I started this project with the music first and then creating and matching with the visuals.
At first, I followed Aaron’s instructions and just wrote some random blocks of compositions. Some of them are bright, some of them are creepy (is this the right word?) and they sounds irrelevant to each other. (Then I need to give credit to my amazing roommate that I got inspired from what she told me that it sounds like an agent lurking)
Then I basically applied three steps: I first adjust the samples to be the similar instruments, and then try to adjust the scale from major to minor, or other scales that I experiment to make them have similar styles. Lastly I fine-tuned some notes to make them more like a coherent whole. I also read through the documentation of the music structure and learned a bit of the power of silence between the build up and the drop so I kept it, but then to add relevance to the theme I added the female voice of “Warning”. Since this is like a story telling project to me, I added also a little bit of narrative samples and an opening ending to the structure.
For the visual part, I am always a fan of simple, red and black stuff, so I kept doing that. I have decided at a very early point to stick to one main visual and evolve different form over time. This cone-like visual gives me a sense of a tunnel/terminal where the agent is lurking around. Part of the visual evolution is due to how the sound sounds like, but an even bigger part of the visual is actually determined by the story in my mind (Agent enter the terminal -> terminal is like a maze with multiple entrance -> agent found the terminal and got in -> agent pull out the gun and break into the secret place -> the fight begin -> open ending) I made the visuals follow the basic plot and create them based on my imagination. Lastly, I tried to match them with the midi communication between Tidal and Hydra.
My Tidal Code
setcps(135/60/4)
hush
-- reset everything
do
d11 $ ccv 0 # ccn 1 # s "midi"
d12 $ ccv 1 # ccn 2 # s "midi"
d13 $ ccv 0 # ccn 3 # s "midi"
d14 $ ccv 0 # ccn 4 # s "midi"
do
d1
$ qtrigger $ filterWhen(>=0)
$ struct "<[[t@3 t] t t@2]>" $ s "808hc"
# cut 1
# room 0.4
# speed "<0.8 1 0.8 0.5>"
d11 $ ccv 0 # ccn 1 # s "midi"
do
d2
$ qtrigger $ filterWhen(>=0)
$ s "<hh(3,8,1) hh(5,8)>"
d3 $ qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0) $ s "~ 808hc*2 ~!2" # note (scale "minor" "<15 21 15 3>") # room 0.6
d11 $ qtrigger $ ccv "<20 1>" # ccn 1 # s "midi"
d12 $ ccv "1" # ccn 2 # s "midi"
do
d4
$ qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0)
$ struct "t!6 f [t t@2 f]"
$ whenmod 4 3 ((# note (scale "minor" "[0,2,4]!4 [0,2,6] [0,2,4]!3"-12)))
$ s "808hc"
# note ((scale "minor" "<[<<22 20> 15> 7 3 1]>")-12)
# legato 0.6
# gain (range 0.7 1.3 sine)
# room 0.6
d11 $ qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0) $ ccv "<<40 60> <40 60>>" # ccn 1 # s "midi"
d12 $ ccv "<1 <2 3>>" # ccn 2 # s "midi"
hush
do
d5 $ stack [
s "bass3*8" # speed ("<1.2 1>") # room 0.4,
slow 2 $ s "glitch:3(3,8) glitch:2"
]
d6 $ s "hh*8"
d12
$ qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0)
$ ccv "<127 20 60 [[50 35] [20 10] [40 10] 10]>" # ccn 1 # s "midi"
do
d1 silence
d6 silence
d8 $ s "bass3(12,16)" # speed ("<1.2 1>") # room 0.4
d5 $ qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0) $ seqP [
(0,8, s "sharp:2*4"
# lpfbus 1 (segment 1000 (slow 8 (range 100 7000 saw)))
# lpq 0.3
# gain (slow 8 (range 0.4 2 saw))
-- # speed (range 0.3 4 saw),
# room 0.3)
]
d9 $ stack [
slow 2 (s "~ glitch:3"),
struct "t!2 [f t] [t f]" $ s "[909 sd]!2" # room 0.6,
qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0) $ slow 4 $ s "hh*<4 8 16 32>"
]
d6 $ s "~!3 <sharp:6 ~>" # room 0.3 # gain (slow 2 "<1 1.5>") # (slow 2 (lpf "<1000 10000>"))
d11 $ qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0) $ ccv (slow 8 (segment 8 (range 10 127 saw))) # ccn 1 # s "midi"
d12 $ qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0) $ ccv "<1 2 4 8 12 18 23 100>" # ccn 2 # s "midi"
d13 $ qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0) $ ccv "<0.1 1>" # ccn 3 # s "midi"
hush
do
d2 silence
d3 silence
d9 silence
d8 silence
d7
$ qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0) $ seqP [
(1,25, every 2 (fast 2) $ s "bass3(5,8)" # note ("1..2") # room 0.3),
(25,30, every 2 (fast 2) $ s "bass3(5,8)" # note ("1..2") # room 0.3 # gain (slow 12 (range 1 0.1 saw)))
]
d6
$ qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0) $ seqP [
(0,1, s "sharp:3" # gain 1.5 # room 1 # krush 5),
(1,25, s "sharp:2*2" # speed "0.7" # gain (slow 25 (range 1.3 0.8 saw))),
(1,17, slow 2 $ s "hardkick:5" # gain "<<2 1.3> 1.3 1.5 1.3>" # room 0.8 # lpf ("<10000 10000 800 10000>")),
(1,20, s "909*4" # room 0.3 # gain 1.3),
(1,25, s "hh*16" # gain (range 1 1.2 perlin)),
(25,30, s "sharp:2*2" # speed "0.7" # gain (slow 8 (range 0.8 0 saw))),
(31,33, s "<sharp:7 [~!3 sharp:9]>" # room "<1 1.5>" # gain "<1 1.2>")
] # room 0.5
d4
$ qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0) $ seqP [
(0,30, slow 2 $ chop "<32 16>" $ "ade:6"
# speed ("<2 3>")
# room 0.2 # gain (range 1 1.8 saw))
]
d11 $ qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0) $ seqP [
(0,25, ccv (segment 16 (range 100 1 saw))),
(25,30, slow 5 $ ccv (segment 5 (range 100 0 saw))),
(30,33, ccv "0")
] # ccn 1 # s "midi"
d12
$ qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0) $ seqP [
(0,1, ccv "1 0!64"),
(1,10, ccv "<1 4 10 20>"),
(25,30, ccv "1"),
(30,33, ccv "1")
] # room 0.5 # ccn 2 # s "midi"
d14
$ qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0) $ seqP [
(0,1, ccv "1"),
(1,2, ccv "0"),
(3,17, slow 2 $ ccv "1 0!12")
-- (25,33, ccv "1")
] # ccn 4 # s "midi"
hush
My Hydra Code
hush()
// intro
shape(30,()=>cc[1]*1.3)
.scale(1,()=>window.innerHeight/window.innerWidth,1)
.colorama(1)
.scrollY(0.1,0.1)
.diff(src(o1).scale(0.9),0.5)
// comment out for the 4th part
// .luma(0.12)
// .repeat(()=>ccActual[2],()=>ccActual[2])
.out(o1)
render(o1)
// build up
src(o1)
.repeat(()=>ccActual[2],()=>ccActual[2])
.modulate(noise(()=>ccActual[2]/3,()=>cc[2]*5))
.colorama(()=>ccActual[3])
.invert(()=>ccActual[4])
.out(o2)
render(o2)
//drop
src(o1)
.repeat(()=>ccActual[2],()=>ccActual[2])
.modulate(noise(()=>ccActual[2]/3,()=>cc[2]*5))
.hue(()=>cc[1]*50)
.colorama(()=>ccActual[3])
.modulateScale(noise(3,()=>cc[1]))
.invert(()=>ccActual[4])
.out(o2)
// final
shape(4,100).out(o0)
render(o0)
hush()