April Composition challenge No-fool , Honest , its here

[lurksalot]

There are no pranks here, it is the April Composition Challenge, or as Mr Smalls would describe it... Compo-Compo 

 

I say no pranks, but as the eclectic @Leonard Smalls was the worthy winner for March , we might have expected a left field choice of picture , but even so.....be prepared to be enlightened!

 

In Lenny's own words...

 

 

"G'day!

Looks like folks voted for The Funk! So piccy here:"

 

 

I was perusing my science periodicals (as if!) and came across this (*) which reminded me of an attempted jazzy jam from a number of years ago. The organiser handed everyone a bit of paper with abstract colours on it and said "we'll be using this as the basis for our improvisation"... We made a proper racket but I did meet a really good trombonist!

 

 

*it's actually a wavelet periodigram showing Geomagnetically Induced Currents in power distribution lines (colour indicates power) as a function of time... It demonstrates the problems "solar weather" can cause in our modern techy stuff - there was actually a 9 hour power outage in Canada as a direct result of GICs!

 

 

 

 

Well there you go, a little learning along the way 

Usual simple rules apply 

 

✅ Entries must be <5 minutes and recorded between now and the deadline.

❌ No illegal samples, copyright infringements or other snide goings-on

❌ No Bagpipes, I think they might cause a few GIC's , but you can go and play them in Canada! 

❌ No voting for your own entry. We'll know. And we'll shame you..

 

Deadline-wise, we will go for Midnight on the 24th April

 

A line or two of blurb as usual for the vote thread will be super duper smashing lovely. 

 

Good luck, Have fun 

 

 

[Leonard Smalls]

An ambient groove is taking shape...

[Lord Sausage]

I was considering doing one last month and this but I just can't do anything with them pics. It probably says more about me than it does the choices!

[Lord Sausage]

Literally just after typing that last post and thinking about why I couldn't get anything from it and how I compose. It came to me!

 

So there are some blue and green bits, then a big splooge of yellow, then blue- green.

 

So the form will be 2 sections or types of sections. Then a big completely different bit. Then back to the 2 types of sections. 

 

The time changing up the side of the graph means I'll change some things as it goes along within the sections. Don't know what. Harmony, chords not sure. 

 

I'll try and have a go.

[Leonard Smalls]

41 minutes ago, Lord Sausage said:

changing

Copycat!

I've got a gap!

And two superimposed time signatures!

I didn't, however, go so far as to change key. I'm a gentleman after all!

Currently rolling it in glitter and adding far too many effects.

[Dad3353]

1 hour ago, Lord Sausage said:

I was considering doing one last month and this but I just can't do anything with them pics...

 

That's never stopped Lenny. 

 

...

 

 

[Lord Sausage]

57 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Copycat!

I've got a gap!

And two superimposed time signatures!

I didn't, however, go so far as to change key. I'm a gentleman after all!

Currently rolling it in glitter and adding far too many effects.

Don't know what I'm changing yet. I just have the form.......and a riff now. It will probably take me all month if I finish at all!

[Leonard Smalls]

13 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

That's never stopped Lenny.

Aye... I find the best thing to do if you haven't got an immediate brainwave from the pic is to make whatever you like and call it something linked, or even invent an elaborate justification.

I suspect many of us do that!

[Leonard Smalls]

12 hours ago, Lord Sausage said:

and a riff

In that case you're done!

You never need more than a riff, unless it's 2 riffs and a widdley bit.

[Lord Sausage]

1 hour ago, Leonard Smalls said:

In that case you're done!

You never need more than a riff, unless it's 2 riffs and a widdley bit.

You've just analysed all my composition work!

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

My track's currently coming in at just under nine minutes, so I'll have to edit down a 7" version once I've finished tracking it — or maybe do a fadeout.

 

I've laid down the world's simplest bass line using rick-o-sound on my 4003, and the vocal will utilise my newly aquired Roland VT-4 voice transformer (or E-4 voice tweaker depending on which I prefer)

[Dad3353]

12 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

... I'll have to edit down a 7" version...

 

That's quite severe; you're allowed a bit more than seven seconds. 

 

...

 

 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

To be fair it is quite repetitive so once you've heard that, you've heard it all.

[Chiliwailer]

Been years since I entered this comp, but just had a week off work and tentatively felt like dipping my toe in the waters here again after a 6 month break in making any music - so hoping to keep it up monthly now all being well 🤞

 

The tune started as an acoustic thing I was playing last weekend, of which one part is heard in the middle eight type section, but it took a turn after seeing the competition thread and then recording it....I really liked the photo, it made me think of the intensity of chaos caused by GICs and how that'd be spot on for a new pedal I'd got recently - so in this tune the GIC attack starts at around 35 seconds!

 

 

Edited April 12 by Chiliwailer
Word correction

[Leonard Smalls]

I've now rolled it in 3 coats of glitter and 2 coats of oak-stain varnish, so here's some ambient grooves in both 6:8 and 4:4 time. Possibly.

 

Bass is a Sandberg, synths by AAS Iris and BassStation, drums sequenced from Ableton and EZ Drummer sounds. Guitar = Strat. Delays and reverbs by Raum, Objeq and Dubstation. Plenty Neutron 3 and Ozone 9 and MixRoom and BassRoom eqs, comps, limits etc.

[Lord Sausage]

Mines getting there. Got the track laid out. I'm probably half way there. 

[Baloney Balderdash]

@lurksalot

 

So I finally got an idea, thanks to my newly acquired EHX Pico Deep Freeze sample sustainer pedal, and recorded 2 takes of a drony and folky improvised bass solo/solo bass piece that I named "A Dorian Ody-C#", however I think take 2 was considerably better than take 1, which turned out sounding a bit rushed, take 2 being played in a much more, fitting for the track, relaxed and carefree manner, and additionally take 2 also had a slight jazzy vibe that take 1 lacks, only issue, in the nature of free improvisation, take 1  is 4 minutes and 32 seconds, which does fit within the time limit set for this competition, whereas take 2 runs 6 minutes and 1 second.

 

So the question is, could you possibly, in the name of artistic freedom, make an exception and allow my entrance for this month to exceed that set time limit with 1 minute and 1 second?

 

I promise this will not become a bad habit, and I'd really rather not  have to record another, third, take, as I know it will ruin the immediate, spontaneous and authentic vibe of this being a free improvisation. 

 

Mind this was recorded exactly as it was played, no post production, and I do not do edits, and currently got no means to make them either.

 

Also I don't think that my track running slightly longer gives me any advantage in the competition, I would say likely rather quite on the contrary, though I do realize why the time limit was set (I assume to not force people having to listen through five, or however many, 15 minutes tracks just to be able to vote, and I do agree that in this regard about 5 minutes does seem reasonable).

 

However I of course would understand if you see this as a slippery slope you'd rather not take a step out on.

 

 

Edited April 16 by Baloney Balderdash

[upside downer]

2 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

So the question is, could you possibly, in the name of artistic freedom, make an exception and allow my entrance for this month to exceed that set time limit with 1 minute and 1 second?

 

Send me kr100 and I won't have a problem with it 😁

[Dad3353]

2 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

... So the question is, could you possibly, in the name of artistic freedom, make an exception and allow my entrance for this month to exceed that set time limit with 1 minute and 1 second? ...

 

There is precedence; in the dim and distant past, there have been one or two slightly longer entries proposed. There is, of course, the 'normal' treatment, to have a fade-in/fade-out; that's the simple way to reduce the length. There is, in any case, a little-known subsidiary rule, that listeners only listen to no more than the first five minutes of any track, however long it may be. There is a special 'Lemmy's entry' clause reducing this to one minute, maximum, for obvious health and sanity reasons. 

[Baloney Balderdash]

17 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

@lurksalot

 

So I finally got an idea, thanks to my newly acquired EHX Pico Deep Freeze sample sustainer pedal, and recorded 2 takes of a drony and folky improvised bass solo/solo bass piece that I named "A Dorian Ody-C#", however I think take 2 was considerably better than take 1, which turned out sounding a bit rushed, take 2 being played in a much more, fitting for the track, relaxed and carefree manner, and additionally take 2 also had a slight jazzy vibe that take 1 lacks, only issue, in the nature of free improvisation, take 1  is 4 minutes and 32 seconds, which does fit within the time limit set for this competition, whereas take 2 runs 6 minutes and 1 second.

 

So the question is, could you possibly, in the name of artistic freedom, make an exception and allow my entrance for this month to exceed that set time limit with 1 minute and 1 second?

 

I promise this will not become a bad habit, and I'd really rather not  have to record another, third, take, as I know it will ruin the immediate, spontaneous and authentic vibe of this being a free improvisation. 

 

Mind this was recorded exactly as it was played, no post production, and I do not do edits, and currently got no means to make them either.

 

Also I don't think that my track running slightly longer gives me any advantage in the competition, I would say likely rather quite on the contrary, though I do realize why the time limit was set (I assume to not force people having to listen through five, or however many, 15 minutes tracks just to be able to vote, and I do agree that in this regard about 5 minutes does seem reasonable).

 

However I of course would understand if you see this as a slippery slope you'd rather not take a step out on.

 

 

 

15 hours ago, upside downer said:

 

Send me kr100 and I won't have a problem with it 😁

 

14 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

 

There is precedence; in the dim and distant past, there have been one or two slightly longer entries proposed. There is, of course, the 'normal' treatment, to have a fade-in/fade-out; that's the simple way to reduce the length. There is, in any case, a little-known subsidiary rule, that listeners only listen to no more than the first five minutes of any track, however long it may be. There is a special 'Lemmy's entry' clause reducing this to one minute, maximum, for obvious health and sanity reasons. 

 

I have solved the issue.

 

I found an online free Wav editor and used that to cut out small parts of the track, to get it down to ever so slightly less than 5 minutes.

 

This primitive way of doing it does make the track kind of jumpy at the points where it has been cut, but I kind of like that effect actually, so will post the track soon.

Edited Thursday at 10:22 by Baloney Balderdash

[Baloney Balderdash]

 

Take 2 of a free improvisation with some minor post production edits.

 

Played on my 5 string Ibanez GSRM25 Mikro Bass, that I named "Mr. Growly - The Noodlemancer", tuned in G# standard tuning (as in one half step bellow the 4 upper strings of a 6 string bas in regular B standard tuning, plus a high E string), through my "amp-less" setup, directly into a hand held Zoom recorder.

 

 

Here I take you on a timeless, time dissolving, musical folk drone journey slowly flowing  down a fluctuating colorful stream of consciousness, with the help of my brand new EHX Pico Deep Freeze sample sustainer. 

 

Edited April 16 by Baloney Balderdash

[Baloney Balderdash]

17 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

 

Take 2 of a free improvisation with some minor post production edits.

 

Played on my 5 string Ibanez GSRM25 Mikro Bass, that I named "Mr. Growly - The Noodlemancer", tuned in G# standard tuning (as in one half step bellow the 4 upper strings of a 6 string bas in regular B standard tuning, plus a high E string), through my "amp-less" setup, directly into a hand held Zoom recorder.

 

 

Here I take you on a timeless, time dissolving, musical folk drone journey slowly flowing  down a fluctuating colorful stream of consciousness, with the help of my brand new EHX Pico Deep Freeze sample sustainer. 

 

Is to be found in an uncut version, along with the track "Hail Satan", here, where it can be listened to and downloaded for free: ▶︎ Piece #911 | Fjernsind  https://fjernsind.bandcamp.com/album/piece-911

 

Edited Thursday at 14:32 by Baloney Balderdash

[lurksalot]

A bit late to the party reading the comments , but it looks like everything is in order.

 

mine is coming along , but I’ve  got a ghost in the drum kit 😳

 

for some bizzare reason, half way in the intro, a random bar of drums bursts in , there is no midi in the track , and the only way I can do anything with it, is to kill the volume at the place it kicks in . I haven’t the faintest idea where why it is being triggered