flash crash. end.

mei · 2022-06-29T04:16:51.397Z

living here right now

tyleretters · 2022-06-29T06:12:22.043Z

i love the tension/release dynamics. i can almost feel the various layers of envelopes.

_mark · 2022-06-29T11:13:04.702Z

Struggling with having enough CPU cycles - especially for video stuff… wondering about recording snippets of live code video + audio, then live coding them back together, split-screen…

WilliamHazard · 2022-06-29T22:03:43.842Z

William Hazard FC diaries: Wednesday 220629

It’s been a little while. A lot of stuff has happened. Notable among that stuff:

I went to that Chuck van Zyl show at the Chestnut Hill Skyspace, as I mentioned in my previous entry, and it was not only inspiring but also unexpectedly self-actualizing
Shortly afterwards, I took two weeks off work and spent them in the Midwest, where I grew up. Just before I left, @eblomquist and I realized we’d lived in the same suburb of Chicago when we were kids, although his childhood happened a couple decades earlier than mine. Ed mentioned that @tyleretters also grew up in this area, a little closer to when I did. Realizing that the three of us had shared this experience imbued my trip with a new layer of significance somehow
In Chicago and the near-suburbs, I got to spend some time with my cousin’s kids. Time with them always leaves me with a heightened sense of wonder. There is nothing quite like listening to funk with a five-year-old
After a week in Chicago, I headed to Michigan, where I ran into @walker. We had a couple wonderful conversations about music and family and work and life and Don Quixote, and we even got to do a little patching together, which was delightful
During this time in Michigan, I also had the privilege of doing a little one-on-one crow tutoring session with @vagueintl over a Google Duo video call. Teaching truly is the best way to learn, and putting together a tutorial script for Lee got me to clean up some of my own code, including the script I’ve been working on for some time and refining for this fc, which uses crow to convert lines of poetry into cv and ii commands. Previously, I had thrown the entire lattice library into the script, but that was pushing crow’s limits a bit too hard, which led to inconsistent performance and occasional crashes. Now, I’m doing something similar to what I was doing with lattice, using the existing clock library instead, and the script’s performance has been much smoother, faster, and more consistent as a result
I spent a lot of the time in Michigan reading on a porch or up in the dunes, mostly Rachel Cusk’s Outline and Transit
At the Cottage Book Shop in Glenn Arbor, I picked up a copy of Jim Harrison’s Complete Poems and wrote a piece for my poetry-to-cv-and-ii druid script based on a poem of Harrison’s. I played this piece on my little solar-powered lunchbox setup, on top of a dune overlooking Lake Michigan, which felt like something Harrison might have approved of. I tried to record it and failed, but the ephemerality also feels right, in retrospect
On the drive to and from Michigan, about 6 hours each way, I listened to an audiobook of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. It felt particularly and depressingly apropos on the drive back to Chicago
Before my flight back East, I watched Summer of Soul with my parents. We all thoroughly enjoyed it
On Saturday night, I returned home to my apartment in Philadelphia, and on Sunday afternoon, I played at Modular On The Spot in Blue Bell Park, which Walker had suggested when he and I spoke in Michigan. It was definitely helpful to try out performing with this script in a low-stakes environment. The text I fed the script was from the Declaration of Independence: “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it.” Perhaps you can imagine why
On Monday, I received a tt-busboard-jr that I had ordered from @okyeron and, with some help from @license, was able to get w/ talking to crow over ii. After experimenting with w/syn for a little while, I settled on w/tape for the aforementioned script, inspired in part by Walker’s brilliant use of the Morphagene in his piece The Future Leaks Out. I’ve been experimenting with filling the tape with spoken audio (read: audiobooks) and jumping around in it and modulating the playback speed and direction with various commands determined by the same line of poetry that’s sequencing pitches, envelopes, just friends in synthesis mode, etc. This has been a lot of fun, and I think I’ll probably wind up using it in the fc performance, but I’m definitely still in the early stages of figuring it out
I think I have arrived at a working title for the piece I’m developing for fc: “The Power of Then”

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squim · 2022-07-03T00:05:12.038Z

Spent the last week at a rental with my partner and her family. Went on an 8 mile hike along the cape to gather sea rocket for a salad to make with the kinds then back by way of a trail along the inside through brush trees and flowers. It was a gorgeous time roughly interrupted by other people, concerns about the rest of the world, anxiety about work etc… Made plans to record and do some work but instead I’m cramming over this 4th of July weekend. Made some progress with my control scheme. I picked up a guitar and started playing through the automated grinder I’d developed.

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license · 2022-07-04T05:28:21.872Z

the license FC diaries: Sunday 220703

friends, I have been bad.

I have mostly neglected my Flash Crash studies. not entirely, mind you - I spent a little time on it. but probably not enough. I could rationalize this and say things like, you know, the stress of an impending deadline motivates me. or that the day job has been stressing me out. or that my yard is full of weeds, my house is a mess, etc. none of which would be untrue, but they’re just excuses.

the truth is that I think I’ve lost interest in my original concept. it’s something I had an interest in a while back, and I already did one FC performance based on. as I spent a little time poking and prodding on it, it felt like I would just be doing a minor variation on that performance, which will probably be boring for me and and the audience. I respect artists who stick to one thing for years and hone it to perfection. I aspire to be that kind of artist someday, and I am definitely not yet.

the good news is that I have another idea. I already started on it at the end of last year before some other life things came up and I lost the time, energy, and motivation to work on it. the thread tehn started recently rekindled that flame for me, and a week later the fire thrives in my mind now. it’s just a question of now or later.

the bad news is that I have to figure out two whethers: 1) whether this is me fighting with myself, trying to weasel out of my original concept, and it’s actually wiser to just stay the course and revisit and expand upon that original concept (for example, I did have some ideas for visuals and I don’t, at all, really, for this other concept) 2) whether I actually have time to execute this other idea, because it’s going to take me out of my comfort zone a lot more - which could be very good, but will probably take more time. it’s a risk.

I’m honestly not sure which is the right choice. I see arguments in both directions - follow-through vs. follow your heart, etc. I am a bit conflicted about it and I feel like I need to figure this out basically tomorrow so that I still have a month. at the end of the day, as long as there is a license FC performance, I guess I’ve done the thing. anyway, I appreciate any suggestions. thanks for reading

Obakegaku · 2022-07-04T08:16:27.534Z

Roll the dice.
Never heard you do anything boring and I’m confident that aint going to change any time soon

license · 2022-07-04T16:13:54.051Z

thank you for the kind and wise words @anon78160790 and @Obakegaku.

rolling the dice and moving forward, trusting my heart as the leader.

tyleretters:

it is so refreshing to play an instrument that can think on it’s own.

I don’t think this is what you meant but I’m going to go ahead and agree with my own interpretation.

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(something about having a conversation rather than exacting my will. but also having to do some talking.)

tyleretters · 2022-07-04T17:08:20.737Z

license:

I don’t think this is what you meant but I’m going to go ahead and agree with my own interpretation.

bahhh typo. meant to say: “it is so refreshing to play an instrument that cannot think on its own”

no patches, no settings, no save files…

license · 2022-07-04T17:22:07.785Z

oh now that’s interesting! I thought you meant something about temperature, physics, resonance, never sounding the same twice, etc. I do think there’s something to that, shattering the illusion of being able to perfectly recreate a moment that you ought to just be paying full attention to while it’s happening because it ain’t coming back. that said, even in the presence of patches and persistence, I think the grey area is quite large.

postsolarpunk · 2022-07-05T18:31:10.939Z

Update
I interpreted guitar as the thing that can think for itself because it feels like I’m sitting down and telling TT what to think each time I practice. Guitar already knows what to do.

Deluge SD card wiped, uncorrupted, refilled. Crow drum indexing updated to be easier to use now. Figured out BGET op on TT to do some dynamic drum patterns. Made some teletype metal lol

What do I play?
I might be able to combine my crow drum practice, TT metal guitar, and found sounds stuff into a nine inch nails soup. I think I’ll practice basic song construction and scene transitions now that I got the robots in sync. Quickly improv build / transition / tear down verses and sound scenes.

squim · 2022-07-08T18:25:12.492Z

As the weather heats up my apartment stores all the heat in my bedroom. This means I’ll probably need to move everything to another location. Not a huge deal but it is annoying.

I feel like I have all the balls in the air now and it’s just a matter of how to juggle them. Need to balance all the different elements. I’ve introduced some one shot samples triggered by code. Why would I do this when I can do with so much more control in tidal? Just flexing I guess? One thing I really like about mulch is the immediate access to every parameter via midi in a variety of forms. I can have note velocity trigger something as easily a cc knobs. Also, the meta-surface is just so cool. I’m keeping an eye out for other options that feel this modular and open. VCV rack seems too cluttered. Bespoke seems interesting and like it might hit the spot. I’ll need to investigate further. I honestly haven’t been devoting the time I would like to for this project. But I’m getting better at doing something regularly as I approach the deadline. Work life stuff is in flux as always. I also come home from work and just want to shut down and play Notia till bed time.

tyleretters · 2022-07-10T03:43:10.085Z

it has been so inspiring to read everyone’s processes unfold.

personally i always feel a little lost if i’m not working towards a show and/or release. i sometimes go for periods without either just to make sure i’m not compulsively doing it (or running from other things in life.) but i’ve learned that i’m at my best when i’m working towards something because it forces me forward, out into the world.

postsolarpunk · 2022-07-18T22:48:13.121Z

3 weeks until it all comes crashing down
Did my first pull request, added a little tutorial step on the Flashcrash website
Got basic crow operations down using TT. Basic TT drum patterning.
Kick sync’d DEVICE.FLIP confirmed.
My pet Crow crashes if you pet its LFO feathers a little too hard. Best not to annoy it too much.
Posted that Pulsar-23 sample pack.
Got VDO working consistently now, streamed a couple crow jam sessions. Good to go.
Dug into Deluge multi-sample capabilities recently. I’ve heard IDM people do this thing where you quickly sequences through a large variety of samples in a round robin-like fashion. I figured out how to map a folder of samples across 10 octaves. I created a dozen different sample maps and had a bunch of fun playing a map of drum loops with the isometric keyboard. playing around

I’ve learned a ton in the last two months. I think that “at your best when working towards a goal” is probably true for me too. I am now lacking in my TT i2c2midi practice, but I think it’d be cool to use the rotating chord stuff in the newest firmware to sequence these drum sample maps on the deluge. I’ll focus on TT and i2c2midi this week.

WilliamHazard · 2022-07-19T00:50:17.794Z

William Hazard FC diaries: Monday 220718

I’ve been very busy lately, and the days have been flying by, but I’m off work today due to a covid exposure at the office last week, so I thought I’d take a little time to share an update here.

After about 9 months of learning, developing, and revising, I feel like the poetry-to-cv-and-ii script is finally in a place where it could be useable by other people, so I went ahead and put it up on GitHub. This was my first time doing that, and it was a fun experience. I don’t know if anyone’s tried using it or if anyone will, but at least I know this is a thing I can do now.

I’ve also added some features to the script. It works with just friends in geode mode now, not just synthesis mode (though it still works with that too, thanks to the play_voice vernacular the two modes share). I also added a “title” function. This way, it doesn’t just start playing as soon as it’s running. I’m really enjoying playing around with that (for example, getting w/tape to play a little introduction on its own using ii commands, then sending a title to let it rip). This whole experience of porting this idea over to crow, after initially creating it for norns, has been a great lesson in coding efficiently. I think this script was like 1400 lines when I first put it together for norns. It’s 250 lines now, and it does more.

I’ve also been thinking about honesty again. I’m doing a lot of field recording and journaling and I Ching consulting, which may or may not make its way onto the w/ tape “reel” for this performance. Either way, it’s a step in a new direction that I’m very excited about. I’m listening to a lot of Claire Rousay, Kiera Mulhern, and Felicia Atkinson. My friend Monica Berlin, a poet whom I very much admire, often says, “it’s about the next poem.” I’m excited about this piece I’m working on, but I’m also getting to a point in the process at which I’m beginning to get excited about the next piece. I think I’ve learned some things over these last couple months that will serve me for a very long time.

tyleretters · 2022-07-23T20:16:35.312Z

220723 log

visions of interstitial videos. memory overflow. trace the arc. where did we start? where will we end? gaps and fissures. audio re-routed. twitch layouts. streamlabs tuning. something with css animations for chat.

license · 2022-07-24T01:02:44.195Z

the license FC diaries: Saturday 220723

welp, it’s down to the wire and the procrastination juice is running out. I’ve never done well with making plans and art. I guess it’s a bad habit. the “declare your cyberdeck” idea is well-intentioned, but has made me feel like my own jailer. I’ve been working on tunes a lot this year, but it’s been for WeeklyBeats and that’s a much different energy. TL;DR - yeah I still have not done anything but take that photo upthread.

I guess an antidote is simplification. so I’m tentatively planning to make it a Hydrasynth-only set… even the simple act of declaring that publicly feels like dooming myself to more self-trolling. ugh. I’m sorry. y’all are good, hard-working people. keep doing what you do

license · 2022-07-24T02:49:38.846Z

Oh goodness I love you Raja Yeah this is gonna be a mess, but hopefully a fun one.

squim · 2022-07-25T03:06:17.243Z

It seems like when I have time to focus on getting ready the universe conspires to throw things in my way. Also just found out my friends memorial is going to be on the same day. I think I can do both but it might be tight! I’ve been sort of improvising and building things up for the show as I go but it feels a little out of control.

The overall experiment was a success but now I think I need to take everything off the skeleton and build it back up in a more organized way… do I have time?

There’s also the overall question of how much of this can be streamlined? Do actually need code controlling all this or is it adding unnecessary complexity? Maybe unnecessary complexity is the theme of this performance?

tyleretters · 2022-07-25T03:12:19.866Z

squim:

just found out my friends memorial is going to be on the same day

oh my gosh what happened? i’ve only experienced a few peer deaths. it is a whole different kind of heavy. i know you know this but a video is always an option. we can also move your timeslot around.