Disquiet Junto Project 0663: Drive Way
The Assignment: Record a piece of music that complements the hum and whir of a hard drive.

This week’s project was proposed by novelist Robin Sloan (Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, Sourdough, Moonbound) in response to a post I made on social media about the annoying sound of an HDD drive I accidentally purchased. I had mistakenly thought it was an SSD drive. We previously did a project inspired by Sloan’s work almost exactly 7 years ago, at the end of August 2017 (more details at disquiet.com/0296).

Step 1: Either record the sound of an HDD drive or use a field recording available online, such as this one from Freesound:

https://freesound.org/people/eardeer/sounds/401271

Step 2: Consider how that drive sound, even when quiet, could be irritating if heard while one is listening to music.

Step 3: Per Sloan’s proposal, “record music to harmonize with, or play against, the whirr.” (It’s up to you if you want to include the sound of the drive along with your music.)

. . .

Deadline: Monday, September 16, 2024, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

More on the 663rd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Drive Way — The Assignment: Record a piece of music that complements the hum and whir of a hard drive — at https://disquiet.com/0663/

The image associated with this project is licensed thanks to a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported. It was taken by Evan Amos — whom Popular Science has reportedly referred to as “gaming’s most famous photographer” — as a part of Vanamo Media.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Laptop-hard-drive-exposed.jpg

Disquiet Junto Project 0663: Drive Way

The track is built upon Haendel's prelude to Water Music
More on this 634nd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Bust a move (The Assignment: Record a piece of music on top of a muffled recording of a piece of classical music), at: disquiet.com/0634/
About the Disquiet Junto: disquiet.com/junto/
Subscribe to project announcements: https://juntoletter.disquiet.com/
Project discussion takes place on https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0634-bust-a-move/66246

(under)water music [disquiet0634]

“Take the sound of the stone aging.”
Yoko Ono

Stones are the witnesses of: There are still deep connections to the archaic stories of our ancestors. We see the same skies, taste the same winds and tell the same stories about who we were and who we will become.

Stepping into the stones’s and sediments perspective: being exposed to the elements for ages and excavated, listening to the meandering tales of mankind.

More on the 643rd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Stone Out of Focus — The Assignment: Make music inspired by a poem — at https://disquiet.com/0643/

This week’s project is based on a text by Yoko Ono, originally published in her book Grapefruit60 years ago, back in 1964.

tales from the archaic (disquiet0643)

701733178214 [disquiet0663]

acoustic bass and hard drive hum
hard drive sound courtesy of eardeer on freesound
https://freesound.org/people/eardeer/sounds/401271

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More on the 663rd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Drive Way — The Assignment: Record a piece of music that complements the hum and whir of a hard drive — at https://disquiet.com/0663/

disquietjunto

disquiet0663_drivedriftingaway

I mixed a number of hard drive recordings and combined the result with a drone sequence created in Pure Data.

More on the 663rd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Drive Way — The Assignment: Record a piece of music that complements the hum and whir of a hard drive — at https://disquiet.com/0663/

The image associated with this project is licensed thanks to a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported. It was taken by Evan Amos — whom Popular Science has reportedly referred to as “gaming’s most famous photographer” — as a part of Vanamo Media.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Laptop-hard-drive-exposed.jpg

Drive Drone (disquiet0663)

Holly Myers — disquiet0663

Disquiet Junto Project 0663: Drive Way

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0663-drive-way/68624/1

Step 1: Either record the sound of an HDD drive or use a field recording available online.
Step 2: Consider how that drive sound, even when quiet, could be irritating if heard while one is listening to music.
Step 3: Per Sloan’s proposal, “record music to harmonise with, or play against, the whirr.” (It’s up to you if you want to include the sound of the drive along with your music.)

I wanted to add a futuristic element to this suggestion. The ambient drone is paired with distorted plucked synths, while evolving bass growls blend with the futuristic rumble of a cyberpunk car. I wanted to evoke the dystopian feeling of driving through abandoned, overdeveloped landscapes. The eerie atmosphere is intensified by dissonant, off-key sounds, with sharp, jarring moments created by the clashing harmonics of the lead synths. This track is designed to engage the listener’s imagination of this scenario while also provoking discomfort through sonic shocks. I hope you appreciate this piece by not enjoying it! 

*I used and AI image generator to create the cover art; suggestions described the  cyberpunk dystopia I wanted to present to the listener*

MAX DURHAM - CYBER-DRIVE (disquiet0663)

From (and including) a recording of a backup drive. Expert Sleepers' Spectral Conquest is used on three tracks to isolate several pulsing frequencies. These tracks are used to sidechain a gate on three tracks containing a XILS 4 from XILS Labs, with the result being processed by various plugins, including Devious Machines' Infiltrator, and Baby Audio's Humanoid. The original recording is blended in at the start and end of the track.
--
More on the 663rd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Drive Way — The Assignment: Record a piece of music that complements the hum and whir of a hard drive — at https://disquiet.com/0663/

platter chatter (disquiet0663)

"Nostromo revisited" is a sound atmosphere inspired by some room tones and the spaceship of the movie "Alien". The original Nostromo that I have just revisited was uploaded to freesound (https://freesound.org/people/fectoper/sounds/59/) just after its opening, back in 2005. That file has been downloaded thousands of times, and has been included in games, videos, music tracks, etc. I created this kind-of room tone with my JD-800 synthesizer, around 1993. Here I have extended its duration and added some layers, depth and processing.
More on the 671st weekly Disquiet Junto project, In the air tonight - The Assignment: Make an atmosphere of your own — at https://disquiet.com/0671/

Nostromo revisited [disquiet0671]

Another evening out at the symphony, another excellent orchestral tune-up. I love how this sort of pre-concert moment can itself function like a composition, the murmuring crowd serving as an ersatz chorus.

Drop In, Tune Up, All Out

The Devil challenges Johnny to an RC car race. The winner gets a plastic trophy - oh, and Johnny's soul! A humorous take on modern RC car racing, and a parody of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by The Charlie Daniels Band. Facebook comments: "OMG that's hilarious", "Very funny!", "Legendary".

The Devil Went RC Racing

# Disquiet Junto Project 0693: Melody Sorted
The Assignment: Reorganize a familiar song note by note.

I initially faffed around, thinking about sorting MIDI files (may still try this!) but what really got my attention was the idea of taking "In C", doing this operation on the fragments, and seeing how that would come out.

The full description of the process can be found in the GitHiub repo at https://github.com/joemcmahon/C_In.

C In (disintegrated) [disquiet0693]

The creative process is an addiction but not an obsession.
This short sentence is repeated numerous times with one layer slowed down and the whole subjected to a chain of changing effects.

More on the 707th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Chain of Practice — The Assignment: Make music from how you make music — at https://disquiet.com/0707/

An Addiction (disquiet0707)

An electronic sequence created using Pure Data in real time.

More on the 713th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Airwave Workout — The Assignment: Record exercise music for an imaginary broadcast — at https://disquiet.com/0713/.

Gentle Exercise (disquiet0713)

An electronic composition, sounds created using Pure Data.

Green Shoots (naviarhaiku608)

Barker co-runs Leisure System, is a regular on Ostgut Ton, especially together with Nd Baumecker as Barker & Baumecker, and his “Debiasing” record was one of the freshest releases of 2018. Enjoy!

Interview: http://iliantape.de/ilian-tape-podcast-series-037/

Tracklist:

Dopplereffekt - Athanatos
Blawan - Klade
Rhyw - Byzantine Mahogany
Jessica Kert - Hope For The Rest (Original Mix)
Merimell - Deception
Forest Drive West - UN
Forest Drive West - Traveller
Soundbwoy Killah - Abra Cadabra
Pessimist - Peter Hitchens
Voytek - Operate
Mosca - No, We're Not A Couple
Barker - Terminal
No Moon - Mallet Fury 
Sam Barker & Taku Hirayama - Broken Piano Tracks #1
Sam Barker & Taku Hirayama - Broken Piano Tracks #2
Skee Mask - Rev8617
Cassius Select - They Shook
Yak - Lucid Nightmare
Slam - Resolved (Clouds Deepbassthrombosis Mix)
Donato Dozzy - Cleo
Barker - When Prophecy Fails
LMAJOR - The Power (Original Mix)
Avatism - XX
HATE - Human Resources
Stojche - Magnitude
Marcel Dettmann - Test-File
Paula Temple & Eomac - Gestirn
Marco Shuttle - Oscillate

ITPS037 BARKER

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.

platter chatter (disquiet0663)

wasabicube

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