Dr Blankenstein Illumiringer DIY box
Procrastination is a specialty of mine but after Dr Blankenstein expressed an interest in what I was going to do with his work, I felt obligated to get onto it.
Previously I mentioned plans to install the Illumiringer into a Speak And Spell but I opted to make it a stand-alone effect once I realised it'd be a squeeze to fit the 9V battery into the device. After a bit of hunting around I settled on this plastic specs case to ensure I didn't short circuit anything by using a metal tin.
The effect does control pitch, haven't noticed much character yet so I'll give it a go on my voice sometime.
Disquiet Junto: vowel choral drone
Interesting exercise this week, requiring recording my voice and cooking it until well drone.
Disquiet Junto Project 0059: Vowel Choral DroneThis 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: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.Information: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto.Title/Tag: When adding your track to the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com, please include the term “disquiet0059-vwls” in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.Download: Consider setting your track in a manner that allows for attributed, commerce-free remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).Linking: When posting the track, be sure to include this information:More on this 59th Disquiet Junto project at:More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
Using the generator above, it was determined I would work with 'O', 'U' and 'E' sounds. Quickly I settled on singing them as G, B and D -- three notes I like playing with sustain on a piano.
After realising it would be a challenge to sustain the lower note for 10 seconds, I hooked up a pitch-correction pedal to use while singing. Later I realised I didn't use it but I think that thinking it was on helped my performance.
With the samples recorded, I began experimenting with creating a drone and re-pitching the samples to create chords with which to develop a sense of harmonic progression in the track. This became bewildering as I lost track of key and at one point my family began complaining the lower frequencies were making them ill.
The next day I returned to the project and developed a chord progression that would work over the three notes I had. My partner commented that it sounded 'pop' so I didn't worry once it began to take yet another direction when I re-pitched samples.
Think it's finished but I'm not really sure what a 'choral drone' should sound like. On one hand I want it to be choral, so I was conscious of allowing space for breathing, on the other hand I was trying to layer up enough samples to create a drone without relying too heavily on reverb.
Compilation of Bassling on Soundcloud
Hit play and hear highlights of Bassling's material on Soundcloud, covering nearly nine years of production in a variety of styles from 2004's Postal through to 2013's remixes of an ice cube and a wristwatch.
Around the middle there's ambiance from a large-scale aeolian harp built by Alan Lamb and later there's a techouse remix of a Leeton park from a Belgian producer that I like lots too.
Menage a trois remix
The Disquiet Junto this week was a return to remixing after a sound design assignment last week, which didn't interest me although I made an attempt.
The three tracks are nice, Brian Eno-esque ambient works. You know the sort, big reverb on ponderous synth chords. I'd listen to it and plan to download the albums and, if I like them, I'm going to heed Schemawound's advice and leave feedback.
My approach to remix was to find a few chords that worked and create a rhythm that helps propel the track along. The samples identified to use offered little scope to create a percussive instrument. If I had more time I might've found a way but I'm not sure it would've been good. I created the bassline by pitching down one track three octaves and applying a few different rhythmic gates with a couple of other modulations.
The chords started with an unpitched loop, hastened along a bit, which I then pitched up and down three tones and offset the start so they competed with each other as the loops faded in and out.
Disquiet Junto Project 0058: Endless Commons
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 netlabel Endless Ascent, and were posted to the Internet with a Creative Commons license encouraging derivative reworking. Please only use this material; you can transform in any way you choose, but do not introduce any new source material.
1: The 30 seconds of “Materia Lucida,” the title track of a release by Kirill Platonkin and Jarguna:
http://www.endlessascent.com/ea023/ea023-Kirill_Platonkin%7eJarguna-01-Materia_Lucida.mp3
2: The second 30 seconds of “With a Wimper” off Exuviae’s album The Sum of Zero:
http://www.endlessascent.com/ea019/ea019-Exuviae-06-With_A_Wimper.mp3
3: The final 30 seconds of “02″ off Illuminoscillate’s album Solar Wave Phase:
http://www.endlessascent.com/ea018/ea018-Illuminoscillate-02-02.mp3
We’re doing this to pay thanks to the open-minded Endless Ascent, which not only releases its music for free download but also employs the Creative Commons license that allows for derivative works. There are hundreds of netlabels out there, but only a small percentage allow for reworking. These occasional Junto netlabel remix projects are intended to promote reworking as itself a means of music distribution.
Deadline: Monday, February 11, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your finished work should be between 2 and 5 minutes in length.
Information: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto.
Title/Tag: When adding your track to the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com, please include the term “disquiet0058-endlesscommons” in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
Download: For this project, your track should be set as downloadable, and allow for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).
Linking: When posting the track, be sure to include this information:
This Disquiet Junto project was done as a celebration of the efforts of the Endless Ascent 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 Endless Ascent: “Materia Lucida,” the title track of a release by Kirill Platonkin and Jarguna, “With a Wimper” off Exuviae’s album The Sum of Zero, and “02″ off Illuminoscillate’s album Solar Wave Phase. More on the Endless Ascent netlabel, and the original versions of these tracks, at http://www.endlessascent.com/.
More on this 58th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/02/07/disquiet0058-endlesscommons/
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/
The three tracks are nice, Brian Eno-esque ambient works. You know the sort, big reverb on ponderous synth chords. I'd listen to it and plan to download the albums and, if I like them, I'm going to heed Schemawound's advice and leave feedback.
My approach to remix was to find a few chords that worked and create a rhythm that helps propel the track along. The samples identified to use offered little scope to create a percussive instrument. If I had more time I might've found a way but I'm not sure it would've been good. I created the bassline by pitching down one track three octaves and applying a few different rhythmic gates with a couple of other modulations.
The chords started with an unpitched loop, hastened along a bit, which I then pitched up and down three tones and offset the start so they competed with each other as the loops faded in and out.
The Necks
I'm a fan of The Necks, Australia's misplaced improvising musicians. I write misplaced because they're always being labelled jazz and I think they've got a different pedigree.
Often I think how much I'd like to form a Necks cover band, maybe we'd be called The Ties or The Scarves or something pithy. This quote from Neck Chris Abrahams explains part of the appeal for me:
To my mind the style of The Necks is more akin to experimental music like Theatre of Eternal Music but, rather than explore harmonic relationships, they explore melodic relationships in intensifying style.
P.S. Good interview with 2/3s of the band at Cyclic Defrost.
Often I think how much I'd like to form a Necks cover band, maybe we'd be called The Ties or The Scarves or something pithy. This quote from Neck Chris Abrahams explains part of the appeal for me:
"There is no premeditating … we tend to play things that are very simple, we play them over and over again. The humanness of repetition … Because what we play is so simple and we ourselves get mesmerised, we can sort of go between being player and a member of the audience."
To my mind the style of The Necks is more akin to experimental music like Theatre of Eternal Music but, rather than explore harmonic relationships, they explore melodic relationships in intensifying style.
P.S. Good interview with 2/3s of the band at Cyclic Defrost.
Illumiringer unboxing pics
Bought a Dr Blankenstein Illumiringer on Ebay recently and it arrived today. Still undecided where to install it, originally I was thinking a bass but now leaning toward a Speak and Spell. It allows you to control pitch via a knob or optical sensor but I'd guess it adds a lot of character too.
I'll post a demo when I'm decided. Only other comment until then is that Dr Blankenstein should quit smoking.
Good vibrations
This shadow makes me think of 'the wires' in a way but it's fencing wire making a squiggly shape like an audio waveform rather than making a squiggly sorta sound.
Apple remix
On Sunday there's an exhibition opening which I'm involved in. It's based on an interesting premise, that by forcing artists to relinquish control over elements such as their source of inspiration and place other constraints, their processes will be revealed. (I've a bit more on this here.)
My inspiration was three red apples and I was always planning on a remix but there are a couple of other ideas I'll be exploring too. Below is the fourth attempt at remixing the apple and the video will debut in the gallery on Sunday. You can see the video from the second remix attempt here.
This track incorporates audio from two piezo contact microphones, the two shown in this post, with the Rode VideoMic on the camera shooting the footage, which was remixed in Ableton Live. Four remix attempts is more than usual, also unusual is that the samples looped in the track haven't been pitched up or down. Often I'll push samples up or down two or three octaves and add so many filters they take on a different character, but here mostly gates have been used with a little delay in one spot.
Omnichord, Casio and Mochika into my Kaoss Pad
Hooked up my circuit bent omnichord and Casio with my Mochika and triggered samples recorded on the Kaoss Pad.
The audio is clipped, so turn down your speakers a bit. Below is a sketch of the set-up I did for the sketchbook diary I've been keeping this year. There's more of that on my other blog.
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