Final Update
The quarter has come to a close, and with it another composition has
been completed! The piece features samples of a recording of a woman
singing Enya's 'May It Be.' I took the time to splice the recording in
different lengths and at different octaves before beginning composition,
which increased the sonic pallate available to me. Two delay lines are
present, each with a different delay time and frequency cutoff. Many of
the parameters are automated, including the amount that each track sends
to each delay. The piece is for four channels.
For the concert, I have rendered a for channel version of 'Verdant Dance',
which I will be featuring along with this new composition.
All the things I have been working on this quarter can be found on
Soundcloud (see below). It's been a great experience getting familiar
with Ableton and I am constantly impressed by the software and what
it is able to produce.
Week 8 Update
I have spent the majority of the last two weeks making edits and changes
to the 'second' movement I described in my previous posting. The
selection was played last night at the CCRMA GRAIL concert at Bing
Concert Hall Studio. I have spent a good amount of time making
adjmustments after hearing it through several different speakers and
configuring it for Acousmatic diffusion to
32-channels using Elliot's new system. It's quite interesting how
different it sounds depending on the speakers and the room in which
it is played.
The piece has evolved quite dramatically over the past two weeks, both
in content and structure. The simple ABA form that helped me compose my
ideas expanded into a longer 10 minute piece that feels more
through-composed, though there remains a return to a brief coda.
The splicing techniques remain the same, but the arrangement of the samples
did change. I played around a lot with the breathiness of the attack
after finding that with 0.00ms attack, the main sample becomes very
'pingy' and electronic, which is sort of a descent from the ethereal
into the computer-manipulated. The main riff competes with other cyclic
ostinatos in lower registers between the left and right stereo channels,
which when combined with the alternating delay, adds quite a bit of
nuanced density to the sound without bringing it past the edge of
familiarity.
The climactic and chaotic section is produced by ramping up many of the
delay parameters to 100% (wetness / feedback), which creates an echoing
laughter throughout the high register that fades and distorts over time.
I have put the program notes below. Now that the piece has been
performed, it is time to put it aside and work on something else. I've
got a few ideas in the works (several sketch files), and it seems like
the pieces will probably be unified by aesthetic and technique. More to
come soon!
Verdant Dance is a new fixed-media composition developed as part of a larger
project exploring artistic expression through audio sample manipulation.
This selection features recordings of an indigineous wind instrument
played by the Harari people of Ethiopia. Inspired by minimalism, hemiolas, and
the music of Four Tet, Verdant Dance emerges from below to initiate a cyclic
ceremony.
Week 6 Update
Throughout the past two weeks, I have made some revisions to the
'first movement' that I had finished at the end of Week 4, and have been
working recently on a 'second movement'. That is more calm, subsued, yet
equally as ethereal.
The piece uses similar sound splicing techniques, with the hope of
developing the notion of an enormous pipe organ underwater. What emerges
as a low and slow atmosphere develops through nods to 'pinging' submarines. The breathy attack sounds are a school of fish personified,
their initial order decaying into a cacophony before returning to the
deep.
Week 4 Update
Have been working a lot on getting ideas down for a part of my final
project. Currently have about 5 minutes of material. I need to work on
how to best arrange these ideas and explore new areas for contrast. My
Ableton workflow is really speeding up, and not getting as bogged down
as I was initially by getting the software to do what I want it to do.
One thing I still need to work out is multi-channel setup in Ableton.
I haven't investigated how to do this yet, but I hope it will be easy
to configure after I plug in a multi-channel sound interface.
Week 3 Update
First piece is "done." Features one piano clip that has been arranged, clipped, filtered, and distorted using Ableton's tools. Most of the audio is generated from the file itself (plus a few effects). Overall, I am pretty happy with the output, especially with some of the effects created by using Ableton's recording features. A link to the audio file is below. At the very least, this excursion has helped me get used to working in Ableton, and I can approach the next piece in a more structured way.
In the week that comes, I hope to work on a more rhythmic piece to add to the collection.
Week 2 Update
Was able to get Ableton on my machine this week and spent a lot of time reading tutorials and trying to get a sense for the basic workflow. Made some initial progress on a few musical ideas that I hope to develop into a 2-3 minute piece over the coming week.
Project Summary
For my final project, I will create a collection of experimental yet accessible soundscapes and musical compositions. The tools used will be a combination of ChucK, Audacity, and Ableton Live.
More coming soon!