Disquiet Junto 0761 When Doves Smile

The Junto assignment this week is to "Make music for (anonymously) someone who’s angered or disappointed you."

A magpie-lark (Grallina cyanoleuca) is known locally as a pee-wee and it isn't a big bird, but it will act aggressively toward larger birds and even people.

So I was watching a pee-wee swooping at a hawk on the drive home from the shops and started singing about it to my partner.

She was amused and I typed up my lyrics when I got home, then the Junto instructions arrived that night and the bird theme made me think it'd be fun to record the song.

It's directed at some people in my neighbourhood who've been cutting down trees recently.

The line "birdy peep" imitates a call I've heard from pee-wees, but also is a rallying cry for those who would like to see the bird habitat protected. 

Sensitivity settings

My favourite audio effect is a gate and playing with the threshold brings out dynamics in parts.

However, a friend on Facebook named Hurricane Bestman recently prompted a discussion of signal treatment that I think is worth considering: 

Communication is imperfect. What’s being offered and what’s received don’t always match. Borrowing from my recent toe-dipping into the world of audio engineering, I’ve installed a few new signal-processing tools for navigating life: Two knobs and a fader. The first knob is labelled FEEDBACK. Feedback can be useful. It can help us understand how we’re being perceived, including the moments when that perception doesn’t align with our own sense of self. There is, of course, another kind of feedback. When a microphone passes in front of a speaker and creates a loop of increasingly ugly NOISE. When that happens, I’m learning to reach for the feedback knob and turn it down a little. Beside it is another knob labelled SENSITIVITY. Sometimes that one can come down a touch too. And while I was installing the new equipment, I added a fader labelled SELF-LOVE. Somewhat magically, as the feedback and sensitivity come down, I’ve noticed the self-love fader creeping up. Discerning what is your shit and what belongs to somebody else is a lifelong practice. I’m feeling a little more ease navigating it with these new tools

Disquiet Junto 0760 Harness the Light

The assignment is to "Use audio of a light bulb to express the pervasiveness of energy."

Musikfestival Bern shared an audio sample by musician and media artist Michael Vorfeld, which I manipulated and then added video from a Chocolate Factory fire in Marrickville.

Kevin on Kung Fu Fighting

 

Disquiet Junto 0759 Rock Music

The assignment this week is to "Make music with nothing but rocks."

I recorded a selection of stones, mostly collected from Valla Beach, along with a couple of bricks.

These I edited in Ableton Live, repitching most, as well as adding a resonator and Sinevibes Reactor for the bass part. 

This song

 

Disquiet Junto 0758 Background Noise

The Junto assignment this week is to "Play into the distraction."

My Sunday morning routine includes watching ABC's Insiders program about Australian politics, which this week featured a distraction in the form of discussion of the Prime Minister's appearance on a podcast.

I should declare at this point that I have never subscribed to a podcast and don't understand why I would want to listen to such inanities, particularly when a transcription can be consumed much quicker. 

As the venerable Fourth Estate disappears with the loss of journalism, and takes with it the important function of digesting policy and presenting a range of views rather than regurgitating press releases, we're left with mindless entertainment such as social media rushing into the vacuum.

An example of the inanity of this situation was provided in the distraction that followed Anthony Albanese's admission that he fancied Kylie Minogue, which is surprising because I think it would unAustralian to say one doesn't admire her contributions to popular culture that continue over decades. 

So I found myself playing the blues as the esteemed journalists on the Insiders couch discussed the depths plumbed by the Prime Minister as a range of other significant policy discussions were disregarded without any acknowledgement of Ms Minogue's undeniable sex appeal. 

Seven Bad System Dwarves

 

naviarhaiku653 – through the keyhole

The haiku shared by Naviar Records this week found me exploring reverse delay as a representation of fog.

I've been playing with the idea of using two Chase Bliss Habit pedals as a way of providing instrumentation.

Originally this was patched for my double-neck guitar, but I thought I'd try the Nukulele for this piece. 

Oscillators vs modulators

Great gates

I believe that gating is the future.

The simple binary effect of opening and closing a signal is one at the start of production for me.

In my remixing of playgrounds it was a way to isolate tones, then manipulate them.

Those lingering metal notes from old slides, in particular, became so much more usable with this approach before pitching them into key and adding delay or reverb.

 

When I moved to recording drums the gates became a way to remove the room sound, before adding a studio reverb modelled on a more famous room.

One of the most creative ways I've used gates was to run a sequencer through a crossover, then have the kick open a pitched-down treatment while the hats opened a pitched up one.

I would strum a chord and suddenly a bassline would pulse while a rhythmic urgency pulsed, giving my simple playing a feeling like making live techno.

Then I got interested in how Rainger FX had used a gate in a range of pedals to make the effect part of expression in my playing.

It prompted me to look at the pedals I had that weren't being used with new eyes and the B pedal board suddenly became the one I was using the most.

Now I looking at the range of stutter effects and wondering how even more variety can be incorporated, especially now I'm thinking about a pedal board for a double-neck instrument.

I can't believe there aren't more guitar pedals with a crossover effect, but then again, I'm also surprised there aren't more using gates.