Notescast

Wild WildsPer this prompt about making background music for a board game, this is a soundtrack for Magical Athlete, a game that takes a bunch of very, very simple rules and creates this surprising emergent complexity from them, which in turn creates delightful drama. It also has a great sense of humor.Accordingly, I took a simple riff and made some variations that do not line up until repeated a number of times. I arranged them in a way that builds up complexity in which I hope is a fun way. I did not want to create a serious Steve Reich vibe, as much as I love that stuff.It uses a square wave, so it's chiptuney, which isn't ideal for background music, but then again, it worked for countless NES games.

Eventual ConsistencyThis is handmade phase musicI wanted to play physically for this one, so I got wrote bass and guitar parts. Unfortunately, I wrote a riff for the third little movement that was a bit more than I can handle, what with my not practicing (especially arpeggios) very often, so after trying all day (it’s surprising how you can burn time trying to get a take), I just went with what I had.Still, I think the overall vibe is good, and I learned more about the logistics of physical phase music.Oh, yeah, I should probably practice consistently. Maybe I'll do that...eventually. Ha! See what I did there?

There’s some confounding chords in the Link to the Past ending, apparently.

Cat VortexThe prompt was to create a sonic zoo, so I took a 30-second sample of Oatmeal (a cat we’re taking care of) and repitched and stacked it using a web audio tool I wrote to do microtonal stuff. It sounds like many bewildered cats!It got a little intense, so I threw in Dr. Wily saying “mrrp!” in breaks.

Cursed Minus WorldsPrompt: Make music with three sounds: one you love, one you dislike, and one you consider to be neutral.I thought about just picking three sounds that were short and arranging those samples rhythmically, musique concréte-style, but in the interest of stretching, I went with long field recordings of:A Dave and Buster's-style arcade/bowling alley, packed with casino-like games laser-focused on exploitation.Cicadas near Changgyeonggung Palace in SeoulMy kid trying out the piano sheet music for Super Mario 3 World 1 for the first time (he's only played the actual game once)I had a really hard time fitting in the bowling alley recording. It's not at all rhythmic and has pieces of terrible music in it. I tried substituting this other really terrible field recording from the airport, but that didn't work, either.I'm out of time, so here it is, as kind of an example of field recording emulsion.

Richards's Allotted Break TimeThe prompt for this one was lunch break.I wanted this to be a fun break time for Richards, for whom I imagine it's not enough, but he considers himself lucky to have a break at all in this capitalist dystopia. So, we've got to make the most of it.The main riffs popped into my head while I was sleep deprived and walking through Incheon International Airport. I tried to leave the solos fresh and funny instead of following my instinct to try to make them "cool."I also recorded a little audio drama, even though I personally hate all skits (except the Wu-Tang ones; they're the only ones that know how to make relistenable skits). I guess I could not resist the narrative compulsion.I used designerchoices’s servo recordings and solbeatpros’s Sci-Fi Scanner Buzzing Loop samples to build the ambience for that bit.

Light Wants OutIn response to this prompt to use a light bulb sample, I arranged snippets from the sample by loading them into a software drum machine, then I played along to that on a guitar (with the gain all the way up on the amp) to try to sort of match the light bulb timbre.Then, I also played along on a fly simulator I’m building, trying to imagine electricity trying to get out of a light bulb, and filtered out some frequencies to hollow it out a bit.

I periodically still try to find a third riff for this song. It’s sort of its own ritual now. It doesn’t matter if I come up with one; I just do it for its own sake.

Crack of StonesI made sounds in two ways here:1. Hitting two rocks together. One of them broke while I was playing them.2. Lifting and dropping this milk crate full of rocks.I looped the riff I recorded with the lifting and dropping a bunch of times, then I clipped out some sounds from hitting the rocks together and arranged them to be sort of in time with the lifting and dropping loop.I then tried recording more hitting and tried layering but decided against my instinct to make it busy and full. There was great reverb in my backyard that my recorder couldn't quite capture, but it did get some nice crackingness.Oh, yeah, this was in response to this prompt.

Train Has Joined the ChatI live near train tracks, and sometimes I have to pause recording something because a train is going by.So for this background noise prompt,I went out and recorded the train, then planned to write a song and record it while playing back the train recording. I ran out of time, sort of predictably, so I improvised three guitar tracks while playing back the train with a beat.(Improvising with guitar pretty much happens any time I'm short on time.)None of the guitar tracks were recorded while listening to any of the others, but I decided to keep two in anyway, to make it all a little more bewildering. The guitars are panned left and right, and the train gets the center.

Screened PastoralIn response to this prompt, I came up with a pastoral-ish horn chord progression. Then, to represent the horizontal fibers of the window screen, I wrote a set of notch filters. To represent the vertical fibers, I turned them on and off on a fixed interval.By then, it was 11:30 PM on Monday. I improvised a bass part, but only had time for two takes, then had to mix. So, there it is.The bass playing is not very connected to the chords. If I had more takes, I'd pay more attention to the chords.The filter writing went surprisingly well. I have never written one in web audio, and everything worked the way I expected. I half-expected to have to bail on the filter.

I still don’t have a third riff to go with these two riffs, so I thought I’d try to improvise one out. I think maybe I have the direction right at least.

FLFLAASSHFFLLAASSFHLFALSPer this prompt, I "remixed" the original Flash Gordon title track, which apparently was derived from a Liszt piece.I picked three pairs of loops from the track. (And a few others which didn't work out.)Each pair is a loop and a slightly truncated version of that loop so that they're all out-of-phase. Then, I terraced their entrances and put in a double time section.

Puzzle LurchingI found a couple of half-finished tracks from a few years ago. The first was labeled “Murk” and had horns and a kettledrum. I think it was meant to be some kind of swamp-marching music. The second was named “The Puzzle-2” and was supposed to be music for a puzzle game. It had a recorder, harp, and synth bass.The bass fit right in with the horns, which was a pleasant surprise. My synth horn playing was not quantized, nor particularly tight, whereas the bass was written directly on the piano roll, so there is some tension there, which I like.I had to do a fair amount of shuffling around to get the recorder and harp to fit in rhythmically, but harmonically, it was not a bad fit. Those parts being sparse helped.I added a ritard at the end for dramatic effect to wrap it up.

Expect Delays, KartsFor this one, I created a variation of Trying Your Best Grand Prix!.It’s both a simulation of a race that has lots of stops and delays and of a band that can’t get it together.I had a good time, and I hope it’s not too painful to listen to.

Expect Delays, KartsFor this one, I created a variation of Trying Your Best Grand Prix!.It’s both a simulation of a race that has lots of stops and delays and of a band that can’t get it together.I had a good time, and I hope it’s not too painful to listen to.

Michael Barone's (the host of Pipedreams) voice has changed a lot in 40 years. Here's an intro from a show in 1986 and one from this week in 2026.

Save Time OnlineFor a wacky prompt to make hold music for cars outside of a tunnel, I did the whole thing with the safe chord progression, mid-slow tempo, and announcements about how you should hang up (in this case leave the car line).There's a tension between making something really sound like hold music and making something you don't want to hang up on. In order to avoid hard decisions, I went with always making it more hold-music-like, except for the vocoder.

Onyx's Shut 'Em Down has almost the same chorus as Public Enemy's Shut 'Em Down. I wonder if this was acknowledged.

I did end up getting my Voice Memos off of my phone (let me know if you actually want to know how), and I found this jam! The guy when he was five is on harmonica, I'm on guitar, and Katt is on triangle.

Fanfare for the SlugMade last week in response to a prompt about making a soundtrack for a slug documentary. I went for something descending and textured.

I came up with one of these fantasy quest riffs.

The second piece was a lot harder. The piano had a high ring on a low C#, but he didn't let it bother him.The real challenge was that he decide to improvise the middle section. Let me tell you, even improvising at home with no one listening is rough. I've never improvised live, myself. The guy got stuck a few times, but he never bailed.Incidentally, I remember Pantera jamming at a show. They got in trouble, then it all came crashing down, and they did stop completely. They were probably super drunk, though.

The piano recital went pretty well. I didn't record it well, but I at least recorded it OK.This is Dance Intermezzo. I thought he got a lot of feeling out of the high parts.

IntroThis week's prompt was to make something epic. I made an intro track, of the sort that '80s albums used to open with, but with just-intonation-based harmonies that went well off the 12-TET grid.Several things went wrong:- I wrote a program to make the synth harmonies and thought I might be able to play them on the fretless guitar. Ha! It was like trying to stand up inside a rotating ice orb.- I thought I’d be able to easily add drums later, but I didn’t realize my program played a little more slowly the further it went on. It’s a little less noticeable when it’s fast, so I cut the slow part.- Mixing synth horns and guitars with distortion turns out to be really hard. Respect to Bathory and Celtic Frost’s engineers!Anyway, I wish it had been grander, but I ran out of time and cut it down to the bit that worked.

And to show they’re not snobs, the high school orchestra does a solid Indiana Jone.

Even the 7th and 8th graders played an adult-level Entrance of the Queen of Sheba.

There was also a performance of a Vivaldi concerto for two cellos. At least one of them was a freshman. They nailed it. No one in my high school was anywhere close to this.

I went to the middle school and high school orchestra and was a genuinely blown away. There was a high school quartet that played this Ravel piece without a conductor. The rhythms are really tricky, and there’s tempo changes all over. This recording is shitty, but they sounded great.

Organ EngineThe Junto prompt was music for takeoff.I was just on a plane this Saturday, and I noticed that it’s an experience packed with low pitches and noise. So, instead of taking the pitch of this pipe organ sample upward, I had it drop as the piece went on. (Pitch up is the usual metaphor for elevation up.) I made the chords bigger as it goes along, too, once again, using the tonality diamond.

This was a very cool-sounding bird.

Complete DigestionThis Junto prompt was to do something you do too much even more. So, I came up with a Slayer-type riff and then improvised a half-time breakdown after it. Then, I dropped to a half-time of that for a quarter-time feel. I repeated the process until things got really slow.Now, that I think about it, though, while I always try a half-time breakdown after a fast riff, I don't think I ever finished a song with one. I always end up deciding it's too much like something else and drop it.

I had to go through a big crowd of business guys, so I said “A.I.” repeatedly. I think it helped to create the kind of ambience that helps them thrive.

Kepler KolaFor Junto prompt, I tried to create the sound of the opening of a can of Kepler Kola, keeping in mind the vibe of the Video Cola channel on Blippo+.To do this, I put together a small software instrument that plays the sample pitched up at various intervals. The higher you move the slider, the more intervals it plays.I improvised a few takes with it, then I used a filter in Bitwig to boost some of the harmonics, for just a little touch of pitched flavor.

I’ve had these three riffs for a song for about a while (maybe a year?) and a lot of half-formed ideas for a bridge that I keep picking up then putting away. So, for the latest Junto challenge, I pushed out a new riff, said I'm going with that, then recorded the song on my phone (with some possibly ill-advised improvisation). Now, I can see what I think of it later, then iterate.

The middle school string ensemble really did justice to Jupiter at the festival.

Jupiter is coming along.

Improvising Hive.This is my attempt to jump back into the Disquiet Junto. I wanted to do another piece that uses the tonality diamond, which takes the mathematical relationships in just intonation and extrapolates them to create finer divisions of pitch, so I extracted some code from The Sound of Ocean Heat Energy and built a small instrument that draws its pitches from the 11-limit diamond again.At first, I had it play pitches on mouse over, but that turned out way too sensitive, so now it plays only when you click a cell.I improvised on it, then edited a bit. Here’s a video of the raw improvisation in case you’re interested.

Inspired by Bolt Thrower being excellent despite keeping it simple, I’ve been trying to write riffs that way. I think they are more solid than what I usually come up with.

One of those up the scale riffs. Feels better to play than to listen to.

I’m a fan of the guy’s seventh chord warmup.

I'm calling this microtrack I just came up with A Short Life.

The guy sometimes just starts riffing mid-practice.

Kid intonation makes Hall of the Mountain King a touch scarier.

Avant Keyboard Cat

The guy worked out a major variation of Korobeiniki (Tetris).

Hey, a 15/8 groove.

Rests, the loudest part of the whole piece!

Trying Can Can with the full orchestra.Watching these kids’ rehearsals drives home how much music context matters to the music experience. You know music comes from people. In this case, I know that they’re kids and that they’re learning. Sometime I only know that it’s some bedroom ambient guy with a computer. Whatever I know informs everything I hear. That’s why this mistake-packed playthrough is so much more compelling than some A.I. regurgitated “perfect” bit of audio.

Can Can, a work in progress