Disquiet Junto Project 0593: The Charm

SkylarkDuquesne · 2023-05-14T18:54:06.745Z

The Bass VI is such a crazy critter! A tip of the hat to you!

orbit_f · 2023-05-14T20:03:14.447Z

@krakenkraft thanks a lot! I really like the elements you brought. They mix really well! I like the sense of space and mystery it has

krakenkraft · 2023-05-14T20:08:24.177Z

@Pineyb Interesting idea with the Adobe podcast software! I recently had a noisy podcast recording and the voice was so destroyed, that Adobes tool was not able to repair it - but on the other hand I always had the feeling it was trying to re-speak the speakers voice.

Kitzmann · 2023-05-14T20:26:16.009Z

You have more than done it justice! Wonderful end result!

fectoper · 2023-05-14T20:51:22.735Z

For this third step I started with “Caterpillar Dreams” by @RabMusicLab with @Krakenkraft and added some flute and different processings in a partial attempt of building some Tangerinedreaming-esque layer. I liked the krautrock feeling of the original. I hope I have not spoiled it.

pflouret · 2023-05-14T23:00:09.737Z

A weird not-pop(?) song.

Couldn’t sink as much time as i would’ve liked into it, but it is what it is! Been playing around a lot with fors glänta and chiral, so some semi-jams in the center.

1: Disquiet Junto Project 0591: The Loneliest Number - #31 by Hugh_G_Twatt @Hugh_Prat
2: Disquiet Junto Project 0592: Better Than One - #69 by jimkang @jimkang

wasabicube · 2023-05-15T08:43:18.991Z

Adding to @rshaddox’s addition to @krakenkraft’s original. Trying to remain within keeping of the two that preceded me. I carried on the approach I took last week of manipulating MIDI arpeggios. This time a BABY Audio BA-1 and Arturia ARP2600 provided the centre track, riffing off the previous two weeks’ tracks.

Preceding tracks were:

Stream The Patient Earthworm [disquiet0591] (The Loneliest Number) by Krakenkraft | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
Stream DIsquiet0592 And So The Worm Hath Turned by russell-c-shaddox | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

Soundoferror · 2023-05-15T13:50:44.568Z

my choice for the second submission was the beautiful piece by Marc Eisenschink w/ encym. i felt it was asking for minimal real piano. added a bit of reverb to my centered mono track. Frugality & enner & nothing

Kitzmann · 2023-05-15T14:47:01.445Z

I find it hard to break out of drone mold, especially given the excellent drone duo created by @ray_cobley and @dantante. So I added some more, using the Easel and the Cosmos set on granular. This has been a fantastic experience, not only for my own minimal efforts but especially listening to the compositions of everyone taking part.

krakenkraft · 2023-05-15T16:37:44.873Z

And here my second submission:

When I listened to ed to Stream Noodle Twister -Nobody Home + Soundoferror Bass VI based on Nobody Home I instantly felt like when I was in Berlin at the Superbooth two days before, sitting in the sun, too lazy to visit all those synthesizers. All the time there were one, two or three acts playing something somewhere, which was sometimes a cacophony, sometimes it just fitted. So I added a rusty granular noise and fresh field recordings from Berlin, and really: This is how it sometimes could have sounded there, while you were sitting in the sun, too lazy to visit all those synthesizers. Maybe overstuffed, but I like this very much, of course especially because @Soundoferror played so fine on @Glitcher s great soundscape - thanks to you both!

encym · 2023-05-15T19:29:47.335Z

That was a great week – and a tough choice, too. Which duo to choose out of the numerous compelling submissions.

In the end, I went for “Somebody’s Home” by @SinnySounds and @Glitcher… Thanks guys, really appreciate your sympathetic bedding onto which I plunged my estranged guitar bits – here’s the finished trio:

Merle · 2023-05-15T19:48:07.616Z

Using @SonicSearch’s “Eden” and “Unknown Quantities” by @Forelight, I completed the trio by adding a low whistle line in D processed live by two effects pedals:

ntrier · 2023-05-16T02:56:20.760Z

I can not find the creator of the track I downloaded! Sorry. I stayed up a little late than I meant to, but here’s a quick write up. The source material was a short guitar improv over processed sounds, so I added some organ improv to go along with it by editing together three different takes.

I tried to go for the vibe of a trippy 70’s jam session…

jimkang · 2023-05-16T04:07:09.477Z

I recorded guitar with a decent amount of feedback to add to @krakenkraft and @RabMusicLab’s Caterpillar Dream, but it actually sounded better on @Alyce_Santoro and @orbit_f’s Beyond Abstraction Cactus Flower. (I don’t know what this says about my improv skills.)

I used Bitwig’s Spectral Loudness thing, which breaks a signal down into loudness categories and turned down the middle loudness components, which gave the guitar a lightsaber-like tone and hollowed it out some. I think that helped it avoid overwhelming the flute and bass. Then, I added a flanger.

Creatures_Once · 2023-05-16T04:20:15.018Z

Added vocal percussion sounds to last week’s submission by @fectoper (Fectoper – The-zeigarnik-effect-phase-2feat-x-i-i-i-x-x-idisquiet0592), which built on week one from @xiiixxi (Xiiixxi – Disquiet-junto-the-loneliest-number-disquiet0591)
Loved these creations and felt like adding drums and percussion. Kept things vocally focused and improvised some vocal percussion through the Roland E4 and Kaoss pad. Kept some original recordings, and sliced some up on the Push 2 to create some new parts. Light processing to bring up some low end to get a kick sound from the voice.

SonicSearch · 2023-05-16T05:00:18.759Z

Based this piece on Listen to Frugality & Enner & nothing feat. encym(disquiet0592) by Marc Eisenschink in Disquiet Junto Project 0592: Better Than One playlist online for free on SoundCloud by @RandomShuffle and @encym

It was an interesting balancing act, to add something fresh while still leave enough space for the original material to breathe.

This is my 2nd iteration.
Initially, I wanted to just record a drum part but wasn’t satisfied with the end result.
I wanted something more subtle.

So for the 2nd iteration, I came up with a process that allowed me to explore a few of my current interests at the same time. Probably that’s why I was willing to give this piece so much attention. Hm…

Below is a somewhat detailed description of the process and context.
It’s long & detailed, because I wanted to capture a few thoughts while they’re still fresh.

Context:

earlier this week, I studied interviews with Nils Frahm about his current improvised live concerts (How I Play Live: Nils Frahm | DJMag.com). My take-away for me was that playing all parts by hand (e.g. not relying on quantized sequencers) is a part of his organic sound that I like so much.
That motivated me to play keyboard a lot more - mostly piano & electric piano sounds with a touch of tape delay effect - and discover that this is currently my favorite thing to do, musically.
yesterday, I repaired the broken switch of the audio input preamp on my Buchla Easel, and my mind was naturally wondering about how to employ it in the next projects…
earlier today, I read an interview with Biosphere (In the studio with Biosphere | Headphone Commute) - another artist whose sound I like a lot.
I liked the idea of processing samples of acoustic instruments (he mentions sampling classical music) through synths/filters/etc.
yesterday, I found the perfect reverb effect pairing for the Easel - a modulated space reverb pedal.

All of the above coming together to form the idea for a process.

while the original track was playing, I started playing on a keyboard with a Mellotron strings sound.
With a twist: I wanted it to sound less obvious, weathered, softened, darkened - so I passed it through through Buchla Easel’s low-pass gate, then through the modulated reverb effect.
then mixed in a bit of Easel’s own voice (a single note with varying envelopes and timbre), tuning the oscillators by ear
once I was happy with the sound, I recorded the MIDI for the Mellotron
then, having the MIDI play through Easel, I recorded three takes of the stereo output from the Easel (wet, with the ~70% reverb. The amount of dry signal varied from 0-30%).
I was able to fully focus on the sound shaping and loudness control, not having to think about playing the right notes (another insight from Nils Frahm’s interview). It was good, a nice focused state I like to be in when I make music.
then I jumped to the DAW for composition and final mixing & mastering: I picked the good parts from the recorded takes, added a drum loop from my 1st attempt in the 2nd part of the composition to add variety and for a change of perspective to the already familiar material
then I repeated the same process with the ambient background noise (rain/traffic noise from Freesound) processing it through the Easel, processing the sound by manually moving the sliders and knobs and recording the result back to the DAW.

Take-aways for my future self (and maybe others):

it may be useful to accurately identify and follow the current interests and find ways to focus on them, explore them in the next project. Even better when multiple interests combine together and fuse into something unique.
It’s nice to approach the process in stages: do one thing at a time, commit to it, and move to the next stage. E.g. 1. play and record MIDI, then 2. process the audio in real-time, then 3. compose and mix the result. Realistically, my attention span isn’t great and I’d rather do one thing at a time. With staged approach, I can focus much more.
Interesting, non-obvious sounds can be obtained with multi-stage processes, by avoiding “pure colors” and embracing mixed techniques that generate many imperfections - e.g. acoustically-generated sound (Strings), recorded to tape and replayed (Mellotron), played by a human (rather than a quantized sequencer), processed through an analog processor, again modulated in real-time by a human in response to the already recorded material. Then passed through a modulated reverb space, fine-tuned by the human to the already recorded material… etc, etc.

joemcmahon · 2023-05-16T05:16:09.748Z

No jazz this time around, but I did find the achingly beautiful “The Lonely Penguin Finds a Friend” and the inspiring “7 Hallucinations”.

I ended up doing a Frippertronic Obyssey patch over “The Lonely Penguin”, and a whached-out RIpplemaker patch over “7 Hallucinations”. I ened up doing all the recording and mixing on my iPad in AUM, and I’m really getting to like it as a performance and recording platform.

Art is from deepai.org.

mikey_a · 2023-05-16T07:41:45.464Z

Thanks for a lovely addition to the Pelican Joe! Your part has a spacey, ethereal quality that goes so well with the other two more traditional instruments.

encym · 2023-05-16T07:47:24.971Z

Utterly compelling, fantastic job everyone for your sparse playing on this!

xiiixxi · 2023-05-16T17:40:41.240Z

Really maintains the rhythmic character of both the previous tracks - brilliant