For this project I recorded all of the sounds at CCRMA (mostly in the Max Lab). The audio input for the Free Section was me playing on a 1950's manual typewriter. This typewriter is an ongoing project for MUSIC 250A, so it was nice to have some overlap in its usage. Also, the mic was positioned very close to the hammers, so it really picked up a lot of the nuances in attack sound (albeit clipping occasionally). The ChucK files amplitudeFrequencyTracker.ck and amplitudeSpectrumTracker.ck took my two improvisation and mapped FFT-based Real-time Tracking (such as Saxofony sax and Clarinet moog with noise). These effects were interesting as transformations, but I ended up added further filters to highlight the aesthetic direction while mastering in Audacity. Similarly, for the Rhythmic Section I played a few chords on the guitar in the Max Lab with a regular pulse. This became quite exaggerated in the recording due to the sampling and ticking. The Scored Section was recorded just with me scraping various surfaces while following my transcription of the random except. This provided the greatest contrast because it was subtle and often lower in dynamic range. I kept the parameters fairly standard for the code (reverb, gain, envelopes, and so on), instead choosing to add effects to the ChucK effects via Audacity. The relationship between the randomly assigned field recording and the binaural final product is quite interesting. The original consisted mainly of different bird tweets and squawks, along with atmospheric sound (ocean wind). I took the soft, ever-present quality of the environment and layered on the bird-like typewriter events, only to reveal the background later on.
Note: The computer with the scanner was not working so I had to just take a picture of the score with my camera. Apologies for any inconvenience.
