Disquiet Junto Project 0712: Zebra Code
The Assignment: What rhythm do you hear in a bar code?

Step 1: Locate something you purchased or received that has a zebra code, or bar code, on the packaging.

Step 2: Interpret the bar code from Step 1 as a rhythm.

Step 3: Make music using the rhythm from Step 2.

This project was proposed thanks to Jason Richardson (aka Bassling), who shared this Boing Boing post:

https://boingboing.net/2025/08/19/will-it-riff-turns-product-barcodes-into-heavy-metal-jams.html

Deadline: Monday, August 25, 2025, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

Details: disquiet.com/0712

Disquiet Junto Project 0712: Zebra Code

Disquiet Junto 0712 invited us to interpret a barcode as a rhythm.

The first barcode patent was issued in 1952, but they didn't look like the ones we usually see now: they were bullseye-shaped. Today's linear barcodes use what is called "many-width symbology", meaning that the vertical lines ("modules") in the barcode are different widths, from 1 to 4. The lines are printed vertically instead of horizontally so that if the ink smeared during printing, the code would still be legible and no information would be lost. 

Barcodes almost failed in the retail space, because no one wanted to be the first to invest the money to adopt them when they were unproven. They were a lot  more popular more quickly in the railroad business, where by the early 1960s optical scanners could read the color-coded barcodes on train cars as they rolled past at full speed.

The barcode I chose as source material for the prompt was from a tape dispenser that I bought to help my daughter pack to leave home. This piece is probably an aural photograph of the feelings I'm having right now, but that's neither here nor there. Where was I?

Instead of reading the barcode as if it were visually measuring out beats, I decided to decode the modules and transcribe the widths. This turned into the sequence 2 1 3 2 1 4 4 1 / 2 1 2 3 1 1 1 3 / 3 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 / 1 1, which I incorporated into this piece in several ways.

First, the percussion pattern is built by breaking the sequence into chunks of four numbers. These four numbers indicate the beat position of a series of drum kit components on a 16-step grid. So 2-1-3-2, the first sequence, means the kick drum hits on the 2nd, 1st, 3rd, and 2nd beats of the four divisions of the pattern. Next would be the snare, then the tom, and finally the hihat with 1-1-1-3. The sequence also determines the note length and note number of the "melodic" sequence. 

Finally, I translated the sequence into steps in a custom arpeggiator, with the width of the modules transposed into the vertical axis of the beats in the pattern. There are two arpeggiated synth tracks, running at different rates, played on the Logic ES2 and Alchemy software synths. A triggered vocal sample rhythmically reflects the numeric sequence. The rest of the synth parts came from the Roland boutique Studio Electronics SE-02, a reissue of the "Moog-adjacent" SE-01 analog monosynth of 1982.

There's a lot going on in this piece, but there's a lot going on over here, too. The sound that a single mom makes in her empty nest. Snapshot of a moment in time at 90bpm.

More on the 712th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Zebra Code — The Assignment: What rhythm do you hear in a bar code? — at https://disquiet.com/0712/.

The Passage (disquiet0712)

Beats generated from barcode, other modular synth and piano.

Bar Beats  disquiet0712

A short electronic noise track inspired by a barcode, sounds created using Audacity with databending, delay, reverb, etc.

More on the 712th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Zebra Code — The Assignment: What rhythm do you hear in a bar code? — at https://disquiet.com/0712/.

Barcode Blend (disquiet0712)

sound art for disquiet0712.

More on the 712th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Zebra Code — The Assignment: What rhythm do you hear in a bar code? — at https://disquiet.com/0712/.

leaf litter (disquiet0712)

This is my submission to this week's Disquiet Junto assignment.

More on the 712th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Zebra Code — The Assignment: What rhythm do you hear in a bar code? — at https://disquiet.com/0712/

250822 [disquiet0712]

Calm Layer

No Sleep

Vasuki Mantra

OM
Sarparaajaya vidmahe,
Padma hastaaya dhimahi,
Tanno Vasuki prachodayath,
OM

Magic Mountain - Vasuki

Not eligible, it says—but who cares? It's up to us at the end, right?
/
Flip and Skip Hollywood! – So It Be // Director’s Cut (Won’t Be Televised)

Twenty flips and tracks in one movie-like set.
Kept cinematic full-length—get your popcorn ready.

Enjoy, made just for you.

100% organic, fresh, original.

.

a fusion by fictionalive

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.

.
.
.

to my father
.

.

Flip and Skip Hollywood! – So It Be // Director’s Cut (Won’t Be Televised)

Synth Pop

In comparable

After listening to my track ‚Trickle’ which was written in 5/4 earlier this year, my friend Atik Yomin  (@othiqivmin) „challenged“ me to write an album consisting of tracks in odd meters only. Challenge accepted. This piece comes in ..., well, can you figure it out?

Lead: DIY Weston Audio 2V2 into DIY Super Synthesis SVFs
Chords: Moog Subharmonicon
Bass: DIY minimoog clone

In A Nine Corner Circle

Just Plug it in and See What Happens

Anomaly

A minimal Ebow-and-bass drone in E minor, built around a 12-note melody that dissolves one note per repetition.
Recorded during a lyrical Ebow session, using long sustained tones and slow melodic reduction.
A small ambient/minimalist experiment on top of a deep E drone.
Part of the Disquiet Junto project: disquiet0728

Legato Ebow Redux (disquiet0728)

My 33 1/3 series book about the Aphex Twin album <i>Selected Ambient Works Volume II</i> was published in 2014. The book was one of the top 5 bestselling titles for the calendar year, and in 2015 was ranked by Pitchfork as one of the "33 best" of the 100-plus books in the 33 1/3 series. It has subsequently been translated into Japanese (2019) and Spanish (2018)

Since 2012 I have moderated the Disquiet Junto group, which began on SoundCloud. More at disquiet.com/junto. 

I've written for Nature, Pitchfork, The Wire, Down Beat, Boing Boing, NewMusicBox, Red Bull Music Academy, Art Practical, the website of The Atlantic, and many other publications. 

I've exhibited sound art at galleries in Los Angeles (Crewest), Manhattan (apex art), and Dubai (DUTAC), and I had a audio-visual installation at the San Jose Museum of Art as part of its 45th anniversary.

And since 1996 I've run the website Disquiet.com about the intersection of sound, art, and technology.

Abstract Sound Structures, Musique Concrète & Live Electronics.
Experimental abstract animation videos.
It is my aim to create and/or edit my tracks & videos using free or open-source software only.
Influences include: J.S. Bach, John Cage, Iannis Xenakis, Giacinto Scelsi, Mauricio Kagel, Conlon Nancarrow, Christian Wolff, Harry Partch, Luc Ferrari, Morton Feldman, Cornelius Cardew, Bernard Parmegiani, Ana-Maria Avram, David Tudor, Alvin Lucier, Pauline Oliveros, Renaissance Polyphony.
All my work is published under a Creative Commons licence & can be freely downloaded (as wav) or remixed.

Barcode Blend (disquiet0712)

ray_cobley

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