More on this 101st Disquiet Junto project (Make a phase composition based on the sounds of three switches) at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/12/05/disquiet0101-analogbinary/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Associated image found via:

http://goo.gl/vn82Dv

Disquiet Junto Project 0101: Analog Binary

Disquiet Junto Set 2013 (Mark Rushton)

Decided to keep this weeks Junto simple, so I recorded three instances of switching on / off 
First sound to be heard is my ceiling fan
2nd. is my electric kettle 
3rd. is the on off switch on my electric piano 
Duplicated each sound onto two different tracks panned each hard L & R timestreched one side of each "stereo" image slightly to create a phase shift kinda beat...then I thought of Mandela and wanted to create an uprising towards the end, so I duplicated everything a couple of times and displaced the new tracks a little more with long fades....to let the whole thing end with just two beats - it all falls back to the beginning... coming and going on your own.


Disquiet Junto Project 0101: Analog Binary

Record the audio of three objects in your home or workplace that have on/off switches. Capture the unique sound of them being turned on and off. For each of the switches, record several seconds of this on/off action so you can create loops of a steady pace. Then create an original piece of music that employs phase shifts — that is, in which the tiny distinctions between loops create noticeable patterning as time progresses. You can use some light processing, but the sense of "switch-ness" of the source audio should never be lost.

Deadline: Monday, December 9, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: Your track’s length should be between two and five minutes.

Information: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto.

Title/Tag: Include the term “disquiet0101-analogbinary” in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.

Download: Please consider employing a license that allows for attributed, commerce-free remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).

Linking: When posting the track, be sure to include this information:

More on this 101st Disquiet Junto project (Make a phase composition based on the sounds of three switches) at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/12/05/disquiet0101-analogbinary/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Associated image found via:

http://goo.gl/vn82Dv

“disquiet0101-analogbinary” Mandela

Disquiet Junto Project 0101: Analog Binary.

I recorded 3 switches (Light/Coffee Machine/HiFi) then I sampled them and I applied some reverbs, delays, resonators, while playing with the samples. It was quite fun ...

More on this 101st Disquiet Junto project (Make a phase composition based on the sounds of three switches) at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/12/05/disquiet0101-analogbinary/
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

LINEAR BELLS - Disquiet0101-Analogbinary - HiFi Furry

The three sounds are ones I had recorded a few years ago at a bakery I was making bread at. One is a Vitamix blender, the other is a 30qt mixer, and the last one I can't remember. 
I only added a little effect to the vitamix: Bode Frequency Shift. 
The others I left raw. In the spirit of this assignment, I used fade in fade out, through out the piece.

More at: http://subversiveintentions.wordpress.com

More on this 101st Disquiet Junto project (Make a phase composition based on the sounds of three switches) at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/12/05/disquiet0101-analogbinary/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Associated image found via:

http://goo.gl/vn82Dv

Life/Death Machine (disquiet0101-analogbinary)

I left work early as I have a ton of personal time to take before the end of the year and then I recorded my light switches with a Zoom H2 recorder. After importing the recordings I built a small dub send/return network to apply lightly. The deep droning sounds are created through micro loops one of the more interesting switches in my new apartment is the one that controls the garbage disposal after introducing the garbage disposal loop I began micro looping it to create a granular sounding pad and then towards the end layered several of them all in different spans of time off the original loop.

Hope you enjoy.

disquiet0101-analogbinary

The project:  Make a phase composition based on the sounds of three switches.

Record the audio of three objects in your home or workplace that have on/off switches. Capture the unique sound of them being turned on and off. For each of the switches, record several seconds of this on/off action so you can create loops of a steady pace. Then create an original piece of music that employs phase shifts — that is, in which the tiny distinctions between loops create noticeable patterning as time progresses. You can use some light processing, but the sense of "switch-ness" of the source audio should never be lost.

With this project I'm using Samplr on an iPad Air.  I recorded three different switch samples, all from pull chains.   One was from a troublesome fluorescent light fixture in the deepest storage area of our lower level - that got the most texture.   The second was from a single bulb switch near the laundry.  The third involved two switches for a ceiling fan and it's light, and these were pulled at a faster but uneven tempo.  I used a Zoom H1 mounted on a mic stand on a chair, and recorded each switch for about 20 to 30 seconds.

In the Samplr project I doubled each loop and ensured that loop's twin was not reading the same areas - also, one loop had a slight bit of reverb and the other didn't.

Composition was recorded live, direct to Zoom H1.  It took me a number of attempts to create something I liked.  Ultimately, I started simple, added samples in the middle added a light touch of reverb, and in final third I withdrew different loops until ending abruptly.  There's a bit of hum in the background - I can't tell if that's from the fluorescent sample or a bad cord from the iPad to the H1, possibly both.

After 80 seconds, it gets wildly rhythmic, but a couple of loops keep a more steady pace and seem to punctuate the denser rhythms with a bold presence.  The piece begins to withdraw after 2 minute and 30 seconds.

I can't believe nobody had used "Switched-on" as a title by the time I made my piece.  It was too irresistible.  An alternate title I considered using was "Bad Chain Puller" (after Captain Beefheart), which is probably funnier.

More on this 101st Disquiet Junto project (Make a phase composition based on the sounds of three switches) at:  http://disquiet.com/2013/12/05/disquiet0101-analogbinary/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Switched-On and Off (disquiet101-analogbinary)

Recorded three sounds as directed: A microwave, a kitchen sink (not strictly a "switch" but it does go on and off), and a small battery-powered hand drill.

In Ableton Live, loaded the sounds and made a few permutations of each, both in length and pitch.  They are brought into and out of the piece throughout. 
-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Disquiet Junto Project 0101: Analog Binary

Record the audio of three objects in your home or workplace that have on/off switches. Capture the unique sound of them being turned on and off. For each of the switches, record several seconds of this on/off action so you can create loops of a steady pace. Then create an original piece of music that employs phase shifts — that is, in which the tiny distinctions between loops create noticeable patterning as time progresses. You can use some light processing, but the sense of "switch-ness" of the source audio should never be lost.

Deadline: Monday, December 9, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: Your track’s length should be between two and five minutes.

More on this 101st Disquiet Junto project (Make a phase composition based on the sounds of three switches) at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/12/05/disquiet0101-analogbinary/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

For Whom The Boole Tolls [disquiet0101-analogbinary]

This week’s project is as follows:

Please record the sound of an ice cube rattling in a glass, and make something of it.

Background: Longtime participants in, and observers of, the Disquiet Junto series will recognize this single sentence as the very first Disquiet Junto project, the same one that launched the series on the first Thursday of 2012. Revisiting it a year later provides a fitting way to begin the new year.

Description of my process in planning, composing, and recording Addition/Reduction (disquiet0053-ice2013):

I wanted to make this very fast.  I didn't have much time to devote to the Junto this weekend, what with all the sports on TV, obligations, chores, etc.

Not including uploading and writing the description, I completed everything in about 30 minutes.

I knew I was going to use the Samplr app for iPad for the composition, so I could record one WAV file, about 20 seconds in length.  This file was added to Samplr and multiplied across the six available sections for a project.  Then I played around with the various settings until I had 6 different interesting sounds.

The recording was a simple addition/reduction of the mix.  I added the six sections together over the course of the first minute, then slowly reduced the individual sections.

It took a little longer than expected because Samplr crashed once after some graphics started overlapping, something that hasn't happened before, but I saved the project before it fully crashed and nothing was lost.

The first half of the piece is intensely rhythmic.  The last half morphs into a shuffling, kind-of-ska beat.

More on this 53rd Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/01/03/disquiet0053-ice2013/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Addition/Reduction (disquiet0053-ice2013)

This week's project involves a shared set of source material. The source audio is the free solo piano album 'Screws' by Nils Frahm. 
 
Frahm, who's based in Germany, posted the nine-track album of short solo works for free download while he was recuperating from busting one of his thumbs.  He subsequently created a site to house all the remixed/reworked versions that admirers sent to him, as well as the videos and other responses that he received. 

This remix almost didn't happen.  I made a number of attempts, but was unhappy with the results.

Initially, I chopped out some sections of the tracks "Do" and "Re" and put them in the Samplr program on my iPad.  Later, I recorded off some of the altered (and not-so-altered) unmixed sounds within Samplr into my Zoom H1, and then transferred those files to my DAW for mixing.

After some false starts, I watched the movie The Descendants, which I hadn't seen before.  It was a really sad movie.  I like sad movies.  I figure it was the saddest movie I've seen since The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, except the Diving Bell movie was much artier.  

So I thought I'd try to come up with something based on the idea of a Sad European Movie Soundtrack.  I wanted the recording to be real stark.  Minimal piano.  Like you're watching a lonely old French or Italian black and white movie where the soundtrack was transferred from an old worn out print.

It was fairly straightforward to create once I got the idea down.  And I got lucky with a brief dissonant section about 2/3s of the way through.

More on this 55th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/01/17/disquiet0055-twoscrews/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

More on the Frahm project at:
http://reworked.nilsfrahm.com/

Sad European Movie Soundtrack (disquiet0055-twoscrews)

This week's project requires you to make a field recording to serve as the source audio. These are the steps:

Step 1: Locate a clock that has an audible, even if very quiet, tick to its second hand. A watch or other timepiece is also appropriate to the task. 

Step 2: Record the sound of the clock for at least 30 seconds, and do so in a manner captures the sound in the greatest detail. A contact mic is highly recommended.

Step 3: Adjust and otherwise filter the recording to reveal the various noises that make up its tick. The goal is to get at the nuance of its internal mechanism.

Step 4: Create an original piece of music employing only layered loops of that sound. These layered loops can individually be transformed in any manner you choose, but at least one unaltered version of the original recording should be included in your piece. 

*

For this project, I had to rely on a recording by J. Siemasko (@Schemawound) since we don't have any mechanical clocks.

I edited out a 20 second piece of the recording, loaded it into the Samplr app on my iPad, and eventually crafted the arrangement you're hearing from 6 versions of the same loop.

What I ended up with was kind of like another "fake field recording".  This piece sounds like I stuck a microphone in the middle of a clock shop, but it's also picking up the sound of a motor or fan in the distance, and that recurring low whirring.  

I think the low whirring is essential in breaking up the strict tempos of "other clocks" and causing the listener to refocus every few seconds on the variety of rhythms produced, as each segment is completely different.

For years I've worked on many pieces that are largely defining that line between an ostinato and the point in which it becomes generative with the addition of layers, edits, processing, or delays.  A good early example of this from my work was the track "Flow", which I created in 2007 and released in 2008:  http://markrushton.bandcamp.com/track/flow

And in a way, Clockticktickclock is reminiscent of other Junto projects I've done, like Central Discount (disquiet0037-asrealasitgets) https://soundcloud.com/markrushtoncom/central-discount-120915 and In Our Dream Department Store (disquiet0038-asrealasitgets2) https://soundcloud.com/markrushtoncom/in-our-dream-department-store - although the technology used to create those pieces and this piece were entirely different.  I like how certain ideas can transcend technology.

More on this 56th Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/01/24/disquiet0056-matteroftime/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Clockticktickclock (disquiet0056-matteroftime)

Hi, this is Mark Rushton of Markrushton.com.  Since 2000 I’ve been making music, sound art, field recordings, and, since 2004, albums and podcasts of my work.

I create these sounds largely to get me through my work day.  I’ve worked as a software tester for almost 20 years, and so I need to have the ability to eliminate distractions, get into the flow, and focus on my work.  And this music does it.

Most of it is relatively unobtrusive – for lack of a better term – “ambient” music.  It works for me.  Maybe it’ll work for you.

Music in the background includes:

"Beneficial" - the title track from http://markrushton.bandcamp.com/album/beneficial

"Office Ghosts" - the second track from http://markrushton.bandcamp.com/album/hide-yourself-in-plain-sight

"You've Got Less Time Than You Think" - the final track on http://markrushton.bandcamp.com/album/vacation-sketches

If you want to check out more of my music, follow those links to Bandcamp.  Most of my albums at Bandcamp start at $1.  Or you can subscribe to my free podcast at http://www.markrushton.com

More on this 60th Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/02/21/disquiet0060-audiobio

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

More details on the SoundCloud "audiobiography" project at:

http://blog.soundcloud.com/2013/02/06/audiobiography/

Audiobiography: Mark Rushton (disquiet0060-audiobio)

This was recorded on Saturday, March 23rd in the late morning.  I went for a run and took along my Zoom H2 in case there might be any interesting sounds for this junto.  It was colder out than what I like to run in, upper 30's, but sunny with only a light breeze.  It was a good run and I did about 3 miles.  Not bad for not having run all winter.  I hate running when the temps are below mid 30's and won't run on snow or ice.  There's always my indoor recumbent cycle and weights instead, or a trip to the natatorium for a swim.

I've been in a creative funk lately.  No desire to do anything new, edit anything old, or even mess around.  I hate that, but I go through those kinds of times.  It's nice to have the junto emails to at least consider, and this week I figured I'd try to break out by working on this one.

There were a number of 1-minute recordings made, but I picked this one.  I must admit that I couldn't take notes at the time when it was recorded live, so I listened once when I got back and scribbled on an index card.  In the mean time I had lunch, a shower, watched some college basketball and then attempted to make sounds based on what I wrote down.

Rochester Ridge is a new set of homes built just to the north of my 70's-era neighborhood.  They're big and quite expensive, about double the average price for a typical single family home, and most of the lots are the size of a postage stamp.  They're selling like mad, though, and perhaps 20 of the 53 planned homes have been put up in the past 16 months and most are sold.

Two homes recently got roofs put on, and I was lucky to capture the tail end of some nail gun action on one of them.

Additionally, there are sounds of birds, a plane overhead, a car passing by, and other sounds typical of a neighborhood.

I composed my non-field recording piece using Samplr on the iPad.  These were based on recordings I created using Ableton Live.

*****

Disquiet Junto Project 0064: Composing from Memory


This week’s project's theme is composing from memory. It is recommended that you read through all the steps in the project before proceeding to attempt to execute it.


These are the steps:


Step 1: Find a place, preferably outdoors, where you can sit for five to fifteen minutes without being disturbed. This place should have a fair amount of inherent noise to it, and that noise should be variable, not static — i.e., not the long held drone of an overwhelmingly loud HVAC system, but the bustle of a street corner, or of a playground, or, if weather or other circumstances keep you indoors, perhaps of a busy cafe.


Step 2: Bring with you a portable recording device as well as something on which you can quietly take a small number of written (or typed) notes. You may wish to do a test recording to be certain that your note-taking isn't part of the audio recording.


Step 3: Settle into the space and get a sense of its sounds. Listening closely.


Step 4: Make a field recording of one full minute, or a little longer, of continuous sound in this place. While recording the sound, use time codes to make note of any memorable sonic instances.


Step 5: Trim the field recording to exactly 60 seconds.


Step 6: Without listening back to the field recording, compose and record a 60-second piece intended to complement it. Refer back to your time-code notes to align composed instances with those real-world instances that you recall having distinguished your field recording. You can use whatever instrumentation you like, but it is recommended that you use no more than one or two instruments. You should not employ any field recordings in your composed piece.


Step 7: When your composed piece is completed, layer the two tracks together into one new 60-second work. They should be played back at equal volume, more or less. You can adjust a little to achieve the impression of balance between the field recording and the composed work. The only editing you can do is to fade in and out, if that is so desired.


Deadline: Monday, March 25, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.


Length: Your finished work should be 60 seconds long.

More on this 64th Disquiet Junto project at: http://disquiet.com/2013/03/21/disquiet0064-halflive 

More details on the Disquiet Junto at: http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto