I was hoping that you understood the more fundamental thing i tried to share. That’s why I quoted another musician. Sorry if I failed to communicate. I will take another look later and write more
how would you translate this more fundamental thing into code?
@dietcv, it’s a very complicated question because it depends of your aesthetics. I will take another look later and try something.
For example, I would imagine you’re trying to do something raw like Koenig works, like Terminus. There are many techniques that you could use to create variety.
it doesnt have to fit my aesthetics im glad to see other approaches.
have read his book: Gottfried Michael Koenig: Process and Form: Selected Writings on Music
Im from Cologne man, near the office im working is one church which plays stockhausen every day on noon.
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Interesting patch! On the mixing end — even when I compare to Yasunao Tone’s Solo for Wounded CD and Ryoji Ikeda’s Dataplex, the high end you’ve got here is pretty extreme. I’d try turning down the highs a bit with a shelving filter. Something that I like on extra prickly sounds is cascades of low-order allpass filters, or really just any kind of filtering with a nonlinear phase response. Phase responses for low-order IIR filters aren’t that significant for most sounds, but for these ultra-sharp pins and needles, it can make a big difference. Basically just take this phaser patch using FOS, but the wet signal only & without modulation, and maybe do like 10-20 allpass filters. (You don’t need to have this effect on at all times or for all elements.)
Regardless of your mixing doctrine, to make this less of a texture and more of a piece, the main thing I’d consider is having more discrete events. A simple way to do that is to underscore some of the sudden changes with distinct transients. Not “drums” in the drum-machine sense, but just “percussion” of some kind, and with the right tuning it can meld beautifully with what you have here.
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Maybe a slightly different filter for each grain. For example, when you tap with some material on a surface, each contact has a different resonance. Otherwise, it will be treated like blocks of materials (in a way, like Koenig did at the time, which is just another option too).
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thanks, i was also thinking of the allpass filter phase rotation we have once discussed Kilohearts Disperser - Magic All-Pass Filter .i guess i will make a piece of this combined with the squeaky saw FM stuff i have shared above. But currently trying to formulate an aesthetic which is primarily based on abstract sounds.
EDIT: the Yasunao Tone’s Solo for Wounded CD is awesome!!!
Best Ikeda composition:
it seems all the contemporary dance stuff is rotating their phases:
wait for the drop haha
I conducted a kind of variation of this just for fun this morningt, and it proves to be a versatile technique. consider the process of breaking down the original sound into a series of distinct filters, each with varying crossover points, ranging from narrower to wider, with slopes at 48db/oct. Furthermore, introducing phase and delay variations of up to 5ms, 10ms, and even 20ms while adjusting their values in unique ways can yield different sonic characteristics.
At that point, you’re one step from creating weird primitive reverbs just adding delays, or adding another sauce.
And why not try more things by manipulating these 16 channels with various envelope shapes (gain), dynamics (compressor?).
Phase and small delay work with areas where the frequencies coincide the most (slow curves), but if you narrow bands and exaggerate manipulations, you can “break” the sound into something else.
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another nice buffer scratching reference:
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This is a piece I did 5 years ago:
Stream Bursty Exorbitance by Kosmas Giannoutakis | Listen online for free on SoundCloud.
The sound was generated exclusively by digital feedback (Feedback Delay Networks) and it was implemented in PureData. Now I am using similar mechanisms to “liquidate” (non-linearize) SCTweets during live coding.
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Cool sounds here. My thoughts:
- The “liquid” filter sweep-type sounds are very satisfying, and the main appeal of the track for me.
- Overall the high end is too piercing. This sort of thing might be best corrected by adjusting the synthesis algorithm, but in a pinch you can fix it in post with a high shelf or de-esser. Find a reference track that you feel is well-mixed and try to match the frequency balance by ear (I am against spectrum analyzers).
- Dynamic range is too high for a headphone/studio listen. Concert halls are different of course, but that’s something to be aware of when sharing tracks online.
- Although there are discrete sound events, I was left wanting some more transients. You don’t need to add a four-on-the-floor kick drum or anything, just any kind of sudden onset without a fade-in.
- When you make use of the low end, such as at 2:20, it’s drowned in full-spectrum, white noise-like fuzz. Aside from what I said about high end, I felt the bass needs more room to breathe.
- When everything is moving, nothing is moving. Contrast between static and motion would add excitement here, but that depends on what you’re going for.
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This is a rough sketch for how to maybe put together some sounds I recorded over the recent weeks. Is there anything interesting going on here? Not enough? Too many heterogeneous things? Any sounds that are too cliché?
Thanks for listening!
cool, i like the selection of sounds 
i would have a look at the formal aspects of this arrangement and would try to make different candences of sets of two or three of these sounds to build phrases and sections with a clear direction.
And then arrange these phrases or sections with ideas of contrast in mind like variation / repetition, regularity / irregularity, complexity / simplicity, exposition / interaction, development / regression, dynamik / static, loud / quiet, wooden / metallic, bright / dull, etc.
I think especially exposition is strong here. In every new sections are sounds which havent been there before. So maybe take one motiv from a former section and come up with variations of this and reuse these variations in the later parts. For example the sine melody motiv from the opening section abruptly ends at 0:22 and could probably find its way into the other sections, by coming up with different variations of this initial motiv.
I would also try to change the timbral characteristics of the sounds over time for more complexity.
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The best sounds here are the sharp, clicky ones. Lean into that. Use standard drum sound design techniques to make them sound punchier and fuller.
The organ/FM sounds with slow attack/release come off as particularly cheesy to me – to my ears, the amplitude envelope doesn’t affect any other parameter in the synth (if it does, it’s not enough). Try mapping that Env to a filter cutoff, make it tell more of a story. Same issue with the grungier low-end sounds near the end, which are also far too loud.
Are you randomizing frequencies? When the pitch material is this exposed and prominent, I feel it benefits from a tuning. Doesn’t have to be a conventional tuning “system” per se, doesn’t need to repeat at an octave, could just be a bunch of handpicked frequencies. In any case I want to hear the artist pick the frequencies, not exprand.
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The slower sine sounds were the ones that I thought might be too cliché. All the sounds are from some pulsar synthesis patches, with basic additional processing. The frequencies are randomized, yes. Structure and development is what I am struggling with most, so what you suggested is really helpful, @dietcv and @nathan
what might help is to set a duration of the entire piece at first, lets say 5 minutes.
You then divide this into arbitrary sections of different length, really doenst matter at this point, lets say 7 sections, so you have 5 minutes your entire piece, and 7 sections of different lengths to fill in your material.
These are not set in stone could be changed during working on the piece but something to start from.
And then you would build phrases which exactly have the duration of one of the 7 sections. This subtractive approach could help to not just add one phrase after the other with no clear direction or goal in mind and its cool because if you have filled in all the sections you are done.