Free Melody

I had a lot of fun with this project. I got my best friend DJ to come down from Red Deer, we got his drum set, I had my guitars and bass and went to my church to do some recording! My dad helped me mic the kit and set a good mix, then DJ and I had super fun recording a song I wrote. I used Adobe Audition to mix the tunes.

The song, entitled "Free" is about my friend of mine who had some trouble in his younger years but pulled through it. I mostly just put an effort into working on some nice musical fusion, haha pardon my singing hahaha!

Here it is!

Creating Life

The project is all about finding sound that exists in our world and compositing is together to create a new sound. Life. The goal was to take the sounds and create the harmonies of a new life form.

For my creature, I chose to take sounds of water and earth movie, vibrations and pulses and create a life form that exists within his environment. I focused on the idea that like a bat underwater, it would use sonic resonances to see and move, to kill and trap.

For my sounds I used: bubble blown in milk, earthquakes, fire crackling, stone grinding, a submarine resurfacing, a deep see diver and running water. I spent a lot of time changing the pitches, adding reverbs and flangers, as well as reversing and inversing the tones.

Here is my new life in its environment.

Counting Casualties and Cost

For my numbers sound project, I decided to do a piece based on the statistics of the American war in Iraq. I tried to do as much as possible to find the most accurate estimates possible. The music I have chosen as the background is the traditional military trumpet tap. Here are the statistics as you listen.


Every time you hear a gun shot, 100 000 Iraqi deaths and injuries have occurred in the war

Every time you hear an explosion, only 10 000 American deaths and injuries have occurred in the war.


Each time a cashier rings, America has just spent 100 000 dollars on the war.

I think you'll find the results surprising...

Working with Midi??

Soooo.... Midi, I think there is something to be said about using a program to generate midi or manipulate midi, when you can't just use midi. I dunno, the whole process is ambiguous to me, and I'm not that contempt with my final product, but alas, here it is!

You have to download this file "across the universe" in order to make the program work, but with that, I've found some non midi files work better, but thats not the project.

Here's the text file!

max v2;
#N vpatcher 4 55 1420 1091;
#P origin 0 13;
#P toggle 256 999 15 0;
#P toggle 1199 41 15 0;
#P window setfont "Sans Serif" 9.;
#P newex 793 595 40 9109513 change;
#P message 766 619 39 9109513 mode 0;
#P message 808 619 25 9109513 zero;
#P flonum 841 693 35 9 0 0 0 139 0 0 0 221 221 221 222 222 222 0 0 0;
#P newex 797 669 79 9109513 scale 0 959 0. 1;
#P flonum 671 670 35 9 0 0 0 139 0 0 0 221 221 221 222 222 222 0 0 0;
#P newex 711 669 79 9109513 scale 0 800 0. 1.;
#P flonum 671 692 35 9 0 0 0 139 0 0 0 221 221 221 222 222 222 0 0 0;
#P message 619 670 48 9109513 speed \$1;
#P toggle 940 641 15 0;
#P message 609 541 41 9109513 loop \$1;
#P message 776 488 27 9109513 stop;
#P message 760 511 65 9109513 startwindow;
#P newex 812 545 39 9109513 *~ 0.5;
#P newex 765 545 39 9109513 *~ 0.5;
#P newex 727 544 32 9109513 dac~;
#P toggle 939 542 15 0;
#P message 948 520 28 9109513 open;
#N sfplay~ 2 60000 2 ;
#P newobj 610 566 95 9109513 sfplay~ 2 60000 2;
#B color 5;
#P newex 842 595 62 9109513 metro 200;
#P number 797 642 35 9 0 0 0 139 0 0 0 221 221 221 222 222 222 0 0 0;
#P number 758 641 35 9 0 0 0 139 0 0 0 221 221 221 222 222 222 0 0 0;
#P newex 709 568 193 9109513 mousestate;
#B color 5;
#P toggle 939 595 15 0;
#P window linecount 2;
#P comment 960 486 100 9109513 Open the midi file "across the universe";
#B color 12;
#P window linecount 1;
#P comment 958 543 127 9109513 Click here to turn on the file;
#B color 1;
#P window linecount 2;
#P comment 960 600 100 9109513 Click here to Activate the mouse State;
#B color 7;
#P window linecount 1;
#P comment 762 314 133 9109513 To Start \, Maximize the window!;
#B color 13;
#P window linecount 5;
#P comment 290 951 100 9109513 Click One of these two icons to hear the song in proper pitch \, one is right \, one is in reverse!;
#P comment 1237 35 100 9109513 Click One of these two icons to hear the song in proper pitch at the other. One is right \, one is in reverse!;
#P toggle 744 594 15 0;
#P window linecount 1;
#P comment 959 642 119 9109513 Click here to Loop the file;
#P hidden connect 22 0 21 0;
#P hidden connect 23 0 13 0;
#P hidden fasten 15 0 13 0 944 396 615 396;
#P hidden fasten 14 0 13 0 953 396 615 396;

The Quiz

The quiz, answering all questions sound and soul... at least according to Jef.

1.What is your earliest memory of sound? How do you feel about it now?
My earliest memory of sound is probably... the sound of rice crispies crackling in milk. And I still love that sound, I often find myself pausing before I eat just to listen to the crackling.
2. When do you notice your breath?
Right now hahaha, no but actually, after an exhausting exercise is when I notice the most, or right before bed.
3. What is attention?
Attention is what my mind is transfixed upon.
4. Can you imagine composing or improvising a piece based on breath rhythms?
Yes, but it wouldn't be very dynamic without a few yawns and snores.
5. What sound reminds you of home?
The fire place crackling and the cat whining.
6. Do you listen for sound in your dreams? What do you hear? How does it
affect you?
I usually dont, just people's voices I guess, and I just listen to what they say
7. The distinguished historian, Wiliam H. McNeil, has recently argued in his
book Keeping Together in Time that "coordinated rhythmical activity is
fundamental to life in society."
Can you imagine tracking a rhythm pattern in your daily life and writing about
it?
Sometimes I often to hear or create rhythm in my surroundings so yea I could do that.
8. Can you imagine rhythm pattern for the rhythm circle with your own form of
notation?
Yes.
9. Can you imagine composing or improvising a piece for voices using attention
patterns?
Haha, that would be fun
10. What is sound?
Sound is vibrations translated though moving air in our ears.
11. What is listening?
Focusing on those signals sent to our brain
12. What action(s) is usually synchronized with sound?
Movement
13. When do you feel sound in your body?
When I'm hungry
14. What sound fascinates you?
The sound of moving water
15. What is a soundscape?
The picture of an environment painted with sounds.
16. What are you hearing right now? How is it changing?
The sound of a computer fan, the typing keys and a movie playing quietly in the back ground, the fan just turned off, the movie is constantly changing its sounds and the keys are fairly constant.
17. How many sounds can you hear all at once?
A bagillion!
18. How far can you hear sounds?
It depends on their decibel level and reverberation, but when I'm in the mountains, a loooong way!
19. Are you sure that you are hearing every thing that is to hear?
Nope, there is a lot on the sounds scale, high and low that we cannot hear.
20. What more could you hear if you had bigger ears? (or smaller)
I have no idea, i suppose things would just be louder or quieter
21. Can you hear more sounds if you are quiet? How many more?
Yes, it depends on where I am and what is going on around me
22. How long can you listen?
I suppose till dead
23. When are you not listening?
When I am sleeping
24. Can you not listen when something is sounding?
Its awfully hard
25. Try not listen to anything. What happens?
I can't help it, it actually makes it harder
26. How can you not listen if your ears never close?
You can't
27. What meaning does any sound have for you?
Some sounds have more meaning or less depending on my experiences I attribute them to, for good or worse.
28. What is favourite sound? How is it made? When can you hear it? Are you
hearing it now?
My favorite sound is moving water, its made by moving water, no I'm not hearing it now, but wish I was...
29. What is the soundscape of the space you are now occupying?
A computer, a television, and my breathing filling a quiet house. Also the sound of my ticking watch, the furnace turning on and off, and the cat walking across the kitchen floor above me.
30. How is the soundscape shaped? or what makes a soundscape?
The sounds working together in various volumes to make the listener feel like they are moving around the space.
31. What is the soundscape of your neighborhood?
Usually cars driving, kids playing outside, garage doors opening and dogs barking.
32. What is the soundscape of your city?
Usually cars driving, kids playing outside, garage doors opening and dogs barking.
33. How many different soundscapes can you imagine?
One for every place in this world.
34. What would you like to have in your own soundscape?
Accoustic Guitar! And running water.
35. What would you record to represent your soundscape?
Accoustic guitar, long showers, frying bacon, and some nice jazz music in the back ground.
36. What sound makes you speculative?
I don't really know...
37. What sounds gives you chills?
The cello, but chills in a good way
38. What sound ruffles your scalp?
Really high pitched whines, like girls screaming with excitement.
39. What sound changes your breathing?
Really frantic punk music
40. What sound would you like whispered in your ear?
The voice of God

The Cycle

The project was to experiment with a new type of audio software to produce an audio work. The audio software that I chose was a program called "Audio Paint". At first it seemed pretty easy just to import an image to create an audio work, but later I found that during the process, it took some time to figure out exactly how the program worked. By ordering a group of images and then reading specific variables of the images such as color or hue, saturation and brightness I was able to manipulate the way the sound progressed. I tried a variety of images but I wanted to create something a little more conceptual with the way the program worked. So I created a series of images whose content progress from early life to death. I called the work "the cycle" as I was trying to create an idea of progression. If you listen carefully, you can hear the changes from phases and times of life as it were. The outcome is pretty spacey, but I rather liked that because it reminded me of perhaps someone non human trying to understand out images.

Here's the image that I used to create my work!



Here's the work, titled "The Cycle"

The Morning Routine

My Sound Walk, as it would be, was my morning routine. Obviously compressed a bit because in no way would I actually be able to get out of the door in thirteen minutes hahaha. I was a good challenge, and I expect I'll be putting a blooper track in another post some time because there was some good funnies in there too from my weirded out roomies. Either which way, I enjoyed the process.

Here it is, my Morning Routine!