80th Phase (Disquiet0249) by ikjoyce published on 2016-10-07T16:27:48Z This week's Junto was to write a piece to celebrate Steve Reich's 80th birthday, using phased loops. I decided to do this using my modular, having two identical sequences running at very slightly different speeds. My initial plan had been to try and get the two voices to suddenly create the happy birthday tune when they were overlapping at a certain point, but I could not get a celebratory sound - it kept sounding dirge like, so I just used notes from Happy Birthday and a few extras to make the sequences feel happy. I voiced them to sound like xylophones, in keeping with some of Reich's favoured instrumentation. There were some modulations in place to adjust the voices as they play, such that one voice may be heard over the other differently as the piece progresses. I manually stopped it when the two sequences were back in synch. More on this 249th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Wish the minimalist composer Steve Reich a happy birthday” — at: http://disquiet.com/0249/1 More on the Disquiet Junto at: http://disquiet.com/junto/ Subscribe to project announcements here: http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/ Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: llllllll.co/t/happy-birthday-steve-reich-disquiet-junto-project-0249/ There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion. Rain image by Rory MacLeod, used thanks to a Creative Commons license: flic.kr/p/bVJFJb https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Genre Electronic Comment by ikjoyce @notl: Thanks - I do love that gradually shifting phase that Reich explored so well. 2016-10-17T08:53:31Z Comment by :¬l good stuff. a nice simple piece that clearly exposes the phasing. It's like an audio counterpart to Moire patterns. 2016-10-12T22:23:56Z Comment by ikjoyce @337is: The Pittsburghs are OK - dual outputs, 'Add', 'Hold' and 'Reset' are all useful things, and reasonably priced - however I will say this - they are a bit inconsistent in the voltages needed to trigger/reset/hold them. What works for one of mine, doesn;t always work for the other. 2016-10-10T18:48:38Z Comment by ikjoyce @sergey-nesterov-130435114: Thanks - I keep meaning to listen to more of Riley's works, but I always feel like I am circling a whirlpool, I know I am going to get sucked in! :-) 2016-10-10T18:43:21Z Comment by 337is (three three seven is) @ikjoyce: Hmm, interesting. I need a duplicate sequencer to give that a try with. Thanks for the additional information! 2016-10-10T17:46:07Z Comment by ikjoyce @337is: I have two Pittsburgh Sequencers - I first carefully set them to give the same outputs (by feeding them a duplicate clock, so they would change in unison), and then once set up I clocked them with two LFOs, set to very very slightly different rates. I used a signal to reset the both sequencers and the LFOs at the start of the piece. 2016-10-09T16:56:33Z Comment by 337is (three three seven is) Which sequencers did you utilize for this, and how did you set them up to phase? Great job! 2016-10-09T15:43:04Z Comment by Sergey Neiss quite refined and delicate, reminds me of Terry Riley's works. 2016-10-08T15:40:02Z Comment by ikjoyce @disquiet 2016-10-08T13:41:25Z
