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Beto Dealmeida's avatar

Lonely ballerina

An experimental weird classical song on the OP-Z and the ZOIA

Liner Notes

This track was inspired by the Sway[archived] patch for the Monome Norns[archived]. I created a patch on the ZOIA[archived] that slowly changes between 4 different effects:

  1. Reverb
  2. Delay
  3. Bit crusher
  4. Compressor + tremolo

I then wrote a track on the OP-Z[archived], and sent audio to the ZOIA. I love how it starts sounding a lot like classical music (would you say that was an OP-Z playing?), and then it turns into a futuristic chaotic soundscape.

Lately I've been adding a lot of randomness to my songs — in this one there's the slow fading effects, as well as the tape track from the OP-Z — since it's something that make them much more interesting to listen. But it's something I've struggled for a long time, since I like having control of everything that happens.

Comments

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Frances Smith's avatar
Frances Smith replied on 50/90 on 2020-07-29:

A fine instrumental. Interesting on randomness, I like the shift from organised pattern to a chaotic soundscape. I think because you established the piano type motif early as integral to the composition, by continuing it throughout it creates a sense of continuity despite the increasing randomness. It works beautifully, really nice.

headfirstonly's avatar
headfirstonly replied on 50/90 on 2020-07-29:

You have a fascinating collection of interesting electronics, and I always enjoy hearing the music you make with them. This is at once both soothing and gentle and yet also richly chaotic - those arpeggios go in all sorts of interesting directions. I'm all for incorporating random choice into music - if you add the tag "aleatoric" to anything you do that does so, I'll give it a listen (the tag comes from the Latin for "at the throw of a die" and has a long and venerable tradition in music; there's something about randomness that I really respond to musically.) There are a bunch of fellow aleatoric music enthusiasts here on Fifty/Ninety and at least one accomplished practitioner (big shout out to @pipewrench67 ). It's weird letting go of full control of the compositional process at first, so I uderstand your discomfort, but the results can be very interesting and rewarding.