3am - Steep (modular rhythms and screeches)

[justin3am]

I'm not sure I'm done with this one. I had some other ideas but I though this jam came out pretty well, on it's own. Luckily I was recording!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgLCxQETsMM

And a soundcloud link as well.
https://soundcloud.com/justin3am/steep

Playing a snare drum with a speaker, by feeding signal back from two contact mics attached to the drum, via a Koma Field Kit. Different tensions around the rim and dampening drum heads with my hands results in tonal changes depending on where I put the speaker. I gave up on trying to play it in tune.

[vurt]

nice!
who knew you could get all that musicy goodness out of just one snare drum

[experimental.crow]

it's poppins * !!!
i believe you have invented the waterless waterphone ...



*practically perfect in every way ...

[Frantz]

Playing a snare drum with a speaker, by feeding signal back from two contact mics attached to the drum, via a Koma Field Kit.

Snare drum feedback? What is this sorcery?

Very cool sounds. You held my attention for 5 minutes without any chord changes or traditional melodies. Nice job!

[justin3am]

Thanks for listening!
It was a fun experiment and turned out good results without too much tweaking. I was inspired by the discussion in this thread: Sound Design via Feedback Loops: What's your technique?.

The vibrations from scraping the speaker on the drum head are picked up by the contact mics, which are fed back to the speaker, the vibration from the speaker on the drum head, gets the feedback loop oscillating. A number of factors determine the pitch of the oscillation (distance from the two contact mics, tension of the drum head, damping from my fingers on the drum head) and the vibrations of the snare springs cause chaotic interactions. Because there are two contact mics, sometimes I can get two over lapping tones or modulating tones, depending on the position of the speaker. I can also get some vibrato effects by moving shaking the speaker a bit, moving it further and closer to the drum head.

I don't think it's an instrument I'll ever master... but I I was able to get a surprising range of sounds from it. And anything sounds good through a bunch of delay and reverb.

[ma1225]

That so crazy..how did you manage handle it all together?

[thecontrolcentre]

That's a great sounding track ... love it. Thanks for the download

[Hink]

like I said elsewhere...awesome dude

[justin3am]

Thanks friends!

That so crazy..how did you manage handle it all together?

Practice? I work with this stuff most of the day, almost everyday. I didn't always make music this way, but it's getting more difficult to remember the techniques I used before. It just becomes like second nature when you are doing it, and it doesn't seem that complex. It's just a bunch of simple things, interacting.

I know that doesn't really answer the question.

[justin3am]

I'll give this one more bump.

[layzer]

very different tastes indeed, but theres some genius in some of that
random noise you make that can spark some ideas in my own
stuff, ironically

[htcnext2]

Stunning soundscapes you create here. Btw which bank did you rob in order to buy your equipment?
I am a big fan of modular synthesis, unfortunately I don't own such a thing. I am working digital, which is a different approach.

All in all much too short. Thumbs...
Greetings
HM

[justin3am]

very different tastes indeed, but theres some genius in some of that
random noise you make that can spark some ideas in my own
stuff, ironically

Thanks for listening! I know exactly what you mean. It's valuable to listen to a wide variety of styles and be open to different ideas. It's a great way to keep our own music fresh and interesting.

[sjm]

Bleepbloop?

[justin3am]

lol. I change the scrolling message on my KP3 every so often. In the past it has said "tacos rule", "synthnerd" or just "3am".