Killer intro and sonic balance between different polyrhythmic voices!

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

9 Zebralette, OTT, You Wa Shock, Bitwig convolution, Bitwig Limiter, TDR Nova. DAW: Bitwig OSC #191 Zebralette

Spring Goose - The curious zebra

55ish instances of zebralette using Reaper 6.83

OTT, ReaLimit, LoudMax, TSOM's B&S, Supermassive Valhalla, Raum, A1TriggerGate, ReEQ, TDR Kotelnikov, Replika, Reaverb, A1StereoControl

LUFS-I = 11.1

The last 7 minutes are very slow ambient which isn't popular in OSC and of course it's long. Feel free to skip if that's a problem for you, although just to be clear, I love it. 

Thank you Jas (white noise), TSOM (cymbals), Exponent (exophase!) for sound design help.

OSC191 Forgotten Dream (Zebralette 6th)

Entry for One Synth Challenge 191 - U-he Zebralette 2

Made in Reaper using 39 instances of Zebralette 2 for 15 voice-split single layer instruments.
No 3rd party noises of any kind were involved. 
Light clean-up duties were performed at track level by TDR Nova.
A touch of snipping done by GClip and Flux Bittersweet on the drum.
Some delay was provided by HY-Delay 4 
Reverberation courtesy of U-he Protoverb and Valhalla Supermassive, 
with a little help from their friends:  HOFA System Pan, TDR Nova, A1 Stereo Control and JS Mixer.
Somewhat reluctantly living on the master bus are TDR Kotelnikov, A1 Stereo Control, Limiter No6, and Flux Bittersweet.

Looking At You

Progetto per un call for works per flauto e fixed media, abbandonato per difficoltà e dubbi riguardo la partitura del flauto. 
2 contrabassi, tape delay, e flauto (canale destro, tongue ram).


Project for a call for works for flute and fixed media, abandoned due to difficulties and doubts about the flute score. 
2 double basses, tape delay, and flute (right channel, tongue ram).

FIRST-Tongue Ram [disquiet0697]

Disquiet Junto Project 0698: Second Third
The Assignment: Record the second third of a trio.

I chose a track randomly from the lines thread last week and ended up with @xhg 's field recording (https://soundcloud.com/xhg/disquiet0697-sunday-morning-gardening).  All the sounds I used for the beat came from xhg's recording and I tried to take cues from it as well.  For example, I tried to match the steps in the middle section for the pace, 109BPM.  I used a resonator set to G# because the bell heard in the last third of the recording is roughly a G#.

Look what I Found in the Garden (Disquiet0698) (feat. xhg)

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]

Track created for Disquiet0712 Challenge. Foundation rhythm generated from decoding a UPC bar code. No Kind Breakfast Protein Bars were harmed in making this track. All sounds created with SurgeXT VST Synth.

The track is in 7/8 with the following decoded pattern as the rhythmic foundation:
Each number represents the 1/8 note duration value per a bar.

1114 3211 2122 1114
1231 2122 1132 2221
2112 1411 3211 3211

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/.



Ictus UPC-Disquiet(0712)

A slow, laid-back funk groove with jazzy sax, clavinet, deep fender jazz bass, and abstract synth textures.
Smooth, atmospheric, and slightly cinematic — the kind of track that lives between a modal jam and a chill-out or lounge beat.

Performed by DD - clavinet, electric bass, abstract synth, drum program.
With Miguel Yanover - Tenor saxophone

For this @disquiet challenge:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0720-one-from-two/

Golpe de Suerte - disquiet0720

An electronic sequence created using Pure Data with additional reverb and delay to produce two  levels, one with prominent sharp sounds and the other a fuzzy background with the impression of increased distance.

More on the 725th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Rack It — The Assignment: Change the “focus” of a track as it plays — at https://disquiet.com/0725/.

Sharp and Fuzzy (disquiet0725)

Moons of S (Buchla)

:: Live experimental eurorack composition limited to a few modules ::

George Crumb

:: getting close to Buchla territory here with Plaits at least to my ears :: Live take to 2 track, little heavy on the verb ::

Plaits Short Random

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.

Ictus UPC-Disquiet(0712)

FrankH

Recent comments

sketcherazzi

Related tracks