Electronic Music Blog

2005-08-04T12:17:00.000-07:00

This is my last blog update because tomorrow is the last day of class. I have learned a lot about music during this class. Music history, styles, making; all of these things I had no idea about have been introduced to me over the past three weeks. I think taking this course has made me a more aware musician and given me a greater outlook on the music world. There is so much you can do with your music and there is so much to be inspired by, it is really wonderful. Thanks to this class I have realized this. Music is everything around us. When I get tired of playing the same style of music on my instrument, I will always know there is more out there to experiment with, both on the computer and off. This class has had a great impact on my musical sense and outlook.

2005-08-03T13:31:00.000-07:00

Today I recorded my cello improvisation into pro tools for my final project. Playing in that room was awesome because the reverb was so intense. The G and C string really benefitted because they were close the resonant frequency of the room. I did about a three minute improv and put one second of reverb on the whole thing. I wanted to take certain parts and mess with it in Cecilia, but it is just too much of a hassle to convert things and use that program. Instead I used a different program. I liked the effect I used, reverse boomerang, where it plays it foward and backward at the same time. It sounded really interesting and I'll defenitely use it in the piece. I want to use some comb filters as well, to give a contrast to the melody and give the piece some variation.

2005-08-02T11:53:00.000-07:00

My sampling project is almost finished and is not as bad as I thought it would be. I put one loop into Cecilia and altered it, so it sounded different from the original since they were right next to each other. I also implemented some panning in certain spots to give that cliche panning sweep, but it sounds pretty phat.

I'm listening to some Andre Nicitina right now. There is so much damn reverb on his voice, in his song Scottie 15, I can't understand him. The beat is really kickin' and you can really sink your teeth into it.

2005-08-01T16:26:00.000-07:00

Today I went to the Orwig Music Library and listened to DJ Spooky's composition, Optometry, for my paper. It was quite an interesting piece of music, using a wide variety of instruments and electronic techniques to get its point across. You can tell from listening to his work that he is very experienced in computer music because of all the panning, granular synthesis, and overall flow of the piece. He did a great job of meshing the violin, saxophone, drums, and computer synthesization together. It is not what you would call consant music, but the dissonance was not unenjoyable. The music had a well thought out form and good direction.

I fixed up my sampling project today a bit. It doesn't sound as bad as I thought it would, but it still isn't wonderful. I added versions of Bob Marley's, "No Woman, No Cry" and "Lean on Me," by noodling them out on the keyboard. The piece doesn't flow 100%, but it doesn't sound horrible either. I think it would be classified as easy listening.

2005-07-31T19:16:00.000-07:00

I wonder what kind of dsp Pink Floyd used. Some of their music is heavily dependent on synthesized and processed sounds. The way they can make their music flow so wonderfully is truly amazing. They'll often start out a piece very softly, then will build and build with synthesized sounds that encompass the mind. The music goes around your whole body and you get sucked into it.

I think for my final project I'm going to record a cello improvisation. I'll take the recording and mess around with it with dsp and see how it sounds. It would make me feel more comfortable to start out with something that sounds decent, then work around it. Instead of starting from scratch and not knowing what sound sources to use, I'll have something to work with from the beginning.

2005-07-30T19:30:00.000-07:00

I liked some of the rap that we listened to in class. Once you start analyzing music and listening to it critically, you can appreciate the hard work and style that were implemented in those songs. When you're listening casually you may not stop and see how difficult it is to put some of these sounds together and make them sound so good. After working on the computer with the music editing software, you can really appreciate the skill that these people have. I liked that DJ Spooky composition a lot. I thought it was really amazing how everything flowed together so nicely, especially the Steve Reich loop. When it was placed in the background it sounded much better than when it was in the foreground. Also, the woman singing was excellent. The way he put everything together was wonderful and smooth. Smooth is definetly the right word. It was easier on the ear and you could really just get wrapped up in the music.

2005-07-29T13:33:00.000-07:00

Once again, trying to create computer music has frazzled my brain to no end. It seems like nothing wants to fit together and sound good. I decided to not use the Hendrix, Barber, and Dire Straits. I just didn't have any good ideas to connect them, or even to remix one of them. Instead I just played around on the keyboard and tried to make my own music. The rhythm is really where I get messed up, because like many white people, I seem to have none. I do, however, have some musicality skills so some of the music sounds okay together. All I'm doing is looping and gradually adding and subtracting different loops from the constant rhythm and chorus. Using pro tools is difficult for me because I have a hard time getting loops to sound seamless, without any artifacts or akward silences or sounds. I still have some time to make my piece decent, but I'll need to get the basics of the composition done before I can start messing with the details (i.e. volume, reverb, panning, etc.) If I can get the chorus and rhythm track to flow together, it will make adding a melody and other loops easier.

2005-07-28T16:36:00.000-07:00

My sampling project is a daunting task to think about. Once again, starting out creating your own piece is difficult as hell, even though I'm using other people's music. So far I'm using Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, the Dire Straits Sultans of Swing, and Jimi Hendrix's Little Miss Lady. I start out with the Barber and then transition with a synthesized flute chord to the Hendrix. I feel like the transitions are pretty lame and makes the piece feel like a broken up playlist. I need to finish this main line and then add some effects to it. I'll probably add some reverb and delays and maybe a comb filter. Right now my stuff just sounds like I stole other people's music. Also, I need a rhythm track that I can play throughout the whole piece. I don't know if I should try to write harmonies for each different part of the composition because that seems extremely difficult. Basically, I need to get the main track set up before I can start making it sound decent. I just hope the transitions from section to section don't ruin the piece.

2005-07-27T19:07:00.000-07:00

I really liked listening to everyone's composition. Even though we all used the same programs and instructed by the same guy, we all came up with something uniquely our own. It surprised me how everyone seemed to get such great effects in their pieces. I can't recant all the things I remember, since there were so many different compositions with so many different parts to them. All I know is that I am thoroughly impressed by everyone's work and I hope I can get a CD of them all.

That Steve Reich piece was cool, but it went on forever. It was interesting how the tape recorders gradually became less and less in sync, but I can't listen to a guy say the same thing over and over for fourteen minutes. The words themselves were pretty disturbing. I also liked the rhythm that was created after the words were lost and it was just the mesh of the two tape recorders. The idea behind it is awesome, but I just can't sit down and listen to that repetition.

2005-07-26T19:14:00.000-07:00

I liked the analogy that Jonathon gave for convolution. A convoluted piece of music is like the child of two other pieces of music. It sounds funny, but in realily, that is exactly what it is. I did not know that you could fuse two works together like that. I imagine the more in depth each one is, the more interesting the convolution is. For example, if you fuse two pieces of classical music together, I'll bet it will sound more interesting than two sound bytes put together. When the Beethoven and that bell chime were fused together, it sounded cool, but I'm sure it would be more radical if it was Beethoven and Bach mixed together.

I'm thinking of using Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings for my sampling project. I think that it would be a good piece to keep referring back to, like the theme of the piece. I might wreck its incredible ability to cause sadness in its listeners, but I can't pass up that great piece. I think if I span multiple genres of music, I can make my sampling project more interesting, all the while referring back to the Barber as my theme.

2005-07-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

That shepard tone was extremely interesting. I never knew that there was a sound equivalent to optical illusions. You want to hear the note keep going down in pitch, but it never does. It's frustrating and interesting at the same time. It seemed to me that when the tone was getting lower, the starting tone would be added at a lower gain and would slowly increase in amplitude. Then the starting note would surpass the lowering note in amplitude and the cycle would start all over again. If you listened really closely you could hear where the cycle began and ended.

It's weird how filters actually take away from sounds rather than add to them. With all the effects that result from using these filters, one would expect that things are being added. When you take out certain frequencies and boost others, you can change the timbre and envelope of the sound. I wonder if you take out certain frequencies from the shepard tone, if it would be easier to decipher its audio illusion.

2005-07-24T11:44:00.000-07:00

Listening to the piece that I wanted to do my paper on I realized something about reverb. It is cool as hell. I never really noticed it before, but when I was really trying to listen to everything in the piece in order to grasp its entirety, I came across reverb. Actually, it the was the first thing that caught my ear. I just find it so cool. It gives everything this ringing sound that I relate to like 'the sound of royalty.' Everything rings in your ear even after the notes are finished. It is truly amazing. It's like the music surrounds your whole entire head and slowly dissipates into the air.

If you were to play a piece on an acoustic instrument, then brought it onto the computer, would you be able to take away the fundemental notes and only leave the harmonics. I wonder how it would sound. I assume the relationship from each note would be the same, only those notes wouldn't be there, only the harmonics. I wonder if anyone has created a piece like this, that is if it's possible of course.

2005-07-23T21:13:00.000-07:00

When I play the cello, I go into a different world. I don't really like talking in real life, I just am horrible with words. But when I play my cello I don't have to talk, the cello talks for me. It says what I'm thinking and much more. Plus when your a guy in America, it's not very manly to express your feelings by talking. We're supposed to be these big macho guys. Well, whatever. When I play cello, I can sacrifice my machoness (as if I had any to begin with) for expression. All the things that are bothering me, all the stuff I have to get done, they all vanish when I get into the music. The expression and creativity that flows when I'm in the zone surprises me sometimes. The music takes over your whole body and mind. That is exactly why I like it so much.

2005-07-22T12:38:00.000-07:00

That music created by Louis and Bebe Barrin was pretty cool. Looking at it from today's standpoint, the music seems like cliche sci fi music. But back then, it was totally new. That kind of electronic music was groundbreaking and I am sure eery to people who heard it. The music really gets under your skin and has a creepy edge to it. You know music stands out when it can evoke an emotion or feeling either physically or mentally. All the reverb, delays, and synthesized tones gave it that unusual and 'out there' sound. This was a true revolution at the time.

I did not know that Les Paul was the creator of the electric guitar. It's funny how the main purpose of the instrument was only to be louder, while it ended up creating a huge phenomenon of the most widely played instrument in the world. I'm sure Les Paul had no idea that his creation was going to catch on like that. All he wanted was to be heard and through his invention, thousands of excellent compositions have been and continue to be made. The electric guitar is truly a phenomenom and is one of the coolest sounding instruments out there.

2005-07-21T18:10:00.000-07:00

I don't quite know how I would react to John Cage's piece 4'33. If someone were to get up on stage and just sit at the piano without playing anything, I would most likely think that something wrong had happened. When I finally caught on I think I would be uncomfortable; sitting in the stuffy concert hall with people looking around not knowing what to expect. But I think John Cage wanted this kind of reaction. He wanted people to feel uncomfortable and force themselves to listen to the sounds around them; that was his piece. I don't know if I would exactly call that music, but hey, it sure is something.

I know that different objects have a certain resonant frequency. I was wondering if what my sevcenth grade science teacher is true. He said some guy who lived in an apartment hated his neighbor who lived upstairs because he made so much noise. In order to get back at this neighbor, the guy found out the resonant frequency of a human colon, turned his speakers to this frequency, and pointed them towards the ceiling. Is this really possible? Can you make someone defecate on command just by using sound? Because if you can, resonant frequencies just took on a whole new dimension in my mind.

2005-07-20T17:34:00.000-07:00

Trying to make music on the computer was a lot harder than I expected it to be. I like when things flow and are easy on the ear, so trying to make something like that my first time was almost impossible for me. I made this short and weird composition that sounded pretty 'bleh' by itself. It souned a whole lot better when I copied the composition so I had two. I then made the second one start about four seconds after the first and it made the piece sound much more interesting.

I usually like hearing chord progressions in music because chords make things sound 'creamy.' Who knew that a root, a third, and fifth could sound so good. Because the more abstract music played in class lacks these progressions, it is different and unusual, at least for me. Don't get me wrong, unusual is a good thing. Things that are unusual are grounds for inspiration for your own music and are a break from the norm. Sometimes stuff that is 'out there' can change the way you think about music.

2005-06-19T10:37:00.000-07:00

I think that timbre is probably one of the most interesting parts of the sound spectrum. It is hard to describe because it is subjective. What does an oboe really sound like compared to a clarinet? What makes them distinguishable from one another? Timbre is so interesting because the range of sound is so large and varied.
Synethesia is something I think definetly exists because when I closed my eyes while listening to some of the Stockhausen music, I could see different pictures. For example, he made these sounds that were like droplets of water while he changed the intensity of the noise. I closed my eyes and was able to see water dropping into a puddle in rythm with what I heard. It was quite unusual to experience this, though it definitely let me see the originality and intrigue of this music. Though there was not a particular form, the music acheived its goal.