It’s been 10 weeks since the Junto was a Creative Commons remix project. This week’s is a Creative Commons remix project. The project instructions will go here shortly.
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Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required. There’s no pressure to do every project. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time.
This project was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, September 1, 2016, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, September 5, 2016.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0244: Euro Mixin
The Assignment: Combine tracks from three different European netlabels (Portugal, Spain, Switzerland) into one sonic union.
Please pay particular attention to all the instructions below, in light of SoundCloud having closed down its Groups functionality.
Big picture: One thing arising from the end of the Groups functionality is a broad goal, in which an account on SoundCloud is not necessary for Disquiet Junto project participation. We’ll continue to use SoundCloud, but it isn’t required to use SoundCloud. The aspiration is for the Junto to become “platform-agnostic,” which is why using a message forum, such as llllllll.co, as a central place for each project may work well.
And now, on to this week’s project.
Project Steps:
Step 1: This week’s project is a remix. The following three tracks are available for creative reuse thanks to a Creative Commons license. Please download them and extract the specified source segments:
Use the first 20 seconds of “The Station and the Underclass,” performed by the Phonetic Orchestra, released on the Insub. netlabel based in Geneva:
Use the first 20 seconds of “Cloud Scissors” composed by Lo Wei; performed by Cristián Alvear, Santiago Astaburuaga, Gudinni Cortina, and Rolando Hernández, released on the Impulsive Habitat netlabel based in Portugal:
http://impulsivehabitat.com/releases/ihabp001.htm
Use the first 20 seconds of “Zraerza,” performed by Geeksha Beka and Berio Molina, released on the Alg-a netlabel based in Galicia:
Step 2: Create an original piece of music based on the source audio from Step 1.
Five More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: Per the instructions below, be sure to include the project tag “disquiet0244” (no spaces) in the name of your track. If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to my locating the tracks and creating a playlist of them.
Step 2: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.
Step 3: This is a fairly new step, if you’ve done a Junto project previously. In this thread at llllllll.co post your track.
Step 4: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 5: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
This project was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, September 1, 2016, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, September 5, 2016.
Length: The length is up to you. Around three minutes seems like a good length.
Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0244” in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.
Upload: When participating in this project, post one finished track with the project tag, and be sure to 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. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.
Download: Due to the Creative Commons license allowing for this work to be remixed, it is necessary that your track is set as downloadable, and that it allows for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).
Linking: When posting the track online, please be sure to include this information:
More on this 244th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Combine tracks from three different European netlabels (Portugal, Spain, Switzerland) into one sonic union” — at:
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.
Image associated with this project is by Thomas, used via Flickr and a Creative Commons license:
flic.kr/p/92xKFZ
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sevenism - shifting chasm
i loaded each piece into a separate track in the mangle took the pitch right down low for the zraerza piece, and fiddled wth the envelopes and LFOs, and edited the % of each track so it was only 20 seconds played. one of the tracks needed 1.234567% played which i liked and that inspired the improvisation: i hit record without listening to the tracks , hoped for the best, and adjusted on the fly (hence the volume changes)
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Audio Obscura - Disquiet Junto #0244
https://soundcloud.com/audio-obscura-music/arlo3-disquiet0244
(the title is because my son Arlo is three today!)
On first listen the three tracks were very intriguing for a remix attempt. The first thing I did after getting the first 20 seconds of each track loaded into Ableton was to extract the Midi information from
the track ‘Zraerza’ (performed by Geeksha Beka and Berio Molina). This is what created the piano you hear in this track, I was really pleased with this and it formed the basis of the track. I added various effects
to give it the sound you hear on the track. The other two tracks I loaded into drum racks and edited small sections and also created loops with various warped effects. After an hour or so of jamming around making further editing and refining to the samples I had about 3 or 4 short bits which sounded quite nice but these changed each time I messed around and played them back, I noticed the different pieces didn’t
always fit together.
Anyway and despite this I then hit record and just jumped around on the various sections I had laid out in the session view of Ableton, it was in no way seamless! After that I spent another
hours or so editing the arrangement and that was it really, its still got a few clear different sections but fits together well (I think) as one piece of music.
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After editing, I loaded the tracks into Samplr on my iPad. The tracks were doubled for effect and then I worked my usual magic and recorded out a live stream. Editing on the ends, and a dash of extra reverb.
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Took the first 20 seconds of each origin track, sliced/altered two segments from each of those to create six stems in total.
‘Played’ the core of it in Ableton Live, treated it a little after that.
https://soundcloud.com/the_bell_mechanical/the-voice-factory-disquiet0244
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sorry, no description available at the moment
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Production Notes
Back to my new addiction (and it’s becoming one hell of an obsession), my modular.
The Makenoise Phonogene behaves like a monophonic tape machine - you can record „tape“, „splice it“ and then play the material by applying modulation, alter starting points etc. It’s a great tool for making Musique concrète. I recorded snippets from the three Netlabels tracks into the system (you can hear the result at the beginning)… and started tweaking.
This is where „Cloud“ from Mutable Instrument comes in. It‘s a stereo granular effect processor. I adore granular, especially when the sound is getting lush and creamy - and this module has some great sonic qualities. Whenever I found a bit i liked, I froze the audio, moved from „tape“ to „grains“… and repeated the process.
https://soundcloud.com/analoc/grain-concrete-disquiet0060-audiobio
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https://soundcloud.com/project-dirigent/euro-mixin-disquiet0244
Euro Mixin [disquiet0244]
Disquiet Junto Project 0244: Euro Mixin
The Assignment: Combine tracks from three different European netlabels (Portugal, Spain, Switzerland) into one sonic union.
I used short excerpts from “The Station and the Underclass” and “Cloud Scissors” and looped them to create a background ambience. Over this I did a bit of improvising with the “Zraerza” track in Samplr using ‘tape’ and ‘scratch’ modes.
Created with Samplr, edited with Audacity.
Creative Commons license granted.
More on the Disquiet Junto at:http://disquiet.com/junto/
Subscribe to project announcements here:http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:Disquiet Junto Project 0244: Euro Mixin
Image associated with this project is by Thomas, used via Flickr and a Creative Commons license:flic.kr/p/92xKFZ
2 Likes
Happy Friday! Here is my 2 bits(bytes)…or something 
https://soundcloud.com/user-651760074/in-the-street-disquiet0245
Songs used:
“The Station and the Underclass,” performed by the Phonetic Orchestra, released on the Insub. netlabel based in Geneva:
http://insub.org/insub44/
“Cloud Scissors” composed by Lo Wei; performed by Cristián Alvear, Santiago Astaburuaga, Gudinni Cortina, and Rolando Hernández, released on the Impulsive Habitat netlabel based in Portugal:
http://impulsivehabitat.com/releases/ihabp001.htm
“Zraerza,” performed by Geeksha Beka and Berio Molina, released on the Alg-a netlabel based in Galicia:
I got the email with links, not a good start with iOS, but Dropboxed everything and started to listen to the source material. Oh boy…where to start with 20 sec of room, 20 sec feedback and 20 sec of I’m not sure. Epiphany! Feedback like that could only come from two places- Jimi or 70’s punk rock! Since I can’t play guitar it was punk, gritty dirty punk! Let’s set the scene- local high school gymnasium talent show, noisy ventilation fans due east, sparse uninterested crowd and three guys with four pedals and five chords??? Lyrics to sing along:
They say there’s trash in the street
You say there’s trash in the street
So much trash in the street
Too much trash in the street
They say there’s trash in the street
They say there’s trash in the street
Too much trash in the street
On your pretty street
Where does it come from?
Where does it go?
Where did it come from?
Where will it go?
When you take it away
When you take it away
Can you take it away!
If you take it away
If you take it away
Don’t
Take
Me!
Stuff used- GarageBand, Audioshare, Cubasis, Tonestack, Blamsoft and of course the vocal styling of yours truly.
@disquiet
More on this 244th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Combine tracks from three different European netlabels (Portugal, Spain, Switzerland) into one sonic union” — at:
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
Subscribe to project announcements here:
tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.
HypoidNoiseLoudJuntodisquiet0245
3 Likes
https://soundcloud.com/richardfair/comfort-zone-bypass-disquiet0244
The great thing about the Disquiet Junto is that you really don’t know what to expect. The excitement of the email dropping, the anticipation of what task has been set and, occasionally, like this week, the joy listening to the supplied samples to work with.
I have to admit, this week my heart sank a little (and my head hurt a lot). I felt cast adrift in a sea of feedback and noise with nothing but my trusty Ableton oar to get me back to shore.
I’m a gentle soul so I wanted to tame these wild beasts sent from afar.
For “The Station and the Underclass” and “Cloud Scissors” I simply slowed them down.
For Zraerza I also added some tremolo, wahwah, a whole lot of EQ and dropped the frequency by 70% and the pitch down 20 semitones.
Playing them back together sounded fine but it needed something extra so I improvised on keyboard and then duplicated that into some female vocals.
Not my greatest piece of work, but loads of fun to do!
Source tracks:
“The Station and the Underclass,” performed by the Phonetic Orchestra, released on the Insub. netlabel based in Geneva:
insub.org/insub44/
“Cloud Scissors” composed by Lo Wei; performed by Cristián Alvear, Santiago Astaburuaga, Gudinni Cortina, and Rolando Hernández, released on the Impulsive Habitat netlabel based in Portugal:
impulsivehabitat.com/releases/ihabp001.htm
“Zraerza,” performed by Geeksha Beka and Berio Molina, released on the Alg-a netlabel based in Galicia:
https://soundcloud.com/daniel-diaz/hard-disquiet0244
hard-disquiet0244
Source
tracks (20 first seconds each)
“The Station and the Underclass,” performed by
the Phonetic Orchestra, released on the Insub. netlabel based in Geneva:
“Cloud
Scissors” composed by Lo Wei; performed by Cristián Alvear, Santiago
Astaburuaga, Gudinni Cortina, and Rolando Hernández, released on the Impulsive
Habitat netlabel based in Portugal:
“Zraerza,”
performed by Geeksha Beka and Berio Molina, released on the Alg-a netlabel
based in Galicia
i just playe dmy black stratocaster with an eBow.
00:00
zraerza + ebow start solo
00:24
zraerza + ebow start solo + vox continental (organ) drone
01:04 cloud
scissors, + gradually zraerza + ebow start solo
01:47 The
Station and the Underclass + vox continental (organ) drone
02:07
zraerza + ebow start solo
02:20
zraerza + ebow start solo + cloud scissors
03:20 I’m done
FX used : delay, reverb, filter, compression
More on the Disquiet Junto at:http://disquiet.com/junto/
Subscribe to project announcements here:http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:Disquiet Junto Project 0244: Euro Mixin
Image associated with this project is by Thomas, used via Flickr and a Creative Commons license:flic.kr/p/92xKFZ
2 Likes
Here;s my contribution to the latest project. I created 4 tracks of each peace. On some tracks I did very little but on others various filters where applied, such as stereo echo, resonant filter swept with a Lorenz fractal, reverb, multiband EQ, pitchshifter, diode processor, crossover distortion, and a few others.
https://soundcloud.com/ian-haygreen/cloud-station-z-disquiet0244
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https://soundcloud.com/pytchblend/pressurevalve-disquiet0244
Rhythm and bass created from clicks in the first 20 seconds of “The Station and the Underclass,” performed by the Phonetic Orchestra, released on the Insub. netlabel based in Geneva.
Drone created from first 20 seconds of “Cloud Scissors” composed by Lo Wei; performed by Cristián Alvear, Santiago Astaburuaga, Gudinni Cortina, and Rolando Hernández
Guitar created from first 20 seconds of “Zraerza,” performed by Geeksha Beka and Berio Molina.
4 Likes
Hello everybody, here’s my track 
Edit: a different point of view.
‘cave ne cadas’ - Scissors tool, IrcamLab TS, Dynamo.
https://soundcloud.com/petrus-major/times-of-protest-disquiet0244
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Gatey. [disquiet0244] Euro Mixin
https://soundcloud.com/gus-576228330/gateydisquiet0244
Aaagh that was difficult material. I didn’t really want to do anything to it, but then an amplitude-controlled varispeed version of Zraerza suggested a kind of shortwave radio mix so i got sidetracked by morse code which got all a bit paranoid so i then threw it out in favour of this simple gated mix. Each source is gated with a different rhythm on a different cycle and then each goes through some funny IR reverb. everything done in Logic 9 except the varispeed in Max.
More on this 244th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Combine tracks from three different European netlabels (Portugal, Spain, Switzerland) into one sonic union” — at:
http://disquiet.com/0244/
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://disquiet.com/junto/
Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
Disquiet Junto Project 0244: Euro Mixin
5 Likes
just make sure you leave blank lines before and after the link. then it should work! ps. nice track!
“Returning” - Song done for Disquiet Junto #0244
https://soundcloud.com/neurogami/returning-disquiet0244
The Disquiet Junto for Sept 1, 2016, was a re-mix challenge.
I’m generally not a fan of these; at times, for whatever reason, it felt more as a way to use the Junto to promote some label or artist rather than focus on the work of the Junto contributors. Personal preference, that’s all.
But the magic of the Junto is that it can get you to create something you might not otherwise because it’s prompting you do do things you might not consider. Such as doing a Netlabel remix.
The task was to take the first 20 seconds of three different tracks and use them to create an original piece of music.
I tend to think that such challenges come with some unspoken rules. Or perhaps loose guidelines. Given available technology it’s easy to take almost any sound and convert it into any other. It’s trivial to take a tiny audio slice, for example, and re-pitch it to provide a complete keyboard-mappable scale. This feels to me like cheating. It goes against what feels like an unstated ground-rule.
It’s much like the TV show “Chopped”. Contestants (usually professional chefs, though increasingly there’s some gimmick arranged to get amateur or celebrities) are given a basket of “mystery ingredients” which must be used in a meal.
The contestants are told they can use “a little or a lot” but if you’ve watched the show for any length of time you come to learn what’s expected. For one, you probably don’t want to use “a little”, unless it’s something really outré. The judges (themselves skilled chefs) expect to see some transformation of the secret ingredients (e.g. don’t use waffle mix to make waffles). At the same time, though, they want to be able to identify each ingredient in the final dish.
And so it is with a remix. Nowhere on the Junto pages do such rules exist, but part of the game for me is to invent part of the game for me. Remixes follow “Chopped” rules.
None of the source sounds jumped out for me as a strong candidate for the focus. I began by slicing the samples and trying to arrange the segments to provide some kind of rhythmic or “melodic” ground. Something to build on.
The slice-and-dice approach allowed for creating some discernible structure, but it felt like the material was getting lost. The judges would be hard pressed to recognize the basket ingredients.
Using longer samples was unappealing because they were, by and large, noise. Interesting noise, perhaps, but not what I wanted. They needed at the very least a different setting. So I decide to offset the largely random noisiness with a simple, obvious, beat and chord sequence.
I have, for quite some time, been interested in music that plays different layers or structures against each other. Many of the songs written with my late-70s band, Chinese Forehead, used a rock-steady beat, with a solid bass hook, then some chord changes and vocal line, with a final layer of typically noisy atonal guitar. I’ve continued this approach today with my solo releases.
With this structure in place I had the idea to make a song. With, words, and singing. A song song.
I thought, hey nobody on the Junto ever makes song songs.
First off, I cop to the fact that not only haven’t I listened to every Junto piece made, I haven’t even listened to every piece made in the Junto’s to which I’ve contributed. But I’ve listened to most of them, and I didn’t recall any sing-with-me songs.
Second, I’m wrong right this minute because this week someone submitted a song. But thirdly, it really doesn’t matter because of another secret ground rule: Made quick decisions and don’t over-think it. Related to this is another of my secret rules: Don’t spend too much time on any given Junto. I don’t mean that as a slight. It’s an operating procedure intended to generate results. To my mind the whole point of the Junto is to end up with some music, and ideally music you would not have otherwise made.
There’s the risk in quick decisions and immediate action that I’ll just follow old habits. There’s the risk in prolonged contemplation and reworking that I’ll never finish in time, or if I do the level of novel ideas won’t be that much higher anyway.
In practice I sort of split the difference. I try to get the first 90% done fairly quick. I then spend my time finessing the remaining 90%.
With a basic chord sequence in place I worked out a vocal line, and wrote some lyrics.
Do you think it's lack of confidence?
That keeps us on this side?
You say that we're near.
We nod to one another as we start to scheme again.
Is it better not to breath?
As we press against the fold.
You're holding me near.
When we return we'll the know secret of the strength of time.
The song has three parts. In intro, the verse, and the outro. The current title is “Returning”.
This was made using Renoise. The kick drum and the keyboards are from instrument samples. I did the singing. The remaining noises are from the three source tracks.
With a clear structure in place it became easier to use longer segments of the source material. “Zraerza” is the most harsh of the three; it’s primary use was as the main “instrumental” line of the outro, against the beat and chords.
“The Station and the Underclass” was used largely for the clacky sounds, but with some pitch shifting it helped fill in some background “chords”.
Segments of “Cloud Scissors” was used mainly for percussive/rhythmic backing.
4 Likes