Disquiet Junto Project 0336: Open Mic

[disquiet]

Disquiet Junto Project 0336: Open Mic
Share a piece of music you’re working on in the interest of getting feedback.

Step 1: Choose a track/composition you’re working on that isn’t quite finished. Share the recording on the Lines forum at llllllll.co (see specific URL below).

Step 2: When posting the track, mention that you’re looking for feedback, and if applicable specify some aspects of the recording you might want feedback on.

Six More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0336” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your track.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0336” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.

Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co.

Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Other Details:

Deadline: This project’s deadline is 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on Monday, June 11, 2018. This project was posted in the late afternoon, California time, on Thursday, June 7, 2018.

Length: The length of your track is up to you.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0336” 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: It is preferable 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 336th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Disquiet Junto Project 0336: Open Mic / Share a piece of music you’re working on in the interest of getting feedback) at:

https://disquiet.com/0336/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0336-open-mic/

There’s also a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet to join in.

The image associated with this project is by Gabriel Gilder and used via Flickr thanks to a Creative Commons license:

https://flic.kr/p/ymxsn

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

[disquiet]

The project is now live.

[abalone]

upcoming k-blamo track
(instrumental)
monome, parc, aalto, monolase, springbox, satin

current production
two of three vocal parts already recorded

[DeVis]

https://soundcloud.com/user-507251108/ome-frans-disquiet0336

[klaatuberada]

Ok, it was hard to choose a track for this weeks project, I’ve got so many tracks at various stages of incompletion. I ended up going over the more conventional tracks I’ve been working on, theres a number of “chill out” / “lounge” type tracks that I’ve never quite polished off. This particular track has been sitting around on SC for a couple of years in a nearly, kinda, possibly, almost finished state. There’s also an earlier sketch mix that shows a little of how the track did evolve before being semi-abandoned. Sketch mix: https://soundcloud.com/klaatuberada/lolo-sliver-tongued-bullets/s-FjorL

The areas that need help IMO are:

The rhythm guitar. I used Scarbee Funk Guitarist and just couldn’t get it to do what I wanted. I think a real funk guitarist would help?

The bass line. Its big and bombastic, but you cant really tell whats going on.

The track and title were inspired by a comment made by a female Russian friend who, discussing some love interest, said “His voice was like silver tongued bullets, straight to my heart.” Weirdly poetic? I thought about having some spoken word phrases over the music describing a relationship that went bad.

Needs lyrics.

Mix needs work.

My Russian friend was also the inspiration for Disquiet 0308 https://soundcloud.com/klaatuberada/apob-talking-to-russian-girl.

[fjna]

Hi all, it has been a while since I made a contribution… busy, busy, busy(aren’t we all) But, here’s my Junto for this week… I only used 3 tracks of Aalto-sounds

I would love to hear what you would change or add or leave away? If you would like to add something, please send it to me via WeTransfer? frankaudiffret@gmail.com

https://soundcloud.com/user-242143924/aaltozoic

[euclidian]

[sevenism]

when i do a track i export the audio and delete the patch/tone etc. this means i can’t go back and obsessively change stuff. so i dont really have anything unfinished.

i had live open though and un-finished my previous track by deleting the pad and just leaving the beat. then i had more filtering going on throughout (loop slippery, electronica 2)

it still sounds pretty finished to me coz of the tonal reverb elements

questions for feedback:
is there any way of getting rid of that distortion at the start?
how would you fix the judder at the 3 minute mark?
what would you add to this given that the beat is quite dynamic/full?

[DeDe]

I feel terribly self-indulgent and narcissistic to submit a track for feedback that takes 9 minutes of your precious time to listen to.
But I’ve been working on this one for a week and actually I’ve been seduced by this concept for years:
A long ambient track (where little happens in terms of harmony and structure) but including a sort of “post-rock” build/crescendo. And some little solos or variations that, albeit remaining discreet (no-jazz solos) keep adding interest to and otherwise flat long track.

Even with the post-rock influence I decided to use no drums to push the dynamics further, but just melodic and harmonic instruments adding layer after layer of the same musical material.

I started this multiple guitar thing for the Branca tribute, but then decided it was too nice, too gentle and put it aside.

Now I finished a rough mix, with loads of guitars (clean and distorted) adding layer after layer of the same 4 chords pattern and a little melodic riff.
There are also 5 or 6 tracks of e-bow guitar and a couple of synths.

This is intended to be a long, never ending ambient thing, but with twists and sparks that keep interest, but it is supposed to be long and a bit “boring”

Feedback s appreciated, I still don’t know what to do with it.
-Remove some of the melodic soloists to make it more clearly ambient?
-Make it shorter, with solos (ebow, moog) more prominent and assume the jazz-fusion side of it?

Cheers
DD
June 2018

12 electric guitars (clean, distortion, e-bow)
Keyboards, synthesizers.
Image by Karsten Wurth

[TotalEnergy]

Hi all. This is something that I wrote last fall that never seemed quite right so I never did anything with it. It’s my stab at a country song. Midi guitar, bass, piano, strings and pre-fab drums. Enjoy!

[Ethan_Hein]

https://soundcloud.com/ethanhein/hard-tines-disquiet0336

An unfinished track using samples of “Hard Times” by Kaidi Tatham, “Impeach the President” by the Honeydrippers, “Rock With You” by Michael Jackson, and “Sweet and Lovely” by Marian McPartland. Each sample is processed in different ways. I slowed down “Hard Times”, pitch shifted pieces of it, moved some of the rhythms around, and added a trippy delay and reverb. While slicing up the Impeach break, I accidentally had one of the hi-hats fade in from silence. It sounded great, so I kept it. I stuttered a piece of the “Rock With You” vocal stem with Samplr. Finally, I beefed up Marian McPartland’s bassline using audio-to-MIDI.

I feel good about the ideas here, but I threw them together quickly, and I’m open to suggestions for where to take this thing next.

[otolythe]

Any feedback or comments appreciated

https://soundcloud.com/otolythe/overdrones-disquiet0336

This piece started with overtones from the car on a milled highway, to which I added other drones: an A from an orchestra tuning up {{stretched}}, a giant in-wall fan in the parking garage, a vent in the art museum. And some metal flag clips hitting the poles in the wind. I wanted to bring out more of the overtones, while not moving too far away from drone-ish-ness…

[Anatol]

In early 2014, I needed a pad sound for a Disquiet Junto piece. So I threw a piano/synth loop into the „Ambient V0.3“ software. The software did its stretching and granular number crunching. The result sounded okay, but when I loaded the treatment back into the track, it didn’t work at all. The pad, drone, bed - whatever you call it - was too dense and overall, it just didn’t fit.

Still, I liked its granular lushness, so I started to make more of them with the exact same settings. While listening to these pads, they somehow became „finished pieces“ instead of an unfinished pad sound that you spice up with some additional bleeps.

„Pale Berlin“ is one of the 130 tracks I’ve done so far in this series. Some are two minutes long, others over an hour. To my ears, the drones are something like personal companions: Whenever I want to work, focus, think, or get on „neutral“ emotional grounds, I listen to one of those tracks.

So, this clearly works for me, as they are more personal muzak and also musically extremely reduced - sometimes beyond the bare minimum, so they don’t take too much attention span.

BUT: I believe for most listeners the pieces just sound unfinished and utterly boring, so I haven’t published them („Leather“ for the first Phinery compilation being an exception).

What do you think - would you really listen to more of this?

[SussMusik]

The opening is very intriguing – a sort of glitchy/dusty bell-sound being modulated. Instantly hooked. There’s a slight tonal uplift at about the one-minute mark that might be an interesting opportunity to introduce another voice. Really like what’s happening around 1:45. There’s an almost pulse-like quality that could be embellished with a bit more bottom in the mix. Keep at it – something good happening here.

[SussMusik]

Actually, maybe it doesn’t need as much as you think. There’s a lovely minimal quality in the build as the keyboards slowly layer up. When the drums kick-in it’s very satisfying. The little guitar figure fits wonderfully – do you really need a second guitar? Maybe not. The transition from chillwave to funk at 1:45 is a nice detour. Could totally hear this playing at 1am in a five-star hotel bar. Maybe a subtle vocal can come in around the 3-minute mark – something sort of breathy, a series of sighs – dare we say an erotic flavor? Then you won’t need lyrics

[SussMusik]

Suss Müsik will try to offer constructive, supportive feedback for every contribution this week. Give us time to get to everyone

[SussMusik]

What a weird, wonderful track. There’s a strange anticipation at first, as the piece doesn’t make its presence known straight away. The payoff is a menagerie of organic/synthetic sounds that are intriguingly difficult to identify: animal noises? Music boxes? Calculators? Squiggly synths and outdoor field recordings? It’s all amazing. The tension starts to grow more uncomfortable around the 3-minute mark – the Garden of Eden just after banishment. A single sawtooth tone could be a way out, or perhaps a signal of impending doom. In any event, it’s an enrapturing listen. Great stuff – don’t change a thing.

[SussMusik]

Oh, this is great. Have you heard Dan Abrams’ Shuttle358 project? This is very similar to his best work, specifically Understanding Wildlife. It’s percussive yet tonal, almost organic in the way it resembles the breathiness (if that’s a word) of wind instruments. Perhaps consider playing that up a bit as things start to refactor around 2:15. Maybe a layering of those tones to create composite structures around which the “percussive” bits can dance. That’s a a minor nit, though, as the atmosphere created is lovely on its own.

[SussMusik]

Actually, we sort of like the distortion at the start. There’s a “video game” quality that comes through, albeit not quite as playful. Sometimes compression can create some distortion by fattening up the low-end frequencies a little too far – this can be fixed through some reductive EQ, maybe a cut south of 80Hz. But honestly, it sounds good. Somewhere around 1:30 it feels as if something should come in, but shortly thereafter the ping-pong channels create an intriguingly binaural listening experience on its own. Confession that the term “judder” isn’t totally clear – do you mean the vibration in the tones? That can be nice, especially when the reverb starts to pick up a few beats later. There’s a very subtle sliding effect happening near the end that warrants more investigation. Perhaps consider taking that up an octave and panning it cross-channel. If you decide to add anything, make sure to pull some bottom out of the EQ of the new bit so it doesn’t compete with what’s already there. Agreed that it sound pretty finished – nice work as always.

[SussMusik]

It is always a pleasure to listen to your contributions every week. This piece is no exception. There is a lovely Bill Frisell vibe at the beginning, melancholy but not depressing. The backing voices resemble a gentle application of Frippertronics, which really come to the front about two or so minutes in. Agreed that it was probably too “nice” for a Branca tribute, but it’s highly satisfying on its own terms. It’s far from boring or repetitive. Fascinating combinations of voices and tones emerge as it develops. (Remember that such composers as Michael Nyman have built careers around this sort of approach to composition). Perhaps what would complete the piece in your mind is some form of reduction in the middle – a break in the pattern, or maybe two phrases where the fuzzy guitars and synths are left to fend for their own. But really, a beautiful offering.