Prompt: explore symmetry in your jam. You could have a melody that is mirrored over time or between two voices (when one goes up the other goes down), or use negative harmony.
BPM: 127
Key: A major
Jamuary 2025 - Melodic Symmetry Using Physics Engine with Volcas and NTS-1
Teensy based Physics Note Generator with Volcas NTS-1 and twin Launchpads
A very basic Physics engine with pong style bouncing blocks to generate notes based on hitting edges of the “screen”. The Teensy microcontroller interacts with the Launchpads which act as a screen and a keyboard for the Teensy ( this is in the black box on the left).
I made 2 parts that mirror each other on my Syntakt (which has been collecting dust since I got a Digitone II unfortunately), so the 2nd pattern reverses the riffs and drums when it kicks in. I also jammed on some arps with the Digitione II over it all.
Made with cardinal VST. A sequencer is going back and forth.
More ambient chill goodness!
Watch the livestream where I build this jam here: https://www.youtube.com/live/w1PewAtzGjc
My piece for Day 10. I didn’t have a lot of time, so I kept it to one instrument. A short piano piece reminiscent of practicing scale. If you look at the piano roll and the keys being played on the virtual keyboards, you’ll see several different types of symmetry, including opposite movement, parallel movement, octaves and more.
Prompt: explore symmetry in your jam. You could have a melody that is mirrored over time or between two voices (when one goes up the other goes down), or use negative harmony.
BPM: 127
Key: A major
This is lovely, perfect soundtrack to debugging someone’s awful code at work. Takes me to a Deus Ex soundtrack kind of place, in a good way.
I will bookmark that stream for later viewing, I barely get time to listen to any submissions from anyone let alone something like that. That’s what February is for though right!
Day 10. Almost one third of jamuary done. This week has been super tired and I’ve been struggling to get jams out. But still enjoying the process! I tried to follow the prompt. Main melody has 3 different synth and they playing the notes same time, but the notes vary. Tempo: 127 bpm and key: A major.
In which Carf explores symmetry and ended up with some heavy FFVII PSX vibes.
Synths:
Modal Craftsynth 2
Modal Skulpt
Waldorft Streichfett
Sonicware Liven Ambient 0
Finally did a jam to the actual theme : )
127 | A maj | Symmetry
I got totally zoned-out doing this and lost track of time…
Features my very first synth the little yellow Kaossilator, which I still love.
Inverted and reversed in time and scale. Very confusing.
I wasn’t familiar with negative harmony so I decided to learn about that today. Went for jazzy instrumentation, everything but the bass comes out of the MC707. Arranged everything in the MPC.
I’m not sure if I did everything right with the negative harmony, but I’m happpy with how it turned out. Definitely something I’m keen to explore further in the future.
Another decent length jam live from the stairwell.
I’m saying this counts for the 10th because I started the jam before midnight (actually well before but then recording still started before midnight). I reckon this was the coolest prompt so far for me. Really made me think about symmetry and balance. Parts mirrored/ish between voices but overall not overdoing it. I forgot the bpm prompt so this is 131 which is not far off. Think I might have been in A minor or D minor. My rule for this was that nothing got pushed too hard - no knobs fully turned in any direction. Feels better balanced than where I have been. Also thumps.
I really love the SSL mixer in Reason for recording my jams…but had an abject lesson in not using things you don’t understand. I had enabled the gate…and when making a (slightly) softer jam things were sounding crap. Sounded much better once I turned that off!!
Huge thanks jamuary.org
This was my first time using Logic’s “Reverse Melodies” function and it was trippy! I love how I accidentally ended up making a counter-punctual pachabel’s canon on accident
https://on.soundcloud.com/WaDgvj2g7wBjxVJy7
Went down a rabbit hole on this one and ran out of time as usual. It’s not the best.
Symmetry gave me an initial idea to take the pitch cv of my sequence and fully invert it to drive some other stuff including close to self oscillating filter frequency which was supposed to give me a counter/backwards melody. It didn’t, but with distortion and using that inverted cv to also control the clock rate of some bit crushing through a sample and hold it DID sound good. Unfortunately I wasted the sound on this awful pattern, which doesn’t even do a good job of establishing A major (which caused headaches later on).
Tried to make some reflected patterns in the piano roll to cheer myself up and dropped some random samples around the place.
I tried to remember what this said when I was in my studio messing around. Got the 127 tempo and up and down part right. I used a latched arpeggiato pattern which was supposed to go up and then back down - controlling the other synths (DSI Mopho, Microfreak, Nanobass, MS2000R) with the Roland Fantom X6 and then played some notes. Various fx pedals spicing it up.
#jamuary2025 day 10. Going with Jamuary.org prompt on symmetry. 3 patterns, a melody, drone and bass. Will play then start to reverse then back again. #synthstromdeluge
@DroneSinger Thanks for including the visual. Made it obvious how you achieved the task. Nice work.
@Yuteimusic The Bass after the 1:00 mark is intense. Well done!
@CarfDarko Nice Âľ work. Sounds like an evil circus is coming to town. Very cool. This is my favourite by you so far!
@elenaduffmusic This is great Elena! Love the sounds you use. The Kaossilator is a great thing. I’ve often thought of getting one.
@Expensive_Notes this was super clever. I really liked the way the visual went along with it.
@JoeL8X the arps sound great! Everything folded into a laid back groove pretty quickly and the reversal was such a different vibe, it ended up playing off each other well.
@cabotageksm I’ve never heard of this VST but I love the aesthetic (both visual and aural) of it.
@MyopicMycelium the slow build in this track was great. Definitely had me bobbing my head more than once.
@DroneSinger this is so bouncy and fun! I love how more and more variations get added over time.
@Yuteimusic the drumbeat here is killer. Also, what a cool effect to swipe on all the new instruments at once midway through!
@CarfDarko this definitely sounds like a video game level that would freak me out as a kid. Great instrumentation!
@elenaduffmusic really neat sounds you got there. The perfect mix of chaos and concept.
@Soupoclap the reversed samples fit right into all the rest of the track. I love how they built excitement, especially when things shifted around.
@FriendlyVisitor feels like if they converted a church into a jazz club. Love the clarinet-sounding thing in there. So reedy and warm.
@Mshns no knobs fully turned is a tough constraint. It sounds great! Really solid dynamics through and through.
@Gubna this reminds me of the OST from the game Sable, by Japanese Breakfast. It’s a great album that’s regularly in my rotation and you also channeled the vibe of “distant future with a rich history”
@DesertWolf the reverb/delay is so enchanting here. Definitely pulled me in and left me wanting more!