Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

[lordradish]

i thought it was mentioned that he recorded 40 hours and took the hour he liked best, so i based my comment on that.

I think I may have misremembered that until I actually went and looked at the quote. So yeah, I think your statement here describes the album, well.

I've messed around with some of those generative programs (not the apps, the actual programs) that Eno uses (and helped develop). I can't remember the name, offhand, but it's definitely something that takes a lot of forethought and intention.

 

[steubig]

I think I may have misremembered that until I actually went and looked at the quote. So yeah, I think your statement here describes the album, well.

I've messed around with some of those generative programs (not the apps, the actual programs) that Eno uses (and helped develop). I can't remember the name, offhand, but it's definitely something that takes a lot of forethought and intention.

serious question:

do you feel it “sounds like you,” or that it’s best used as component of something that sounds like you?

or does it sound like eno?

 

[lordradish]

serious question:

do you feel it “sounds like you,” or that it’s best used as component of something that sounds like you?

or does it sound like eno?

Do you mean the generative program or the apps he wrote like Bloom and such that are for playing generative music? I didn't have much luck with the program as it was a bit too technical for me, although it certainly gave me a better understanding and appreciation of the complexity that can go into it. It feels like a compositional tool when used as intended, I wasn't smart enough to use it, though.

As to the apps, I think they're amusing, but they definitely sound more like Eno. Sometimes I'll just tweak one and let it run to listen to, but I don't feel like I'm 'creating' anything. More an amusement than a creative tool.

HOWEVER, there's a different app (non-Eno) called Cosm that I do think is more like an expressive generative instrument. I've actually used it in the synth duo at one of our performances. It's much more like having some different (about 20 or so I think) sounds that I can manipulate and perform with. I actually gen-jam out on it, quite a bit.
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[dukeorock]

Having a somewhat humble eurorack setup like mine, I do occasionally set it up in a ‘generative’ fashion. Set up a theme I find pleasing on a couple VCO’s, sequenced by the Q-Bit Bloom, then modulating pretty much everything (VCO’s, filters, Bloom reset, zones and repeats on the Mimeophon) can be a nice evolving thing to have playing while I’m doing other stuff around the house. I sometimes record it and edit it down to the bits that seem to be the most interesting to me and sometimes little bits can be chopped out and placed into songs, but hardly ever. I have a tough time claiming any sort of ownership over that stuff. It’s fun while it’s happening but feels soulless to me after the fact

 

[steubig]

hey,

so a new thing i was working on using make noise semi-modular stuff, hydrasynth and iridium. it uses sequences as sort of 8-note rows with different speeds and pitch—also manipulation of variables while the sequences are going, as well as cutting them up. plus "live" playing of a number of parts.

it started out as experimenting with the make noise stuff and became a piece and then a few more until it was apparent that i was working on sort of a requiem for my mother.

 

[steubig]

Having a somewhat humble eurorack setup like mine, I do occasionally set it up in a ‘generative’ fashion. Set up a theme I find pleasing on a couple VCO’s, sequenced by the Q-Bit Bloom, then modulating pretty much everything (VCO’s, filters, Bloom reset, zones and repeats on the Mimeophon) can be a nice evolving thing to have playing while I’m doing other stuff around the house. I sometimes record it and edit it down to the bits that seem to be the most interesting to me and sometimes little bits can be chopped out and placed into songs, but hardly ever. I have a tough time claiming any sort of ownership over that stuff. It’s fun while it’s happening but feels soulless to me after the fact

two things:

how do you like the mimeophon?

interesting to hear the challenge of making the generative stuff work for you.

 

[steubig]

Do you mean the generative program or the apps he wrote like Bloom and such that are for playing generative music? I didn't have much luck with the program as it was a bit too technical for me, although it certainly gave me a better understanding and appreciation of the complexity that can go into it. It feels like a compositional tool when used as intended, I wasn't smart enough to use it, though.

As to the apps, I think they're amusing, but they definitely sound more like Eno. Sometimes I'll just tweak one and let it run to listen to, but I don't feel like I'm 'creating' anything. More an amusement than a creative tool.

HOWEVER, there's a different app (non-Eno) called Cosm that I do think is more like an expressive generative instrument. I've actually used it in the synth duo at one of our performances. It's much more like having some different (about 20 or so I think) sounds that I can manipulate and perform with. I actually gen-jam out on it, quite a bit.
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thanks for the insight.

from my bias, it seems like the generative stuff is more useful when it's one component of a larger whole. (?)

 

[Bob_Ross]

do you feel it “sounds like you,” or that it’s best used as component of something that sounds like you?
or does it sound like eno?

[answering for myself] I haven't used any of Eno's programs, but of the generative stuff I've dabbled with, it seems like they run the gamut...e.g., with softwares from Karlheinz Essl it seems very easy to completely re-characterize the results just by changing one small parameter, so none of the End Results [sic] resemble one another (or resemble Essl) except on the most superficial level...versus, say, software from Akira Rabelais, where no matter how dramatically I've tried varying the "process" it seems like the output always sounds Of A Type...which may perhaps also sound like Rabelais, except I've never listened to any of his music.

it seems like the generative stuff is more useful when it's one component of a larger whole. (?)

I always like to think of generative/algorithmic/AI-enhanced compositional processes as the middle part of a three-part sequence:
- The composer first has to make decisions about what materials are being manipulated, and how;
- then the machine does its thing to generate "fodder"; and
- then the composer has to make more decisions about what to do with that fodder.

iow, expecting the machine to absolve the composer of creative input and/or of decision-making is both misguided and a sure-fire recipe for mostly uninteresting music.

 

[Bob_Ross]

so a new thing i was working on ...

Love this! Especially the pacing, use of space, and sonic identity. Very nice.

 

[steubig]

@Bob_Ross

rabelais has done some interesting stuff. the mangled icelandic singing is pretty cool.i didn’t like the electric guitar one. agree that software is pretty much gonna sound like this thing.

agreed on the layers of decisions.

thank you for listening.

 

[dukeorock]

two things:

how do you like the mimeophon?

interesting to hear the challenge of making the generative stuff work for you.

I’m not sure I do make the generative stuff work for me
I do often try to set up situations with the the electronic thing where I’m not able to entirely control the process, then hit record and see what happens. After it’s recorded, I can try several bars of one track with several bars of a different track and see if something cool happens that sparks an idea I wouldn’t likely come up with otherwise. It’s fun to chase these things down the rabbithole. Most of the things I’ve done in that way are way more fun to do than to listen to, I think.

I still really love the Mimeophon a lot. It can get noisy at times, but I don’t mind. Being able to modulate every aspect of the Mimeophon is just so awesome to me.

 

[lordradish]

thanks for the insight.

from my bias, it seems like the generative stuff is more useful when it's one component of a larger whole. (?)

I think @Bob_Ross response to you fits nicely in that paradigm.... That certainly makes sense to me.

 

[monsterthompson]

Older video. Interesting topic.

 

[Phe]

A local marketing guy made a book of poems using AI. He gave the initial theme or name for a poem and the AI did the poem. The guy then edited it.

I don't know what to make of this, really. It is pushing boundaries, for sure.

 

[steubig]

remember those weird spam emails that had nonsense/gibberish for the text?

they almost seemed like surrealist poetry.

my friends and i thought about using excerpts a song titles, etc. seemed like a lot of work to sift and edit.

 

[monsterthompson]

https://www.strymon.net/product/starlab/

Strymon StarLab looks tempting. Delay, modulation, reverb in a eurorack form.

 

[dukeorock]

https://www.strymon.net/product/starlab/

Strymon StarLab looks tempting. Delay, modulation, reverb in a eurorack form.

Sounds really great so far (a few minutes in)

 

[Wanker_Joe]

remember those weird spam emails that had nonsense/gibberish for the text?

they almost seemed like surrealist poetry.

my friends and i thought about using excerpts a song titles, etc. seemed like a lot of work to sift and edit.

We actually did this at one of our live shows (we were a totally improv live band), also we used some of those "Nigerian Prince" email type scams as well to create elaborate stories. It's was pretty amusing.

 

[monsterthompson]

I would've expected to come across this earlier in my life, but somehow today was a learning experience.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluxus

 

[JES]

Oh yeah, very much in the canon of contemporary art.