I am sure many ideas will change in the process but I have tried to outline what I intend to do for the final project.
I have a lot of ideas floating around for the final project. After listening to Aphex Twin in class, I have really gotten into his music. What especially intrigues me is the use of ambient music, soft sustained synths and melodies, with the use of breakbeats more generally found in drum and bass. In this project I would like to dedicate some time to emulate his style. As of now, I don’t know how to do the break beats but my buddy used some in his last project and I hope he can show me how he did it. I figure I can get some interesting sounds out of Radial.
I would like to incorporate other styles as well. I am especially interested in the trance and its ability to engage the listener with its simplicity. I want to spend some time with the Snoman book and try to create really tight sounding drums as described in the text. Creating drum sounds can take a long time, especially when dealing with compressions, noise gates, filters, envelope filters, and other effects to really nail the sound.
In general I would like to spend more time dealing with effects as well. One cool effect I saw in order to make ghostly voice was to reverse a track, put reverb, and then reverse it back. I want to find interesting combinations and tricks to get different sounds. I also want to include some samples which I can edit in Recycle.
I want to try to alternate between the two styles and then try to blend them in the end and a big climax. This will be very interesting compositionally since ambient music tells a story and trance just changes every 8 measures or so. I am not sure how I will do it yet, but I will experiment with it.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Blog 4
I was perusing through people's blogs and came across
Alexandra Welches's
What caught my attention was the filter sweep on the bass synth line and the squeaky lead line. It is very playful and fun. The drums were simple with a 3 kicks on the beat and then the 4th syncopated with a snare on 2 and 4. The piece continually progresses with each repetition. The synth bass drops out and a soft synth pad comes in. A quieter more complicated kick drum accompanies the first with hi-hats coming in as well. Following another repetition, the hi hats drop out and a new lead line enters. Next repetition the hi hats comes back with a new synth pad. Eventually everything drops except the lead line and a new voice sounding synth pad. Then everything comes back accompanied by the synth bass with the filter. It ends on a deep chord on the voice sounding synth.
These changes occurred with each repetition of the lead line, so it feels like it is constantly moving forward. She played around with dynamics by dropping parts of the drums while maintaining a lead line with pads. It is obvious Alexandra put a lot of effort in to this project.
Alexandra Welches's
What caught my attention was the filter sweep on the bass synth line and the squeaky lead line. It is very playful and fun. The drums were simple with a 3 kicks on the beat and then the 4th syncopated with a snare on 2 and 4. The piece continually progresses with each repetition. The synth bass drops out and a soft synth pad comes in. A quieter more complicated kick drum accompanies the first with hi-hats coming in as well. Following another repetition, the hi hats drop out and a new lead line enters. Next repetition the hi hats comes back with a new synth pad. Eventually everything drops except the lead line and a new voice sounding synth pad. Then everything comes back accompanied by the synth bass with the filter. It ends on a deep chord on the voice sounding synth.
These changes occurred with each repetition of the lead line, so it feels like it is constantly moving forward. She played around with dynamics by dropping parts of the drums while maintaining a lead line with pads. It is obvious Alexandra put a lot of effort in to this project.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Assignment 3
Assignment 3 was to write a minute long clip in Reason using drums, bass, harmonic pads, and a lead line.
I began by writing a drum line using Redrum. I found a hip hop type kit and just started with a simple bass line. I tried to involved the entire drum kit to really texture the drum sound. It ended up being jungle beat although maybe a little slow. I also threw a light chorus/flanger on the beat. There is also some delay on some of the sounds as well as panning so the sounds bounce between the speakers.
I then added a simple bass line using Thor. I tried a few different beats but I was having trouble with the timbres being in the same frequency as the lead lines I tried to write. The bass line ended up being very simple and I was able to work off of it to make a cool lead line.
For the lead line I used the subtractor through the RPG-8. I just used simple octave, root-third, and root-fifth combinations. I tried a few variations of note combinations between 3-1, 4-2, and the number of octaves. I believe I ended up suing 3 octaves and 4-2. In order to get the sound I wanted with the octave I needed to lift up the keys and press them again to start the arpegiator again. I used slight reverb and filter to give a little more texture.
The harmonic pads were very versatile since they were polyphonic. I used the subtractor to find the sound which ended up being "Release pad". I placed a single note at the beginning of each measure. The harmonic pad had a slow attack and decay which gave a nice swell effect. I used the harmonic pad in to change the feel of the song. Although the beat, bass, and lead line stay the same the harmonic pads creates different tension through the clip
Reason.aif - Sean McCusker
I began by writing a drum line using Redrum. I found a hip hop type kit and just started with a simple bass line. I tried to involved the entire drum kit to really texture the drum sound. It ended up being jungle beat although maybe a little slow. I also threw a light chorus/flanger on the beat. There is also some delay on some of the sounds as well as panning so the sounds bounce between the speakers.
I then added a simple bass line using Thor. I tried a few different beats but I was having trouble with the timbres being in the same frequency as the lead lines I tried to write. The bass line ended up being very simple and I was able to work off of it to make a cool lead line.
For the lead line I used the subtractor through the RPG-8. I just used simple octave, root-third, and root-fifth combinations. I tried a few variations of note combinations between 3-1, 4-2, and the number of octaves. I believe I ended up suing 3 octaves and 4-2. In order to get the sound I wanted with the octave I needed to lift up the keys and press them again to start the arpegiator again. I used slight reverb and filter to give a little more texture.
The harmonic pads were very versatile since they were polyphonic. I used the subtractor to find the sound which ended up being "Release pad". I placed a single note at the beginning of each measure. The harmonic pad had a slow attack and decay which gave a nice swell effect. I used the harmonic pad in to change the feel of the song. Although the beat, bass, and lead line stay the same the harmonic pads creates different tension through the clip
Reason.aif - Sean McCusker
Monday, February 23, 2009
Blog 3
Since we are on the topic of techno and house, I thought I would talk about some of the instrumentation that is used in those styles.
The first one is simply a drum machine with a built in sequencer. On a previous post I showed a similar drum pad, but that was simply a midi controller. This drum machine has all the sound built into it. You can assign sounds to each pad and then play them as demonstrated in the video below. You can even upload your own sounds into the drum machine so that you can access them. These are the essentially what the DJs in the 80's used to make beats for house music.
After watching the Kraftwerk video for Robots I started looking into vocoders and talk boxes. I also realized I didn't really know the difference between the two. A talk box is generally used for a guitar an involves a tube that is placed on your mouth. When you play a note of the guitar you can create vocal sound with the pitch that was played on the guitar. Here is a good example of this. Although he is not makes words, he is changing the tonality of the pitch with his mouth. (There is a tube connected to the microphone)
Talk boxes can also be used with synthesizer. This is a microkorg which is an awesome synth for the price.
A vocoder uses a microphone in order to make the given sounds as seen in Kraftwerk's video of The Robots This could be played in real time where you speak into the microphone and the words are the pitch you play on the keyboard. Another way to do this is to record a given sound as a sample. When you play the keyboard, the sample is then played back at the pitch of the given key, as seen in the video below.
The first one is simply a drum machine with a built in sequencer. On a previous post I showed a similar drum pad, but that was simply a midi controller. This drum machine has all the sound built into it. You can assign sounds to each pad and then play them as demonstrated in the video below. You can even upload your own sounds into the drum machine so that you can access them. These are the essentially what the DJs in the 80's used to make beats for house music.
After watching the Kraftwerk video for Robots I started looking into vocoders and talk boxes. I also realized I didn't really know the difference between the two. A talk box is generally used for a guitar an involves a tube that is placed on your mouth. When you play a note of the guitar you can create vocal sound with the pitch that was played on the guitar. Here is a good example of this. Although he is not makes words, he is changing the tonality of the pitch with his mouth. (There is a tube connected to the microphone)
Talk boxes can also be used with synthesizer. This is a microkorg which is an awesome synth for the price.
A vocoder uses a microphone in order to make the given sounds as seen in Kraftwerk's video of The Robots This could be played in real time where you speak into the microphone and the words are the pitch you play on the keyboard. Another way to do this is to record a given sound as a sample. When you play the keyboard, the sample is then played back at the pitch of the given key, as seen in the video below.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Project 2: Clicks and Radial
For Project 2 we were asked to make three 20 second clips using a click track and Radial. At first this was a very daunting task since we were new to radial and our provided material was very small. It did take some time, but I stumbled on some interesting results.
We also had the ability to use Midi controls on the keyboards to control different parameters in the program. By assigning different knobs and sliders to change different options in the program we could change multiple parameters at a time, rather than limiting ourselvers on what we can do with a single mouse click.
On all the track I used high pass and low pass filters along with band passes in order to creates the basic sounds such as a lower bass sound or a higher sounds to emulate what cymbals on a drum kit would be used for.
Click 1 is based on the use of 2 effects on different track. One is a ring modulator, which you hear initially with a strong bass beat. About half way through I start playing with a sin wave effect. I was bouncing around the frequency that would be accented. After the sin function, I use the ring modulator in a similar fashion by changing the accentuated frequency.
Click 2 has the use of effects and and rhythm changes. The clip start off with weird swells in the lower frequencies. Then two higher pitched track come in, one with 8th notes and one with 16th notes. At one point I alternate the speed of the 8th notes to line up with 16th notes and then change it back to 8th. This creates a cool effect.
Click 3 is a pretty simple clip showing the uses of the tempo and pitch tool. I only have 2 tracks, one which is a bass line and then a higher pitched part. For one effect I slowly increase the speed of the higher pitched track until it maxes out. Secondly I return the tempo to normal and do a similar effect with the pitch. I slowly move it upwards until I max it out.
The effects were very cool to use. I really would have like to move on more rhythmic ideas, with weird syncopation. I was having a hard time with the time shift and phasing of the clips though. I am really looking forward to seeing other people's material because I am sure there will be a wide variety of results.
Click1 - Sean
Click2 - Sean
Click3 - Sean
We also had the ability to use Midi controls on the keyboards to control different parameters in the program. By assigning different knobs and sliders to change different options in the program we could change multiple parameters at a time, rather than limiting ourselvers on what we can do with a single mouse click.
On all the track I used high pass and low pass filters along with band passes in order to creates the basic sounds such as a lower bass sound or a higher sounds to emulate what cymbals on a drum kit would be used for.
Click 1 is based on the use of 2 effects on different track. One is a ring modulator, which you hear initially with a strong bass beat. About half way through I start playing with a sin wave effect. I was bouncing around the frequency that would be accented. After the sin function, I use the ring modulator in a similar fashion by changing the accentuated frequency.
Click 2 has the use of effects and and rhythm changes. The clip start off with weird swells in the lower frequencies. Then two higher pitched track come in, one with 8th notes and one with 16th notes. At one point I alternate the speed of the 8th notes to line up with 16th notes and then change it back to 8th. This creates a cool effect.
Click 3 is a pretty simple clip showing the uses of the tempo and pitch tool. I only have 2 tracks, one which is a bass line and then a higher pitched part. For one effect I slowly increase the speed of the higher pitched track until it maxes out. Secondly I return the tempo to normal and do a similar effect with the pitch. I slowly move it upwards until I max it out.
The effects were very cool to use. I really would have like to move on more rhythmic ideas, with weird syncopation. I was having a hard time with the time shift and phasing of the clips though. I am really looking forward to seeing other people's material because I am sure there will be a wide variety of results.
Click1 - Sean
Click2 - Sean
Click3 - Sean
Monday, February 9, 2009
Midi Instruments
Over the summer I bought Pro Tools and a drum sampler called Battery. Unfortunately Pro Tools has a horrendous sequencer and so I was planning on getting a midi pad in order make sequencing drums easier. This is the midi controller I was looking at. It is the Akai MPD24. It has 16 touch sensitive pads with 'aftertouch' with 6 sliders and 8 knobs.
As we saw today in class, you can assign any function to the pads, sliders, and knobs that is available within a software program. The pad are velocity sensitive so when it accesses a drum sound, you can make it sound like you are hitting the drum harder.
I am also big into guitar and all the related gear involved with it, including amps and effects. Midi can be used with many of the higher end amps and effects. Using a midi controller such as the Roland FC-300 you can change channels on your amplifier and change patches in your effect unit.
As we saw today in class, you can assign any function to the pads, sliders, and knobs that is available within a software program. The pad are velocity sensitive so when it accesses a drum sound, you can make it sound like you are hitting the drum harder.
I am also big into guitar and all the related gear involved with it, including amps and effects. Midi can be used with many of the higher end amps and effects. Using a midi controller such as the Roland FC-300 you can change channels on your amplifier and change patches in your effect unit.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Ringtone Project
I just uploaded my files for the ringtone project. It was pretty fun recording different sound. I definitely began to appreciate music concrete a lot more. It made you think about the sounds around you that are always present but you may usually ignore.
I also became familiar with Logic and Spear. I really enjoyed play with speeding up and slowing down the clips so the pitches were dramatically changed.
My continuous clip was of a bathroom sink running. I mainly used Spear to cut out certain frequencies so that it was a constantly changing sound
For the repeat ringtone, I used coins rattlign in a cup. A did a lot more editing for this. I used a slowed clip, then the normal speed clip, then a sped up clip. I used fade in and outs as well to transition between the sections.
One thing I found particularly useful was silencing and normalizing. I would slightly silence the loud parts of the clip and then normalize so everything would be louder and there would be no clipping.
My clips are posted below:
Ringtone1
Ringtone2
You just need to put in a code and then wait a few second for it to download
I also became familiar with Logic and Spear. I really enjoyed play with speeding up and slowing down the clips so the pitches were dramatically changed.
My continuous clip was of a bathroom sink running. I mainly used Spear to cut out certain frequencies so that it was a constantly changing sound
For the repeat ringtone, I used coins rattlign in a cup. A did a lot more editing for this. I used a slowed clip, then the normal speed clip, then a sped up clip. I used fade in and outs as well to transition between the sections.
One thing I found particularly useful was silencing and normalizing. I would slightly silence the loud parts of the clip and then normalize so everything would be louder and there would be no clipping.
My clips are posted below:
Ringtone1
Ringtone2
You just need to put in a code and then wait a few second for it to download
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)