Compositional Project Documentation

For this project, I wanted to place strong focus on the drum patterns in my music. In the first section, I used a central rectangle and changed its form through twisting and scaling. These transformations were chosen to represent different shifts and spikes in the drum beats. By distorting the rectangle, I tried to show how the percussion moves and grows during the track. This is a big challenge since it is hard to find the values that exactly match the strengths and the frequencies of the drums.

When the piece reaches its middle section, I remove all the drum parts after a brief lead-in and leave only an ambient synthesizer. I also take away the moving rectangles in the center to keep the visuals in step with the music. Afterwards, the bass brought some energy to the piece, and made me think of adding some glitchy patterns in Hydra together with some crushing and distorted sounds.

In the final section, I used only a Moog synth. I wanted the sound to be stretched out and slow to fit the outro of the entire composition and to make it stand apart from the earlier chaotic bass lines. I also adjusted the pattern to be more organized, and it shifted in step with the Moog as it gradually slowed down.

Code for Hydra:

shape(
  () => 3 + Math.floor(cc[0] / 10),
  () => 0.2 + cc[0] * 0.001,      
  () => 0.1 + cc[0] * 0.0005         
)
.modulateRotate(
  noise(
    () => 2 + cc[0] / 10,       
    () => 0.3 + cc[0] * 0.001        
  ),
  () => 0.3 + cc[0] * 0.003          
)
.out(o0)

shape(
  () => 3 + Math.floor(cc[0] / 10),
  () => 0.2 + cc[0] * 0.001,      
  () => 0.1 + cc[0] * 0.0005         
)
.modulateRotate(
  noise(
    () => 2 + cc[0] / 10,       
    () => 0.3 + cc[0] * 0.001        
  ),
  () => 0.3 + cc[0] * 0.003          
).layer(
  shape(
    () => 4 ,
    () => 0.15 + cc[1] * 0.008,
    0.02
  )
  .rotate(
    () => (time * 0.05) + (cc[1])
  )
  .colorama(() => cc[1] * 0.1)
  .scale(() => 1 + cc[1] * 0.002)
  .luma(0.2, 0.1)
)
.out(o0)

src(o0)
  .layer(
  shape(
    () => 4 ,
    () => 0.15 + cc[1] * 0.008,
    0.02
  )
  .rotate(
    () => (time * 0.05) + (cc[1])
  )
  .colorama(() => cc[1] * 0.1)
  .scale(() => 1 + cc[1] * 0.002)
  .luma(0.2, 0.1)
)
.out(o0) 


src(o0)
.layer(
  noise(
    () => 1 + cc[2] / 20,
    () => 0.2 + cc[2] * 0.001 
  )
  .rotate(() => cc[2]) 
  .kaleid(() => 2 + Math.floor(cc[2] / 20)) 
  .colorama(() => cc[2]*3) 
  .luma(0.3, 1)
)
.layer(
shape(
  () => 4 ,
  () => 0.15 + cc[1],
  0 // change to 0 after silence
)
.rotate(
  () => (cc[1])
)
.colorama(() => cc[1] * 0.1)
.scale(() => Math.random())
.luma(0.2, 0.1)
)
.out(o0)

src(o0)
.layer(
  noise(
    () => 1 + cc[2] / 20,
    () => 0.2 + cc[2] * 0.001 
  )
  .rotate(() => cc[2]) 
  .kaleid(() => 2 + Math.floor(cc[2] / 20)) 
  .colorama(() => cc[2]*3) 
  .luma(0.3, 1)
.rotate(
  () => (cc[1])
)
.colorama(() => cc[1] * 0.1)
.scale(() => Math.random())
.luma(0.2, 0.1)
)
.out(o0)

hush()

osc(
    () => 10 + Math.random() * 20,
    0.1,
    () => 0.8 + Math.random() * 0.2  
  )
  .modulate(
    noise(
      () => 2 + Math.random() * 3,
      () => 0.1 + Math.random() * 0.05
    )
  )
  .rotate(
    () => time * 0.05 * Math.random()
  )
  .out(o0)  


src(o0)
    .layer(
    shape(() => 3 + Math.floor(Math.random() * 5), 0.2, 0.05)
    .scale(() => 0.8 + Math.random() * 0.4)
    .luma(0.4, 0.1)
    .rotate(() => Math.random() * 2)
    .colorama(() => Math.random() * 2)
    )
    .rotate(() => cc[3] * 0.03)
    .kaleid(() => 2 + Math.floor(cc[3] / 15))
    .colorama(() => cc[1] * 0.1)
    .scale(() => 1 + cc[3] * 0.001 + cc[3] * 0.001)
    .out(o0)


solid().out()

Code for Tidal:

d1 $ s "arp:3*4" >| note (scale "<major>" ("[<-2 -5 -1 -3>,2](3,8)") + "c7")
  # room 0.4
  # krush 6
  # lpf 100
  # gain 1.5

d2  $ ccv "<40 60 80 100>"
    # ccn "0"
    # s "midi"

d3 $ s "bass*4" >| note (scale "<major>" ("[-5,2](3,8)") + "c4")
  # krush 8
  # lpf 100
  # gain 2
  # legato 2
  # room 0.4

d4
  $ struct "t*4"
  $ ccv "<30 60 90 120>"
  # ccn "1"
  # s "midi"

d3 $ s "bd:3(2,8) bd:3(3,8)" # krush 6 # gain 2 # legato 2

d5 $ struct "<t(2,8), t(3,8)>"
 $ ccv "<40 80 10 120 150>"
 # ccn "2"
 # s "midi"

d4 $ s "arp:5*4" >| note (scale "<major>" ("[<-2 -5 -1 -3>,2]") + "c4")
    # lpf 200
    # krush 4
    # gain 1.5
    # legato 2

d3 silence

d3 $ s "808bd:3*4" # room 0.7 # krush 6 # gain 1.2

d3 $ qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0) $ seqP [
  (0,1, s "808bd:3*4"),
  (1,2, s "808bd:3*8"),
  (2,3, s "808bd:3*16"),
  (3,4, s "feel:6(3,8)")
] # room 0.7 # krush 6 # gain 1.2

boom = do
  d1 $ qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0) silence
  d2 $ qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0) silence
  d3 $ qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0) silence
  d4 $ qtrigger $ filterWhen (>=0)
    $ s "<feel:6(3,8), feel:6(5,8,1), feel:6(3,8)>"
    # room 0.85
    # speed "<1.2 0.8>"
    # gain 1.2
    # krush 3
    # pan (slow 4 sine)

boom
  
d5
  $ s "moog"
  # note (scale "aeolian" (irand 8))
  # sustain 8
  # release 8
  # gain 2

d4 silence

d7
  $ struct "t"
  $ ccv "<30 60 90 120>"
  # ccn "3"
  # s "midi"

hush

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply