“First Two Thirds”

Experiments in parallel processing

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

This is an early-on trial run of a new mixer pedal I got. The pedal, the large green one in the center, provides for parallel processing of a single inbound signal. There is a send and return for each of the three channels. Each channel also has an EQ control, which allows for you to further refine which subset of the original signal is sent. I don’t employ the EQ here. Here I’m just using two of the mixer’s three channels, both going to loopers. Before one of the two loopers gets the signal, it first goes through an effects pedal. That’s the set-up.

The signal is just an electric guitar, being played with an EBow. The effects loop, the one on the left, has two layers of a random pitch feature, which makes it sound like a sample and hold patch from a synthesizer. The looper on the right is receiving the signal straight from the EBow-played guitar. I used the volume knob on the guitar to fade in and out of the swell.

All the loops were recorded and running before I recorded the video, which is why the EBow is laying there on the ground. The audio is coming from a small amplifier just to the right of the pedals. I wanted to try a more complicated set-up, but it’s been a long week and I didn’t want to get ahead of myself. More to the point, I did try a far more complicated set-up, with two additional effects pedals and a third looper, but it got to be too much. I’ll build up to it.

And that about covers what is heard and seen here. The mixer is the Electro-Harmonix Tri Parallel Mixer. The two loopers are Dittos from TC Electronic. The effects pedal is the Tensor from Red Panda. Video recorded on my phone, an iPhone 13 Pro, which clearly I’m simply holding in my hands.

Originally posted at [youtube.com/disquiet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBNcY-e0HII).

In the Mix

An ongoing series cross-posted from instagram.com/dsqt

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Got this new mixer earlier this week. It’s both exactly what I wanted for parallel processing (the EQ is essential for separating subsets of the inbound signal), and perhaps the final such step before I switch gears and just go full-on SaGP (which is to say: software as guitar pedal).

Disquiet Junto Project 0527: Magic Number (3 of 3)

The Assignment: Complete an asynchronous trio begun by two other musicians.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Special Note: You may contribute more than one track this week. Usually Junto projects have a one-track-per-participant limit. This week you can do a second one. Please see additional details in Step 5 below.

Answer to Frequent Question: You don’t need to have uploaded a duet in last week’s project or a solo in the previous week’s project to participate in this week’s third phase of the trio sequence.

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, February 7, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, February 3, 2022.

These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):

**Disquiet Junto Project 0527: Magic Number (3 of 3)**
The Assignment: Complete an asynchronous trio begun by two other musicians.

Step 1: This week’s Disquiet Junto project is the third in a sequence that encourages and rewards asynchronous collaboration. This week you will be adding music to a pre-existing track, which you will source from the previous week’s Junto project ([disquiet.com/0526](https://disquiet.com/0526)). Note that you are finishing a trio — you’re creating the third part of what two previous musicians began. Please keep this in mind.

Step 2: The plan is for you to record an original piece of music, on any instrumentation of your choice, as a complement to a pre-existing track. First, however, you must select the piece of music to which you will be adding your own music. There are tracks by numerous musicians to choose from. The majority are in this playlist:

[https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0526](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0526)

And additional tracks appear in the discussion:

[https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0526-magic-number-2-of-3/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0526-magic-number-2-of-3/)

(Note that it’s possible another track or two will pop up in or disappear from that playlist and discussion. Things are fluid on the internet.)

To select a track, you can listen through all those and choose one, or simply look around and select, or you can come up with a random approach to sifting through them.

Note: It’s fine if more than one person uses the same original duet track as the basis for their trio.

It is strongly encouraged that you look through the above discussion on the Lines forum, because many tracks include additional contextual information there.

Step 3: Record a piece of music, roughly the length of the piece of music you selected in Step 2. Your track should complement the piece from Step 2, and it should be placed dead center between the left and right stereo channels. When composing and recording your part, do not alter the original piece of music at all. To be clear: the track you upload won’t be your piece of music alone; it will be a combination of the track from Step 2 and yours.

Step 4: Also be sure, when done, to make the finished track downloadable, because it may be used by someone else in a subsequent Junto project.

Step 5: As with last week, you can contribute more than one track this week. You can do up to two total. If you choose to do a second, you should preferably try to use a duet track that no one else has used yet. The goal is for many as people as possible to benefit from the experience of being part of an asynchronous collaboration. After a lot of detailed instruction, that is the spirit of this project.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0527” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0527” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.

Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

[https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0527-magic-number-3-of-3/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0527-magic-number-3-of-3/)

Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #DisquietJunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.

Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Step 8: Also join in the discussion on the Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to [email protected] for Slack inclusion.

Note: Please post one track for this weekly Junto project. If you choose to post more than one, and do so on SoundCloud, please let me know which you’d like added to the playlist. Thanks.

Additional Details:

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, January 31, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, January 27, 2022.

Length: The length should be roughly the same as the duet track you selected.

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0527” in the title of the tracks, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

Upload: When participating in this project, be sure to include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.

Download: It is always best to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).

For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:

More on this 527th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Magic Number (3 of 3) (The Assignment: Complete an asynchronous trio begun by two other musicians) — at: https://disquiet.com/0527/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: [https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0527-magic-number-3-of-3/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0527-magic-number-3-of-3/)

The Virtuous Cycle of an Email Newsletter

tl;dr It's not how, it's why

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

*I get asked on occasion how the This Week in Sound email newsletter comes together, and how much work is required. I wrote up a response to a recent such inquiry, and wanted to post it:*

I should start by saying I’ve tried half the note-taking and information-organizing tools under the sun, and I still try out new ones regularly. And in the end, I always come back, for the most part, to two simple things: a text file and a spreadsheet.

I have a text document (actually it’s a markdown file, but for no meaningful reason) that I keep on my computer. Over the course of the week, whenever something of interest surfaces, I put the URL and some associated thoughts in the document. Then, come Sunday afternoon or Monday, I tidy those up and put them in Tinyletter and hit send, along with some other things I’ve written related to sound.

In the spreadsheet, I have a list of resources to remind me to take a look at: specific Twitter accounts, specific publications, specific search returns. I use Google Alerts for some keywords. I use pinboard.in for bookmarks. For all my researching, one of the greatest sources of information is simply hearing from readers.

And that about covers it.

I organize the This Week in Sound email precisely because I come across so much information, that the only way for me to make sense of it, to process it, is to produce the newsletter. If I didn’t do the newsletter, I’d probably read a tenth of what I do, and I’d never hear about the stuff readers send me.

The newsletter is a virtuous cycle: I send stuff out, which means I process and retain the information, and in return, people share related information with me.

*Subscribe at [tinyletter.com/disquiet](https://tinyletter.com/disquiet).*