Makam Machine v2

v1 sounded traditional because it was structurally traditional: a wandering improvised line with fuzz on top. That is a taksim, not a riff. v2 is built the other way round — a fixed figure that locks and repeats, bass doubling it, a rock kit on the aksak, and phaser and wah in the chain.

Headphones or real speakers. Laptop speakers cut everything below 200 Hz, which is most of what makes fuzz sound like fuzz.

Feel — the thing that was wrong

A/B this. Riff builds one figure and repeats it. Taksim is the v1 behaviour — a random walk through the makam. Same scale, same chain, same drums. The difference is structure alone.

The riff currently locked in

Gold = the accented first beat of each rhythmic group. Pink = the other notes. Empty = a rest. Hit New riff for a different figure in the same makam.

group accent riff note rest height = pitch
Makam

Usul
The signal chain

Phaser and wah are the additions. Contemporary accounts of the genre describe the amplified saz as running through phaser, wah and fuzz together — v1 had only the fuzz, which is a large part of why it sounded dry and folkloric.

Play it yourself

Click, or the keyboard row A S D F G H J K. Hold Shift for the octave above.