UPSTREAM downstream

June 14, 2022

This album has a different idea generation hook. Roll a d12 to pick a random scale from a list and a d100 to pick a random sound from the old Casio. Repeat for each song.

If I do this again, I'll probably add more scales to the list and figure out a way to handle splits / layers on the Casio. The Casio has seven instruments that are just "the lower octaves are a bass while the rest of the keyboard is something else" and ten more that are just two instruments layered on top of eachother. These aren't very interesting results, so next time around I'll figure out something to replace them with.

(For those who care about these things: this album was made featuring not one, but two sleep breaks, and a doctor's appointment break. You just don't get that kind of value elsewhere.)

The font on the cover is Millimetre by Jérémy Landes / the Velvetyne Type Foundry. The salmon on the cover is a plush. (It was a gift from my best friend.)

Tracklist (20m 28s total)
  1. We Were Underwater (2m 51s)

    Scale: 3 - Major Sharp 5

    Tone: 35 - Strings 3

    My tone roll was pretty lucky. I adore the way these crunchy old strings sound, especially when filtered a bit.

  2. Rejected 16-Bit Platformer Music (1m 3s)

    Scale: 12 - Minor Flat 5

    Tone: 92 - Bass/Vib

    Title sums up my feelings on this one.

  3. Aquatic Propulsion Device (0m 58s)

    Scale: 7 - Melodic Minor

    Tone: 5 - Elec Piano 2

    Electric pianos are one of my favorite instruments. The Casio provides a passable imitation of one.

  4. Little Cat's Halloween Party (0m 57s)

    Scale: 1 - Harmonic Minor

    Tone: 69 - Syn-Bass

    Using Musescore audio in LMMS is a really fun trick to play around with. I wanted to try and capture some cartoonish haunted house vibes with this one. Pretty proud of how it turned out.

  5. Flubbed Cosmic Punchline (0m 51s)

    Scale: 4 - Dorian Sharp 4

    Tone: 85 - Str Harp

    The II+ v i progression is not super common, I imagine, but it amuses me.

  6. Simple Salmon (2m 50s)

    Scale: 3 - Major Sharp 5

    Tone: 1 - Piano 2

    Oh, hey, it's Major Sharp 5 again! Welcome back.

  7. Music For Dispatching Hostile Extraterrestrial Computer Viruses (1m 39s)

    Scale: 1 - Harmonic Minor

    Tone: 90 - Bass/Piano

    If I do the random Casio tone selection thing again, I'm going to exclude the splits. They're simply not very interesting results. I'd also allow myself to reroll repeated scales, because getting two repeats in a row is not fun.

  8. UPSTREAM downstream (Keep On Breathing) (2m 54s)

    Scale: 2 - Locrian Natural 6

    Tone: 70 - Pearl Drop

    This song deserves a crowd shouting its hypothetical lyrics, but it was 3 AM when I was making this and I didn't want to wake up my brother. Imagine a room of people yelling UPSTREAM, DOWNSTREAM, and KEEP ON BREATHING at appropriate moments for the intended effect.

  9. Random Tune Intermission (1m 10s)

    Scale: N/A - I skipped rolling for a scale this song.

    Tone: 56 - Flute

    I wanted to experiment with my sampler, so I did.

  10. Clock Time (1m 46s)

    Scale: 4 - Dorian Sharp 4.

    Tone: 21 - Acous Guitar

    This one has a similar progression to Flubbed Cosmic Punchline.

  11. Seaglass Rushdown (1m 49s)

    I got yet another repeated when rolling for this one, so I decided I'd stop rolling for things and just write what I wanted to. Drum loops were made with Bosca Ceoil.

  12. Friends, Asterisk (1m 35s)

    Another Musescore song. It's in the key of F, for Friendship :)