This is the first successful test of ChucK -> MIDI -> my new keyboard, a Roland VA-3 that I bought from a coworker.

Everything seems to work rather smoothly. This proves that the problem in the earlier setup was not caused by ChucK or the MIDI system of my computer, but either by the loopback, VSTs, or the VST host. 

Looking forward to exploring the cheesy options, this one has a big tone bank.

va3_sings

Besides that I am behind on all musical projects. I did participate in a livecoding workshop at Resonance Ghent, but have yet to digitize and edit our sound jams. I have been working with Matlab and Weka a lot, and this is what a weka sounds like.

princess-latency

Anyway, there are lots of flaws. The Crystal presets are wonderfully ambient, but combining fast melody with slow attack leads to inaudible confusion. Also determined it is easy to overload the system in terms of MIDI messages, to be determined whether ChucK,  LoopBe1, my aging thoughtpad running VSTs, or something else is to blame.

Toady

To add some texture, I doubled some of the loops with harmonic or subharmonic multiples. Then some lyrics, but no text until I can work on them a bit.

Jam Song 1

She told me she made a hydrophone by sealing a pair of earbuds with hot silicone. If we have our picnic near the port I can test the recording… but we couldn’t get in the harbor. Which left the beach. She tried at the edge of the water, but I thought we should try submerging it more. Offered to doff my shoes and try. We got a new sound (entry) for sounds of barcelona and it was a good excuse to jump in the ocean.

med. sea at 3pm

This evening I tried to gussy it up a bit with some granulation and some comb filters, but I think she is a natural beauty fine how she is.

seachant

This is the last part of the rock opera Kelly and I have been working on. The opera is about a fabled Emerald City of Venus. (we pulled the story idea from Jacques and Maurice, an earlier story+music track.) Eugene founds the city out of his heart’s visions and inspiration, but then needlessly deceives her people without any particular reason. So he has to go.

Emerald City loves him and writes him an elegy.

Elegy for Eugene

Exiled the leader from his land
to return someday
Emerald City will yet stand!
and fall someday

Here is a man whose history redeems
his weakness and lies
He built a city using only dreams
and dubious schemes

Men who did both right and wrong
They do no harm within a song

V Bain graciously played ‘cello on this one and she is awesome.

jubilee2

Merry Christmas, everyone!

illuminated O

f the many musicians that I work with in BCN, actual collaborations have yet emerged from just two brave souls. As such, this is a special post.

This is about a song developed with one collaborator (Ferdi) that I hope expand. The progression is close to stock (truncated Pachelbel’s canon) but in the original meter was intended to have a bluegrass-country feel. Upon playing it together we decided it needed to have a kick in the rhythm, so we used a 7 meter.

Later, Ines and I worked on some adding vocal harmonies. We had planned to rehearse it all together but this year time does not permit. See if you can cross-pollinate the two in your head. Do you think it will work? Any suggestions? (Vocal harmony version below the lyrics.)

you are a song (gkc + ferdi version)

you are a song I cannot sing
something about you strains my vocal cords and
you are a person I cannot be
or make believe with all my little words

to try to call you back
over hills and oceans
to feint an understanding
over verse and chorus

to try and call you down
when you’re out of my range
to find a better harmony
when it is sounding strange

but if not then you get bored
i think your voice should be
unbound by chords

jealous of the plain
with a flood of acid
flowing through your veins

flowing to your heart
with a constant pulsing
jitters out of time
and crash

you are a song I cannot sing
something about you strains my vocal chords and you
you are a song I cannot learn
because I don’t believe in all the words that

try to explain
with the moments folding
under and over and
out of time

trying to explain
why we are broken
trying to explain
why we are so far away

you are a song (gkc + ines version)

This morning saw me unprepared. Rather than posting from the vaults, a quick sketch would better fit the bold spirit of our new experiment, I thought.

An unstudied 10 minute sketch can certainly showcase one’s cliches. It resembles this song. Could be a good thing, I guess.

Not that there aren’t better things in the tubes. We shall consider this a baseline.

A year in exile and nothing much to show
A broken pair of glasses and a borrowed Yamaha PSR-300 piano

I’m going home

Two weeks left so I don’t have time to burn
After waiting in line some hours I have permission to return

I’m going home

I have no idea if it will soothe this loneliness
Or if I still will feel as close
To the people I have left

I’m going home

Going Home