The Music of Sound: Strategies and Tools for Creating Music with Digital Audio

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The Music of Sound Strategies and Tools for
Creating Music with Digital Audio

• Dr. Daniel Hosken
• Assistant Professor of Music Technology
• California State University, Northridge

Presented at the CMEA/TIME Annual
Meeting Pasadena, CA March 12, 2003
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Contents

• Motivation
• Why Not MIDI?
• Brief History of Sound Composing
• Steps in a Sound Composition Project
• Types of Sound Composition Projects
• Software for Recording and Manipulating Digital
  Audio

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Motivation

• Composition is a fundamental musical skill
• Traditional methods require music literacy
• Composing with sound is an alternative
• Useful for future listeners and future musicians
• Techniques are in wide use in popular music
• Related techniques can be found in sound design
  for film, TV, and other media

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Why Not MIDI?

• MIDI is note based
• MIDI sequencers privilege bars/beats
• MIDI obscures properties of sound
• Easily accessible techniques privilege repetition
  and accretion over development

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History of Sound Composition

• Limited editing in early recording media
• 1930s experiments with turntables
• 1940s50s development of tape recording
• Musique Concrète (Schaeffer in Paris)
• Elektronische Musik (Stockhausen in Cologne)
• Tape Music (Luening and Ussachevsky at Columbia)
• 1950s advent of computer music
• 1960s synthesizers
• 1980s MIDI, cheap synthesizers, PCs
• 1990s All in software, Interactivity, Multimedia

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Steps in a Sound Composition Project

• Acquiring Sound
• Libraries
• Custom Recording
• Synthesis
• Creating a Plan
• Choosing a Tool
• Composing
• Evaluation and Revision

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Types of Projects

• Collage
• Soundscape
• Text Piece
• Remix
• Sound Design for Multimedia

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Collage

• Record items in pocket or classroom
• Perhaps use like sounds (e.g., paper sounds)
• Strike, shake, rattle, drop, break the objects
  into mic
• What are the properties of these sounds?
• Pitch high, medium, low
• Loudness loud, medium, soft
• Timbre descriptive terms (e.g., bright, sharp)
• How might sounds be organized in time?
• Rhythm fast, slow and regular, irregular
• Plan property trajectories to create phrases
• How might phrases be organized (i.e., form)?
• Introduce simple concepts such as ABA

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Collage Examples

• Bajons Collage (Art Student)
• Bajons Audio-Video
• Devins Collage (Art Student)
• Melanies Collage (Music Student)
• Damons Collage (Music Student)

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Soundscape

• Record a Sound Walk
• Find a variety of environments
• What are the characteristics of these
  environments?
• Ringing vs. Dry
• Natural sounds vs. Artificial sounds
• Compose a new environment
• Juxtapose different spaces and events
• Use environments to create a narrative

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Text Piece

• Record a reading of poetry or prose
• Perhaps use different languages and reading
  styles
• Manipulate and process the text
• Changes of pitch/speed
• Reordering of words or phonemes
• Cut into unintelligible chunks of pure sound
• Create a new reading or an abstract sound piece
• Enhance existing meanings
• Create new meanings
• Organize pure sound as in collage

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Text Piece Examples

• Dorothys Text Piece (Music Student)
• Agnes Text Piece (Music Student)
• Damons Text Piece (Music Student)

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Remix

• Acquire sound
• Use sound from CD
• Record the band, orchestra, choir, etc.
• Identify phrases and sections
• Create a new version of the piece
• Reorder phrases
• Create new repetitions
• Delete elements (perhaps just one beat!)
• Cut into abstract sounds and treat as collage
• Combine elements from different pieces

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Remix Examples

• Jons Remix
• Matts Remix

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Sound Design

• Watch scenes from film/TV and identify elements
• Dialog
• Music
• Foley and Sound Effects
• Digitize or otherwise acquire a video clip
  without sound
• Spot the video for foley and effects
• Acquire sound
• Custom Recordings
• Libraries
• Synthesizers
• Manipulate sound and Sync sound to Digital Video

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Sound Design Examples

• Davids Whoosh-Slam
• Clays Whoosh-Slam
• Clays Star Wars
• Johns Star Wars

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Software for Digital Audio

• Desired Features for Software
• Mono or stereo recording
• Multi-track (for layering sounds)
• Cut, Copy, Paste
• Effects Pitch shift, time stretch, filters
• Software
• Most commercial sequencers (e.g., Cubase, Logic,
  Performer, Cakewalk, Sonar, Nuendo)
• Free Software
• Pro Tools Free (Fits Specs)
• Sonicworx Artist Basic (Stereo Editor)
• SoundHack (Sound Processor)

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A quick tour of Pro Tools Free

• Edit Window View (modes, tools, track)

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PT Free Tour

• Transport

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PT Free Tour

• Mix Window

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PT Free Tour

• Plug-in List

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PT Free Tour

• Pitch Shift (example of Plug-in)

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PT Free Tour

• Tools grabber, I-beam, trimmer, fade

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PT Free Tour

• Volume and Pan Edits

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Contact Info

• Email dan.hosken_at_csun.edu
• Website http//www.csun.edu/dwh50750/