I started by selecting nine samples to use in 24 chords of three notes each, arranged according to the (9,3,2) block design on page 204 of Tom Johnson’s Other Harmony. At the time, I wasn’t concerned with pitch or consonance and set the samples to loop in Numerology’s sample kit so they could play for extended durations.

I wasn’t finding these long chords compelling, so I went the other direction and shortened them to play in repetitive pulses. I added a drum beat, then chose another of the dischoir samples to play over the entire piece, altering its pitch using Michael Norris’s Spectral Pitch Shift and using Spectral DroneMaker as an effect. I used Sandman Pro on the vocal chord & drum tracks, aiming for a glitchy/creepy effect.

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My first disquiet in 5 years!
I’m just learning to use my software sampler. I think I ended up using 4 or 5 of the samples, initially I intended to use many more. It was nice hearing everyone’s voices.

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My effort was a quick one using @TheTechnobear 's recent adaptation of Katja Vetter’s ‘slicejockey’ for ORAC. I think I just used @baconpaul 's ‘daughter’ samples. Lovely vocal texture :slight_smile: Sounds almost like a trumpet pitched down.

soundcloud blurb:
Made using orac for Organelle and Ableton Live.
orac modules used:
slicer by @thetechnobear (based on Katja Vetter’s slicejockey)
reverberation by @ëlectrafa

In Ableton:
Soundtoys Filterfreak VST doing some envelope following filter movements.
Valhalla Plate VST for some extra reverb sprinkles.

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I actually do sing in a real choir. I can´t let this opportunity pass without posting a link to our song “Bye Biodiversity”. We recently recorded this and will actually sing this today on a congress on ""Conservation of Biodiversity on Land“ here in Berlin.

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Firstly, I want to thank everyone for their time and generosity! There was just so much to choose from! I wish I could’ve used everyone’s voices :\

Climate change has been on the forefront of my mind for a while. It’s hard to escape the fact in Australia, despite our government’s best attempts. I wanted to create a piece that expressed my sense of unease with our current situation.

Here is the Dischoir singing along with a recording of ice melting. I recorded the ice by freezing my hydrophone in a glass of water, then slowly pouring hot water over the frozen block.

Vocal contributions [in order of appearance]:

Jet Jaguar
Patricia Wolf
cray
samarobryn
atomboyd
Precht
zoundsabari
ejkelly
BellyFullOfStars
sevenism
tja
Zero Meaning
KRSeward
Vonna Wolf

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Lovely. Very meditative.

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Hi, everyone. I’m pretty sure the playlist now includes all the tracks from this week, but if I missed yours, let me know. It’s here:

I really enjoyed the way you kept the samples in recognisable form and yet managed to build things up in a way that transformed the combination to more than the sum.

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I thought this was a fun middle ground between a choral piece and a drone piece. Vocal texture and recognisable transients but blending into a moving drone tone.

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I dig the textures of each voice starting again, and the little clicks are nice!

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Could be used over the opening credits of The Exorcist… loved the ending too.

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Apologies for my very lateness!!

I wanted to hear what would happen if I let the timbre and original pitches of the Dischoir dictate the composition, with me serving as the transcriber/arranger. So I used the samples without change as much as I could, while still attempting for it to sound like a community choir singing together… just one that happens to gather online rather than all at once in a room.

So this is it - everyone, the whole Dischoir. I have it at 53 participants, I think. One sample from every Dischoir member is in the mix somewhere, for the most part unprocessed. There are two people who sent in multiple samples, where I used two of those in the mix (@baconpaul and @atomboyd ).

Only very minimal pitch shifting was used, and in only 5 voices, mainly to follow the melody - the lower note in @atomboyd 's voice a minor 3rd down for the main motif; In the middle section: a major 2nd down in Hugh’s (@DetritusTabuIII) voice, my voice, and @atomboyd 's high melody, and a major 2nd up in AJ Miller’s (@brasslens) drone to match a chord change. Everyone else is at the same pitch in which they originally sang their sample.

There is some sample stretching, done through Groove Clip Looping in Sonar. And plenty of voice doubling throughout. Otherwise, there are no other effects. The arrangement was edited and assembled entirely in Sonar.

I started the process by listening to every sample and grouping them by pitch. Then, after the initial inspirational spark of the main riff heard in the first measures, I worked with the pitched groupings to create the final chord structure and arrangement around it. This took awhile! But I’m very happy hearing the results.

Thanks to AJ Miller (@brasslens) & @atomboyd for the inspirational interval spark.

Some of the featured voices:

@atomboyd , Hugh (@DetritusTabuIII ), @VonnaWolf on leads and higher featured lines.
@abalone and Cray in key drones.
@ikjoyce holding down the root bass note solo in one of the chords,
and @Jet for the marvelous throat singing bass!

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You somehow perfectly sang the key change in my piece, by happenstance. :slight_smile: One of my fave moments hearing that!

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Great! This is a beautiful rendition of the samples and, I have to say, as far as collaborations go this whole project has been fantastic. Thanks to the originators and Marc for the idea and for the chance to take part. (Btw - yes, I am ajmiller! Never thought to stick my forum handle in there!)

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Glad you liked it. I struggled a bit to write it as a choral piece as I’d find a single sample I liked then play a piano/organ style two handed harmony/melody leaving little space for anything else. These were fun improvisations and I liked the sound but it didn’t really hit the style I wanted. In the end I had to make myself follow a chord structure which constrained things enough that I could actually write individual lines per voice which was much easier for me but also much less lively and spontaneous. If I were spending more time I think I’d try and find a better way to bridge the gap between pure improvisation and structured composition. Either way it was a fun process.

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Ah, glad I looked through and found you! Thank you!
Yes, this was a great idea and prompt from Marc, Alan, and Jason. Misspellings should do this kind of good more often! It really did feel to me like we were all in the same room singing while I was putting together the piece - I loved that sense.

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I love the sense of cinematic drama! A soundtrack to impending choir doom, just around the corner - sounds great!

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Gorgeous! I’m so glad anyone could get any use out of my harried submissions. I’d grander plans to sing in perfect key and do a full scale or set of intervals, but babies hate noise and productivity apparently. psshhhh.

Post mortem to myself:

  • include son’s voice in the samples next time, he is adorable
  • don’t forget to get a reference pitch before going into the closet to hide from your kid to submit your samples
  • don’t sweat it, you contributed samples and finally a song to disquiet.
  • Today is Thursday. Start again.
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Hey All, I have to say this was a killer week, everyone gave the samples a little something. Enjoyed listening so far. Cheers Marc! Peace, Hugh

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Man this blew me away. Fantastic.

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