Latest - Nov 2020 - reviews in Soundbytes
Two new reviews in the latest Soundbytes.
In this issues Music for Tablets, we review 3 distortion plugins from K-Devices, and very nice (and inexpensive) devices they are too:
https://soundbytesmag.net/music-for-tablets-three-ios-sound-manglers-from-k-devices/
Then, there's a review of an update on UVI's already wonderful World Suite. The new version has even more goodies to keep your ethnomusicological compositional desires happy and satisfied:
https://soundbytesmag.net/review-world-suite-2-from-uvi/
Enjoy!
Just Another Just Chorale - the latest in the series
Bill Schieve Said - Another VCV Rack Chaotic Systems Piece
Three More VCV Rack pieces - a set of canonic variations
3. Sabaneiev-Scriabin 2: The Rosella in my Front Yard.
In this piece, again using the Sabaneiev-derived 12 note just intonation scale that uses all the odd harmonics through 27 except 23 and 25, the random generation being explored in the Music Thing Modular Turing Machine. This is a random generator that produces both repeating and random patterns and, most interestingly, patterns that are somewhere between repeating and varying randomly. The output of this is applied to the NYSTHI Squonk sequencer, which controls the choices from a 12-note sequence consisting of first, the Scriabin mystic chord, and then the "other six notes of the scale" chord. An oscillator and gated noise make the main complex which is delayed through the NYSTHI Xatto time delays. These can be faded in and out, making various patterns of canonically delayed lines. Additionally, a much slower division of the rhythmic clock controls a single Audible Instruments Resonator, making a series of slowly moving metallic percussion sounds. The mix of all these voices is placed into a NYSTHI Twisted Mverb module, which allows you to freeze the reverb at any moment. In performance I do this both manually, and with a pulse output from the Turing Machine module. This has the effect of producing clouds of harmonic sounds that sustain, cutting out the original sounds. The switching on and off of the reverb freeze is fairly crude, especially when controlled by the pulse out from the Turing Machine, which gives the piece a nicely "torn" or "ripped" sound, to my ear. Again, the aim in live performance is to try and assemble an elegant succession of melodic and textural states. This was made on the iPad Pro using miRack, the version of VCV Rack for iOS.
I hope you enjoy these three small pieces. It was fun making them!