Survey of Music Technology
Here are the assignments!
Instructions
* Your collage should use sounds from at least 10 different source files. The sounds may be of any length and come from any source:
* You can record your own sounds or you can download royalty-free audio files from many online databases. I have compiled a list of some of these databases on the course Wiki (see the resources page on the Wiki).
* You may use commercial samples (e.g. from commercial CDs). Be aware, however, that you may be violating terms of fair use which could prohibit you from distributing your project beyond the confines of this course.
* Use Audacity to edit the sounds and create the collage.
* Your collage should last exactly 60 seconds.
* Clean up each of the sounds by normalizing them, eliminating background noise or clicks, adding short fades at the beginning and end to avoid clicks or pops, and compressing the dynamic range if you think it is necessary. (Save your cleaned-up sounds alongside the original files. Never overwrite the original sound files.)
* Pick at least five of the files to further edit or transform, by applying effects such as reverb, binaural filtering, panning, and equalization, by changing the pitch, speed, or tempo, by reversing the sounds, or by applying any other effects available in Audacity. You don't need to use all of these effects, just use some of them to transform the sounds in ways that you find interesting. You may also create several different transformations of the same source file if you wish.
* Combine your sounds to create an interesting and cohesive sound collage where the sounds seem to make sense together. Sounds should come one after another; you can also insert short silences between some sounds if you want, and you can repeat/loop individual sounds within the collage. But for this project, you should not layer two or more sounds on top of each other.
* Structure your collage as an "arch form" so that it starts quietly, builds up to a climax about two-thirds of the way through, and then ends quietly.
Assignment 2--A "remix" of Kanye West's "Love Lockdown" song.
Instructions
Remix Kanye West's Love Lockdown using Ableton Live (required) and Audacity, SoundHack, and/or SPEAR (optional).
*Why this song? Because this song was published by Kanye West on his blog as multi-track audio files. It's much easier to remix a song when you have access to all of the independent tracks and not just the final stereo mix. FYI: The tracks were published on this post. The original song is available from iTunes.
Details:
* Download the set of 6 mp3 tracks for the song. It's attached to the bottom of this project description. (I know I've said not to use MP3 compression until distributing your final mix -- because it is a lossy compression medium -- but this is the only format in which Kanye West released these tracks.) Once you have downloaded the files, you can drag them directly into Live or first edit them in Audacity, SoundHack, and/or SPEAR.
* Create a remix in Live that radically transforms the original material. It should not sound like a slightly tweaked version of the original; it should sound like your own composition that borrows several elements from the original.
* Your remix must last between one and two minutes.
* Besides material from the original song, you must also use at least five sounds of your own that you record, sample from other pieces of music, or download from websites such as freesound.org.
* You must perform at least five types of effects or other processing on various tracks and sections of audio. These can be anything ranging from adding reverb or other effects plugins within Live to manipulating sounds in Audacity, SoundHack, or SPEAR and then reimporting them into your Live session.
* You must create at least five automations (e.g. changes to track volume or panning, modifications to effects parameters, or changes to tempo or other features of the master track).
* You cannot use any of the MIDI functionality of Live for this assignment. (We'll be doing that in the next project.)
* A suggestion: pick just a few elements to use from the original. You may want to use only a few of the original tracks. Or you may want to take very short samples (a beat or a few seconds) from different tracks and sections of the song so that you can rearrange and loop them easily.
Instructions
Create a short composition using both audio and MIDI tracks in Live.
* You must use Abelton Live to complete this project.
* Your composition must be between 60 and 90 seconds long.
* Your composition must contain at least 6 tracks in total; at least 2 of them must be audio tracks and at least 2 must be MIDI tracks.
* Your composition must have an "additive" form which begins with a single track, then adds another, then another, etc. At least one of your additive layers must not simply loop over and over again; it must introduce some kind of variations or changes over time (e.g. an extended melody, or an alternation between related gestures, etc.). The ending can be abrupt.
* You may not import existing MIDI files. But you may import existing audio files.
* You may use pitched material in one or more of your layers if you wish, but this is not a requirement. (Everything can be percussion, sound effects, etc. if you prefer) However, you must create some kind of rhythmic profile or "beat" for each of your layers, no matter how simple. It is not sufficient for a layer to simply trigger a sound once at the beginning of each measure, or once every few measures.
* Each track must include at least one effect and at least one automation.
Instructions
Compose a short piece in Reason with a focus on sound design.
* You must use Reason to complete this project. You may not substitute another software program.
* Your composition must be between 60 and 120 seconds long.
* You may use any formal structure to organize your composition that you wish: additive, arch, or something else entirely.
* Your composition must be entirely original. You cannot import existing MIDI or audio files, and you cannot simply create an arrangement of an existing piece of music or quote existing music. If your composition contains quotes, references, or arrangements to existing pieces of music, your grade will be dramatically reduced.
* You must use at least two Subtractor modules and at least two Malstrom modules. You cannot load existing "patches" into these four modules; you must design your own sounds for these modules from scratch. Do not simply randomly tweak knobs until you come up with something you like; make sure that you understand what you are doing and that you can hear the effects of the controls you change. Refer to the Reason manual if you are unsure what a particular control does. If you are unclear about this requirement in any way, please see me. A significant part of your grade will depend upon the quality of the sounds you design and your written explanations of them (see below). Do not create simple, static sounds by simply adding together a couple of oscillators: make use of much of the functionality of these synthesizers to create engaging and dynamic sounds.
* You must use at least three additional modules in Reason. These may be any sound generator module (e.g. Subtractor, NN-19), effects module (e.g. Reverb, Scream, Vocoder), or sequencing module (e.g. Redrum, Matrix) you wish. It is acceptable to load preset "patches" into these modules.
Final Project--My final song for the class. I like a lot about it, but there is still a LOT of room for improvement on it--compositionally, but even more so in terms of sound design. Regardless, it's still my little baby so don't hate--appreciate. I want to redo it some and eventually release it on a CD or something like that. We'll see how that goes! Btw, I've also posted a project "Proposal" and "Write up" below. You might find them, uh, interesting. But probably not:)
Proposal
Write up
Instructions
The final project is fairly open ended. You should use some of the software and concepts we have covered in this course to create a much more substantial creative work, software program, or research project than we have done so far this semester.
Here are some possibilities to get you started:
* Compose a piece of music using a multi-track audio editor / MIDI sequencer such as Live or Reason.
* Remix an existing piece of music (MIDI file or audio track).
* Recreate an existing piece of music from scratch (without the benefit of a MIDI file).
* Create an interactive software application in Max/MSP.
* Develop a synthesis or signal processing algorithm in Max/MSP or another language.
Final Project Proposal:
Submit a text or Word document which describes your plans in 1-2 pages. What type of project are you pursuing? What do you hope to achieve? What software do you plan to use? What modules within that software, what synthesis and signal processing algorithms, source audio files, MIDI instruments, etc. will you use (if applicable)? How long will the project be, and what form will its documentation take (audio or video file, research paper, written description)? What problems and challenges might you encounter?
Final Project Submission:
Documentation necessarily varies from project to project, but may include things such as: MP3s of finished pieces of music, Reason RPS files, screen shots, Max/MSP patches, etc.
If you are creating a piece of music that is based in any way on an existing piece or pieces of music, please include recordings of those as well.
And everyone must include a statement (~ 2 pages) describing how the project was realized, detailing the challenges encountered and the solutions devised along the way, and assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the result.