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Wonky – An exploration of rhythm and grooves that break the rules

138 points by mrzool 3y ago

tetrisgm 3y ago
This was a delight to navigate. Hadn't seen this much polish on presenting an audio interview. Feels very native to the web. Thanks for sharing
codedokode 3y ago
Very interesting but swing is so difficult to hear in real tracks. Also I noted that in the "swing" example, if I enable swing on bass and hi-hats then kick and snare (which are supposed to be straight) start to sound slightly off beat.
weinzierl 3y ago
This is brilliant - the idea and the execution. Love it. I encountered a slight bug. When I first scrolled through it, the 'outside the club background ambience' sound never stopped and I found it quite distracting, especially when listening to the examples. After I had scrolled up to the beginning and then down again it stopped - so I assume first time was a glitch. If you encounter it too, I suppose it is not intentional.
- ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
  I had a similar experience with the club beat playing which confused me with the later examples. After seeing your post, I revisited the page and it worked fine that time.
deathmonger5000 3y ago
I love this! Really nicely done!
Gualdrapo 3y ago
Related: Jojo Mayer's "The distance between 0 and 1" TED Talk [0] Being a prospect of a drummer for more than 20 years (and still without an own drum set...) I've struggled with timing in general. The fluctuations on tempo, playing precise (in like don't playing flams unintentionally when playing two notes at unison with different limbs) and subdivisions. And as said in this thing, mainstream music nowadays uses all sorts of things to "perfect" things - most notably autotune and the "quantized" rythm thing. Their effects are subtle but I am almost sure even the most untrained ear can feel modern music records just sound different than at least a couple of decades ago. All in all it made me realize that while mastering time keeping is the main task of a drummer, another is the ability to play loose (I recall one video from the 'youtuber' "the 80/20 drummer" about that) and all that's between those two ways to play time. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RMVRLhAyhQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RMVRLhAyhQ
- LeonB 3y ago
  I’m still listening to that TEDX talk - but I can’t help thinking in a few places it’d be great to sample his voice and use it on a very drum heavy dance track. E.g. when he says “there was once a drumbeat that acted as a signal to a whole generation of kids to go wiiild and rebel against their parents” - various other phrases too - could sound great in isolation on a track.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - junglist45689 3y ago
    Check this one out: https://soundcloud.com/cassalpopolo/centaurs-in-the-jungle https://soundcloud.com/cassalpopolo/centaurs-in-the-jungle
    - LeonB 3y ago
      Ha, excellent. So someone did it in 2019. Was it you?
      - junglist45689 3y ago
        Yep :) Live-coded version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XM2Fn2IWRM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XM2Fn2IWRM I love that ted talk, and I'm planning a revised version of this track for my next album - that track from 2019 is quite demo-quality
        LeonB 3y ago
        Hey Junglist45689 old buddy -- in that TedX talk at 5mins JoJo plays the legendary intro to Sing Sing Sing, and then he plays another intro to a song that "25 years later another acted as a signal to make the next generation go wild and rebel against their parents" -- what is the second song?
- giraffe_lady 3y ago
maroonblazer 3y ago
“When you learn music, you’re trained to think [in terms of a] “right way” and a “wrong way.” - Jacob Collier, from TFA Only if you have a lousy teacher. The best teachers are, in a sense, history professors. Their job is to show you how to imitate the masters. In that sense, Collier might be right, given one can objectively measure whether you're close to, or far from, emulating a given artist. But imitation is only a means to an end. You learn to imitate the masters so that you can stand on their shoulders and invent something new. I suspect that's what J Dilla was up to. "Imitate, Assimilate, Innovate" - Clark Terry, paraphrased.
crimsoneer 3y ago
Pudding.cool are awesome.
ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
As great as J Dilla was, I still think Q-Tip has the best ear for samples.
RickJWagner 3y ago
Hey, this is nice! As an enthusiastic (but still learning) musician, I appreciate the effort that went into this. If the author is here, Thanks!
NoboruWataya 3y ago
Really cool page. I'm not musical at all but find the theory very interesting and this breaks it down in a very accessible way. I have to say I struggled to follow some of the later examples in my head, as it was difficult for me to tell the component pieces apart while also following the timing, but if I tried hard I could pick it up. Kind of a different topic, but this reminded me of when I first read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. It really opened my eyes to how literature (and art in general) didn't need to follow a set formula or be tied to any structure or reality to be enjoyable. It helped me appreciate other surrealist and magic realist art which I enjoy for, seemingly, a lot of the same reasons as people enjoy J Dilla's work.

138 points by mrzool 3y ago

This was a delight to navigate. Hadn't seen this much polish on presenting an audio interview. Feels very native to the web. Thanks for sharing

codedokode 3y ago

Very interesting but swing is so difficult to hear in real tracks. Also I noted that in the "swing" example, if I enable swing on bass and hi-hats then kick and snare (which are supposed to be straight) start to sound slightly off beat.

weinzierl 3y ago

This is brilliant - the idea and the execution. Love it. I encountered a slight bug. When I first scrolled through it, the 'outside the club background ambience' sound never stopped and I found it quite distracting, especially when listening to the examples. After I had scrolled up to the beginning and then down again it stopped - so I assume first time was a glitch. If you encounter it too, I suppose it is not intentional.

ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
I had a similar experience with the club beat playing which confused me with the later examples. After seeing your post, I revisited the page and it worked fine that time.

deathmonger5000 3y ago

I love this! Really nicely done!

Gualdrapo 3y ago

Related: Jojo Mayer's "The distance between 0 and 1" TED Talk [0] Being a prospect of a drummer for more than 20 years (and still without an own drum set...) I've struggled with timing in general. The fluctuations on tempo, playing precise (in like don't playing flams unintentionally when playing two notes at unison with different limbs) and subdivisions. And as said in this thing, mainstream music nowadays uses all sorts of things to "perfect" things - most notably autotune and the "quantized" rythm thing. Their effects are subtle but I am almost sure even the most untrained ear can feel modern music records just sound different than at least a couple of decades ago. All in all it made me realize that while mastering time keeping is the main task of a drummer, another is the ability to play loose (I recall one video from the 'youtuber' "the 80/20 drummer" about that) and all that's between those two ways to play time. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RMVRLhAyhQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RMVRLhAyhQ

LeonB 3y ago
I’m still listening to that TEDX talk - but I can’t help thinking in a few places it’d be great to sample his voice and use it on a very drum heavy dance track. E.g. when he says “there was once a drumbeat that acted as a signal to a whole generation of kids to go wiiild and rebel against their parents” - various other phrases too - could sound great in isolation on a track.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- junglist45689 3y ago
  Check this one out: https://soundcloud.com/cassalpopolo/centaurs-in-the-jungle https://soundcloud.com/cassalpopolo/centaurs-in-the-jungle
  - LeonB 3y ago
    Ha, excellent. So someone did it in 2019. Was it you?
    - junglist45689 3y ago
      Yep :) Live-coded version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XM2Fn2IWRM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XM2Fn2IWRM I love that ted talk, and I'm planning a revised version of this track for my next album - that track from 2019 is quite demo-quality
      - LeonB 3y ago
        Hey Junglist45689 old buddy -- in that TedX talk at 5mins JoJo plays the legendary intro to Sing Sing Sing, and then he plays another intro to a song that "25 years later another acted as a signal to make the next generation go wild and rebel against their parents" -- what is the second song?
giraffe_lady 3y ago

maroonblazer 3y ago

“When you learn music, you’re trained to think [in terms of a] “right way” and a “wrong way.” - Jacob Collier, from TFA Only if you have a lousy teacher. The best teachers are, in a sense, history professors. Their job is to show you how to imitate the masters. In that sense, Collier might be right, given one can objectively measure whether you're close to, or far from, emulating a given artist. But imitation is only a means to an end. You learn to imitate the masters so that you can stand on their shoulders and invent something new. I suspect that's what J Dilla was up to. "Imitate, Assimilate, Innovate" - Clark Terry, paraphrased.

crimsoneer 3y ago

Pudding.cool are awesome.

ndsipa_pomu 3y ago

As great as J Dilla was, I still think Q-Tip has the best ear for samples.

RickJWagner 3y ago

Hey, this is nice! As an enthusiastic (but still learning) musician, I appreciate the effort that went into this. If the author is here, Thanks!

NoboruWataya 3y ago

Really cool page. I'm not musical at all but find the theory very interesting and this breaks it down in a very accessible way. I have to say I struggled to follow some of the later examples in my head, as it was difficult for me to tell the component pieces apart while also following the timing, but if I tried hard I could pick it up. Kind of a different topic, but this reminded me of when I first read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. It really opened my eyes to how literature (and art in general) didn't need to follow a set formula or be tied to any structure or reality to be enjoyable. It helped me appreciate other surrealist and magic realist art which I enjoy for, seemingly, a lot of the same reasons as people enjoy J Dilla's work.