music - tm

"Out for a Jaunt" [mp3 removed -- some of this got incorporated into New Shortcut Medley, on Bandcamp]

Messing with the Doepfer A-112 sampler module and Reaktor Rhythmaker softsynth (independently of each other; the results are multitracked). Almost nothing in here escapes a tweak or an automation curve.
The sampler makes the 8-bit quasi-exotic-bird sounds, some of which are further timestretched in Cubase.
Jaunting as in walking through a jungle but also teleporting a la Alfred Bester to a non-police-state, Bonobo-like society.

"Glass Ceiling, Parts 1-4" [mp3 removed]

The (slim) gag title will become obvious upon hearing.
The arpeggios are generated by a Reaktor MIDI sequencer called Spiral--a fancy interface where the notes spin in a spiral--I guess designed for drug use while composing. Except for some transposing at the very end, this is just switching the arps between major and minor keys.
I added all the beats, note for note, mano a mano, etc.

"Crickets II" [mp3 removed]

Demo of the delay and pitch-shifting functions of the Doepfer A-112 module. Was trying to keep the beats minimal so I could hear better what the effects are doing. The delay is not an echo, with multiple steps (you have to use another module--a mixer--to create feedback). It's a simple time lag. But if you patch in the original beat you get two beats and a kind of unpredictable slurring and distortion that the voltage-controlled sampling adds. Pretty nice stuff. The pitch shift can be heard in a tom-tom that starts dropping a few semitones about halfway through. Very noisy and dirty track overall, atmospheric (hence the title).

"Proteus Projects" [mp3 removed]

I rarely use the Cubase "tempo track" but wanted to hear what the MIDI pitchbend- and mod wheel-controlled voltages were doing to an analogue signal at different speeds. The drums were an afterthought; for that matter so were the bell-like melodies. The MIDI "crunched sweeps" create a vintage computer-y sound so I named the song after the lustful cyber-brain in Demon Seed (a great B movie).

"Thx for the Add" [mp3 removed -- this track was revised and re-uploaded in December 2019]

This starts all 8-bit then a secondary theme comes in that is MIDI controller-controlled CVs altering a synth's filter cutoff (pitchbend) and pulse width (mod wheel). At about 1:30 the 8-bit part drops out and the secondary theme continues over various Reaktor Nanowave patches playing the main theme. It ends with piano! #genre_bending