More on this 189th Disquiet Junto project (“Create a dense stack of attack-free tonal material from one audio source”) at:

http://disquiet.com/2015/08/13/disquiet0189-tonelayer/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/junto/

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:

http://disquiet.com/forums/

Image associated with this project by Nicholas D., and used thanks to a Creative Commons license:

https://flic.kr/p/ca1iLd


Disquiet Junto Project 0189: Tone Layer

My Disquiet Junto projects...

The Disquiet Junto is a collaborative music-making space in which restraints are used as a springboard for creativity. It is produced in association with Disquiet.com.

Each Thursday a new Junto project is announced. Participants are expected to upload their completed tracks to the group by the following Monday at 11:59pm (that's 11:59pm wherever they are).

The "FAQ" at the link below has additional information about the Disquiet Junto group: how to participate, what the rules are and more. And no, you don't need to participate every week.

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

disquiet junto tracks

A quick demo of three layers of a wavetable synth patch I've been working on for another piece.

The only difference between each instance of the instrument is filter settings.

"Many" loops became 3 in this compressed scale.
---
More on this 189th Disquiet Junto project (“Create a dense stack of attack-free tonal material from one audio source”) at:

http://disquiet.com/2015/08/13/disquiet0189-tonelayer/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/junto/

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:

http://disquiet.com/forums/

[Disquiet's] Image associated with this project by Nicholas D., and used thanks to a Creative Commons license:

https://flic.kr/p/ca1iLd


fairchild demo [disquiet0189-tonelayer]

edit: re-posted because i realized i could combine all 4 takes together

-

simple modular patch
shapeshifter played with pressure points
envelope from quadra
echophon as a looper and erbeverb as the only effect

--

Disquiet Junto Project 0189: Tone Layer
Create a dense stack of attack-free tonal material from one audio source.

This project involves layering loops, or a loop of layers. It’s preferable that you do so with live looping, allowing the layers to accrue in real time. However, if live looping is not a capacity of yours, then feel free, certainly, to layer them in Audacity or by some other means.

These are the steps:

Step 1: Choose an instrument that can create extended tones.

Step 2: Record a short loop of a single held tone on that instrument. Use a volume pedal or other tool to eliminate the attack at the start of the tone.

Step 3: Create many more such loops, all with the same instrument, and layer them atop the original loop.

Step 4: Record a document of these layered loops lasting approximately 1 minute.

Step 5: Upload your completed track to the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.

Step 6: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

More on this 189th Disquiet Junto project (“Create a dense stack of attack-free tonal material from one audio source”) at:
disquiet.com/2015/08/13/disquiet0189-tonelayer/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:
disquiet.com/junto/

Join the Disquiet Junto at:
soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:
disquiet.com/forums/


threads [disquiet0189-tonelayer]

After an 1 hour messing around with the modular trying to figure out a ridiculously complex way of doing this week's task; I gave up and did this Basinski -style thing in 10 minutes with my new lapsteel guitar and a forthcoming software looper whose name I'm not allowed to mention yet...
The track was done in real time. (Hence the fact it's more than 1 minute long) The guitar was processed through Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5 and I added some Tape delay, Eq and Limiting in Ableton Live.

More on this 189th Disquiet Junto project (“Create a dense stack of attack-free tonal material from one audio source”) at:

http://disquiet.com/2015/08/13/disquiet0189-tonelayer/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/junto/

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:

http://disquiet.com/forums/

Image associated with this project by Nicholas D., and used thanks to a Creative Commons license:

https://flic.kr/p/ca1iLd

Sediment Layers (disquiet0189-tonelayer)

Looped the viola a number of times live - some with 100% wet signal from a couple of delay and reverb pedals and some 100% dry. I liked the effect of hearing the layers build up, but due to the time constraint of 1:00 I selected a chunk in the middle  of the piece before it got a bit too cacophonous and muddy (I may have got carried away with the number of loops I had running towards the end...)

More on this 189th Disquiet Junto project (“Create a dense stack of attack-free tonal material from one audio source”) at:
http://disquiet.com/2015/08/13/disquiet0189-tonelayer/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://disquiet.com/junto/

Join the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:
http://disquiet.com/forums/

Image associated with this project by Nicholas D., and used thanks to a Creative Commons license:
https://flic.kr/p/ca1iLd

Slap Another One On There Disquiet0189 - Tonelayer

**Production Notes**

There’s a nice little free Reaktor ensemble, which I used for this piece. It’s called vFripp. It combines a synth with a frippertronic style mono delay. 

Played for 5 minutes to build up something, then let the loops flow. 

Maybe I put up the longer version, also. 

* * * 


** Disquiet Junto Project 0189: Tone Layer**


Create a dense stack of attack-free tonal material from one audio source.

This project involves layering loops, or a loop of layers. It’s preferable that you do so with live looping, allowing the layers to accrue in real time. However, if live looping is not a capacity of yours, then feel free, certainly, to layer them in Audacity or by some other means.

These are the steps:

Step 1: Choose an instrument that can create extended tones.

Step 2: Record a short loop of a single held tone on that instrument. Use a volume pedal or other tool to eliminate the attack at the start of the tone.

Step 3: Create many more such loops, all with the same instrument, and layer them atop the original loop.

Step 4: Record a document of these layered loops lasting approximately 1 minute. 

Step 5: Upload your completed track to the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.

Step 6: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Deadline: This assignment was made in the afternoon, California time, on Thursday, August 13, 2015, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, August 17, 2015.

Length: The length of your finished work should be roughly one minute.

(…)

More on this 189th Disquiet Junto project (“Create a dense stack of attack-free tonal material from one audio source”) at:

http://disquiet.com/2015/08/13/disquiet0189-tonelayer/ More on the Disquiet Junto at: http://disquiet.com/junto/

Join the Disquiet Junto at: http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at: http://disquiet.com/forums/

Image associated with this project by Nicholas D., and used thanks to a Creative Commons license:

https://flic.kr/p/ca1iLd 
- end -

Fripp’s Layer Cake [disquiet0189-tonelayer]

PROCESS

Single notes in the key of C, staggered and stacked to move through different chords. "Attack" was eliminated using a combination of my trusted E-bow fed through an EHX POG2 with its attack setting jacked all the way up for max swell. Tape Delay, Phaser, Reverb added for space travel (or ocean travel as the case may be here).

RIG

Fabien (Peekamoose Custom Guitars M2), EHX POG2, Small Sound / Big Sound Sparkle Motion, tc electronic flashback delay, EQD Grand Orbiter, EQD Afterneath, Strymon blueSky, Line6 POD-XT (Vox AC-30 emulation), RECORDING DAW: Sony Acid 7.0 (Win 8.1), MASTERING DAW: Harrison Mixbus 2.5 (Mac OS 10.7.5)


PROJECT

Create a dense stack of attack-free tonal material from one audio source.

Step 1: Choose an instrument that can create extended tones.

Step 2: Record a short loop of a single held tone on that instrument. Use a volume pedal or other tool to eliminate the attack at the start of the tone.

Step 3: Create many more such loops, all with the same instrument, and layer them atop the original loop.

Step 4: Record a document of these layered loops lasting approximately 1 minute.

Step 5: Upload your completed track to the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.

Step 6: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

------------------------------------------------
More on this 189th Disquiet Junto project (“Create a dense stack of attack-free tonal material from one audio source”) at:
http://disquiet.com/2015/08/13/disquiet0189-tonelayer/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://disquiet.com/junto/

Join the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:
http://disquiet.com/forums/

c swells [disquiet0189-tonelayer]

PROCESS

My 66th(!) junto contribution was written and recorded on Monday evening 26 Sep 2016 while watching the 1st 2016 US Presidential debate (on mute, CSPAN only) with the project photograph (http://goo.gl/djQ31Y) in my field of vision on an iPad and a few glasses of Russian River Valley Pinot Noir in my bloodstream. This may be the most normie crossover americana country pop track EVER posted to the Junto, but I’ve embraced that side lately, perhaps as a contrarian move to a deep dive into the dark web and anonymity in the last year (as well as being the caretaker of a terminally ill dog).

Acoustic and electric rhythm guitars and vocals are organic. Drums, bass, Hammond B3, pedal steel, and horn parts are built from samples looped in Acid (total ~60 tracks through 11 busses). If you think there's more than one human involved in this, I've done my job.

> 3/4 waltz + rock, 148 bpm.
> there are 27 figures in the graphic and the first verse has 27 words. couldn't hold myself to that in the 2nd verse, but all's forgiven.
> mostly a back-door tribute to Tony Rice's version of A Song For Life, but not slavish in its ape.

Enjoy life, fellow Junto-ers. Embrace melody and structure every once in a while. There's magic (and sanity) in the way a fifth and a third can play with each other.

Our world is fucked from here on forward, but fuck it.

:^D

LYRICS

Sing a song for life in the morning
As the sunrise waltzes through leaves
Let all the anger and pain
And destructive refrains
Dissolve into your dreams

Maybe we’ll wake up
It's time we wake up
Maybe we’ll wake up
Wake up time

The first thing you see before you open your eyes
Is the truest reflection of you
One day the first thing we’ll know
is a sunrise so slow
And a world renewed

PROJECT

More on this 247th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Interpret as a graphic score an illustration drawn upon waking by Lark Pien” — at:

http://disquiet.com/0247/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
http://llllllll.co/t/a-cartoon-graphic-score-disquiet-junto-project-0247/4647

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Image associated with this project is the (unintended, but used with approval) graphic score by Lark Pien.
https://goo.gl/djQ31Y

wake up time [disquiet0247]

PROJECT
Devise a short piece of music in celebration of the Galactic Tick. 
http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/news/a22492/galactic-tick-day-september-29/
http://galactictick.com/

PROCESS
Perfect excuse to play with the brilliant iPad app 'SpaceVibe' to generate all the arpeggio orbits and low frequency hums. Layered an AniMoog and live guitar over it with a basic click beat created in Acid using samples.
In the context of physics, "coherence" happens when waves exhibit similar direction, amplitude and phase and thus can interfere (i.e. play nice) with each other.
Celebration of the galactic tick struck me as a (re)discovery of the coherence our lives have with the milky way. And here in the USA we could certainly use some coherence these days.

RIG
Synths (iPad): SpaceVibe through FluxFX via AudioBus. AniMoog.
Guitar: Jolie (Gibson ES335 DOT (1999))
Pedal Board: SmallSound/BigSound Sparkle Motion -> Lotus Pedal Snowjob -> tc electronic flashback delay (tape setting) -> Diamond Tremolo (chaotic saw/square) -> Strymon blueSky reverb -> Line6 Pod-XT (Vox AC-30 emulator)
DAW: MOTU 828mk2 -> Acid 7.0 (Win 8.1)
Master: Harrison MixBus (MacOS) 

META

More on this 248th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Celebrate the new celestial holiday in music” — at:
http://disquiet.com/0248/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
http://llllllll.co/t/music-for-the-galactic-tick-disquiet-junto-project-0248/4744

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

The image associated with this project is borrowed from the website galactictick.com

cypher e\ dreams

universal coherence [disquiet0248]

PROCESS
Thank you so much, Marc (@disquiet) for thinking of Sterling in this project. As I told Marc in an email exchange where he told me of the dedication in this week's prompt, my thinking about how the sound waves we produce may somehow go on forever began with the Junto's week dedicated to the death of Jefferey Melton (@Nofi).

Nick Drake's 'Northern Sky' open tuning resolves to a Dsus4 chord (with the suspended G as the center note and F# up high)
D-A-D-G-D-F#

I was gifted knowledge of Drake while working at Rolling Stone as an intern in 1992, and ever since, 'Northern Sky' is the song I turn to when skies darken. Felt right to invoke it here by striking its open chord for a few minutes. (Note: Soundcloud's auto-compression revealed my perceived silences to be not so silent. Hi ho.)

Sterling passed in our home on 22 December 2016 ~6:20 EST. I trust he's suspended somewhere now between space & time in painless parallel peace. Fwiw, we had David Bowie on random shuffle and 'Absolute Beginners' came on as the process began. Perfect is a strange word in this context, but life works in curious ways sometimes to deliver solace.

All the love.

:^D

RELEVANT EXTERNAL LINKS:
My reflections on Sterling:
https://medium.com/westyreflector/sterling-at-the-gates-dcff944b76df

Alan Watts on how the universe is made of vibrations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhHfKqLR6NI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmkwqn0mSQs

My prior piece "Riding Waves" to honor the passing of Nofi:
https://soundcloud.com/thereflectors/riding-waves

RIG
Guitar:
Jolie (2000 Gibson ES-335 DOT reissue, modded 100% with custom http://peekamoose.com electronics)

Pedal Board:
EQ Devices The Warden optical compressor -> Lotus Pedals SnowJob Underdrive -> tc electronic Flashback delay -> Diamond Tremolo -> EQ Devices Grand Orbiter -> EQ Devices Afterneath -> Strymon blueSky Reverb

Recording:
Line6 POD-XT (Blackface Lux emulator) -> MOTU 828mk2 firewire interface -> AcidPro 7.0 -> Harrison Consoles Mixbus (Mastering)

META
More on this 260th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Tone Fade: An exercise in when a sound ends — at:
http://disquiet.com/0260/

(This project is for Sterling.)

More on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
http://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0260-tone-fade/5809

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Photo associated with this project is by Michel Banabila, used thanks to a Creative Commons license:
flic.kr/p/5GB7bn

sterling fades [disquiet0260-tonefade]

Spending this week in Venice, FL, at The Herron House (http://www.modernsarasota.com/single-post/2016/09/27/Victor-Lundy). Built by architect Victor A. Lundy, FAIA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_A._Lundy), in 1957 for the Herron family, the house was restored to its original grandeur by its current owners in 2008. It's a masterstroke of mid-century American imagination, and a timeless time capsule that will always feel like the future.

Most of the house is open-plan (the bedrooms and offices have doors), and there are two spectacular rooms within the envelope of the roof line that have floor-to-ceiling screens as their 4th walls separating them from the outside. The result is a house that breathes with its occupants (lizards included), creating an inside-out and outside-in soundscape that leaves you in a true suspension of time and space.

This piece was recorded inside the house during night and day rainstorms (Rooms A and C, respectively), as well as a clear morning (Room B). Most of the time, the house provides a serene silence, which I wanted to capture for the C-section, but the iPad mic is not conducive to recording nuanced calmness, so this piece captures none of the house’s tranquility. Rest assured, however, this has been a relaxing week, replete with luck to have graced its environs.

The project instructions said “don’t add any other effects or sonic material,” so here’s three rooms, with zero(0) processing, in loose arrangement as a song. Each room’s stereo tracks are two tracks recorded close in time, panned left and right.

iPad GarageBand audio recorder --> iCloud --> GarageBand 10.2.0 for OS X Sierra.

Room A: 
https://flic.kr/p/URaJhs
Rear sun room. This room is one of the two with screen-walls, and also has a massive screen skylight that allows rain inside. The tick-tocking sound (a short sample of which is looped as the Room A tone) is the rain hitting the metal arm and vinyl padding of a vintage outdoor rocking chair sitting under the screen skylight.

Room B:
https://flic.kr/p/Ub7Aye
Front sun room, secondary entertainment and dining area. Like Room A, this room also has a floor-to-ceiling screen wall, which in this room's case faces the driveway and gives vegetation obscured views of the street (see the picture attached to the track). This room has a glass skylight, however, so remains protected during bad weather (aside from whatever might pass through the screen in windier conditions). The recording was taken on a calm morning while drinking coffee at the table in the room, and the local birds were out in full force in the palm trees and plants that shield the house. 

Room C:
https://flic.kr/p/UhBb2p
Kitchen informal dining area. Floor-to-celing glass-enclosed on 3 sides. Looks out on the pool and outdoor seating area. The downspouts from the roof are tucked away on either side of the exterior of this room. As a result, during rainstorms, sitting at the table results in a stereo clattering of water rushing down from the roof to the underground drain. The glass is true to 1957 vintage and single paned, so there isn't much in the way of sound absorption. The effect lends the sensation of standing behind a waterfall in a dry cave.

Check out my Flickr for some detailed interior and exterior shots of the house. A few shots are on my Instagram, too.

https://flic.kr/s/aHskXXyasN
http://instagram.com/westyreflector
_________________________________

More on this 283rd weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Rooms Within Rooms: Make an instrumental song built from the sounds of different rooms” — at:
https://disquiet.com/0283/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:
https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0283-rooms-within-rooms/

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to http://twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

'57 Echoes [Disquiet0283-RoomsWithinRooms]

Apologize for nothing, Bassel.

All sounds either Bassel or guitar. 

Underlying bed is reversed "Amazing Grace" mixed with three tracks of Bassel's phrase ~13x stretched: One track is him harmonized and pitched down to F#; One is him disambiguated as noise; One is him just straight up sloooowed doowwwn. 

Floated over the affair with an eBow.

This track marks my 69th Disquiet Junto contribution.
https://soundcloud.com/thereflectors/sets/disquietwesty

My studio suffered an irreparable crash last week while attempting the first of these two most recent #freebassel projects. Kind creative forces graced me, however, with a few workarounds and a long-overdue seat kick into a more current-era workflow. I hold onto the thought that all my tech disruption (forced unwinding and time-zero reconfiguration of twenty+ years of habits) would make Bassel, well, just laugh. I hope that laughing's all he's doing now.

This is the fourth track I've recorded in honor of Bassel. The first couple made it into their respective Junto weeks:
https://soundcloud.com/thereflectors/intransitive-disapperance?in=thereflectors/sets/disquietwesty
https://soundcloud.com/thereflectors/freebassel-disquiet0202?in=thereflectors/sets/disquietwesty

One project stalled in the concept phase, but instead of letting it languish, I fleshed it out into something 100% different than intended (with lyrics!), and it became a Dylan-esque acerbic romp through a world refusing to change:
https://thereflectors.bandcamp.com/track/lonesome-faraway-sounds

This track here, though, was the first one of these for Bassel I recorded knowing he will never hear it. Killed the urgency and upped the poignancy, I guess. Wish I was less numb about all this.

In the end, pessimism breaks people quicker, and with more permanence, than fear. The greatest weapon used against free-thought warriors such as Bassel is not to make them scared - it's to make them feel alone in their fight.

Your being here, though, listening, proves he's not alone.

Peace.

RIG
Guitar: Peekamoose Custom Workhorse M2

Pedalboard: SmallSound/BigSound Sparkle Motion -> SS/BS Mini F*ck -> tc electronic Flashback Delay -> EHX Superego (Send/Receive: EQD Arpanoid -> EHX POG2 -> Diamond Tremolo) -> EHX Freeze -> EQD Grand Orbiter -> EQD Afterneath -> Strymon blueSky Reverb -> Pigtronix Infinity Looper

Amp: Fender SuperChamp X2 (set to vintage Princeton Reverb voice)

Hardware:
MOTU 828mk2 -> MacBook Pro
Windows PC (DIY)

Software:
Paulstretch (standalone, Windows 10)
Dropbox
Harrison Mixbus 4 (DAW and mastering)

PROJECT: 
Disquiet Junto Project 0294: Offline Status

Pay tribute to the late Bassel Khartabil by turning his spoken words into music.

More on this 294th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Offline Status: Pay tribute to the late Bassel Khartabil by turning his spoken words into music. — at:
https://disquiet.com/0294/

Thanks to Niki Korth, Jon Phillips, and Barry Threw for encouraging this project. More on Bassel here:
http://freebassel.org

More on the Disquiet Junto at:
https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0294-offline-status/

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

c swells [disquiet0189-tonelayer]

Westy Reflector