# Bit Player / Bit Parts



## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I thought I might post something I released earlier this year (April), or rather two related things, which may prove to be of interest to some people here. I hope they do.

_Bit Player_ (mp3 / FLAC / stream) is a composition in the vein of Frank Zappa's _Lumpy Gravy_ (1968). Both pieces combine various disparate musics in a contiguous flow over the course of about thirty minutes, though _Bit Player_ does not feature so much dialogue and has less recourse a central piece which recurs throughout, being largely made from cut-ups of unfinished scraps and miniatures that I could not/didn't want to expand into large scale stand-alone works. In some ways it is a throwback to my pre-2012 albums, which were meandering and experimental out of necessity, and often hugely varied in terms of instrumentation and style from one moment to the next. Having said that, it is much tighter structurally and more lean in the composition of its various constituent parts.

_Bit Parts_ (mp3 / FLAC / stream) is an experimental off-shoot of _Bit Player_. Made by cutting up, slowing down, and layering its source, the result is a surprisingly dynamic bed of sound which bears a very obvious parent-child resemblance to the original work. My experience working on it proved immeasurably useful in developing techniques which I used in the final realisation of my very latest work _The Hole_. Due to its experimental nature some results were totally unforeseen, but by and large it presents an interesting commentary on structural patterns in _Bit Player_.


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## dzc4627 (Apr 23, 2015)

♪ ca-tho-lic girls ♪

oh... this is pretty cool, could i ask what sound set is used for "Ample Sneeze?" i really would like to find a good solo string sound set as sibelius/note performer does not do the instrument justice.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

dzc4627 said:


> oh... this is pretty cool, could i ask what sound set is used for "Ample Sneeze?" i really would like to find a good solo string sound set as sibelius/note performer does not do the instrument justice.


Thank you, sir.

_Ample Sneeze_ and _Compressed Burlesque_ both use the BestService Galaxy II Bosendorfer Grand Piano, and the solo violin patches from AudioBro LA Scoring Strings. My versions of both libraries are outdated now, so I'm not sure what they sound like in the latest versions, but the versions I have are both very flexible and quite granular on the fine tuning level. A warning, though, LA Scoring Strings is expensive stuff.


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## dzc4627 (Apr 23, 2015)

yes it is. out of my budget. one can dream, though!


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

There are a lot of elements I admire within these works, and some elements I find problematic. Of course these issues are according to my own subjective tastes, and I should mention that Zappa for me is a composer that I find also ranges from brilliant to problematic.

I really like the juxtaposition in _Bit Player_ between traditional sounding instruments (which often seem to use exotic sounding scales) mixed with electronic sounds, _That Old Horse Trick Again_ is a good example - an instrumental jam that seems to start out on the back porch and end up in outer space. There is a lot to admire here musically and the pieces generally strike me as very playful and clever. I think any of these pieces could work excellently as little instrumental interludes on a psychedelic rock album. I know you feel there is a significant amount of connection and confluence between the pieces (hence the creation of _Bit Parts_) but to me I don't feel like _Bit Player_ is a very cohesive work. It comes across to me as more of a diary of sorts of sound explorations. I could see how there are surely the seeds in here for other larger pieces and ideas, but ultimately this work comes across to me as somewhat a mish mash of half-baked ideas.

For the most part I really like _Bit Parts_ with its slowed down dreamy and eerie feel. Some very cool dance-like moments in _Old Red_, and I really like what you did with that high-pitched effect in _Turned Up_, and the overall zen-like feel of that movement. The only issues here are the similarity of all 4 movements, the sameness of tempo and the lack of any resolution at the end - the piece just sort of dies out. I'm not sure I even felt those last two movements were necessary other than to put the remaining movements of _Bit Player_ through the same process.

However, this piece has a lot of redeeming elements and does sound cohesive. Both pieces may grow on me with further listens.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

tdc said:


> There are a lot of elements I admire within these works, and some elements I find problematic. Of course these issues are according to my own subjective tastes, and I should mention that Zappa for me is a composer that I find also ranges from brilliant to problematic.
> 
> I really like the juxtaposition in _Bit Player_ between traditional sounding instruments (which often seem to use exotic sounding scales) mixed with electronic sounds, _That Old Horse Trick Again_ is a good example - an instrumental jam that seems to start out on the back porch and end up in outer space. There is a lot to admire here musically and the pieces generally strike me as very playful and clever. I think any of these pieces could work excellently as little instrumental interludes on a psychedelic rock album. I know you feel there is a significant amount of connection and confluence between the pieces (hence the creation of _Bit Parts_) but to me I don't feel like _Bit Player_ is a very cohesive work. It comes across to me as more of a diary of sorts of sound explorations. I could see how there are surely the seeds in here for other larger pieces and ideas, but ultimately this work comes across to me as somewhat a mish mash of half-baked ideas.
> 
> ...


I quite agree with you in the main about the problems with these pieces, particularly _Bit Parts_. The compromise there is that it is essentially a process piece, and I decided to follow the process through to the end. It is of course an experiment, which these days I usually don't do, but I found the results interesting enough, if not, as you say, necessarily exciting or even good in the latter half. However, I think the ending does work, and in fact it bares some structural similarity there with _Finnegans Wake_, in the sense that the end and the beginning are two parts of the same "sentence."

The reason I decided to make _Bit Parts_ is not because I thought there were significant structural patterns in _Bit Player_, but more just to see what was possible in applying a particular process to the completed work. As it turns out there are points of confluence in _Bit Player_'s structure, though unintentional, the major one coming together in the form of _Turned Up_, which I agree could well have been the end of the piece, but again I wished to see the process through. I suppose the experiment is somewhat indebted to Cage, if not in technique then in spirit, but I am not saying this in an attempt to defend the piece, as I agree with you about its strengths and weaknesses.

_Bit Player_, on the other hand, I think works rather well. Of course, it is something of a throwback to my early works, which were very diverse in form and instrumentation, and in this case I took that idea but worked the diverse elements together in a much more fluid manner. I recognise that it is "all over the place," but I think that's more my musical background shining through than sloppiness, or something along those lines. Growing up I was exposed to a wide range of music: '90s top 40 pop, classical, blues, jazz, classic rock, Indian classical, western folk, hip-hop, metal, etc. and this continued well into my late teenage years and adulthood. Anyone familiar with my work, as you are, will probably recognise that I never really stopped including elements of these things in even my most traditionally cohesive works, often to a level of superfluity, but I suppose in this case that superfluity is at the fore rather than simply "in the mix."

Thanks for listening, tdc, seems I can always count on you for interesting discussion here. I really appreciate you taking the time to communicate your thoughts in detail.

P.S.: I should mention that Zappa's work _Lumpy Gravy_, in its attempt at diversity and unity in one long "movement", inspired the work, but they are quite different overall, as my work is to Zappa's in general.


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