A short collection of tracks, consisting of the most-finished experiments I created while poking around for new ideas and new direction. Available on Bandcamp for free!
https://vert-hex.bandcamp.com/album/hexperiments

hexperiments

A short introductory song, loosely themed around the cyclical feeling of waking up in the thick of pandemic times, facing the same day as yesterday and the day before ad nauseum.

The experiment here is trying to portray a simple feeling of how it feels to live where I do (bay area CA). I used NI's Giant piano through reverb and granular delay, on top of ambient recording of a rare rainstorm behind my apartment.

The wide voicings really hooked me when I was feeling it out. For example, the first chord is (G-D-E-B-E-A-B-C); imo it has a bright but ambiguous sound, especially next to the lush and slightly darker third chord (E-D-F#-A-B-E-A). Notating them is tough, tho...

One way considering all notes would be Am11/G-Dm11-Bm11/E, another with basic functionality would be CM9/G-Am7/D-Bm7/E. Afterwards, the progression is transposed down a whole step two different times. Chords in the beat are simple enough: 2x(DbM9-EbM9)-2x(Cm11-Gm11).

Awake Again

Not only an effort to write a vocal track, but to write using a synthesized vocalist. Synth V has a ton of potential and the phonemes sound a lot more natural than any Vocaloid to my ear, but alas, there is only a single english vocalist so far.

With this track, I wanted to see what would result from shamelessly smashing some of my favorite sounds together underneath those synth vocals- those elements being dense pad samples, lush chords with neat modulations, bitcrushed breaks, granular delays, and gritty bass, all wrapped up in a quick halftime tempo and a lovely artificial aesthetic. The mix is rather dense and it turned out to be a bit challenging to decipher some of the lyrics, but you know, I am strangely proud of the result.

Chords in the verse are Em11-C#m11-G/A-Fmaj7. With the spices removed it might resemble a descenfing thirds motion, Em-C-Am-F in E phrygian; but the second chord is replaced with the chromatic mediant C#m, which immediately adds chili powder to the adjecent chords and may cause stanky face. Though what really gets me is the G/A to Fmaj7, the G/A has a suspended feeling that resolves in such a pretty way- I urge you to try them out and steal the cadence for yourself.



Cheesy Lyrics Below:
(verse 1)
tossing and turning, no outlet discerning / my ocean is churning, i can't say
maybe, then knowing when i'm done and limbo ends / then all the days won't just feel the same
a thousand roads point from home, asking since long ago / begging me not to say 'someday'
i can't seem to find the road, the sentiment is growing old / and you can't seem to wait another day

(chorus)
and still i'm waiting for my mind to make itself / no point in rushing while it's comfy in this cell

(verse 2)
tossing and turning, an outlet deserving / heard voices of yearning you can't say
thoughtless, disturbing, those words of discerning my / efforts, my progress still feels the same
reaching out through the dark, hoping to find the spark / i promised myself to find someday
friends all seem to pass me by, it asks me why i even try / to rationalize the thoughts another way
(repeat chorus)

Ennui [ft. Eleanor Forte]

A short practice track with staggered, layered breaks over a syncopated bass and a slick but pensive motif. I think it would serve well as a futuristic customization screen or menu theme.

After I wrote the song, the chords ended up too dense to bother analyzing, since the pads are sampled, and on occasion they get stacked in fifths. It ends up creating a wash of sound with vaguely major9add13 textures, and the pedaltone bassline ostinatoes on notes E and D which further shifts the chord contexts and complicates analysis. It sounds pretty cool though.

Station 10621

An experiment making fakebit for GBA loosely in a water level aesthetic. There are some short samples from GBA games, some longer samples from 90s sample cds, some simple synthesized chip sounds, and a cool slap bass from a korg triton, all ground into paste with a bitcrusher to simulate that very cheap and crunchy DAC. With cool artificial slap bass riffage!!

Pelagia

A bonus remaster of a track from 2020, since it hasn't actually been released. This version feels a lot thicker. This was an experiment to switch between a driving 4/4 techno beat to a grinding halftime backbeat, and a test song to mix with NI's SSL mixing plugins- they have a pressurized and somewhat knocky tendency with the sound.

Vari Shift [2021 Remaster]

A coarse attempt at making a darker atmosphere with a lot of color. And groove. This was created in the midst of a jungle bender, so it is very breaky. Everything but the drums were patched in NI's Massive as a sound design exercise. I was also messing about with changing bitcrusher settings to morph the texture of the song as it goes, especially with the switch back to mono at the end of the B section.

Grayscaling

Cyber music with a love for all things synthesized!
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