Mergrim 'tribute'

Hi
and in other news, I am currently working on an homage to Megrim’s style of IDM/ambient/glitch, whatever the kids are calling it nowadays. Particularly this piece:

It will be an ‘inspired by’ piece rather than an identical recreation, and will feature only native samples and sounds. I’m off for a week soon so I’ll post some code snippets in a week or two, and then hopefully follow it up with a live coded performance video.

PD-Pi

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I very much enjoyed this one, thanks for sharing. The progression is great :ok_hand:

(don’t get me started on Mergrim, I LOVE his work!!)

Looking forward to hearing your ‘inspired by’ piece.

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I’ll get some more work done on it next week :wink:

Hi
just a quick teaser, WIP update on my first full day off. My immediate goal is to establish the main riff/pulse structure first, then build outwards from there, adding the soft chordal pads, incidental noises, and larger harmonic/rhythmic structure later. A major challenge has been analysing and then imitating the irregular pulse of the main riff, which seems to be underpinned by a [6/8 + 4.5/8] meter, which is then further disrupted by an overlaid glitch drum pattern.

Sonic Pi thankfully makes this task fairly easy via knit and spread, if you can count :smiley: I am not happy at all with my glitchy percussion part, but I am happy with the guitar harmonics and meter. Comments welcome.

use_synth :kalimba
use_synth_defaults sustain: 0, amp: 2

/intro/
rt = 57
with_fx :reverb, room: 0.95 do
  with_fx :ping_pong, phase: 0.333, feedback: 0.8, mix: 0.5 do
    
    6.times do
      tick
      move = [0,-4,-2].look
      rpt = [3,3,3,4].choose
      play rt + move
      
      rpt.times do
        play rt + [0,4,5].choose + 12
        play rt + [5,7,10].choose + 12
        sleep 0.5
      end
      sleep 5
    end
  end #echo end
end #rvb end

/main/
use_synth :beep
live_loop :kickbass do
  tick
  rt = knit(40,22, 45,22)
  play rt.look if spread(3,22).look #cycle = 11; nn 40 and 45
  /t f6 t f6 t f7/
  sample :bd_gas if spread(3,22).look #cycle downbeat * 0.5
  sleep knit(0.25,10, 0.125,1).look #the cycle
end

use_synth :noise
use_synth_defaults release: 0.01, res: 0.7

with_fx :echo, phase: 0.03, mix: 0, decay: 2 do |ctl|
  live_loop :glitch do
    tick
    control ctl, mix: one_in(2)
    play 50, cutoff: rrand(80,110), amp: 0.4 if spread(3,7).look
    sleep 0.25
    
  end
end

use_synth :pluck
use_synth_defaults coef: 0.2

live_loop :eleven1 do
  tick
  #stop
  play [64,69,64,73,74,69,64,69,64,73,74].look, amp: 0.7
  sleep knit(0.25,10, 0.125,1).look
  
end

harm = :guit_harmonics
live_loop :eleven2 do
  tick
  #stop
  sample harm, onset: 2, rpitch: [-5,0,-5,4,5,0,-5,0,-5,4,5].look - 2, amp: rrand(0.5,0.8), release: 0.4
  sleep knit(0.25,10, 0.125,1).look
end

(The more time I spend with this piece, the more I am of the opinion that Takahisa Mitsumori is a freakn genius!!)
PD-Pi

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[and that I have bitten off waaayyy more than I can chew]

Awesome! Love the textures and timespans, no idea what’s going on :smiley: although more idea than a year ago. Also thanks for intro to Megrim. Look forward to hearing more.

Yes, those patterns are highly complex but clearly tightly controlled and preordained. He’s a highly talented and creative composer/producer.

Sometimes I try to avoid detailed analysis of music, and just ‘let it be’ - but I couldn’t resist trying to mimic this piece.

PD-Pi

So here’s preview #2. I’ve tidied up the previously random kick/bass and noise glitches, into a more ‘stable’ (and therefore controllable) sequence. I wouldn’t say I’m happier with this improvement, just less unhappy :wink:

The next section to work on (around the 2:00 mark in the video above) is where the pulse settles down into something more regular (4/4. but still glitchy), with a more active distorted synth bass and melody. I’ll work on that in isolation, and then try to morph between the two sections.

Hey ho.

PD-Pi

Hi
I have had to ‘put this to bed’, as it were, and have uploaded a video of my ‘performance’ of the piece. It is unfinished, as it was occupying too much of my time, and effort in is not producing results out, simply because I have neither the technical nor artistic chops to do his composition and production style justice.

It was a very challenging task I had set myself, a valuable learning exercise and I’m happy-ish with the results, but I need to climb out of the rabbit hole and back into the sunlight :wink:

PD-Pi

3 Likes

Awesome! I learned a lot from watching this, esp from the sequences of coding in mini frames, esp not knowing Ruby. :fire: between stable/unstable rhythms

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Thanks @rebelcello
I had to abandon this attempt, as the metric patterns were too opaque, or my own versions grew too complex to manage, for me to try to recreate. But damn, I love Megrim’s work. And Fennesz too.

I also learn from reading, using, breaking and fixing other people’s code, from both here and on YT. I especially enjoy how @Relaxnow creates and uses evolving or shifting rhythmic patterns, simply with knit and spread.

PD-Pi

1 Like

Ditto :fire: @Relaxnow and don’t be so tough on yersel! I too like these subtly shifting patterns, sort-of-not-quite phasing that give different spans of time and attention shifts. And beautiful chords and textures. Amazed by how differently I listen to electronic music now, is mesmerising. Guess Sonic Pi trains you to be more conscious about what you’re hearing/playing. I heard a bit at around 10’ that was intriguing in that way - smooth-sounding beats taking on a slight crunch (not technical term) - v nice.

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(I know it’s not fashionable in certain circles, but I was/am a huuge Steve Reich fan :wink: )

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:smiley: made pilgrimage to his Glasgow concert a few years ago, Minimal Festival, ahhhhh… The tech was a bit late getting sorted and someone started clapping music :rofl: I don’t know enough of his work but Different Trains is amazing, have done verbatim work in theatre and radio editing, love voices. Do share your favourites! This is a better discovery platform than Spotify :slight_smile:

PS have got bela working with PD/pot, happy days

You’ll love Trevor Wishart then! If you’ve not heard of him (which I doubt) try his works Voiceworks, or Tongues of Fire :fire:

Music for 18 Musicians is my favourite Reich piece, but only as it was the 1st work of his I ever heard. My current minimalist/ambient/glitch loves are Megrim (Takahisa Mitsumori), Nobukazu Takemura, Christian Fennesz and Alex McClean (Tidal Cycles).

Great news about pot->PD->Bela

PD-Pi

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Hi
I have given myself (and my student) a slighlty more accessible and transparent piece of EDM to dissect and mimic: Stardrive, by Jeremy Blake Stardrive

We’ll start work on it tonight, so should have something concrete in a few weeks.

Happy hols all

PD-Pi

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Nice vibe! Look forward to hearing it. Happy holidays everyone.

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