Someone suggested that Suss Müsik repost our contributions to the weekly Disquiet Junto projects, because they enjoy reading the explanations of the tracks. While you’re reading the original post, make sure you check out the other contributors’ works as well.
Suss Müsik doesn’t like doorbells. We prefer the sound of a hand knocking on a wooden door, allowing for much more expression and nuance. There’s the standard three quick knocks of a postal carriers, a sound of measured efficiency. There’s the spritely knock of a friendly acquaintance. There’s the dull thud of someone in a hurry, usually executed by banging the soft part of one’s fist in rapid succession.
A doorbell only provides one tone; well, two tones for the most part: a ding and a dong. Ding dong. In North America, a “ding dong” is slang term for a silly or foolish person. How did this become the audio stamp of greeting guests at the front door? Some ding dong really messed that up.
For this short piece, Suss Müsik sampled a doorbell and twinned the playback with a bit of Hammond B3 organ. Both instruments were treated with a Boss RV-3 digital reverb pedal straight into the mixing board. We went with a simple melody in pentatonic scale that could be looped, faded, or stopped short.