Disquiet Junto 0212 484 Hz Love Songs



The Junto this week asks for a seductive song that features 484 Hz, which it turns out is between A# and B. This frequency attracts male mosquitoes, presumably because the females beat their wings around eight times a second or so.

I've just realised that I didn't pay attention to the direction for a brief song. I did consider editing the track down to four minutes and it probably would've been better for it. Anyway, I'm very happy that I've contributed to a Junto topic and this is my 120th project with Disquiet.

To start this Junto I opened an EQ in Live and found 484 Hz by playing the highest A# on my bass and bending it halfway to B. The octave lower seemed to show in the EQ too, but my bass could go no higher so I filtered that out. Then I considered tuning a low B a bit lower, before picking up the fretless bass and improvising with that against that looped swell first heard.

There are a couple of voices in the mix. One isn't legible as it was someone yelling when I recorded the drums last week, so it's been gated. The other was my partner singing the chorus "Play that funky music white boy" which came from a Hot Cherry song that was repurposed by Vanilla Ice. She was singing in the kitchen as I started and was playing the 'Under Pressure' bassline, which led to her being recorded as it was picked up by my camera and then incorporated as I use the video footage in Live.

The drums were recorded last weekend and I had considered a micro-tonal sorta bassline on the fretless to accompany it but I'm not sure I thought much about what micro-tonal might mean other than sliding the notes around a lot. I added a key change too. And lots of Valhalla reverbs.

The title refers to Barmah Forest virus, which is often found in the blood of sentinel chickens during late summer. These birds are monitored by Leeton's council for mosquito-borne illnesses and it's one of a few nasties that are found locally. I've met a few locals who've had extended illness from mosquito bites, so it's a hazard I'm conscious of during the late summer months.