So... our group picked the area in and around the spooky old fashioned elevator on the second floor--
In the beginning, i mentioned how i used my second loop (from the first part of the project) as a base for an experiment in volume, so i kinda ran with that this time.
i added noise from a phonograph that i found using the links provided on the class website and took parts from my two first loops. I decided to omit words except for the lyrical content of the slowed-down base song (cover of "if").
While working on this part of the project, the track started to remind me of sound interference, and how as our technology improves, we find better ways of extracting pure, clear audio. I wanted to exaggerate the scratches and imperfections of older sound technologies and along with differences in volume, distort my chosen base track enough so that it would become slightly unpleasant and confusing. I tried to imagine how the new creation would come out of spaces such as the inside of that elevator, and travel down the hall, taking into account that the audience would probably be listening to different sections of the track the whole time due to the volume and balance (L/R) changes.
If one listens closely for the entirety of the track (4 minutes that actually seem a LOT longer because of the slow pace) one can catch subtle changes in the base song, and also the much more noticeable additions in background noise that keep the track dynamic throughout.
**note: this is not a statement about promoting new technologies and how they make everything better- actually, i rather like the scratchy imperfections of a record player and the characteristic distortion effect that comes with using a 1970s amp.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Stockhausen Reading Response
The space a sound occupies, along with the speed, dynamic, chords, intervals between pitches, rhytm, etc, all these characteristics define the moment.
Types of Moments
M-moments (in which melodic characteristics predominate). The M- moments emphasize heterophony, which is a way of articulating sound-events around a line. Several sources can be following this same line but not necessarily at the same time, so the interferences of the several lines combine to produce something new- a heterophonic event.
K-moments: having to do with sound quality. They are characterized by everything that functions as components of a complex sound: homophonic music.
D: duration; moments based on measured durations of different lengths. These give rise to two important characteristics of music: silence and polyphony. Cutting lines of music/sound means one has to deal with different durations of either fragments of melodies or silence. These pieces can be separated or superimposed, which produces polyphony.
I-moments: 'I' stands for informal, or extremely indeterminate. They are vague, static, without direction, they are also the longest moments in the piece and they help neutralize the three other main categories of moments.
These moments are capable of inter-relating on a variety of levels.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Fragmented Sound Crit!
Emily Sneeden
1. cacophony! the backdrop beat becomes overwhelming REALLY quickly, which i guess works for the tension between chaos and order, order being the speech which goes from the forefront to the background, im much more interested in the hollow rain drop sounding drum beats than the man talking, and i wish all the extraneous noise would just go away. haha
*note: the following is NOT the clip i was responding to above!*
**Victoria: check out the parts where the dude drags the heel of his hand on the drum, and it makes that droplet noise that is very typical to this type of indian drumming. i looove it :)**
i like the end section when the 'ff' voice sounds better with the new electric keyboard/synthesizer (video-gamey) noises..
2. hip hop circus. plus some wonderful butchery of classical music in the background. a little schizophrenic. every time the rap starts up i feel like its about to get really good in the way the beats relate, but its a little tease, because it always stops right as you feel it starting up. the end gets a little frantic and annoying.
Ryan Rudock
1. soft strings, creepy overtone, gets really dramatic, faster, sounds a little arabic, then stops suddenly and gets soft again. high pitched drama starts again..
2. rolling voice sound waves
Joel Ramnaraine
1. pop. pop. so much pop. 90s commercial pop. scratched 90s cd. really annoying. but that kinda what we all expected for the first loop. what i like the most is the beat on the background of the 'yeah' parts.
2. haunted house! breathing/beating in the background. cups being overturned. walking through the house. anxiety. twilight zone. very movie like. not experimental but more what youd expect in a video, except the main 'creeper' sound is very repetitive and prevalent. oh, i looked up to the title, and it is the twilight zone. =)
Kelsey Olson
1. they were starting up the film audio and the tape caught or the record was scratched and everyone was running around trying to figure out how to fix it. its got the old sounds, which i love. then it segways into a repetitive sound wave loop which seems to be having severe technical difficulties i dont feel like someone created this, it feels like the file was corrupted when downloaded, so great job! its obviously much more fascinating knowing you created the loop.
2. Didgeridoo sounds for SURE. flamboyant man with shitty spanish skills, that was amazinnggg. strange monkey noises and random altered sounds. yay for humour!
Leslie Dulfer
1. really? is the sun really going to blow up? because that cheesy techno backbeat is taking away all possible credibility. DDR at an arcade. epic sounding, its a video game adventure.
2. downpour! you were under a tunnel hearing it from afar then the car exited the tunnel. the repetitive rain loops sounds like windshield wipers that start wiping the window over again before they get to the other side. schizo wipers!
Nicole Pennington
1. perfectly illustrates the social networking craze right now. i like it because it helps me visualize the amount of people that are buzzing about things like twitter and related topics. it emulates the feeling of channel surfing and finding some dude talking about the same shit on each station. very effective, mostly because of its role as social commentary.
2. someones trying to really hard to communicate several ideas and is totally failing. of youre not paying attention you brain tells you its completely coherent english, and when you listen closely its completely confused, muddled, you cant make out ANY words. pretty impressive if you ask me.
Jim Kirkwood
1.interesting mix between semi- recognizable religious preachings.
2. jabberwocky!
Kirstin Anderson
1. uncomfortable breaks and transitions. messed up exercise video!
2. hawaiian ukulele and faucet drops as well as a really nice background voice. nothing is very jarring so far, its a new kind of background music. beachy, so obviously i love it.
KT Stemper
1. whenever the woman starts to sing i think either opera or a tidbit of a moby song (because of the other sounds in the track) the light instrumental aspects make it like the soundtrack to a play or scene in a movie.
2. I LOVE the beginning of this. the strange beats at the beginning make it extremely interesting. then it becomes a little more mysterious and electronic, theres a light shower in the background, some spooky robot shiiiat, and more amazing beats. this has got to be one of my favorites.
Sara
1. the piece of song almost seems really out of place but it kinda works.. i wish that wasnt the repetitive element though. it also sounds like part of a movie soundtrack, the song in the background over some kind of exciting/motion-rich scene.
2. messing with bass strings in an unusual manner.. a weird space video game plus pinball machine, the guitar is lovely but doesnt seem to fit too well. vibrationsss,, vocal chords? (supposed to be heartbeats..?)
Melissa Bonnewell
1. cacophony! the backdrop beat becomes overwhelming REALLY quickly, which i guess works for the tension between chaos and order, order being the speech which goes from the forefront to the background, im much more interested in the hollow rain drop sounding drum beats than the man talking, and i wish all the extraneous noise would just go away. haha
*note: the following is NOT the clip i was responding to above!*
**Victoria: check out the parts where the dude drags the heel of his hand on the drum, and it makes that droplet noise that is very typical to this type of indian drumming. i looove it :)**
i like the end section when the 'ff' voice sounds better with the new electric keyboard/synthesizer (video-gamey) noises..
2. hip hop circus. plus some wonderful butchery of classical music in the background. a little schizophrenic. every time the rap starts up i feel like its about to get really good in the way the beats relate, but its a little tease, because it always stops right as you feel it starting up. the end gets a little frantic and annoying.
Ryan Rudock
1. soft strings, creepy overtone, gets really dramatic, faster, sounds a little arabic, then stops suddenly and gets soft again. high pitched drama starts again..
2. rolling voice sound waves
Joel Ramnaraine
1. pop. pop. so much pop. 90s commercial pop. scratched 90s cd. really annoying. but that kinda what we all expected for the first loop. what i like the most is the beat on the background of the 'yeah' parts.
2. haunted house! breathing/beating in the background. cups being overturned. walking through the house. anxiety. twilight zone. very movie like. not experimental but more what youd expect in a video, except the main 'creeper' sound is very repetitive and prevalent. oh, i looked up to the title, and it is the twilight zone. =)
Kelsey Olson
1. they were starting up the film audio and the tape caught or the record was scratched and everyone was running around trying to figure out how to fix it. its got the old sounds, which i love. then it segways into a repetitive sound wave loop which seems to be having severe technical difficulties i dont feel like someone created this, it feels like the file was corrupted when downloaded, so great job! its obviously much more fascinating knowing you created the loop.
2. Didgeridoo sounds for SURE. flamboyant man with shitty spanish skills, that was amazinnggg. strange monkey noises and random altered sounds. yay for humour!
Leslie Dulfer
1. really? is the sun really going to blow up? because that cheesy techno backbeat is taking away all possible credibility. DDR at an arcade. epic sounding, its a video game adventure.
2. downpour! you were under a tunnel hearing it from afar then the car exited the tunnel. the repetitive rain loops sounds like windshield wipers that start wiping the window over again before they get to the other side. schizo wipers!
Nicole Pennington
1. perfectly illustrates the social networking craze right now. i like it because it helps me visualize the amount of people that are buzzing about things like twitter and related topics. it emulates the feeling of channel surfing and finding some dude talking about the same shit on each station. very effective, mostly because of its role as social commentary.
2. someones trying to really hard to communicate several ideas and is totally failing. of youre not paying attention you brain tells you its completely coherent english, and when you listen closely its completely confused, muddled, you cant make out ANY words. pretty impressive if you ask me.
Jim Kirkwood
1.interesting mix between semi- recognizable religious preachings.
2. jabberwocky!
Kirstin Anderson
1. uncomfortable breaks and transitions. messed up exercise video!
2. hawaiian ukulele and faucet drops as well as a really nice background voice. nothing is very jarring so far, its a new kind of background music. beachy, so obviously i love it.
KT Stemper
1. whenever the woman starts to sing i think either opera or a tidbit of a moby song (because of the other sounds in the track) the light instrumental aspects make it like the soundtrack to a play or scene in a movie.
2. I LOVE the beginning of this. the strange beats at the beginning make it extremely interesting. then it becomes a little more mysterious and electronic, theres a light shower in the background, some spooky robot shiiiat, and more amazing beats. this has got to be one of my favorites.
Sara
1. the piece of song almost seems really out of place but it kinda works.. i wish that wasnt the repetitive element though. it also sounds like part of a movie soundtrack, the song in the background over some kind of exciting/motion-rich scene.
2. messing with bass strings in an unusual manner.. a weird space video game plus pinball machine, the guitar is lovely but doesnt seem to fit too well. vibrationsss,, vocal chords? (supposed to be heartbeats..?)
1. piano introoo, irish somethings, separate clips, repetitive line about sausage, irish country folk singing,.. something.
Will:
1. art of war.. i read that book in senior year of highschool hehe. i was also gonna use a clip from it but didnt.. i like the beats mixed in near the middle with the voices.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Next project.. fragmented sound!
Christian marclay mini documentary
-makes art from unintended sounds
-defects on a record that other people don't want
-omg he makes record pie! by far one of the coolest record-related things ive ever seen.
-off center records, amazing! scary ghost whine
-got interested in sound through performance art
Steve Reich "It's Gonna Rain.."
-specifically known for work where he used looped sounds to emphasize a certain point
-i would like the repetition more if he made it more of a beat box type piece.. added more different sounds before the listener got bored or frustrated with the current one. has a loooot of potential to sound really interesting in my opinion
-he's breaking down this one phrase and showing us that there are a lOT of really different individual sounds in that one phrase
-i think some parts would be more effective with pauses and spacing between the segments (like 'its gonna rainrain' while seeing the e=mc boat footage)
Karlheinz Stockhausen
-worked with Nam June Paik
"helicopter string quartet"
- sounds like evil robot helicopters. transformers type deal
-ooo weird human noises. dying robots
-desperate messages.
-gosh this reeks of transformers. at least my memory of transformers. but not really, maybe just what movies portray crazy alien audio codes to sound like.
-its so bizarre how the helicopters are flying aimlessly. and put together they really look like a little group of Giant flies.
-theyre on a mission, its certain.
-the ending was anticlimactic, too abrupt, inconclusive.
"Hymnem"
--chaos of sound
-national anthems?
-cultish, made so by the voices in unison along with the creepy background high pitched whine.
-rewinds the sound? its faaaar away now, faint, like something is spying on this cultish group and its looking around.. coming closer.. a creepy little robot insect spy :)
Henri Chopin:
-breathing, steps in slow motion? clogs? horses? slow motion hooves?
-creepy dinosaur grunts
-that thing is going to EAT you.
-judging by the title, its probably some form of abstracted human speech/throat vibrations
-tuning fork
-feedback, high pitched whine. microphonesss
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
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