Something rather different from my usual.

From tragic inspiration, this piece sort of wrote itself.

RIP Oceana xxx

Oceanic [Was: Untitled 31]

Here are a couple of my sketches from today in Puredata (pd-vanilla) - the very beginnings of a drum sequencer and an additive synth I'm making. Ambient fractal explorations.

This is just test material as I'm building the sound generators and control systems, but it often comes out pretty interesting and hypnotic to listen to.

I've not really made music like this before... it has been really interesting to throw myself in with Pd, start messing around making recordings ASAP and just see what comes out.

Anyone else out there using Pd? I found out about Purr-data today and installed it, but for now I really like the charm of pd-vanilla so I will probably stick with that a while yet.

I can't believe Pd has existed so long and it took until lockdown for me to get into it properly. Oh well, I'm really enjoying it. I hope you like these ambient works. Thanks for listening, and please let me know what you make of them? (There are more!)

Puredata Experiments

Off Kilter

Another Puredata synthesizer design test loop - additive synthesis sounding like liquid glass bells.

Liquid Bells

A vaguely-prepared live set played for a tiny handful of friends, made using only the Korg Kaossilator app on my phone. I've only been messing with it a week or so, and wanted to see if it's possible to play a gig on it - turns out you absolutely can! I had a friendly nano audience so went for it... still learning how it works, obviously, but it was loads of fun! :-)

Downloads:
http://files.muteqx.com/20200711_muteqx_micro-rave_liveset_320.mp3
http://files.muteqx.com/20200711_muteqx_micro-rave_liveset.flac

Outlet

Micro-rave Kaossilator-app Liveset (11/07/2020)

An unfinished and barely "mastered" dark ambient track that has been sat on my phone for too long. I like this version so I'm putting it up. Comments welcomed!

2019 WIP

Still Can [WIP]

I've been hooking up a modular synthesizer patch in Bitwig Studio's "Grid" which has a musical conversation with itself based on probabilities, shifting fixed scales, pattern repetition and variation over time. Currently it generates beatless, melodic, ambient electronica - reflective and meditative music for these most short, dark days of winter.

An 8.5 minute test recording I made of it this morning came out really well and does some beautiful things. It wasn't supposed to be a finished piece of music yet but maybe it just is!? 🙂

I'm going to build some more of these kind of patches - they're lots of fun to make!

Based on the idea of "Gridniks" from Polarity.
"Gridniks are Grid Patches/Presets playing by themselves."
https://bitwig.community/gridniks/

"The Shortest Days" (algorithmic electronica, Bitwig Gridnik)

This is a Bitwig Grid patch I've been working on which produces melodic sequences and accompanying independent chordal parts from random numbers fed through a pitch-quantizer and some attempts to tweak the whole system to sound melodic and musical while also still retaining randomness.

The notes chosen are based on probability of the parts following the direction changes of the leading voice (the high pitched "plinks") or just carrying on with what they were already playing. Each of the parts plays a note which is harmonically related to the leading (plinky) part, so the chances of sounding consonant are considerably improved! The synth lead part takes its notes from a buffer containing recently chosen notes.

Each of the six voices is sent to a separate output using the Modulators, which is a bit of a workaround but it does mean that a generative patch can be recorded to individual tracks and then overdubbed to make a fuller track.

The whole system never plays the same thing twice - Bitwig really is a musical instrument that can have a mind of it's own, and hitting record to capture a performance is like capturing a band playing a fresh improvisation!

This is the first mix and the drums aren't done yet, but I already like the direction it goes in. The full track will be mixed soon!

There's also a video of the Grid patch playing itself, here:
https://youtu.be/o14DMYoLYk0

Plus Bitwig preset file for the super-keen:
https://bitwiggers.com/presets/ac515dd7-facf-4d1f-81c2-84b9fb9c6b7b/

Diverteqx (Bitwig Grid algorithmic music, WIP v1)

Bandcamp: https://muteqx.bandcamp.com

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Muteqx is the current incarnation of UK-based multi-instrumentalist and producer Dave Silvester.

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