220b hw2 - Homebrew - Tamilore Awosile

"AfroBrew"

Final Milestone

ChucK Code

P.S. It's actually 3:30, not 5 mins

For my Milestone 1, I produced the drums, which would become the building block of my composition. For this milestone, my focus was turning this building block into a complete competition with an arc and narrative, and incorporating a few more of the sounds I recorded

One key thing I added to shape the narrative of the composition, was parts of the piece entering gradually, rather than all at once. This helped build up the energy of the piece. I also intentionally played with expectations for when a new part would enter, and waited longer than a listener would typically expect. This was also in keeping with the intended genre, where the instrumental can last 1-2 mins before the vocals/melody comes in, and tracks can be 6+ minutes.

My Milestone 1 was purely rhythmic, therefore another key addition to this final milestone, was a harmonic center (chord progression), and some sort of melody. The harmony was a two-chord progression in B-minor. The melody, which was played at random pitches each time, was provided by the sound of my roommate's Bluetooth speaker turning on.

Final Sounds I used (all from my campus apartment)

Kettle Switch - Clave Rhythm

Fridge Door closing - Kick Drum

Water (while washing dishes) - Shaker

Offbeat beep - the sound my oven timer makes when turning it on

Chords - Sound of the microwave put through a comb filter

Bongos that come in mid piece - Sound of trash can closing

Producer Tag - Me asking Siri what time it is

Melody - My roommate's Bluetooth speaker turning on

Final Reflections

I'm super proud of what I managed to produce for this assignment! Ge talked about discovering the way want to use ChucK, and I feel like I've definitely found that through this assignment. I also learnt a lot about ChucK, incl. how to program rhythms, and how to Spork. I feel like this has opened up so many more doors in terms of what I now have the capability to explore in ChucK, and I'm excited to explore more!

I wouldn't call my piece strictly Amapiano, even though that was where I started from. I'd say it's more of an Afrobeats piece with Amapiano influences.

Milestone 1

ChucK Code

For this milestone, I had to decide what I wanted to make musically out of all the sounds I collected. I decided I wanted to try and make an Amapiano influenced piece, since I’ve been listening to a lot of Nigerian Amapiano lately. I transcribed some of the key rhythms that would form the groove for the piece. You can see my rhythmic transcriptions.

I then listened to the 27 sounds I collected, and categorized them into 4 categories: “Ambient”, “Pitched”, “Percussive”, and “Other”. My thought process was that the “Percussive” sounds would be good for acting like drums, and playing the beat of the piece. The Ambient sounds could work well to put through a comb filter.

I trimmed my percussive sounds in Audacity, and then imported them into ChucK. I then learned how to make the rhythms I wanted (s/o to Kunwoo for the help). I used sporking to have the sounds play at the same time. I also experimented with the comb filter with some of my more "Ambient" sounds to make chords. However, I didn't like how it sounded so I commented out for the wav file. I'll work on this more for the next milestone.

So, for my final result for Milestone 1, I have an Amapiano-esque groove. The fridge door is the kick drum, the kettle swtich is the clave, the sound of the water is the shaker, and the sound of the oven timer is the offbeat quaver. All sounds from my EVGR-Apartment.

Milestone 0

Sound Recordings

I collected various sounds that are characteristic of my EVGR-A Apartment. I went overboard, and collected 27 sound recordings. However, upon reflection, some of them are far more interesting than others, so I'll prioritise using these ones.

ChucK Code

I'd never manipulated sound files in ChucK, so I decided to try something simple to get a grasp of the basics. I took one of my more interestings sounds, and got it to play in a loop. I tried to get two files to play one after the other in a loop, but to no avail. I also played with the panning of the file.

I definitely have a lot to learn about how to manipulate sound files in ChucK for this assignment, and I look forward to the learning process.