Disquiet Junto Project 0467: Toolbox Show & Tell

[NorthWoods]

Detritus you’ve made some great tracks. What about putting a ‘best of’ on Bandcamp?

[tristan_louth_robins]

Oh, I didn’t mention that bit! I was just playing the synth through a small speaker near the resonant objects, so it was a natural acoustic interaction.

[Ausgesuchtestenohren]

Although in this week’s assignment we are prompted to take the word “toolbox” in the project’s title metaphorically, I took it quite literally, because in the time of the pandemic and its lock downs I rediscovered a box full of everyday objects, I collected over time, because I thought they would be appropriate to make interesting sounds on/with them. I took this “toolbox” with these objects for sound making and sound exploration and started to make sounds by moving several objects around in this box with a mic very close. In addition I used an Ableton Live setup with the daw’s own looper on too tracks and with the Evolution plugin from INA GRM in order to process the sounds derived from the objects in the box with live electronics. Evolution is a complex sampling tool, which can be used to obtain continuous evolution of timbre by frequential sampling of the input signal. The timbre of the input signal is sampled at more or less regular intervals. The output signal is obtained by interpolation between the sampled timbres. I usually use three different settings of Evolution on three tracks with my “toolbox” In this way I recorded several improvisations. Finally I composed this piece from the results of these improvisations. The setup also works very well for me in live performance, of which I did several streaming online recently.

[davidstelfox]

This year has been a weird one creatively, I found loads of inspiration during the first lockdown here in the UK (March - June/July) with my photography, field recording and music. Since then things have slowed a lot, moving house didn’t help, but I guess one tool I have developed is a template for putting music together.

I picked up music making a few years ago in my mid-thirties with zero theory knowledge, I have picked up a little but efforts to learn anything properly have always been fruitless. I most struggled with what I guess is composition - how to put things together but feel that over the last year I have found a decent template to make songs I am happy with. It boils down to 2-3 loops, 1-2 field recordings and several returns tracks with effects. Keeping things simple and minimal means I don’t overthink things.

[fakeg3nius]

Learned a lot this year and one thing is definitely to keep trying different things and let go of strict placement of notes and envelope lanes. Play more by ear and turn knobs in real-time. Also played a lot of guitar and other different instruments next to all the electronic stuff. This track is one of the first actually with a recording of one of my 6-string friends, a Telecaster (from Japan of course). One trick I use a lot, and also in this one is to have multiple different reverbs on return tracks, then send different instruments different amount to them and apply EQ to mix them together. I like how you can control how the space “behind the instruments” sounds.

[fakeg3nius]

Great sounds. Like especially the kind of “sucking” about half-way.

[architecturalstudies]

One of the biggest “discoveries” on my end this year was the use of step sequencing – initially mainly via vintage MIDI sequencers. I’d been finding myself stuck pretty often by playing synthesizer parts into the DAW via MIDI controller or using the mouse to manually enter notes, and decided I should try a different hardware-based approach to try and get my composition outside of the computer for a change. I found that using step sequencing helped me push beyond the holdups I’d been having with the computer by working within the limitations of the hardware.

I think this is mainly due to the removal of the visual component of the music – no longer was I paying attention to when certain changes were going to happen by watching the timeline. I wasn’t judging the music based on how many times I repeated a certain pattern. They forced me to sit back and simply listen. I began worrying far less about the complexity of the arrangements and instead focused on how they sounded.

That said, I have not converted to a DAW-free lifestyle. The old sequencers, as useful as they can be in some ways, can be painfully cryptic, unintuitive, and extremely limited in the number of tracks, notes or editing capabilities they offer. Finding myself pushed up against these limitations pretty often, I usually end up transferring the various sequences into the computer for final arrangement and editing (if necessary).

The above track was created with this method, first working out all parts in a hardware sequencer, then recording the MIDI into the computer for the final arrangement. Like other recent Junto posts I’ve done, I used graph paper to try and keep track of the patterns I was creating.

[sevenism]

this is my technique for adding a quick strings-like accompaniment

duplicate the track
adjust the pitch by like 5 or 7 semitones (whatever fits)
apply wet reverb or convolution reverb

i did this in audacity with a flute and oboe sample. another benefit is that the reverb creates a stereo effect for these mono samples

[rrizzi]

Nice, gotta try this

[mdh]

I spent a bit of time a few months back investigating Pure Data a bit further, having read this really interesting blog post about using Javascript to create systems music, I decided to try and port it over to Pure Data as a learning exercise.

The “front end” looks like:

And the “back end” inevitably looks like…:

Anyway, working on audio at this kind of level and with the objects PD exposes is a real pleasure and I feel like I learnt quite a bit about how samplers work on quite a basic level and it opened me up to how to manipulate the pitch, phase etc

So, I used this to create a phased piece in the style of Its Gonna Rain. I thought it was suitable to focus on the ridiculousness that the “Australian Deal” Boris & chums are trying to lead the country to believe is a positive outcome and added some pitched + phased piano loop I found on my hardrive + telephone ringing all recorded individually using the PD patch into Ableton and thats about it. Although I did get a bit bored of the phasing about 2/3rds of the way through and just started messing around with my sliders

[krakenkraft]

80% of my music started on a cheap android DAW app called “Caustic”. The sound is not perfect, but I like the workflow. Anyway, since 1 year or so I try to switch to Ableton Live. Because of the lockdown I had a lot of time to flatten the learning curve with this DAW.

My tip is about “Follow Action”, to bee seen in the Ableton Live Clip Editor. Follow Action allows a clip to trigger other clips by probability, in the screen example of the track cover there is “play again” with prob 1, “play any other” with prob 2. The clip is one of of many clips which only contains some note on a scale or a chord.

Normally I somehow reject pure generative music, although I place a lot of value on chance in my own. It always seemed “dishonorable” (maybe a word to big for what I want to say) to me to let a software (that I didn’t write myself) generate music and claim this music to be “mine”.

However, with “Follow Action” I have the possibility to achieve an (in my opinion) “honorable” mix of probabilities and composition.

In this case, there are different tracks with different signatures and different Gongs in A minor. I even added “empty” clips to get some “silence” into it. The probabilty for the different tracks differs, one could for example use one track to establish sequencial clip triggers, to include motives that are bigger than inside a bar.

[DetritusTabuIII]

Thanks man, Yeah I am trying to figure out a place to post everything that allows downloads and I don’t have to pay every month. I will look into Bandcamp. I hate I will lose all the tracks I uploaded but probably would be good to have a “best of” filtering process. I will still use soundcloud to post to junto but use a slightly altered name each time the free account reaches its limit. But Detritus is no more.

[Ben_Levisohn]

https://soundcloud.com/dashielhammet/disquiet0467_toolbox
since lockdown started, i’ve been spending more time working than I did pre-covid, and I’ve tried to force myself to play something every day as a way to disengage with my job and try to do at least a little something that was creative and just for me. sometimes, I would have ideas while sleeping about something i’d want to try on my modular gear, but often i’d have no idea where to start. And that’s when i’d fall back on drones. In my much younger days, I would set up multiple guitars in the basement of the house I shared with my brother and some roommates and just let them drone on and on. no room for that anymore (or desire to inflict it on my family), but I always come back to just letting my guitars and keyboards drone away and see what happens. most of the time it’s meh, but at least it’s getting done. this track is multiple drones layered on top of each other, some guitar figures buried underneath, and the Melodicer providing the notes for the odessa to layer on top. had some problems with the volume level–it falls twice during the course of playback and I couldn’t figure out why. apologies for that. Thanks for listening.

[krehg]

https://soundcloud.com/ohm-research/terapi-disquiet0467
I work in construction. We never closed, we never stopped working. Financially, for me, nothing changed. I know I am very fortunate. I have been influenced by the psychological, financial, and detrimental health issues those near to me and not near to me have had to experience during the past months. I work primarily with modular synths. I liken it to working with clay. I start with nothing, and at the end I might have something or I might not. No matter the outcome, I always feel better afterwards. I think Endorphin.es is one of the best names for a manufacturer, because working with modular most likely causes me to generate endorphins. At any rate, after a session I certainly sleep well. In my long winded way, I am saying what I have learned in the past months is that now, more than ever, working with sound is therapy. What I am generating might be acceptable or it might be garbage, but it is therapy.

[Ben_Levisohn]

Well said. I work in news and making music serves very much the same function for me.

[kn00t]

Hello everybody,

This is the story of missed chances -
I once was into circuit bending
The creative short circuiting of cheap electronic sound toys.
I got sound.
Then soon I got smoke.
Silence since then.
So:
– Record when it’s due

I created the track in Reason Studio using some guitar playing as a start. Then added software instruments. Missing is some sound from the sound toy in the picture - but I learned now to record as soon as I get sound while circuit bending noise toys.

[kn00t]

@architecturalstudies

I understand you. The piano roll can be very annoying visually. External step sequencer is a great idea.

@krakenkraft

Nice to see other Caustic users around. I plan to actually release some of my Caustic creations here. I enjoyed making them while staying in bed. But ‘Follow action’ is an Ableton feature not Caustic, right?

Note: I am still new here and learn how to comment. When I don’t want to comment on the soundcloud track directly I see the only way is as a reply and then everything has to be in one reply. Please tell me if there is a better way. Thanks.

[hardworking]

My two tips from this year are represented in this track, which I made from a Pure Data patch I’ve enjoyed constructing and playing around with a lot this year. I use Automatonism in Pure Data, which I find to be an incredible tool that really opened up ‘computer music’ for me.

The first tip is to use the Parameter Nudge module in Autom, which will when triggered (either by button press or by a trigger signal) nudge every parameter in the whole patch by a certain (adjustable) amount. This has fantastic potential for creating generative systems, controlled randomness or absolute chaos. I don’t use modular, but even if I did I would not be able to tweak every knob in the rack several times a second!

The second tip is pretty basic, but it was valuable to me: get a midi controller! I always associated MIDI with keyboards predominantly, which doesn’t do much for me as I’m not playing songs or writing melodies. But I picked up a nice and cheap Nanokontrol this year so that I could control Pd / Autom patches with knobs and sliders over MIDI CC, and it’s made a huge difference. As I can map the controls freely, I’m essentially building instruments and playable systems now, which opens up a huge amount of potential. (Old news to most lines folks I’m sure…)

The first half of this track is a generative chaos patch ‘frozen’, e.g. I’ve switched off the master clock, so no parameters are being nudged, and I’m fading the four channels up and down with the controller. Then I trigger the master clock on, and the nudges start firing again and the soundscape gets very fast and busy and noisy. I continue to work on the channel faders throughout. Enjoy!

[wagneric]

I identify with three modes of making so-called music: experimentation, composition, and transcription. With transcription, the goal is to produce a sketch of what’s in my head as quickly/easily as possible, and I use my iPad with the Auxy app for that with the idea that I’ll go back in and finish it with better hardware/software “someday”.

The present piece is an orchestration of words rattling around in my head: “Goodbye 2020, and thank you for the crazy ride” (assuming we make it through the last couple weeks). The only sample is “goodbye” from an automated trash collection reminder on the phone.

[krakenkraft]

Follow Action is Ableton, I just mentioned Caustic because the new thing in 2020 for me was to learn Ableton, instead of staying in the easy & trusted comfort zone of the very nice Caustic app, which unfortunately is apparently not being further developed.