Solo

Solo

i’ve started writing “SOLO!!!!!!!” above other jammers’ code in nudel.

i love it!!!!

i’m pretty new to pastagang but i notice that i’m usually quite a loud presence and i have the unfortunate tendency to kinda take over the jam. i go louder and bolder and other things can get drowned out or i notice people delete their code or they stop or slow down coding

now i love to let code die as much as the next person, and I’ve found a new fun way to make my code die:

i go over to someone else’s code and i write “SOLOOO!!!!!” above it. if they don’t get the idea, i also increase the volume of their code by a healthy amount. dist(3) usually does the trick. and i put a heavy low or high pass filter on my bit so they feel tempted to go for it.

and i gotta tell ya, it works really well. it produces many memorable moments for me. i really enjoy watching and listening to what people do in these moments.

sometimes they need a little nudge and I’ll start fiddling around with their code to kick things off. but usually they immediately do something radical like change the pitch to something weird (affectionate) or change the key or change the timing, or switch up the sound or style, or put on some surprising and crazy effect that contrasts with everything else and challenges the jam and moves it forward.

one of the things i love most about solos is that it really feels like a performance. it’s about changing the pattern manually by hand rather than taking a long time to set up some boring robotic modulation.

and another thing i love is that the solo never ends. it just moves the jam to the next phase - it grows! the old jam dies. and it tends to reframe whatever loud nonsense i was previously doing. and it takes over the jam from me, and i get to enjoy that dance

a good example of this SOLOO thing is the track bop ya. listen carefully. can you hear where the solo starts?

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