naviarhaiku425 – Looking, not seeing

 

The haiku shared by Naviar Records arrived as I was helping my son Oscar with an assignment. 

 I've been throwing ideas at his bass line and the piano part was a melody he developed with his teacher, who recorded that instrument and likely played it too.

When you can finally fix it

 

Disquiet Junto 0530 Minimally Viable Music

Recently I’ve established a tiny corner studio based around an Omnichord. 

It came to mind for the Junto this week, as I’m trying to connect the minimum number of devices via MIDI to see if it doesn’t sound naff. 

This week I took a recent jam, edited bits to cover a bad performance and tried not to mangle it too much in Ableton Live. 

However, it seems the Omnichord still required a couple of VST synths and delays on top of the trio you can see blinking their lights.

Lyrics / beat

 

Disquiet Junto 0529 Squared Off

The Disquiet Junto assignment this week asks participants to "Explore the number 23."

I decided to count back through my Juntos in increments of 23, then remix elements from those tracks together.

It turns out that I didn’t join in project 0414, so there were four Juntos to use this week:

• Sunset [disquiet0506]
• Lettera [disquiet0483]
• Blossoms [disquiet0460]
• A (distant) neighbour might be a pianist [disquiet0437]

The result is one of those unlikely Junto tracks, with a rock band supporting a typist while accompanied by a field recording.

When you're trying to DJ

 

naviarhaiku424 – sunset in snow

 

The haiku shared by Naviar Records this week prompted me to put on a red shirt to match all the red LEDs on my equipment.

My Omnichord is going through Roland's TR-06 and SH-101a, as well as Korg's Volca Keys and FM synth.

Then I saturated the stems and mixed them together.

Music theory

 

naviarhaiku423 – scattering ginkgo leaves

This haiku shared by Naviar Records arrived as I was plugging my Suzuki Omnichord into various bits of gear.

I like the line "faint sound from the wind" and, because I live in a semi-industrial setting, those sounds often carry noises from industry.

So my recording brings those to the fore.

Announcement

 

Disquiet Junto 0528 Landscape Architecture

 

The Disquiet Junto prompt this week is to "Think about the concept of creating an unobtrusive path through the musical equivalent of fragile vegetation."

My mind immediately went to a blackbird recording I made last spring.

Then my mind went to a recording I'd made of an omnichord jam.

A photo can't hurt you

 

naviarhaiku422 – the edge of the world

 

The haiku shared by Naviar Records suggests a treacherous trail.

My track developed as I wanted to make use of the drums I'd recorded for the Disquiet Junto this week.

As I played with ideas, I flicked through the randomised options in a 303-style VST and liked the way the slide worked with the beat.

I didn't say I would help

 

Disquiet Junto 0527 Magic Number (3 of 3)

 

When I started listening to the Disquiet Junto tracks from last weekend, I had an idea that I might program a beat on a drum machine.

Then I realised it'd be more nuanced to play the drums.

I didn't leave much time, so I didn't bother setting up a mic and just used the camera.

As a result I had to spend more time trying to make it sit in the mix.

In the end I used phasing to take the force out of the drumming and tried to make the different parts sit together, although I'm not sure if more compression would help or hinder.

New mixer

 

naviarhaiku421 – White and white

The haiku shared by Naviar Records reminded me that I had footage to edit.

It's been a busy year for these white butterflies, which seem to have crowded out all the other varieties that I've seen around my flowering mint. 

I've used the chords from Shark With Lasers' piece for a recent Disquiet Junto.