stack paint by number
By wangus on October 9, 2022 11:09 pm
description TODO
more LSDJ
wav channel subharmonic HACKS lmao
----- edit 2022-10-16 ------
ok real notes now.
i first tried recreating a jamuary 2022 jam "heap" (bandcamp, instagram). it didn't work, which wasn't really surprising. that jam really needs polyphony. the crunchy harmonies don't work as well arpeggiated or pared down.
so instead I looked at the tempo and key of the previous 8 gameboy WB jams, and saw there was a gaparound 140BPM and B minor. (lot of Emin in this wangus WB vol4, incidentally). that's been pretty routine in the last couple entries of a "volume" (10 or 11 weeks) for me.
Started with the idea of the pulsing 8th note texture you hear in the "chorus". The harmonies there came out of some noodling at a keyboard. The pitch "envelope" at the start makes it extra bouncy (vs. just the volume envelope attack)
The intro retains a vague element of my original re-make attempt; splitting up a chord between independent left/right arpeggiations. I like how it dances in stereo; it's a 4-step arpeggiation at the core, but left/right mingle which notes they each get, so the overall pattern is a full phrase.
Then the main section. I laid down the beat first (most similar element to "heap"), then was a little uninspired by any other element until I stumbled on a WAV channel behavior i hadn't really noticed before.
It's almost like the "resync" mode (or the standard behavior before version 9.2), which defensemech describes well: https://defensemech.com/intense-tech/en/21-lsdj92.md.html (spoiler: that tip was the inspiration for next week), but I was using the "silky" waveform automation, so it's not the same thing.
The "silky" waveform sweeping (as far as i can hear) tries to only change waveform at the start of the wave (this gives the best chance of matching up zero crossings, avoiding pops). When using LOOP mode with a fast 2-step loop, you can then get a sub-harmonic sort of effect. For certain notes at a given tempo, it sounds like a clean octave-down effect. Coincidentally, the tonic B at 138BPM works well. For other notes, I think it's doing some uneven stepping, so you get a wonkier tone. After I discovered this, the middle section started writing itself—i was largely trial-and-error picking notes that sounded cool with this WAV silky looping tones.
Loop that some, add some echoes of the intro arpeggiation, and some fun dynamic arp chords (secret: i made dedicated tables instead of Cxx commands, because i wanted four or more notes)
and then a panic just-flick-it-up-an-octave reprise and a panic bass solo to finish it off lmao
------ edit 2022-10-27 ===--
video haha
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