naviarhaiku592 – slanting sunlight rays
The track was produced with Ableton Live, after I recorded takes for different parts and arranged them. I'd listen to this in a forest.
naviarhaiku590 – dreadful the stream
The dreadful stream in this case is an estuary, and the rain was elusive.
Disquiet Junto 0695 Clean After Each Use
The Junto assignment this week is to "Put a piece of music through the dryer."
While I've been holidaying at the coast I'm making happy associations with a chord progression in A# on my ukulele.
A week ago I tried making a song based on lyrics about cupid's arrows and innuendoes.
It was rough and didn't entirely work, but I've used the backing here.
(This chord progression worked better with my Easter Sunday song, I think.)
For the Junto I've taken my backing track and tried to put it through the dryer, but I'm not a fan of those machines for the energy they consume and the uselessness they have in my life.
(There isn't much rain where I live and lots of opportunity for me to get my washing on the line.)
I considered a granular approach to represent lint, but when I decided to use a video from swimming in the Pacific off Valla Beach, arrived at a result more akin to a washing machine.
There's some rotary speaker emulation added, as well as Goodhertz' Lossy effect and DelayCat.
naviarhaiku589 – rising sun
On Easter Sunday I convinced my partner to take a trip to Valla Beach for the sunrise.
There we met a group of people gathered around a fire with guitars to sing medicine songs.
My partner joined them while I took photos, then I sang a little and one of the group offered a jar of "eggs".
As we continued to walk among the waves at sunrise I had words form around the scene, which I've drafted into the song here:
First verse:
With each breath to caress the earth
at the start of every day
the seasons have a rhythm
of sunshine and rain
like shifting sands
under the movement of waves
as morning light will break
through clouds in a golden ray
Chorus:
Everything will change
nothing stays the same
all of your wisdom
crystallised from pain
Second verse:
In the rumbling of the ocean
a rhythm as old as time
a melody in the roar
song of ebb and climb
as the storm can leave behind
a peaceful breath of calm
from chaos we make meaning
dance like fire to our song
Bridge:
We crash like the waves and we break
then we rise again and learn from mistake
build a home in the unknown, make peace in the storm
finding strength in lessons we learn from being born
Chorus
Disquiet Junto 0694 5/4ify
There is one step for the Junto project this week:
Take a pre-existing piece of music that is in 4/4 — either your own or something in the public domain — and add a beat to each measure, transforming it into 5/4.
As I'm preoccupied with homework, I listened to a few of the sketches on my desktop for inspiration.
This bass riff is a bit uneven, so the extra beat in the drum loops hardly seems to unsettle it.
Which meant that I added more feedback to the delay on the synth!
Disquiet Junto 0693 Melody Sorted
The Disquiet Junto project this week is to "Reorganize a familiar song note by note."
It outlined a process using sheet music, but I thought I'd use a MIDI file instead.
So I downloaded Hall and Oates' 'I Cant Go for That' and rearranged the melody into an ascending sequence of notes.
It was a process that I stopped after running out of space, so there are still some of the higher notes in place -- particularly at the start of verses.
Then the song seemed to need a bit of rearranging, so I muted a couple of parts, such as the organ.
I also added some randomisation to the MIDI for the drums.
Connor's ASMR board
In the middle of our recent Easter hat-making one of the students declared that he was building an ASMR board.
I hadn’t seen these before and Google results suggest it is more likely a fidget board, but I like the concept and am thinking about building my own with a piezo pickup embedded.
One for the jazz fans
Disquiet Junto Project 0692 Combust a Move
The Disquiet Junto project this week is to "Record a piece of music in which the sound of fire — match, burner, cigarette, etc. — provides the primary source for the rhythmic track."
This morning I recorded the matches and lighter, then used a video from the 2016 Queensland Burning Man event to create a bass with Sinevibes Reactive.
Disquiet Junto 0691 Un-Ravel
In hindsight I can see how I got here, as there's been a lot of interest in my rapping recently. The kids at the primary school where I work often ask me to rhyme.
As I listened to Ravel I admired the strings and thought they would be great in a hiphop-style track. Then I slept on it and woke up thinking about putting words to it.
When I went to publish the result I looked again at the Junto assignment and wondered if I'd strayed too far?
There's no One Way
Last weekend I recorded a quick vocal performance and then spent the week making it work in two different tracks.
I like the rawness of the version above, then it was surprising how much the arrangement in the version below changed the tone of the delivery but I went further with edits and going pop.
Disquiet Junto 0690 Knot Bad
The Junto assignment this week is to "Interpret wood grain as a graphic score."
Funnily enough, wood grain has been a motif in my household in recent weeks.
My son and I brainstormed a short story idea about someone reading the rings on a slab of timber used as a table.
The River Red Gums in our region are long-living trees and often prompt my pondering about watching centuries pass.
Over the years I've used the image of these trees and the rings as a record, so it wasn't difficult to interpret wood grain except to keep the idea to a graphic score.
Here is an earlier recording of a River Red Gum.
Disquiet Junto 0689 Supporting Players
The Junto reminded me of the musical squeaks of my drum stool, so I set about loading up a bunch of samples and then put a bassline to it.
Then I got cold feet and re-read the instructions and wondered if it really considered other studio furniture.
Anyway, I woke up in the morning and wanted to honour the squeaky stool.
naviarhaiku583 – out of the blue
Apparently these tress have been introduced in the last 30 years, but require more rainfall a better quality soil than is generally available in our landscape.
However, I know the peachy quality of morning light and often appreciate it in the bathroom, so I made a track to give a sense of that ambience.
Disquiet Junto 0688 Sign Up
The Junto assignment this week is to "Interpret a routine public sign as a musical instruction.
Step 1: Think about signs you see near where you live or work, the sort of routine public signage one generally takes for granted. Consider in particular signs that, unintentionally, are open to broader interpretation than might have been intended.
Step 2: Choose a sign from Step 1.
Step 3: Willfully interpret the sign you selected in Step 2 as a musical instruction of some sort.
Step 4: Record a track in which you follow the musical instruction you inferred in Step 3.
I thought about my drive to work and remembered the sign for ducks near the McCaughey Park in Yanco.
This ducks crossing sign is one that I remember first seeing when I went to university in Canberra and later incorporated into this video I made after becoming a parent.
The ducks suggested a delay, as they lined up with smaller ducklings as the decay.
So I took the track that I'd been playing with and edited the ukulele part to a series of snippets, making it the mother duck.
Then I found a delay after looking around in my effects.
Most of those I have at hand emulate analogue tape-based delays and this called for an effect more like a digital delay.
Disquiet Junto 0687 Applied Science
The Junto assignment is to "Record a piece of music that explores physiological and behavioral techniques."
Last week I had a lesson in playing djembe and the teacher introduced a rhythm based on a heartbeat with two hits and a rest, so I thought to use that in this track.
The behavioural aspect is how I can't help but make a dance track with a steady rhythm like that.
Video from a recent project at the Leeton Pool, which addresses many needs for me.
naviarhaiku582 – here and there
I know that probably looks vague, but the results are still developing and won't be known for a little while yet.
naviarhaiku581 – plunging my hand
I'd misread the poem and planned to film myself blowing bubbles at the pool, then my camera wouldn't record.
It wasn't until I decided to read the poem again that I realised it said "hand" and not "head" as I first thought.
Disquiet Junto 0686 Catch Your Breath
The Disquiet Junto instructions this week:
Step 1: Sit for a moment and slow your breath.
Step 2: Continue with Step 1 for a bit longer.
Step 3: Pay attention to your breathing, in and out, in and out. Don’t record yourself. Just listen, and feel.
Step 4: Consider how the process of breathing in and out slowly can lend shape to a piece of music. Again, just do this through personal consideration of the act of breathing. This project isn’t an exercise in audio sampling.
This has been a glass-half-full-kinda month for me.
So as I sat and considered a bunch of nagging thoughts arose in me.
Since my favourite way to distract myself has been jamming on instruments, it wasn't much of a leap to lending the breathing activity to shape a piece of music.
naviarhaiku580 – quiescence!
I decided it suited my mood and recorded three instruments in one day, although my family were watching TV when I wanted to record the bass so it wasn't on camera.
Disquiet Junto 0685 Pick-Me-Up
The Disquiet Junto assignment this week is to "Treat a set of sounds like a game of pick up sticks."
I decided to use a collection of chords like the colours of the pick up sticks, then added a little intro for them being dropped into place, and repeated that for when they fall during the game and are packed up.
Rainger FX Minibar
It looks novel, but I think a blend of lemon juice and soy sauce might have given me the best distortion that I’ve heard in my bedroom.
Klon clone
I got curious after looking at Klons and their copies
Doesn’t reach the higher fuzz of the Boss DS1, but worked well before it to add that peaking feeling.
Kinda missing the bass though, so probably better suited to adding volume for solos.
If I played solos on the guitar!
Actually, maybe I should try it on my basses?
naviarhaiku579 – Mount Asama
After finishing an assignment, I started playing guitar and trying different effects.
Something about the decay of the distortion led me to think it was suitable for the haiku shared by Naviar this week:
One of the four great haiku masters, Yosa Buson studied both Japanese and Chinese poetry. He was also an accomplished painter, and most of his poems were accompanied by paintings, resulting in a more diverse and individual set of works than the one by his main historical influence, Basho.
The event Bosun refers to is the eruption of Mount Asama in 1783, which instantly killed over 1,000 people. The toxic ash traveled 100 miles to Edo, making farmland useless and causing many more people to starve.
Disquiet Junto 0684 Early Bird
The Disquiet Junto assignment this week is to "Record not so much an alarm as a guided wakening."
It prompted me to think back over previous Junto projects that involved waking, particularly "Morning Music" from 2016.
(Another favourite involved an alarm, which was my 40th Junto ten years ago now.)
Lately my days involve needing to get going and I thought I'd make a track that's got some drive.
I used a video from 2016 showing the Mirrool Creek in flood, which seemed appropriate for emerging from sleep.
Fender Player Plus Meteora HH
The humbuckers have led me to grab a few distortion pedals off the shelf and the neck one sounds huge.
I like the split pick-up option, although the volume levels jump around.
It's body good balance with the big green arse sitting comfortably on my knee.
This Meteora design is destined to be another classic from Fender, I think.
Plug-in to the potential
Like a great man once said, "I have a dream..."
Ever since I fell deeply in love with Chase Bliss Audio's collaboration with Goodhertz on the Lossy pedal, I have begun imagining other effects that might be taken out of the box and into a smaller box.
Here are some of those ideas based on taking the VSTs and AUs that I often use and whispering at a shooting star to put a wish into the universe and see if anything manifests.
While I've only got ten digits to keep track of these brainfarts, let's start a tally.
10.
They already have brought a range of effects and amp emulations to market, but what about something as simple as their Verve Machines adding saturation in stereo?
I would use the fattening potential of these colours on a variety of instruments, particularly synthesisers and drum machines.
9.
While UA have brought nice reverbs to their range, I am hoping that someone is throwing lots of money at Sean Costello.
His Valhalla-branded reverbs are so beautiful and, aside from Walrus Audio's Sloer pedal, I can't think of too many that bring some of that Shimmer-style lusciousness outside of a Lexicon.
8.
Sure, Permut8 might be an even more engaging option with MIDI or even the Synplant synth, but I really want to crush my bits with a Speak&Spell-esque interface.
7.
Since Sinevibes are already making effects for Korg's platform, maybe it isn't such a leap for them to expand more into hardware and their Reactive effect is one that's been great at really pushing an instrument or sample to become something else.
6.
Aside from their decision to use Comic Sans font, it is really exciting to play with "concatenation synthesis techniques" to arrive at surprising results.
5.
There's a module for their Ohmicide distortion, which was always a lot nastier than I wanted and preferred Predatohm for delay, so the French developers are clearly already moving in the direction of packaging their tasty sounds.
4.
George Yohng's W1 Limiter is one of my favourites and gets slapped onto lots of my channels, so I feel it would be a very useful addition to the pedalboard.
Maybe it's too transparent for most people but I love being able to put it into a spot and never notice it again.
3.
Or a T-shirt, I feel like that little angry phallic-like banger is ready for more fame.
He could be the first plug-in to spawn an animated series!
Although, now that I think about it, a Delay Lama would also be a cool character to develop.
2.
Okay, seriously, I don't know where to begin with Airwindows.
There are just too many possibilities and, while I can't have them all, I think there's a gaping hole in the pedal market for more channel strip-style effects like the JHS Colour Box.
1.
I'm old enough to remember when this was the Coldcutter and it should be a no-brainer since the grandfathers of remixing have already kinda put their stealthy toes into the hardware market with the Zen Delay made by Erica Synths.
naviarhaiku578 – one by one
Big Spoon
One of the great things about coming of age in the 1990s was the music
A
friend of mine makes a strong argument that 1993 was the greatest year
for albums, which doesn’t capture all of my favourites but does stack up
a bunch of amazing releases.
Of course, these artists don’t
arrive fully-formed and, in the sage words of someone much earlier, they
stand on the shoulders of giants.
In particular for this post I
want to share a particular recording technique that has excited me, but
let’s meander a little more before we arrive at that destination.
The
music of the 1990s was exploding in all sorts of directions and some of
these were very surprising, although it seems obvious in hindsight.
Rock guitars were roaring back into fashion thanks to grunge bands.
Metal was finding new audiences and then there was the unlikely fusion with rap.
The juggernaut Judgment Night soundtrack brought together collaborations that stand up well today.
A massive leap came with the success of Rage Against The Machine, who remain one of the greatest live acts that I have seen.
The
earth literally moved for me when I saw them in the Flemington
Racecourse car park for the Big Day Out in 2008, which isn’t hyperbole —
it was the crowd stamping their feet and was more intense than any
earthquake that I've experienced.
Big Day Outs were another
benefit of being a young adult in the 1990s because you got introduced
to so many bands that mightn't have been noticed otherwise.
One of those bands at the 2008 BDO was Spoon, whose set I watched while waiting to see Battles.
Their music is beautifully crafted with arrangements that retain a spaciousness.
So
it was surprising that their sound seemed so in our faces, particularly
as I've mentioned the energy of RATM — both on and off the stage.
As
my friends and I were talking over the bands we'd seen that day, we had
pondered whether it was compression that gave this effect.
This memory came back to me recently as I was looking at guitar pedal videos.
The JHS Colour Box claims to pack something of the sound of a Neve-like console into a stompbox.
Neve is one of those names that audio geeks will recognise, because Rupert Neve is an engineer that gave airy qualities.
In
fact, there are interviews with Rupert where he speaks about how
frequencies above human hearing range are still being perceived and his
circuits flatter those sounds as they pass through the circuits of his
mixing consoles.
As I watched a video about the
Colour Box I learned it aims to provide a sound like plugging a guitar
directly into the console, as opposed to recording via a microphone in
front of a guitar amplifier.
At that moment I realised it was this sound I'd identified all those years ago.
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