ABOUT

Shimmering sound fields of potentiality; glowing terrains of shifting action and memory.

Features organic granular textures, synthetic tone colors and field recordings made in Northern Indiana and Upper Peninsula Michigan.

100% of your support goes directly to the artist to fund future projects!

If you don’t wish to make a purchase but like what you hear, consider sharing on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, in your next mix or radio show and spreading the word!

PRODUCTION NOTES

Instruments used: Ableton Live, Max for Live, Density 2, Reaktor 5.7; an iPhone 4 using Fire 2. Arrangement, audio effects, and mixing was done with Ableton Suite 8. Mastering with Ozone 5.

released 01 December 2012

Composed, recorded and produced by jeffrey melton, 2012.

MIX:

A modified source recording of Superstorm Sandy (see attribution at link) morphs into a symphonic granular drone, conveying “the calm after the storm.”

Processing with Density 2; arrangement and mixing with Ableton Suite 8; final mastering in Sound Studio 3.

a selection of extended dubs, vol. 1. composed, recorded and produced in indiana by jeffrey melton, 2010–2012. originals released 2010. remastered and collected september, 2012.

a collection of dark sequences, vol. 1. composed, recorded and produced in indiana by jeffrey melton, 2010–2012. originals released 2010. remastered and collected september, 2012.

Residents Adejai (aka Josh Helton), Josh Elias, Nofi (aka Jeffrey Melton) will usher in a summer of wonderful music with a unique blend of chilled-out, electronic listening music.

The kick-off party starts at 8 p.m. and runs until later, outside on the patio at Calhoun Street Soups, Salads, And Spirits. There is NO cover charge.

Our motto for this summer is: “If it’s FRIDAY, and YOU’RE FREE, then come to UNWIND on the patio at CS3!”

Recent Unwind live sessions for download:

• 2012-06-15-Unwind-live-session.mp3 (376.8MB)
• 2012-06-08-Unwind-live-session-excerpt.mp3 (57.7 MB)
• 2012-02-24-Unwind-Winter-Session-live-excerpt.mp3 (45.4 MB
• 2011-09-23-Unwind-Autumn-Equinox-live-session.mp3 (168.3MB)

The signal path is: uno & dos (granulators) > Filter 1 > Filter 2 > Amp.

Scan controls add periodic variation (sine wave LFO). Jitter controls add random variation (random LFO). Note: the position.scan and rate controls affect the position slider in a not-always-predictable way.

Download the all-in-one ensemble, which includes sample recordings and snapshots already loaded:

1. 2012-melton.drone.granular.04-FULL.ens.zip (147.1 MB)

1. 2012-melton.drone.granular.04-EMPTY.ens.zip (57 KB)
2. 2012-melton.drone.granular.04-sample-recordings.map.zip (147 MB)
3. 2012-melton.drone.granular.04-sample-snapshots.ssf.zip (12 KB)

These recordings and snapshots demonstrate a small range of possible tone colors and textures. Import your own recordings and waveforms to explore a wider range of granular and pulsar synthesis (for the latter, I recommend Jovica’s basic waveform packs).

These are still works-in-progress, so please share your snapshots and any feedback with me. Here’s the CC license:

melton.drone.granular.04 Reaktor ensemble by Jeffrey Melton aka nofi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at www.nofi.org.

Recent Unwind live sessions for download:

• 2012-06-15-Unwind-live-session.mp3 (376.8MB)
• 2012-06-08-Unwind-live-session-excerpt.mp3 (57.7 MB)
• 2012-02-24-Unwind-Winter-Session-live-excerpt.mp3 (45.4 MB
• 2011-09-23-Unwind-Autumn-Equinox-live-session.mp3 (168.3MB)

Downloads have been steady, and comments have been good for part one: gathering of forces from my a granular mass series. Stream and download it free for two more weeks from Bandcamp or Soundcloud.

I’ve also started getting ready for my first live show this year at Unwind: Winter Session, happening later this month. More to come.

UPDATE:

Parts

1. gathering of forces (29m46s)
2. the glimmering path (18m19s)
3. action, state (21m46s)
4. dilation, ascent, leveling (22m43s)
5. a shifting field (31m41s)
6. cinemas of memory (25m36s)

SERIES OVERVIEW

A granular mass is a series of deep ambient, extended freeform compositions, created using granular and pulsar synthesis, personal field recordings and processed found sounds, electronic noise and drone generators.

For these pieces, I wanted to explore the deep range of tone colors, non-linear rhythms and densely layered sounds from mixing organic and synthetic sounds. The dynamics range from minimal and simplified to thick walls of sound.

Rather than position this series as a musical journey through imaginary landscapes, or a soundtrack in search of a film, I prefer to think of it as a collection of short stories. Each part can convey its own subjective narrative through a combination of textures, transitions, lulls, bursts, rises and swells. Together, they document a range of experiential imagery and moods.

AVAILABILITY

WIth a total running length of just under two and a half hours, the series is divided into six parts, to be released a month apart from January to June, 2012. Each section will be a free download for one full month until the next release, after which it will have a small fee to download.

The intention is to allow time for the audience to experience and consider each part in its own space. In our current landscape of unending digital downloads and accelerated media consumption, experiencing smaller doses may be more manageable than feeling overwhelmed by the scale of things.

In June, 2012, the complete album will be available as a digital download for a minimal fee.

All parts were composed, recorded and produced by Jeffrey Melton, 2011–2012 and are released under an Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Creative Commons license.

PRODUCTION NOTES

Sound sources include: electric guitar; piano; flute, bowed and plucked string instruments; shakers, rattles and toy instruments; vinyl and cassette recordings; field recordings made in Indiana and Upper Peninsula Michigan; granular and pulsar synthesis, electronic noise and drone generators.

Instruments used: Density 2, Pulsaret 2 and Reaktor 5.5; Paul Stretch OS X; an iPhone 4 using Fire 2 and iTalk. Arrangement, audio effects, and mixing was done with Ableton 8 Suite. Mastering was done with Amadeus Pro and Ozone 5.

melton, a granular mass series by Jeffrey Melton aka nofi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on works at www.nofi.org.

I called these pieces ‘tape collages’, as they were created using a Realistic DJ mixer, three second-hand Sony cassette tape decks and my father’s reel-to-reel tape recorder. I assembled a number of spliced tape loops of different lengths using the reel-to-reel machine, as well as multiple tracks recorded onto cassettes, which were then all mixed together live for a final mix.

Sound sources included appropriated sounds from my record collection; shortwave radio noise, tones and broadcasts; room sounds and outdoor noises; simple FM synth textures; microphone noises; controlled feedback; whistles and noise makers; improvised piano and even my own voice. Eventually, I acquired some semi-pro digital effects, first an Alesis MicroVerb III multi-effects unit with delay and reverb and later a DigiTech RDS-4000 delay with flanger, chorus and delay.

In the interest of sharing and archiving these pieces, I have digitized each one, done some minimal clean-up and uploaded here. Some pieces were recorded in mono. Others were recorded with different material in the Left and Right channels in order to be mixed in the room during playback. Pieces marked ‘REMIX’ had additional delay and reverb effects added at a later date. Pieces marked ‘TRACK’ are individual tracks that were meant to be played together and mixed during playback. Where possible I have noted the dates they were recorded or mixed.

Direct downloads are available from the Internet Archive, in both MP3 and Ogg Vorbis format:

• 1, 1991 (15m23s, 20.1 MB MP3)
• 1 REMIX, 1991-08-15 (16m27s, 39.5 MB MP3)
• 2, 1991 (24m31s, 29.8 MB MP3)
• 2 REMIX, 1991-08-15 (24m32s, 58.9 MB MP3)
• 3, 1991-05-12 (46m58s, 112.8 MB MP3)
• 3 REMIX, 1991 (46m28s, 111.5 MB MP3)
• Atmospherical, 1991 (33m11s, 79.7 MB MP3)
• Darkness TRACK glass, 1991 (45m50s, 110 MB MP3)
• Darkness TRACK voice and piano, 1991 (46m20s, 111.2 MB MP3)
• International, 1991-08-21 (46m39s, 112 MB MP3)
• Intrigue, 1991-08-21 (46m44s, 112.2 MB MP3)
• JFK, 1991 (46m32s, 111.7 MB MP3)
• Looped sounds, 1991 (38m23s, 92.2 MB MP3)
• Mysterium, 1991 (46m44s, 112.2 MB MP3)
• Mysterium TRACK, 1991 (51m21s, 123.3 MB MP3)
• The Weirding Room, 1991 (46m58s, 58 MB MP3)

NOTES: digitized from the original cassette masters at 96,000 Hz sample rate and 24-bit sample depth, using a PreSonus Firebox into Sound Studio 3. Each piece was normalized to -0.3 dB with minimal finishing in iZotope Ozone 4 and encoded to MP3 using iTunes at 320 kBits/sec variable bitrate, high-quality settings.

1991 cassette sound art works by Jeffrey Melton aka nofi are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on works at www.nofi.org.

Part one (30m02s, 58.6 MB MP3) is comprised of sequenced pieces, all taken from Summer Sequences, volume one:

1. Notochord + Los minúsculos
2. Nodules + Revolutions
3. El jardín + Paraíso 
4. Sunshine State + Asynchronous

Part two (26m32s, 51.1 MB MP3) is comprised of two freeform sound art pieces, similar to work on:

• melton.granular.mixtape
• melton.drone.mixtape
• melton.granular.01
• melton.granular.02

and upcoming releases.

A 20m mix of recent work, including electronic drones and noise, field recordings and granular textures. Free to download or stream:

1. granular guitar
2. old cassette, granular reworking
3. synthpond, granular reworking
4. dust motes and clock, recording
5. generative bells
6. granular bamboo and drone machine
7. unknown field recording

1. calma voces v.01
2. fallos v.01
3. la hechicera v.02
4. pequeña maquina v.01
5. dispersion vectores v.03
6. ruidos extraños v.01
7. transmigracion planetaria v.02

Join residents Adejai (aka Josh Helton), Josh Elias, Nofi (aka Jeffrey Melton) and other special guests as we celebrate a summer of wonderful nights and look forward to another season. The event starts at 8 p.m. until later on the patio at CS3: Calhoun Street Soups, Salads, and Spirits.

All ages are welcome on the patio until 10pm; 21 and over with proper ID in the bar and after 10pm on the patio. There is NO cover charge.

Calhoun Street Soups, Salads, and Spirits is located at 1915 South Calhoun Street Fort Wayne, IN 46802-5261. Call 260.456.7005 for more information.

View the event on Facebook and RSVP.

View a list of my live sessions from Unwind.

A 20m mix of recent freeform work, including electronic drones and noise, field recordings and granular textures. Free to download or stream:

1. morning birdsong, grand marais, MI
2. testing old instruments
3. star sailing, excerpt
4. front porch, fort wayne, IN
5. sinister, excerpt
6. core breach, excerpt
7. lake superior waves on rock beach, grand marais, MI
8. granular cloud, flute
9. granular cloud, tabalas
10. water wheel, fort wayne, IN
11. granular stretch, orchestral

For melton.drone.03, the signal path is Operator Oscillators 1-4  > Filter 1 (default Lowpass, but switchable) > Saturator > Filter 2 (usually Highpass, but switchable) > Filter 3 (usually Highpass, but switchable) > Compressor > Limiter

I find it helpful to create a clip with a latched note to trigger the rack (one that loops continuously inside of its start and end markers). Follow these instructions to make one:

1. Make a note that starts at 1.0.0, set the note end at 4.0.0
2. Set the clip start marker at 1.0.0
3. Set the loop braces to – start: 2.0.0 , – end 3.0.0

This is still a work-in-progress, so please share your presets and any feedback with me. Here’s the CC license:

melton.drone.03.adg by Jeffrey Melton, aka nofi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at www.nofi.org.

After some requests I’ve decided to share them, free to download and play with 2011-09-melton.drone.ens (zip archive, requires Reaktor to play).

For melton.drone.01, the signal path is Oscillators 1-4 > Mixer > Filter 1 (usually Lowpass, but switchable) > Saturator > Filter 2 (usually Highpass, but switchable) > Filter 3 (usually Highpass, but switchable) > Amp.

For melton.drone.02, the signal path is Oscillators 1-4 (Osc 1 can FM Osc 2, Osc 3 can FM Osc4) > Mixer > Filter 1 (usually Lowpass, but switchable) > Wrapper > Filter 2 (usually Highpass, but switchable) > Filter 3 (usually Highpass, but switchable) > Amp.

Play with the included snapshots to preview some of my upcoming work. It’s a good idea to put a limiter behind these, since certain settings can create extreme noise and volume. Add some reverb, grain delay or your favorite effects as needed. NOTE: the controls on the waveform displays only control the view and do not alter the sounds.

These are still works-in-progress, so please share your snapshots and any feedback with me. Here’s the CC license:

melton.drone ensembles by Jeffrey Melton aka nofi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at www.nofi.org.

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