Disquiet Junto Set 2014 (Mark Rushton)

“Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something of it” 

Like last year, I used the Samplr app for iPad for processing the ice recording. 

Two standard ice cubes from a freezer tray were put in an 8 ounce drinking glass and nervously shaken in front of a Zoom H1.

Once the loop was in Samplr, I created six views but only used three.  The sample was lowered four octaves in each view and reverb added.  I recorded it live after I found a mix that I liked.

This year I wanted something more restrained, but with an underlying amount of tension.  The background sounds like it's bubbling.

The picture is by me, taken a few days ago as I drove by the Buddha on a hill along Scott Boulevard near my home in Iowa City.  I watched this Buddha get carved all summer long by numerous people working in the hot sun.  Now it's ridiculously cold out with winter and the Buddha looks like a giant snowman in that landscape.

For more about my music, visit:  http://markrushton.com/

More on this 105th Disquiet Junto project (“Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something of it”) at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/01/02/disquiet0105-ice2014/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

The Nervous Rhythm (disquiet0105-ice2014)

For this week’s project, use the sound of a wind chime as the rhythmic foundation for a track.

Back in 2007 I recorded some wind chimes at a private residence near Toddville, Iowa.  Unfortunately, most of the recording was unusable for a variety of reasons:  the wind kicked up, plus I also captured the sounds of a shooting range a couple miles south of the residence.  The recording was made with my old Sony Minidisc recorder and unprotected binaural microphones, likely one of the last recordings I made this way before I got a Zoom H2.

However, I kept the audio around.  It got on a hard drive, then a backup drive, and it was labeled, so it was easy to find.

8 seconds.  That was the longest and best segment of audio from about 45 minutes that wasn't ruined by wind or gunfire.

I loaded the file into Samplr on my iPad Air and came up with the track fairly quickly.  This recording was done live to a Zoom H1, and I was tweaking it all the way through so you'll notice some slight changes and a couple of noticeable shifts.

For more about my music, visit:  http://markrushton.com  or join my mailing list at http://mailinglist.markrushton.com

More on this 107th Disquiet Junto project (“Use a wind chime as the rhythmic foundation for a track.”) at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/01/16/disquiet0107-aeolianmetrics/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at: http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

The Momentary (disquiet0107-aeolianmetrics)

My musical senses are in an industrial/noise mode recently.

I used Samplr on my iPad Air.  Made several different recordings.  Arranged the recordings in Sony Acid until I created something I liked.

For more about me and my music, visit http://www.markrushton.com

In addition to what I have here at Soundcloud, I now have all my commercially available recordings at YouTube for free streaming:  https://www.youtube.com/user/markrushtoncom

Thanks to a Creative Commons license, this track contains elements of music by Juan Manuel Castrillo (“Horizontales,” from the album by that name on the netlabel Impulsive Habitat), J. Surak (“Improvisation for Prepared Autoharp,” from the album If You Smell Gas on the netlabel Zeromoon), and Maddame Cell (“Auto Tempo 1,” from the album Autotempo on the netlabel Xylem).

More on this 111th Disquiet Junto project (“Rework work from Impulsive Habitat, Xylem, Zeromoon (via actsofsilence.com)”) at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/02/13/disquiet0111-actsofcommons/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at: http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

The source audio for this track is available for free download from these netlabel websites:

http://impulsivehabitat.com/releases/ihab084.htm

http://museumofmicrocassetteart.bandcamp.com/album/moma086-if-you-smell-gas

http://xylemrecords.bandcamp.com/album/autotempo

The audio was sourced from reviews posted originally at the excellent website actsofsilence.com, which is run by David Nemeth.

Industry (disquiet0111-actsofcommons)

This week’s project is a celebration of the new album by Dave Seidel, who also goes by Mysterybear. Titled ~60 Hz, it just came out on the great Irritable Hedgehog record label.

I got the five pieces, converted them to WAV files, extracted about 30 seconds of each file, and loaded them into Samplr on my iPad.

Eventually I crafted the files into the following track, which is rather bass heavy, has a bit of reverb, and is rhythmic.  Wear good headphones while listening.

In my own work recently, I've been creating more longer-form ambient-ish singles, so I took the entire five minutes to create something that zones me out.  

The title is an anagram of Dave Seidel's name.

Pic is from my local grocery store.  Can't remember when, maybe a month or two ago.  It's been a long cold winter here in Iowa City, Iowa.

For more about me and my music, visit http://www.markrushton.com

Or sign up for my mailing list at:  http://mailinglist.markrushton.com

More on this 114th Disquiet Junto project — “Combine elements of Dave Seidel’s album ~60 Hz (Irritable Hedgehog)” — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/03/06/disquiet0114-60hz/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

The source audio is from Dave Seidel’s ~60 Hz album, released on the Irritable Hedgehog record label. More on the album at:  http://recordings.irritablehedgehog.com/album/dave-seidel-60-hz

Leaded Vise (disquiet0114-60hz)

This week's project instructions:  "It is understood that one should brush one’s teeth for two minutes: half a minute each for front and back, top and bottom. Compose a piece of music made of four portions, each 30 seconds in length, each 30-second segment intended to direct a segment of the brushing The music should be placid enough to be listenable to at night and in the morning. The juncture between each 30-second segment should signal to the listener to rotate from one portion of the mouth to the next."

I've been using a Braun Oral-B electric toothbrush for the past several years.  It's a Triumph Professional, 5000 Series.  It's pretty neat.  Wireless charging.  There's a timer/clock you can look at that uses Bluetooth to communicate with the brush.  Got it real cheap through my dentist office - probably $59 after discount and rebate.  They cost more in retail stores and online.  Heads are reasonably priced, available anywhere, and last a long time.

And it's got this vibration notification every 30 seconds to switch brushing quadrants in your mouth.  Just like the Junto instructions!

Before I get into how I created this track, I must preach about the importance of using a quality electric toothbrush like this Braun Oral-B that I have, and a story about how I got to this opinion.

Growing up, I used a manual toothbrush.  I flossed.  But every time I'd go to the dentist there would be problems.  You know:  gum issues, cavities, plaque and calculus buildup.  It was difficult to impress the hygienists or the dentist, no matter how much effort I put in.

Then, when I was living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a decade ago, I went to a dentist office near my then-home that turned out to be a huge scam.  The practice had a new building, fancy equipment, flat screen TVs everywhere, and all the dentists were younger - and obviously heavily in debt as a result!  There was a constant hard sell of extra services that showed "practice management" was being employed to wring out every last dollar of their customers.  I was told that my gums were totally falling apart, and that I needed prescription strength chlorhexidine gluconate rinse, which tasted disgusting, and "deep cleaning" of each tooth (at a cost then of $40 a tooth!).

After researching the problem myself, I learned that probably all I needed to do was buy a decent electric toothbrush.  I bought one the office offered, an expensive Rota-Dent model.  It helped my teeth considerably, although I later wasn't so impressed with the difficulty of finding the model's expensive replacement heads.  Even after I brushed with the new electric toothbrush and my gums showed improvement, the practice still wanted to drain my wallet with every half-baked scheme and rinse they could offer.  So I switched dentists (to a small plain office with one dentist), got a second opinion, and the new dentist schooled me on what they had tried to do.

When I moved to Iowa City in 2007, I found a single-dentist practice near my house and they've never tried to up-sell me on anything.  At the checkout desk, they displayed the Braun Oral-B unit at a reasonable price, so I got one and have been very happy with it ever since.  Cleanings go smoothly.  It thrills me to no end to have the dentist peer into my mouth for a couple of minutes after the hygienist is done and declare "Everything's great!"  It's become the norm.  

Obviously, I planned to use a recording of my electric toothbrush in the soundtrack.  I made several recordings with a Zoom H1 and loaded them into the Samplr app on my iPad Air.  After creating four different projects and coming up with a different "sound" for each, I recorded two minutes of each project direct to the Zoom H1.

The audio created in Samplr was then put into my usual DAW, Sony Acid Pro, with 30 seconds selected from each segment, and I thought I'd embellish it a bit with some old loop library samples.  As you'll hear in the track, I went for beats, breaks, and bass - which I've used in the past but not so much lately.

Each 30 second segment had a plan.  Since I normally go the 2 minute distance with my electric toothbrush in the morning, this piece should be considered mainly a "morning" soundtrack.

The first 30 seconds slowly gets started with upright bass and a simple groove before fading into an obvious break.  In the background is the drone audio created in Samplr.

The second 30 seconds features a different drone with sub bass and a slightly crisper beat.

The third 30 second section doubles up the drones, offsets the sub bass, and changes up the beat with a bit of horn punctuation.

The final 30 seconds brings back the gentler beat and on-beat sub bass with the drone continuing to hover overhead until a fade out at the 2 minute mark.

The same drum break is used at 30, 60, and 90 seconds.  I equate this with my Braun Oral-B using the same pulse rhythm for each similarly spaced notification to change brushing quadrants in my mouth.  After 2 minutes, the Braun Oral-B uses a more elaborate pulsating break, but since the total track time is 2 minutes I figured I would just drop the beat near the end and fade it out.

The photo is an Instagram-filtered closeup of the LCD charge indicator on my brush.

More on this 116th Disquiet Junto project — “Record a score for daily dental hygiene” — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/03/20/disquiet0116-brushx4/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Triumph (disquiet0116-brushx4)

“What is the room tone of the Internet?”

For this Junto, I envisioned being inside a CAT5 wire, with an 8P8C connector on the end, picking up a signal from somewhere to sending it to another place.  It's soundproof, because it's shielded, so there's no additional "real" room noise.  

The presence inside that CAT5 wire has to have a sound, and so here's what I think it is.

The recording is such that it can be listened to at different levels.  My suggestion for optimal listening would be a quiet place with very little actual "room noise".  Nice headphones.  And about 35% to 40% up on the volume.  I'll admit that it's still pretty quiet.  You can turn it up to 100% and hear it a bit better, but I would say that's too loud for what I'm doing here.  You also may feel more comfortable backing you sound down to an almost inaudible level.

To come up with this sound I made some recordings near the fan output of my aging laptop with a Zoom H1.  That was fed into Sound Forge, volume cut back probably 90%, and then a 15 second section copied to a new file.  15 seconds is fed into Paulstretch at 8x, and some tweaking in the Process tab but not much.  Render file.  Back to Sound Forge for length correction and pointless experimentation with fx.

It seems to me like the room tone inside that CAT5 would be a constant stream with minor variation.  A traveling sound.  Maybe kind of like disquiet0089-vger.  Hear mine of that:  http://markrushton.com/my-fickle-friend-the-solar-wind-disquiet0089-vger/

More on this 118th Disquiet Junto project — “What is the room tone of the Internet?” — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/04/03/disquiet0118-internetroomtone/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

8P8C (disquiet0118-internetroomtone)

This week's project is:  “Write music to accompany the typing of a work of fiction.”  Instructions are at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/04/10/disquiet0119-paperbackbeatmaker/

My wife, Ann Rushton, is a fiction writer and also the editor of the literary magazine Bound Off, which has published short fiction read aloud every month since 2006 as a podcast.  Bound Off's web site is http://www.boundoff.com if you're interested in it.  All back issues are freely available.  I've provided the background music for all of the monthly shows, and often act as host.

In addition, Ann is getting her story "Springfield" published on April 23, 2014, in Day One, Amazon's weekly literary magazine.  If you're a Kindle user or have the Kindle app, I would hope that you consider giving Day One a look if you're not already a subscriber.  The first 30 days are free.  Visit  http://amzn.to/1kIiFdg for more info about Amazon Day One.

Understandably, I had to use part of the "Springfield" story for the typing portion of this Junto.  I used a paragraph near the end of the story, where the musician characters are working out an issue with a new song.

The typing was done on a Hermes 3000 typewriter I acquired last year for $50 via Craigslist.  It's in excellent shape.  Although I grew up typing on manual typewriters, it's been a long time since I've used one, and it took a while to get used to pressing so hard on the keys compared to today's computer keyboards. 

Recording was done via a Zoom H1 which sat on my metal desk.  The typing caused extra vibrations to be picked up by the microphone, although they may not necessarily be explicit in the final mix.

For the accompaniment, I used the full version of the iOS app Musyc on my iPad Air to craft sounds.  Several extended length passages were recorded with variations on an initial theme, and then portions arranged along with the recording of the typing in order to play around with and get lost in the rhythmic element.

More on this 119th Disquiet Junto project — “Write music to accompany the typing of a work of fiction” — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/04/10/disquiet0119-paperbackbeatmaker/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Springfield Hermes (disquiet0119-paperbackbeatmaker)

Over the past few months, Joel David Palmer (World Abounding) and I had been trying to get together to meet for the first time and create sounds, but we kept getting delayed by work, life, and facility schedules that didn't cross.  I was finally able to rent a 4 hour block at the Environmental Education Center (EEC) at the rather unglamorously-named "East Side Recycling Center" in Iowa City on Sunday, May 11th - Mother's Day - at the only slot they had available:  7:30am to 11:30am.

The EEC is a very nice space:  high ceilings, glass walls, bamboo floors, and lots of echo.  Jon Harnish and I recorded here in June 2013.  The building is only a couple years old, but is LEED "Platinum" Certified, which means LED lighting, solar panels, "garden" walls and roof, waterless urinals, and so forth.  It definitely wants to be the building of tomorrow.

One thing I noticed in the kitchenette area of the EEC was that they had a typical compressor-based refrigerator with the usual rattle and high-pitched sound when operating.  And while I didn't have a die to roll for this week's Junto choice, I chose to identify the sound of a refrigerator 30 years in the future in the context of daily life.  This choice was solely because of my encounter with the compressor-based fridge sitting in a LEED "Platinum" building of today.

I definitely think refrigerators in 30 years will be mostly, if not totally, silent.  There has been a lot of advancement in "solid state" technology for cooling in the past decade, in particular studying the magnetocaloric effect at Iowa State University, ferroelectric polymers at Penn State, and other advancements in Peltier devices (thermoelectric cooling).

Some of today's high-end refrigerators feature lcd screens with wifi and apps, including audio services like Pandora, and of course there are companies that make "fridge mounts" for various tablets, so sound or music for personal space soundtracks be can accessed already.

But when fridges are silent, will we miss that extra sound?  Some might.  Think about all the people with cell phones with ringtones that could use any sound, but they opt for the old-school ringing bell on landline phones of the past.

That's where we come in.  We'll already have sounds created that are variations on old appliances or spaces.  Maybe not exact replicas, because they can be too harsh or annoying, but our own twist on present day "appliance music".

When Joel and I discussed the possibility of recording something for this week's Junto, we agreed that we'd take an edit from what we recorded and present it in our own individual way.

This 90 second piece offers "refrigerator compressor" replacement, "cooking sound", and other grey or brown noises seemingly blended from HVAC systems and faucets.

I think the future of most homes is towards more silent or quieter machines, but I suspect a niche will be created where nostalgia for boutique "old sounds" that are processed and smoothed into a more pleasing ambient soundtrack has some demand.

Mark Rushton - two iPads, Samplr
Joel David Palmer - Ableton-processed guitar 

More on this 123rd Disquiet Junto project — “Help Gizmodo.com record the soundscape of the home of the future” — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/05/08/disquiet0123-homeofthefuture/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

More on the Gizmodo.com Home of the Future at:  http://homeofthefuture.gizmodo.com/

Imitation of Noise (disquiet0123-homeofthefuture)

This came together very quickly, and it had to because I don't have any time this weekend.  

I downloaded and edited the samples, loaded them into my iPad to Samplr, doubled them up on the interface, and pitch shifted everything around until I got a backing track I liked.  

The voice sample was pitch-shifted down 3 semitones so that "she" became a "he".  The words were manipulated in real time.

It's kind of a "Boards of Canada or The Orb" meets "late-period Scott Walker's weird scratchy backing tracks".  Huzzah!

More on this 124th Disquiet Junto project — “Recombinate work from the netlabels addSensor, As4cords, and Audiotalaia” — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/05/15/disquiet0124-deriveandthrive/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at: http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

The source audio for this track is available for free download from these three netlabel websites:

More on Erissoma’s “The miracle in the human brain” at:  http://www.addsensor.com/addsensor_html.htm

More on Kayaka’s “O” at  https://archive.org/details/Kayaka-Cp

More on D’Incise’s “Graphein” at http://www.audiotalaia.net/catalogue/at071-dincise/

Connections (disquiet0124-deriveandthrive)

I chose the University of Iowa Main Library, but I suspected it would be dead since it's the time between spring and summer semesters.  

It wasn't entirely dead, but it was close.

The Service Desk area straddles two parts of the Main Library.  One part is very "old school", built in 1951 and has a musty decor of the "Fallout Shelter" era.  The other part is a modern remodel with bright and noisy lighting, vivid colors, and LCD TVs everywhere.

After several failed recordings, I went upstairs to the temporarily-located Music Library, and picked out two books:  "Electronic Music and Musique Concrete" by FC Judd, and "How Music Works" by David Byrne.  

I have thumbed through the Byrne book before and the sections I read seemed like a big downer, but I suppose I ought to read it.  In various interviews with Byrne in the past year he seems to be evolving his opinion about subscription streaming services.  I find this to be amusing because Byrne's written a BOOK about these issues and he's still vacillating over whether Spotify is a good thing or not.  Byrne really ought to have a firm opinion about it.  I happen to believe Spotify is a good thing, and I felt that way long before I became a paying subscriber.  (Actually, I pay for three Premium subscriptions in my family - that's $360 a year - and I still buy downloads at Bandcamp and other places).

But enough about what I checked out.

I decided I would try to get a recording by checking out a couple of books.  There were two people staffing the Service Desk, so there was a chance for additional sounds in the recording.  I figured I could easily get a minute's worth of recording, and I did.  The microphone was peeking out of my shirt's pocket in a rather unobtrusive way.  I tried to be quiet and be careful with my breathing as the mic was pointing upwards at my nose.

Since the elevator exit is right around the corner from the Service Desk, I left that sound in.  I thought that was an interesting start.  Surely if you work the Service Desk you have to hear it all the time.

The optional minute of "music suitable for background listening" was created wholly from the source recording using Samplr on my iPad Air.  That went through a variety of takes before I found an arrangement that I liked.

More on this 127th Disquiet Junto project — “Record the sound of your library — and then maybe make something of it” — at:

http://disquiet.com/2014/06/05/disquiet0127-libraryshhh/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

More on Zoè Benoit’s “bibliobeep” art project at:  http://conference.ifla.org/ifla80/librarians-worldwide-call-beeps

Service Desk (disquiet0127-libraryshhh)

“Write a score to accompany a short piece of text you wrote a year ago today”

A year ago I wrote and read the text as host of the 89th Bound Off monthly literary audio magazine, released June 15, 2013.

(And later tonight I'll be recording as host of the 101st edition of Bound Off.)

Bound Off has all episodes available as free downloads.  Visit the web site http://boundoff.com for more details and a list of the authors published.

The music in the background is "Mem", a track I had created in late May of 2013.  It was also used as background music in that podcast.

For this Junto, I kept the original voice recording, but re-tracked the music and made it more up-front.

More on this 128th Disquiet Junto project — “Write a score to accompany a short piece of text you wrote a year ago today” — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/06/12/disquiet0128-ayearago/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at: http://disquiet.com/forums

This Podcast May Include Adult Content (disquiet0128-ayearago)

This is a reworking of a sound recorded for my contribution to the 127th Junto (libraryshhh).  

The sound is the electronic "beep" heard when checking out a book at the service desk of the University of Iowa Main Library.

It was altered via the Samplr app on my iPad Air, recorded to a Zoom H1, then arranged and rendered on my desktop computer.

Since it's from a processed field recording there is a little bit of background sound.

More on this 133rd Disquiet Junto project — “Compose an especially short and concise composition” — at:

http://disquiet.com/2014/07/17/disquiet0133-sixnotesong/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:

http://disquiet.com/forums

Library Shhh (disquiet0133-sixnotesong)

It's difficult to get excited about our Iowa summer in 2014, or lack of it.  Coming off a record cold winter, outdoor public swimming pools opened later than expected due to prolonged frigid weather.  During July we had four days where the high never got out of the 60s.  One day was the "record-low high" since weather records started being kept in the 1880s.  Only one day have we gotten to 90, and that was brief.  Most of the time it's been pleasant and in the 70s, but that's way below average.  Fine with me.  Lower cooling bill.  And I get to work in the yard more.  Don't those day lilies in the picture look nice?

You can tell I'm from the Midwestern US.  We talk about the weather constantly.

My wife and I got a new furnace over winter.  A 60,000 btu Amana that's 96.1% efficient.  We didn't have to replace the central air unit, which is made by Ducane since it's working fine and is only 12 years old.  We used to have a Ducane furnace, but it was full of lousy, obsolete technology, despite also being only 12 years old.  And the old Ducane furnace was 100,000 btu in size, which puzzled the HVAC guys who came to diagnose the troubled unit.  The main guy asked me, "Why is a 100,000 btu furnace in a 2000 sq ft house?"  I didn't know why, but parts of the house sure did get hot when it was on.  "Because the previous owner was an idiot?"  We laughed.  I got schooled.  Turns out a 100,000 btu furnace is the perfect size for a 5000 to 6000 sq ft McMansion.  The previous owner was clearly cheap and hired some fly-by-night outfit who probably bought remainders off the back of a truck in some big city.  Kids, don't be stupid.  My advice?  Hire a local professional with decades of experience like I did.

Following the installation of the Amana, the HVAC guy suggested that I leave the fan on all the time and let the heat or AC kick on as-needed thanks to a new programmable thermostat.  I was reluctant about this, mostly because my office/studio is in the finished lower level of the house, but near the furnace and laundry room, and the old Ducane furnace roared.  I'm kind of sensitive to sound.  Aren't we all?

Over time, I have become more accepting of the HVAC guy's suggestion.  The new Amana was much quieter when operating with a continuous fan, and we had better air distribution, so I've left the fan on most of the time.  As it's gotten warmer over the summer, the cool air from the lower level helps even out the warmer air upstairs and on a lot of days the AC rarely kicks on.

But when the AC kicks on, it's a slight rush of sound and slightly different from the constant drone of the continuous fan.  If you walk around the house, you'll hear different variations of sounds depending on which air register you walk by.

This piece I made was actually started over a week ago.  I've been trying to craft some shorter tracks lately.  After a slight bit of tweaking of my files on Samplr, I recorded a long passage specifically for this Junto and edited out one minute that I liked.  It's reminiscent of the sounds I hear when I walk around the house with the AC on.

More on this 135th Disquiet Junto project — “Record the sonic equivalent of air conditioning” — at: http://disquiet.com/2014/07/31/disquiet0135-soundofsummer/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/junto

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:  http://disquiet.com/forums

Amana (disquiet0135-soundofsummer)

Lines of Light (disquiet0136-thricederivative) was created using Samplr and my iPad Air.

Spent a lot of time refining this.

I also have a 13 minute version, from which this edit was obtained.  

It's so lulling.

Wear good headphones.

More on this 136th Disquiet Junto project — “Recombinate work from the netlabels Nowaki, Phantom Channel, and Rec72″ — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/08/07/disquiet0136-thricederivative/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/junto

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:  http://disquiet.com/forums

This track is made from elements extracted from the track “Nunquam Revolvo” from Jared C. Balogh’s album I Am The Ship // I Am The Shaman, available from the Nowaki netlabel; “And The Rain Embraced Our Closing Words” by from Chris Tenz and Cory Zaradzur’s album Language of Landscape, available from the Phantom Channel netlabel; and “HD Eve” from the Small Radio album Migre 3, available from the Rec72 netlabel.

More on those releases at:

http://www.nowaki-music.org/#album197

https://archive.org/details/LanguageOfLandscape-memoriesFadeUnderAShallowAutumnSnowphch014

http://rec72.net/?p=3555

Lines of Light (disquiet0136-thricederivative)

My contribution was created using the iTablaPro iOS app, some multi-tracking of recordings, and additional processing in Sound Forge.

For the main recording, I used an Ahir-Bhairav preset with a C#3 pitch, a couple of tanpuras that were tweaked, and a touch of Sur-Peti.  In another recording, I added a Tabla at 50 bpm with a Tilwada Taal.

Some recordings were then further processed using Sound Forge's Pitch Bend, then all were multi-tracked in Acid and mixed.

I thought about using Samplr, which I use quite a bit these days, but I haven't used iTablaPro in a while and felt I could achieve something more appropriate for the video using heavily processed Indian drone music.

More on this 138th Disquiet Junto project — “Compose a 2.5-minute soundtrack to complement a work of silent video art″ — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/08/21/disquiet0138-videosonicvoid/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/junto

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:  http://disquiet.com/forums/

The image associated with this track is a still from the video that inspired it: “Untitled #8, 2004″ by Josh Azzarella. 

138 VSV (disquiet0138-videosonicvoid)

Think about a specific technique that you are proud of having developed, perfected, or in some way folded into your work.

Listen to the beginning 80 seconds of my track "Pajarito" which I released in 2008.  It was originally created in late 2006.

What technique am I talking about?  There's three things here in Pajarito that make it different from my earlier work and it's an artistic pivot point for me.  

First:  If you listen to that low arpeggio - it's not perfect.  It goes out of time.  That's the way I arranged it.  I wanted it to be imperfect.  Rhythmically, it's much more interesting to me.  It's repetitive yet shifting because of the imperfection of going out of time.

Second:  I've always enjoyed pitch-shifting loops down.  Something about the lower frequencies connects with me.  I got my hearing tested last year, you know, just to check, and the hearing's fine, but in my right ear I can't hear higher frequencies.  It "drops off" as they say.  And now I see why I pitch shift down audio and loops in my work.  Every loop that's multi-tracked on Pajarito is pitch-shifted down an octave, a couple octaves, and even 4 octaves from the original sound.

Third:  I incorporated a field recording in the background.  If you're familiar with my work and the track "Machine Symphony" then there you go, that's the sound.  And that is a recording of a faulty air exhaust fan in a bathroom at work about a decade ago, recorded on Minidisc (!), and I pitch shifted it down 4 octaves and it's still got some high end on it.  I've used that so many times since then.

So there you.  The technique is a blending of 1. Allowing sound to go "out of time", 2. pitch-shifting lower, and 3. incorporation of field recordings.

More on this 139th Disquiet Junto project — “Create and upload a track that exemplifies one key creative process you’ve developed″ — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/08/28/disquiet0139-techtechnique/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/junto

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:  http://disquiet.com/forums/

The image associated with this track is by Wesley Fryer and was used thanks to a Creative Commons license. Originally posted here:  https://flic.kr/p/2xz92x

Pajarito (disquiet0139-techtechnique)

"Choose a recent piece of music that you both composed and performed.  Then perform a “cover” of the piece of music from but use none of the same equipment that was used to create the original."

Original:  SoundPrism Pro, Ableton Live, iPad

Cover:  Ukulele, PaulStretch, Sound Forge, Acid, Desktop computer

At 54 seconds long, "Remote" is one of my shortest published pieces.  The original is at Spotify:  http://open.spotify.com/track/54tXCGf23oo674npvbdJkg - Bandcamp:  https://markrushton.bandcamp.com/track/remote - or Rdio:  http://www.rdio.com/artist/Mark_Rushton/album/Vacation_Sketches%2C_Volume_2/track/Remote/

It's a rather simple tune:  just a back and forth sequence a few times that spends the final half blending sounds before fading out.  It was edited out of a long improv recording session.

The cover version of "Remote" was initially created with a ukulele.  I made some recordings and then processed them all with PaulStretch to varying degrees, then edited, arranged, and mixed along with the original ukulele recordings.

After the mix was rendered, I wasn't happy.  I knew I wasn't going to have anything close to an exact copy, but I wanted something interesting to me that would stand on it's own with elements that mimicked the original.  It's tough because the original was improvisational and free flowing, whereas this cover involved more "work" and thought and post-production process.  So I knocked the recording down a half octave, mixed in some additional layers, and got to a final version that I was pleased with.  

I figure that "covers" aren't always an exact duplicate.  Some artists really radically change a tune.  I figured I'd be in that camp. 

More on this 140th Disquiet Junto project — “Take a recent track of your own and ‘cover’ it with different equipment″ — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/09/04/disquiet0140-soloswap/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/junto

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:  http://disquiet.com/forums/

The image associated with this track is by Antinephalist and was used thanks to a Creative Commons license. Originally posted here:  https://flic.kr/p/bNpTrT

Remote (disquiet0140-soloswap)

The easiest way for me to create the source files for this Junto was to use Google Voice and also my work's voicemail system.

A friend and I are very active users of Google Voice, particularly it's voicemail service.  We prefer to have asynchronous conversations.  We've been doing this a long time with other systems.

An example:  more than a decade ago, he called my voicemail at work, late at night, and did a relatively "straight" reading of the lyrics to Michael Jackson's "Beat It", along with some additional credits for the song, and then he wondered how long the voicemail would last.  It was a kind of performance art which I continue to appreciate as the reading has gone through numerous mixes and musical additions over the years.  (It's not something that I've released.)

Back then I had to hold a microphone up to the telephone receiver to capture the recording.  Today, my work voicemails automatically transfer to my work email as WAV files, and I have another filter that forwards these WAV files to my personal email.  And that's how I made one of the recordings for this Junto:  just a straight silent call from home to the work voicemail.

The other two recordings were chosen from Google Voice voicemails left by my friend, whose voice is prominent in the first Junto piece I made, Bruises (disquiet0001-ice).  For the recordings used in this Junto, I edited out his talking and most background sounds.  

Because his sounds originated from a cell phone you get digital packet "drop off", which is like a low-cut filter, and which is very obvious in the recording.  Whereas my landline-sourced call's recording has that "sidetone" sound that I appreciate so much.  That's why I hate having a 2-way conversation on cellphones or smartphones - that lack of "sidetone" is annoying.  That's why I prefer asynchronous conversations (using voicemail) when using a mobile phone.

The title comes from a recent Google Voice text translation.  All of the time, Google Voice's text translation feature is a complete disaster, but often there's a lot of comedy gold.

More on this 142nd Disquiet Junto project — “Make music from the near silence of phone calls″ — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/09/18/disquiet0142-callcenter/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: http://disquiet.com/junto

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:  http://disquiet.com/forums/

Photo associated with this project by Georgie Sharp and used thanks to a Creative Commons license:  https://flic.kr/p/eyJd7

This Is Partly Inspired By The Prosecutors (disquiet0142-callcenter)

I couldn't do this at my house for a number of reasons - the biggest being that the number of active katydid in our neighborhood have decreased in the past couple of weeks and I really wanted to do this with katydids in the mix.

So not long after I got the email for the Junto, about 8:30pm, I got in the car (cars have windows), and I ended up a mile and a half east of my house on a road near the high school called Glendale.  Driving around at night, most people would probably describe it as a "nice, quiet neighborhood" due to the complete lack of traffic, pedestrians, and street lights.  It was perfect.

Rolling down the front windows of my car, I plugged my headphones into an audio recorder and placed it on the dashboard.  Between me and the steering wheel was my iPad Air running Samplr, using the Air's speaker.  Some variations were recorded.  I used the final one for this.  I did a little tweaking of the volume in post-production, but other than fades on the ends that's it.  Everything was recorded live to one audio recorder.

The katydids and crickets mixed with the drones are so hypnotic here.  I'm very happy with it.

More on this 143rd Disquiet Junto project — “Play a live duet with the world outside your window″ — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/09/25/disquiet0143-tuningthehood/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/junto

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:  http://disquiet.com/forums/

Photo associated with this project by Takashi M and used thanks to a Creative Commons license:  https://flic.kr/p/fgQjCP

Glendale (disquiet0143-tuningthehood)

The original piece was an early sketch called 140621-space2:  https://soundcloud.com/markrushtoncom/140621-space2 - it was only saved as a project file and was never rendered into a recording.

140621-space2 later morphed into the completed track "Sightseeing in Space":  https://markrushton.bandcamp.com/track/sightseeing-in-space

For the purposes of this Junto, I recorded out 140621-space2 as a reference point.  It's definitely unfinished to my ears.

I saved off a copy of the project so I could make "A Small Box of Chocolate Bunnies".  Out of the five samples in the project file, two were completely quieted.  I might have made a slight volume adjustment in one of the remaining live samples, but not much.  After recording, I made some adjustments in overall volume and faded the ends.

With the headphones on, this does sound rather like something that might be in the background of a Lynch movie.  It's quite textural and dark.

More on this 144th Disquiet Junto project — “Remove parts from an unfinished composition to create a finished composition″ — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/10/02/disquiet0144-eraserhead/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/junto

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:  http://disquiet.com/forums/