Disquiet Junto Project 0589: Auto Play

The Assignment: Automate something manual — or vice versa

Step 1: Think about things you’re used to doing when you make music, habits you take for granted.

Step 2: Record a track in which you automate something you usually do manually, or manually do something you usually automate — or both.

This project was inspired by recent conversation in the Disquiet Junto Slack.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, April 17, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, April 13, 2023.

More on this 589th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Auto Play (The Assignment: Automate something manual — or vice versa), at: https://disquiet.com/0589/

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-0589-auto-play/

Disquiet Junto Project 0589: Auto Play

Disquiet Junto Submissions

My submission for Disquiet Junto Project 0589: Auto Play
The Assignment: Automate something manual — or vice versa
More on this 589th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Auto Play (The Assignment: Automate something manual — or vice versa), at: https://disquiet.com/0589/

Automated Unautomated (disquiet0589)

A live electronic sequence created in Pure Data, with automated irregularity.

More on this 589th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Auto Play (The Assignment: Automate something manual — or vice versa), at: https://disquiet.com/0589/

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-0589-auto-play/

Autobash (disquiet0589)

More on this 589th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Auto Play (The Assignment: Automate something manual — or vice versa), at: https://disquiet.com/0589/

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-0589-auto-play/

Auto Play

Disquiet Junto | Auto Play - disquiet0589

Visuals on YouTube @ https://youtu.be/5ChKLbMuPWA ... please subscribe! 🤗

More on this 589th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Auto Play (The Assignment: Automate something manual — or vice versa), at: https://disquiet.com/0589/

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-0589-auto-play/

visuals (YouTube)

halF automaT [disquiet0589]

I spent all day re-organising my modular, and realised that the best way was to create a 'side instrument' in the smaller box- which I thought of like a VCS3, with joystick, poorly tracking oscillators and spring reverb, but without the pin matrix.  The idea is to get me out of my comfort zone and force a different workflow.  I used this box to create a tuned-by-ear drone, which I then played hands-on the synth for filter sweeps, levels, and feedback controlling - things I normally automate (I usually patch the modular to play itself as much as possible, and then play other keyboards over it).  

More on this 589th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Auto Play (The Assignment: Automate something manual — or vice versa), at: https://disquiet.com/0589/

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-0589-auto-play/

Give In To The Drone (disquiet0589)

Tell Yall Bout My Friends (disquiet0589)

My first go at the Disquiet Junto challenge.   
The first thing I did was create a shifting 'cloudlike' top level. I did this using three detuned oscillators,  fed different sequences and put through a long cloud reverb in the Strymon BigSky.  For the 'firm bottom' I used the Dark Energy synth, feeding it a slower sequence of notes, but giving it more frequent rhythmic / percussive changes to filters and amplifier.  This had no reverb applied, just echo, to keep it firm and to avoid muddying the reverb cloud. As this is a piece for a possible dance performance, I included a rhythm pattern, which is purely white noise put through a filter that is rapidly opened and closed to varying degrees. This was put through a panner that sends it to different echos to make it more interesting than just a straight rhythmic pattern. This was a single live take, no overdubs. 

Disquiet Junto Project 0222: Bounded Foundation
The Assignment: Compose a piece for contemporary dance — with a “soft top” and a “shifting bottom.”

This is the second project we’re doing with artist and engineer Paolo Salvagione for an extended piece of choreography he’s working on. The result of the project is intended for potential use as a sonic backdrop for the dance performance, and also as a form of research into the materials and ideas being explored by Salvagione and the dancers. (Audio produced for this Junto project will not be used by Salvagione without its composer’s permission.)

Step 1: You will be creating a short, roughly four-minute piece of music. First, take into consideration the setting. Visualize that the piece would be performed by a young solo female dancer. She is dancing in a large space. The sounds of this Junto are the only sounds accompanying her movement.

Step 2: Your piece should have two perceived “levels.” The “top” level should be soft and cloud-like. The “bottom” level should be firm but ever-shifting.

Step 3: Make a piece of sound/music roughly four minutes long that meets the criteria of Step 2.

Step 4: Upload your completed track to the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.

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

Step 6: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

http://disquiet.com/2016/03/31/disquiet0222-boundedfoundation/

Bounded Foundation (disquiet0222-boundedfoundation)

My attempt at this week's Disquiet Junto - I stuck with a Steve Reich feel. First I came up with a five-beat phrase that I felt was interesting and was not too difficult to play steadily at a reasonable speed. I then created a basic sound on my modular, using ring two ring-modulated oscillators tuned an octave and a fifth apart.  I varied the settings with each take, adding a bit of modulated reverb on some and leaving others dry.  I then faded some of the takes in and out, leaving others to start / finish abruptly.  There are six layers here, any more was just getting muddy. The title is because the effect reminded me of my honeymoon in Salzburg, my wife and I were sat at a restaurant on Mönchsberg, overlooking the town, and the church bells starting ringing out from the various churches. There was an amazing phased sound as they drifted in and out of time with each other, it lasted a good few minutes.  

http://disquiet.com/2016/04/07/disquiet0223-layeredsameness/

Honeymoon Bells Surrounding Mönchsberg (disquietjunto0223-layeredsameness)

I played around a bit more with the Disquiet Junto 223 file - layering pitched-up and reversed copies over and over, and then bringing in and out the different pitched versions as the track plays. I also slowed it all down to half speed, and smothered it in reverbs to smooth out the ringing.

Layered Sameness 2 (disquietjunto0223-layeredsameness)

(A newer more 'radiophonic' version , with added 'Arctic' melody originally written by Delia Derbyshire and tons of reverb is here: https://soundcloud.com/ikjoyce/arctic-disquiet0224-coldembrace) 

This week's Disquiet Junto project is to make a track using a field recording of the fridge... http://disquiet.com/2016/04/14/disquiet0224-coldembrace/

I took two recordings - one from down the back of the fridge, and the other from inside the fridge.  I then layered multiple copies of both recordings in ACID pro, and changed the speeds of each so that the pitch of the  hums created nice harmonic textures. Finally, I added a little EQ to each to highlight certain tones, and then used volume curves to fade the notes in and out.  There is NO reverb on this  (in reference to this: http://disquiet.com/2016/03/11/rimbaud-scores-ryman/#comments) - I used only the dry recordings! EQ was the only effect, and that was used sparingly just to highlight specific tones.

To me it sounds a little like an impatient Eliane Radigue piece!
 

Cold Embrace (disquiet0224-coldembrace)

I played a melody called 'Arctic' written by Delia Derbyshire (found in the archives at the fabulous WikiDelia.net -  just a scrap of manuscript - http://wikidelia.net/images/a/a4/DD115523.jpg )  on the BassStation2 using a sound I made specifically for this melody, over the top of my Disquiet Junto 'Cold embrace' track which is made entirely from two recordings of my fridge. I then added an enormous amount of multiple reverbs to it.  I hope Delia would have enjoyed the use of a fridge to add a soundbed to her Arctic melody :-) 

The soundbed of fridge hum with no reverb is here: https://soundcloud.com/ikjoyce/cold-embrace-disquiet0224-coldembrace

Arctic (disquiet0224-coldembrace)

This will be my place for Naviar Haiku and Disquiet Junto entries.
-Experiments may appear on YouTube from time to time: 
https://www.youtube.com/user/ikjoyce
-Albums will be released on Bandcamp: 
https://ikjoyce.bandcamp.com/

New album "The Endless Solitude Of A Skylark's Song" now available:
https://ikjoyce.bandcamp.com/album/the-endless-solitude-of-a-skylarks-song

Album 'Selene' now available on Cassette / Download from Naviar Records: 
https://naviarrecords.bandcamp.com/album/selene 

**Albums now available on iTunes, Amazon, Deezer, Spotify, and Google Play**  

I make electronic ambient and drone music using modular synthesis to explore themes of nature, space, isolation, man/machine interaction, and the borders of the sleep/wake cycle.