#34

For the benefit of those outside the UK (or not old enough!) who don’t know what I am talking about - back in the late 70s and early 80s, the UK only had three TV channels, none of which were on air all the time. The BBC used to start each day with Ceefax teletext, and then the Schools programming would start. In between each programme, there would be a clock shown (sometimes with dots around the outside that gradually disappeared as the time approached!). The music was always something instrumental and jaunty - like this actual footage from 1982 - the best bit comes in at just after a minute (after the totally black screen!) with a track that would fit the brief this week I think!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NwuHPfhHDE

3 Likes
#35

Sounds like you can get really important, somehow tragic stuff done with that. Maybe dig a grave for a dead pet, write an important letter, or pay the bills. I like it.

#36

https://soundcloud.com/337is/drone-e-while-you-work-disquiet0245

This past weekend was Knobcon and I was running top speed throughout the three days with my eyes and ears wide open. Synths and sounds EVERYWHERE. :slight_smile: And even more importantly, friends, old and new, also there sharing in the excitement. I got to meet fellow contributor Glenn Sogge in person and we talked at length about everything. It was soo cool to cement a friendship formed through the Disquiet Junto with shared time experienced together in the waking world. I thought about this prompt while I was there and found myself talking a lot about the Disquiet Junto with others. Some knew about it and responded favorably. Others who were unfamiliar expressed curiosity.

The song that immediately leapt into my mind for this is the great Raymond Scott composition “Powerhouse;” www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaC0vNLdLvY as it clearly describes the feel of industrialized activity through its motorik compulsion. Activity often implies rhythm to me. So of course I had very little sense of rhythm in my piece. The only nod to rhythm might be felt in the scalar leaps moving throughout the improvised scale. I felt very much like Terry Riley and could easily play/hear this piece looped for hours in a day, gently prodding me forward while providing a bed to rest in from time to time.

The only sound source in this is my trusty Oberheim Matrix-6 which I got when I was 15. One of the voices gave out years ago, and I took it in to be repaired. The person trying to fix it didn’t know what they were doing and the store they worked at eventually went out of business. When I collected the synth back from them, I found it producing no sound at all. Finally, at last year’s Knobcon, I took it and my friends Logan Erickson and Eric Wistrand put a plan into place to rehabilitate it for me. Eric graciously donated another Matrix-6 which could be scavenged for parts and the mighty Logan set out to repair my board. This year it returned to me and it purrs like a kitten now. I was so eager to get my hands on it again and I sat down to create a patch from scratch and played for a few hours. This is a few minutes from those hours. :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#37

Thanks Leslie for your always genuine and humanistic annotations.

2 Likes
#38

Reunited with new friends and old gear while talking about and making music, sounds like an exceptional weekend :blush:

2 Likes
#39

This needs to be used for a song title in either a Doom Metal or Blues project.

1 Like
#40

I can almost come up with a Kinky Friedman/Texas outlaw country chorus :smirk:

1 Like
#41

Wrong reply button, see below😁

I give up!

1 Like
#42

https://soundcloud.com/davedorgan/music-for-cleaining-disquiet0245

  • Not my type of music for cleaning. Serious cleaning requires Seconds Out or Yessongs.
  • I made the synth arpeggio first. Four bars with the second two having a flat third instead of a second. It worked nicely with C and G chords. That’s where the rhythm guitar came in. I’m still looking for the elusive good guitar sound on my computer:(
  • I played the rhythm guitar and harmonics parts.
  • The drums had a tape delay added on the second part to give a slight double time feel.
  • This was probably more fun to mix than to make;) But, I was trying to stay with the directions. It sounded a bit like the music you hear on DirecTv when your football game is over.
  • On the upside it does seem to loop just fine.
1 Like
#43

I have a longer version of this track, which I’ll release eventually. It’s got what I think is an irresistible beat from the Mick Fleetwood Total Drumming library, some simple chord changes, and a bunch of electronics and stuff that is relatively unobtrusive in the background. At three minutes, when it ends, I want to hit repeat to keep listening and keep working on whatever I’m doing around the house until it’s done. This weekend, when I published this piece, I listened to this on repeat while washing and lubricating the casement windows on my house and vacuuming the screens.

2 Likes
#44

https://soundcloud.com/glenn-sogge/dancing-while-you-work

#45

https://soundcloud.com/triermusic/get-it-done-disquiet0245

This week’s Disquiet assignment: “Record a simple, rhythmic piece of music that exudes tidiness and efficiency, and that is eminently playable on repeat — music to listen to while doing routine tasks.”

To me this meant something like Devo meets The Jetsons. Eminently playable on repeat implies polyrhythms so that the piece will never quite be the same.

Not much free time this weekend, so this was a quick project. I set up some loops of uneven lengths using some stock Ableton synths. I drafted the lyrics on Sunday morning, arranged them Monday morning and recorded them Monday evening. The vocoder could have used some better enunciation but it’s been a long Monday. Mixed on earbuds, hopefully it’s not a mess.

I have something of an obsession with productivity systems but at the same time I love chance and unpredictability. These lyrics poke fun at my interest in to-do lists and how they relate to The Meaning of Life.

Lyrics:
Get it done!
You can do it!
Your productivity
has just begun!

Write it. Make it. Fix it. Create.
Blog it. Craft it. Remake. Repair.
Avoid existential despair.

Pomodoro timer system
Prioritize quadrant to-do’s
It’s a thing you won’t regret
There’s so much more to do yet.
Avoid the long shadow of death.

Inbox zero
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair
Inbox zero

Inbox zero
Do not go gently into that good night
Inbox zero

Inbox zero
So death kindly stopped for me
Inbox zero

Get it done!
You can do it!
Your productivity
has just begun

Sieze the day
Carpe diem!
We’ll all be dead soon
anyway

Picture by McGeddon

#46

This mix is perfecto! Great track!

#47

https://soundcloud.com/yawha/valleys-between-mountains

Ableton 9 on Win 7 32-bit. MaxForLive Turing Machine (encoderaudio.com), into two Pitch midi devices to limit octave spread and produce an unusual “low note threshold” behaviour, into a Midi scale, into FXpansion Strobe2, into FogConvolver (audiothing.net). Touch of bx_limiter on the master bus.
No automation of reverb - it wouldn’t make sense to automate reverb parameters, since it places the music in a space, and I wanted the sound parameters to be invariant over time, and let the random notes do the job…

In terms of being capable of being played on repeat - well, when you switch on the transport in Ableton, and enable the Turing Machine device on the track, straight away you have something that will forever loop… So, yeah, it definitely loops!

Could have left this on for hours. And did. But, you’ll get the idea here, in 2:30. Take it from me - it is never uninteresting over time!

It’s late in the day to be submitting something, but better late than never.

2 Likes
#48

https://soundcloud.com/yawha/mountain

Did this track too for this week’s project

I enjoyed putting this track together, I tried to keep interest up and somehow make 7:30 pass quickly while you’re ‘getting stuff done’ (or not…)!

I feel the other track (Valleys between Mountains) is more suited to the brief Junto brief this week.

Ableton 9 on Windows. TAL Bassline 101 only here. Lots of tracks! Effects include Valhalla Ubermod, ReplicaXT, TAL Dub3, Decapitator, Mangleverb and Vapor by Audio Damage. Drums courtesy of two drum rack (one from the Thermionic bundle by Goldbaby, another from the Conundrums library).

Hope you enjoy…

2 Likes
#49

https://soundcloud.com/midid/disquiet0245-order-in-the-r00m

So I’m super excited to finally be doing this. This is such an awesome community and I’m glad to be a part.

I personally enjoy it when my surroundings are clean and organized, but I can’t stand buckling down to actually clean and organize (my room in particular). I made this rhythmic yet kind of droning track to help aid me in zoning out from my lazy woes and maybe actually get some of that done.

I’m pretty new to all of this, so if you have any tips or constructive criticism… have at it! I’m just having fun and would like to get better :wink:

1 Like
#50

This is freaking amazing.

#51

Here’s my contribution to this week’s Junto.

I started with a simple melodic idea, not entirely sure what to do with it. Then I thought I could explore a new plug-in that I bought recently, so I decided to just use the XPand!2 synthesizer from AIR Music Technology and nothing else. Aside from one sound and a little bit of processing on the kick and snare, everything else is taken as-is from the XPand!2 presets.

https://soundcloud.com/alt-formant/purple-grass-pops-disquiet0245

#52

Love this track DeDe!! Compulsive listening.

#53

You are so kind, thank you!! Glad you like it.
Compulsive listening can’t hurt, can it? This one’s made to be looped, Loop it!
Love: Dede