"Novembeat is an informal challenge to record one piece of music every day in November. It can be big or small, a mere notion or an entire symphony. Flex the creative muscle and try to learn something new." https://novembeat.com/

Novembeat 2021

The first of 30 days of recording music for Novembeat; the prompt was "health". This represents a 2020 photo I took from my yard of the California skies during the incredibly devastating forest fires, and the feeling of not being able to stop but wanting to but not knowing how.

health [novembeat 2021.01]

The second of 30 days of recording music for Novembeat; the prompt was "ennui", a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement. My poor Luna, who is snoozing behind me on the futon as I compose this, would prefer to be on a multi-mile hike, even though it's 40 degrees, foggy and dark.

ennui [novembeat 2021.02]

The third of 30 days of recording music for Novembeat; the prompt was "love", an intense feeling of deep affection. I don't usually involve my family as the subject of my compositions, but are my first and best audience and are so incredibly patient with me. I love them so.

love [novembeat 2021.03]

The fourth of 30 days of recording music for Novembeat; the prompt was "lost", unable to find one's way; not knowing one's whereabouts. I've been having writer's block for the past couple days and ended up throwing away about two hours worth work in total. Not very efficient. So, in an effort to keep myself from getting lost, I decided that I would just own anything I put down and run with it. I've played in progressive rock bands before, so this is familiar territory.

lost [novembeat 2021.04]

The fifth of 30 days of recording music for Novembeat; the prompt was "return", an act of coming or going back to a place or activity. The first synthesizer I really interacted with in a serious way was an Ensoniq EPS 2.40. I still have access to it, although I would need to replace the aging 3.5" floppy drive with a USB drive and that's a really scary operation. I've been enjoying Arturia's SQ 80 V which is an emulation from the same era. I also learned about progressive rock around the same time. It made an impression.

return [novembeat 2021.05]

The sixth of 30 days of recording music for Novembeat; the prompt was "care", to look after and provide for the needs of. Today, I put the sourdough starter I transported over three thousand miles in the back of a car to good use. I took a class in soldering. I took time for myself, yet balanced it with the needs of those around me.

care [novembeat 2021.06]

The seventh of 30 days of recording music for Novembeat; the prompt was "blemish", to spoil the appearance of (something) that is otherwise aesthetically perfect. This piece was originally composed in March of this year and didn't fit the game that I was working on, so I walked to a nearby overpass and recorded the passing traffic and made a music video.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CMMJ7MPpOK0/

I also have learned that IG is not a great place for long, moody pieces, and as such is a blemish in my attempted social network growth. Learning by doing.

blemish [novembeat 2021.07]

The eighth of 30 days of recording music for Novembeat; the prompt was "floral", of flowers. This is a succulent common to the coastal areas of the Pacific in California, where I took many leaps and strides in my music composition.

floral [novembeat 2021.08]

The ninth of 30 days of recording music for Novembeat; the prompt was "restful", having a quiet and soothing quality. Yeah, well, I've been sitting on this remix for Zoog. Doing Novembeat is helping me get my mojo back, and I made some really good progress on it tonight. So, here's the first minute or so. So, this is restful for me. Maybe not for my ambient fans.

restful [novembeat 2021.09]

The tenth of 30 days of recording music for Novembeat; the prompt was "hyper", meaning high-strung, extremely active. Being contrarian, I started the opposite... then the ARP 2600 got away from me as I was modulating it. I rode it back into control, then accompanied it. It musically felt like awkwardly sitting next to someone you know completely losing it, then pulling things back together.

hyper [novembeat 2021.11]

The eleventh of 30 days of recording music for Novembeat; the prompt was "twin", something containing or consisting of two matching or corresponding parts. This originally was an experiment back in March with Phase Plant and their non-linear filter. Two main lines twist around each other, never surrendering control, competing, while a steel drum-like plink laughs at them.

twin [novembeat 2021.11]

The twelfth of 30 days of recording music for Novembeat; the prompt was "vast", of very great extent or quantity; immense. This song, which I started in May as I was getting ready to California, is just that. It's a combination of the longing, the frustration, the stress, and the distance between where I and we were, and our destination. It was also very, very difficult to make this coherent; the center really is what the original was, no intro or outro, it just sits on it's own. This will probably continue to iterate.

vast [novembeat 2021.12]

Imagine that you are about to consult a therapist. You are sitting in the waiting room of his/her/their office. Picture some comfortable chairs, abstract artworks on the wall, and some large plants in the corners of the room. You are ready for your appointment.

*Gear*

* Ableton Live 11 Standard
* Arturia Keylab 61 mkii
* Moog Werkstaat-01
* Korg SQ-1 Sequencer
* Audacity 3

*Instruments*

* Heinbach - Landfill Totems - Kling: Malfunctions
  * Inspired by Nature - Bouncy Notes
  * Ableton MIDI Effects - Scale
  * Valhalla Space Modulator
  * Valhalla Freq Echo
* Moog Werkstaat-01 (custom patch)
  * Valhalla Super Massive
* Ableton C78 Bullet Kit
  * Arturia Rev INTENSITY
* ChowDSP Chow Tape Model

talking cure [disquiet0515 / novembeat 2021.13]

The fourteenth of 30 days of recording music for Novembeat; the prompt was "life", the existence of an individual human being or animal.  It is believed that if a Pyrrharctia isabella's brown band is wide, winter weather will be mild, and if the brown band is narrow, the winter will be severe. If nature's barometer is anything to go on, things aren't as cold as they used to be.

life [novembeat 2021.14]

The fifteenth of 30 days of recording music for Novembeat; the prompt was "translation", the process of moving something from one place to another. Earlier in the year, I playtested a very early version of the game "My Cousin the Rogue" and gave feedback to the developer, Patrick Riordan, through the Bay Area Developer collective. A deadline came up for the game to have a trailer, but the game, a pure roguelike, can be difficult to make a trailer and he was stressed about it. So, I made a theme, edited it down to a minute, and then edited together a trailer. He's since remade the trailer with a very similar storytelling technique, but kept the music. I helped translate a silent game into something that could be advertised on Steam.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1603590/My_Cousin_the_Rogue/

my cousin the rogue [novembeat 2021.15]

The sixteenth of 30 days of recording music for Novembeat; the prompt was "wooden", like or characteristic of wood. There's a lot of history in the woods behind my house. Some good... some, awful. Respect the lands and the people who were there for thousands of years before us. The echos will fade, but the scars remain.

wooden [novembeat 2021.16]

The seventeenth of 30 days of recording music for Novembeat; the prompt was "tuxedo", a man's dinner jacket. I did a hardware trade earlier tonight, trading an analog synthesizer that I was under-utilizing for a much more robust audio interface, had a great conversation with the musician. Brought it home, got it configured, and after years with an older 2i4 interface going to 18i20? I feel like I'm in the lap of luxury.

The song itself is an experiment with the LABS instrument ondes Martenot; it's a beautiful and highly unusual instrument. I originally produced this for my Twitter account, but it belongs here.

tuxedo [novembeat 2021.17]

The eighteenth of 30 days of recording music for Novembeat; the prompt was "warped", abnormal or strange; distorted. Well, I can do that. Also experimented with synths that I'm not familiar with, like Arturia's version of the Fairlight CMI (Computer Musical Instrument). Didn't give myself enough time to play with time signatures, but there's still some fun awkwardness and musical jokes. Definitely channeled some Cyriak Harris on this.

warped [novembeat 2021.18]

The nineteenth of 30 days of recording music for Novembeat; the prompt was "distress", a situation in which you are suffering or are in great danger and therefore in urgent need of help.

Throughout the year, Ichiro Dejobaan has been posting silent lighting studies of their upcoming iteration in the AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! universe, which is centered around falling, hence the relation to distress. I scored a few of them for practice and posted them back.

I used a Shepard tone, which is a sound made by overlaying multiple sine waves separated by octaves; it's effect is an audio illusion of always falling or rising.

This is one of them, cleaned up and polished up.

distress [novembeat 2021.19]

The twentieth of 30 days of recording music for Novembeat; the prompt was "sonnet", a sort of poetical fugue in which the theme ought to pass and repass until its final resolution in a given form (Charles Baudelaire, His Life by Thophile Gautier).

This piece came out of a number of places, including inspiration from one of my favorite Massive patches "Bladerunner Strings". Sounds like a crutch, but it's a very expressive instrument when combined with manipulating the LFO levels and cutoff. Native Instruments recently, and finally, moved Massive to VST3, so I'm bringing Massive back to my tool set. I just can't get hooked on Massive X yet.

Novembeat 2021

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