Two Steps Forward uses a parallel triads created from Shepard tones going up two diatonic steps,
then down one step, in an infinite loop. The rate of change of the tones increases steadily, until it
breaks the perceptual trick of a Shepard tone, and then it begins descending and slowing down, until
it resolves to the root. ChucK Code
WAV File
Part 3: Oh The Drops
When thinking of my favorite “drop,” the immediate answer that came to mind is
Soft Landing by AG Cook
(father of hyperpop). Soft Landing is electronic music poetry; the shape of this track is completely
unconventional and it enitrely rewired my brain when I first heard it. A philosophy of early hyperpop
(specifically PC Music, if you’re an electronic music taxonomist) was to always always emphasize
“the build” over “the drop,” which lead to some wonderful experimentation in build structure and what
exactly a drop could consist of (even outside the axes of pitch, timbre, or rhythm in the traditional
senses). I feel like this all culminated with Soft Landing, whose title couldn’t describe it more
perfectly: the whole track is a meticulous and methodical build, using pitch, timbral, and rhythmic
modulation, leading to nowhere at all. Rather than a hard “drop” or fall into chaos, there’s only a
feather-like landing into silence. Every element introduced into the track makes you feel like
something huge is coming, and even uses hyperpop tropes that would typically lead you to an insane
payoff. But AG is a genius, and would never give you exactly what you expect and are sweating for
after 4 minutes and 40 seconds of anticipation.
One of my other favorite drops of all time is certainly
Something Comforting by Porter Robinson.
Porter is so beloved in the EDM world and this song is maybe more cherished than any other in his
catalogue, and I would say with good confidence that it’s because of the craft of its drop. The
verses easily could’ve stood as the builds of each drop, since each one builds a good amount of
anticipation on its own, but the verses lead into a moment of immense stillness where huge synth
chords pulse in between a nostalgic vocal melody. The build is so effective because of the space
it puts you in; it wouldn’t be half as special if all the elements were completely dry and more
traditionally EDM. But the contrast between the huge synth having close reverb and the vocal
having a huge sense of space creates great interest, just before the drop where everything opens
up even more with the low-frequency percussion and breakbeats. All of pitch, timbre, and rhythm
are at play here, but I feel like the space he creates deserves its own fourth category. 3a: Frequency
DJ Every Morning is an adaption of my code from (3b), and is an arrangement of a melody of DJ Every Night by AG Cook, who was an
inspiration for my drop-making. It has a two-part build and a two-part drop, which vary based on a
BPF, changing clap rhythms, and different timbres of chords and plucks. ChucK Code
WAV File
I really loved how this assignment let me explore my favorite kinds of computer music through the lens
of ChucK, and how these very primal musical urges and desires manifest in code. Whenever I'm working in
my normal DAW and creating a build/drop, it always feels very animalistic, since the metric of my success
is how much my work wants to make me jump up and down. It's a bit of a different process working in ChucK,
where syntax is more in your way and pushing things to their limit sometimes results in harsh noise rather
than dancing. But I'm proud of where my musical statements ended up; even if they're a bit rough around
the edges, they still make me smile and dance.