Podcast Bumper Music

Blue Sky/Black Crow #4

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Mon, 07 May 2012 09:25:34 PDT

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Here's a final version of the piece I've been working on lately. It's scored for bass finger piano and lots of Ernie Ball Super Slinky Guitar string samples. The tuning is taken from a mostly utonal scale, but only six notes at a time. Here's the 10 notes in the scale, from which six note modes are pulled. The numbers across the top are the scale degrees out of the 10 available (actually only 10 in this case), and the next row is the 72-EDO note numbers.

And here are the six note chords that are used. The numbers to the left are the scale degrees out of the 10 available:

Notice that some of the ratios are conventional just major and minor triads. Others are much more xenharmonic. The Bb major and C minor are in the former category, sounding very consonant and easy on the ears. The B neutral and C supermajor are more challenging. When they come around, you know that something unusual is at work.

The piece steps through the chords in a progression twice, in the following order. Sometimes the chords are taken two at a time, sometimes only one. And sometimes they move from one to another in a slide.

One of the most attractive parts of this scale is the wide range of consonance to dissonance, from 12-tone-equal sound to xenharminoc. All from only 10 unique pitches.

The format of the piece is that I only change the six notes that are input to the process, and the randomizer picks the notes to play. For example, it can chose a chord that slides from the first chord to the second, in one of a number of inversions, or trills, or straight chords, or many other combinations. For example, the piece might call for the strings to play a chord, and slide to the next one:

.chox-0-b01a &pre-&n5..&slivd-&n5.-&n4.. &preu-&n5.-&n1..&slivd-&n1.-&n6.. &preu-&n1.-&n3..&slivd-&n3.-&n2.. .chox-0-b01b &pre-&n4..&slivu-&n4.-&n5.. &preu-&n4.-&n6..&slivu-&n6.-&n1.. &preu-&n6.-&n2..&slivu-&n2.-&n3.. .chox-0-b01c &pre-&n5..&slivu-&n5.-&n6.. &preu-&n5.-&n1..&slivu-&n1.-&n2.. &preu-&n1.-&n3..&slivu-&n3.-&n4.. .chox-0-b01d &pre-&n6..&slivd-&n6.-&n5.. &preu-&n6.-&n2..&slivd-&n2.-&n1.. &preu-&n2.-&n4..&slivd-&n4.-&n3.. .chox-0-b01e &pre-&n5..&slivd-&n5.-&n4.. &pred-&n5.-&n3..&slivd-&n3.-&n2.. &pred-&n3.-&n1..&slivd-&n1.-&n6..

This is called from the string section:

.strx-16-a01a d4r0 &str1-ran*.d4h5z0e1&chox-0-a*. .strx-16-a01b d2h9z0e1v-3&chox-0-a*.d12 .strx-16-a01c d0h32e13v-5&chox-0-b*.d16

Which in turn is called by the individual string parts:

.all-72-a02 &vel.d72r0 &str1.&strx-72-a01*. &str2.&strx-72-a01*. &str3.d72r0 &str4.d72r0 .all-72-a04 &vel.d72r0 &str1.&strx-72-a01*. &str2.&strx-72-a01*. &str3.&strx-72-a01*. &str4.d72r0 .all-72-a03 &vel.d72r0 &str1.&strx-72-a01*. &str2.&strx-72-a01*. &str3.&strx-72-a01*. &str4.&strx-72-a01*.

And I start it all off by calling

&all-72-a0*.

I set the notes to specific 72 EDO tones here:

.Bb-maj1 .n1 2x .Bb-maj2 .n2 3x .Bb-maj3 .n3 5x .Bb-maj4 .n4 7x .Bb-maj5 .n5 9x .Bb-maj6 .n6 1x .Bb-majb1 .bass1 9x .Bb-majb2 .bass2 5x .Bb-majn1 .nn1 7x .Bb-majn2 .nn2 8x .Bb-majn3 .nn3 9x .Bb-majn4 .nn4 Ax .Bb-majn5 .nn5 3x .Bb-majn6 .nn6 4x .Bb-majbn1 .bassn1 3x .Bb-majbn2 .bassn2 9x .Bb-maj &Bb-maj1.&Bb-maj2.&Bb-maj3.&Bb-maj4.&Bb-maj5.&Bb-maj6.&Bb-majb1.&Bb-majb2.&Bb-majn1.&Bb-majn2.&Bb-majn3.&Bb-majn4.&Bb-majn5.&Bb-majn6.&Bb-majbn1.&Bb-majbn2.

I do that for all the keys. Then I just have to call the macro to set them all to the right notes.

&Bb-maj.

That sets &n1. to 2, &n2. to 3, &n4. to 7, and so forth. When it goes through the preprocessor, it resolves all that code into Csound input files. Full source code here:

Input to preprocessor.

input to Csound, output from preprocessor
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Blue Sky/Black Crow

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:28:58 PDT

This is a work in progress. Today's installment includes many more types of chords. Very slippery notes. The chord changes are derived from the undertone scale I've been working with lately.

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Rattlesnake Ridge #6

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 09:43:09 PDT

My entry for the Untwelve 60x60 Mix.

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noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:42:56 PDT

This is a work in progress. Today's installment is my first attempt at a 60 second piece for the 60x60 untwelve mix. It's scored for six guitars tuned to 72 EDO playing the a set of chords based on the undertone series. I'm just over 60 seconds at this point.
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Black Crow-Blue Sky

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:45:09 PDT

This is a work in progress. I'm playing with the bridge changes. After a vamp on G minor to Ab major we have the following:

Eb major
Bb major
F minor
C minor
B supermajor
Bf major

Then back to the G minor to Ab major. Of course they are not really those keys. They are taken from the scale pictured here:

The title is taken from a picture I took Sunday evening on the deck looking up at the wonderful blue spring sky. It's been hidden above the clouds since about September of last fall, and the clouds parted for a nice weekend, before returning this morning. Note the stick in the crow's beak. They've been building a nest in the trees furiously.

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Working Title slides

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 13:38:44 PDT

This is a work in progress. Just a set of up and down triads of two chords, gliding from one to the other. I'm using the Ernie Ball Super Slinky guitar string samples. Play it here

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Working Title - added the 4th chords and slides

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 12:46:10 PDT

This is a work in progress. Play it here

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Working Title

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 13:09:12 PDT

This is a work in progress. Just some strings for now.

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Sleeping Wolve's Dance #16

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:35:47 PDT

I made a few more changes to the guitar and horn parts. Nothing major. I spent the past few days chasing a bug that would cause the pre-processor to request a sample that did not exist. I fixed it so that it no longer does that. Now I have much more freedom to allow a randomizer to pick a higher or lower sample than normal. This results in new timbres as it picks different samples at different times. It's a way to force "munchkinization", named after the Munchkin voices in The Wizard of Oz. In this case, it just makes some of the guitar parts a slight bit less harsh at times, and more harsh at other times.

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Sleeping Wolve's Dance #14

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 08:50:49 PDT

This one is final for now. It's the 14th take through the algorithm.

It uses the subharmonic series to the 15 limit, plus one more (36:19) beyond the 15-limit, and an additional note (27:20) which I added to be harmonious with the 9:5.
18:18 18:16 18:15 18:14 27:20 18:13 18:12 18:11 18:10 36:19 36:18

which can also be written as:
1:1 9:8 6:5 9:7 27:20 18:13 3:2 18:11 9:5 36:19 2:1
From that ten note scale, I pull six notes out at a time and play a set of chords and melodies. Or rather the computer picks out some chords and melodies from an array of choices. There are nine 6-note combinations chosen for this piece, each takes about a minute or two, and then it moves to the next one. Some are sweet, some are sour, some harsh, and a few just plain weird. The subharmonic series has always played tricks on me. The weird ones can be thought of as the sleeping wolves of the undertones. In this piece, they get up and dance.

The instruments are the Ernie Ball Super Slinky Guitar String sample set I made earlier this year, finger pianos, balloon drums, tube drums, trombones, and trumpets.

There are lots of slides and trills. Csound provides for function tables that can be multiplied by a note to make it go up or down at a specific rate to a specific pitch. I generated tables for all the possible combinations of the ratios in the scale, and then through some programming with Excel, the right f table is applied to each note to move to the right next pitch for each of the modes. That's the feature that can be heard as the slides and shakes of the instruments. Imagine a guitar player sliding up a note and giving it some vibrato when he hits the higher or lower note. Except it can be done for finger piano, trumpet, and strings, not just guitar.

The rhythm is in nine, with stress on the 2 + 3 + 4 beats. The tempo moves around a bit as the algorithm can decide to speed up or slow down by around 15/16ths at random times, slowing way down at the end.

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Sleeping Wolve's Dance #11

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 15:39:01 PDT

This is the first of the evaluation copies. I generally make a few copies then go for a walk and listen to them. This is one. I may change some things before it goes final.

It's scored for Ernie Ball Super Slinky String samples, finger pianos, trumpets, trombones, tube drums, and balloon drums.

The scale is based on modes derived from the following undertone + one scale:

I take six notes at a time from the ten notes in the scale.

The order of the modes may change, but for now it's like this:

792 581
925 137
137 258
8A3 492
813695
925 813
792 481
147 A69
792 483
925 137

Those are the triads that I stress in each 1-2 minute section, then I move to the next one. As usual, there is lots of randomness in this one, so I may have to make more changes to get something satisfactory.

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Sleeping Wolve's Dance - some modes

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 18:52:37 PDT

This is a work in progress.

I added some new modes in the scale. Some are more "challenging". The piece steps through nine modes of the 10 available notes in the a scale derived principally from the undertone series with numerators over the demoninator 18. Plus one more note at 27:20 as a 3:2 above the 9:5 (Bb).

The whole scale is shown on the following chart:

The modes take six notes from those ten and make a subset scale. For example, the first one is this:

The 3rd notes is a very pleasant 6:5 minor above the root, and the 7th step is a 3:2 above the root. With the addition of the 27/20 (F), we have a very nice major chord on the 8th note (Bb) with the 2nd note (D) at 5:4 above the 9th, and the 5th note (F), a 3:2 above the 8th note. So this mode has a major chord and a minor chord. All very sweet and restful. Things get more challenging with other modes. I stay in each mode for about a minute or two, then move up to the next one.

One example of a challenging mode is the 5th one:

8 1 3
6 9 5

The 8th, 1st, and 3rd make a weird subminor chord, with the 1st note (C) an 11:9 above the root at 18:11 (Ab). And instead of a nice solid 3:2, we have a 22:15. Then the other triad is at the 6th, 9th, 5th. The 9th is a 13:10 above the root at 18:13, and the 5th note is a 33:20. Close to a 3:2, but not quite. That's the sleeping wolf dancing.

As we step through the nine modes, just think of yourself at a sushi bar, with the chef bringing out some unusual dishes. Every once in a while you get something "challenging". As they say in Japan, trust the chef ("Omakase").

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Sleeping Wolve's Dance - some melodies

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 12:21:37 PDT

This is a work in progress. I added a few melodies for the strings and horns. More work to do. Play it here

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Sleeping Wolve's Dance - some drums

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:34:07 PDT

This is a work in progress. Too complex now, but I have a plan. All will become clear when I reduce the randomness by a factor. Play it here

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Sleeping Wolve's Dance - some brass

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:35:49 PDT

This is a work in progress. I added some trumpet & trombone. This one is not coming together like the previous ones. I may have to go back to the finger piano alone, or switch to woodwinds. And I have't decided on the strings. More later.Play it here

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Sleeping Wolve's Dance - more trills

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:06:59 PDT

This is a work in progress. As the heading says, I added more trills. They had been dummied before, defaulting to no movement. I finally calculated the new distance and the appropriate Csound table for the new trills. Here's what one looks like in Csound:


f 568 0 256 -7 1 16 1 0 1.14428343 16 1.14428343 0 1 16 1 0 1.14428343 16 1.14428343 0 1 192 1

and here's what it looks like in graphic form:

Note that it goes up and down, up and down, then stays down. Not really a trill, more of an ornamental. I have real trills too, but these are different. They sound kind of like moving your fingers over the holds on a real thumb piano to get vibrato. But they modulate the pitch instead of the amplitude.

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Sleeping Wolve's Dance

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:57:38 PDT

This is a work in progress.
I saw a very nice thumb piano at the Goodwill Store in Seattle, and played it for a minute or two. It was terribly out of tune, but it had a nice sound. I went home and wrote this song and used a more carefully selected tuning system and finger piano samples. Play it here

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Ernie's Shuffle on Ten #6

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 13:37:41 PDT

This is a work in progress. I tracked down that stack overflow bug, but not before spending several hours trying to figure out what was causing it. Then I found it:


@ here's your stack overflow. fool.
.fin1-42-a01 &fin1-42-a01*.
.bdr1-42-a01 &bdr1-42-a01*.
.bdr2-42-a01 &bdr2-42-a01*.
.bdr3-42-a01 &bdr3-42-a01*.
.bdr4-42-a01 &bdr4-42-a01*.
.bdr5-42-a01 &bdr5-42-a01*.

Of course every time I asked for a resolution of &fin1-42-a01*. it would return &fin1-42-a01*. until the stack overflowed. Amazing. I'm back on track now.
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Ernie's Shuffle on Ten - more keys

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:22:16 PDT

This is a work in progress. And the progress has been slowed by a bug in my pre-possessor where Turbo Pascal posts a run time error indicating a stack overflow. It works find as long as the randomizer is limited to very random, and fails when I ask for less random choices. Weird. Ernie is not happy.Play it here

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Ernie's Shuffle on Ten - Over the Toutle River Brige

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 20:34:01 PDT

This is a work in progress. I am working on the distant modes in the scale. Some are quite challenging. I worked on this as the Amtrak train was heading south from Portland to Seattle, and as we passed over the Toutle River Bridge where that sad mad was killed by a freight train yesterday.

scale degrees - bass note - character of the mode
482615 1 harsh
594826 6 harsh
615948 1 harsh
716A58 1 weird
826149 8 sweet
948269 9 sweet
A59482 5 challenge

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Ernie's Shuffle on Ten - added the melody

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 08:51:07 PDT

This is a work in progress. Added a melody and variations using multi-octave unison oboe, bassoon, and french horn samples. It's all based on the single six note chord on scale degrees 1 6 9 4 8 & 2 out of the ten note pallette. Modulation to other six note scales come next.Play it here

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Ernie's Shuffle on Ten

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:18:26 PST

This is a work in progress. I made some samples of a set of Ernie Ball Super Slinky guitar strings and used them in this piece. The scale is based on the overtones in the tonality diamond starting on the 8:5, but with the 1:1 in the bass. So that makes the following ratios:


1:1 21:20 11:10 6:5 13:10 7:5 3:2 8:5 9:5 28:15 2:1

Then I derive some six note scales from that scale. The first one I tried uses scale degrees 1 6 9 4 8 2, which is two fourth chords stacked up. The ratios are:
1:1 7:5 9:5 6:5 8:5 21:20.

Here's the whole matrix of the ten notes from which the six at a time are chosen.

There are nine other 6 note chords to go, but I started with this one because it has so many low numbered ratios. And it sounded sweet on my keyboard with an electric piano sound. With these close mic'ed string sounds, the character is quite different.

I've scored the piece so far for the Ernie Ball Super Slinky strings, finger piano, balloon drums and tube drums. I will have to add a melody instrument at some point. Consider this the vamp for now, waiting for the lead singer to start. It has a kind of Devo vibe to it now.

The rhythm is combinations of 2 & 3 to make seven. For example: 2 + 2 + 3 or 2 + 3 + 2 or 3 + 2 + 2. These measures are combined into groups to make a five measure unit. I change the randomization for each of those units from highly repetitive to not repetitive. Kind of like: repeat a phrase 5 times, then go crazy, then repeat a phrase 5 times, then go crazy.

Lots more to do, but it sounded good enough for now to post.

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Modes for Strings #7

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:16:23 PST

This is a final version of this piece. It steps through eight 5 & 6 note combinations of the ten note scale, about two minutes for each. There's a vamp, then a melody, then some variations for each one. The character of each is quite different. I also change the bass note twice. It starts on the 1:1, then goes up to the 8:7, back to the 1:1 then later down to the 12:7. When on the 8:7 and 12:7, the bass reinforces the other notes in a harmonic series, for the most part, so they are more consonant. The other scales are more challenging. Think of it as a sushi bar where you get some California Roll mixed in with omakase (literally "trust the chef"). Is that squid moving? See 8:30 for the 716A48 chord.

Here's a matrix of the ten notes and the ratios one to the other:

The ten note scale is from top to bottom on the left: 1:1, 15:13 8:7 26:21 9:7 10:7 3:2 12:7 13:7 27:14 and 2:1. This set can also be thought of as 14:14 15:14 16:14 26:21 18:14 20:14 21:14 24:14 26:14 27:14 28:14, almost all a part of the overtone series. The key difference is that the root of the scale, 14:14, is the seventh overtone of the other notes in the scale, instead of the first. Putting that 7th in the base shakes things up a bit. And I can move it around to reinforce the harmonic series for contrast.

The piece starts out with a mode made up of stacked fourths, and proceeds to change them. Here's the list, with the number indicating the scale degree out of the ten in the matrix.

A58371
26A583
371615
483716
583716
615837
716A48
83726A
A58371

For the second one, 26A583, I move the bass down to the 12:7, so it's consonant with the other notes in the series. 26A583 is made up of the ratios 15:14 10:7 27:14 9:7 12:7 8:7. But if you assume the 12:7 is in the bass, then the ratios relative to that 8:7 become 5:4 5:3 9:8 3:2 1:1 4:3. Those are all in the harmonic series relative to the A at scale degree 8, except for the 4:3, which is not. But it sounds so sweet I had to leave it in. All these five or six note scales, derived from the ten, were chosen because they sound good in stacked fourth chords. I just couldn't resist the 4:3 relative to the root on A. It's not too removed from the overtone series after all.

The bass moves back to the 1:1 for a while, until about 3/4 of the way through when it shifts to 615837, when I use the 8:7 in the bass. The ratios relative to the 8:7 for that set of six notes are 5:4 7:4 9:8 3:2 1:1 21:16. That 21:16 is not in the overtone series. And it's a 64:63 away from a 4:3 above the 1:1 in the scale. But it's close enough to fake it in this context as part of the melodic flow.

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Modes for Strings - now with more trills & slides

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 19:58:19 PST

This is a work in progress. Today I added some trills and slides to the melody section. The modes are made of different 5 or 6 note scales derived from the 10 note scale shown here:

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Modes for Strings - better balance this time

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:58:59 PST

This is a work in progress. So there will be frequent updates.
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