220b-winter-2021/hw1

Homework #1: "Homebrew"

Due Dates

• milestone due 2021.1.27, Wednesday, in-class
• final musical statement due 2021.2.2, Tuesday, 11:59:59pm
• presentation + listening: 2021.2.3, Wednesday, in-class

Reading & Listening

• Excerpt from Artful Design: "Musical Filters"
• Notes: "A Few Good Musical Parameters"
• Notes: "Elements for Creating Your Personal Musical Filter"
• Listening to Paul Lansky's "Table's Clear" and "Night Traffic" (on Canvas => Files => Homebrew)

Part 1: Brewing Specifications

In this assignment, you are to record some "everyday" sounds, process/transform/arrange them, creating a composition that, in Paul Lansky's words, "views the mundane, everyday noise of daily life through a personal musical filter."

Specification

What to do:

• 0) spend some time planning things out in terms of the sounds you want to record, the transformations to perform, and how to put it all together.
  • As with everyday life, some things might not initially work out as planned/hoped: be resourceful (think MacGyver), and be willing to adapt.
• 1) record a number of sounds around you
  • can be many different types of sounds, or many instances of a single type of sound (e.g., traffic)
  • note the origin of the sounds in your README
• EDIT: also can find usable recordings, e.g., via FreeSound
  • important: they must be sounds from **EVERYDAY LIFE**
• 2) process/transform/arrange/compose.
  • check out the code examples from class in Canvas
  • figure out what you want to do, experiment, try a lot of stuff, have fun
  • use ChucK to process/transform the sounds
  • the bulk of the arranging should be done in ChucK, with intermediate editing and late-stage assembly in Audacity
  • if helpful, record and edit intermediate sound clips from ChucK into Audacity (via Jack)

Tools at your disposal

(note: these are the only tools you are to use (but you don't have to use all of them) - you'll need to obtain permission to use other software or sound samples you didn't record)

• any microphone (phone, laptop, hydrophone, studio, etc.) | something to record into (e.g., laptop/desktop)
• EDIT: also can find usable recordings **of everyday sounds**, e.g., via FreeSound (please credit the source)
• ChucK (the bulk of the arrangement and processing should be done in code)
• Audacity/Ardour (for preliminary sound isolation/editing + final recording/assembly)

SoX

Example of how to change snd file sample rate:

[cmn##] sox <inputfilename> -r 44000 <outputfilename>

Deliverables

turn in all files by putting them in your 220b web portfolio + submission to Canvas

• 1) project webpage + URL
• 2) title + clear description of your composition and what your inspiration was
• 3) all related source/sound files (.wav/.ck), as well as the final wave file
• 4) a short README text (readme.txt) file that:
  • specifies instructions on running your programs
  • describes your process/adventure, and perhaps the ideas (technical/aesthetic) behind the composition
  • gives credit, if needed, for the sounds you are using
  • describe any difficulties you encountered in the process

Thanks and have fun!!!