Disquiet Junto Project 0507: In DD’s Key of C
The Assignment: Make music with 10 acoustic instrument samples all in a shared key.

Step 1: This week’s project is based on a great “construction kit” of WAV files in the key of C recorded for us by Disquiet Junto member Daniel Díaz. Access the files, of which there are 10, at this Dropbox link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fitxmqhkggxwpye/AADnKVkTbi4XejHRaqr_N1dsa?dl=0

Step 2: Listen through the tracks, which include piano, two electric guitars, melodica, bowed upright bass, and other instruments.

Step 3: Record your own track employing the source audio.

Background: Consider what the tracks have in common. They are in the same key of C and on a single chord, Cmaj13(#11). Daniel played the instruments in different registers from deep low C to a very high accordina note. Daniel says, “I didn’t listen to the other tracks while playing and didn’t pay attention to the length, so if all the tracks are pasted at the ‘one’ of a project the results will be random. I just used a metronome of 100bpm, so the rhythmic little bits would match, approximately.”

. . .More on this 507th weekly Disquiet Junto project — In DD’s Key of C (The Assignment: Make music with 10 acoustic instrument samples all in a shared key) — at: https://disquiet.com/0507/

Tracks made with samples created generously by Daniel Díaz.

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-0507-in-dds-key-of-c/

There’s also a Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to marc@disquiet.com for Slack inclusion.

The image associated with this project is by Thorsten Sideb0ard, and used thanks to Flickr and a Creative Commons license allowing editing (cropped with text added) for non-commercial purposes:

https://flic.kr/p/bvKCrv

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

Disquiet Junto Project 0507: In DD’s Key of C

Disquiet Junto Submissions

I decided to pull out one of my old favorite techniques for this one: using Paulstretch with unconscionably long windows (5 seconds, 10 seconds, 40 seconds...). This takes a sample and moves it from a musical gesture to a long harmonic drone. 

I started out with the ukelele track, and stretched it 2.5x with a 5 second window. I stretched the accordina 2.1x with a 10 second window to get the primary melodic and chordal motion. Both developed a melody within the drone as the stretch was done.

I then stretched the piano 1.1x but with a 30 second window, then copied it, reversed it, and duplicated this again to bring it up to approximately the length of the other two tracks.

At this point, I started layering things up in Audacity and adjusting relative levels. I decided I wanted to leave a little of the original samples audible as they were originally, so I brought in the electric guitar chords and the rhythmic bass. I realigned the chords to appropriate places against the piano/uke/accordina lines, then carefully edited the bass to duplicate one bar of the rhythm so I could repeat it to almost the end of the track.

I then took the hang sample and pitched it up 3 octaves, resulting in a funky phasing tone in the mid-register. I applied a little Valhalla Freq Echo to that to give it a little more motion, and last, I brought in the low electric bass, carefully lining it up against the hang, and duplicating notes as required to get it to the correct length.

Final mixdown was adjusting relative levels of the tracks and tweaking EQ lightly.

This was done 100% in Audacity, using the Paulstretch, fade in, fade out, and pitch shift tools, with Valhalla Freq Echo for a tiny bit of sweetening.

Partially Erased [disquiet0507]

Hey, so glad to be the source of this week’s junto. I decided to use my original “example” track as a submission for this one, where, after recording separately each sample, I just unmuted all the 10 tracks , turn the volume 6dB down and just listened: as expected, everything worked (sort of) alright together, providing a 6 octave massive Cmaj13(#11) chord. The I just moved each track more or less to the right of the timeline to provide some musical move to the whole set, but otherwise, the FX, reverb mostly, are the ones included in the sample’s take.
I played around the volumes in the end and that’s it, all the samples sounding here.
Looking forward to enjoy what others do with this.
Thanks @disquiet Marc and everybody, love
DD 

The instruments I used:
1.	Piano
2.	Electric guitar chords (Stratocaster)
3.	Electric guitar arpeggio (Telecaster)
4.	Electric Bass (Drake Custom)
5.	Acoustic Piano (Yamaha)
6.	Melodica (Hohner)
7.	Accordina (Marcel Dreux)
8.	Ukulele (Concert Kala)
9.	Bowed upright bass
10.	Hang (in C deep sky tuning)

Image by thorsten sideb0ard

Massive C  Major - disquiet0507

More on this 507th weekly Disquiet Junto project — In DD’s Key of C (The Assignment: Make music with 10 acoustic instrument samples all in a shared key) — at: https://disquiet.com/0507/

Tracks made with samples created generously by Daniel Díaz.

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-0507-in-dds-key-of-c/

There’s also a Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to marc@disquiet.com for Slack inclusion.

The image associated with this project is by Thorsten Sideb0ard, and used thanks to Flickr and a Creative Commons license allowing editing (cropped with text added) for non-commercial purposes:

https://flic.kr/p/bvKCrv

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

In DD's Key of C - disquiet0507

The brilliant Daniel Diaz (https://soundcloud.com/daniel-diaz) recorded some sounds for us to use in this week's Junto - I made a two-part track using the sounds,  and added some field recordings of my local area and some extra piano. 

More on this 507th weekly Disquiet Junto project — In DD’s Key of C (The Assignment: Make music with 10 acoustic instrument samples all in a shared key) — at: https://disquiet.com/0507/

Tracks made with samples created generously by Daniel Díaz.

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-0507-in-dds-key-of-c/

There’s also a Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to marc@disquiet.com for Slack inclusion.

The image associated with this project is by Thorsten Sideb0ard, and used thanks to Flickr and a Creative Commons license allowing editing (cropped with text added) for non-commercial purposes:

https://flic.kr/p/bvKCrv

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

Not Entirely In C (disquiet0507)

Marco Lucchi : analog synthesizers

with
Daniel Diaz : bowed bass, hang drum and accordina

for Disquiet Junto project
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0507-in-dds-key-of-c/48744

Ut [disquiet0507]

fad hold

halF odD [disquiet0507]

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.