#39

With this week theme, I decided to exploit recursion with a Tape Echo using it as a live played instrument processing a harmonic-rich sample played in a loop.

I used the Elektron Octatrack as my sample processor/destroyer source the material from a children vinyl from the 60’s played on reverse, effected by a comb filter with a very slow LFO modulating its tune settings for a harmonic-rich outcome. That Played in a loop while I jammed with the Strymon Magneto.

The outcome was somewhat Chaotic.

6 Likes
#40

https://soundcloud.com/moduspony/praugress-disquiet0348

I’ve been playing a lot with chords lately so my interpretation of a musical mise en abyme had to do with that, as well as beat pattern/rhythm. Since it takes at least three notes to make a chord, the number three was used a lot. As you can hopefully see in the screen shot, one chord (an augmented A) plays out melodically over the course of the whole piece, creating three parts of the song (each one slightly shorter than the last), over which another chord played out the same way, dividing the 3 pieces by 3 again, and over this a 3 chord progression incorporating the 2 ambient notes being held are played (again each one being slightly shorter than the last). The math is not perfect. In hind sight, I didn’t consider what actually counted as one measure (9 beats in this case). So, the math was a little imperfect but I don’t care because it actually created these interesting moments where I had to pack the chords in quickly before the end of a part. It created kind of an interesting fill going into the next part. I think it’s better to imply self reference than try to be rain man about it. The listener won’t know it’s not perfect and won’t care anyway.

5 Likes
#41

Hey all, just in time!

Recursed (disquiet0348)
Even with the long weekend this barely got done in time. Started working Thursday and made some quiet pads in SpaceCraft using field recordings but kept getting pulled away with other projects. My thoughts were heading towards both copies within copies within copies…etc. and also bringing in repeating delays, all of which faded infinitely away.
A second part part recorded in AUM had RippleMaker feeding a pattern to both Sunrizer and Mood, while a latched Tardigrain played grains of the first SpaceCraft piece and a Zeeon pad played in a matching key. The Tardigrain/Zeeon combo handles the low end and Sunrizer/Mood are the basic voices. I had tried a more complex arpeggio earlier, but the direction I was headed made it indistinguishable between parts.
The AUM and SpaceCraft recordings were brought into Cubasis panned, eq’d and then mixed down. This track was then copied to three tracks where each was stretched smaller. One at 50%, one at 25% and the last to 12.5%. This was an attempt to represent the recursive reduction in size and they were centered in relation to each other at first, but a more pyramid overall scheme sounded better to me. This is almost visible in the cover art. There is nothing but the original layered sounds, so all the percussive elements revolve around the stretching reduction and delays. I ended up transposing the 25% track down an octave, also for a more interesting effect. The time reduced tracks have various amounts of send going to Kosmonaut and one also sends to Duplicat. A small amount of reverb and panning are scattered about for interest. Not quite the true mise en abyme, closer to a distorted copy that degrades more each time its inserted. Wow, not sure any of this makes sense now that I read it, oh well, hope it sounds better than my explanation :wink:

The cover art was also originally more recursive but became unrecognizable too! :-/

3 Likes
#42

My first track for the Disquiet Junto. Building a track around the artistic concept of “mise en abyme” I took a short 8 note melody(C,B,D,A,B,A,G,E)and allowed it to play out as Whole Notes, Half Notes, Quarter Notes, 8th Notes, 16th Notes, and(loosely played)32nd Notes. This ends up creating a neat cloud of sound that is slightly processed throughout. Going from Whole notes through 32nd notes. Then 32nd notes to Whole notes. This being an experimental group, I am taking the opportunity to tinker with new post processing ideas using cassette tape.

7 Likes
#43

Love this. Leads somewhere so unexpected - not at all where i thought this approach would take me. Some of the subtle transformations are downright transcendent.

2 Likes
#44

I was super short on time with this one. The first though I had about a song within a song was about fugues, wherein one melodic line is transposed, sped up or slowed down to created the other lines for other instruments. So i did that, and then used wavetable samplers to sample parts of the song and re-insert them (the intro for instance, and throughout the track).

4 Likes
#45

Brook. Thank you for the reply. I really love the idea of letting different music bits fall together and hearing the unexpected melodies or rhythms appear. Glad you noticed the subtle transformations. =)

1 Like
#46

Thanks! I had other plans for the orchestral vs. synthesizer sections, but playing them back and forth like this turned out to sound much more interesting. I’m imagining a live performance with a classical sextet at stage left, versus one guy with a synth stack on the right.

2 Likes
#47

Dealing w some family health issues the past few months but this one is too good to pass up…

the length of the first note is doubled by the second note. Then the following sequence of 2 notes has twice the time, the next sequence of 4 notes has 4 times the time and so on. The second pitch is a step above the first. The next two pitches are a step above the first two pitches, the next 4 pitches are a step above the previous 4 and so on…

5 Likes
#48

https://soundcloud.com/untilledsound/fractal-kaida-disquiet0348

When I heard the concept I thought of fractals. I’ve been studying Tabla (a set of Indian drums) for the last year or so and I’ve learned that it’s not uncommon in Tabla music to take a set of Bols (strikes on the drum) and double the speed of them. In a sense, a copy of a copy.

I took one of the tabla beats I’ve been learning and programmed it into my Drumbrute Impact Drum Machine, then doubled and redoubled the speed. I made some drone sounds with my modular setup. Hearing that the modular doesn’t speed up while the drums do, gives you an Idea of the fractal-like nature of this practice.

I’m not fast enough to play this Kaida at the speed that it goes in this piece, but it is by no means unrealistic for tabla masters to play this fast. My instructor could play faster than this in his sleep.

6 Likes
#49

https://soundcloud.com/bellyfullofstars/hummingbirds-disquiet0348-hotmiseenabyme

Nesting loops from a piano improv, with incidental bird chirps.
I only used Sonar’s Groove Clip Looping for processing, which creates it’s own kind of granular delay side effect as it stretches files. I stretched a short clip from the original recording to 2, 3, 4, and 8 times its length, and also shortened it to 1/2, 1/4, and nearly 1/8. All the resulting tracks were then put back together in the mix, with changes to panning and levels.The piece ends after the longest stretched iteration of the phrase has finished playing.

7 Likes
#50

Thankyou! It was a simple solution and executed quickly. So there’s definitely room for improvement. I do think there is a possible composition technique in this that I’m tempted to investigate further. Starting with melodies from different scales, I suppose the accidental formation of chords could take on different moods and atmospheres. To not make things cluttered I chose a fast percussive sound, but with a little longer release maybe more interesting textures could be achieved. Cheers!

1 Like
#51

Great track. Amazing how that piano ended up sounding like a Cymbalo.
Cheers to a fellow Sonar user.

2 Likes
#52

this is really good! thank you for sharing

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#53

Thanks! Yeah, the quick little attacks that came out when I shortened the loop really do sound like one. Fun to use a feature that can be a little hinky at time in Sonar for the creative greater good. Cheers back!

2 Likes
#54

This came out as a beautiful counterpoint piece! Your editing really did justice - it feels very cohesive. Really lovely!

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#55

Great interpretation of putting a sound inside a sound. I hadn’t heard of singing sands before, your recording made me curious. Went down a nice little rabbit hole of discovery because of it - thank you!

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#56

Really enjoyed this. Thanks for sharing.

Overall I have really been inspired by the different interpretations people have had.

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#57

This is a wonderful piece!

1 Like
#58

Thanks! Yes, same here. Enjoyed hearing and reading about your interpretation, too.

1 Like