Current work in progress

Hello everyone,

It's been a long time since I've posted anything here, and that's mainly because I haven't been doing much music lately, let alone microtonal music...

But here are two tracks of something I've been messing with lately. Both tracks are in 15 equal tones per octave using mainly the Garritan "Jazz & Big Band" library, played through Fractal Tune Smithy. Occasionally augmented the Big Tick Rhino synth. Recorded & mixed with Adobe Audition.

Pointer to explanatory page and the tracks, in MP3 format:
http://rm-and-jo.laughingsquid.org/Music/IdesSampler/IdesOfJazz-Sampler.html

Cheers,
Rick

WOW!
These guys do a great job performing while wearing ammonia/methane breathing gear!
:-))

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Rick McGowan <rick@...> wrote:
>

> Pointer to explanatory page and the tracks, in MP3 format:
> http://rm-and-jo.laughingsquid.org/Music/IdesSampler/IdesOfJazz-Sampler.html

Rick,

You improvised this - track after track?

Chris

On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 3:39 PM, Rick McGowan <rick@...> wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> It's been a long time since I've posted anything here, and that's mainly
> because I haven't been doing much music lately, let alone microtonal
> music...
>
> But here are two tracks of something I've been messing with lately. Both
> tracks are in 15 equal tones per octave using mainly the Garritan "Jazz
> & Big Band" library, played through Fractal Tune Smithy. Occasionally
> augmented the Big Tick Rhino synth. Recorded & mixed with Adobe Audition.
>
> Pointer to explanatory page and the tracks, in MP3 format:
>
> http://rm-and-jo.laughingsquid.org/Music/IdesSampler/IdesOfJazz-Sampler.html
>
> Cheers,
> Rick
>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Chris Vaisvil wrote:
> http://rm-and-jo.laughingsquid.org/Music/IdesSampler/IdesOfJazz-Sampler.html
>
>
> Rick,
>
> You improvised this - track after track?
> Yes, such as it is. Only the drummer has any idea of what's going to happen before the tape starts to roll. :-) I'm not much of a performer, really. But I've been occasionally doing this sort of rambling improvisational stuff for my own amusement since the early 1970s -- the days when you had to do it with analog reel-to-reel tapes and sound-on-sound track bouncing. It's now much easier and the recording quality is uncompromised.

(Similar 12-equal stuff here, but it's off-topic for this list:
http://rm-and-jo.laughingsquid.org/Music/SixGuys/index.html
so if anyone asks, you didn't see the shameless plug.)

Cheers,
Rick

A couple weeks ago I reported on the microtonal project I was working on, which is now finished... Two tracks in 15 ET, one in 9 ET and one in the Carlos harmonic scale.

... The band's fourth eardrum-corrupting attempt to conquer Earth, this time recorded live in San Jose, instead of some obscure studio on the far side of Mars. The album is freely available here, in MP3 format with a printable PDF of the front cover and liner notes:

http://rm-and-jo.laughingsquid.org/Music/BewareTheIdesOfJazz/

Another in our series of do-it-yourself rip-and-burn music albums designed to permanently warp the tender minds of today's youth, without resorting to explicit lyrics or mature content of any type.

Oh, well, at least it was fun to work on. And now back to our regularly scheduled program...

Rick

Rick,

3 tunings simultaneously?

Thanks for sharing - I'm downloading now.

Chris

On Sun, Feb 8, 2009 at 10:17 PM, Rick McGowan <rick@...> wrote:

> A couple weeks ago I reported on the microtonal project I was working
> on, which is now finished... Two tracks in 15 ET, one in 9 ET and one in
> the Carlos harmonic scale.
>
> ... The band's fourth eardrum-corrupting attempt to conquer Earth, this
> time recorded live in San Jose, instead of some obscure studio on the
> far side of Mars. The album is freely available here, in MP3 format with
> a printable PDF of the front cover and liner notes:
>
> http://rm-and-jo.laughingsquid.org/Music/BewareTheIdesOfJazz/
>
> Another in our series of do-it-yourself rip-and-burn music albums
> designed to permanently warp the tender minds of today's youth, without
> resorting to explicit lyrics or mature content of any type.
>
> Oh, well, at least it was fun to work on. And now back to our regularly
> scheduled program...
>
> Rick
>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Rick McGowan wrote:
> A couple weeks ago I reported on the microtonal project I was working > on, which is now finished... Two tracks in 15 ET, one in 9 ET and one in > the Carlos harmonic scale.
> > ... The band's fourth eardrum-corrupting attempt to conquer Earth, this > time recorded live in San Jose, instead of some obscure studio on the > far side of Mars. The album is freely available here, in MP3 format with > a printable PDF of the front cover and liner notes:
> > http://rm-and-jo.laughingsquid.org/Music/BewareTheIdesOfJazz/

This is cool! Strange tunings with a jazz club feel.

Graham

Sorry if I missed it, but did you publicize this here
before the show? Those of us who are local could maybe
see it live. -Carl

At 07:17 PM 2/8/2009, you wrote:
>A couple weeks ago I reported on the microtonal project I was working
>on, which is now finished... Two tracks in 15 ET, one in 9 ET and one in
>the Carlos harmonic scale.
>
>... The band's fourth eardrum-corrupting attempt to conquer Earth, this
>time recorded live in San Jose, instead of some obscure studio on the
>far side of Mars. The album is freely available here, in MP3 format with
>a printable PDF of the front cover and liner notes:
>
>http://rm-and-jo.laughingsquid.org/Music/BewareTheIdesOfJazz/
>
>Another in our series of do-it-yourself rip-and-burn music albums
>designed to permanently warp the tender minds of today's youth, without
>resorting to explicit lyrics or mature content of any type.
>
>Oh, well, at least it was fun to work on. And now back to our regularly
>scheduled program...
>
> Rick
>
>

Carl Lumma wrote:
> Sorry if I missed it, but did you publicize this here
> before the show? Those of us who are local could maybe
> see it live. -Carl

Oh, Carl! I apologize for that. I figured it would be fairly clear from the tone of the liner notes that it's a joke. The "audience" is canned. ;-)

Anyway, for what it's worth, since this list is about "making"... The album was actually done entirely in software. Drum tracks were written out in Finale then rendered to WAV using Garritan Jazz & Big Band library. That backbone was then layered with 5 to 7 tracks of improvisation using Garritan instruments (bass, horns, etc) played through Fractal Tune Smithy 3.0 using my own ".tun" files for tuning. Other than the drums, the "chart" for each piece is basically a few motivic ideas worked before recording. I added a bit of WusikStation and Rhino for a couple of synth sounds, likewise using the same tuning files. The talking bits are canned from the standard Windows voice. The whole was recorded and mixed with Adobe Audition at 32 bit/44.1kHz before the scrunch-down into 128k MP3 files. Spacial reverb was added to the final mix, not each layer, except for the muted trumpet part in one piece where I used a phaser/reverb effect to give it some extra distance.

Rick

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Rick McGowan <rick@...> wrote:
>
> Carl Lumma wrote:
> > Sorry if I missed it, but did you publicize this here
> > before the show? Those of us who are local could maybe
> > see it live. -Carl
>
> Oh, Carl! I apologize for that. I figured it would be fairly
> clear from the tone of the liner notes that it's a joke. The
> "audience" is canned. ;-)

Heh- got me! -Carl