Marc Weidenbaum's Blog, page 240
April 25, 2020
This Week in Sound: Hearing Tiny Earthquakes
These sound-studies highlights of the week are lightly adapted from the April 20, 2020, issue of the free Disquiet.com weekly email newsletter This Week in Sound (tinyletter.com/disquiet).
As always, if you find sonic news of interest, please share it with me, and (except with the most widespread of news items) I’ll credit you should I mention it here.
▰ “[S]cientists are recording small earthquakes all over the world that normally go unnoticed,” writes Mia Rabson. “All those planes, trains and automobiles that aren’t running because of stay-home policies meant to fight the spread of COVID-19 have cut noise pollution in some cities by more than half, allowing seismologists to record sounds from inside Earth they never could before.”
▰ “We’ve been trying to create sounds which are aesthetically pleasing and calming — sort of anti-road rage,” says composer Hans Zimmer (in an interview by Stephen Williams). Best known for his work on movies like Gladiator, Dunkirk, and Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies, Zimmer is describing here his collaboration on the sounds for an upcoming car, the BMW i4. (Thanks, Bruce Levenstein!)
▰ “The neural networks located in data centers are trained using millions of samples in a method that resembles successive approximation; errors are initially very large, but are reduced by feeding the error back into an algorithm that adjusts the network parameters. The error is reduced in each training cycle. Training cycles are then repeated until the output is correct. This is done for every word and phrase in the dataset. Training such networks can take a very long time, on the order of weeks”: Peter AJ van der Made goes into detail on “keyword spotting,” the training of AI to recognize virtual-assistant alerts like “Hey, Google” and “Hey, Siri.”
▰ “The expectation that a sonification of a virus potentially carrying deadly diseases would also sound threatening and deadly, is a deeply anthropocentric one: an expectation that treats a scientific sonification like an aesthetic artifact, a musical composition. Yet, a scientific sonification is not a musical composition“: Holger Schulze ponders the purpose and potential of sonified data.
▰ “Yes, there was a noticeable absence of certain sounds at both morning and night (no doubt conversely permitting other sounds to be heard more clearly), but perhaps these newfound observations might simply be attributed to a state of heightened awareness to my surroundings?” That’s the always interesting Tristan Louth-Robins from his blog on his experience of the Covid-era quietude.
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GRACE NOTES
▰ Shortly before the nation started shutting down, I was due to review a live concert performance here in San Francisco. I canceled the afternoon of the show, due to safety concerns, and my editor was supportive of the decision. This weekend I “attended” a three-hour online concert (streamed live from various locations) for the same magazine, in order to review it. I’ll let you know when the article comes out. In some ways it wasn’t unlike going to a local experimental-music concert, in that I went alone, recognized some people I knew (in the chat room), and spoke (well, texted in the browse) with one of them. [clapping emoji]
▰ Wild weekend. Took almost five minutes to clean the synth patch cables off my home-office floor this morning.
▰ On the one hand, it’s unfortunate Devs was only eight episodes long and now it’s over. On the other, it was only eight episodes long, so I could probably just watch it all over again.
▰ Belated RIP to John Conway, who died on April 11 at the age of 82. Conway was synonymous with the Game of Life, not the Milton Bradley game, but the cellular-automaton evolving system. I spoke with him once on the phone for … I’ve no idea how long. It was a tremendous conversation, not intended for publication so I didn’t record. I’d confirmed with a magazine its interest in me mediating a conversation between Conway and Brian Eno. Eno, through management, was apparently into the scenario, but Conway had retired and told me he was more than ever just focused on the things he wanted to focus on. Thus, the three-way conversation never managed to occur, but I treasure the time I got to speak with him.
April 24, 2020
Buddha Machine Variations No. 11 (Cloud Bands)
Unlike yesterday, today I achieved some semblance of what I’d set out to achieve. The source audio heard here is a loop from the first-generation Buddha Machine. That original is already fairly genteel, but I wanted to push it further, to gaseous effect: to find clouds within clouds, layers of clouds, bands of clouds. I sent it first directly through Clouds (well, the tiny Clouds remix module called Smog, from Antumbra). I then sent that to the Make Noise FXDf, a fixed filter bank that divides the audio spectrum into narrow bands. I then sent four of those individual bands, color-coded by their respective patch cables, into the mixer. Two of those, the orange and grey, are then having their volume level tweaked by a distinct pairs of hybrid LFOs coming from the Batumi/SPO combo (“hybrid” meaning each LFO is a combination of two different sine waves from a set of four). And of the four oscillating waves on the Batumi, one of them is occasionally peaking out thanks to an additional push from the Dixie II, which is the module to the right of the SPO. As always, if you keep an eye on the various sets of lights on the synthesizer, you can get a sense of what is pulsing in coordination with some element you are hearing.
Longer version at youtube.com/disquiet. There’s also a video playlist of the Buddha Machine Variations.
April 23, 2020
Disquiet Junto Project 0434: Beat Kit
Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time.
Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, April 27, 2020, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, April 23, 2020.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0434: Beat Kit
The Assignment: Create music with beats crafted by fellow Junto participants.
Thanks to folks on the Disquiet Junto Slack for helping to plan this.
Step 1: As with the past five weeks, this week’s project is intended to encourage and reward collaboration. This project is the second in a sequence that began last week.
Step 2: The project is to create music using kits of beats created by other Junto participants last week. There are two ways to locate the beats. You can check out the llllllll.co discussion thread from the previous project:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0433-kit-bits/
Or you can check out the playlist from last week. Note that this playlist (1) only contains one track per participant (click through to each individual’s account to check out the full slate of beats) and (2) doesn’t include tracks that weren’t posted on SoundCloud. For those, you’ll need to look at the llllllll.co link directly above.
https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0433
Step 3: Use one (or, if you elect to, more than one) of the sets of beats from last week to create one original piece of music. When posting your track, be sure to credit the beatmaker(s) whose work you employed.
Seven More Important Steps When Your Sample Kit Is Done:
Step 1: Include “disquiet0434” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.
Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0434” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.
Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.
Step 4: Post your tracks in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0434-beat-kit/
Step 5: Annotate your tracks with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #disquietjunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.
Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Additional Details:
Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, April 27, 2020, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, April 23, 2020.
Length: The length is up to you. Between a minute and two is probably best.
Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0434” in the title of the tracks, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.
Upload: When participating in this project, be sure to include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.
Download: Given the nature of this particular project sequence, it is best to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).
For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:
More on this 434th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Disquiet Junto Project 0434: Beat Kit — The Assignment: Create music with beats crafted by fellow Junto participants — at:
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0434-beat-kit/
There’s also a Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.
Image associated with this track is by Abby, used thanks to a Creative Commons license and Flickr. The image has been cropped, colors shifted, and text added.
Buddha Machine Variations No. 10 (Syrup Delay)
The goal (ha!) was pointilist overlays based on the second loop from the first generation of the Buddha Machine. The result, some time later, after various paths were explored, was more of a syrup. It might be easier to track this one backward rather than forward, except to note there is just one line in at the start of the chain. Of the five lines into the mixer at the end of the chain, they are as follows, from left to right: First, the unaltered original audio, played a little low, so it doesn’t overwhelm everything else. Second, a low register of the original audio (extracted via the FXDf), then delayed a few seconds, its volume going up and down based on a slow LFO (from the Batumi/SPO combo). Third, a slightly higher register of the original audio, this delayed a few seconds more than the second line. Fourth, an ever so slightly higher register still of the original audio, delayed even a few more seconds, its volume changing according to the same LFO as the second line, but held back a smidgen thanks the Gated VCA on the O_c module (running the Hemispheres alternate firmware, and in fact I need to double check how effective this was, as I may have messed it up). And fifth and finally, the original signal, sent through a ladder filter, the resulting audio’s pitch rising and falling thanks to a hybrid LFO resulting from two contrasting sine waves (again, the Batumi/SPO combo).
Video originally posted at youtube.com. There’s also a video playlist of the Buddha Machine Variations.
April 22, 2020
Buddha Machine Variations No. 9 (Choral Void)
There have been multiple generations of the Buddha Machine from the duo FM3 (comprised of Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian). The 2017 version was a collaboration between FM3 and composer Philip Glass on the occasion of the maverick minimalist’s 80th birthday. That device had various samples of Glass’ music, including organ and, heard here, voice. The Buddha Machines all consist of short prerecorded loops that play on repeat. The choral loop on the Glass Buddha, as it were, has a dramatic gap between the repeats. Here I use twin delays to fill the choral void. I tried granular processing first, but the result was too artificial for what I was after. Instead, I here combine the unaltered audio with two versions, both delayed via the ER-301 (the large module on the bottom left). There are three strands coming through the mixer to the final output. The second strand, following the unaltered one, is the audio of the main strand set to delay by about 10 seconds, and from that delay only a narrow band, toward the high end of the spectrum (let’s call it the alto line), actually makes it to the mixer. The third strand takes another narrow band of the spectrum (let’s call it the baritone line), and sends that back to the ER-301, where it is delayed even further, about another 6 seconds, roughly. In addition, some slow-ish and flat-ish LFOs (from the Batumi, via the SPO) are continuously (and out of sync) modulating the volume of the alto and baritone lines, giving it an ebb and flow, a sense of call and response, that wasn’t in the original source material.
Video originally posted at youtube.com. There’s also a video playlist of the Buddha Machine Variations.
April 21, 2020
Buddha Machine Variations No. 8 (Glass Horizon)
A quick lunchtime office-ambience experiment, taking Buddha Machines by the duo FM3 and making new background music loops from them. Two Buddha Machines (the blue device is generation one, the uncertain color generation two), each going into separate channels, the input gain adjusted according to the selected loops. The gen-one device is split, half right to the voltage-controlled mixer, and half into Smog (a remix of the Mutable Instruments module Clouds). The Smog route provides some haze in the background. Both the gen-one and gen-two lines are then being operated on (their amplification adjusted by voltage control) thanks to dual pairs of rapid, unsynced LFOs (originating from the Batumi, those combined levels then adjusted by the SPO). And a much slower LFO from the neighboring Dixie II module is occasionally introducing a higher frequency range, which adds another layer. This experiment started off somewhere else entirely (that somewhere involving envelopes), and then was employing very slow LFOs throughout. But then the sound of the rapid LFOs worked even better. A very fast LFO can, in a manner of speaking, serve a slow LFO as well. The title, “Glass Horizon,” is a joke about how down the road there would be a Philip Glass collaboration on a Buddha Machine, but for now these automated arpeggios will have to suffice.
This Week in Sound (Update)
I got another issue of the This Week in Sound email newsletter out last night. Topics included:
▰ hearing tiny earthquakes
▰ “anti-road rage” electric car sounds
▰ machine listening of “keyword spotting”
▰ sonification skepticism
▰ TikTok as musical tool
▰ + more
You can subscribe, for free, at tinyletter.com/disquiet.
Folks ask about a paid version. I don’t think, at the moment, I’d do that. Substack’s minimum fee for subscribers is $5/month, I believe, which is more than I’d expect someone to pay. I may add a “tip jar” at some point. The main tips I’d appreciate, though, are examples of sound you come across, especially in specialized fields where sound may not normally be a topic of conversation.
April 20, 2020
Buddha Machine Variations No. 7 (True Gristle)
Today’s home-office ambience: six Buddha Machines (including two of the first generation and one from each of the subsequent four generations), plus a guest star in the form of the somewhat less meditative Gristleism box, which is the black square one on the right. Gristleism was a 2009 collaboration between Buddha Machine creators FM3 and the band Throbbing Gristle. Note that, in true Buddha Machine style, the battery on the green one was starting to go (following a weekend of significant modular-synthesizer effort), which is why the light turns on and then suddenly off at one point.
April 19, 2020
Buddha Machine Variations No. 6
Two Buddha Machines, both from the first generation, playing different loops through the modular synthesizer. Each of the pair of loops is running through a different preset on the ER-301 module (that’s the large module with the dual screens in the lower left). The green Buddha Machine’s output is affected by a ladder filter, and the blue one by a grain delay. Aspects of both presets are being, in turn, modulated by slow-ish and flat-ish waves emanating from the Batumi and tempered by the SPO (note the four, short orange cables toward the upper left). Hence the sense that the filter is changing on one, as is the speed, subtly, of the other. The output of the green Buddha Machine (via the processing) is going straight into the mixer. The output of the blue one (also after having been processed) is having its spectrum sliced up (via the FDXf), with two bands (and those two bands alone) going separately to the mixer, their volumes adjusted further before being output. If you keep your eye on the equalizer-looking vertical bands in the ER-301’s larger screen, you’ll see the volume of the two Buddha Machine inputs on the left going up and down, and the LFOs from the Batumi (via the SPO) doing the same on the far right. Keeping an eye on those four signals will help the ear correlate shifts within the audio.
Day Ten of Ten Days
“Slowly, a brace of air coalesced around the wand. That’s the only way I can describe it. I know more, today, about what was happening, but I’m trying to describe what it felt like at the time, which isn’t terribly difficult because the mix of shock and elation I experienced is still with me to this day. This was magic, plain old simple magic, something I historically couldn’t have cared less about, any more than I did about symphony orchestras or French cuisine, and yet I was entranced, fixated, engrossed.”
Last week I plumbed the then-in-progress modern Decameron at hilobrow.com for its sonic content, from field recordings to overheard conversation to the sound proximate to the shore. I had a vested interest in that trajectory because I was, myself, slotted to have something appear in the Covid-era series a few days later. Edited by Peggy Nelson, the Ten Days sequence at HiLoBrow introduced, once per day, a piece by a different individual (and in one case creative team), not just tales and poetry, like the original Decameron back circa 1353, but sound, and image, and memoir, and more. My piece (excerpted above briefly in italics) doesn’t have a lot of sound or music in it, though music was very much on my mind in its development. The material I published last Thursday at HiLoBrow is the opening roughly 5,000 or so words of a novel I’ve been working on. It’s a story that occurs in a world where most people, especially young people, consider magic to be old-fashioned and utterly boring, and about a teenager’s chance apprenticeship and cultural awakening. Read it at hilobrow.com.
