Tomorrow is the deadline for the #libremusicchallenge, and I think my #synthwavefromscratch track is in a good enough place for it.
For those of you just joining in, for the past month, I've been making a synthwave track from scratch: no DAW, no plugins. Just C code and some scripting languages on top of that. In other words, I'm using my #sndkit and #gest projects.
The code for the song can be found here:
https://git.sr.ht/~pbatch/gest/tree/master/item/examples/synthwave.lil
...if you don't believe me, compile and render it yourself ;)
I'm planning on doing a multi-part blog series breaking down this track. I'll try to touch on a little bit of everything that went into this track: programming, DSP, composition, sound design, music theory, music production, pyschoacoustics, etc. BUT I'd love to know what people would be interested in most reading about.
@paul this sounds great
@Olm_e Can I use this? I need an image for the soundcloud upload.
@paul indeed ;p ... or with your own text, you have the source ***
@paul really natural sounding gliss and expression on that melody! Nice work!
@xinniw thanks! All possible thanks to my gesture sequencer.
@paul
* what is this "gesticulate zz zz" thing ... is this how you implement the variation/countrepoint in the score?
* how do you organize your instruments lines regarding to that "variation" thing...
* some basics (prose) on how this is working spe relating to gest would be great
* will there be more ?? *o*
@Olm_e gest is a gesture synthesizer I built, and it does all the sequencing and automation:
https://pbat.ch/loom/gest_guide/
https://pbat.ch/loom/gest_program/
If there were more to come... what would you want more of?
@paul ha ... some "general level" explanation of what gest/gesture is in this context (ex in this par./segment it does this and that, as you propose for the blog) , and... more music !! ... when is the album out ?? :D
@Olm_e I'll have to think on this. Gest is my quirky special cool thing, and I'd like to keep things a bit more generalized. I will link to resources with more detail. As many links as I can cram in.
Gestures either make sequences of pitches, or automation curves here. I'll classify each one, point to code and say stuff like "this thing does X because I wanted Y". How is that level of detail?
@paul I would love to hear an account of your compositional process, at least for some section of the song, and how it relates to your tools. For example: "I started with the bass line and I chose this synth algo and I compiled it and liked the sound but not the rhythm so I changed it to this, ect..."
@xinniw I'll go into that! I have a soft spot for process. I've never made a synthwave track before, and this is very far removed from my usual sound. So, I'd like to talk about that a bit.
@paul
I would be interested in DSP / synthesis choices.
I would like to read how and why did you choose soundwaves, filters, modulators, etc, to make your sounds.
@paul This sounds great! I love the effect at the end of each arc
Here it is on Soundcloud. You should be able to download it there:
https://soundcloud.com/patchlore/synthwave