Random-Tone Dirge in A-Flat

Download the audio (1:11:27; 22,050 KHz sampling/80 Kbsp bitrate; 42.9 MB)

The tl;dr version: Excel generates about 1000 random MIDI tones centered on a tonality of A-Flat. Start times and duration are designed to overlap (simulated counterpoint). The five columns match I-statement parameters in Csound; these are copied and pasted into an integrated .CSD orchestra/score file, which I pass as an argument to Csound at the command-line. The MIDI data could be sent to my synthesizer’s arpeggiator, but I choose here to write it to a .MID data file. That file is imported into four virtual instruments in Reason: a three-hour AIFF file (enormous!) results. In Adobe Audition CC, I cut the audio down to its final hour or so, apply 30-band EQ to liven it up a good bit, and convert to MP3, downsampling for WordPress.