Notation and Timing

[tau_seti]

Do any of you have ideas about notation or other means of timing for your drones? Or do you just play by feel?

[thelowerrhythm]

This is a really good topic to explore. For some of my work I play by feel (or record by feel, I should say). But for other projects I'll just set time limits and record everything at the same length. Working on a collection of 3 minute drones based on this 84hp drone machine I built. Never really thought of it beyond that, but I'd like to.

[luketeaford]

If it's a long like 10 minutes + drone, I will usually rehearse it and figure out the timings of things to play manually. It might be a sheet of paper with a few key points like: "7:00-7:40: VCM CV 10:00-12:00" or relative things that just tell me the duration "cycle SSG / RATE full clockwise (2 minutes)"

I use my phone stopwatch as a "metronome"

[Flounderguts]

Do any of you have ideas about notation or other means of timing for your drones? Or do you just play by feel?

How do you mean notation?

I certainly time my drones. A large part of my purpose is accompaniment for my theremin. I use R2R tape loops (working on making that work in an 8 track cassette!) along with stuff I play by feel (although I have a good idea of what I want and how to get it)

But because I actually want it to be a *composition,* I use some pretty strict timing. The thing I'm working on now is 5:40, timed by a 20 second tape loop that runs 17 times (I have a DIY loop counter for the R2R) I'm working on automating the mixer a bit, so that I can have a crescendo at the 4 minute mark for the theremin high notes.

Is this the kind of thing you're talking about? I have also used visual timing with blinkenlight or timers, but I tend to get too caught up in precision when I'm using my eyes. I prefer the beats in the loop to a metronome for directing my manual drones.

[funeralcake]

A lot of the time, it's just a matter of setting things up and then hitting record for me. I suppose a lot of people would consider this lazy, or not to make for very engaging listening. Your mileage may vary. I guess I can only try to validate this by saying I'm more concerned with hitting the right mood/atmosphere of a place or a state of mind than anything, and that it really is more about the destination than the journey for me.

If I do make any kind of adjustments, they are based only on intuition. There's generally never any sort of notation or rehearsal with anything I do in terms of abstract ambient, drone, noise, etc., but I do try to time things in accordance with the underlying (or perceived) pulse of the thing. I suppose the main exception to this rule is if I decide I want to fade in/fade out anything in the mix, or the entire mix. Usually, though, even this is decided on the fly, if/when feels appropriate. But I might rehearse the sweep, degree or pace of the adjustment beforehand.

[KL1982]

Do any of you have ideas about notation or other means of timing for your drones?

I personally determine scoring on the premise of:

1) Whether I am scoring after the fact, and want a score to err towards metaphorical representation (i.e potentially a graphical score), or
2) Whether I am scoring (either after or before) for the purposes of allowing others to accurately (re)create a performance i.e a literal/formal representation (or rather, as literal as a score can/could be).


Ultimately, as long as the processes/symbols are understood by the intended audience (which may only ever be yourself), they are perfectly valid- and if the intention is an expressive score, anything goes (including non-understanding).

See here RE something that may be of interest - https://www.classicfm.com/discover-musi ... -pictures/


Unsure if Schnee's Chollobhat is authentic, or a Make Noise schematic.


Graphical scores could be more fun as initial experimentation - and could be a good way of developing a unique musical identity (beyond the strictly sonic world).


PS graphical scores before the fact are also fun i.e you could create a graphical score, then an album consisting of various realisations of this score. This could in fact be a good concept for a collaborative drone album (including commissioning an artist to create the graphical score that the artists work from)

[EASYBOY]

Do any of you have ideas about notation or other means of timing for your drones?

I personally determine scoring on the premise of:

1) Whether I am scoring after the fact, and want a score to err towards metaphorical representation (i.e potentially a graphical score), or
2) Whether I am scoring (either after or before) for the purposes of allowing others to accurately (re)create a performance i.e a literal/formal representation (or rather, as literal as a score can/could be).


Ultimately, as long as the processes/symbols are understood by the intended audience (which may only ever be yourself), they are perfectly valid- and if the intention is an expressive score, anything goes (including non-understanding).

See here RE something that may be of interest - https://www.classicfm.com/discover-musi ... -pictures/


Unsure if Schnee's Chollobhat is authentic, or a Make Noise schematic.


Graphical scores could be more fun as initial experimentation - and could be a good way of developing a unique musical identity (beyond the strictly sonic world).


PS graphical scores before the fact are also fun i.e you could create a graphical score, then an album consisting of various realisations of this score. This could in fact be a good concept for a collaborative drone album (including commissioning an artist to create the graphical score that the artists work from)

That Link about the graphicalnotation was very interesting. Thank you

[KL1982]

Do any of you have ideas about notation or other means of timing for your drones? Or do you just play by feel?

This may be of interest to you -





Part 2 -

[studio460]

If I ever get off my butt and shoot something with my digital-cine rig, I will "time to picture" only (i.e., sound-effects/soundtracks). Nothing I'm doing is synced. No quantizers or sequencers. No time-signatures either. It's all "feel."