Disquiet Junto Project 0056: Matter of Time
This week's project requires you to make a field recording to serve as the source audio. These are the steps:
Step 1: Locate a clock that has an audible, even if very quiet, tick to its second hand. A watch or other timepiece is also appropriate to the task.
Step 2: Record the sound of the clock for at least 30 seconds, and do so in a manner captures the sound in the greatest detail. A contact mic is highly recommended.
Step 3: Adjust and otherwise filter the recording to reveal the various noises that make up its tick. The goal is to get at the nuance of its internal mechanism.
Step 4: Create an original piece of music employing only layered loops of that sound. These layered loops can individually be transformed in any manner you choose, but at least one unaltered version of the original recording should be included in your piece.
Deadline: Monday, January 28, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your finished work should be between 2 and 5 minutes long.
[...]
More on this 56th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/01/24/disquiet0056-matteroftime/
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/
Project account
Before I could begin remixing, I had to search for a timepiece.
This Fisher Price clock was the only thing I could think of in our house.
Luckily my son had been given a wristwatch recently, so it still had a battery. I experimented with different positions on my best contact microphone, settling on direct application with the clock mechanism.
There were two really good recordings in the end. I put the following one on Soundcloud and began remixing the other one, which sounded a little deeper. I can't really hear much of the mechanism but it does seem like the seconds tick with a subtle modulation that I imagine sounds like the turning wheel.
Often I'll be remixing a track and evolving the samples in a certain direction and find I get tired of it, so I'll begin again with a clearer idea of what sounds I can get from the samples. Today was one of those occasions.
The kick drum took a little bit of time to adjust the pitch and compression to get a suitable thump and then adjust Ableton Live's beatrepeat effect to get the rhythm right. Then I adjusted loops, setting their speed to varying sizes and adding beatrepeat and other modulations, reverbs and echoes.
The shape and structure was largely done when I realised I wanted a bassline to counterpoint the kick. After adjusting a short loop so two clicks sat over the beginning and end of the sample, I experimented with the Ohmboyz delay I often use for bass sounds. Then I remembered the Sinevibes plug-ins I'd bought before Christmas, settling on Reactive.
That bassline isn't just that one effect though, there are saturation and distortion effects before beatrepeat, as well as limiting, compression, delay and another filter. Anyway, once I heard that I knew the track needed more of a dubstep sorta flavour, so I mucked around with more beatrepeat and Reactive to get minor note changes and added more glitchy sorta effects, including some made by Audio Damage. Yohng's W1 Limiter is used on tracks and the master buss.
Disquiet Junto Project 0055: Two Screws
This week's project involves a shared set of source material. The source audio is the free solo piano album 'Screws' by Nils Frahm.
Frahm, who's based in Germany, posted the nine-track album of short solo works for free download while he was recuperating from busting one of his thumbs. He subsequently created a site to house all the remixed/reworked versions that admirers sent to him, as well as the videos and other responses that he received.
For this project you will take two of the source tracks — "Do" and "Re" — and create a new track from them, in the process creating a work for two pianos.
Source Audio: You can download the files as sets of MP3 or AIF audio:
http://public.erasedtapes.com/screws/ERATP046_Nils_Frahm_Screws_mp3.zip
http://public.erasedtapes.com/screws/ERATP046_Nils_Frahm_Screws_aif.zip
Or download the individual file directly from their links here:
https://soundcloud.com/erasedtapes/sets/nils-frahm-screws
You can only use those two Frahm tracks as audio source material for your track, and you cannot add anything other sounds, but you can transform the two Frahm tracks as you please. In the end, though, the sound of a piano should be evident.
Deadline: Monday, January 21, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your finished work should be between 2 and 5 minutes long.
Title/Tag: When adding your track to the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com, please include the term "disquiet0055-twoscrews" in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
Also: Be sure to share the track to the Reworked site, here:
http://reworked.nilsfrahm.com/submit/
Linking: When posting the track, be sure to include this information:
More on this 55th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/01/17/disquiet0055-twoscrews/
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/
More on the Frahm project at:
http://reworked.nilsfrahm.com/
For this project I explored the 'follow' function in Ableton Live, setting short loops to play 'any' following and sat back to enjoy the random harmonic collisions that ensued.
After limiting myself to samples from the track 'Do' and not finding a satisfying combination, I experimented with 'Re' -- which is a really lovely tune and I didn't think I could add anything to it.
Inspiration for this remix comes from Susumu Yokota, whose loop-based work I've enjoyed. Brian Eno also for the interesting phasing that results from the few pitched loops that I've used.
The phrases I've used were about seven semitones apart and one is slightly short. Aside from the reverbs, effects include Ableton Live's Beatrepeat to isolate notes from the piano playing.
It's cool to see Nils Frahm encouraging people to re-work his material. While looking for his version of Re to share here I found the following video using it.
As well as challenging me, the Disquiet Junto has introduced me to a wide variety of musicians and producers.
Schemawound is one such artist and, when I saw he was soliciting remixes, I put my hand up to rework one of the tracks on his album They Want To Make Your Body Move. I Want To Hold You Perfectly Still.
The track Dawn above caught my attention while listening to this album, something about the tones and textures reminded me of 'The Wires' and made me think about phenomena related to sunrise.
I've called this a dub rather than a remix because I haven't edited it at all. What I have done is reverse the track, duplicate it and put one version up a couple of octaves and the other version down a couple, then gate both using Ableton Live's Beatrepeat and add a bunch of delays and reverbs and glitchy effects as well as a very simple kick and snare rhythm. There's a click-y sorta percussion that's the result of compressing the gates and normally I'd try to avoid this but thought it worked.
Edit: Out now on Schemawound's Body Movements remix album with a great variety of artists bringing their sounds and interpretations.
Fascinating talk from a colour-blind guy who uses technology to hear colours and has explored a variety of ways in which to represent sound through colour based on his experience of substituting sound for colour.
Disquiet Junto Project 0053: Ice for 2013
Happy new year! This week's project is as follows:
Please record the sound of an ice cube rattling in a glass, and make something of it.
Background: Longtime participants in, and observers of, the Disquiet Junto series will recognize this single sentence as the very first Disquiet Junto project, the same one that launched the series on the first Thursday of 2012. Revisiting it a year later provides a fitting way to begin the new year. A weekly project series can come to overemphasize novelty, and it's helpful to revisit old projects as much as it is to engage with new ones. Also, by its very nature, the Disquiet Junto suggests itself as a fast pace: a four-day production window, a weekly habit. It's beneficial to step back and see things from a longer perspective.
Deadline: Monday, January 7, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your finished work should be between 2 and 4 minutes in length.
[...]
Linking: When posting the track, be sure to include this information:
More on this 53rd Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/01/03/disquiet0053-ice2013/
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/
I wasn't looking forward to turning off the airconditioning so that I could record an ice cube with a forecast maximum of 42C (it reached 44.8C). The cube itself was larger than normal, which helped but was the result of not being able to locate the ice cube tray.
It's becoming something of a habit for me to misinterpret the instructions for the Disquiet Junto projects and for this one I initially set about recording the ice cube in different cups using a contact microphone. I was amazed that I could still hear the kids playing outside in these recordings. Four different cups were used, one plastic and the others glass -- including a nice crystal wine glass.
After realising I was drifting away from the instructions, I set up my stereo mic and made recordings of the ice rattling in three different glasses. I also recorded video with a view to making a clip to accompany the track but I think that might be another project.
Once I opened the files in Ableton Live I made a few different tracks before settling on one to submit. This was also my experience remixing playgrounds. I found I'd make one or two very loop-y rhythm sorta tracks before getting the ideas to make something more harmonically interesting. (Not that this track is particularly harmonically interesting but it's got a couple more chords than the earlier drafts.)
The track Solitary was titled because I could imagine it as the soundtrack to solitary confinement in a freezing cell. It uses four samples, one of the plastic cup with the contact mic and two other cups recorded with the stereo cardioid mic. The chime-like sound comes from the wine glass.
The kick drum sound is a drip from the ice hitting the bottom of the plastic cup, pitched down two octaves. The other samples were ice rattling in a glass, pitched down between half to two octaves. Gating and EQ were used to bring out the sounds I wanted and remove hiss. The kick sound has a springy sorta reverb, other samples have bigger decays.
P.S. My sketchbook diary entry shows a little of this project.
One of the highlights of 2012 has been getting involved with the Disquiet Junto project, who this week posed an interesting exercise.
I've selected 12 five-second segments of recordings from throughout the year based on when different files were exported (which seems to be a bit different to some of the links below).
Here's some context for each section:
January
The year opened with me procrastinating on finishing my album For 100 Years, which ended up being released in July. On the day of internet protests about the SOPA I remixed a video which Google had alerted me to because it had something resembling Bassling in the title. It gave me a big buzz when the guy I remixed saw it.
February
This track was my third attempt at remixing Waipukurau Park and had been mostly completed in December when I edited the video but my files show I worked on it around this time although it probably wasn't finished until closer to July.
March
It's been maybe three years since my cousin Chris died but I still think about him often and this track is one example. Early in 2012 I had the idea of recording an EP of solo bass and I'd been thinking about Chris because he helped me buy my first bass and encouraged me to play it.
April
This comes from a short mix of Skunkhour tracks I put together around the time I posted about the mix of INXS tracks I made for the project, which was more popular so I'll post the video I made for it here.
May
A recording of a jam on circuit bent gear and guitar pedals that I titled as an Outkast cover on Youtube.
June
Another jam with circuit bent gear and guitar pedals, as well as bass and theremin.
July
2012 was a milestone year as a musician for me and this was a great month with the release of my fourth, fifth and sixth albums.
As well as a great article on my album in a national magazine, I was invited to improvise with some great Wagga Wagga musicians.
November Another 100 Years, an EP of remixes I released to coincide with my exhibition, which followed on from the album. The track heard here is actually the first park remix I made at Waipukurau Park in 2011.
December
Seems I'm back in a slump again but hope to finish my For 100 Years DVD. The audio here comes from one of the remixes I'm working on using the DVD cover/instrument developed for the release.
And I've been enjoying revisiting a bunch of great artists via the mixes at http://hurroooooooo.blogspot.jp/ -- particularly the Plaid, Aphex Twin and Luke Vibert.
Disquiet Junto Project 0050: -…….–.-..-…-
This week’s project explores invokes Morse Code for its rhythmic
content. The instructions are as follows: Select a word or phrase.
Encode that word or phrase by the Morse method. Record a rhythmic
foundation in which the dash is represented by a long beat and the dot
by a brief one. Use that rhythmic foundation as a loop for the length of
your track, at the speed you desire — speed can vary over the length of
the recording. Record accompanying drone/melodic material that takes
the underlying rhythm as its compositional foundation.
Deadline: Monday, December 17, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your finished work should be between 1 and 3 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 “disquiet0050-morsebeat” 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:
More on this 50th Disquiet Junto project at: http://disquiet.com/2012/12/13/disquiet0050-morsebeat/
More details on the Disquiet Junto at: http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/
This track began with Jason, both as the author and the Morse Code beat thumping throughout:
J A S O N
You'll hear this joined by a drone and then broken beats and some echo on a synth playing the intro to a Black Sabbath tune, then it drones a bit more and ends.
Bought this circuit bent Suzuki omnichord recently and am trying to avoid the cheese by using the MIDI.
One of the cool things about omnichords is the way they get you thinking about minor and seventh chords. I also like how the MIDI outputs on three channels with the strum notes, a three-note chord and a bassline.
Edit: Found this video of another circuit bent omnichord.
Was sorely tempted when this circuit bent omnichord was for sale on Ebay earlier this year. This is a great demo and Squid Fanny has others showing their tasty bends.
Saw the above photo on Facebook, dunno where it comes from but I like the message.
Another interpretation of the function of music comes from this marimba packaging I photographed:
Ever wonder what an alien would sound like? Apparently they sound female!
Fun pedal but it sounds more like T-Pain or Cher on my voice. I'll give it a go on my theremin next.
My local newspaper The Irrigator has a great pic with their article on my exhibition at The Roxy Art Space this month. Read about the For 100 Years multimedia exhibition at their site.
I seem to have given the newspaper the wrong link to the album For 100 Years and the EP of remixes And Another 100 Years, click on these titles to find them.
Here are a few pics from the exhibition:
Posted about the Uncovered event at Wagga Art Gallery a month ago but I thought I'd draw attention to this performance by Vic McEwan.
I like his use of contact microphones to turn this sculpture into an instrument with liberal application of delays and phasing. When I was editing the sound I noticed how the audience's applause at the end sounds like a reprise as the vibrations trigger the effects.
Vic also used contact mics during his Hook performance in August, although they're a bit lost in the video because I only had audio from my Rode VideoMic and it captured more of the hammer hits acoustically.
Mash-up I made using a video by NASA and a tune by Antonio Sanciolo, who tells me this was the imagery he had in mind when he wrote the song. The idea to merge the two was a direction from BoingBoing.net
Earlier this year I remixed Le Rondo Des Sirènes by Joachim De Lux.
Recently I got an underwater camera and my pool pass for the season and the track lends itself to the footage so I made a video. It's nothing flash, there's no editing but I like the cool blue fluid shapes and air bubbles accompanying a fluid, bubbly sorta track.
My mum suggests I share an interest with His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales and sent this quote from Harmony, the book he wrote with Tony Juniper and Ian Skelly:
According to a famous Middle Eastern folk tale Pythagoras was one day walking past a blacksmith's workshop when he heard the sounds of different hammers pounding the anvil. Mostly they just made a noise but every so often he noticed they fell into a sequence that produced something special.
When he went inside he discovered that the hammers were all of different sizes and when he measured them, all but one had a particular mathematical relationship. If these hammers struck the anvil in sequence, the notes they produced had a harmony to them.
This was because one turned out to be half the weight of the biggest, another was two-thirds the weight and the next was four-fifths the size of the largest hammer.
In this way Pythagoras is thought to have defined the octave and how it relates to the third and the perfect fifth. These are the key musical intervals that, for centuries, dictated the entire grammar of Western tonality.
A few months ago I posted a video of a theremin through a Talking Machine pedal, which made me want to try one. Seeing as the Australian dollar has been punching above its weight, I decided now was the time and I recommend Mad Ape on Ebay for superior service -- not only did the pedal ship quickly from the US but they included an Australian power adapter. Fantastic service!
Haven't given it much of a go yet but it sounds amazing on bass guitar, great variety of filters ranging from fuzzy wah through to vowel-y and classic funky sounds.
You'll find many tips on recording with contact microphones, as well as free software in my interview in the October issue of Audio Technology.
Or you can read it on your tablet FREE at www.audiotechnology.com.au/tablet
I'd forgotten how cool Rod's instruments sound. Saw him perform in Wagga a couple of times and have been meaning to hear his work on the Rogue soundtrack.
This Texas Instruments Speak & Spell possesses a rare component, one which anyone who has ever looked at secondhand Speak & Spell units would appreciate. This Speak & Spell unit has an intact battery cover.
The device works but soon I hope to make it work in way not intended by Texas Instruments by creating some new connections.
These images were taken at The CAD Factory's night of short performances at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery last weekend for the Uncovered exhibition. I've begun editing my video footage and am thoroughly enjoying revisiting the event.
Recently I treated myself to a Barcus-Berry piezo microphone and tried it out on this Fisher Price clock I've been meaning to record for a while. Listening back to it now I can hear there's too much compression, just listen to way the sound is slapped down after each tick.
Here's my track for the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud this week.The instructions were:
Disquiet Junto Project 0036: Still Life
The painter Clyfford Still (1904-1980) was one of the great practitioners of abstract expressionism. The Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado, not only houses a wealth of his works, it also has on display artifacts from Still's daily life and practice, such as his smock, his old paint cans — and his record collection. These records, displayed behind glass, include pieces by Wagner, Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach, among others, and they're accompanied by a small note: "Clyfford Still was passionate about music, particularly classical music. Shown here are several samples from his record collection." In this week's project we're going to take that word "sample" literally.
There's an interesting question inherent here about matters of aesthetic influence: how it is that the man who painted such massive and graphically evocative works was, in fact, listening to music far more figurative than the art he himself produced? The goal of this week's Disquiet Junto project is to take a shared sample of the sort of music that Still loved — a 78rpm recording of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, II. Andante — and turn it into something that might be deserving of the term "abstract expressionism."
So, the instructions for this week are as follows:
Step 1. Please select part of this MP3 of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, II. Andante:
http://goo.gl/XqBvb
Step 2. Then transform that sample, through any methods you desire, into something that you feel meets the definition of "abstract expressionism" provided by the Clyfford Still Museum: "marked by abstract forms, expressive brushwork, and monumental scale."
You cannot add any sounds to the sample, but you can manipulate the sample in any way you see fit.
Deadline: Monday, September 10, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your finished work should be between 2 and 10 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.
Project brief
