"Tesseract Farm Incident" [mp3 removed]
As in incidental music.
I broke my Mutator filter. It was fixed by Armen's Music Shop (highly recommended; thanks also to Mutronics/Audio Kitchen for the great instrument). Did this "song" to test out having both channels working again--it's really more of an intro or demo (see next post) but I'm happy with it and may add to it. The rhythm is from an earlier song, "Tesseract Farm."
"Monomechanic II" [mp3 removed]
This was actually written before "Monomechanic" and is made with the Mutator filter, Electribe rhythm box, and some software drumming. The rhythmic (occasionally overloading) pitch shifting is a midi controller curve in Cubase disturbing the Mutator in mid-sweep.
"Play in Traffic" [mp3 removed]
A sidstation patch called Evolving Sy[?] changes from melodic to rhythmic depending on a particular knob setting. That knob is being turned here (slowly), as well as the filter cutoff controller. The resulting sound is additionally run through an Adrenalinn FX pedal--with settings changing from phaser to filter sweep to sample and hold (about 5 are used in all). The note commands for the sidstation come from an Electribe synth's midi out. That same synth is also producing audio (e.g., the "scratching" heard mostly in one channel), some of which is also being tweaked in real time. A drum pattern runs underneath, slaved to the Electribe's midi clock.
Two performances were recorded, each with its own tunes and rhythms. Each real time performance runs at 136 bpm but they are otherwise completely different sets of patterns.
The two recordings are then overlapped (this is possible because the clock is the same in both). Performance 2 comes in at :27, the two play simultaneously, then performance 1 starts fading out around 4:10 in this five minute song. At any given moment there are several timbral or melodic "events" going on and the combinations basically don't repeat. In painting this is sometimes called "allover" or a "skein." Here there's a steady beat running through it.
"Up the Downbeat" [mp3 removed]
An Absynth patch called Talking Mallets over artificially phattened beats--the two drift around searching for a good matchup, which happens a couple of times. This would fit in a group with "Iceworld," "Rational Song," and a few others, texture, structure and length-wise.
Thanks to anyone who emailed about, or linked to my songs recently, the support is really appreciated.
"Mosquito Mange" [mp3 removed]
A standard Electribe drumbeat is run through the Mutator filter and then the Reaktor Cyan plug-in. A parameter called "distance spread" allows changes in pitch based on altering a delay or chorus function (not sure how it works entirely but it involves putting the treated signal out of phase with the input signal). A controller curve that I wrote acts as a virtual knob turner to create the melody and improvisational sections. "Mosquito Mange" is one of the deadly substances in the Zone in the Strugatsky's Roadside Picnic.
