Organ Engine

The Junto prompt was music for takeoff.

I was just on a plane this Saturday, and I noticed that it’s an experience packed with low pitches and noise. So, instead of taking the pitch of this pipe organ sample upward, I had it drop as the piece went on. (Pitch up is the usual metaphor for elevation up.) I made the chords bigger as it goes along, too, once again, using the tonality diamond.

This was a very cool-sounding bird.

Complete Digestion
This Junto prompt was to do something you do too much even more. So, I came up with a Slayer-type riff and then improvised a half-time breakdown after it. Then, I dropped to a half-time of that for a quarter-time feel. I repeated the process until things got really slow.

Now, that I think about it, though, while I always try a half-time breakdown after a fast riff, I don't think I ever finished a song with one. I always end up deciding it's too much like something else and drop it.

I had to go through a big crowd of business guys, so I said “A.I.” repeatedly. I think it helped to create the kind of ambience that helps them thrive.

Kepler Kola

For Junto prompt, I tried to create the sound of the opening of a can of Kepler Kola, keeping in mind the vibe of the Video Cola channel on Blippo+.

To do this, I put together a small software instrument that plays the sample pitched up at various intervals. The higher you move the slider, the more intervals it plays.

I improvised a few takes with it, then I used a filter in Bitwig to boost some of the harmonics, for just a little touch of pitched flavor.

I’ve had these three riffs for a song for about a while (maybe a year?) and a lot of half-formed ideas for a bridge that I keep picking up then putting away.

So, for the latest Junto challenge, I pushed out a new riff, said I'm going with that, then recorded the song on my phone (with some possibly ill-advised improvisation). Now, I can see what I think of it later, then iterate.

The middle school string ensemble really did justice to Jupiter at the festival.

Jupiter is coming along.

Improvising Hive.

This is my attempt to jump back into the Disquiet Junto. I wanted to do another piece that uses the tonality diamond, which takes the mathematical relationships in just intonation and extrapolates them to create finer divisions of pitch, so I extracted some code from The Sound of Ocean Heat Energy and built a small instrument that draws its pitches from the 11-limit diamond again.

At first, I had it play pitches on mouse over, but that turned out way too sensitive, so now it plays only when you click a cell.

I improvised on it, then edited a bit. Here’s a video of the raw improvisation in case you’re interested.

Inspired by Bolt Thrower being excellent despite keeping it simple, I’ve been trying to write riffs that way. I think they are more solid than what I usually come up with.