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Background

I started creating electronic music on the West Coast of the US, in the "West Coast Style," long before I knew that there was such a thing. My musical tastes have always been outside the mainstream. The first album I purchased with my "own" money was a vinyl recording (there were no other commercially significant recording media for sale in the mid 1960's) of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony which I had worn the grooves out of by the time I turned 7 years old. When I was studying formal linguistics and teaching myself to program computers in my late teens and early twenties, I did so to a personal soundtrack that featured Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music (yes, the album consisting of 4 LP sides of electric guitar feedback and effects pedal noise that literally ended his career just as it was beginning to take off in the mid 70's and then went on to become the stuff of legends decades later).

My favorite composers include Tallis, Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Glass and Byrne as well as hard-core mid-century experimentalists like Stockhausen and Subotnick. If you have never heard any of my own stuff, consider the combination of those influences as fair warning.

Over the years I have used a variety of traditional instruments and electronic gear to make, er, um, "music?" Yes, let's call it "music."

Approaches & Techniques

My process for creating music has evolved as new technologies have become available, but conceptually is not all that different from how I started out as a composer. I have loved listening to many types of music all my life. The first album that I bought with my "own" money was a recording of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony. I had worn the grooves out of it by the time I turned seven years old. By the time I was in my late teens, I was writing papers for my degree in Formal Linguistics and, a couple of years later, teaching myself to program computers while listening to a personal soundtrack that featured Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music -- yes, the 4-LP sides' worth of guitar feedback and effects noise that ended his career just as it was starting to take off in the late 1970's. You will find strong hints of all those influences - classical and experimental music together with mathematics and a love of algorithms - throughout my musical oeuvre. To me, an analog synthesizer is a device for translating what are essentially mathematical formulas into acoustic impulses, which are occasionally and serendipitously esthetically pleasing (at least to someone with my extremely idiosyncratic tastes). Computer software makes that even more literally true.

Mostly Analog

The majority of my pieces are created using a process not very different from how I worked in the 70's. I usually begin with a concept for a modular synth patch. These are usually pretty basic notions of ways to connect (and sometimes cross-connect) modules in the signal and control paths, such as "use the interference pattern of two low-frequency oscillators to create a rhythm," "use pitch sweeps driven by an envelope generator on the inputs to a ring modulator to create dynamic timbre" and the like. I then simply play around with such patches -- changing the underlying wave forms, inverting the phase of some of the low-frequency oscillator signals, changing the base frequency relationships when using FM, and so on -- until I find something that appeals to my very idiosyncratic tastes sufficiently to be worth recording. I then repeat the same process to create multiple layers of sound for a given composition. Where I used a multitrack analog recorder back in the day, I now use Audacity to record each sonic layer. Finally, I align and trim the tracks, add fades and similar basic editing in the DAW to produce a final mix as a FLAC file.

Most of the time, when I "play" a piece during the recording process it is by adjusting potentiometers to alter the patch in real time. Often I don't do even that during the recording but, instead, allow the "logic" of a given patch to play itself out over time. When I use a keyboard at all when working this way, it is usually to provide trigger and gate voltages rather than to play "notes" in the traditional sense. One characteristic of modular analog synthesis is that small changes to a given patch can produce dramatic differences in the resulting sound. Multiple tracks on a given album may be the result of the process I just described, using relatively minor variations of a single patch.

An aspect of this approach is that there usually is neither a musical score in the conventional sense nor any way to recover the exact combinations of settings and initial phase relationships of the various modules contributing to a patch. Once a track is recorded, that recording is the only representation of that exact "composition" and there would be no way for me or anyone else to perform it again and get the same result. This is one of the features of "West Coast" analog electronic music that I find conceptually attractive. There is a complete break not only from traditional tunings, structures and forms but the totality of a musical composition created in this way is represented entirely by its acoustic signature and nothing else.

But More Than a Little Digital

All of that said, I have increased my use over the years of tools and techniques that simply did not exist when I was young. Some of the sounds on my albums were produced using completely digital synthesis. These are often in the form of digital audio samples or the output of VST plugins using software like Ableton Live and Sonic Pi. Using Ableton Live, I can play a keyboard (to within the very narrow limis of my skill) to produce more conventionally tonal music. Some pieces consist only of tracks recorded in this way, while others combine analog and digital sound sources in various ways.

For example, the two versions of Farandole Lamentoso on my album The Modern Temple of Amusement were created using a single Sonic Pi program generating output in two ways: the "8-bit mix" consists of a digital audio file generated directly by Sonic Pi using some of its built-in digital synthesizers. The "2600 remix" uses the Behringer 2600 as the sound source, driven by the same Sonic Pi program, but by sending a sequence of MIDI commands rather than generating digital audio directly. Because the 2600 is monophonic, the latter version required running the program multiple times with slight modifications each time to produce the MIDI sequence for each voice separately.

Another piece, Ghostly Reminiscences, on the same album as the Farandole, was produced entirely as the output of another Sonic Pi program. Even when using digital tools like Sonic Pi, I tend to use randomization and sonic layering to produce unconventional timbres, rhythms and harmonies that will vary endlessly no matter how long they are looped. These Ruby source code files are the closest I am likely to come to writing "scores" for any of my music. This is my "West Coast" approach applied to using "East Coast" inspired gear and software.

See SonicPi "Scores" for Ruby code examples as musical scores.

Studio Setups

Yesterday

Here is the setup I used when creating tracks in the 70's and 80's, a few of which eventually were published as the album Undecidable in 2011, once self-publishing music started to become a thing:

The Knabe piano I had as a kid was built in the 1930's and sounded far better recordings were made in my childhood bedroom or various apartments I had as a college student and young adult using decidedly consumer-level microphones and recording technologies of the era. The jankiness of the audio quality appeals to me as an artifact of the period of my life and the circumstances in which they were created, but I cannot argue with anyone who finds it less charming than I.

Today

The albums I have been publishing more recently have been created using variations of this setup:

Hardware

Akai Pro MPK261 keyboard
Behringer 2600 modern clone of the ARP 2600 I used as a kid
PreSonus AudioBox iTwo ADC

...plus various Eurorack modules that change embarassingly frequently

Software

Audacity Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)
Ableton Live real-time digital synthesis and effects
Sonic Pi Ruby dialect and runtime platform for creating digital music and controlling MIDI instruments

...running on a creaky old MacBook Pro laptop

Musicography

Undecidable

UPC 885767506688

Track	Title	ISRC
1	Opus 1	QMYYH1100001
2	Opus 2	QMYYH1100002
3	Sample and Hold 2	QMYYH1100003
4	Segnahc Cigam	QMYYH1100004
5	Sample and Hold 1	QMYYH1100005
6	Opus 6	QMYYH1100006

Dum Viviums

UPC 198015910503

Track	Title	ISRC
1	2600 Redux	QZXKT2300001
2	Dum Vivimus	QZXKT2300002
3	Vivamus	QZXKT2300003
4	Sliders and Knobs	QZXKT2300004
5	and Cables	QZXKT2300005
6	One Modulator to Rule Them All	QZXKT2300006
7	Sonatina in No Particular Key Part 1	QZXKT2300007
8	Noise to Signal	QZXKT2300008

Untitled

UPC 198015912095

Track	Title	ISRC
1	Untitled	QZXKT2300009
2	Whoop Whoop	QZXKT2300010
3	Ring of Sines and a Square	QZXKT2300011

Songs Not Yet and No Longer Sung

UPC 198015955498

Track	Title	ISRC
1	Sonatina in No Particular Key Pt. 2	QZXKT2300012
2	Fire and Forget	QZXKT2300013
3	Divergence	QZXKT2300014
4	Douse and Remember	QZXKT2300015
5	Faerie	QZXKT2300016
6	Múspellsheimr	QZXKT2300017
7	Niflheimr	QZXKT2300018
8	Lament	QZXKT2300019
9	Ostinato	QZXKT2300020

March

UPC 198025013270

Track	Title	ISRC
1	March	QZXKT2300021
2	Ludwig van Synthpop	QZXKT2300022
3	E Minor Tune	QZXKT2300023

April

UPC 198025078903

Track	Title	ISRC
1	Sonatina in No Particular Key Part 3	QZXKT2300025
2	Krell National Anthem	QZXKT2300024
3	Triad	QZXKT2300026
4	Iaulath Berúthiel	QZXKT2300027
5	Sinusoidal Syncopation	QZXKT2300029
6	PWM	QZXKT2300030
7	Fall, Rise	QZXKT2300028

No Chatbots Were Harmed in the Making of This Album

UPC 198025252013

Track	Title	ISRC
1	Analogy in C Minor	QZXKT2300036
2	Regret	QZXKT2300032
3	π	QZXKT2300031
4	YNBBB	QZXKT2300033
5	Chicxulub	QZXKT2300035
6	Rainy Day Fanfare	QZXKT2300037
7	At His Heels, Leashed In Like Hounds	QZXKT2300038
8	Crouched for Employment	QZXKT2300039
9	Analogy in C Major	QZXKT2300034

Ambivalence

UPC 198025421488

Track	Title	ISRC
1	Effulgence	QZXKT2300045
2	Vigilance	QZXKT2300040
3	Perseverance	QZXKT2300041
4	Coherence	QZXKT2300042
5	Reluctance	QZXKT2300043
6	Ebullience	QZXKT2300044
7	Somnambulance	QZXKT2300046
8	Emergence	QZXKT2300047
9	Disturbance	QZXKT2300049
10	Transcendence	QZXKT2300048

The Modern Temple of Amusement (Volume 1)

UPC 198025591679

Track	Title	ISRC
1	Floating Theater	QZXKT2300050
2	Mount Vesuvius	QZXKT2300051
3	Soliloquy	QZXKT2300052
4	Dramma Bernesco	QZXKT2300053
5	Ghostly Reminiscences	QZXKT2300054
6	Au Quai	QZXKT2300055
7	Farandole Lamentoso (8-bit mix)	QZXKT2300056
8	Farandole Lamentoso (2600 remix)	QZXKT2300057
9	Steamboatman	QZXKT2300058
10	Foggy River	QZXKT2300059
11	Decommissioned	QZXKT2300060
12	Repercussions 1	QZXKT2300061
13	Repercussions 2	QZXKT2300062
14	Repercussions 3	QZXKT2300063
15	Repercussions 4	QZXKT2300064
16	Repercussions 5	QZXKT2300065
17	Repercussions 6	QZXKT2300066
18	Repercussions 7	QZXKT2300067
19	Repercussions 8	QZXKT2300068
20	Repercussions 9	QZXKT2300069
21	Repercussions 10	QZXKT2300070

Album 10

UPC 198025739965

Track	Title	ISRC
1	Incipio ex regulum	QZXKT2300071
2	Introduction	QZXKT2300072
3	Variation 1	QZXKT2300073
4	Interlude 1	QZXKT2300074
5	Variation 2	QZXKT2300075
6	Interlude 2	QZXKT2300076
7	Variation 3	QZXKT2300077
8	Interlude 3	QZXKT2300078
9	Recapitulation	QZXKT2300079
10	Reductio ad absurdum	QZXKT2300080
11	Epilogue	QZXKT2300081

Rhythms

UPC 198025759802

Track	Title	ISRC
1	Rhythm 1	QZXKT2300082
2	Rhythm 2	QZXKT2300083
3	Rhythm 3	QZXKT2300084
4	Rhythm 4	QZXKT2300085
5	Rhythm 5	QZXKT2300086
6	Rhythm 6	QZXKT2300087
7	Euclidean Tablas and Random Drones	QZXKT2300088
8	Sinfonietta for Cowbell Orchestra	QZXKT2300089
9	Concerto for Cowbell, Low Percussion and Manic Choir	QZXKT2300090
10	Farandole in Tempore Belli	QZXKT2300091

Digitalis

UPC 198025865497

Track	Title	ISRC
1	Digitalis in C Minor	QZXKT2300092
2	Poison	QZXKT2300093
3	Synaesthesia	QZXKT2300094
4	Chromatic Parrots	QZXKT2300095
5	Shuffle Off	QZXKT2300096
6	Tethyc Tempo	QZXKT2300097
7	Tethyc Melody	QZXKT2300098
8	Arise, Fair Sun	QZXKT2300099

XIII

UPC 198053826262

Track	Title	ISRC
1	Undine	QZXKT2300100
2	I Alone Am Left	QZXKT2300102
3	Whistling Gongs	QZXKT2300103
4	Y. A. M. P.	QZXKT2300104
5	Tower of Sines	QZXKT2300105
6	Lean To	QZXKT2300106
7	Contrary Trigonometry	QZXKT2300107
8	Growling Bells	QZXKT2300108
9	Schoenbergian Steampunk	QZXKT2300109
10	Twelvish Tones	QZXKT2300110
11	Twelvish More Tones	QZXKT2300111
12	Without Indication	QZXKT2300112
13	XII	QZXKT2300113

Empyrean

UPC 198027297876

Track	Title	ISRC
1	Whom the Gods Destroy	QZXKT2300114
2	They First Make Mad	QZXKT2300115
3	Steady State	QZXKT2300116
4	Traces Through the Cloud Chamber	QZXKT2300117
5	Unsteady State (Steady State Redux)	QZXKT2300118
6	Noisy Melody	QZXKT2300119
7	Ready, Steady	QZXKT2300120
8	Airy Fairy	QZXKT2300121
9	March of the Airy Fairies	QZXKT2300122
10	Migration	QZXKT2300123

Tangents and Sines and Rings

UPC 198089504462

Track	Title	ISRC
1	Black and White and Pink All Over	QZXKT2300124
2	Tangents and Sines and Rings	QZXKT2300125
3	Drunken Calliope	QZXKT2300126
4	Uncertain	QZXKT2300127
5	471	QZXKT2300128
6	Successive Unrefinement	QZXKT2300129
7	Contrary Refinement	QZXKT2300130
8	Fibonacci	QZXKT2300131
9	Nautilus	QZXKT2300132
10	Holding Saws, Playing Sines	QZXKT2300133
11	Echoing Pingala	QZXKT2300134
12	Range of Motion	QZXKT2300135
13	Poesy	QZXKT2300136
14	Greed's Meed	QZXKT2300137
15	Anxiety	QZXKT2300138

Baraboo to Dubuque

UPC 198088353832

Track	Title	ISRC
1	Baraboo to Dubuque	QZXKT2300139

Baraboo to Dubuque (2600 Mix)

UPC 198088334046

Track	Title	ISRC
1	Baraboo to Dubuque (2600 Mix)	QZXKT2300140

Driftless

UPC 198089343887

Track	Title	ISRC
1	Baraboo to Dubuque	QZXKT2300139
2	Baraboo to Dubuque (2600 Mix)	QZXKT2300140
3	House On the Rock	QZXKT2300141
4	Driftless	QZXKT2300142
5	Taliesin	QZXKT2300143
6	Bridge Over the Great River	QZXKT2300144
7	The Storehouse of River Lore	QZXKT2300145
8	The Unvisited Cavern	QZXKT2300146

The Doctrine of Shareholder Value

UPC 198090343913

Track	Title	ISRC
1	The Maundering Orator	QZXKT2300147
2	The Marketplace of 'Ideas'	QZXKT2300148
3	A Conclave of Populist Fantasists	QZXKT2300149
4	Antisocial Media	QZXKT2300150
5	Narcissus	QZXKT2300151
6	Sycophants	QZXKT2300152
7	Intended Consequences	QZXKT2300153
8	The Three Branches	QZXKT2300154
9	One Master	QZXKT2300155
10	Consensual Reality	QZXKT2300156

Duodecatonic

UPC 198093234317

Track	Title	ISRC
1	Duodecatonic	QZXKT2300157
2	Randomly Rubato Wandering Chromatics	QZXKT2300158
3	Cognitive Dissonance	QZXKT2300159
4	Duodecahexate	QZXKT2300160
5	Surjection	QZXKT2300161
6	Continuum Hypothesis, Pt. 1	QZXKT2300162
7	Continuum Hypothesis, Pt. 2	QZXKT2300163
8	Continuum Hypothesis, Pt. 3	QZXKT2300164
9	Continuum Hypothesis, Pt. 4	QZXKT2300165
10	Continuum Hypothesis, Pt. 5	QZXKT2300166
11	Continuum Hypothesis, Pt. 6	QZXKT2300167
12	Unodecatonic	QZXKT2300168

Down to the Wire

UPC 193667836836

Track	Title	ISRC
1	Rotating Shuffled Major Triads	QZXKT2300169
2	Rotating Shuffled Minor Triads	QZXKT2300170
3	Surging	QZXKT2300171
4	Disequilibrium	QZXKT2300172
5	Shuffling Chromatic Triads	QZXKT2300173
6	Lambda X Dot X of X	QZXKT2300174
7	Cross Product	QZXKT2300175
8	Through Caverns Measureless	QZXKT2300176

Ringing the Changes

UPC 19798688864

Track	Title	ISRC
1	Aleph Null	QZXKT2300177
2	Yuletide	QZXKT2300178
3	Solstice	QZXKT2300179
4	Mixolydian Harmonies	QZXKT2300180
5	Aeolian Counterpoint	QZXKT2300181
6	Dorian Light Pink	QZXKT2300182
7	Mixed Hesitant Tempos	QZXKT2300183
8	Krampuslauf 1	QZXKT2300184
9	Krampuslauf 2	QZXKT2300185
10	Niklaus	QZXKT2300186

McFarland Souvenir (for Sean and Mary)

UPC 19307750037

Track	Title	ISRC
1	McFarland Souvenir (for Sean and Mary)	QZXKT2400002

Ante Annus Novus

UPC 198078467266

Track	Title	ISRC
1	13 Times 5	QZXKT2300187
2	Reversal	QZXKT2300188
3	Ozymandias	QZXKT2300189
4	Postquam Prior Annus	QZXKT2400001
5	McFarland Souvenir (for Sean and Mary)	QZXKT2400002
6	Resonant Filter Sweep	QZXKT2400003
7	Inverted Rings	QZXKT2400004
8	Surging Counterpoint	QZXKT2400005
9	Rippling Counterpoint	QZXKT2400006
10	Panopticon	QZXKT2400007
11	Prime	QZXKT2400008
12	Lares Compitales	QZXKT2400009
13	l'Enfant Terrible	QZXKT2400010
14	Running Out the Clock	QZXKT2400011

2024-02

UPC 198085040643

Track	Title	ISRC
1	2024-02-11-01	QZXKT2400012
2	2024-02-11-02	QZXKT2400013
3	2024-02-15-01	QZXKT2400014
4	2024-02-15-02	QZXKT2400015
5	2024-02-17-01	QZXKT2400016
6	2024-02-17-02	QZXKT2400017
7	2024-02-17-03	QZXKT2400018
8	2024-02-17-04	QZXKT2400019
9	2024-02-20	QZXKT2400020
10	2024-02-24	QZXKT2400021

SonicPi "Scores"

Ruby code examples as musical scores.

Au_Quai.rb

# Copyright 2023 Kirk Rader. All rights reserved.

# Au Quai

use_random_seed 0
use_random_source :perlin
use_synth :sine

terminate = false

define :randomatic do |min_n, max_n, min_d, max_d|
  
  in_thread do
    
    loop do
      
      if terminate
        stop
      end
      
      n = note(rrand_i(min_n, max_n))
      d = rrand(min_d, max_d)
      
      # midi n, sustain: d
      play n
      sleep d
      
    end
  end
end

randomatic(45, 75, 0.25, 0.75)
sleep 100
terminate = true

Decommisioned.rb

# Copyright 2023 Kirk Rader. All rights reserved.

# Decomissioned

terminate = false

define :drone do |name|
  
  in_thread do
    
    with_random_source :perlin do
      
      with_sample_bpm name do
        
        loop do
          
          if terminate
            stop
          end
          
          rate = rrand(0.5, 2.0)
          delay = 1.0 / rate
          sample name, rate: rate
          sleep delay
          
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

define :melody do |name|
  
  in_thread do
    
    with_synth name do
      
      with_random_source :pink do
        
        loop do
          
          if terminate
            stop
          end
          
          duration = rrand(0.5, 2.0)
          play rrand(45, 65), sustain: duration
          sleep duration
          
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

name = :ambi_glass_hum

drone name
drone name
#drone name
melody :dark_ambience
melody :dark_ambience

sleep 100
terminate = true

Farandole_Lamentoso.rb

# Copyright 2023 Kirk Rader. All rights reserved.

# Farandole Lamentoso

midi_all_notes_off
sleep 1

arp_synth = :dpulse
bass_synth = :bass_foundation
seed = 0
next_seed = 7
arps = 2
arp_tempo = 0.33
send_midi_arp = false
send_midi_bass = false
play_notes = true

define :play_arp do |r, c|
  
  use_synth arp_synth
  
  c.times do
    
    use_random_seed seed
    seed = seed + next_seed
    
    r.shuffle.length.times do
      
      n = r.tick
      
      if send_midi_arp
        midi n
      end
      
      if play_notes
        play n
      end
      
      sleep arp_tempo
      
    end
  end
end

define :play_bass do |n, s|
  
  use_synth bass_synth
  
  if send_midi_bass
    midi n, sustain: s
  end
  
  if play_notes
    play n, sustain: s
  end
  
end

define :play_bass_melody do |n, s|
  
  in_thread do
    
    n.length.times do
      
      play_bass n.tick, s
      sleep s
      
    end
  end
end

a_min = (ring :A3, :C4, :E4)
d_min = (ring :A3, :D4, :F4)
g_maj = (ring :G3, :B3, :D4)
c_maj = (ring :G3, :C4, :E4)
f_maj = (ring :F3, :A3, :C4)
b_min = (ring :F3, :B3, :D4)
a_min_inv = (ring :E3, :A3, :C4)
e_maj_sus = (ring :E3, :A3, :B3)
e_maj = (ring :E3, :Gs3, :B3)

bass_melody = (ring :C3, :A2, :B2, :Gs2)

2.times do
  
  play_bass :A3, (arps * a_min.length * arp_tempo)
  play_arp a_min, arps
  
  play_bass :D3, (arps * d_min.length * arp_tempo)
  play_arp d_min, arps
  
  play_bass :G3, (arps * g_maj.length * arp_tempo)
  play_arp g_maj, arps
  
  play_bass :C3, (arps * c_maj.length * arp_tempo)
  play_arp c_maj, arps
  
  play_bass :F3, (arps * f_maj.length * arp_tempo)
  play_arp f_maj, arps
  
  play_bass :B3, (arps * b_min.length * arp_tempo)
  play_arp b_min, arps
  
  play_bass_melody bass_melody, (a_min_inv.length * arp_tempo)
  play_arp a_min_inv, arps
  
  play_arp e_maj_sus, 1
  play_arp e_maj, 1
  
end

play_bass :A2, (arps * a_min_inv.length * arp_tempo)
play_arp a_min_inv, arps

if send_midi_arp
  midi :A4
end

if play_notes
  play :A4
end

play_bass :A2, (arps * a_min_inv.length * arp_tempo)

Farandole_in_Tempore_Belli.rb

# Copyright Kirk Rader 2023. All rights reserved.

# Farandole in Tempore Belli

# sleep duration for each beat
tempo = 0.2

# beats per measure
measure = 16

# drum rhythm
spread_lo = (spread 5, measure)
spread_mid = (spread 7, measure)
spread_hi = (spread 3, measure / 2 - 1)
spread_bass = (spread 1, measure)

# start of each measure
spread_measures = (spread 1, measure)

# arpeggio rhythms
spread_arp_1 = (spread measure / 3, measure / 2)
spread_arp_2 = (spread (measure / 2) + 1, measure)

chords = (ring
          (chord :a4, :minor),
          (chord :d4, :minor, invert: 2),
          (chord :g4, :major),
          (chord :c4, :major, invert: 2),
          (chord :f4, :major),
          (chord :b3, :diminished, invert: 2),
          (chord :a3, :minor, invert: 2),
          (chord :e4, :sus4),
          (chord :e4, :major))

bass = (ring
        (note :a2),
        (note :d1),
        (note :g1),
        (note :c1),
        (note :f2),
        (note :b1),
        (note :c2),
        (note :e1),
        (note :e1))

# duration of one measure
measure_hold = tempo * measure

# number of beats in a full phrase
phrase_length = chords.length * measure

# number of beats to repeat the full phrase 6 times
repeats = phrase_length * 6

# current beat number being played each time :master is cued
count = 0

# current phrase number being played each time :master is cued
phrase = 0

# stop threads next time :master is cued
terminate = false

# flags to allow different voices to be played out
# as separate tracks
enable_drums = true
enable_ambience = true
enable_chords = true
enable_arp_1 = true
enable_arp_2 = true
enable_bass = true

# flag to emit single-note voices (arp_1,
# arp_2 and bass) as midi events rather
# than playing audio output
enable_midi = false

# play arpeggio for 1 measure
define :play_arp do |notes, spread|
  in_thread do
    with_fx :reverb, room: 0.75 do
      with_synth :chiplead do
        measure.times do
          stop if terminate
          if spread.tick
            if enable_midi
              midi notes[0], sustain: tempo
            else
              play notes[0], sustain: tempo, amp: phrase * 0.1
            end
            notes = notes.rotate
          end
          sleep tempo
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

with_fx :reverb, room: 0.75 do
  
  begin
    
    # chords & arpeggios
    in_thread do
      with_random_source :perlin do
        loop do
          
          # await next beat
          sync :master
          stop if terminate
          
          # only take action once per measure
          if spread_measures.tick
            
            # play current chord using ambient voice
            with_synth :dark_ambience do
              with_transpose -12 do
                play chords[0], sustain: measure_hold, amp: 1.5 * phrase, pan: rrand(-0.5, 0.5) if enable_ambience && phrase > 0
              end
            end
            
            # play current chord as arpeggio using first pattern
            play_arp chords[0], spread_arp_1 if enable_arp_1 && phrase > 1
            
            # play current chord as arpeggio using second pattern
            play_arp chords[0], spread_arp_2 if enable_arp_2 && phrase > 2
            
            # play current cord using melodic voice
            with_synth :chipbass do
              play chords[0], sustain: measure_hold * 0.8, amp: phrase * 0.1, pan: rrand(-0.5, 0.5) if enable_chords && phrase > 2
            end
            
            # play current note in bass line
            with_synth :bass_foundation do
              if enable_bass && phrase > 3
                if enable_midi
                  midi bass[0], sustain: measure_hold
                else
                  play bass[0], sustain: measure_hold, pan: rrand(-0.5, 0.5)
                end
              end
            end
            
            # advance to the next measure
            chords = chords.rotate
            bass = bass.rotate
          end
        end
      end
    end
    
    # percussion
    if enable_drums
      in_thread do
        with_random_source :white do
          loop do
            sync :master
            stop if terminate
            tick
            sample :drum_tom_lo_hard, rate: rrand(0.75, 1.25), amp: rrand(0.2, 0.5), pan: -0.25 if spread_lo.look
            sample :drum_tom_mid_hard, rate: rrand(0.75, 1.25), amp: rrand(0.2, 0.5), pan: 0.25 if spread_mid.look
            sample :drum_tom_hi_hard, rate: rrand(0.75, 1.25), amp: rrand(0.2, 0.5) if spread_hi.look
            sample :drum_bass_hard, rate: rrand(0.75, 1.25), amp: rrand(0.5, 0.8) if spread_bass.look
          end
        end
      end
    end
    
    # clapper for syncing tracks in a DAW
    with_synth :beep do
      play :a4
      midi :a4, sustain: 1
    end
    
    # give space after clapper
    sleep measure_hold
    
    # master clock for all threads
    repeats.times do
      cue :master
      count = count + 1
      phrase = phrase + 1 if count % phrase_length == 0
      sleep tempo
    end
    
  ensure
    
    terminate = true
    sleep tempo * 2
    cue :master
    sleep tempo * 2
    midi_all_notes_off if enable_midi
    
  end
end

Ghostly_Reminiscences.rb

# Copyright 2023 Kirk Rader. All rights reserved.

# Ghostly Reminiscences

live_loop :plingk do
    sample :perc_bell, rate: rrand(0.2, 2)
    sleep rrand(1, 5)
  end
  
  live_loop :clangk do
    sample :perc_bell2, rate: rrand(0.2, 2)
    sleep rrand(1, 5)
  end
  
  live_loop :eery do
    sample :ambi_haunted_hum, rate: rrand(0.2, 2)
    sleep rrand(0.75, 3)
  end
  
  live_loop :spooky do
    sample :ambi_glass_hum, rate: rrand(0.2, 2)
    sleep rrand(0.75, 3)
  end
  
  live_loop :chugga do
    sample :loop_industrial, rate: rrand(0.2, 2)
    sleep 5
  end
  
  live_loop :bzzz do
    sleep 2.5
    sample :loop_drone_g_97, rate: rrand(0.2, 2)
    sleep 7.5
  end

Music ​

Streaming ​

Amazon Music ​

Apple Music ​

Spotify ​

YouTube Music ​

Background ​

Approaches & Techniques ​

Mostly Analog ​

But More Than a Little Digital ​

Studio Setups ​

Yesterday ​

Today ​

Hardware ​

Software ​

Musicography ​

Undecidable

Dum Viviums

Untitled

Songs Not Yet and No Longer Sung

March

April

No Chatbots Were Harmed in the Making of This Album

Ambivalence

The Modern Temple of Amusement (Volume 1)

Album 10

Rhythms

Digitalis

XIII

Empyrean

Tangents and Sines and Rings

Baraboo to Dubuque

Baraboo to Dubuque (2600 Mix)

Driftless

The Doctrine of Shareholder Value

Duodecatonic

Down to the Wire

Ringing the Changes

McFarland Souvenir (for Sean and Mary)

Ante Annus Novus

2024-02

SonicPi "Scores" ​

Au_Quai.rb

Decommisioned.rb

Farandole_Lamentoso.rb

Farandole_in_Tempore_Belli.rb

Ghostly_Reminiscences.rb

Music

Streaming

Amazon Music

Apple Music

Spotify

YouTube Music

Background

Approaches & Techniques

Mostly Analog

But More Than a Little Digital

Studio Setups

Yesterday

Today

Hardware

Software

Musicography

SonicPi "Scores"