Assignment #3

Assignment 3:

Due Thursday February 3, in the beginning of class.

The assignment consist of creating a small arrangement of guitar and percussion.

Your learning outcomes are:

1. Using MIDI files
2. Working with Impulse and designing your own drum set
3. Working with warping marks

Instructions:

Use drumloop, Guitar and House clips to create 3 tracks.

Assign Impulse instrument to the MIDI track.

Inside Impulse to assign the drum samples folder to slots in Impulse.

Audio FX: on Guitar add Compressor (ratio around 2.8, Threshold around -8)
Add EQ3 and Reverb. Play around with the settings to find a sound you like

Add FX to Drumloop. Find and document the effect settings.

On House add MIDI Simple delay. Try setting it on 3rd 16th note.

Play around with feedback and Dry/Wet

Consider adding Auto Filter and play around with the cut-off and filter's Q

Guitar track:

In case there are problems with initial warping you need to perform the following actions:

Remove leading or trailing silences by either clipping (use clip function from contextual menu) or by setting the Start Marker to the beginning of the song.

Locate the first clear downbeat. Make sure it falls on the beginning of the note.
In case there is a short segment of sound preceding the first transient market, such as a slow attack that we see in the guitar example, double click at the beginning of the note to create Warp Marker there. Right-clik the transient market to set the first bar 1.1.1 from context menu. Right click again and select "Warp from Here".

MIDI map:

Use MIDI mapping to trigger each track separately in the session view.

Use a MIDI slider or a MIDI dial to control continuously one of the two effects parameters of your choice on one of the devices.

Improvise by triggering the track and controlling the effects.
Record you result.
Render to audio and save.
Upload to the class Sound Cloud account (remember to mark your name).
Put a comment indicating the different sections in the final recording and special effects or points of interest.

Assignment 3 files available here:

http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/A3.zip

Granular Synthesis and Phase Vocoder Lecture Slides

The slides for the lecture on granular synthesis and the phase vocoder are available for download at:

http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/LectureNotes_1.pdf

Composition Project #1

Composition project 1: Electro-Acoustic Composition (EAC)

Compose a piece 3-5min long in one of so called "electro-acoustic" genres (concrete, acousmatique, ambient, film / radiophonic, noise music, ...).
http://www.ears.dmu.ac.uk/spip.php?rubrique3

The piece should be based mostly on non-insturmental recorded sounds (environmental, animate, man made and etc.). It can be blended and mixed with instrumental excerpts, but the structuring elements should not be based primarily on repeated loops or musical notions of rhythm, harmony and melody.

In terms of musical form, it should have a clear design, such as a cyclic structure, theme and variations, rondo, song and similar, or it could be more of a through-composed music, such as an arch form, process music or any other development following its own "internal logic".

The difference between this project an the previous soundscape compositions are:
1. heavier processing
2. multiple layers (mixing down of several tracks)
3. pre-compositional analysis and clear form or process design

In terms of techniques you need to use automation, effects and warping.
Stages of the project should include processing on clip, session track, and arrangement levels, as described below.

Submission instructions

The submission should include:
1. title and short textual description of the piece (concert notes)
2. list of sound sources (clips)
3. sound taxonomy: a table that groups sounds according to their sonic or compositional properties. It could be done as an excel sheet with each clip described in terms of sonic properties, and then grouping of sounds according to common properties or functions. (your own list)
4. outside of time organization: list of relations, links and possible transformations between groups of sounds or between individual sounds (session)
5. in time organization: a sketch, ideogram or graphic and textual description of how the sounds are organized in time. It should indicate at least 3-4 key points in the composition and specify their timing in the final audio rendering. (arrangement)
6. technical description that includes description of the software and list of techniques or special effect. (track = clip + effects + automation)
7. recording of the piece / audio rendering of the final composition.
Optional: specific excerpts, processes, sound examples, transitions, key points or interesting elements or processes can be provided. (final rendering)

The final piece should be also be uploaded to http://soundcloud.com/ucsd-mus-173 for peer comments. Instructions will be provided separately.

Due on Thursday, Feb. 10

Materials from Tuesday 1/18/2011 Class

This is website that has the model for how we would like you to format the first part of Assignment #2:

http://www.sonicstrategies.com/sound_effects_from_household_app.htm

This is the website for HighC, the UPIC-style drawing music maker:

http://highc.org/index.html


This is the website for Spear, a Phase Vocoder editing software:

http://www.klingbeil.com/spear/

Assignment #2

Music 173
Assignment 2

1. Record, rip or download 2 sounds from your soundwalk recording or sounds generated by a house appliance or other common everyday object.

Transform each sound at least 3 times to create a totally different foley sound (i.e. the sound effects used for a movie, TV program, radio, etc.).

The transformation that you apply should be one of the following:
- clip
- echo
- compress
- filtering
- modulator (phaser, etc.)
- pitch, speed and tempo changes
- reverse

Put the original sound and each of the transformations on a single track with 2 sec. silence between each. Document the original sounds and the transformations that you applied, including the program name and values of effect parameters or any other instructions of how you manipulated the sounds. Submit the sound file and a text that describes the effects. Give a name to the resulting sound.

2. Reading: two short Jonathan Harvey papers.

Questions:

Explain how the composer transformed the bell sound using the idea of a "pivot".

Describe how the composer blended the boy's voice with the bell sound?

Explain the concepts of paired, evolved and convolved sonorities and their use in composition.

Paper #1:

http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/harvey_mortuos_ps.pdf

Paper #2:
http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/Harvey.pdf

Recording of Jonathan Harvey's "Mortuos Plango, Vicos Voco" (Save m4a link to your hard drive)
http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/Mortuos.m4a


Assignment due: Thu. Jan 27, at the beginning of class

Assignment #1 Clarification

1. The soundwalk should be delivered as a text that gives instructions about where to go, what to do AND what to listen to. The sound walk can be anything from "Go to place X at time Y, listen to sound Z for T seconds, move to ..., listen to..., do this or that to create a sound, ... etc.".

2. The soundscape composition can be based on the sounds recorded in the soundwalk, but it will be a redacted (edited and shortened) version of the walk. So, if the soundwalk can take many minutes or even hours, the soundscape should not take more the a few minutes. It should be minimally processed. What matters is that the sonic ambiance or sound "ecology" is faithfully delivered. You need to hand in an actual recording, which can be put on soundcloud or any other way that is agreeable (e.g. e-mail, mediafire, ftp, etc.).

New SoundCloud

The following is the new SoundCloud for the class.

Go to Soundcloud.com and click "Log In" at the top.

Username: editmix173@gmail.com
Password: UCSDMUS

You can use this information to add files and make comments on already upload files.

Article and Recording for Assignment #1

The following link will take you to a PDF of the article for the homework. Please also read this before Thursday's class.

Giselle Martins Dos Santos Ferreira:
"A perceptual approach to the analysis of J. C. Risset's Sud: sound, structure, and symbol"

The following link is for an mp3 of the first movement of "Sud" by Jean-Claude Risset:

http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/Sud-1.mp3

Assignment #1

Assignment due: Th. Jan. 20, in class.

1. Soundwalk & soundscape:

A. Compose a sound walk: create a walk plan with listening instructions that describe: place, time, what to listen to. Make it a map or some design that is more aesthetic then just a list. Include additional text if you wish. Think about the "feel" of the plan / graphic representation of your composition.

B. Soundscape sketch: Compose a brief soundscape (approximately 1 minute).  Use field recordings from your sound walk as your primary source material.  Pay particular attention to how your sounds work together.  Do they complement each other?  Do they clash?  How does their relationship drive a narrative?  Try to tell a story. (See some ideas below)

Instructions: At this point do not use sophisticated editing beyond cross fades or equalization. Basically put clips on a timeline. In soundscape you may change the order of event compared to the sound walk.

Tools:
Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)
Microphones and other equipment can be borrowed from Brady Baker.

Ideas:
Soundwalk in an urban atmosphere versus sounds of nature.
Sounds of sailing, plunging in an ocean, diving.
Story of a city - industrial production, building, housing construction
Journey in a forest, cutting trees
Visit in a computer game arcade.
Sounds of a boxing ring or other combat.
Drunken bar story...

2. Reading: A perceptual approach to the analysis of J. C. Risset’s Sud.

Listen to the recording of J. C. Risset’s Sud, first movement.

Questions:
How does Risset use surrogacy and spatial imagery?
Describe the musical form of the piece. How is the arrangement structured?

Class Goals

The following is a list of goals for this class.

General:
1. Using laptops (computers) for production / composition (creative mixing and editing),
2. Critical listening
3. Hands on composition projects.


Specifically:
1. Learn to use DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) with focus on Ableton: clips, tracks, instruments, effects, arrangement and sessions views, automation, etc.
2. Processing sounds, creating sound effects
3. Experiment with electroacoustic or more abstract sound compositions
4. New ways of listening, reduced / surrogate properties of sounds, composition design
5. Collaborative and critical skills - peer review, commenting, sharing clips, tracks
6. Composing mashups, contorllerism, and various mixing and unmixing "tricks"
7. Writing about your composition, class presentation

Test

This is a first post just to test the blog.

Hi.