G’day!
I’m often here for the Disquiet Junto and keen to learn more about other models for online collaboration.
Have you been involved in a project that used the internet to develop toward an outcome?
Thanks
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A group of folks (that happens to hang out in the Disquiet Slack) had a lot of fun last year playing Terry Riley’s “In C” over NINJAM.
“In C” is a unique piece in that the exaggerated latency that NINJAM introduces doesn’t detract from the playability of the piece.
This was probably the best recording we made:
Listen to Locked Groove Orchestra - Terry Riley’s “In C” by ikjoyce #np on #SoundCloud
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After getting frustrated by the information speed limit imposed by the speed of light, meaning network latency is unavoidable, @Rodrigo suggested I lean into it. What happens with even more latency? That gave me the idea of “forum jam” and we could potentially do it here.
Let’s see if I can explain. Song is built by the group one section at a time. Group agrees on a key signature, a time signature, the number of bars in the section, and a deadline. Each member contributes one or more stems conforming to the agreed upon spec. A designated mixer for the section takes the stems and makes a mix and concatenates the new section to the previous sections in the song. This continues until the group agrees the song is “done”. Repeat until you have an album.
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At the moment a friend of mine, is bringing together trio’s to make an album together… each person makes a solo number, 2 duets and a trio. The 3 persons involved, don’t know each other and each other’s music, very interesting! I(non-musician) get to do something with a women who sings opera and, I have no idea what the other man his musical capabilities are.
And I also am doing something with a member of the Haiku-challenges(I guess he’s a member here to)
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I did a project once where a bunch of us covered each other’s songs, then we put the results onto Soundcloud. It was really fun and interesting and we had music from all over the world, although we [unfortunately] didn’t set time limits as to when people had to deliver, so the delays killed the momentum of the project.
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What’s the story here?
Wow, that’s great.
I feel sorry that I gave up on the Junto Slack.
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This is an interesting idea and I’d like to be involved.
Another approach could be to agree on an existing track, then jam along with it and collect the responses to be assembled. I’ve heard this described as “scaffolding”.
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Yes, time limits are important.
I’m involved in a remix chain project and it encourages people to deliver within a fortnight, but is reasonably relaxed if it takes longer – up to a point.
@bassling we do the Lines Community Remix Project (LCRP) 4 times a year. At equinoxes we do remixes. Participants submit samples by a deadline. Samples are distributed to all contributors. Finished tracks may only use provided samples as sound sources (any effects are allowed) and are due by another deadline. At solstices we do original compositions. No sample distribution, just use any sounds sources you want. The finished product, including CDs printed by Kunaki is then made available at https://lcrp.bandcamp.com
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Cool idea! Let’s find a couple more folks who want to play along and try these ideas out?
I used to hang out on the r/noisecomps subreddit, and one person there organized these “Simultaneous Aural Detriments”.
Basically we all submitted a 15-minute long track that had only 12 minutes of sound in it. The organizer then layered them all together exactly as he received them, only changing things to mix them a bit.
Really interesting (to me 
) to hear layers with internal logic and how they end up interacting…even though on one level I know it’s completely not intentional.
Great! I’m keen and can provide bass guitar or drums.
Can’t organise anything until next month though.
Still think we need some more volunteers…
That’s a wild idea. I remember there was a Junto that did something a little similar, where everyone had different sections of a longer mix. In that case I remember listening to my part with a couple of other participants and it was such an unlikely collection of sounds.
Using unintentional composition approaches has been rewarding for me. The results can be very rich when layering up material.
Yeah and a foundation in the form of a track to respond to, that I think would need to be kept secret.
This is starting to look like a secret sounds society!
oh? I’m not quite following the need for a seed track. Maybe you can explain?
I imagined we’d just agree on a time and key signature and a number of bars for the first section. Folks would pick their instrumentation, and then we’re off!
Yeah, that’d work.
The seed track could be the foundation for a scaffold approach but I think keeping the direction open would be a richer result.
So directions would be length and key and time signature/bars?
And we’d want a designated mixer for the section. That person will take folks’ stems, mix them, append them to the song, post the now-longer song. Then we do it all over again, and repeat until we feel the song is done. Then we start a new song and repeat until the album is done. Then we start a new album and repeat until the heat death of the universe…
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