paralogue.org

Got any interesting mini-tracks to share?

I'm in the middle of figuring out Paralogue shared file hosting. When I have figured it out, I'll edit this post for easier uploads. For now there's always https://0x0.st, your own personal dropbox, etc...

i've had this melody kicking around for… wait fuck, a year now?!


i've also taken a couple stabs at removing the tritone built into it, but when i did i felt like it just removed part of the charm… like a face airbrushed a bit too smoothly…

will i ever do anything with it? who knows at this point, but i'd like to, somehow.

I can share my trove of scraps that never went anywhere now! Behold.

scrap-piano: I barely remember writing this. It sounds nice though.

echo stack 2: I've been chasing this sound for years now. It's such a beautiful B-section to a song, like the back half of a chorus. But I don't think these chords are findable, I think I was out of tune or something. project6 is me trying to recreate this.

cinema purgatorio (canto 4): this one is so embarrassing! It's an outtake from Hetaera. I did a vocal treatment and this is the second one that's trying to be laid back. The whole record is stream of consciousness lyrics and this has a lot of stuff that ended up in other songs (I had this weird fascination with true names, changing names, etc etc). Listening back though it's kinda fun so I don't mind sharing here. I can't make music like this very well — my roommate at the time in Toronto did instrumentals and I would do vocal treatments on it and idk, the record after this is when I was doing everything and they're just very different songs. My stuff was always moody. He's really good at pop.

clerks 1: why the hell is this called clerks 1?

I'll dig up more later ... kinda wanna get back into music, though.

Okay, I lied. I have two more!

Day Two: I've never heard this until now. Seriously. This was the very first thing we had recorded. I think I did guitar and he did bass? Not sure. Did I do all of it? Doubtful. I know I had recorded the vocal take and refused to listen to it. This was my relationship to my voice at the time — I was too ashamed of what I might sound like. I actually like this though! No pitch correction and I didn't listen to the vocals so that I would just do another take so it's just blatantly off key. So sad.

Telephone: This was gonna go out on whatever came after Charity but for the life of me I hated every possible vocal take I did here. I still do! But it's a cute idea in a way? I don't know. All these vocal treatmented songs — I mean a lot of the work we did in that band — I feel in retrospect is so pretentious, it's like early Momus, I feel like I am trying so hard to be "clever" and I need to just tell a damn story or sing a damn song. At least that's what the next thing would be, if I made another record.

have a lot more piano on a tablet

i treat names more like namespaces for different ideas so I have a lot of unrelated tracks all under the same name with different numbers. but sometimes numbers also mean versions of the same track.

sinku wrote:

i treat names more like namespaces for different ideas so I have a lot of unrelated tracks all under the same name with different numbers. but sometimes numbers also mean versions of the same track.

These are so spooky and Aphex-y ... sinku selected ambient works ...

maru wrote:

These are so spooky and Aphex-y ... sinku selected ambient works ...

I have spookier tracks but all of them are too big to put here. all unreleased lol. maybe we have to bump the amnt of filesize to like 18mb. I like Telephone and clerks 1, neat production and harmony

Pogckets wrote:

have a lot more piano on a tablet

release a compilation of this stuff, its so nice

maru wrote:

echo stack 2: I've been chasing this sound for years now. It's such a beautiful B-section to a song, like the back half of a chorus. But I don't think these chords are findable, I think I was out of tune or something. project6 is me trying to recreate this.

i know i mentioned this to you earlier, but that guitar tone is so yummy…

Pogckets wrote:

have a lot more piano on a tablet

we demand the tablet tapes

sinku wrote:

i treat names more like namespaces for different ideas so I have a lot of unrelated tracks all under the same name with different numbers. but sometimes numbers also mean versions of the same track.

ghjhhjjhhjhjhjhjhjjhhjhjjh.mp3

a project file namer after my own heart~

---

anyway, some other things i've done post-2019, in various states of completion…

fickle girl channels hiroshi yoshimura with mixed results. i think the motivation here was trying to capture the simplicity and use of rubato his songs have, with in the sea breeze being a primary inspiration. like augh it's so blindingly simple yet powerful! how does he do so much with so little?!
i was playing around and wrote everything up to around the first key transition in like a handful of minutes, and then stopped once i felt like i backed myself into a corner, but later decided that the only path was forward and so i kept going. i feeeeeel like it gets to a really beautiful moment… but then just gives up and ends.
i also tried to do the rubato thing by manually altering the tempo with just about every phrase, but the end result just sounds clunky?

a little hook from an una corda vst that i liked enough to start turning into a song, and i got some of the verse and chorus melodies written, but then never got around to finishing it. i should, though…

on a narrow bridge we'll line up playing chicken with our beliefs
and as you watch me fall you'll cross your arms and have the gall to say you love me too

one of my first pc-98 experiments, and evidence that i can write songs with a pulse sometimes. though maybe i just found this to be kinda derivative?

the main theme from a song that would've been beautiful in another time and place… (performed much more slowly than is sensible here)
i thought about expanding it as an actual piano song with sheet music, and started progressing in that direction, but lost motivation…
alternatively, i thought about putting lyrics to it but my current lyric set's lines are all taken from fesh pince. iunno i find something perverse in the idea of those opening notes being sung to Did he not shit? Did he not drerj?

from the bottom of the attachment list up:

#1 a friend asked me to make a remix of one of her songs for a remix album. this is a bit of an older WIP of it, you'll all need to wait until next week to hear the full thing.

i have this idea for a sound and a style called "neurotrance". the goal is to fuse the dark futuristic sounds of neurofunk D&B with the optimistic futurism of the y2k trance style. i've been playing with this style for a really long time but i've never finished a track in it.

#2 is yet another time i've rewritten a melody from a song i made when i was 13. i can't keep these really old things out of my head, and i'm never satisfied with any more completed form they take ever.

#3 is yet another study into jrpg sound and theory. it could definitely do with some more tweaking on the piano line to sound more expressive, but i got the study that i wanted out of it.

one completed, others unfinished

willow wrote:

i have this idea for a sound and a style called "neurotrance". the goal is to fuse the dark futuristic sounds of neurofunk D&B with the optimistic futurism of the y2k trance style. i've been playing with this style for a really long time but i've never finished a track in it.

did this ever get finished? i think you might be onto something with neurotrance… i kinda love this style.

---

for the mega drive / genesis chipset.
this one came to me in a dream fully-formed, which is very rare, but it's also pretty simple, so i guess it makes sense. but the people i've sent it to so far seem to like it, so maybe it's not too bad.
(…though i say that and yet i couldn't bring myself to post this for over a week?)

watermoon wrote:

did this ever get finished? i think you might be onto something with neurotrance… i kinda love this style.

oh shoot i did finish it, just forgot to post here! it's on my soundcloud rn
https://soundcloud.com/wlowlo/key-archive-eternal-nightfall-wlowlo-remix

i'd def like to explore the neurotrance thing some more. this song is hardly my best work by any stretch and i don't think it's a great example of what the genre could be at its best.

watermoon wrote:

for the mega drive / genesis chipset.
this one came to me in a dream fully-formed, which is very rare, but it's also pretty simple, so i guess it makes sense. but the people i've sent it to so far seem to like it, so maybe it's not too bad.

super fun, the megadrive sound isn't something i'm personally into but that's a jam for sure :)

i've had music come to me in dreams before but i very very rarely remember even the melodies outside of super short peroids before and after sleep. crazy that u were able to remember that

watermoon wrote:

i've had this melody kicking around for… wait fuck, a year now?!

[…]

will i ever do anything with it? who knows at this point, but i'd like to, somehow.

i guess i tried to uwu


or, i started sketching this out, though partway through the sketching process i started to get the feeling that i really just wanted to put down all the melodic lines and be done with it, instead of spending more time finding better instruments and drums and thickening up the mix and progressing it as a song. so here, i just have all of the different melodic lines coming in on the first loop, whereas in my mind i'd want to start with the main melody first and then begin to introduce the others upon repetition.

still, i can't say that i'm displeased with it. i think there's something nice in here; i'm just not sure how to draw it out with this chip.
(both with this and tensai shoujo i commonly had the feeling of it would be great if i could have the melody played with this instrument!… except i can't really do that with FM… so what would be a good substitute? is there a good substitute?)

i dunno where i want to go next, musically. i feel like i want to do something fast, and fun, and prurient, and if a shuffle beat is involved then i wouldn't be opposed. but my desires always find a way of changing once i start working, so i can never quite know where i'll end up…

watermoon wrote:

i guess i tried to uwu

pureceiling_prot_20240829.mp3

[...] still, i can't say that i'm displeased with it. i think there's something nice in here; i'm just not sure how to draw it out with this chip. [...]

i dunno where i want to go next, musically. i feel like i want to do something fast, and fun, and prurient, and if a shuffle beat is involved then i wouldn't be opposed. but my desires always find a way of changing once i start working, so i can never quite know where i'll end up…

this is a very cute track. i feel the same way that the chip isnt getting flexed as hard as it could be to make this as rich and pretty as the composition is gesturing towards. Maybe it would just take sitting down and soloing and A/Bing different sounds until it comes out with the right sparkle. maybe a second track doubling the melody doing a fake delay thing, or some sparkly arpeggios, or something doubling the bass like a low down sub line.

I have been struggling to make anything for a week, after putting off doing this last track for the game project ive been working on for waht is probably a whole month. paradoxically i felt i had no control in spite of being the composer with an incredible amount of freedom to just hand in what I feel like will fit best ... its a lot of pressure, a lot of questions swirl around in my head and it paralyzes me when I feel all dry and like i have no juice left, no energy to make something really spicy but beautiful, no desire at all to because i feel nothing about the reference track i was handed. so im yolo-ing it and making something that feels powerful to me, trying to match the emotional intensity more than the sonic palette. i think my client will like it. heres the scraps from the sessions so far.

sinku wrote:

I have been struggling to make anything for a week, after putting off doing this last track for the game project ive been working on for waht is probably a whole month. paradoxically i felt i had no control in spite of being the composer with an incredible amount of freedom to just hand in what I feel like will fit best ... its a lot of pressure, a lot of questions swirl around in my head and it paralyzes me when I feel all dry and like i have no juice left, no energy to make something really spicy but beautiful, no desire at all to because i feel nothing about the reference track i was handed. so im yolo-ing it and making something that feels powerful to me, trying to match the emotional intensity more than the sonic palette. i think my client will like it. heres the scraps from the sessions so far.

im a huge huge fan of desert2f. the name and style calls yume nikki imagery to mind. i feel the emotion in it for sure.

--

ive been playing around a bit with this distorted saw synth i made. it reminded me a bunch of the classic track Terminal by Renard, so "ethereal purple planes" is my lil WIP homage to that one. it's named as such because that's the first thing a good friend of mine said it made him think of after he heard it.

hhc112 is some more exploration with that synth, used in a little more of a standard happy hardcore context. i sort of feel like i like that one more, but everyone enjoys the dnb track pretty unanimously over it, so that's where most of my energy has been.

willow wrote:

im a huge huge fan of desert2f. the name and style calls yume nikki imagery to mind. i feel the emotion in it for sure.

thank you. ive been hammering on this one idea for way too long and i have to bring it to some sort of conclusion soon. I hope to during next month ...

ive been playing around a bit with this distorted saw synth i made. it reminded me a bunch of the classic track Terminal by Renard, so "ethereal purple planes" is my lil WIP homage to that one. it's named as such because that's the first thing a good friend of mine said it made him think of after he heard it.

hhc112 is some more exploration with that synth, used in a little more of a standard happy hardcore context. i sort of feel like i like that one more, but everyone enjoys the dnb track pretty unanimously over it, so that's where most of my energy has been.

[snip]

the melody in hhc112 gives me this weird feeling. its like theres one note that isnt right, and makes it emotionally confusing. i'm not sure how to make it work... maybe recontextualize it entirely, put it in some sort of hazy boc track like chinook instead of a happy hardcore tune. ethereal purple planes is very very good, the thing that leaps out at me most besides that distorted synth is how shiny and crisp your drumwork is. especially those chka chka cymbals driving it. im envious.

sinku wrote:

the melody in hhc112 gives me this weird feeling. its like theres one note that isnt right, and makes it emotionally confusing. i'm not sure how to make it work.

i modulate to a lydian mode for the last chord of each phrase, so that's where the weirdness is coming from. happy hardcore isn't really a fitting descriptor for this type of sound i guess, but i couldn't think of anything better. it's more like smth you'd hear from UK hardcore, i guess, but i'm not from the uk :p.

in general i agree though that the whole tone of the melody is a little off and a little weird, it def needs some more work. but there's a certain feeling there that i do like.

i started messing around a bunch with lydian modal stuff in trancey tunes after hearing this track and really enjoying it.

sinku wrote:

ethereal purple planes is very very good, the thing that leaps out at me most besides that distorted synth is how shiny and crisp your drumwork is. especially those chka chka cymbals driving it. im envious.

it's all about layering breaks, aligning phase, and distorting / compressing the fsck out of them. i think i've shown you the video of noisia committing sound crimes against their drums, but i often remember it and how rough the best of the best can be with their drums. the first rule of compression and distortion is to have fun!

ended up finishing that last track, released it on Millennium Strike's Demo Disc 5. very cool comp very cool friends download and listen to it :) https://millenniumstrike.bandcamp.com/album/demo-disc-5

anyway, another friend asked me to make a song for a showcase video of one of her yomi hustle mods. i thought it turned out pretty good, it only took me a couple of hours to finish it. the theme for it was ice / japan / 90s, with half of it being calm for a map showcase and half being energetic for a character move showcase.

i also just feel really powerful after making it. i asked what she wanted, realized she wanted foregone destruction, then whipped up a foregone destruction. it's always been mystifying to me seeing other people whip up high quality stuff so quickly, and now i feel like i can play on at least some level of that.

I've got a lot of shitty demos I've been sitting on for years, some since I was 11! They range from pop songs to ambient noise music. When I was younger, I wanted to make a concept album about an underwater city run by a brain in a jar, it took on new elements until I eventually realized it was about my rot, and changed it to be autobiographical. Now I don't know what the hell I'm doing. These instrumentals were made with FOSS tools, primarily Beepbox cause all the others are of the devil and I actively do my best to avoid them. I really wanna abandon the video gamey sound fully and pursue the very specific vision of "my sound" I have, which is more hip hop influenced and atmospheric, but I'll probably need to use a proprietary tool with more resources and tutorials behind it to make that happen since I'm not very technical. A friend helped me pirate FL Studio, we'll see how it goes :)