Category: Music

Glimmer

Glimmer by MicroAudioWaves and Rui Horta

Glimmer is the new album by Micro Audio Waves, and just like in the past Zoetrope, they partnership with the coreographer Rui Horta to create an unique and immersive concert experience. Just like in Zoetrope, I was once again privileged in being inside this epic journey. 

My work consisted in creating visual digital contents, writing a custom software in Touchdesigner to agregate videos and interactive visual contents, LED strips control, and also to trigger syncronized events to Ableton Live and GrandMA Light Mixer.

For me this was a massive challenge, to be able to do everything from scratch on a tight timeline, easy to manage and update,, and also easy to operate live.

In this video I’m showing a little bit of the Sync/Trigger Program made in Cycling 74 MAX. This one sends a trigger to Touchdesigner and simultaneously to Ableton Live.
If there is a precount bit in ableton Live it delays the trigger to TD. This way the videos are always in sync with the audio.

The link between Max and TouchDesigner is through OSC.
The link between Max and Ableton Live is via RTPMidi.

There are two computers running the same TouchDesigner program, in case of failure, the other computer takes control. There’s an HDMI switch to commute from one output to the other.

There are also two computers running the same Ableton Live Session, syncronized with an iConnectivity interface. My Max program sends a Midi command to iConnectivity, and this command is sent to both Live instances, to TazLite plugin.

The following images show a little bit of my visual art for Glimmer.

Perfect Illusion

Perfect Illusion

This musical piece explores the Buddhist idea of Maya – the illusion of objective reality that surrounds us. Immerse yourself in the sounds and rhythms of this musical voyage, that leads us to reflect on the impermanent and interdependent nature of all things, and to free ourselves from the illusion that imprisons us. Let yourself be carried away by the music and the beauty of life, and allow it to lead you to a deeper and more meaningful understanding of existence.

https://guilhermemartins.bandcamp.com/track/perfect-illusion

Modular Jam #8 Endless Stream

Modular Jam #8 Endless Stream

Tenho vindo a trabalhar nesta animação já lá vai umas semanas, desde que descobri o Stable Diffusion. O que mais gosto neste algoritmo é que corre no collab, e por requerer tão poucos recursos computacionais é possível usar o collab quase ininterruptamente com a versão Pro. Esta animação é uma mistura de prompts e estilos, gosto especialmente de ver a evolução do estilo à medida que a animação avança. Isto deve-se a estar a aprender e a habituar-me às nuances do Deforum, especialmente a possibilidade de interpolação de prompts.
A música é gravada ao vivo.

I’ve been working on this animation since I discovered SD, and later, the Deforum version. What is great is that it runs on collab and because it is low on computational resources, it runs almost endless on collab with the Pro version. This animation is a mix of prompts and styles, and I like to see how the style evolves throughout the animation as I get used to Deforum features, specially the prompt interpolation, for me is a game changer.
The music is recorded live.

Modular Jam #7 Car in the desert

Modular Jam #7 Car in the desert

As ferramentas AI tornaram-se muito gratificantes e imediatas, e na maioria das vezes os resultados são supreendentes. Existem tantos parâmetros e detalhes técnicos para explorar que tornam estes processos em viagens intermináveis.

Obtive estas três imagens e pensei que poderia ser um exercício interessante fazer uma foto-montagem, e aproveitar para sacudir a ferrugem das skills de photoshop.

A imagem final está longe da perfeição, mas adorei o processo.

A música é gravada ao vivo por mim.

—

It’s very gratifying the way AI tools work and interacts with you, and most of the time returns always great results. There are so many parameters and technical details to explore that make this an endless journey.

I came out with these three images and thought it would be a great opportunity to remove the rust out of my photoshop skills. It’s far away from being a perfect image, but it was a great exercise.

The music was recorded by me performing live.

Modular Jam #5 Temple Tsunami // Disco Diffusion

Modular Jam #5 Temple Tsunami // Disco Diffusion

Temple Tsunami

I started to play with Disco Diffusion a couple of days ago, and I really got overwhelmed by its simplicity and power.

This video is composed by a set of short animations, with simple prompts like “Temple sitting on an ocean with a huge tidal wave” or “sitting in the clouds with the form of a tsunami”.

The animations were mixed in After Effects and sent to FlowFrame.
https://nmkd.itch.io/flowframes
Brought everything back to After Effects, re-arranged the composition and stretched everything about 300% and applied Frame Blending with Optical Flow.
This workflow is just an experiment, and not a final recipe. My exploration continues.

The sound was recorded live using a modular system.

Modular Jam #4 Cosmik Riders

Modular Jam #4 Cosmik Riders

Recorded live with a modular system

Edited the mix in Ableton Live, mainly some minor EQ and compressed the mix a bit.
Edited the video in Adobe Premiere to make a proper intro and development.
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Modular Recipe:
KSP random arpeggio to MI Rings straight to Befaco STMix
The same CV that goes to Rings is being compared with ADDAC208 and triggering an Envelope. This envelope opens another VCA channel with a copy of Rings output, connected to Desmodus Versio
Rings Structure is being modulated by PNW attenuated Square wave, connected to ADDAC215 Dual S&H in Track&Hold mode with Slew fully dialed in
Previously recorded Rings output to Morphagene
A random trigger opens the Morphagene VCA, it’s connected to Strymon Magneto
A slow clock is switching Magneto play mode forward/reverse
KSP is triggering drums samples 1010Music Bitbox Micro, with samples from Ableton Live.
Randomly triggering hihats that are stereo panned by Endorphines Milky Way
Snare has a slight reverd from FX Aid
Bass by Tiptop Buchla 258t and 281t
Adittional textures with Plaits going thru a Reverb algorythm by Expert Sleepers Disting EX
Everything recorded on Zoom H6
——————
Video gear:
Sony a6400
7artisans Fish-eye 7.5mm
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Video cover by:

Modular Jam #3 Dragon Flyer

Modular Jam #3 Dragon Flyer

Video recorded in Serra da Arrábida, Portugal

Sound recorded live using a modular eurorack system

Video gear used in this video:
Sony A6400
Sony 90mm Macro lens

Audio gear used in this video:
Mutable Instruments Veils
Mutable Instruments Rings
1010 Music BitboxMicro
Buchla & Tiptop Audio 281t
Strymon Magneto
Noise Engineering Desmodus Versio
Happy Nerding FX Aid XL
Endorphines Milky Way
Befaco STMix
Arturia Keystep Pro
Zoom H6

Modular Jam #2

Modular Jam #2

My jam sessions tend to always lead me to deep drones and ambient atmospheres, and its becoming a confort zone, so I’ve been trying to runaway from this place and explore other sonic realms.

Everything was recorded directly from the rack to an Zoom H6, one stereo track for the drums, other stereo track for the rest of the instruments. Edited the drums track in Live, attenuate the hihats a bit and compressed all the mix slightly.

There’s a crossfade on the video, otherwise it would be repetive and boring to watch. Still so much to learn 🙂

The Sounds of Beads

The Sounds of Beads, the Texture Synthesizer

Beads, from Mutable Instruments is well known for not being everyone’s “cup of tea”, and it’s absolutely understandable.

I’ve been fighting with Beads since I bought it, to the point that I considered selling it. But before doing so, and to avoid any regrets I wanted to give a final try, and doing a final effort to at least understand how it works.

Today I see it as a beast that plays a game where he’s the master, no matter what. It’s a beautiful tool to explore and wander.

So here’s my take on Beads 🙂