Tracks I made in 2014. Most are standalone, several are performance recordings. One track is from a CD release (~60 Hz, on Irritable Hedgehog), and one track is from a netlabel release (Absence sleeps between the buildings at night, Stasisfield), Three tracks are submissions to Disquiet projects, and two are submissions to 60x60 projects.

2014

A short sonification based on a photograph by <a href="http://sidsmith.blogspot.co.uk/">Sid Smith</a> as part of Sid's String Quartet project, where he offers photos to be used as graphical scores. Go <a href="http://sidsmith.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/string-quartet-online-collaboration.html">here</a> for details.

I chose a very literal approach that also afforded me the opportunity to play with the very interesting <a href="http://warmplace.ru/soft/ans/">Virtual ANS</a> software. It is possible to treat an image as a sonogram and then translate it to audio. The vertical axis is used for pitch and the horizontal axis represents time, according to the settings one uses. Every detail in the image is represented in some way in the rendered sound. I did some post-processing in Audacity to add some reverb and adjust the amplitude.

The photograph is copyright Sid Smith, all rights reserved.

String Quartet XIV #4 (for Sid Smith)

My first Disquiet Junto submission for 2014 (and my first one in far too long). This project has us take a visualization of the weather in one's local area, and use it as a graphical score.

My process:
- Use the Awesome Screenshot extension in Google Chrome to clip the image from the WeatherSpark site.
- Open the image in GIMP. Transform it by inverting the colors and posterizing.
- Imported the image to Virtual ANS, a program that can convert image into sound. Tweaked the ANS parameters until I was satisfied with the result, and exported it as a WAV file.
- Imported the sound into Audacity. Added a little silence to the end, applied some EQ to boost the bass, applied a simulated plate reverb, adjusted the amplitude, and exported as an MP3.

Additional notes:
- I decided to prepare the image before submitting it to Virtual ANS because it would allow the graphical elements to emerge more starkly.
- There is an artifact at the end the track resulting from the ANS process; I decided to keep it as it seems to work as a coda.
- The weather data came from the Silver Ranch Airpark in Jaffrey, NH, US, which is one of the weather stations closest to Peterborough, NH (where I live).
- The Flickr set shows the original captured image and the altered image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seidel/sets/72157639652552553/
---

More on this 106th Disquiet Junto project (“Treat the weather as a graphically notated score”) at:

http://disquiet.com/2014/01/09/disquiet0106-sonarvortex/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

0110 [disquiet0106-sonarvortex]

Experimenting with the Shnth in a Hexany 1-3-5-7 scale:

  1/1 25/24 7/6 5/4 35/24 3/2 5/3 7/4

There is no octave as the Shnth has only eight keys/buttons. The opportunity to use tunings like this is one of the main reasons I got the Shnth, where all pitches are specified as integer ratios.

Shth (stereo) into two Digitech Grunge pedals, combined in a Repeater matrix mixer, then though a Moogerfooger ClusterFlux (back into stereo), then a Deluxe Memory Man. Ehdalh Moisturizer in the FX bus. Photo here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seidel/11939149493/

Recorded in real time. No more than two pitches played at any one time, though with plenty of overlap due to a long decay time plus two layers of flanger resonance (and some reverb).

Image from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Octahedron.svg (Creative Commons).

Hexany Dyads

Recorded in performance at 119 Gallery (Lowell, MA) on January 25, 2014.

I played a <a href="http://shbobo.net">Shnth</a> with processing and looping. The piece is in three sections. To make this version, I edited out the first couple of minutes of playing and added a fade-in at the beginning and a slight fade-out at the ending, but there was no other post-production other than conversion from 96K/32-bit WAV to 48K 320kpbs MP3.

The first section uses an 8-note <a href="http://www.billalves.com/porgitaro/serenadetuning.html">scale devised by Lou Harrison</a>, and the tones and chords were actuated by my breath as I blew into the Shnth's built-in mic. The second section moves back and forth between two 6-note <a href="http://anaphoria.com/wilsonintroMERU.html">metaslendro</a> scales played on the buttons of the Shnth. The third section returns to the Harrison scale, also played using the buttons.

The two channels of the Shnth's stereo output went through two Grunge distortion pedals (used only in the third section), and were then combined into a single channel. This mono channel was split up and routed through a Moogerfooger Ring Modulator and a FreqBox in parallel, and then recombined along with the original signal and sent to a Moogerfooger Clusterflux, the stereo output of which went to a Deluxe Memory Man with Hazarai and finally a Boomerang III looper, both in stereo. I used an Ekdahl Moisturizer reverb unit on the mixer's FX bus. The recording was made directly off the mixer. All the nutty routing was facilitated by a Repeater Electronics 4x4 passive matrix mixer -- a very helpful device.

The Boomerang III loops throughout in pseudo-Frippertronics fashion. In the second section, the Deluxe Memory Man is temporarily switched into a similar mode, but with a different loop duration, which allowed me to build up clouds of notes that were only approximately predictable (similar to the technique used in <a href="https://soundcloud.com/mysterybear/collider">Collider</a>). In the first and third sections, the Deluxe Memory Man is used more like a flanger.

Here's a photo of the setup (taken at home before the gig): http://www.flickr.com/photos/seidel/12135979426/

The image is from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DNA-RNA_D-loops,_greatly_exaggerated.jpg

Loop Studies (119 Gallery, 2014-01-25)

This is track 6 from my new release on the Stasisfield netlabel, <i>Absence sleeps between the buildings at night.</i> For more information (including liner notes and full attribution for all field recordings) and to download the entire release for free, please visit http://www.stasisfield.com/releases/year12/sf-12001.html.

Image copyright 2013 John Kannenberg.

Download

I wish to live with myself (from "Absence sleeps between the buildings at night", 2014)

We were listening to <a href="http://www.importantrecords.com/imprec/imprec028">Adnos I</a>, and the low frequencies were picked up by the platter. It hangs from a spring-type device attached to the back, and the spring was vibrating against the back surface. I made an impromptu recording using my phone. You can hear Radigue's piece in the background as the metal platter responds with its own commentary.

Turkish decorative platter sympathizing with Eliane Radigue's Adnos I

Playing around with a feedback (no-input) setup. The mixer's FX Send goes into the Grunge pedal, and then through three separate routes (BugBrand μCrusher, Moogerfooger Ring Modulator, Moogerfooger FreqBox) via a Repeater 4x4 matrix mixer into a 4ms Phaseur, then an Ekdhal Moisturizer reverb and finally into the main mixer. There's also a bunch of control voltage stuff going on in its own feedback loop: Moisturizer to Moogerfooger CP251 back into Moisturizer, with CP251 also controlling various parameters of the other two Moogerfoogers and the Phaseur. The <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/seidel/12386626735/">photo</a> shows the setup.

I was tweaking audio and CV settings (and sometimes CV patching) throughout. I also occasionally applied the three items seen in front (chopstick, vibrator, E-Bow) to the springs of the Moisturizer.

Recorded in a single take, then normalized and converted to MP3. No editing or other post-production.

Feedback Study

This is the second part of my piece "~60 Hz", available now on CD on the Irritable Hedgehog label. The complete release may be streamed and/or purchased at http://recordings.irritablehedgehog.com/album/dave-seidel-60-hz. Marc Weidenbaum's liner note essay "The Waveforms In Your Neighborhood" may be read at http://disquiet.com/2014/02/25/dave-seidel-60-hz-irritable-hedgehog/. Artwork by Scott Unrein.

Accretion (from "~60 Hz", 2014)

I decided I might as well mess around with my own stuff since everyone one else is, so here is the mysterybear mix.

I took the third chunk, and decided to layer it over itself, using Audacity effects only and no editing. I did it pretty fast and didn't take notes, so some of my details may not be completely accurate.

First layer: pitch-shifted up an octave, subjected it to crossover distortion, and finally run though a resonant filter swept by a Lorenz fractal.

Second layer: pitch-shifted down an octave and then went through a Chebychev distortion effect.

Third layer: the original chunk with no effects at all.

I applied staggered fade-ins and fade-outs to the layers, and then mixed them down into a single stereo track.

I found the image at http://jellybellyonaplate.tumblr.com/

--

More on this 114th Disquiet Junto project — “Combine elements of Dave Seidel’s album ~60 Hz (Irritable Hedgehog)” — at:

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/da…el-60-hz

Wibbly Wobbly [disquiet0114-60hz]

Recorded in performance at Turn It Up in Brattleboro, VT April 4, 2014. Another 60 Hz piece.

The underlying 60 Hz drone was a Synthrotek 4093 NAND box that my brother Doug built inside an old English tin (he also made the wooden knobs).

The other sound source was the FreqBox VCO, which was driven by the carrier output from the ring modulator which passed back through the ring mod, and then was further processed through a flanger (with a phaser inserted into its feedback loop), then through a delay unit in a flangy setting, and finally through a looper. The CP-251 was used to provide an extremely slow LFO that drove the LFO rates for both the ring modulator and the flanger.

Brattlehum (live)

A brief but noisy postprandial Easter improv. Noise Swash routed though a Rupture-looped Horndog, then through a MuRF modulated by a Slim Skeevy. Yeah, some Moisterizer as well. The playing was mostly handling the free ends of Horndog patch cables with fingers.

Horndog Afternoon

Today's experiment in distressed dronage. Synthrotek NAND synth to 4ms Sweptoner to Repeater/4MS Noise Swash to Moogerfooger Freqbox to Moogerfooger ClusterFlux to Boomerang III. Live take, unedited.

Crenulation

This is track 7 from my January 2014 release on the Stasisfield netlabel, <a href="http://www.stasisfield.com/releases/year12/sf-12001.html">Absence sleeps between the buildings at night</a>. This music was written for Greg Kowalski's adaptation of Sarah Kane's play <i>Crave</i>. This track combines some of my electronics with a loop derived from the field recording <a href="http://freesound.org/people/felix.blume/sounds/147863/">Inside an old factory in the ghost town of Humberstone (Chile)</a> by Felix Blume, licensed by him under Creative Commons 0 and used with gratitude.

We will be performing this production as part of the 2014 New York International Fringe Festival, which is happening August 8-24. (We don't have specific performance dates yet, but there will be several shows.)

The title of the track, as with all of the titles in the release, comes from a line in the play. 

For more information and to download the entire release for free, please visit http://www.stasisfield.com/releases/year12/sf-12001.html.

Image copyright 2014 John Kannenberg.

A flower open in the heat of the sun (from "Absence sleeps between the buildings at night", 2014)

This is a recording of a live performance at Future Collective (Brattleboro, VT), Thursday May 22, 2014. It is mono, recorded direct from the line output of my little Orange Pix Crush 35LDX combo amp to a Zoom H4N recorder. The only editing was a tiny fade-out at the very tail end to remove some unwanted noise that crept in.

I don't claim this piece as a composition of my own, but rather a meditation on La Monte Young's Opening, Magic, and Magic Opening chords. The Opening Chord is played on the combination of a Drone Lab and a NovaDrone, and is processed through a Deluxe Memory Man with Hazarai and a Boomerang III looper. The Magic Chord was produced by the LAS-9 app running on my Google Nexus 7 tablet, looping WAV files I made in Csound, with no further processing.

You can hear the Opening Chord build up starting at the beginning of the piece and fully in place by about 1:20. I start "riffing" on it using the DMM at about 2:15. At about 7:03 I start adding in the tones of the Magic Chord, which is complete by about 8:30. After, that I slowly subtract notes from both chords until only the fundamental just fifth remains.

I did my best to make the tuning as precise as possible, but both the Drone Lab and NoveDrone are subject to a certain amount of drift over time.

The image is the unaltered spectral display of the piece in Audacity. It's interesting to me that there's a lot of magenta in it, especially given Marian Zazeela's pervasive use of that color in her beautiful visual works that usually accompany Young's music.

For LMY and MZ (Live)

Live performance at Weirdo Records (Cambridge, MA), 2 June 2014. Recorded mono, direct from amp, unedited.

I used the setup <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/seidel/14320194242/">shown here</a>: Repeater Electronics Horndog, Copilot FX Gyroscope, Moogerfooger Ring Modulator, Delue Memory Man with Hazarai, Boomerang II looper, played through an Orange Crush PiX 35LDX amp (using the built-in emulated spring reverb).

Apologies to Terry Riley, ELP, physicists, and Sufis everywhere.

Image by Prof. Amihay Hanany and Madeleine Sheldon-Dante, copyright MIT and licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA licence (http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-871-selected-topics-in-theoretical-particle-physics-branes-and-gauge-theory-dynamics-fall-2004/). Original caption: Brane tiling for the complex cone over the third del-Pezzo surface. Red lines are NS branes, faces, are D5 branes. The gauge theory consists of 6 gauge groups, 14 fields, and 8 interaction terms. 

Brane Dervish Surgery (Live)

Recorded live at 119 Gallery (Lowell, MA) on June 27, 2014.

Gear: Repeater Electronics Horndog, Moogerfooger Freqbox, Moogerfooger Low-Pass Filter, Gieskes DEP-2a, Boomerang III, Orange Crush amp.

Picture: http://instagram.com/p/puhkpdukQV
In situ: http://instagram.com/p/pxGrUMukRt

Picture of unknown provenance, appears on several websites without specific attribution (that I have seen), e.g., http://kglyphicsart.blogspot.com/2011/04/ancient-egyptian-wormholes.html

Mesektet (live)

Recorded live at The Carriage House (Rochester, NY), July 6, 2014.

Gear: Repeater Horndog, Copilot FX Gyroscope, Moog FreqBox, Gieskes DEP2b, Boomerang III, Orange Crush.

Image from "Leptogenesis from a GeV Seesaw without Mass Degeneracy" by Marco Drewes & Björn Garbrecht, found at https://inspirehep.net/record/1119499/.

Leptogenesis (live)

Recorded live at 119 Gallery (Lowell, MA), July 12, 2014.

Gear: Repeater Horndog, NovaDrone, 4ms/Repeater Noise Swash, Repeater 3x3 Matrix Mixer, Moog Ring Modulator, Gieskes DEP2b, Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man with Hazarai, Orange Crush.

Image from "Natural Baryogenesis from Unnatural Supersymmetry" by Yanou Cui, found at https://inspirehep.net/record/1253799?ln=en.

Baryogenesis (live)

Palimpsest is the new collaborative project of Laurie Amat (@amatworks) and Dave Seidel (@mysterybear). This piece was improvised in real time in Dave's studio in New Hampshire, and then mixed by Dave. Laurie: voice and electronics. Dave: electronics.

Palimpsest: Canticum I

Recorded live in performance on September 18, 2014 at the Fieldwire concert held at Future Collective in Brattleboro, VT: http://fieldwire.com/2014/09/13/fieldwire-session-at-the-future-91814/

Gear: Moogerfooger Ring Modulator, 4ms/Repeater Noise Swash, Gristleizer, Electro-Harmonix Pulsar, Moogerfooger MuRF, Gieskes DEP2b, Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man with Hazarai, Boomerang III, Moogerfooger Control Processor, Repeater Slim Skeevy, Orange Crush amp.

The sole signal source was the ring modulator's carrier oscillator (with occasional contributions from the Noise Swash in self-oscillation mode).

Image found at http://www.modernmythology.net/2011/07/teleology-and-circularity-footnote.html

Teleology (live at Fieldwire)

Experimental electronic music, mostly in the drone category. This is where I put live sets, one-offs, experiments, and excerpts from longer releases.

CD: "~60 Hz" on Irritable Hedgehog - http://recordings.irritablehedgehog.com/album/dave-seidel-60-hz

All releases, including netlabel items: 
http://mysterybear.net/music

https://mysterybear.bandcamp.com/

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