disquiet contributions

Shortly after burial, Herr Haydn's head was stolen by an ambitious, perhaps somewhat too earnest phrenologist (and suspected alchemist). So Herr Haydn's head was missing for quite some time.

Some years later, the body was to be moved. The head of course was found to be missing. When pressed for the skull, our dear phrenologist (apparently the only obvious suspect in the crime), presented a false skull (source unknown) for internment with Herr Haydn's body. Herr Haydn's true skull was instead kept in a decorated wooden box, and passed down through the generations.

In 1895, the true skull of Haydn was finally returned. And buried with the rest of him. The substitute skull (source still unknown) was left in the grave, alongside the proper one.

And that is the story of how Herr Haydn ended up with two skulls in his grave.

Downloaded the source, converted that to 16-bit wav.

Permutated into 8 distinct sounds. Used these to make a minimal techno piece (Ableton Live)
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Disquiet Junto Project 0082: Minimal Haydn

This week’s project is another in a series of explorations of the concept of genre as a constraint. (The “downtempo” exercise went well several weeks ago, project 79, and this is another in that mode.) The genre this time is “minimal techno.” The source material is from another genre entirely: “classical,” specifically chamber music in the form of a string quartet. The goal of this project is to derive elements from the source material in the service of a track that would fit in the prescribed genre.

These are the steps:

Step 1: Download the MP3 track at the following URL. The track is the third movement of Franz Haydn’s String Quartet in F Major:

http://goo.gl/7MMHRA

Step 2: Listen through the full 1:55 of the track, noting the time codes of source elements that could lend themselves to a minimal techno track. Aim for roughly between three and six.

Step 3: Extract the handful of elements that you located in Step 2.

Step 4: Compose and record an original track that you feel conforms to the genre of minimal techno, using only the elements from Step 3. You can manipulate them in any way you choose, though at some point in the track they should each be somewhat recognizable from the source material. You cannot add any other sounds.

The source Haydn audio is from:
http://goo.gl/7MMHRA

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

the curious case of herr haydn's head [disquiet0082-minimalhaydn]

For the Disquiet Junto project:

http://disquiet.com/2012/12/13/disquiet0050-morsebeat/

"This week’s project explores invokes Morse Code for its rhythmic content. The instructions are as follows: Select a word or phrase. Encode that word or phrase by the Morse method. Record a rhythmic foundation in which the dash is represented by a long beat and the dot by a brief one. Use that rhythmic foundation as a loop for the length of your track, at the speed you desire — speed can vary over the length of the recording. Record accompanying drone/melodic material that takes the underlying rhythm as its compositional foundation."

Translated the basic phrase "never again" into morse code. Then assigned (essentially arbitrary, for the sake of rhythm) time values to the characters {dot = 1 beat, dash = 2 beats, space-inside-character = 1 beat, space-between characters = 2 beats}, used simple MIDI to "draw" the rhythm.

Then a brassy softsynth with resonance set to match was put on top. Several processed/treated low-register instruments floating throughout.

Used Logic Pro and Audacity.


never again [disquiet0050-morsebeat]

Downloaded the three original tracks and converted into wav (with Audacity).  Used Ableton Live to create six core sounds/loops (two from each original piece) and treated/processed them for pitch, texture, etc. Then basically played the resulting Live set (using two Korg nanoKontrollers) with the available sounds.

Some minor edits done afterwards (small volume adjustments throughout, removed a few bars to fit under 5 minutes, put a limiter at the end before rendering), but this is basically the Live set, as "played".

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This Disquiet Junto project was done as a celebration of the efforts of the Bump Foot netlabel, and to support its employment of licenses that allow for derivative works. These Junto netlabel remix projects are intended to promote reworking as itself a means of music distribution. This track is comprised of three pieces of music, all originally released on Bump Foot: "Bongo" off the Aguas Tonicas album titled Los Desposeídos, "Broken Robots" off the Gridline album titled Red Music, and "The Cat in the Ocean" off the Pics Frunk album titled Low Voltage. More on the Bump Foot netlabel, and the original versions of these tracks, at www.bumpfoot.net/. ;

More on this 52nd Disquiet Junto project at:

disquiet.com/2012/12/27/disquiet0052-bumpcc/ ;

More details on the Disquiet Junto at: Groups – Disquiet-junto

The boatman's dream [disquiet0052-bumpcc]

Recorded about 20 seconds of ice tumbling around in a 12oz pint glass using an iPhone.

Used Ableton Live to slice out various segments, treated and processed those to end up with a total of six distinct 'voices'.  Played the resulting set in Live with Korg nano-Kontrollers.

Used Audacity to process the rendered result and convert to FLAC for upload.

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Disquiet Junto Project 0053: Ice for 2013

Happy new year! This week’s project is as follows:

Please record the sound of an ice cube rattling in a glass, and make something of it.

Background: Longtime participants in, and observers of, the Disquiet Junto series will recognize this single sentence as the very first Disquiet Junto project, the same one that launched the series on the first Thursday of 2012. Revisiting it a year later provides a fitting way to begin the new year. A weekly project series can come to overemphasize novelty, and it’s helpful to revisit old projects as much as it is to engage with new ones. Also, by its very nature, the Disquiet Junto suggests itself as a fast pace: a four-day production window, a weekly habit. It’s beneficial to step back and see things from a longer perspective.

Deadline: Monday, January 7, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: Your finished work should be between 2 and 4 minutes in length.

More on this 53rd Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/01/03/disquiet0053-ice2013/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

the ice factory [disquiet0053-ice2013]

Downloaded the two source pieces, loaded them into Audacity and sliced out a few notes or note-runs, essentially at random. (Beautiful pieces, felt a bit unnatural to splice them like this).

Out of this pool chose nine, five from 'Do', four from 'Re'. Loaded these into Ableton Live. So as not to offend Re, chose four additional (very small) snippets from that to build the background noises. Seemed fair: 'Re' loops, 'Do' doesn't. Transposed and/or added effects as needed, and assigned triggers to pads on a Korg nanocontroller.

Allowed myself a bit to find out which-went-with-whatsit, hit record and improvised for a little over four minutes.

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Disquiet Junto Project 0055: Two Screws

This week’s project involves a shared set of source material. The source audio is the free solo piano album ‘Screws’ by Nils Frahm.

Frahm, who’s based in Germany, posted the nine-track album of short solo works for free download while he was recuperating from busting one of his thumbs. He subsequently created a site to house all the remixed/reworked versions that admirers sent to him, as well as the videos and other responses that he received.

For this project you will take two of the source tracks — “Do” and “Re” — and create a new track from them, in the process creating a work for two pianos.

Source Audio: You can download the files as sets of MP3 or AIF audio:

http://public.erasedtapes.com/screws/ERATP046NilsFrahmScrewsmp3.zip
http://public.erasedtapes.com/screws/ERATP046NilsFrahmScrewsaif.zip

Or download the individual file directly from their links here:

https://soundcloud.com/erasedtapes/sets/nils-frahm-screws

You can only use those two Frahm tracks as audio source material for your track, and you cannot add anything other sounds, but you can transform the two Frahm tracks as you please. In the end, though, the sound of a piano should be evident.

More on this 55th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/01/17/disquiet0055-twoscrews/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

More on the Frahm project at:
http://reworked.nilsfrahm.com/


splice nine [disquiet0055-twoscrews]

A somewhat disturbed woodpecker decides that it can control the flow of time itself. It takes a little over two and a half minutes, but it does eventually manage to summon the original once-per-second tick sample.
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Found a battery-powered mantle clock in the house that had a discernable tick. I have no contact/piezo mics handy, so put the clock on a stool and recorded with an SM57 running through an RP355 guitar pedal with all the effects/amps turned off (easiest way to sample the tick).

Loaded into Audacity. Did one stage of minimal noise filtering to get rid of some hiss. Then generated eight basic variants of the initial tick. From there on it's Ableton Live.
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Disquiet Junto Project 0056: Matter of Time

This week’s project requires you to make a field recording to serve as the source audio. These are the steps:

Step 1: Locate a clock that has an audible, even if very quiet, tick to its second hand. A watch or other timepiece is also appropriate to the task.

Step 2: Record the sound of the clock for at least 30 seconds, and do so in a manner captures the sound in the greatest detail. A contact mic is highly recommended.

Step 3: Adjust and otherwise filter the recording to reveal the various noises that make up its tick. The goal is to get at the nuance of its internal mechanism.

Step 4: Create an original piece of music employing only layered loops of that sound. These layered loops can individually be transformed in any manner you choose, but at least one unaltered version of the original recording should be included in your piece.

Deadline: Monday, January 28, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your finished work should be between 2 and 5 minutes long.

More on this 56th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/01/24/disquiet0056-matteroftime/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/




woodpecker summons time [disquiet0056-matteroftime]

Downloaded the three source mp3s.  Loaded them into Audacity, removed a little of the hiss from two of the recordings (one of them didn't really have any).

Then selected four words from each piece, as instructed.

Loaded these twelve core sounds into Ableton Live.  Added some effects (mostly dub delays with strategic timing), and used Korg nano-kontrollers to develop a three-part piece (angry, vulnerable, and exultant/triumphant).

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Disquiet Junto Project 0057: Phoneme Transmit

This is a shared-sample project. It focuses on language and emotion.

You are being provided with three audio recordings from the Phonetics Lab Archive at UCLA. As the lab’s webpage (at archive.phonetics.ucla.edu) explains, “The materials on this site comprise audio recordings illustrating phonetic structures from over 200 languages.”

You will use these three MP3s as source material for the project. They are from the languages Buryat, Navajo, and Zulu.

http://archive.phonetics.ucla.edu/Language/ZUL/zul_word-list_1982_01.mp3
http://archive.phonetics.ucla.edu/Language/BXM/bxm_word-list_1991_01.mp3
http://archive.phonetics.ucla.edu/Language/NAV/nav_word-list_1993_03.mp3
From each of these three language-specific MP3s you will select four words. (Don’t use the voice of the technician, who is occasionally heard.) From this total of 12 words you will, through cut and paste, construct new sentences. These nonsense sentences will serve as the a cappella vocal of a new song. All literal meaning is lost in the process; all that is left are emotions.

Your piece should consist of three parts, each of equal length. The first part should sound “angry.” The second part should sound “very silent, vulnerable.” The third part should sound “happy, exultant.”

No other sounds or instruments should be used. You can pitch, stretch, or process the source audio as you please, but it should always sound like someone trying to say something.
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This project was developed for the Disquiet Junto by Michel Banabila (banabila.com).

The source audio is from the UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive:
http://archive.phonetics.ucla.edu.

More on this #57th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/01/31/disquiet0057-phonemetransmit

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

let me tell you... [disquiet0057-phonemetransmit]

Used random.org to roll three virtual dice, and got {3, 3, 4} which maps to 'I'. 'I', 'O'. (Hence the title).

Used Audacity to record the three core sounds (i, i & o) at different pitches, for 10 seconds each.  Did minor editing (fade ins and fade outs) to make these suitable for looping.

Then loaded the three sounds into Audiomulch. Applied multiple delays with times set to produce interesting beat frequencies. Also used a DLGranulator contraption (on 'o') to produce a fourth tone (which I think of as the comma).

Mapped these tones to a korg nanokontroller, and ran a 'live' session for ~5 minutes.

Minor compression/EQ applied after (in Logic) to make it more listenable.

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Disquiet Junto Project 0059: Vowel Choral Drone

This week’s project involves the human voice. You will create a choral drone from three samples that you will create with your own voice. This project requires a single die, or the digital equivalent.

Here are the steps in the project:

Step 1: Roll a die three times (or three dice once) to determine which vowels you will use. Depending on your luck, you may end up with two or even three of the same vowel.

1 = A (“a” as in “yay”)

2 = E (“e” as in “bee”)

3 = I (“i” as in “die”)

4 = O (“o” as in “yo”)

5 = U (“u” as in “you”)

6 = Y (“y” as in “Sylvia”)

If you don’t have access to a die, you can use various digital equivalents. This link, for example, will roll three dice simultaneously:

http://www.random.org/dice/?num=3

Step 2: For each vowel that you have been assigned by the dice, record a 10-second sample of you holding that vowel as a constant tone (volume, timbre, note, etc.).

Step 3: Create a choral drone that utilizes only these three sources of audio. You can treat them with effects lightly, but they should be recognizable as the human voice throughout the duration of track.

Deadline: Monday, February 18, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: Your finished work should be between 2 and 5 minutes in length.

More on this 59th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/02/14/disquiet0059-vwls

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

i, io [disquiet0059-vwls]

First roll added up to 12. This got me the tweet "a rusty old door".

Second roll was a 5, this gave me "X Pro II" as the filter ("Effect: Warm, saturated tones with an emphasis on aquas and greens").

Created a suitable patch in Audiomulch (contraptions, and VST filters/softsynths), played the piece with a nanoKey2 (in keeping with the 'snapshot' spirit of the project, one take).

Image credit. FreeFoto: http://www.freefoto.com/preview/11-32-1/Rusty-Door (I don't have an instagram account, so I just used Preview to saturate and tint the image).

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Disquiet Junto Project 0061: Textinstagr/am/bient

This project requires a single die, or the digital equivalent.

Here are the steps in the project:

Step 1: Roll a die six times (or six dice once), add up the combined results, and then subtract five from it. Make note of the resulting number. If you don’t have access to a die, you can use various digital equivalents. This link, for example, will roll six dice simultaneously:

http://www.random.org/dice/?num=6

Step 2: Visit this Twitter account:

https://twitter.com/textinstagram

Step 3: Count the tweets of that account backwards from the most recent tweet at the time of your visit until you reach the tweet that coincides with the resulting number from step 1 above. Make note of this tweet, unless it begins with an @ sign. If the tweet begins with an @ sign, then use the next tweet (continuing down in reverse chronological order). If the next tweet also begins with an @ sign, then continue until coming to a tweet that doesn’t begin with an @ sign. This final tweet will serve as the title of the track you will soon begin composing and recording.

Step 4: Now, roll a die twice (or two dice once), add up the combined results, and then subtract one from it. Make note of the resulting number. This link will roll two dice simultaneously:

http://www.random.org/dice/?num=2

Step 5: Visit this web page and locate the list of Instagram filters:

http://goo.gl/MWPb0

Step 6: Count down the list of filters on that page until you come to the filter that coincides with the resulting number from step 4 above.

Step 7: Close your eyes and imagine a simple photograph that would be described with the tweet that is the title of your track, and that would have been treated with the filter that resulted from the step 6.

Step 8: Now imagine that the image from step 7 is the cover of your next single. Record a track of original ambient music that would be this single. It should be between one and two minutes in length, true to the postcard-like quality of Instagram — and, by extension, Textinstagram.

. . .

Background: This project is a low-key followup to the Instagr/am/bient compilation that I developed at the end of 2011, and that was in many ways the direct precursor of the Disquiet Junto. Various contributors to Insta/gr/ambient were among the initial participants in the Junto.

Deadline: Monday, March 4, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your finished work should be between one and two minutes in length.

More on this 61st Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/02/28/disquiet0061-textinstagrambient

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

a rusty old door [disquiet0061-textinstagrambient]

Used the 'TestGen" contraption in Audiomulch to generate the sinewave frequencies: {110Hz, 277Hz, 330Hz}. 

This gives you a triad in A Major. (Actually, "A Majorish", since 277 and 330 are technically a smidgen off, but the software only accepts integer values).

In addition to the original sine tones, developed several other tones via processing contraptions and effects. Then used simple mixing techniques "live" to accentuate various beat frequencies as the piece progressed.

Went a little over 4 minutes (apologies... got a little carried away!).

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Disquiet Junto Project 0062: Life of Sine

This week’s project involves making music from the basic building block of sound: the sine wave.

You will compose and record a piece of music using just three different sine waves, and nothing else — well, nothing else in terms of source material, but the waves can, after the piece has gotten underway, be transformed by any means you choose.

These are the steps:

Step 1: Devise which three sine waves you will employ. They should be different from each other in some evident way.

Step 2: The track should open with just one of the sine waves.

Step 3: Add the second sine wave at 5 seconds.

Step 4: Add the third sine wave at 10 seconds.

Step 4: Only at 15 seconds should you begin to in any way manipulate any of the source waves.

Deadline: Monday, March 11, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: Your finished work should be between 1 and 4 minutes in length.

More on this 60th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/03/07/disquiet0062-lifeofsine

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

sine on, you crazy diamond [disquiet0062-lifeofsine]

Downloaded the original sample and converted it to 24-bit WAV.

No suitable space was available, so I placed an Android tablet ("the player") and an iPhone ('the recorder") inside an empty, cylindrical metal can that once held caramel corn (adorned with Disney characters, oddly enough-- so I can't photograph it for you), 12" wide by 18" tall (about 30x45cm). Hit play/record, then closed the cover.

This improvised 'reverberant environment' created a usable (somewhat lo-fi) sample.

Created an Audiomulch patch that read in four instances of this altered sample.  Started each sample successively, and a little over halfway through began to apply stereo delays on two of these playing samples.

Everything after the four-minute mark is the sound of the effects loops, dying.

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Disquiet Junto Project 0063: Gregorian-orian-ian

This week’s project involves the role of architectural spaces in the composition of music. It is a shared-sample project that takes a piece of Gregorian chant as its source material.

These are the steps:

Step 1: Download this OGG audio file that contains a recording of monks singing Gregorian chant at the Abbey of Sant’Antimo in Italy:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Sanantimo_gregorian.ogg

Step 2: Play back that recording loudly in a highly reverberant space and record it. Your best bet may be a bathroom.

Step 3: Create a new piece of music using the recording you just made as your primary source material. You cannot add any new source material. You can manipulate the audio recording as you please, but restrict yourself to effects that simulate echo, such as delay, reverb, and looping. You may also use the original OGG file, but only in addition to your own recording of it being played back in the reverberant space.

Background: For additional thinking on the role that architecture has played in the evolution of music, this 2010 talk by David Byrne is recommended:

http://blog.ted.com/2010/06/11/how_architectur/

Deadline: Monday, March 18, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

More on this 63th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/03/14/disquiet0063-gregorianorianian

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

The source of this piece is a recording of monks singing Gregorian chant at the Abbey of Sant’Antimo in Italy:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sanantimo_gregorian.ogg

bucket-o-monks [disquiet0063-gregorianorianian]

Here's the output from Kenzak's script:

Random Sequence Generator
For Disquiet Junto Project 0065: Piano Overlay

What follows are the start point and length of your assigned segment of Jared Brickman's hour-long composition.

Start Point: 28 minutes 9 seconds

Length: 2 minutes 30 seconds

More on the project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/03/28/disquiet0065-pianoverlay/

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Used Audacity to snip out the excerpt.  Ran a guitar through an Audiomulch patch (with the actual guitar muted out from the mix) to add to the existing piece.

28:09 outer space is really you [disquiet0065-pianoverlay]

Went to random.org to get two random numbers: Got 72 and 227.  I interpreted this as "start 72 mins in, go for 227 seconds" and excerpted that in Audacity.

Loaded this into Ableton, treated the original excerpt slightly, and just played Strat with a couple of Ableton effects. Tried to play not so much 'with' the piece, as 'under' it.

RIP.
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Disquiet Junto Project 0066: Communing with Nofi

This week’s project is a tribute to the late Jeffrey Melton, the talented musician, best known on SoundCloud and Twitter as @nofi. Melton passed away a few days ago, on March 30, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he lived with his wife and seven-year-old son. He was 42. Melton had been involved with the Disquiet Junto since the very first Junto project, back in January 2012, and he early on volunteered to create a Twitter list of the handles of participating Junto members.

The theme of this project, the 66th in the weekly Disquiet Junto series, is “posthumous collaboration”: communing through music.

These are the steps:

Step 1: Download the following live session of Jeffrey Melton performing. It was recorded in June of last year. Warning: it’s fairly sizable, at over 350 MBs:

http://nofi.org/media/2012-06-15-Unwind-live-session.mp3

Step 2: The track is quite long, so select a segment of between 2 and 5 minutes. The best way to go about this might be to do it at random (just put the needle down, as it were), but of course feel free to listen at length and select a favorite section.

Step 3: Once you have your extracted segment, set the opening of the track to fade in.

Step 4: Set the ending of the track to cut out suddenly.

Step 5: Listen to it several times, to get to know it.

Step 6: Record yourself performing live along with the segment you have selected. Any instrumentation is fine. Just no voice. Be sure to play alone for approximately 10 seconds after Melton’s performance cuts off.

Deadline: Monday, April 8, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: Your finished work should be the length determined in steps 2 and 6 above.

This track is a posthumous collaboration with Jeffrey Melton, aka Nofi, who passed away on March 30, 2013. It was recorded live in April 2013 atop a June 2012 Melton live recording.

More on this 66th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/04/04/disquiet0066-nonofi/

More of Melton/Nofi’s music at:
http://www.nofi.org/

Read Melton’s obituary here:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/fortwayne/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=163988588

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

on the head of a pin [disquiet0066-nonofi]

Used random.org to "roll dice" as instructed.

Book: {4,3} gives a 7.

Line: {4,2,3} gives a 24.

Quote:
But ere he enter'd yet the pleasant town,
    Minerva azure-eyed met him, in form
    A blooming maid, bearing her pitcher forth.
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Used the built-in Mac voice synth to generate the original speech/text.  Changed the timing somewhat in Audacity to improve the cadence and rhythm of the speech.  Loaded the result into Ableton Live, created four distinct voices (plus some forest crickets).  "Played" and recorded this.
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Disquiet Junto Project 0067: Odyssey Machine

This week’s project is an adaptation of the ongoing National Poetry Month project at SoundCloud. The Junto will, collectively, produce new fragments of The Odyssey of Homer. A die and access to text-to-speech software are required. There are seven steps.

These are the steps:

Step 1: Roll a die twice (or two dice once) and add the results. This number will tell you which of the first dozen books of The Odyssey by Homer you will be working from.

Step 2: Roll a die three times (or three dice once) and multiply the results (i.e., if you get a 3, a 5, and a 6, then 3 x 5 x 6 = 90). This will tell you which line of the book from Homer’s Odyssey you will be working with.

Step 3: Locate that line in the version of The Odyssey at this URL:

http://archive.org/stream/theodysseyofhome24269gut/24269-0.txt

Step 4: Select the phrase that begins at your assigned line and ends with the next full stop (that is, with the next period) in the text.

Step 5: Record the selected text as audio using an automated text-to-speech tool. You can alter this text in any way you choose, but make certain that it remains inteligble.

Step 6: Record a new piece of background music for the spoken text. The sole source material for this background music should be the audio that resulted from step 5. You can transform the source audio in any way you choose. You can add up to three full seconds at the beginning and end of the spoken audio to allow for the music to build up and to fade out.

Step 7: This is the final step. Combine the audio from steps 5 and step 6 into one track, adjusting the relative volume levels as necessary.

Deadline: Monday, April 15, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

More on this 67th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/04/11/disquiet0067-odysseymachine/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

This project was inspired by the National Poetry Month event at SoundCloud, more details on which here:
https://soundcloud.com/groups/national-poetry-month-collaborations

The source text for this project is William Cowper’s translation of The Odyssey of Homer, available here:
http://archive.org/stream/theodysseyofhome24269gut/24269-0.txt

National Poetry Month: the bell mechanical (disquiet0067-odysseymachine)

Someone bombed the Marathon two miles from my office. Then they shot a cop in front of a building where I get lunch sometimes. Then they carjacked an SUV on a street I'd been on myself just a few hours earlier, on the way home from work. Then work told us all to stay home the next day, because of the lockdown.

Not the quietest of weeks. But "Boston Strong", indeed...
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Used Audacity to decode and excerpt the required source material. Created variants of each sound to use as raw materials, then played/mixed/effected in Ableton Live.  
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Disquiet Junto Project 0068: deriv.deriv.cc

This is a shared-sample project. Create a single new piece of music by employing the selected material (see below) of each the following three tracks. All three were initially released on the new netlabel deriv.cc, and were posted to the Internet with a Creative Commons license encouraging derivative reworking. In fact, the impetus for the label, which was founded by C. Reider, was to draw attention to the intrinsic benefits of allowing for derivative works. Like deriv.cc, this project — one in an ongoing series of netlabel remixes undertaken by the Disquiet Junto — is intended to address the unfortunate popularity of “ND” (i.e., “no derivatives”) licenses among netlabels. Please only use the following material in your piece; you can transform in any way you choose, but do not introduce any new source material.

1: The final 20 seconds of “The Find Beauty, Even in the Mundane”:

http://deriv.cc/stream/d1/02.ogg

2: The first 20 seconds of “Immaterial Girl”:

http://deriv.cc/stream/d1/04.ogg

3: The portion of “Libertarian Entertainment Automaton” that runs from 1:10 to 1:30:

http://deriv.cc/stream/d1/06.ogg

More on this 68th Disquiet Junto project, the intent of which is to draw attention to the benefits of a Creative Commons license allowing for derivative works, at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/04/18/disquiet0068-deriv/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto

This track is composed from material extracted from three pre-existing tracks (“The Find Beauty, Even in the Mundane,” “Immaterial Girl,” “Libertarian Entertainment Automaton”) by C. Reider, all of which were released on the album The Conjuncts on the deriv.cc netlabel, and were themselves derived from the following: “Garden City” and “Ventilation” from Tulse Hill by Hannah Marshall; “LichenWall” from Gardening by Steve Moyes; “Eighteen Events” from Not One Nor by Daniel Barbiero; “Awkward Customer” from [m2012/30-09] by Restive; “cues two three” and “cue six” from Cue Sheet by Sighup; “Sending Dreams to She Downstream” from Pocket Suite by He Can Jog; “The Palsgraf Scale” from Weights and Measures by Gurdonark; “Bonus Track” from Pale by Leo Bettinelli and Pol Nieva; “Haunted Grace” from Haunted Grace on SoundCloud by Jess Lemont a.k.a. Be A Waterwolf; “Ochiita” from Gently Annoying by Xesús Valle; and “Once More With Intellect” from [m2012/30-09] by Restive.

you cannot hide [disquiet0068-deriv]

Process: Downloaded the four source samples from Freesound, converted them as needed with Audacity, and then loaded them into Audiomulch.

Gave each sound a 'character' with a mix of built-in contraptions and a couple of Korg Classic VST Plugins.  Mapped mixer and selected effect parameters to knobs/sliders on a Novation MIDI controller, and (after 3 rehearsal runs) "played" and recorded this result.

Minor levelling/tweaking done in Audacity before uploading.

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Disquiet Junto Project 0069: The 4 Elements

This is a shared-sample project. Its theme is “The Four Elements.” The goal is to create a new piece of music by employing the following four source recordings, each of which is intended to represent one of the elements: earth, water, air, and fire. (Alternately, you can record your own source audio for any or all of the elements.) Your track should be be divided into four segments of roughly equal length, one for each element. Any two consecutive segments may overlap, but only briefly, up to three seconds. You can manipulate the source audio in any way you choose, but you cannot add any other source audio.

More on this 69th Disquiet Junto project, which involves creating a single piece of music from samples that represent each of the four elements, at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/04/25/disquiet0069-4elements/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

All the source audio is from Freesound.org. The earth sample is by ABouch, the water by aesqe, the wind by Bosk1, and the fire by suonho:

Earth: http://www.freesound.org/people/ABouch/sounds/174938/
Water: http://www.freesound.org/people/aesqe/sounds/39901/
Wind: http://www.freesound.org/people/Bosk1/sounds/144083/
Fire: http://www.freesound.org/people/suonho/sounds/3202/

a brief survey of the elements [disquiet0069-4elements]

Assigned map excerpt "fm_cell-qxi.png" from kenzak's site. (full PNG is posted at http://thebellmechanical.com/2013/05/26/disquiet-junto-0073-faulty-notation/).

Interpreted map color as 'instrument/sound', left-to-right distance as 'time', thickness of the area the volume/gain, and the vertical position to be pitch.  Mapped six midi instruments and two looped/processed samples (both lifted from older works of mine).

The midi instruments were played 'by hand' (Korg nanoKontroller).  The two loops were drawn into place.

Done in Ableton Live.


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Disquiet Junto Project 0073: Faulty Notation

This week’s project is about earthquakes. Each participant will receive a distinct section of a map of the San Andreas Fault. The section will be interpreted as a graphic notation score. The resulting music will, in the words of Geoff Manaugh of BLDG BLOG, “explore the sonic properties of the San Andreas Fault.”

More on this 73rd Disquiet Junto project, which involves reading a map of the San Andreas Fault as if it were a graphic notation score, at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/05/23/disquiet0073-faultynotation/

This project was conducted as part of a course of study led by Geoff Manaugh (BLDG BLOG). More on his research at:
http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/san-andreas-architecture-for-fault.html

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/



impassible fractures [disquiet0073-faultynotation]

Done with Ableton Live, post processed in Audacity.

==========================
This is a shared-sample project. Create a single new piece of music by employing the selected material (see below) of each the following three tracks. All three were initially posted to the Internet with a Creative Commons license encouraging derivative reworking. This project — one in an ongoing series of netlabel remixes undertaken by the Disquiet Junto — is intended to address the unfortunate popularity of “ND” (i.e., “no derivatives”) licenses among netlabels. Please only use the following material in your piece; you can transform in any way you choose, but do not introduce any new source material. The music originated on the netlabels tecnonucleo, Split Notes, and Tonstube.

1: The first 30 seconds of “20 200 2000 20000” off the album Sean but not Heard by Sean Archibald:

http://goo.gl/HqRY6

2: The final 30 seconds of “Aftermath” off the album Transmission by Unicode:

http://goo.gl/85ql3

3: From 3:00 to 3:30 of “C2” off the album Cràter by Adrià Bofarull and Joan Saura.

http://goo.gl/W8Y4T

More on this 77th Disquiet Junto project, in which the music from three different netlabels was combined to create one track, at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/06/20/disquiet0077-netlabelsplice/

This track is composed from material extracted from three pre-existing tracks: Adrià Bofarull and Joan Saura’s Cráter, Sean Archibald’s Sean but not Heard, and Unicode’s Transmission. More on Adrià Bofarull and Joan Saura’s album at http://www.tecnonucleo.org/index.php?page=release&release=38. More on Sean Archibald’s album at http://www.split-notes.com/011/. More on Unicode’s Transmission at http://archive.org/details/TON006.

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

last train homebound [disquiet0077-netlabelsplice]

Converted the mp3 back into WAV so AudioMulch could load it (hopefully dithering doesn't count as 'adding' for this purpose).

Split the input mono file into four mono paths, each with a mono parametic eq on it.  Each of the four had one selected frequency band filtered out. Panned these throughout the field.

Used MIDI to attach four of the buttons on a MIDI controller to the mute of each of the four filtered channels.  Attached a fifth button to 'mute all'.  Ran through and 'played'  the buttons live. 

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Disquiet Junto Project 0078: Less Sound, More Music

The 78th weekly Disquiet Junto project revisits the most popular project in the year and a half thus far of the ongoing Disquiet Junto series. It’s a shared-sample project. Everyone will work from the same source audio, which is provided below. You will take the provided sound sample and from it make an original work. You will do this only by subtracting sound from the sample. You won’t add anything to it. You won’t slow it down. You won’t speed it up. You won’t cut it up, and you won’t otherwise reorganize its contents. You won’t play it backwards. You will only “remove.” The word “remove” is up for interpretation — but generally speaking, I’d say that it means various acts of lowering the volume of a narrow or wide band of the audio spectrum for either a short or long period of time. And, of course, “lowering the volume” can be interpreted to mean muting outright. The act here of “removing” is the sonic equivalent of sculpting something from a solid block.

The track that will be the focus of our collective effort is a 1902 recording by the Edison Symphony Orchestra of “Angel’s Serenade,” or “La Serenata,” by composer Gaetano Braga. This link goes to the source MP3:

http://goo.gl/9sWNe

Deadline: Monday, July 1, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: Your piece will, due to the nature of the assignment, be the exact same length as the original recording on which it is based: two minutes and seven seconds (2:07).

More on this 78th Disquiet Junto project, in which sound is removed from a century-old Edison Symphony Orchestra recording, at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/06/27/disquiet0078-minusmusic/

This track a reworking of a 1902 recording by the Edison Symphony Orchestra of “Angel’s Serenade,” or “La Serenata,” by composer Gaetano Braga. The source audio is from this URL:
http://archive.org/details/EdisonSymphonyOrchestra-01-10

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

tesla's revenge [disquiet0078-minusmusic]

Used random.org to roll 6 virtual dice, got a 25. then rolled one more, got a 1.  This points to track #24 "Chaos".

Downloaded the MP3 and converted to 16-bit WAV in Audacity.  Then loaded multiple instances of the file into Ableton Live, slicing out five distinct loops, altering pitch/processing of each loop as needed.

Mapped mixer and loop triggers to MIDI controllers.  The piece was "played" live and recorded.  Some minor remixing and processing in Audacity done afterwards.
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Disquiet Junto Project 0079: Junto of Fate

This week’s project involves shared source material, and it is an exploration of genre, specifically “downtempo instrumental.” The score to the film Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966) has been made available for free download as part of a remix contest being held by the netlabel Happy Puppy Records, the company releasing a restored copy of the film, and the great website freemusicarchive.org. You will be reworking the material with the goal of constructing a track that would be considered “downtempo instrumental.” One standard, six-sided die is required. The steps are as follows:

Step 1: Role a die six times and add the results.

Step 2: Role the die once and subtract this from the amount resulting from Step 1. If the result is zero, then start again at Step 1.

Step 3: The number that results from Step 2 is the track number from the album that will serve as the source material for your remix. You can locate and download your designated track from this page:

http://goo.gl/kTWGA

Step 4: Cut up and reuse material from the track resulting from Step 3 in the service of producing an original piece of music that would be considered “downtempo instrumental.” Also follow this language from the official contest: “no explicit adult material please. By submitting, you agree to license your track under the same BY-NC-SA license. If you include outside samples in your remix, please ensure they are of a similar sharable license.”

More on this 79th Disquiet Junto project, in which the score to the movie Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966) is remixed to make a downtempo instrumental, at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/07/04/disquiet0079-juntofate/

More on the contest at:
http://goo.gl/GXAXf

More on the original film at:
http://www.manosinhd.com/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/