Battle 85 - Source of Uncertainty

Hi all and Happy New Year and post-#jamuary!

The namesake:
266e Source of Uncertainty | Buchla (modern)

Aleatoric (Chance/Random) Music Wikipedia

i have always been fascinated with elements of chance in music…the OP-1 has some hidden and less used capabilities here!

Suggestions:
0) all composition, mixing, mastering, etc to be performed in the OP-1! Minor edits in wave editor (e.g., Audacity) like master Fade-in/out or normalizing are allowed, but no extra effects!

  1. randomize or introduce chance in your choice of chords, notes, rhythms, etc. with dice, I Ching-style coin tosses (great with ENDLESS as it will do 64 step sequences), Tarot, runes…combine the music and the chance elements (make a 6 note scale if using a single die, or all 12 chromatic notes two dice)
  2. Tombola!
  3. Endless and Pattern both have Random modes!
  4. Go “off the grid” and/or experiment with different time signatures and feels!
  5. If you’re “feeling '80s” or nostalgic, let 1985 music be your muse!
  6. Don’t take yourself too damn seriously!
  7. One extra bit of kit allowed - if it’s a module or keyboard that requires an extra piece of gear to interface w/ the OP-1 (e.g., CV-MIDI interface) that’s OK!

Deadline is the “Ides of March” (March 15) at 00:00 GMT!

5 Likes

oooooh … i like this idea!

going to try and channel John Cage somehow

thanks for setting up the battle

1 Like

Been waiting for a battle like this. Great idea!

1 Like

Hello, here’s my entry in video form

https://www.instagram.com/p/CpAeLgKvf07/

I can put it on Soundcloud too when I get a minute.

Random things:

  • the tombola notes
  • all rhythms apart from the kick comes from Endless sequencer on random mode
  • the bass and chords are a patch I call the “chaos organ”, it uses the randomize LFO with an envelope so that the note progressively disintegrates
  • the text is a TTS reading from M by John Cage from a randomly chosen page
1 Like

@ssam Awesome! Video a nice touch… please post to SC when you can so i can make a playlist of all the entries in the voting thread!

Plenty of time left! Keep it up. Multiple entries are allowed!

Working on my own (not votable) entry…

Best,
psound74

Done, here’s a soundcloud!

2 Likes

Not eligible for voting, but i’m finally happy enough with my “order out of chaos” - did everything, even the leads, live on the train. Only used Audacity to normalize and do the final fade out as i ran this all the way to the end of the OP-1 tape (there was an abrupt cutoff.)

Happy Uncertainty!
psound74

never certain where it would lead, yet it is the path that I am on.

2 Likes

Ok, it’s the weekend! Hopefully folx are working on tracks for the 15th!!!

Have fun,
psound74

Mine is ready but Soundcloud is blocked at work so I will upload later today.

1 Like

1 Like

Ok, getting ready to close it up, any last-minuters out there?

psound74

Wish I saw this sooner, need to get back to making music…
Ever since I did battle #82 I haven’t really touched my OP-1f :sweat_smile:

I hope to hop on to the next one!

Willing to extend the deadline if you think you could get it done in a day or two?

psound74

Thanks for the offer, but I don’t think I can do anything in a couple days… I’ll hop on the next one though perhaps.

OK, battle is closed, voting is OPEN!

Do your civic duty! Poll closes Mar 24, 2023 00:00 EDT…
psound74