Tag Archives: Experimental

Algorithmic, Iterations

Slicing/Percolating City

As you may know by now, I’m quite a fan of the democratizing nature of technology in terms of music creation, and the proliferation of tools designed to make creating music fun and accessible to people of all ages and skill levels.  An application that I came across recently, Isle of Tune for iOS, definitely fits the bill: it’s a simple algorithmic sequencer cleverly disguised as a city-building sim.  You lay out roads to define the sequence, buildings and scenery placed alongside generate nodes and effects, and cars on the road serve as the “pulse” to trigger the sounds in sequence.  The program gets more interesting, though, when you realize that the cars can travel at different speeds, in different directions, and that the roads can be constructed to be far more than a simple loop or linear sequence.  This makes the program great for exploring Reich-esque phased patterns, and makes for some surprisingly unique musical opportunities.

Below is the sound of a couple of cities that I designed, although I’m currently working on some that are far more complex…

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Iterations, Modern Originals

Agony

My brother (who is an accomplished multi-instrumental musician in his own right and a collector of obscure and eclectic music) and I recently had a discussion about this particular track of music. I asserted that the track really does sound quite unsettling, while he opined that, compared to many things he’s listened to, it’s not particularly unsettling at all. I suppose you’ll have to listen to it to see which one of us is right; be aware, though, that it contains many discordant elements and may not be your cup of tea (in fact, music is rarely a beverage unless you are suffering from extreme synesthesia).

The song started out as an experiment in varying synth harmonics by variably modulated filter sweeps across synths playing the same pattern. Ultimately, the effect ended up being less interesting than I had hoped, so I started playing around randomly with other musical elements, the result being a sort of discordant found-sound mishmash which sounds to me like something you might hear during a cinematic nightmarish hallucination. There are two versions: the original, and a later variant with some additional samples and processing that is probably the better of the two.

The synths were produced in Vanguard, and the discordant ambient background is provided by a custom-tweaked preset for the Reaktor ensemble SpaceDrone. Most other sounds are random clips and loops from the packs that come with Logic Pro.

Oh, and one additional note: You might want to check the volume level on your equipment before listening.

http://www.idlecircuits.com/digintmedia/agony.mp3

http://www.idlecircuits.com/digintmedia/agonyv1pt3.mp3

Live Performances, Songs Without

Crazy Demos

Sometimes, when I’m testing out a synth and trying to learn it, I just hook up my keyboard and start playing around with them live, tweaking every knob I can get my hands on and seeing what happens.  Sometimes, if something interesting happens, I record it.  The following are some of the results.  Warning: some of these amp up unpredictably – make sure your speakers are set at a safe volume before continuing.

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Algorithmic, Songs Without

Radioshift

This is actually a visual pattern exercise rendered into musical form. Each of the notes start out playing in sequence, then slowly move, one by one, into different phases in relation to each other’s positions. The first iteration of this track was rendered using a bunch of loud bells, but it didn’t seem quite… interesting enough. This version switches over to Logic’s venerable EFM1 synth, and adds slowly varying modulation amounts to the mix. The result is a track that I find both intriguing, and at times almost unbearable to listen to all the way. If you are able to listen to this track all the way through, you have my full permission to remove the letter F from the title should you so desire.

http://www.idlecircuits.com/digintmedia/radioshift.mp3

Dissonance/Weirdness, Playing With Sound

Gatlin’

This song originated when I was listening to a very driving prog rock song, and half-wondered if if it was sort of like the musical equivalent of a machine gun attack. Then, I wondered, what would the musical equivalent of a machine gun firing be? Probably not quite like the piece that resulted, but that was at least the general driving idea behind it (and, at least toward the end, it does take on a bit of an impression of its namesake). Basically, it’s a fast, growing sequence that’s somewhere between music and sonic assault, but I like it nonetheless.

Drums are a custom program (and custom sound programs) done in Logic’s Ultrabeat, guitars are Slayer 2, and synths are Vanguard. There’s also a limiter on the master output which I probably put in a couple of minutes too late. When I say some of this stuff is ear-bleed material, it’s not just your ears I’m talking about…

http://www.idlecircuits.com/digintmedia/gatlin.mp3

Oh, and despite the fact that mashups officially jumped the shark the moment they were featured on “Glee”, I created an experimental mash of Gatlin’ and one of my other tracks (Ambient Distance).

http://www.idlecircuits.com/digintmedia/em_gatlinambdist.mp3

Modern Originals, Playing With Sound

Strange Electroacoustics

Pretty much everything on this track is generated to some extent by Reaktor’s various ensembles. The core of the track is a heavily transformed live playing of Reaktor’s Acoustring ensemble, modified by Traktor effects, and accompanied by a large number of Reaktor algorithmic grooveboxes and sound generators. The overall result is a pseudo-ambient piece with an interesting, pulsating sound that cycles between gentle and gritty. This song was definitely interesting to work with, as it took the original melody line and managed to transform it into something almost unrecognizable compared to the original, but much more interesting.

There are two versions of the track that you can download – the Minimal version, which focuses mainly on the transformed melody accompanied by a couple of generated sounds, and the All-Inclusive version, which includes many additional generators and grooveboxes. The minimal version is good for listening to the essence of the track, while the all-inclusive version has a much fuller sound.

All-Inclusive:

http://www.idlecircuits.com/digintmedia/seall.mp3

Minimal:

http://www.idlecircuits.com/digintmedia/smin.mp3

Live Performances, Playing With Sound

Not 2001

I was playing around with Wusik EVE when I discovered that you could do some interesting ribbon-controller style sweeps using the mouse on the instrument’s mini-keyboard. This is one of those tracks, where I was playing around with some octave shifts with one of the interesting Mellotron sounds. WHile I was playing it, I thought it sounded slightly like the intro to the movie 2001, but not really… hence the title.

http://www.idlecircuits.com/digintmedia/not2k1.mp3