and an ASM Hydrasynth.

More on this 602nd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Choice Words (The Assignment: Make a piece of music that strives to express a specific word), at: https://disquiet.com/0602/

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-0602-choice-words/

Vocazione (disquiet0602)

Disquiet Junto Project 0602: Choice Words
The Assignment: Make a piece of music that strives to express a specific word.

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0602-choice-words/63203/4

Step 1: Choose a word — either a favorite word, or one at random from a dictionary, a book your reading, or any such source.

Step 2: Compose a short piece of music that expresses that word as best you can. Perhaps it communicates an underlying concept, or follows the shape of the word when spoken, or utilizes it as an extremely short lyric. Come up with your own approach, which might be determined by the word, rather than imposed on the word.

I used an online random word generator and got the word: torch.
I thought of an old style wooden torch that would burn very brightly before slowly going out and tried to express that with this short track. Hope you like it! Have a good day.

Music video: https://youtu.be/Gtegb57Z67U

Torch (disquiet 0602)

More on this 602nd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Choice Words (The Assignment: Make a piece of music that strives to express a specific word), at: https://disquiet.com/0602/

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-0602-choice-words/

California (disquiet0602)

A mixtape for the senses. Created by Isaac DJ, Mastered by Hunter Pearen.

Wake

working with. midi 5 1

Well I finally made something cool with good tools. I'm talking about my own Discord server to celebrate I decided to release some music around it I actually went though my old hard drives and found some music on there, anyway enjoy the music.

Please come join me on the Discord server I built I'm still trying to work it out but I have a few things on there already and some deliciated channels to gander. I thought it be a good place to keep you updated with all the latest goings on on all my websites, channels and also the music I make which is what you are here for right. Anyway please follow the link below to go direct to to server where fun awaits and I'll hopefully see you on the other side.

discord.gg/DJbZqchq

No Sleep For Me

During the early 1990s I studied Mathematics and Computer Science. The world wide web was still largely text-based and mostly empty. Today things are obviously different, though I still thoroughly enjoy art, design, cinema and music in all its forms. I have traveled all over the world for nearly two decades, visiting just over 140 countries. Japan is my favorite. All of this I attempt to incorporate into my music and art.

[disquiet0601] No Dice

Fake Genius

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