OT: Music from the 25th Hour: The Insomnia Project

[Winston Psmith]

"Lose a night of sleep, gain a day of life."

 

I get a lot of crazy ideas, especially when I can't sleep, and this is one of them . . .

 

Several years back, when we were making the seasonal switch from Daylight Savings Time, I thought it might be fun to use that 25th hour, between 2AM and 2AM, to compose and record a piece of Music, with no planning beforehand, something completely of the moment.

 

To streamline things, I had a bunch of gear set up and connected to my HDR, so I wouldn't have to waste any time with that, I could just power everything up, and see what happened.

 

Anyhow, I'm seriously thinking of trying it again, tomorrow night, and I thought it might be fun to invite any fellow insomniacs or nightcrawlers out there to take part. I'd love to get enough people doing this to make it a yearly album project, Music From The 25th Hour*, but WTH, it would be fun just to know that others are trying.

 

As it turned out, I did get a decent track out of it, although it doesn't quite sound like something you'd expect at 2AM?

 

At The Time, The Tone Will Be

 

 

*Yes, I'm quite fond of XTC's/Dukes Of Stratosphear's 25 O'Clock, but that's not what inspired this.

[Caevan O’Shite]

2 hours ago, Winston Psmith said:

I thought it might be fun to invite any fellow insomniacs or nightcrawlers out there to take part. I'd love to get enough people doing this to make it a yearly album project, Music From The 25th Hour*, but WTH, it would be fun just to know that others are trying.

I like that idea. I know next to nothin' about how to achieve that, though!

Are you including remote, SIMULTANEOUS live collaboration and improvisation in this overall idea?
 

  

2 hours ago, Winston Psmith said:

As it turned out, I did get a decent track out of it, although it doesn't quite sound like something you'd expect at 2AM?

 

At The Time, The Tone Will Be

Nice...    Clever title...
 
  

[KuruPrionz]

2 minutes ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

I like that idea. I know next to nothin' about how to achieve that, though!

Are you including remote, SIMULTANEOUS live collaboration and improvisation in this overall idea?
 

  

Nice...    Clever title...
 
  

Remote live collaboration is still not ready for prime time. 

There is a lag, inescapable. What you play will arrive to others seconds later. In my current situation using a cell phone for internet connection, it could take even longer, with pauses between "packets" of indeterminate length, varying from seconds to quite a few seconds. That gets weirder than weird quickly.

 

Remote collaboration by sending files across the interwebz is possible but a bit unwieldy. WeTransfer is probably the easiest free option for exchanging files. 

It sounds like Winston would like the collective "Us" to create our own tracks and thereby, an album. 

It's a fun idea but for me right now it's short notice. I've got way more to do than can be done already. 

 

Maybe it could be anytime in Nov/Dec? I could do that. It could be an "end of 2022" album. 

I'm in the middle of creating a backing track for a solo gig coming up soon. After I create it, I have to figure out what it is and generate an improvised guitar part, which is what I will play at the performance. It's not "normal" but it's not so weird that it no longer qualifies as music (I've done that too).

 

 

[Larryz]

I didn't get much sleep last night, so I'm going to sleep through the 25th hour.  I do like your track though WP! 😎👍

[Caevan O’Shite]

1 hour ago, KuruPrionz said:

There is a lag, inescapable.

I expected as much, and figured it'd be more like a fast-paced 'here's a track, waddya wanna add to it?' affair...
   
 

[Winston Psmith]

Have to second @KuruPrionzregarding lag time.

 

Bob Weir was talking about how difficult it was to get things done during lockdown, because of the lag time in "live" feeds. Exchanging sound files back and forth is easy, playing IRT, not so much.

 

My current album project was inspired by the stream of weirdness that runs through my skull between Midnight and Dawn, so this is right in line with what I've been doing lately.

 

2 hours ago, Larryz said:

I didn't get much sleep last night, so I'm going to sleep through the 25th hour.  I do like your track though WP! 😎👍

 

Thanks for that. Several friends mentioned that it was a surprisingly energetic track, for something recorded at 2 AM.

 

FWIW, my usual is around 3 hours of sleep a night. On a really good night, I might get nearly 4. I haven't used an alarm clock since sometime back in the 70's.

 

Yes, I know , my body supposedly needs 7 or 8 hours of sleep to function properly, but I've been getting by on my 3 hours or so for a very long time. I suppose if I get tired enough, I'll just fall down . . .

[KuruPrionz]

Just for fun, here is something I did in 2014.

I don't remember if I had slept or not, mostly I do. 

All first takes. The drums are all Korg Wavedrum Global and I made the loops using that. 

The crazy is a Fishman Triple Play playing plugins. 

 

https://metapop.com/opossum-apocalypse/tracks/opossum-apocalypse-long-mix/180793

[Winston Psmith]

The Korg Wavedrum and Roland HandSonic are two extraordinary devices!

[KuruPrionz]

Just now, Winston Psmith said:

The Korg Wavedrum and Roland HandSonic are two extraordinary devices!

Indeed. I have a Roland Handsonic, the original one with the ribbon controllers. 

It's been beaten soundly by the previous owner. 1 of the knobs is broken off but I can still turn the shaft. 

 

That said, the Wavedrum is the most responsive, lifelike and amazing electronic drum I've ever played. 

You can run your fingernails across the head and that exact sound comes out. Play with brushes and it sounds like being played with brushes. 

No MIDI, just audio outs but it does respond like a real hand drum plus some quirks of it's own. Some presets make the pitch go higher when you press down in the middle of the head, some make the pitch go lower and some do either of those things to the rim as well or instead of the head. 

Just amazing. 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Cool idea, WPS, and a nifty result as well.

 

I was going to joke about how you channeled your inner “Rick (A)Wakeman”, but it sounded more like a melding of 80’s Tangerine Dream and those two Robert Fripp/Andy Summers albums of the same era.

[Winston Psmith]

8 hours ago, Dannyalcatraz said:

Cool idea, WPS, and a nifty result as well.

 

I was going to joke about how you channeled your inner “Rick (A)Wakeman”, but it sounded more like a melding of 80’s Tangerine Dream and those two Robert Fripp/Andy Summers albums of the same era.

 

Thank you, brother, that's high praise, indeed!

 

Already a long morning. Let the dogs out to chase something(?) at 4 this morning, already burned through one pot of coffee, loading gear shortly. 2 AM is looking pretty far off from here, but "One never knows, do one?" (Fats Waller)

[Winston Psmith]

It's 2:42 AM, which is now 1:42, yes, I'm awake, and yes, I have a completed track ready. Going to load it into SoundCloud after I move it over to the computer.

 

Late edit: Here it is - Waking Dream

[Larryz]

Way to follow through on the 25th hour WP!  Reminds me of the Juno 60 that I should never have sold!  👽👍

[Dannyalcatraz]

23 hours ago, Winston Psmith said:

It's 2:42 AM, which is now 1:42, yes, I'm awake, and yes, I have a completed track ready. Going to load it into SoundCloud after I move it over to the computer.

 

Late edit: Here it is - Waking Dream

The vibe I’m getting here is…

 

Imagine Brian Eno or Laraaji being asked to score a character’s lucid dream sequence.  The dream in question being simultaneously beautiful, enjoyable, portentous and, at times, ominous.  The character awakens, mystified.

[Winston Psmith]

Thank you, brothers! I was pleasantly surprised when it was done. FWIW, that's just three Stereo tracks of Guitar+Guitar Synth, no other overdubbing, no looping, no sequencing, no post-processing through other FX.

 

@Larryz- If you're curious, all of those sounds came from my Boss GT-3 Guitar MFX, blended with my Roland GR-33 Guitar Synth. FWIW, I design all of my own Patches, for Synths and MFX, but I'm heavily influenced by classic Synth tones, so it's not surprising that some sounds remind you of the Juno.

 

@Dannyalcatraz- Fair warning - once you start scoring the things you encounter in your subconscious, they take on a life of their own. I'm working on a whole album full of them . . .

[Larryz]

+1 on writing your own custom patches WP.  The Juno 60 was a great synth and they demand some high used prices these days. Aside from all the custom outer space sounds/patches you could write 👽, the Juno had some great original organs, strings, brass, etc., sounds on board.  The one thing it lacked was a decent piano which amazed me as it is a KEYBOARD LoL!  It had a Honky Tonk piano which sounds like an acoustic piano with thumbtacks installed on the felt hammers.  So, I started from there as a base and used all the analog controls to remove the thumb tacks sound.  I was able to write and store 5 decent piano custom patches which really helped. Later in life I bought a Kurzwiel digital piano which I still have, and it does an excellent 88 key piano with more 10 note polyphonic fingers than the Juno had.  I'm going to bring it out of storage and fire it up again.  May help me fight my fretting hand cramping up after 2 hours on guitar...Keep up the great designing your own sounds work!  😎👍