#ethersurface

[rebekahkushermusic]

That zamn zebra...

Through the process of creating the song “Zealous Zebra,” I discovered some pretty cool apps along the way. The first one was called “Band Pass.” This app is basically like GarageBand, but less user-friendly, in my opinion. Some of the perks of this app include being able to create your own drum loops, a variety of instruments to play, and a looper which you can install for only $0.99 more. All in all, very well equipped for a mobile app. If I had unlimited time, or if I were more experienced with music production software, I would’ve gotten much more out of this app. As a beginner however, I found it rather difficult to figure out how to create multiple loops and put them together as a song.

The next app I played around with was EtherSurface. This was my favorite app out of this whole experience. EtherSurface falls somewhere between a synth pad and a theremin, and is similar to NodeBeat’s interface (although I actually found NodeBeat a little too abstract for my liking.) The app has multiple columns, each representing a note. Sliding your finger up and down the column controls the volume. You can use multiple fingers to play multiple notes, and slide between pitches and volumes. The app gives you the option to choose the octave, key, scale (including 12-tone, octatonic, and the Bohlen-Pierce microtonal scale), how many notes are displayed on the screen, and the actual sound effects. I had so much fun using this app and creating atmospheric, haunting music. The only downside to this app is that it does not allow you to record and save your creations. For this reason, I moved on to Music Maker JAM for android. 

I found Music Maker JAM to be about middle of the road as far as music making apps go. It is for sure user-friendly/ idiot proof, and includes a tutorial which walks you through the steps to using the app to combine its preset loops into songs. It includes a mixer where you can adjust the volume on each individual track, as well as mute certain tracks in each section. Each section gives you the option to make it a 1, 2, 4, or 8 bar phrase. Unfortunately there is no way to add or remove sounds for specific measures- only for the whole phrase. While the selection of (free) loops is pretty limited, I was still able to put together a decent track. I ran into trouble when I tried to export it, however. No matter which folder on my phone I tried to export the tract to, it would never actually end up in said folder. In a moment of brilliance (desperation?), I downloaded a screen recording app, recorded while I played the song on the app, and then sent the video to my computer, where I converted it to an mp3 file. The random noise in the beginning is the app being opened and set up. I was originally going to crop it out, but decided to keep it as an unconventional intro. Had I known I wouldn’t be able to easily export the song, or had I thought of the screen recording idea sooner, I would’ve created my song with EtherSurface. 

A note on the title- as an Android user, I was unable to download Auxy, which most people seemed to enjoy. I really liked their “adjective+animal” idea for their titles, and decided to go with that trend. 

[cluboftigerghost]

I'm all about my DAW. I have never performed and I'm only really comfortable in a ���Studio” enviroment, (here meaning headphones and laptop!), twaeking, chopping, generating, moving,chopping,bouncing down,mixing,mixing,mixing. Always experimenting. So... Today I took a major step sideways and made my piece “live” as a one take recording. How this came about: I was given a present of an android tablet recently, I got some apps from the play store, many of which were great, all free. I could talk about these iin more detail, but it's besides the point here. One of these apps was EtherPad. EtherPad is a “multitouch performance surface” and real time synthesizer for Android, made by Paul Batchelor using Csound. Today I connected my tablet to a Zoom H6 and started recording bits and pieces, (I intended to cut up these samples to use as source material), from various apps. When I powered up EtherPad I just played this piece. I knew as soon as I was done that it was finished. It's a bit minimal, being only a single instrument and I only play maybe six notes, (not counting internote glides!), so if you are not digging my schtick this time out just write it off as my narcissism getting the better of my musical taste and forgive! I looked up EtherPad online and found it's been renamed “EtherSurface”, but the version I have is defintely called EtherPad. Paul Batchelor's site, (listed in the about tab of the app), is no more, but I found the source code and some csound forumposts where Paul is talking about the app, here are some links if you are interested. EtherPad on Google Play: http://ift.tt/2ruqOi5 EtherPad Apk: http://ift.tt/2s43vsx EtherPad Code: http://ift.tt/2ruCe5j MoreInfo on EtherPad: http://ift.tt/2s44pFq ****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** More on this 282nd weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Berio’s Bach: Make a piece of music based on one composer’s observation regarding another composer” — at: disquiet.com/0282/ More on the Disquiet Junto at: disquiet.com/junto/ Subscribe to project announcements here: http://ift.tt/1iFaa50 Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: http://ift.tt/2rur7JY