Notescast

This is Energy Ladders, a piece that I recorded by triple-tracking myself playin…

This is Energy Ladders, a piece that I recorded by triple-tracking myself playing an FM synthesis patch (the "twist" being that it has an extra cosine applied to the modulated signal) written in Pure Data. I need a push to reactivate the music writing after having to spend all of my time on other things, so I'm doing this as part of #synthruary , one of those things where you wear yourself out trying to do a thing every day of the month....

Mild garage caper

Mild garage caper

Porting code and Ship of Theseus-ishness.

Porting code and Ship of Theseus-ishness.

Thoughts loosely related to the book How to Move to Canada.

Thoughts loosely related to the book How to Move to Canada.

How my heat saving is going.

How my heat saving is going.

I heard Rush at the grocery store. Also, I thought about the appropriate level o…

I heard Rush at the grocery store. Also, I thought about the appropriate level of helicoptering in parenting.

This is called Inchoate Burbler. It uses a lot of low, low frequencies. I actual…

This is called Inchoate Burbler. It uses a lot of low, low frequencies. I actually played this on guitar, thanks to Pure Data's MIDI integration being really easy, despite my fears that it'd be a configuration nightmare.

The audio entries for this blog are now available as a podcast! Point your podca…

The audio entries for this blog are now available as a podcast! Point your podcast app at smidgeo.com/notes/deathmtn/podcast.xml ! Podcastification made possible by static-web-cast .

This is 2022-01-01, both the song and today's date. We thought this phrase was c…

This is 2022-01-01, both the song and today's date. We thought this phrase was catchy in our house, so I developed it a bit, but only slightly. Fun fact: I typo'd the file as 2021-01-10 at first.

What’s actually real in Pikmin?

What’s actually real in Pikmin?

This is another dungeon synth piece, though it's a bit different from the previo…

This is another dungeon synth piece, though it's a bit different from the previous ones in character. It's called Reconsidering Your Destiny, and I was thinking of the kind of thing Basil Poledouris wrote for Conan's downtime scenes. The main melody is actually a riff I wrote a really long time ago, but slowed way down. I tried to stick to just that and some chords, but didn't. Future versions of this will probably have less sections.

This is Searching the Bogs, a song I wrote in response to a <a href="https://dis…

This is Searching the Bogs, a song I wrote in response to a Junto prompt about gradually changing between two chords. I wrote a Pure Data patch to do this fairly literally with a bagpipe sample .

This is Centipedes of Many Sizes, intended to be a theme for a creepy situation.…

This is Centipedes of Many Sizes, intended to be a theme for a creepy situation. I almost iced this one because while I think I did hit the theme goal, I wasn't sure if this was something I'd listen to on its own merits. Then later, I decided it's fine to make single-purpose music sometimes. I guess I'll see in a few weeks if I enjoy it, even when I'm not trying to get into a spooky mood.

Brain wastefulness

Brain wastefulness

Rain and visibility

Rain and visibility

This week's dungeon synth jam is called Walk Around the Pond Three Times, a name…

This week's dungeon synth jam is called Walk Around the Pond Three Times, a name inspired by the guy, who said it sounded like music for walking around a pond. (It's not too far from my initial idea about it being about a magic pool.) The main arpeggio and vocal chords came really naturally, and I didn't have to dig that hard for the B section, either. I had it ending with some more complex chords at some point, but I felt like I was throwing away a pureness I usually can't write, so I dropped i...

Some accidental industrial music from a not-quite-right Pure Data patch.

Some accidental industrial music from a not-quite-right Pure Data patch.

Here's another dungeon synth piece, albeit a more upbeat one: Midnight Feast. I …

Here's another dungeon synth piece, albeit a more upbeat one: Midnight Feast. I consider this one "composed ✔". There's stuff that needs to be cleaned up and some decisions I'm not sure about (there's four muted tracks that seemed to muddy it up), but I don't think the bones will change.

Random school walk encounters

Random school walk encounters

Work you can do with just your head.

Work you can do with just your head.

Messing up in Pure Data sometimes yields fun results.

Messing up in Pure Data sometimes yields fun results.

This is a dungeon synth piece named Illuminated Corridor. This is a rare-for-me …

This is a dungeon synth piece named Illuminated Corridor. This is a rare-for-me made-it-in-one-day song. I came up with one of the riffs today while working on another dungeon synth piece that I had started yesterday. Then, I switched over to filling this one out. I could have, of course, worked this over for weeks, and I may yet. There is one part of it that is controversial in my own mind, but since I've been out of composing for so long (necessarily), I thought I should just get one out there...

Some thoughts after talking to a tech union organizer today.

Some thoughts after talking to a tech union organizer today.

The other kind of letter writing.

The other kind of letter writing.

Water apparatus commotion

Water apparatus commotion

Taking the time to read things slowly.

Taking the time to read things slowly.

Epipens, not knowing what’s going on with prescription coupons.

Epipens, not knowing what’s going on with prescription coupons.

No title

I tried to do a song really quickly using my homemade vocoder and some haikus. T…

I tried to do a song really quickly using my homemade vocoder and some haikus. The vocoder is still rough, and it didn't come together. Here's some French horn with a haiku, though.

I tried my channel vocoder out on more signals, and I'm pleasantly surprised tha…

I tried my channel vocoder out on more signals, and I'm pleasantly surprised that it was able to make this out of this bassoon snippet: And some talking: