Sunday, March 6, 2011

WoMax

Here's a link to Professor Dubnov's software that he demoed Thursday.

Calit2 Project Proposals

Ideas for Calit2 project proposals:

Telematic improvisation
Use Womax with Jacktrip to create an improvisatory situation where a musician on one side of the world can perform with a remote laptop improvisor in another location.
This will allow many amateur musicians to interact with improvisers in remote locations, and learn about their musical style.

Linking Vamp to Ableton
Vamp provides many ways to analyze sounds and extract features that describe the sound meaning or semantics. The purpose of the project is to use these analysis results and route them back to existing DAW to control effects. This project will investigate ho to create a semantic "side chain" processing method.

Guidage for hits
Discovering repeated pattern in songs and matching to songs to find segments is possible using Audio Oracle. The project will explore the use of AO for music matching, specifically finding excerpts in musical collections that are meaningful or "sticky".


link to submit proposals:

Please submit a statement / proposal by the deadline and I should be able to follow up on that after.

A new super popular mashup (2 Million hits):

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Syllabus

Music 173: Creative Mixing and Editing
Instructor: Prof. Shlomo Dubnov sdubnov@ucsd.edu
Office Hours: Thu. 2-3, CPMC 250
TAs: Jacob Sudol, Kyle Johnson
jsudol@ucsd.edu, kyjohnso@ucsd.edu

Course Website:
http://mus173.blogspot.com/

Course Description:
The course teaches the basics of using DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) for creative production, with emphasis on critical listening and hands on composition projects. We will learn to use DAW with focus on Ableton tools and tricks. The hands on projects include processing of sound and creating sound effects, arrangement and remixing, and experimenting with electroacoustic and more traditional compositions. Students will also be trained in new ways of listening to abstract sounds and concepts of sound morphology and composition design.

NOTE: This is not a mastering / post production studio course, and it is not about using protools, studio techniques or using multi-track recording consoles. People specifically interested in the recording engineering track should consider the 174 sequence.

Assignments and quizes:
There will be 5 assignments, 2 quizes, 2 composition projects and final presentation.

Assign. 1 - Sound Walk
Assign. 2 - Foley Sounds and Creative Effects
Assign. 3 - Simple arrangement, working with warping, midi map, recording
Assign. 4 - Setting DJ Environment, Arranging with Changing Tempo
Assign. 5 - Working with Dummy Clips in Audio, Dummy Midi Control Clips
Proj. 1 - Abstract Electro-acoustic Composition
Proj. 2 - Traditional Tonal / Metric Composition
Final presentation

Quiz 1 - Ableton Basics: Arrangement, Session, Library, Signal Chain, Instruments
Quiz 2 - Clip View: Automation, Envelope, Track Freeze, Dummy Tracks, Effects, Side Chaining. IAC Driver Settings, Remote MIDI Assignments

Schedule:
Week 1: A. 1
Week 2: A. 2
Week 3: A. 3
Week 4: P.1,
Week 5: Q.1
Week 6: A.4
Week 7: A. 5
Week 8: P. 2
Week. 9: Q. 2
Week 10: FP

Grading:
Assignments: 6% (Total 30%)
Projects: 20% (Total 40%)
Quizzes: 10% (Total 20%)
Final Presentation: 10%

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Announcement

Important Notice:

In case anyone wants to do the assignment using other DAW or music software, you may do so. In such case, please observe the following ideas for the two parts of the assignment:
A. Create a set of effect automation presets that manipulate audio effect independently of the incoming sound, and a set of audio clips that are routed to these effects.
B. Modify part A by adding the following two aspects:
1. Use midi controls to record the automation curves / envelopes.
2. In addition to controlling effects in A use automation to control a) a crossfade between two audio clips or midi playbacks, and b) change of tempo.

In case you choose to use your own DAW, or program it in Pd, Max, Supercollider, etc., you need to submit the saved project (set, patch or module) and also add a detailed explanation of how you did it. Also in this case you are free to use different effects since Beat Repeat or Redux are part of Ableton and might not be available in your environment.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Composition Project #2

Composition project 2:

Due before class on March 8. Presentations on the project will take place on March 8 and March 10.

Although this is a "free topic" project, i.e. you get to choose your genre, use of musical language (abstract to traditional) or musical function (concert piece, dance piece, film music, ...) and etc., here are some guidelines and ideas for you to proceed. 

Please note that the project needs to have a substantial mixing and editing element to it, so mashup can be a natural choice. Try to take the assignments one step further beyond soundscape, medley or controllerism automation and show a fluent use of techniques taught in class.  

For sources you can use pre-recorded materials like sounds from freesound.org or ccmixter.

Criteria for evaluation of the musical composition are:
1. Complexity of the project (technical execution)
2. Originality (musical idea)
3. Production Quality: do not forget about things like stereo, frequency range, changes in dynamics, continuity in ambience / reverb, phrasing and even silences, ....
4. Sizzle -  reactions you will get from peers in class!

You need to submit a detailed documentation that consist of the following elements:

1. project description that defines the choice of genre, style, function, .... Also provide some motivation or inspirational blurb
2.  a list of materials (types of sounds, instrumentation, use of voice, lyrics, ... if applicable)
3. Technical notes:  your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) choice and setup. 
4. Compositional notes: Describe the musical form, instrumentation, use of effects and automation.
5. Short (approx. 150 words) program notes that give the title and a general public description of the musical idea (could be derived from project description)
6. Short bio

Final grade will take into consideration both the composition and documentation. 


-----

Here is are some ideas from previous projects, as a possible inspiration:

A mashup of classical / movie like motives, from Strauss' Zarathustra to opening of Terminator and alike. The idea is to create a dramatic atmosphere of a futuristic story through (re)use of dramatic theme, war-like drumming, fanfares and etc.

Oriental fusion piece - combine authentic oriental music with rock or hip-hop to create a mix of exotic and sensual with more progressive western harmony or rhythm like qualities. (Tribal Techno...)

Music of combat: mashup of combat or shooter game music with more familiar combat songs. See http://www.battlenotes.com/Music_of_Combat.html for a list.

Requiem / Lamentation: create a mashup of different requiems to create a mix of lamenting expression, sorrow, eternity and etc. Check out works such as Mozart Requiem Lacrymosa, Barber Agnus Dei, ... to Britten's War requiem to "Requiem for a Dream" film music. (See for examples Evanecense Lacrymosa).

Love song - a mashup of famous love songs. Such as 
http://www.alwaysmylove.com/lovesongs/index.html

good source for free classical downloads is 
http://www.classicalarchives.com

Assignment #5

Assignment 5: Sound Installation / Auto DJ

Due March 1, before class

The techniques we are going to explore in this exercise are useful for automatic DJing or creating sound installations that create a constantly varying flow of sounds.
This also introduces several more advanced aspects of algorithmic composition and controllerism.

One of the interesting phenomena in remix / mashup culture is that great deal of the composition and creative work are done by manipulating control parameters rather then the more traditional process of creation of sounds or composing note sequences. This is where automation, midi remote assignment and control curves play an important role.

Imagine:
Imagine a situation where you are a DJ in gig. You go on stage and all you have to do is drop into Ableton a couple of songs, and the rest is done automatically - the filter parameters are moving, songs are cross fading, glitches, stutters, all are automatically triggered. And next time you start the program or drop new sounds in, the sound results are different and are constantly changing.

There are great ways of introducing variation on clips by grouping related clips and using Follow Actions in Legato Mode. In our pervious examples we have seen how automation can be used to modify a recording to create variations, "give life" or naturalness to a fixed drum loop or audio clip. Follow Actions are also great for sound installations, as they allow you to create music that constantly varies. A good explanation on how to create variations and non-repeating structures can be found in sections 12.6.4 - 12.6.6 of the Ableton manual.

Two advanced techniques:
One problem with the follow method is that the control envelopes and the audio recording are bundled together into one clip. So if you want to drop in a new clip and apply the same processing to it you would have to record or draw the envelopes over and over again.
We can use the technique of dummy clips to separate effects from clips in session view. We will explore this technique in first par of this exercise.
However, clip envelopes can not be used to automate master controls, such as crossfade between A and B clips that are essential for DJing. Automation using MIDI controls will be the done in the second part of this exercise.

Follow the Instructions:
A. Dummy clips

Initial Setting of Audio Tracks
• Create two audio tracks. On track 1 drop several audio clips. In Launch Box turn on Legato and set follow actions to every 4 bars and Any.
• Set "Audio To" to 2-Audio and turn Monitor Off
• On track 2 set "From" to 1-Audio and Monitor In

Dummy Clips
• On track 2 drop a beat repeat effect.
• Record a silent clip into first slot on track 2.
• Double click on the clip slot. This will open an audio clip on the bottom. Display the Envelope Box (button E in Clip View) and select in the top chooser box "Beat Repeat" and "Chance".
• Optional: click on the Linked button (Region/Loop) to turn linking off / should shows now "Unlinked" and In drag the right loop end in the envelope editor and extend it to 8 or 16 bars.
• Use a pencil (Click on Draw Mode or Control - B (Win) / Command - B (Mac)) to draw an envelope shape. For instance you can choose to start with a rising line.
• In Launch Box turn on Legato and select Follow Actions to Play Again and Other with equal chances (type 1:1 in the bottom box).
• Alt-drag (copy) the clip 3 times to create 4 dummy clips. Draw new envelope for each dummy clip to get a different behavior or automate a different control parameter.

Run it:
• Turn on the first scene and see and listen to how the clips switch and the effects change.

B. MIDI Ctrl clips

In this part of the assignment we will show an advanced technique that uses MIDI clips as controls of Audio clips in the same live set. This is achieved by special routing of MIDI from Ableton to itself by setting it in the Preferences. This is not a normal way of routing MIDI across tracks. In Ableton MIDI can not be routed to Audio track without converting it to sound through an instrument. So somewhat like "side chaining" that uses audio from one channel to control and effect on another channel, we will be using MIDI to control effects on another channel through the unique Remote control facility of Ableton.

Setting the preferences.
• Go to: Live -> Preferences -> MIDI Sync tab. Set MIDI Ports sections as:
• Input: IAC Driver (Bus 1), Track "Off", Sync "Off", Remote "On"
• Output: Track "On", Sync "On", Remote "Off"

Note - In some cases you might not have IAC Driver enabled on your mac. (If you are on Windows, email me to find out what is the equivalent).
On Mac: Go to Applications -> Utilities -> double click Audio Midi Setup
Double click IAC Driver and check the "online" box
Now you should be able to go back to Live Preferences and set the Midi routing as described.

Creating the set:
• Create two audio tracks with 2 effects each. For the purpose of the exercise choose Redux, and Beat Repeat. Set Audio 1 to A and Audio 2 to B crossfade.
• Create three midi tracks. Name the Midi tracks - redux, tempo and xfade. Show the I/O section and set MIDI To to IAC Driver.

Create a remote control midi map for the following parameters on each audio track (in other words click on MIDI Map Switch, select a parameters, and move a midi button or slider):
• redux downsample
• project tempo
• master track crossfader

You will need to consult the MIDI Mappings table in the next step to assign the MIDI Clip Envelopes to the correct devices.
In the first MIDI track (redux) do the following:
• Double click on a clip slot. This will open a MIDI clip on the bottom.
• Show the Envelope Box (button E in Clip View) and select in the top chooser box "MIDI Ctrl" as the device to automate.
• Select in the bottom box Clip Envelope Control number that is appropriate for that track according to your MIDI Mappings table that you created before.
• Optional: click on the Linked button (Region/Loop) to turn linking off / should shows now "Unlinked". In the envelope editor drag the right loop end and extend it to 8 or 16 bars.
• Use a pencil (Click on Draw Mode or Control - B (Win) / Command - B (Mac)) to draw an envelope shape.
• In Launch Box turn on Legato and select Follow Actions to Play Again and Other with equal chances (type 1:1 in the bottom box).
• Copy this clip down the same track several times. Edit the envelope in each of the copied clips by drawing different curves such as zigzag, rise and fall, step up and down, or some random change.

Repeat this process for each one of the remaining MIDI tracks (tempo, xfade) choosing each time a MIDI Ctrl envelope according to the MIDI mapping table.
Remember that the way we organized our set is that MIDI track names represent the devices they control, so all clips in one track should operate on the same MIDI Ctrl.

At this point you should have the control tracks programmed with alternative envelope curves ready to start modifying the effects on the audio tracks by random triggering of MIDI clips.

Drop two different songs into the Audio tracks 1 and 2. You might want to experiment with Re-Pitch versus Complex Warping in the audio clips. Make sure that these tracks have correct warping by testing them with a metronome, like we did in Ex. 2 and set the tracks to loop so that the songs do not stop when they reach their end (set the loop braces to beginning and end of the songs).

Now when everything is set. Press play button and ...!!! After a while, just drop other clips into the Audio tracks and keep on the fun :)
Another option is dropping multiple clips in each audio track and setting the Follow Actions to jump between the songs (like we did in part A).

Submission: This time we want to see the ableton set. Save your set, with couple of midi and audio clips to try it out with and package it into a live pack.
This is done by going to File -> Manage Files and following the instructions from there. Section 5.12 in the manual helps with that as well.
We will not judge the artistic quality of the assignment, but please, no nonsense...
If you have done all correctly, you get full grade. FYI, the questions in the second quiz will be about A4 and A5.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

In case Soundcloud is full

In case Soundcloud is full when you need to upload your assignment(s), upload the file to mediafire.com and then send the upload link to Kyle and Jacob.