These instructions popped up at disquiet.com/0585 (powers of automation willing) shortly after 12:10am Pacific Time on Thursday, March 16. (I was asleep at the time, quite deeply.) The email containing those instructions went out via tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto later in the morning (after I woke up), and then I posted them here, and began to do so on the Junto Slack, and my Mastodon account, and Instagram, etc. (I’m taking a Twitter break at the moment.) And if you’re on Mastodon, please use the #DisquietJunto tag. Much appreciated.
Email: This Tinyletter webapp is become less usable as we get gain members. We’re nearing 2,000 subscribers. I will likely switch to Substack or to another (free) service at some point this year. Suggestions appreciated. No matter what service I end up using, subscription to this announcement list will, absolutely, always be free. (The main issue with Tinyletter is I now can’t send more than five emails a month without going over the limit of recipients, and that means I can’t send out occasional other important news, which I’d like to do sometimes.)
Profile: Earlier this week I posted the sixth in a weekly series of Junto Profiles, this one with longtime Junto member Jason Richardson (aka @bassling). I have a bunch all set to go, and more in the works. If you’re interested in being interviewed for the series, just let me know. I ask that you wait until you’ve been a regular participant for nine months. Much appreciated.
Collaborations: One of the most popular Junto projects each year has been, in fact, three or four projects — the sequence where we create trios asynchronously one week at a time. We haven’t done this yet in 2023, but we will in the near future. Also this year, I’m thinking about either doing it as a quartet, or doing both a trio sequence and a quartet sequence at different times during the year. In either case, one such sequence is coming up soon. Or soon-ish.
. . .
And now, on to this week’s project:
Disquiet Junto Project 0585: F9
The Assignment: Fast forward an old track to make a new one.
Step 1: Many media playback apps for laptops (among other devices) include the option to fast forward through a track manually. Some apps have settings that allow you to adjust the length of the gap that will be jumped. Find a tool that can do this. VLC (videolan.org/vlc) is recommended. In VLC you can jump forward in set lengths of time by repeatedly pressing (not holding, but repeatedly pressing) the right arrow on your keyboard.
Step 2: Try this process with a few of your own recordings: hitting the right arrow at a steady pace (as quickly as every split second, as slowly as every two or three seconds).
Step 3: Locate a track of your own where doing what is described in Step 2 yields a result you find pleasing.
Step 4: Record what the result of Step 3 sounds like for one of your pre-existing tracks. (This may be old hat, if you have used Loopback or similar software. You could also just record the output from your laptop’s speaker.)
Step 5: Use the result of Step 4 as the foundation for a new piece of music. You can add as little or as much as you would like to it.
Notes: (1) You may find you can simulate this effect. (2) You can loop the result of Step 4 if what it yields is too short.
Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: Include “disquiet0585” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.
Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0585” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.
Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.
Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0585-f9/
Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #DisquietJunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.
Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Step 8: Also join in the discussion on the Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to marc@disquiet.com for Slack inclusion.
Note: Please post one track for this weekly Junto project. If you choose to post more than one, and do so on SoundCloud, please let me know which you’d like added to the playlist. Thanks.
Additional Details:
Length: The length is up to you. Just because it’s fast forwarded doesn’t mean it needs to be short.
Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, March 20, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, March 16, 2023.
Upload: When participating in this project, 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 always best to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).
For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:
More on this 585th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Generations (The Assignment: Fast forward an old track to make a new one), at: https://disquiet.com/0585/
More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/
Subscribe to project announcements here: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0585-f9/