Day 376: Out with a Whisper

Today is December 31st, 2013.  This is the last piece I will post for the year 2013.  I hope you like it.

I've enjoyed the time we've spent together this year and I look forward to seeing you again in 2014.

All the best,
Chad J. Taylor

Day 375: Something something Crazy

After a long day and a long car ride with screaming child I want a couple of minutes to myself not listening to "MEMEMEMENANSNANANAMAEMEMANAMAAAAA!!!"

Here it is.

Day 374: Something Quiet

A stripped-down piece featuring sitar, tabla, bit-crushed vocals and synth.

Day 373:Last Junto -2013

An electronic collage of 2013. All works posted on Soundcloud, one per month, but otherwise random.

More on this 104th Disquiet Junto project (“Create a 2013 audio diary with a dozen five-second segments”) at:

disquiet.com/2013/12/26/disquie…-audiojournal2013/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Photo associated with this project found via Creative Commons at:

goo.gl/AuZpPf

Day 372: Stringed

373 days of music.  Almost all of which was never even heard by anyone before it was posted here.  I hope you have enjoyed being witness and will continue to enjoy as we move forward together.

Day 371: Christmas Knock-Off

A strange one that combines Indian female vocals with German quasi-industrial beats.

Day 370: Merry Christmas Again.

On Christmas day we have a remix.  Opted to not do a quickie knock-off of a carol this year.  Original track by Apollo 20.

Day 369: Baby Jesus Birthday

Here's a weird glitchy number that has nothing to do with xmas.

Day 368: Longer Nights

A minimal techno piece making use of a Christmas Surprise package of drum loops from FGL.

Day 367: Into Year One

At the beginning of this project I did a cover of Lou Reed's "New Age", one of my all time favorite songs.  It was on December 21, 2012, the beginning of the Age of Aquarius.  I started today's version about five days before the end of Year Zero.  I've used the Velvet Underground version of the track, which has different lyrics, but is otherwise the same song.

Lyrics 

Can I have your autograph
He said to the fat blonde actress
You know I've seen every movie you've been in
From paths of pain to jewels of glory
And when you kissed robert mitchum
Gee but I thought you'd never catch him

Over the hill right now
And you're looking for love
You're over the hill right now
And you're looking for love
I'll come running to you honey when you want me
I'll come running to yoy honey when you want me

Can I have your autograph
He said to the fat blonde actress
You know I know everything you've done
Anyway I hate divorces
To the left is a marble shower
It was fun even for an hour

Your're over the hill right now
And you're looking for love
You're over the hill right now
And you're looking for love
I'll come running to you honey when you want me
I'll come running to you honey when you want me

Something's got a hold on me
And I don't know what

Something's got a hold on me
And I don't know what

It's the beginning of a new age
It's the beginning of a new age

It's a new age

Day 366: Quickly and Quietly

Not much time again today.  Holidays and such.

Here's a new ambient piece.

Day 365: Well, What I meant to Say...

The intent for today was to put up something epic, but due to the fact that it's almost Christmas and I have a bunch of family coming over tomorrow, the time that was going to be spent working on that epic piece got devoted to cleaning the house and taking care of other things.  Instead you get this.

I'm guessing that there aren't too many people looking at this that are disappointed, or really is anyone even reading this thing?  There are about 100 million blogs out there, so this one might just be getting lost in the mix.  I have 3 subscribers after a year.  I guess that means that 3 people are reading it.  Sometimes.

Well, enjoy some messy glitch hop.

Day 364: This is it.

So this is it!  365 days (we're counting from zero, in case you're wondering).

Tomorrow's piece will be a familiar one.

Day 363: Learning and Waiting

Another track working with Caustic on the iPhone.  It's not Reason, although I did master it on Reason again.  It's glitchy and spastic again.  A bit noisier and more adventurous than the previous one this time.  Am working on a special track for the end of Year: Zero of this blog.

Day 362: New Tools

Heard about an app called Caustic via the Reason Google+ community.  Went ahead and bought it.  Was not disappointed.  It's like Reason for the phone, but not Reason.  Overall, quite impressive.  Would recommend to any advanced users of Reason, or other DAW's.

Day 361: Junto Christmas

This one's for the disquiet junto.  A holiday themed project this week.

First comes the pad. Soft and gentle. Then the voice. Fake, it may be, but still worthing hearing. They slowly build, vacillate, ponder, wait, then fade and start again. In the background we can hear what might be the ticking of a clock, jingle bells, or scratching at your window.

More on this 102nd weekly Disquiet Junto project (Record original secular holiday music: glistening, reflective, gentle) at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/12/12/disquiet0102-sonictinsel/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Day 360: Into the Woods

A quick romp with Forester produced today's masterpiece.  The samples are from tracks from the 200 days compilation.

Day 359: Put on your Moon Boots

So, this piece has really climbed into a rocketship and launched into space.  I think I can safely say that I hit the "space" button and started to turn these "primitive" pieces into alien future music.  Well, I might just keep it moving anyway.  Just for fun...

Day 358: Space Cavemen

Starting to sound less primitive and more like music influenced by aliens.  At least the instrumentation is mostly normal instruments.  Sitar, Bass koto, hand drums, some kind of bell sound.  Not really a lot of processing going on.

Day 357: Lucky Number 7

Another "Primitive" experiment today.  It occurred to me that the title could be construed as offensive to someone if they put too much thought into it, so just to make it clear, primitive is a reference to the composition and some of the instrument choices - NOT everything you hear.  In other words, I don't think that the music of other cultures, regardless of their being 1st, 2nd, or 3rd world is primitive.  That is all.

Am going to spend some of the day trying to put together a "Glitchworks" collection on the suggestion of FGL.

Day 356: 8 more

Today's work is a simple piece.  Just three instruments, only one of which is a melody instrument.  I actually like this one a lot more than some others just because of its simplicity.

Cheers.

Day 355: 9 Days Left

I like musical accidents.  They still happen a lot and when they do I try to make them work.  Today's musical accident was this piece.  It was intended to be an ambient kind of chill groove, but ended up being an upbeat post-rock instrumental.  This is the kind of thing that keeps me going.

Day 354: Hordes

The electronic orcs streamed from Middle Earth.  Their metallic jaws dripping nanobot infested saliva.  It's color, one of blood and oil.  They only dreamed of one thing.  Infecting the world.  They only had two states, on and off.  Off would not come until every last fibre of their bodies was destroyed by fire or particle beam.

Who will save us?

Day 353: Even More Random. Again.

So I did a few tracks awhile back that I called "Automator"tracks.  The idea was to make music without hitting any buttons.  Just using routing and CV connections.

This idea was revitalized by the discussion I've been a part of on RackExtensionReview.com.  I did a little more than just hit play here. I also added some piano and a little mixing.

Please Enjoy.

Day 352: Random, again

This track is a call back to some time ago when I randomly chose 4 patches from the Propellerheads XMas 2012 Refill.  I can't find a link to it, it may not be on the web anymore, but there were lots and lots of people who donated patches to it, myself included.  I used more than 4 patches this time, but you get the idea. This came out a little disjointed, but I think I like it.

Day 351: Noises in Your House

Today's work is a project for the Disquiet Junto.  It's a little obtuse, but kind of interesting.

My first step was to find three things that have a distinctive "on/off" sound.  Those ended up being the dryer, microwave, and toaster.  The toaster was the most musical of the three, providing both melodic and rhythmic elements.  The microwave was the most melodic, having one long tone, and the dryer kind of just makes a low rumble.

Initially, I didn't alter the sounds at all and just tried to overlap them to create a natural rhythm.  Sadly, the natural rhythm wasn't very natural, so I started playing with making them sync more.  I didn't want to make it very plain, so the rhythm is still quite disjointed, something like if you had several of the actual devices and were trying to "play" them as a band.

Finally, to finish it out I created a short section that would be the most musical of all. Squashing samples, playing with pitches, and making it all "fit".  Hope you enjoy.

Day 350: Almost to a Year

Kind of getting into a retrospective mode as I come up on a year.  I'm proud to be able to say that sitting down and re-listening to all of these is actually quite a job.  I mean, it's a lot of freaking music.

The next BIG job with these tunes is to start submitting them for licensing.... that's going to be a bit ridiculous.

Day 349: 350

 A long while back I stumbled on the Patch-a-Day site here.  The creator is no longer creating patches for the site, but he was nice enough to bundle them into one large collection, which he'll give you after a small donation.  It's a ton of stuff, so I had no problem donating a small fee.  This is the first piece using those sounds.

Day 348: Your Surprise, My Relief

A piece working with some new sounds.

Day 347: Mixing It

Today's track is a remix for a contest on Soundcloud.  The original track is by Kenna.

Day 346: Wrapping Up

I've almost put all of the tracks from 8-Bit RoundHouse up now.  This is one of the last ones.

Day 345: Do What?

Someone who spends all their time as a shut-in playing video games isn't very likely to get a girlfriend/guyfriend. If they do, they probably won't be able to treat them like a normal person. This song is about a person who is incredibly untrusting of their girlfriend, even though it's completely unnecessary for them to be so.

Lyrics:

lyrics

I can only go as far as you'll let me,
No, I can't read your mind.
I can only go where you'll let me,
No, I can't see thru time.
No, I know you say you miss me.
And I miss you too,
No, I know you say you need me,
but I don't believe you.

Day 344: Chun Li

As an adolescent, Street Fighter II was my game of choice. I'm sure hundreds of hours were spent playing it. My favorite character was Chun Li, I was almost unbeatable with her. This is a wink and a nod to that game and its programmers.

Lyrics:

lyrics

I can't do a spinning roundhouse,
I can jump off all the walls,
I will uppercut you to Friday,
Then shoot lots of fireballs.

How do I win?
How do I win?

Let's anull the magick here.
If you'd like to try and sort it out.
I got your back now.
And you can find out what it's all about.

How do I win?
When does this game end?
If I only had a friend.
How do I win?

I can't do a spinning roundhouse,
I can jump off all the walls,
I will uppercut you to Friday,
Then shoot lots of fireballs.

credits

Day 343: Blocks

Tetris. This song is about Tetris.

lyrics

Racing against the clock,
Square meets a square,
Try to never stop,
What goes next?
Nowhere.
"l" fits in a hole.
"2" is flipped over.
Square slides in so low.
Always up and onward.

We all do our best here.
We all face a test here.
No we can not rest here.
Don't bother to confess here.
We all do our best here.
We give nothing less here.
We aim to please our guests here.
We are so obsessed here.

Hold down, don't you stop.
You're almost to the top.
Show us the game you play,
Try and take it all away.
Here the crowd go wild.
In your head or in the sky.
The music plays so loud,
but you have no doubt.

We all do our best here.
We all face a test here.
No we can not rest here.
Don't bother to confess here.
We all do our best here.
We give nothing less here.
We aim to please our guests here.
We are so obsessed here.

Day 342: Your Artificial Girlfriend

In another 25 years (at most) we'll begin to see people who have relationships with AI (Artificial Intelligence) personalities. These people will be normal people who will feel an emotional connection to a computer program that seems to "get them" more than a real person does. It will be taboo and very much frowned upon, but they won't be able to interact with the person until robotics catches up to the AI (another 10-15 years after that, at most). 

This is for those future lovers.

Let your freak flag fly.

lyrics

They say our love isn't real,
But you and I know better.
They digital can't feel.
But you know that's not true.

You know this is me and I know this is you.
We can more honest together than others can after years,
So, why is this taboo?
Why is our love taboo?

We'll never meet face-to-face.
We'll never wait in line side by side.
Our appetites can't be sated,
Cause we're never actually touching,
You're not really there.

You know this is me and I know this is you.
We can more honest together than others can after years,
So, why is our love taboo?
Why is our love taboo?

I dreamt we met at the park,
But we never got to touch,
I reached for your cheek and my hand went right thru you.

You know this is me and I know this is you.
We can more honest together than others can after years,
So, why is our love taboo?
Why is our love taboo?

Day 341: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

It's good to see you after so long,
Didn't you say you were gonna call?
Now that I think about it you said you'd see me on Saturday.

So your house burned down,
Then you moved out of town,
and your sister's in jail,
and your mother died last week.
Then your car broke down
and you lost your phone.
Then you had a fire and lost everything you own.

How 'bout we skip the lies and go straight to the shame?
How 'bout you look in my eyes and stop playing your games?
Just tell me the truth.

So you're moving to Tibet next week and becoming a monk?
Or you might join NASA?
You're the newest member of P-Funk.
Your album just dropped, so you're going on tour.
You got a line for everything I say, so won't you just tell me the truth?

How 'bout we skip the lies and go straight to the shame?
How 'bout you look in my eyes and stop playing your games?
Just tell me the truth.

credits

from 8 Bit RoundHouse, released 23 November 2013

Day 340: BitKrushed

An angry tune about self-realization, relationships, and bondage.

lyrics

I hold your life in my hands,
I promise to be true.
I don't think you can hold back from my hands.
I promise to save you.

Just listen to me.

I know that you think I don't have my own thoughts.
I'm here to tell you that's not true.
You and I, we go way back, and you that I know you too.
I'm reading your thoughts right now.
I know what you're thinking, don't try to get away,
You can't escape me.

Just listen to me.

Day 339: Mario

Just released my album, 8 Bit RoundHouse.  It's a collection of tunes inspired by old school Nintendo games.  Will be featuring a new song here every day.

As a child I played Super Mario Bros (I, II, & III) incessantly. The generic response you got from Toadstool of "I'm sorry, but our princess is in another castle."

Lyrics:

lyrics

I'm sorry that you came all this way,
I'm sorry that you have to hear me say,
I'm sorry that you came all this way,
You're not gonna be happy when you hear me say,

Our princess is in another castle,
Please continue on your quest.
I know you thought you were done now,
But continue because you're the best.

Jump on turtles and crush their skulls,
Magic mushrooms make you bigger.
Eat a flower and shoot fireballs
and later on you can fly like a raccoon.

Our princess is in another castle,
Please continue on your quest.
I know you thought you were done now,
But you continue because you're the best.

Day 338: Gently

While watching a movie on my lunchbreak I was inspired by the music I heard in it.  If you can guess the movie that inspired me you get points.  With those points you can buy... nothing.  The points are worthless.

Day 337: Everything is Thor

Every instrument, with the exception of voice, is done with a Thor module this time around.  Compared to many of the other factory instruments, Thor is considerably easy to do this with.  Its flexibility and depth is seemingly endless, so this short piece was really quite enjoyable to create.

It's also worth mentioning that most of these patches were from Tom Pritchad's Thorkit refill.  Look for it on the Nucleus Soundlab site.

Lyrics:
Don't drop the ball, leave it all on the table.  
Don't drop the ball, leave it all on the field.

Day 336: Inspiration Everywhere

While listening to pieces of someone's conversation at work today I was inspired.  They were on the phone and speaking another language, but they were obviously passionate about whatever they were talking about.  Hence, the title.

Day 335: So Simple

Lyrics:
You aren't ever gonna hold me back, don't try to ever hold me back.
Don't give it away, I'll hold you in sway
We live in a dream.  It's not what it seems.

Day 334: Re-Write

This track started as something completely different.  I had it mostly finished, then started playing around with applying a radical filter to the entire mix, which then changed the character of the song entirely.  I stuck with something radically different.

Day 333: 3 is the Magick Number

Here we are at day 334, but it says 333?  That's cause we're counting from zero.

This is a weird one.

Lyrics:
You're not a part of this world.

Day 332:Work

Knocked this one out at work. on my lunch break.

Day 331: Instrumental

Late night instrumental grooviness.

Day 330: Well...

I just realized I'm just over a month away from having done this for an entire year.   That's kind of exciting.  It's thoughts like that which allow me to keep going and slog thru the days where I'm feeling like I should just quit.

Lyrics:

When you thought you were holed up in a dream,
thinking of everyone you wish you could be,
You didn't want to hold yourself up anymore.
Didn't want to hold me up anymore.
When you thought you were lost in a maze,
Thinking of all the people you once saved.
You decided you didn't care anymore.
Didn't give a damn about anyone anymore.

Dragging you down, Try not to Frown.
We won't hold you back,
Give you a kiss,
Don't even miss what we had to say,
gonna have it our way.
You're not the boss of me and we all think you're a piece of shit

Day 329: When It's Quiet

One of the first tracks I did using the phone and recording figure straight onto the computer.

lyrics

Where it's soft, we don't go.
Where it's quiet, we don't know.
You probably think you have a right to think.

Open your mouth and talk to me, letting the words spill out.
Open your head and say to me whatever comes out.
Open your ears and listen to what you're saying.

I can hardly stand the wait.
You can hardly stand the wait.
Where are you now?

You probably think you got a right to think.
Where it's soft, we don't go.
Where it's quiet, we don't know.
You probably think you got a right to think for yourself.

Open your mouth and talk to me, letting the words spill out.
Open your head and say to me whatever comes out.
Open your ears and listen to what you are saying.

Where it's soft, we don't go.
Where it's quiet, we don't know.
You probably think you got a right to think for yourself.

Day 328: With Fingers

An early effort using Figure (by Propellerheads) as a live instrument recorded into Reason. Added some additional instrumentation to the beat in post.

Day 327: Leave Me Alone (Follow Me)

Some people are annoying on the internet. Some people are annoying in real life. Some people have the special skill of being both.

Lyrics:

lyrics

Stop following me, I'm not gonna pay you.
I don't care what you do, I don't care what you say.
There's a million other people in the world you could bother so please,
Look one of them up.

You know I don't think you're God's gift to anything,
I don't think you're so great, no matter what you say.
I can hardly stand to be next to you.

Where do you get off?
What did somebody say to make you go on about you anyway?
If we were on a cliff I'd push you off just to watch you fall down.

What are you doing next?
I'm all pins and needles waiting for your next move.
What are you doing next?
I'm dying to see what you'll do.
What are you doing next?
Your audience is waiting.
What are you doing next?
Your mediocrity is a blessing to us all.

Day 326: Ripley is Part of the Junto

the previous night was "not as romantic as it sounds." He kept razzing those suffering under Prohib-
From A Curious Man, by Neal Thompson

The last word is 'Prohibition' in case you were wondering.

This was the first Disquiet project that was something I had actually done before. In college I had what I thought was a genius "Eureka!" moment and basically created the exact same system. At that time I allowed myself a little bit more freedom and took more artistic liberty with the text, allowing for repetition of certain words and using letters in both harmony and melody simultaneously, but basically the same idea.

Since this was done electronically for me, the temptation to avoid was making it very "straight". I did NOT want all the notes to have the same length. They needed to have some kind of flow, maybe one that implies speech? I know, a novel thought (no pun intended). After achieving a flow that was satisfactory I thought, "Wait, can I put a beat or any percussion to this and it still make sense?" luckily it did.

What I had discovered using this method previously is that the pieces tended to kind of sound like they were in C# minor due to the prevalence of the letter "E". If you move the starting not up or down it changes the key, or the feel of a key anyway. To enforce the key I created a pedal tone on C# in the bass. It also helped to push it forward rhythmically.

Following this, I slapped some drums on and, much to my delight, they worked great. Finally, just as an experiment I read some of the text and then vocoded it into the work to see if it would stick out too much, or at all. It was barely even recognizable as speech, so I left it in. You can hear some sibilance in a couple of places and maybe pieces of a word if you're listening.

Oh yeah, I added a short intro, just to keep it interesting.

More on this 97th Disquiet Junto project, in which music is decoded from a phrase in a book, at:

disquiet.com/2013/11/07/disquiet0097-page99remix/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

Groups – Disquiet-junto

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Madox_Ford

Day 325: Downtempo

This tune started as a commentary on success in the music business, but somehow it went off the rails and turned into a track about drug addiction. Maybe it's both. Most musicians would say that music is very much like a drug for them. It definitely is for me.

lyrics

How do you measure success?
What is a win to you?
What sins would you not confess?
When is a lie a truth?

I keep going back,
I keep going back to you.

How high is too high?
How low will you go?
When do you give up your name?
Does rock bottom just sound the same?

I keep going back,
I keep going back to you.

Day 324: i, Album now available

Soon after purchasing my first smartphone (an android) I learned that Garageband was available on the iPhone. I knew I HAD to HAVE ONE. Sadly, it wouldn't be until my contract was up that I could actually afford one. Within a few days of getting the iPhone I was working on the first tracks.

My initial thought was to do everything on the phone. Recording, mixing, mastering, etc, but I quickly realized that was not very practical, and decided I'd use the phone as the primary instrument/recording tool and do final mixing/mastering on the computer.

There are some vocals that were done via computer, as well as some instruments added here and there for color, but the bulk of it was done on an iPhone (a 4s, to be specific). On "Promise Not to Tell" almost everything was done on the phone. No additional instruments were added, only mixing and mastering done on computer, but I wanted more variety that what I was able to achieve on that song, so I moved to Plan B.

I hope you enjoy listening to these songs and it opens your eyes to the possibilities you may be carrying in your pocket right now.

Sincerely,
Chad Taylor

credits

Day 323: Classic

Harkening back to my roots... or something like that.

Day 322: More than 300

A highly chromatic, glitch electronic piece.

Day 321: Darkest of Washes

In the bleakest hours, when the hero has everything and everyone against him, he doubts his power.  Is all lost?

No.

Day 320: To Hit Record

Got an email for a last minute submission request for a piece for the "Trash" episode that's under production over at HitRecord.org.

In other news I just hit 10,000 plays on Soundcloud, so that's pretty bitchin' also.

This track has nothing to do with either of those.

Day 319: Space Invading

Insect aliens from outer space are invading the planet and it doesn't sound very musical!

The good news is they are really dumb, the bad news is that they are really hungry and not very picky.

Day 318: Short Ambience

For a long time I liked to record really long songs.  The average song would be about six minutes.  Now, compared to some artists, six minutes isn't incredibly long, but as time has gone on I've come to value brevity more and more.  Now I'm on the other side of that.  I like a nice pop song length.  3 minutes, give or take 20 seconds.

Here's a brief ambient tune.  To me, long enough to be interesting without getting annoying.  I suggest listening with headphones.

Cheers.

Day 317: Missing Lou

Started out trying to make something rhythmic using an S-hook and a metal pot (metal on metal!), but the ghost of Lou Reed took over and said "NOISE!" and thus it was born.

More on this 96th Disquiet Junto project, in which metal machine music is made in tribute to the late Lou Reed, at:

disquiet.com/2013/10/31/disquiet0096-metalmachine/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

Groups – Disquiet-junto

Image found via [citizenarcane.com](www.citizenarcane.com/index.php/arch…-machine-music).

Day 316: Wha?

Still sick, still working on other things, but still making time for this.

This track ended up being somewhat unintentionally lo-fi.

Day 315: About to lose power

Having some serious storms here, think we're about to lose power for awhile.  Here's a song.

Day 314: The Artificial Lifeform Magick Wars

In the Holy Year 252 A.M.B. the Great and Honorable Rafuzial, his most Prescient Majesty forsook the magickal ways that had ruled his land and began to pursue what would come to be known as Science.  His refusal of the blind acceptance of the ways of his people, nay, his world was not taken lightly and indeed did create much strife and anger among all kinds.

In his 167th year of his pursuit he create the first artificial lifeform, what would come to be known as a robot.  This lifeform was given all the logical reasoning abilities of man, but did not contain any of the emotional reasoning that has blessed our kind.  This would come later, and with its arrival would also come the first Robot/Magick war.

Day 313: Feeling Ultimately

The thoughts that this should be the last one hundred days continue.  Feel like I might be missing other opportunities. The flip side is that I'm feeling I might be missing creating other opportunities.

Day 312: Feeling the feeling

This last weekend it has started to feel like this might be the end of the One A Day project.  I don't plan on stopping at 365, but most likely at 400.  We'll see how it feels when I get there, but it's starting to feel like the point has been made and I need to focus on more productive projects.

Lyrics:
It's cold in the city and she's swears she ain't got nothin' left.
It's cold in the city and we're just standing in the doorway.
It's cold in the city and we wait outside.
It's cold in the city and we ain't got no reason to be terrified.

You won't bother me no more.
I've got no time to help,
Why don't you help yourself?

Day 311: Forester for the Trees

A quick experiment with Forester.  I got a paying gig, so I need to work on that... Today it's experimental noise.

Day 310: Disquieter

For this week's Disquiet Junto project I wanted to create something in the same vein that the Junto projects normally work in, that is, simple components into a much more complex whole.  I chose to start with the simplest components I could think of, pure sound waves.  Using a square, triangle, sine, and sawtooth, I created today's piece.

My thoughts regarding composition were to try to steer it in the same method.  I wanted to begin with a simple idea, or set of changes, and then slowly mutilate the composition.  In this case it wasn't mutilated compositionally, the ambient vibe was too nice to get crazy chromatic, I chose instead to mutilate it by manipulating several different elements of the sound waves including, but not limited to: phasing, modulation, ADSR, resonance, filtering, panning, and others.

More on this 95th Disquiet Junto project, in which musicians post recent tracks with the express purpose of getting constructive feedback, at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/10/24/disquiet0095-discussamongst/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Day 309: Arptacious

Just an excuse to work with the RPG-8 module and create some random arpeggiation.  The only problem with the random setting is that find a chord's tonic note is a little nebulous at times.  I plopped a big, fat synth bass down to make sure you could feel it.

Lyrics:
Your name is nearly a lie.

Day 308: Tripback

A retro-ish flashback today.  Not sure what it means.

Day 307: Follow

In the dawn of the early morning light, You don't you appreciate what it takes to get thru the day. Your followers have nearly forgotten your name. They don't know what you meant to say.
 

Day 306: Bigger and Bigger

I attempted to combine several disparate synthesizers into one giant one and succeeded, sort of.  It does make a pretty big sound, although maybe not the exact sound I would have chosen.  I will have to be a little more selective and crafty on the next attempt.

Day 305: Kitty Junto

My beginning idea behind this piece was to take the three voices and make something quasi-musical without deconstructing them too much.  The bird has an obvious melodic component, so I wanted to make it into a rhythm instrument.  The pig is almost percussive in nature so I attempted to make it into a pad, lastly the kitten is just annoying, so I wanted to make it entertaining.

The bird song was cut into a smaller loop, then a delay was applied, along with panning.  Lastly, I automated the dry/wet knob so that it would create a kind of tremolo effect.  A piece of the song was used as an intro while the full bird song was used at the end to round it out, crushing the bits while the song plays, symbolic of the destruction that just took place.

The pig's snort was so aggressive that I felt it needed to be washed out and some of the edge taken off.  I decided to use the sample sparingly as it was almost painful to listen to.  To enhance the intensity I applied a pitch shifter 12 steps and 13 steps above the principal to "harmonize".  Heavy reverb was then applied to make it last and last and last.

The kitten is almost like a crying child and that can wear down anyone's patience fast.  I took out most of the silence between "meow's" then applied a glitch/stutter effect interspersed with a grain/pitch shifter to make it sing.  The resulting effect is almost listenable.  

Now if someone can just kill that kitten.

More on this 94th Disquiet Junto project, in which the sound of three animals is combined into an unlikely vocal trio, at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/10/17/disquiet0094-naturalisttrio/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Day 304:Dino world birthday

My son turned three today.  It was a good, if overly consumptive birthday.

Day 303: Weirdness

Another in the subtractor series.  It's automatic wackadoo time!!!  Some real weirdness thru automation here.

Day 302: Finding peace in dark places

Haven't done anything ambient in awhile.  This piece ended up being pretty dark, but I like it.  It's free form, no loops, no plan, just kind of an improv with some extra pieces built up around it.  Download is free.

Also, I only used 3 subtractors making this, so that's cool too.

Day 301: Less is more and more

Quite some time ago I got the idea of creating a "subtractor only" refill.  I made a handful of patches, but didn't really take it past that point.  Since I'm spending so much time being hyper-focused on specific pieces of Reason I figured it would be a good time to revisit that idea.  This piece is my first go at creating new subtractor patches and trying to do a track with only those patches.

I did add vocals, effects, and a guitar loop, because it was needed for the sake of the song, but everything else is just subtractor.

Lyrics are pretty weird, but don't really mean anything, unless you want them to.

Lyrics:
Get this alien off of my back, out of my sight, out of my chest.
Get this animal out of my sight tonite.
Live outside of the dream, live outside of your means, you can accomplish all.
Live within your head, live with what you said, no one can define you. 

You define yourself.

Day 300: Another new day

At the other beginnings of my 100 days I wanted to start fresh, new, and vibrant.  This time is no exception.  Something I've noticed is that it's harder to stay excited now that I'm so far into this little project, but, like seasons, this comes and goes.  There are days that I can't wait to get up and start working, there are other days where I just want to get it done.  More importantly, I feel like the act itself is the important thing.

I've heard several composers and songwriters say that the only way they will compose new works is to set a routine for themselves.  Some do it at 3 a.m., some at 2 p.m., but whichever it is, they all seem to drive home the same point.  If you make yourself do it, you'll do it.  Motion creates emotion, energy creates creativity, determination and resolve drive the creation process.

For me, creation is the most important thing.  I'm here to do this.  I know that my purpose on this earth is to create.  Whether it be a short film, a drawing, a sculpture, or a piece of music, it's my reason for being here.

Lyrics:
Led the crowd by their nose like a fool.  
Sharpen words on stones so cruel.
You forgot the way back home.  
Despite all your dreams you're always alone.

On the wings of a fantasy, 
Eyes of a dragon, 
Skin like a reptile gone dry.

Rope round your neck like a fool.
Painful as it sounds it's for your own good.

Day 299: 300

Here we are at day 300.  I happen to have a little more free time today than most days, so I can at least talk about it a little, as opposed to just post and run (my usual lately).

When I began this project I had a few goals.  First was to see how far I could get, that is, how many days in a row I could post new music and/or sounds.  Well, here we are at 300 and almost all of it is new music.  Next was to create new sounds.  I think I've done that in spades.  In addition, I've had the opportunity to preview patches and rack extensions by new friends and have gotten over 8,000 plays total on my soundcloud account.  That may not sound like much to people who have 1,000 plays for one song, but I have over 300 songs and all of them have multiple plays, so I'll take the trade-off.

All in all, I'm very happy with what has come out in the last 100 days.  I'm glad I didn't stop at 200, though I considered it very seriously.

400 here I come.


Lyrics:
Under the canopy, 
under the trees, 
under the shadows, 
behind the breeze.

Beneath the river flowing up above, 
nothing left of our love.

Where did it go?   
Where did it go?  
Why did we let it go?

Day 298: Pirates!

Was thinking about the scene in Pan when Capt. Hook (Dustin Hoffman) is playing the harpsichord.  Then again, I might be getting that confused with Interview with the Vampire when a very decomposed Tom Cruise is playing harpsichord.  Whichever it was (or both) I then added glitch and electronic-ness to the mix.

Cheers.

Day 297: Out down thru

A dark song about contemplating suicide at 2 am in the morning.

Day 296: Stress sucks

Stress sucks, I'm so fucking tired of it.

Day 295: Junto-time

After listening to the three 10-second samples that this track was to be derived from I knew one thing for sure, the kick drum would be awesome. I scavenged what I could from the tracks to build a drum set and was pretty pleased with the results. Next was the bass.

"Dark City" had an awesome bass note right at the beginning; that would end up being the bass and the lead. For a "harmony" instrument I used a stab from "Archean" and it was enough to fill in the gaps.

My fear at first blush was that the track would be heavily percussive in nature, but with a little bit of creative manipulation it turned into a relatively "musical" piece.

More on this 93rd Disquiet Junto project, in which the music from three different netlabels was combined to create one track, at:

disquiet.com/2013/10/10/disquie…93-netlabelhybrid/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

Groups – Disquiet-junto

This track is composed from material extracted from three pre-existing tracks: “Dark City” by Marc Pastco off the 12AX7 album, released by inoquo.com, based in Barcelona, Spain; “Zamenhof Blues” by Digital_Me (Shay Librowski) off the The Accordion E.P., released by birdsong.co.il, based in Israel; and “Archean” by PlotKA off the Circulation of Deposits EP, released by netlabel.qunabu.com, based in Gdańsk, Poland.

Day 294: Someone is a liar

It's been awhile since I've had more than just a moment or two to actually type anything as a blog entry.  For the last 10 days I've worked my day job and it's been driving me crazy.  Finally a day to relax, which really just means to clean house and do laundry.  I'm getting to spend time with the kids today, so that's great.  I've missed my boys.

Here's a new piece of music.

Lyrics:
You tricked me. 
And I don't even know how to get out.
You tricked me, played me for a fool. 
I see you , standing behind your lies.
You tricked me.  
And I'll never get out.  
You're such a liar, 
I'm just a fool.
And I'll never get out.  
A fool for you.

Day 293: Stutttttter

Sometimes a piece comes together from just a few simple elements.  This is one of those pieces.

Day 292: Sticks and Instruments

Earlier today I was listening to the band Clogs. If you aren't familiar with them you should go check them out now. They make really interesting instrumental music. In particular, the album "Stick Music". That inspired today's piece.

Thanks to Drew Miller, AKA: Assemble, for introducing me to Clogs.

Day 291: Minimal Techno

This isn't a genre I usually work in, but today it is.

Playing with Ammo a little bit.

Day 290: Another Junto

Another piece for the Disquiet Junto project on Soundcloud.  The idea was to capture the "tone" of three separate rooms and stitch them together.

My three rooms were:
Studio
Kitchen
Bathroom

I used my iPhone to record to live audio, but I don't think I was quite far enough away to get the full effect of each room.  You can hear as I started to walk away from the sound source in the kitchen.

More on this 92nd Disquiet Junto project, in which room tone is used to shape a three-part suite, at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/10/03/disquiet0092-roomtonesuite/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Image via

http://goo.gl/K2Tnhi