Lunchbreaks - A Live Mashup.

Continuing with my breakdowns of work I've done this year, in this post I'll be looking at Lunchbreaks a 25 minute mashup I performed live for episode 2 of the 8bc open mic podcast.(http://8bcopenmic.blogspot.com/)

I also released it afterwards, and it can be found here(http://www.mediafire.com/?rmncvmvem2a) without the awkward smalltalk that takes place before and afterwards.

This release consists of a lot of my early nanoloop loops recorded and cut to 1-2 bar lengths. These files were then sorted into the groups of drums, rhythm and melody. I also sampled a kick, which is used throughout.
As well as the nanoloop components, there are a few drum loops thrown in(in this case a collection of breaks).

I wrote a puredata patch that works on 4 channels. One channel is a kick, and has a 16 beat sequencer, synced to run in time with the rest.

The other three channels are loop players, that randomly pick a loop from a folder of up to 20. Once the loop is loaded, the patch detects beat length.It does this by assuming everything is at 120 bpm and thus 22050 samples a beat. By using the [moses] object, to pass the file down in doubled increments.(2 beats, 4 beats, 8 beats, 16... up to 64 beats long)
The beat length is used by the patch for several purposes, the most important being, that the file is played back in 1 beat sections. This allows for simple re-pitching and altering the tempo of a file, as well as allowing stuttering and to keep files in sync.

There are a number of simple effects built into the patch that can be heard throughout the recording. Each channel features the same mixer module, that I built to be re-usable and modular in other patches I write in the future. The mixer has a built in Delay, capable of up to 100% feedback and 1 second max delay time. It also features a "wetness" control and a simple toggle to turn the effect off.
It also has a built in distortion, which is a small abstraction that amplifies a signal, before clipping waveform down in size from -1 to 1, leaving lots of sharp peaks. This is fed into an [overdrive~] object for some extra "dirtyness". The amplification and reduction of the waveform makes for a harsh distortion.

Outside of the mixer module, the drum channel features a high feedback, short time delay, that can be toggled on and off. It is the only channel to feature this function.

All loop channels feature a stutter control, that repeats the current beat while the button is held. They also feature a randomising re-pitcher, that when activated, randomly picks a tempo to re-pitch the sample to, as well as randomly picking how long it will take to reach that point.


Compositionally, a lot of this, if not all was left to chance. I produced the original sounds to be used, and made use of them in a reasonably well controlled manner, but the order they appeared, whether some loops appeared at all, was left entirely to chance.
I feel that this improvisation, where I was left out of a large part of the compositional process created some combinations of sounds, as well as musical direction that personally I would not have considered.
There are "mistakes" throughout much of the recording, where the unexpected got the most of me, or where I quickly retriggered file selection because a certain sound did not work with the current feel, but I believe it brings a certain level of human interaction that isn't particularly present in most electronic music.

The piece does have some level of direction, I was able to control changes from the mellower sections(described in the podcast as "wind chimes of death") to the heavier and more powerful sections such as the end build up.

This recording was well received, with many downloads outside of its original podcast form.