Still working on something, loosely entitled Old Man Deckard. My rules for myself were: not a “track”, necessarily, more of a music cue, and what would things be like in 2051? (I assumed, much as with Force Awakens, that the same amount of time had passed since the original movie). So far, the answer appears to be ‘bitcrushers’.
Interesting hearing early responses. I went back to the Vangelis soundtrack, and god, I really don’t like some of it; I was trying to work out if there were any themes I could return to, but I’d rather not. And yet: good to be reminded of the way (the specifically early-80s way) it took in both the future and a jazzy, loungey noir take; we all remember the searing opening titles track, but there’s a lot of jazzy electric piano kicking around.
I am still wondering what the raw, shredded ends of the network sound like.
Like your post, Tom.
Firstly, it’s nice to read a reflection about the project, I mean before the ‘track’ or the ‘piece’ is uploaded.
Secondly, this week assignement is surely an ideal opportunity to think a bit about the sense of what we’re looking for in music, and which future we can glimpse…
Great challenge indeed.
Is the Disquiet junto group becoming a think tank ?
I didn’t want the gig, so I sent them this track made with EMS synthi and some feedback through a broken cartridge delay box.
The brief reminded me of the invitation letter that the dutch composer Dick Raaymakers ignored. It was about a project “closely connected to outer space”. And it was from Stanley Kubrick.
Well, somewhat deliberately. This is a short cue entitled Old Man Deckard; it’s 2051, Deckard is now in his 70s. And this is the first time the audience meets him - and we see how much of the past he’s carrying around with him.
So: a piano, a slightly artificial piano, that gets increasingly distressed and deconstructed as the cue goes on; strings that head in the same direction, ultimately; and a Vangelis-ish lead, for his memories of 2024, and of Rachel. I wanted something equally 1984 and 1948 for that - a callback to noiry-jazz.
Too much of a pastiche, maybe, but something to start with. I wanted Future Noir, not Gibson Cyberpunk.
I was already working on a track with a heavily delayed piano sound in it so I decided to run with that. I also already had a Blade Runner inspired Kontakt instrument in my arsenal so I was pretty happy I was able to put that to good use.
This track evolved pretty quickly from a simple two chord progression (major to minor and back again) into something a bit more.
Used in this track was a lot of NI Kontakt (too many libs to mention) with an Akai MPK88 controller and a Korg Minilogue.
First things first: I’ve got a modular now - a small setup, but I love it, while I’m still trying to wrap my head around the endless possibilities. The setup contains the model „Phonogene“, a voltage controlled sampler which can be used to treat audio like tape (which gets you to music concrete sooner or later).
Back to the assignment. First I thought about warming up the virtual CS-80 from Arturia, as that was the synth dominating the - once unique and fascinating - soundtrack of „Blade Runner“.
But then I found a snippet of the final scene (where , imported it into the Phonogene, where it was mangled beyond recognition and served as a droney loop. Next I added a bit of Aalto and Chromaphone.
Last ingredient: The live treatment of a Police Radio station transmission from Las Vegas, first with „Phonogene“ and „Echophone“, lastly with Vocalsynth. I could see Deckard sitting in his car, it’s night and raining (of course), as he’s flying to his next adventure… and his radio is tuned to a police radio station, happily blasting away the steady stream of this night’s crimes.
This is a project close to my musical heart. One of my favorite movies and soundtracks, ever. I have made similar hypothetical soundtracks, but wanted to start fresh with a completely blank sheet(save for the prompt) and some new Logic plugins. Started with six instrument tracks but cut back to four, three keys and one percussion. Worked on chord progressions on the iPad, but ultimately used those only as guides. I really wanted a sound that was true in spirit but different in soundset and dynamics. With most theaters now able to recreate dynamics that were slightly lacking in the original score, I could go crazy with sub bass and surround spaces. Synths used were Alchemy and three Logic Pro stacked instruments with an unbelievable amount of patching @disquiet
More on this 243rd weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Share the best track from your audition tape for Blade Runner 2” — at:
I’ve been listening to a lot of synthwave lately, so it seemed appropriate to try something futuristic but still retro with a darkwave-esque take on this melody I heard in my head (the voice memo recording appears in here too with a lot of added effects).
It seemed too short, so I made an extended intro with the sax (a little imperfect replicant job).
Thank you to @autumn-drones for not only maintaining an absolutely splendid polysynth collection, but for inviting mere mortals such as myself into the inner sanctum of your studio for collaborations like this.
This track was created live, on the fly with myself and Tim Stoneberg a week ago today. He controlled his fleet of polysynths from the Cirklon while I played his Prophet-6 live on the fly. This track has bumps and warts, but it definitely feels how I experience the original Vanegelis score for Bladerunner. I associate the mighty Yamaha CS 80 with that original score, and by God, the Prophet-6 has a bit of that lineage in it. An instrument that is a pure joy to play.
after months of hacking, down tools to scratch together the closest thing to ‘working rig’ I can manage, with aleph grains, mixer, reverb tank & brand spanking new sguenz sequencer software (all the while listening to the vangelis soundtrack to try and pre-absorb the atmosphere of the movie)
hurrah, most things are basically working!
noodle around for ages with ‘the rig mk1’ all sounds guitar, vocal, aleph, boomerang, mixer & mfb522, exploring new sounds & experimenting
store some set loops in the boomerang to form a basis for a track
record a performance live-arranging the boomerang loops, including an improvised vocal ‘synthesiser’ noise/lead section - processed FM vocal using a minimal, hastily-put-together aleph scene…
Well not so happy with the result, putting it out there anyway - this is lightyears from anything I ever attempted. Hopefully a positive first step towards some more polished ‘composed’ stuff in future, for now I can only present this bowl of bladerunner-inspired aleph-grains primordial soup…
'nothing the god of biomechanics wouldn’t let you in heaven for? -rb
i got @stretta 's grainstorm working with k-blamo loops, it sounds like 'bladerunner
thx
Feels familiar but also - just in terms of timbral quality and use of samples - feels very modern. And I think the first half is spot-on for the aspects of the soundtrack a lot of people play down. Love the piano; love the hard cut ending.
I thought it was just me being paranoid:thinking: I will compound it more, when I went to respond at your post on sc my avatar was in the timeline but comment wasn’t?!? Coincidence? Getting my foil hat now:smirk:
Disquiet Junto Project 0243: Synth Trial
The Assignment: Share the best track from your audition tape for Blade Runner 2.
I used two monologues from the original movie “next subject…” and particularly the “tears in rain” scene.
The opening sounds and most of the pitched material was created with Cecilia (Stochastic Grain 2 module). Digital rain and final chord sequence created with Reaktor.
Creative Commons license granted.
More on this 243rd weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Share the best track from your audition tape for Blade Runner 2” — at:
Beautiful interpretation! It really was more than the music, like you said it was the whole sound design that for me set it apart and gave such a feeling of place.
Coincidence? Getting my foil hat now:smirk:
Hey, can you post videos at hearthis or archive?