[JAM24.21] wild fruits

[JAM24.19] A Crossed Line Infers

Set 2 - Improvised Electronic Music 20240113

Improvised ambient jungle (aka intelligent DNB) and ambient music. Minimal or no mixing, plenty of mastering. View the performance on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/Y8cv7EWjmYY

Set2 - Improvised Electronic Music 20240113

Set1 - Improvised Electronic Music20240101

Mix of four Ableton Live Sets. Minimal or no mixing, plenty of mastering. View the individual performances here on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/Uga0SpN1tYs
https://youtu.be/dFr2Y28eb0Y
https://youtu.be/rglx48HDAwo
https://youtu.be/YuPufEmk65E

Set1 - Improvised Electronic Music20240101

Prompt: Celebration!
Tempo: 136 bpm

I experimented with sidechaining in this one. Everything is MIDI-based, I didn't record anything.

This is my fourth Ableton project that reached a "finished" state.

I did the jams in January, but only came to share them now. I hadn't listened to any jam before starting or during Jamuary, so that I wasn't influenced by what other people might consider a "jam". In hindsight, they're more like "tracks", ah well ...^^

Thanks to @brianfunk from the Music Production Podcast for pointing me to this challenge!

Jamuary 2024

Day 01 - Celebration!

Prompt: Variable time – change the BPM, time signature, something time related
Tempo: 60 – 200 bpm

So I came up with the idea to automate the song tempo: The last 2 beats (approx.) of every 2-bar cycle actually are played back only half as fast as the initial 6, leading to these interesting sweeping effects from Ableton's Delay device (in Repitch mode) faded in at about 8.5 s into the song. I used Texture warp-mode with custom settings on the vocal clips to get the stuttery / slo-mo effect whenever they are played back slow.
I recorded all the vocals myself.

Day 02 - Variable Time

Prompt: Something old, something new
Mood: ashamed, cautious
Tempo: 90 bpm

The mood of this piece may not be exactly as asked for, but I definitely felt uncomfortable and hesitant choosing the more childish loop from 2022 (done with the LoopStation app) that the jam starts with. I went on by adding a guitar loop I did in 2015 on my roommate's loop-station pedal (something old) and then recorded a vocal loop combining the childish style with the guitar harmonies (something new).
You can definitely hear that I didn't put too much effort into the lead vocals. 😅

Interestingly, as I noticed in preparation for this post, the loops from 2015 and 2022 both have index 27 in the filename. 🤔

Day 03 - Something Old, Something New

Prompt: Noise
Key: Eb
Tempo: 127 bpm

I started by opening my mic and generating audio feedback, which I recorded in Ableton and made into the organ and bass you hear in the beginning. I then fed the output from a noise generator through a low-pass filter that is sidechained by a rhythmic pattern to get the initial percussive sounds. Many signals were noised up using Erosion and Overdrive.
I added heavy noisy impact sounds for build-up and drop, leading into one of my favorite musical creations: a very noisy loop I recorded in 2015 using a distortion and (my roommate's) loop-station pedal, comprising layers and layers of distorted guitar.

Day 04 - Noise

Prompt: Use an acoustic instrument
Tempo: 110 bpm

For this jam, I recorded the ocarina that I bought on a medieval festival a few months before. The second acoustic instrument I used is a singing bowl (my first). I filtered out a lot, because the overtones of singing bowls make them quite dissonant when playing traditional western intervals.
(It is, however, possible to have them sound more consonant when using slightly deviating intervals).

Day 05 - Acoustic Instrument

Prompt: Use a sample from public domain material
Mood: destructive
Tempo: 99 bpm

I decided on a recording of "Yes! We Have No Bananas" [1], chopped it up quite a lot, pitch-shifted it and used Ableton's Grain Delay to let it "fly away". For the melodic instrument, I took a small fraction of the original song, fed it twice through jumpily-automated Erosion and gradually deformed it using Grain Delay.

[1] "Yes! We Have No Bananas", written by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn, performed by Eddie Furman and William Nash, recorded in 1923 (Public Domain); see https://www.loc.gov/item/jukebox-670477

Day 06 - Public Domain Material

Prompt: Go outside
Mood: adventurous
Key: D

I did not physically go outside to record anything, but instead, tried my luck with free samples of outside noises [1] and orchestra hits [2]. Reminds me of adventure-themed video games.

[1] "Nature sounds.tropical,jungle,birds" by Placidplace (Pixabay Content License); see https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/nature-soundstropicaljunglebirds-108380
[2] "Tada Military 2" by floraphonic (Pixabay Content License); see https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/tada-military-2-183973

Day 07 - Go outside

Prompt: 7th chords
Mood: forgetful
Tempo: 83 bpm

After the irritating intro (making me sometimes forget where 1 is), you hear a back and forth of seventh chords, Am7 and D7, leading to the dominant E7 and via a (minor) Dm7 back to the tonic. All chords of this part are seventh chords. Since I wanted to include an organ, but didn't yet have a Hammond plugin, I layered an e-piano and a guitar instrument (for the solo even more), added some distortion, split the output in high and low frequencies and modulated the 2 paths with differently frequency-automated phaser effects for obtaining a simple Leslie simulation.
Mid-way through, I transitioned into a dreamy guitar loop I recorded many years ago on a loop-station pedal, featuring a stable major(-third) A7 chord acting as the tonic.
I deliberately missed some cues to make the jam more "forgetful".

Day 08 - 7th Chords

Prompt: Do something unexpected
Mood: optimistic
Tempo: 87 bpm

The key ingredient for this jam is Ableton's Delay effect. I selectively switched on Freeze in early parts of the jam to get repeated fractions. I then created this flangery tape-stop-restart-runaway effect by first exponentially increasing the delay time, then decreasing it again exponentially and finally easing out exponentially after the inflection point. Tweaking the automation curves a bit lead to this very pleasant crossover moment. For this effect to work, Repitch mode must be selected. I also used Ping-Pong mode to obtain a speed separation between the left and right channel.

Day 09 - Do Something Unexpected

Prompt: Micro
Mood: minute
Tempo: 80 bpm

I took a minimal approach building this jam, starting with 2 percussive sounds and creating something new from them. I remember concatenating tiny waveform fractions and really tweaking the details. I added 1 other percussive sound and 2 vocal samples. Then, the clips were repeated, inverted, chopped up, and slowed down or sped up using different warp modes.

Day 10 - Micro

Prompt: GO BIG
Mood: majestic
Tempo: 130 bpm

I completely gave up on my first idea that I clinged to for half the day, because it relied heavily on a chord progression featured in one of my favorite Muse songs. After learning a bit about the complications of music rights and getting frustrated, I started over and resorted to a safer and well-established method, namely using an old classical song as a template. I wasn't super happy with how it turned out, but liked my guitar play, got the job done, and finally to sleep.

Day 11 - GO BIG

Prompt: The Fool's Journey

Since I was very happy with my creations so far, I committed to buying Native Instrument's Komplete (plugin bundle) to have more options regarding getting specific sounds quickly. I skipped a few days, had my look around Komplete and used some of its sounds in this jam.

I simplified the concept of the Fool's Journey to only 3 phases to even have a chance to get the jam done in time. I started baby-themed using Playbox, picked up a rhythm and transitioned to what I associated with an exciting, but also insecure youth, still featuring some child-like percussive sounds from the C78-Core kit. Then, I progressively turned to India-themed sounds (Sitar, Dholak, Tumbi, Tanpura and Ghatam) to represent an increasing interest in other cultures that comes with adulthood.

This was also the last jam I did, because the way I approached the challenge was rather time-intensive and also a bit stressful. Yet, I am very happy to have participated, because I really like the results and I learned so many things!

Day 15 - The Fool's Journey

OpenDatShitUp!!!

Jamuary 2025 Day 2 "55 bpm"
Used RC30, TE po-33, bass and mic.

Recorded improvisation without effects from hardware only first, added some delay, compression and EQ.

Jamuary2024 "futile attempts" 55bpm

analog-digital-electronic-musician/ teacher / aspiring-polymath / always-a-student-never-a-master

playing with sounds - mostly in live setups and jams.

still finding the perfect setup between looping, live instruments, vocals, field recordings.

LIVE 2025

15.02 - full new "community" set//Mme Claude
19.04 - NOISEBERG 10 YEAR//Atelier Äuglein
03.05 - Makayabundo social club//kukumu berlin

New tracks tagged #Jamuary2024