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Showing posts from September, 2010

PATS EXPECTATIONS!

PAT! could you please tell us exactly what you want on the USB! So we all have reference of whats right....and if we all have different VST's how will we be able to use it when we give our usb to someone else?

TED Talks on Sound and Health

Hey! So, I'm a big TED Talks watcher and I found this video: TED Talk Sound Health in 8 Steps It's pretty interesting. It's 7 minutes long, which is pretty short in TED time. It's a good watch. I just thought it was interesting because all the things he lists are basically what we are doing in this course.

AV Club

I didn't know what to expect from the AV Club show. This class is my first introduction to the world of digital and electronic music. At first it felt like a sensory overload to say the least. Once I started to let go of preconceived notions I was able to enjoy the skill and creativity that each performance entailed. Really loved the performance with Pat and DJ LZZRKMMNDR. Improve is such a beautiful thing. I enjoyed the musically selection and the energy that the performers exuded. Their passion was evident and it really helped the audience to become fully engrossed in the performance. I feel like my lack of understanding and knowledge hinders my appreciation. It is like modern dance. A lot of my friends don't understand my love for it. By studying the art form I am able to explore it in away that an outsider cannot. I hope that as this class progresses I will be able to appreciate the world of digital art that much more.

Expectations

Feel free to comment and tell me if I missed something or if I got something incorrect but this is what I believe Pat wants from us in our flash drives. 1. 2-3 minute pieces from from the browser project. 2. Audacity Projects, include the .WAV and .AUD files 3. Find the sound types for audacity: Beat, Ambient, Sound Effect, Melody, Randon 4. Get VST plugins 5. Get a midi sequence and change the instrumentation in Ableton. Save as .als and export as .wav. Save and collect all! 6. Get an MP3 and turn it into a .WAV or .AIF file 7. Do the ableton lessons and post something on the blog and/or save it to show on flashdrive. Basically with anything you do you will want the finished item as well as the actual project file. Extra Credit: Have a midi program control something else, like with midiyoke

Live Cut not working on your mac?

Okay so Live cut didn't work for me and this is what Pat did to fix it, Go to Finder, Library, Audio, Plug-ins and then drag the "component word document" from livecut into the "components" folder and drag the main livecut 0.9 software into the "VST" folder. Then in Ableton go to Live, Preferences, and under "file folder; plug in sources" hit rescan. LiveCut then should show up in your plug-in folder in Ableton on the left. Hope this helps. :) -Melissa C

i like my whole house (clap)

so i found a vst plug in commpressssssorrrr for my mac!! http://sonictransfer.com/free-side-chain-compression-for-mac.shtml i downloaded the Download DualComp Compressor for Mac OSX make sure to drag the component into the folder as well. i sure hope that is right.....

finally playing with ableton (my feelings)

Ableton is stressing me out. Today had gotten a little bit better. I am playing with GLITCH right now and have made a loop with my wav file. I also played with LIVECUT. I like GLITCH better. I have windows XP and for my computer GLITCH, MDSP compressor, MDSP duckdelay and MDSP duckverb are all working very well. Moving around the colors and different effects you can use it really interesting. I just want to understand the point of all of it. I want to feel confident in using this program and I hope that all comes soon. I feel that this class moves very quick and my computer is to slow for it. I am trying to stay ahead and on task, it is just hard when there is so much to think about. I feel that everyone is feeling that way, not just me. Or at least if we take breaks for Pat to go around and help like he is today. That is way helpful and I think we should do this every week, not just lecture the whole time, because it is helping me so much more. Also, to have our own time t

Cool Plugin

This wasn't part of the assigned plugins we were looking for but this was a plugin I found that has some neat synth voices in it. http://free-loops.com/vst-plugin-17.html I used the keyboard to act as a piano keyboard and played around with the different voices. For anyone who thinks the hundreds of instruments ableton comes with isn't enough, try downloading this one for a few more.

VST plugins

Hey guys, I found a website that has some VST plug-ins with effects right on a drop down menu. If you are having trouble with compressor, delay, and equalizations they are there! http://www.madtracker.org/plugins.php?category=Effect&subcategory=Delay
Ableton has been my favorite new program so far. I have worked in other music applications such as pro tools and logic, Ableton has a very intuitive feel. I love messing with the different VSTs and software sounds. I grabbed an old school mario midi data and applied it to a piano, tubular bells, bass and other random sounds. Then I created my own midi through my midi controller and applied more sounds and effects. I adjusted the delay and reverberation, tremelo etc. In the end, I had a blast all week with ableton. I dont know if I'll swing from logic to ableton because it does have several shortcomings, but it still is a good app to mess around with. Tim
http://vimeo.com/6045312 let yourself feel. from Esteban Diácono on Vimeo . This is something i've been trying to replicate in after effects. It uses a particle system that releases over 10 million particles a second to create the smoke effect. The particle emitter is parented to the amplitude of the music. So the louder the music is the faster the movement is, or more particles are released. I thought it was interesting b/c you could parent it to midi files other midi parameters to control the movement of the effect to follow the music.... A lot of cool stuff can be used by midi to create some awesome effects and designs.

Ableton Midi extra credit

Here is a reconstituted Midi 'It aint nothin be a g thing' by Dr. Dre. http://coppercash.bandcamp.com/track/g-thing

Trouble

This is my extra credit song--midi and played with instruments from Ableton. It was fun!!! Trouble by Coldplay http://jacqueline1.bandcamp.com/track/trouble-cold-play-midi

Ableton Extra Credit song

Hey guys I made this song using a midi file and added three instruments. Its amazing all of the different options there are using ableton. I downloaded Mr. tambourine man and used an acoustic piano, a harp, and a bass. My sample is simple but it was a really useful way to explore the program. I had a lot of fun switching out instruments with the midi information, but I had a lot of trouble exporting the song. It took my two hours to figure it out!! but here it is.. enjoy my ableton exploration  mr. Piano tambourine harp by whitney

extra credit song plus my lack of ability

wooohooo so i have been struggling with Ableton i'm not going to lie. However, after reading the help lessons it taught me a lot. I was getting really frustrated because usually i can just play around with things on my own and figure everything out without reading directions...but this time i really couldn't do anything until i went and read how to do it. Also melissa helped me out with some of my confusion.. (thank you!!) So i found some sounds that i am using in my senior thesis so i am def. going to make my project something i can use for my piece. I figured why not just do something i'm going to actually care about and then i can use it. maybe i wont use it but i will make it and if it works then it will work. so far i've used freesound for 2 different parts in my piece. i havent made a song out of it but i used a door opening and closing over and over again for one of the solos, and then i used the sound of metal for a transition into someone else in the be

Where to get mp3's

Hey guys. So I found this website: http://www.mp3raid.com/ Enjoy! 

http://usoproject.blogspot.com/2009/05/curtis-roads-on-granular-synthesis.html

http://usoproject.blogspot.com/2009/05/curtis-roads-on-granular-synthesis.html

Exotica

one of my favorite FAVORITE things about music is its ability to transport you. Whether it is from one feeling to another, one emotional state to another or even to a brand new culture, way of thinking, seeing, understanding. I have a fascination with traveling and immersing myself in new cultures, traditions and peoples. When I heard about the Exotica music movement I felt an inkling to research it. Growing up on reggae music i'm use to the idea of fusion. One of the beautiful things about growing up in Jamaica is understanding how different cultures can come together to form a dynamic and rich singular identity. Martin Denny figured out away to bring together the sounds of the South Pacific and the Orient. He allowed his listeners to be transported to lands far away, creating a new reality for his listeners. While I appreciate the thought behind his music, i don't think I could sit down and listen to one of his albums. I think you have to be in a special place for that. I do

Phase Music

I am constantly reminding myself to stay open minded as I listen to the works of Steve Reich. I don't have much of a music background so I assume my ignorance is the cause for my massive aversion to phase music. The idea itself seems rather simple. Most revolutionary ideas are I suppose. I don't know if it is because my ear is untrained but majority of the pieces I listened to just sounded like a collision of sounds that could be compared to nails being dragged along a blackboard. But, if I try to listen objectively, taking into account all the technical components it truly is brilliant. For two piano players to be playing the same phase side by side but on two different time scales amazes me. I have a hard time singing row, row, row your boat in a round. Time is only manipulated on one constant level in a round. In phase music the timing is constantly changing. This out of sync playing allows for some truly beautiful musical moments. Every now and then the two phases would run

Ableton, more like AWESOMEton

After using Ableton for only a week, I'm falling in love withe the program. Of all the progams we've used so far, it's the most intuitive, and the one I'm most excited to learn more about. I've never been too interested in audio editing, however, Ableton has made me reconsider that stance. After playing around with the demo, I tried out the provided lessons. These are a fantastic way to learn the program's layout. What also helps is the little window in the corner that explains the role of whatever button you put the cursor over. I can't tell you how many times I've been using a new program and I wished that they would just tell me what each of the buttons did. Using the lessons, I was able to learn how to make a beat by writing the notes as well as how to make loops and switch between multiple tracks in real time. All of this was surprisingly simple and I'm excited to use more of it in the future. I downloaded The White Stripes' Seven Nation

Ableton troubles

I have been trying since since Tuesday to download and get Ableton up and running. First, it took me about 3 days for the program to download. The download kept freezing, or my computer would go in sleep mode after about 4 hours of  download time. .Finally, on Friday when it downloaded, and I tried to open it to get it running, it froze my computer for about 15 mins! I was scared it was going to crash my computer. I tried to open it again so it could upload all the instruments, and my computer froze again, and then turned off. After I switched my computer on again, the display on my computer is changed (it basically doesn't look like Windows Vista... all windows and task bars, etc all look like Windows XP or 98), and I searched everywhere and can't find how to change it back. I'm afraid if I try to open this program again my computer will go haywire again. I can't figure out what to do! Help! I did find the files I was supposed to download however.

Finally... VST PLUG-INS

Hey guys, So VST Plug-ins have been the bane of my existence for the past 3 days.   I have been in a battle royale with my webcam, plug-ins, and my computer; so far I have only conquered the plug-ins.  I was not able to figure out how to find them in Ableton after I unzipped them.  I had saved them to a special VST Plug-in folder on my desktop, but still no luck.  I went to the Ableton Help site and wandered around and found the problem.  In Ableton, you need to go to Options > Preferences > File Folder and then there will be a category called Plug-in sources.  You can select a custom folder for your VSTs and then use the little plug button on the main screen to find your VSTs.  WOOOOHHHOOOOO!!!   After I figured out how to actually locate my downloads in Ableton, I played with some of the functions.  I grabbed a plug-in from MDSP called Flanger, which I semi-associated with Pd-extended, only easier.   There are fewer options which made it so much easier to understand.  You c

Bulletproof at halftime with some sweet sounds

Here is the link to my extra credit song. I messed around in Ableton with the MIDI version of La Roux's Bulletproof and this is what I got. http://soundcloud.com/gaby-izarra/bulletproof-halftime-with-some-sweet-sounds I took the advice of my other classmates and did the extra credit first. I'm kind of getting the hang of Ableton but there is a lot to learn! Enjoy. :)

Ableton Extra Credit midi assignment

Hey everyone, So, like Josh, I also dabbled in the extra credit assignment first. Personally I feel like this assignment helped me to understand the program better and slowly get more familiar, where as our required assignment is slightly more extensive. So I would suggest this assignment for anyone still feeling uncomfortable with Ableton because it does help you familiarize yourself. I still feel like I have light years to travel with this program but at least I feel slightly less in the dark! :) I used "Melissa" by the Allman Brothers for my project. So here is my clip http://digitalmel.bandcamp.com/track/melissa-midi

Music Appreciation

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Hello class! I had the honor of helping with last week's AV Club and it has sparked an interest in doing some live music performance. I operated Humans need Lumens which was paired with the live music of Minim. Minim played very spare, elegant electronic music which worked very well with Humans need Lumens as a backdrop.  Humans need Lumens is written in Max/MSP. The actual patch allows you to take two digital video clips and mix them with a myriad of effects. I have a copy of the patch on my laptop and I hope to make it react to MIDI data. For the performance with Minim I used a clip of a film of Maya Deren's as well as footage of a night sky. Another factor in my interest in performance is Kanye West. Say whatever you want about his shenanigans  but I love listening to his work as a producer and an artist. I think he is incredibly creative and inventive. I really liked his recent performance at the MTV VMAs He rapped over looped samples using a drum machine like the one

Music for Airports

ABLETON EXTRA CREDIT SONG!!

Check this out!  Heaven help me: http://digitalmediastudio.bandcamp.com/track/ableton-prayer Josh

Cecilia Extra Credit

http://code.google.com/p/cecilia4/downloads/list I finally found a new version of Cecilia for Windows and MAC OSX Cecilia is a program to make sound. Sound in its widest definition. Sound as music, sound as composition, sound as accessory. Cecilia is a general sound-processing environment Cecilia is a graphical interface Cecilia is a text editor Cecilia is a music programming language Cecilia serves the composer with little programming experience and the programmer with little composing experience. There is very little, sound wise, that cannot be done with Cecilia. Cecilia operates on top of Csound, the audio/dsp engine from Barry Vercoe at MIT. CONTEXT Cecilia was built for musicians and programmers, which I happen to be. Cecilia was first developped as a "musique concrète" composition system in 1995-96. It ran on SGI IRIX workstations. The idea was to replace our old analog/MIDI studios at the Faculté de musique of the Université de Montréal with a unified digital sound pro

Expectations for the week

EXPECTATIONS Download and install Ableton Suite Demo download/find 1.) .wav file(s) ***remember you can use freesound, the Google trick, NIN project, ENO project 2.) aiff file 3.) .mp3 file 4.) midi [.mid] sequence a.) assign different instruments to them b.) play with the instrument settings 5.) record your own midi sequence with your computer keyboard a.) remember how to arm a track b.) select an instrument c.) change velocity manually 6.) follow "Lessons" on "how to make beats" -- make a beat SAVE OFTEN!! 7.) VST/AU PLUGINS a.) make a special folder b.) use preferences to choose where they are found 8.) Add the Vst to your tracks ****extra credit*** Find another midi program and control ableton with it using IAC/MIDIYOKE

How to set up Online Midi setting on a new MAC :)

Hey everyone, So if you have a new mac and had trouble finding the ways to turn your midi settings online here is the breakdown one more time: click Go, utilities, Audio midi setup, window, show midi window, IAC driver, check devise is online :). Hope this helps anyone that had trouble. -Melissa Coleman

My interview with Bassnectar!

If you guys like Bassnectar, or even went to his show... You'll appreciate my interview with him, and footage from the show last week! -Gaby

Girl Talk

This is for all the people who dont know Girl Talk (Gregg Michael Gillis). i was just introduced to this band 2 days ago by a friend after a conversation we had about mash-ups. I listened to about 3 hours worth and it is awesome! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Talk_(musician)

PD play and Music Appreciation

Nature has always won my heart and I have never been a fan of any type of technology, until this class. It has opened my eyes to a whole new appreciation. I have always loved music and the way it controls my movements and soul and discovering the production aspect and how important technology has on music to create the sound that navigates me is outstanding. I loved researching the Ramones, Patti Smith and Nirvana and opening my eyes to the audio tech that goes into it. I wasn't sure about pd extended, until I started to play. It is so amazing how powerful one click of the mouse can be, one drag of a box. The sounds that I was creating through my computer were outrageously awesome. This is such an amazing tool.
I'm sure Puredata is probably a really useful tool but it seems to be rather cryptic to me. I watched this tutorial http://en.flossmanuals.net/PureData/SimpleSynthIntroduction I was able to navigate through some basic first steps and was able to manipulate the sound. I could not understand the relationship between the things I was connecting and felt like my results were happening by chance. I think it is something I would have to spend quite a lot of time exploring to better understand what is even possible with this. I can see how there may be a learning curve where things start to seem logical however, I am not even close to coming around that bend.

AV Club

The AV Club show was definitely worth going to. Anyone who missed it was missing out on some really neat stuff. Visually, our professor led the way with some spectacular displays of lights and images to several music artists' performances. The other highlight visually, was the program created by one of our classmates that generated images based off of things you texted straight from your phone. You might type in Moon and images of all types and varieties would pop up relating to the moon on one of the 3 active screens. Musically, the highlights for myself were a mashup/hiphop/electronic artist who went by LZZRKMMNDR. He belonged on stage in front of thousands. You could tell he loves the crowd and the crowd loves him. The goth infused band ARS PHOENIX was right up my alley. Their guitars mixed with drum machine beats created a sound only often found in the goth music scene. Both artists I would go to shows for again. It was definitely a great experience. Next time there is a show o

Sound Scores

Hey, Freesound didn't end up accepting my songs so I uploaded to bandcamp :) http://bagelanddreamcheese.bandcamp.com/track/birdybabybeat http://bagelanddreamcheese.bandcamp.com/track/some-kind-of-india

Pure Data Patch, Thursday's Performance, Ramones

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The above is a simple patch that I created while figuring out Pure Data and the theory behind basic things like amplitude and pitch modulation. I control them with sine waves to make them constantly changing. Also, I had initially experimented with adding a harmonic to make the sound richer, but it didn't sound very good. During the AV Club performance, I saw two acquaintances that I hadn't seen in a while - Chris of ESS and Frog (who turned out to be Amazing Mr. Slug). My favorite part was seeing how Isadora works in a live performance - seeing the visuals and audio correspond live. I also appreciated Ars Phoenix's combination of guitars with electronics and seeing Anton's program in action. Anton's program allowed the audience to also express themselves, and I could tell a bit about the crowd's character - lots of appreciation for nerd culture made the screens very entertaining. As for blogging about a band or artist, I'd like to talk about the Ramones, th

Audio links and Pure Data

I just joined the blog, so this is my first post! (sorry it's so late) Here are the links to my in class assignment and our 3 min clip assignment. http://cicely.bandcamp.com/track/project-1-2 http://cicely.bandcamp.com/track/project2 I played around with pd-extended and I think it's an amazing program, but really overwhelming. Before this class, the thought of creating audio files from scratch, from sound waves, would have never even occured to me. I knew people used synthesizers and computers to make music, I'd even worked the lighting and sound machines for a play before (just pushing buttons, no design obviously), but I never thought of the process being so intricate. There are so many different sound waves and effects and they can all be manipulated in different ways. It's fun just playing around with the audio examples files, but I imagine it would take a very long time to become familiar enough with pd to make an audio clip of any real length or complexity. I thi

Izarra: Audacity, Music and Pure Data

I only was invited to join the blog recently, so this is my first post. First off, here is the link to my Audacity tracks on SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/gaby-izarra Not only did I use sounds from Freesound, but also ones I created myself. It was a fun assignment, and I think I want to start producing my own music. Manually looping stuff is pretty difficult though. I think I just need to learn more about Audacity. As for some of the bands we were talking about last week, I listened to some songs by The Ramones, Sex Pistols, and The Pixies. I feel young and ignorant for not knowing more about these bands. I’m just glad to know that there’s so much great music in this world that I have yet to discover. Like someone who posted before me, I also took the History of Rock class a few years back so I got a feel for the development of rock’n’roll. It’s so funny to think how it all branched out into everything I listen to today. I listened to some stuff by Martin Denny, the “fa

Pure Data

When first using Pure Data in class, I was very confused as to how it even worked let alone how you would utilize it in any digital media setting (other than controlling lights). Using it now, though, I understand it a little more but mostly in regards to how changing say, the oscillator, will affect the sound of the output. Most of it is still over my head but the Youtube video Melissa posted did help quite a bit. One of the examples I found interesting though was the fusion one. It was cool to see how laying with the overtone combinations could change the output so drastically. Overall, I do hope to learn more about PD because although it does create seemingly simple synths, it seems like a very powerful (but difficult) program. Each synth can be fine tuned to a crisp. I just wish I understood how it actually does that. Thinking about it now, too, I see how this would be a cool program for a producer to use in making customized synths or sounds. Each piece would truly be unique.
sorry.  I lied to you guys in the video.  I tried to get Pd extended to play into my webcam but anytime I changed something besides the volume the sound would cut out.  o well.  maybe I can work with someone in class to understand this program better... I also tried to do another video blog about pd extended and that didn't work for some reason. My main problems and questions involve the utility of this program.  Is it just for manipulation of our audio projects.  I feel if I could connect to the overall purpose of it I may be able to use it better.  Also, have clicked on the help button for several functions but unfortunately I am a novice at this and I didn't really understand the help topics.  I was able to do some basic playing with the audio examples as far as volume and pitch adjustment.  I was able to manipulate the wave frequencies and oscillations when I was able to identify that something did that.  I also played around with "bang" graphs.  I was able to

Three Things: Pure Data, Alternative Music, and AV Club (EC performance)

First of all, I'm sorry that this blog post is so late, but I wanted to incorperate all of this week's events into my post. It's been a busy week for Digital Media Studio, and there's a lot to talk about. Pure Data In all honesty, I've only been able to do a couple of experiments with Pure Data. I was able to use the tutorial on how to create the simple synth ( http://en.flossmanuals.net/PureData/SimpleSynthIntroduction ) and I've been experimenting with different types of oscillations. I think that someone else may have pointed this out, but Pure Data is a vastly complex program, and I'm still not exactly sure of what can be done with it. I feel that, in terms of reproducing synth sound, there may be simpler programs with a more targeted approach. I see that it has far reaching potential, as demonstrated by its use in changing stage lights based on input factors, but at my current point in digital media studio, it's nothing more than a simple synth.

Website for thought.

This has nothing to do with PD or any of the audio aspects of the class. However, I found a website that lets you create a website for free. If you want to have a domain name, you have to pay. But for purposes of this class, I thought we could use it as a way to house our audio and video projects! Check out what I made so far! -->http://296915333384115522.weebly.com/

AV Club Extra Credit Performance

I attended the AV Club performance on Thursday and it was definitely an interesting experience. One of the works that I really found interesting was the second piece. The audience sent words  from their cellphones into some sort of image generator which was projected as the performer created music. I felt that this work was a great way to keep the audience intrigued and engaged; I for one couldn't stop checking to see if any of my suggestions would pop up, and the music was also very interesting. The piece right after that was also really engaging... I could imagine myself at a huge rave or party due to to the mixture of the thumping music and crazy projection show. I did question a few things though. I wasn't sure exactly what was happening in the first piece. Was the performer with the laptop creating those projections in the moment in response to the other performer's playing? Also with the image generator piece, I was interested in the wonderful quality of the images...

PureData (en)

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After playing with PD's audio example A-F, I was intrigued by the "fusion" one. I started playing with the pitches and different arrangements of outputs and overtones. The idea of making sinusoids is completely foreign to me. To my ear, it was more pleasant when the pitch below middle c was lower, however, I think it is interesting that the harmonics can reach such a high pitch. This is something that computers can simulate and that fascinates me. This is keeping on the theme of periodical music in a series of harmonically tuned sinusoids. The definition of a sinusoid it the sine wave or sinusoid is a mathematical function that describes a smooth repetitive oscillation. I think this is so interesting that it is all mathematical functions, and that sound travels in waves. Everything is so related. It is our job to find the themes. http://en.flossmanuals.net/PureData/Oscillators

Extra Credit/ PD

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On Thursday night I went to the Digital Media Concert; a very interesting experience. I didn't know what to expect and for the most part I enjoyed the art of it. The show opened with Minim, my favorite was Ironing. He used more of a DJ approach, creating beats right infront of us. Also the program that was going on behind him, was so cool, we were asked to submit a word or phrase to a website. Then the words would appear and pictures associated with the word. Very stimulating for the audience. While working with PD, I have gotten much better. And it is very interesting to me, being able to create different sounds and change them. The video that Melissa posted was also very helpful, I found it today and I was also going to post it.

PD

I found PD interesting, but as someone else pointed out, I cant think of a way to incorporate it into anything at the moment. I did use one of the sinusoids in one of my experiments though. It seems one needs some heavy duty technical knowledge to be creative with it. Hopefully as we progress I can find more time to play with it all, although I have spent a decent chunk of time clicking things and moving stuff with know clue as to what exactly i'm changing.. A lot of the noises reminded me of 8-bit music for some reason, just the basic computer noises and glitch sounds I guess. Also, here are my "creations" from audacity and freesound. http://trippfall.bandcamp.com/track/everylife http://trippfall.bandcamp.com/track/danger http://trippfall.bandcamp.com/track/spacescape

Audacity/ Logic file

Here are my Logic files I have been working on.... This is my first browser mix from freesound http://timdifato.bandcamp.com/track/browser-mix This recording I made by loops from my synth keyboard and I was trying to replicate the Sigur Ros feel. The idea here is to lay a foundational loop and build on top of that. http://timdifato.bandcamp.com/track/lateral-motion

Some Thoughts on PD

I've found that the lingo is confusing but that is it incredibly fun to mess around with the different simulators. I mean, once you've figured out how to work it. Anyone else notice the Star Trek reference in B02 two-wave tables? Actually, I think with programming like this it is to be expected. Also, I'm having fun in B03 tabread4 because if you set squeeze to somewhere around the 120's or 130's, and then just play with the frequency up and down, it sounds like that Youtube video of the cat yelling at another cat. (I'll provide the link. It's pretty amusing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXLxM0u1aJw) The C09 samplehold sounds like what is used to make the background music for a low budget mad scientist movie scene. I like messing around with the different samples, it's interesting to try and see what makes one different from another. Sometimes the sounds are very subtle, like a slight change in how I can control it, while other times it is as dif

Pure Data.

As I experiment with pure data I feel that I am a little over my head. I am slowly getting more comfortable and adventurous with Audacity however within pure data I find it hard to figure out because I am not sure of how this can be utilized in a finalized product. I also am not the greatest with web reading or packet tutorials so I found a video tutorial on youtube I would like to share. I am sure there are many more as well. I found this video helpful in a reminder of what Pat showed us in class with some additional information as well. Another great thing about youtube, the pause button :), so I am still confused about the progression pure data will have in the class and in my work as a digital media student, but I am beginning to feel more comfortable with experimentation and wanted to share the video, so others that learn by example like me could check it out. Hope you enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkmMzqohsDo&feature=related -Melissa Coleman

Audacity Projects

http://digitalmediastudio.bandcamp.com/track/piano-vs-cello http://digitalmediastudio.bandcamp.com/track/riding-the-space-violin Enjoy!

Another Sound.

Hey everyone, I have another sound for you. For this mix I used a rhythm created by Diego Stocco, who I was introduced to by Melaney in a dance rehearsal (Mel, I found another tree mix). Anyway, Diego makes rhythms and "songs" with items in nature, trees, sand, etc. For this piece he uses a Bonsai tree. For my last mix I worked with a lot of layering. This time I did a little less layering and played around more with using effects. I used a couple chanting sounds I got from free sound, and after I layered the piece I implemented a change in pitch, a change in speed, echoing, fades and a reverse. I hope you enjoy :). Mary, if you read this where can I find your song that you were telling me about? I looked through the blog but couldn't find it. Also, Pat I have a question about copyrights and parodical. What are the rules as far as cutting and editing music that is initially created by another artist? Does it make a difference if it is for educational purposes and if it

Soliloquy Sound- Free sound Project

Hey everyone, I uploaded my Free sound project to soundCloud and here it is... http://soundcloud.com/bymelissa/soliliquy-sound -Melissa Coleman

The Ramones

My father is a fan of the Ramones. I now realize how influential they were to the punk rock and alternative music scene. The band member, Cummings," was known for his fast, high-energy playing style that consisted of rapid down stroked barre chords, often in a simple I-IV-V progression. Called "buzzsaw", this technique was highly influential on early punk rock guitarists." It's interesting to know that pop influences from the 50's and 60's played into their "rock style." I guess that is what makes some of their songs so catchy.

Christina Hanleys Tracks

http://soundcloud.com/you/tracks

Weekend Grading& Stuff

I will going over the projects and grading for our first audio project. You will receive your grades hopefully when the USB sticks arrive We'll use the sticks to aggregate all of our media we make in this class. Please save everything and SAVE often then we transfer it. On another note i am not sure we have ALL adequately understood several basics regarding music/sound So 1/2 of Monday will be: 1.) a review and clarification(s) of what we have covered so far 2.) If the USBs are here we'll load them up and SHARE content 3.) second project assignment details 4.) choose Video/Audio Partners I think we learned quite a bit about the capability of our existing machines and what we would need to do to further our media ideas in our current situations. While time-consuming and sometimes frustrating, learning curves are challenges we need to embrace like a new element we encounter. We cannot claim mastery at first glance. That is naive. So be undaunted by puredata's "complexit

song.

So I posted my song twice with bandcamp..It kept coming up on the blog as an error. I'm not really sure why because it plays on bandcamp, but when I try to share it there is an error. I uploaded Jacqueline's from my computer to bandcamp to the blog and it works fine. Not sure if it was because hers was from itunes and mine is from audacity still? I did convert it to a wav file and saved it onto my desktop. Maybe that is the problem. I can't figure out how to save it in itunes. so here is a link to my song onto freesound website. http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=104639

AV Club/Steve Reich

I am trying something new with this blog... or should I say vlog? Steve Reich Piano/Video Phase:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnM_o-oj5u0 til tomorrow josh

extra credit show.

I came straight from my rehearsal to see the last 2 performers. It was really interesting...especially watching some of the people in the audience. I'm pretty sure that one guy really close to us was just watching us the whole time (kinda creepy)..also there was a guy across the room that knew every single word to the 2 guy band songs at the end. It was extremely entertaining watching him. On the more serious note I did truly find the show interesting and definitely a form of art! The guy talking on the mic while saxophone player played next to him was probably the best part. Extraordinarily random in his choice of words but thats what drew me in to be honest. If he were making sense in the things he was saying I might of lost interest. I love randomness...it doesn't always work together, but the fact that everything together was random, i think it worked. Some of the digital media on the walls started making me sick after a little bit so I couldn't always watch it,

pd extended

wooot woot So i have no idea what I am doing on pd extended to be honest. I mean i got it down pat pressing command (apple) e and moving stuff around...using the o to draw a line to another box. I went to each of the ones under audio examples. I wish I knew what exactly I was doing. I could play around for it forever but I realize I just click on stuff that lets me click on it and I don't understand why. I do know that I changes pitch when you change the numbers and also sometimes when I would draw one line to another box, or delete a certain line that it would stop making the noise. Thats about it..cool stuff just way over my head.

AV club performance and Experience I had (EXTRA CREDIT)

The first people to perform were the two girls. One playing the piano and making noise and the other on the computer making the background on the screen. This was pretty cool to me. It was very repetitive, but I liked that about it. The colors and patterns forming across the screen was interesting to look at while watching and hearing what the girl on the piano did. Very slow, drug out piano noises. The second performer was a man who put out a ton of beats and sounds, but also mixed pictures all over the three screens. It was so interesting to me and intriguing how he used so many pictures for each slide. Each slide had it's own topic of pictures and had the title of each slide at the top of the screen. There were some serious slides, funny, popular, scary and sad. Almost all emotions and feelings. Hearing the beats and sounds he was scratching and dropping made the performance even more cool to me. I was very excited watching his performance. I would like to see him p

playing with PD extended

Since I was not able to use PD extended on my computer I played around on it with Mary Gatling. I talked to you the other day Pat - after class, and you told me to just use and try pd extended on another computer. We played with it for a while. It is pretty confusing and weird to figure out, but also fun and interesting when you start to mess with it. I really liked a few of them. The Fusion one and the wave tables were pretty cool to look at. Listening to the different high pitch and low pitches the audio player makes is so crazy. It is insane that one system can do all of this. I think I will become more interested when we really learn how to use this system and what you do with it. Also, moving the mouse over the numbers and circles and moving the lines around on the screen was neat. You can move basically anything around to another spot to see how it will change the program. There were so many audio examples and all very different so it was a lot to look at and take in, but

my mixxxx by Jacqueline

my mixxx by Jacqueline

Free sound kitchen musical

Hey peeps. I made a kitchen musical using the sounds of forks, plates, wine glasses, pouring water, air blowing in bottles. Its cool. Enjoy! http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=104638

Audacity project

Freesound profile: http://www.freesound.org/usersViewSingle.php?id=1756977

ReacTable

This is an older video of a interactive synthesizer made by the Music technology group of Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. I dont know if it was the first one, but I do remember seeing it in 2006 as one of the first. As you can see it uses fiducials (markers) on the controllers for the program to identify the type. MIT has one that the computer science department developed and is now sitting in the hallway for anyone to use it. It is very fun to play with, but if you dont know know how to use it, then good luck. The DJ's (or TJ's) re-mix using this this make it look so easy. Demo Live Performance Live Performance in Berlin Reactable.com

In B Flat

http://www.inbflat.net/ I ran across this the other day while surfing the web. It's clearly a homage to In C. It's fun to experiment with by turning the videos on and off. It's really awesome to see youtube collaborations like this. It feels like it's the next stage of that alternative music scene, combining the work and effort of musicians from all over without ever having to leave your house.

Regarding nights, dancing, and the apocalypse.

I play the violin and singtalk in this piece. Our Night Spoken by Vilma Jarvinen I think this is the coolest dance song that I've ever done. That's not saying much though. My Best Dance Song Ever by Vilma Jarvinen This is about an apocalypse speech occurring on the beach in the very distant future. A cat and dog protest the end ferociously. This piece uses every recommended effect suggested in class. Apocalypse on Beach With Cat and Dog by Vilma Jarvinen

my audacity project

http://soundcloud.com/jacqueline7/relaxxxxeedd-chilll

Audacity Shenanigans Continued

Sorry! I copied one of the project twice. Here is the other! Hip Jam by Jam

Audacity Shenanigans

Hello all, here are the three excerpts I created. Enjoy! Elise Frost DMS by Jam Funky Jam by Jam DMS by Jam

Audacity Project

Here are my tracks from the Audacity Project. http://waningphase.bandcamp.com/track/outback-jubilee

Tracks in Audacity

My Tracks can be found here: http://fellagirly.bandcamp.com/

Audacity Project

Audacity Project by Awesome

Bandcamp

http://jules29.bandcamp.com/

Audacity Projects

My Audacity songs... Industrial Energy Industrial Energy by Cory Oliver Celestial Vapors Celestial Vapors by Cory Oliver Flowing Waters Flowing Waters by Cory Oliver

La Monte Young and John Cage

Listening to La Monte Young’s “The Second Dream of the High Tension Line Step” reminded me of a quote from the 1997 BBC documentary called "Modern Minimalists." Bjork describes Arvo Part’s music by saying, “I like your music very very much because you give space to the listener. He can go inside and live there. But a lot of music from the last few centuries - you just have to sit and listen.” I think this is how Young’s piece feels since it becomes the space for me to think within. In reading about Young’s influences and encounters, I especially was interested in his interaction and collaboration with John Cage. He initially met Cage’s pianist David Tudor, who told him to contact Cage. They then presented each others’ songs on their respective tours. I think that Cage probably influenced Young’s later incorporation of non-traditional sounds and noises. See below for an interesting video of someone preparing a piano with different sizes of bolts for a performance of John Cage&

The Role of Minimalism in the Evolution of Music

    I first heard about post-rock minimalism during the last spring semester. I had a ton of exams to study for, and one of my friends had reccomended that simple music is a great way to help your focus. He directed me to Brian Eno's "Music for Airports" on Pandora Radio. Of course, this album was more ambient than minimalist. Pandora eventually began to branch out into the works of Phillip Glass, Steve Reich, and La Monte Young. Normally, I would have never listened to this type of music, however, by using it to study, I began to pick up on the subtle nuances of the works, and stuff like Terry Riley's "Rainbow in Curved Air" became my background music of choice when trying to focus on something important.     Now that I've done some reading on these people, I find it interesting how the post-rock school of music has evolved over time.  The fact that tribal drumming in Ghana could inspire Steve Reich, who would in turn inspire other artists to start exp

Free Sound/Audacity

1. For my first exploration, I simply opened up 5 tabs in FreeSound, ran them on a loop, and recorded them straight off my computer. Loop (via FreeSound) by MHoltham 2. For my second exploration, I edited the first exploration in Audacity using phasing, tempo changes, another effects. Loop Edit by MHoltham 3. For my third exploration, I changed some of the sounds I used from FreeSound and created a mix from scratch with the effect changes Pat mentioned in class. Digi Project by MHoltham 4.I actually created a fourth mix from the Tone Matrix link I posted previously along with the Christopher DeLaurenti recordings from Ubu Web that I also previously mentioned. Tone Matrix w/C. DeLaurenti by MHoltham  P.S. Instead of uploading things to FreeSound (which took entirely too long), I used BandCamp. Enjoy!
http://www.ubu.com/sound/obscure5.html I am really intrigued by ubu web. Not only is the website full of amazing resources, it is updated often and kept up with current times. It has technological features such as an iphone app and current updates such as "New additions" and "Featured Resources" for month. The specific url I posted directs you to one of the "new additions" which includes John Cage and Jan Steele. If you get the chance I really suggest you spend some time on ubu web and explore the vast resources it holds. -Melissa Coleman

La Monte Young

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"We have an enormous responsibility to leave something important. It has to be something that is for the good of the people and you don't do that by giving the people what they want. You do it by giving the people this higher source of information that comes through you that you make manifest in some visible model that actually moves them deeply and into the state where they want to have this experience and go higher into this exalted state." - La Monte Young on his influence and participation in minimalism and music What initially drew me toward La Monte Young was his questioning the integrity of the musical score. He was the pioneer of minimalism and those who glimpse into his work may understand why; he was not afraid to take the risks. The works that tend to be more performance art driven and have interactive scores such as Vision , Dream House , Poem , and Draw a Straight Line and Follow it particularly sparked my interest. La Monte Young explored the actual minimum

Minimal music of Terry Riley

I really enjoy Riley's composition style. Though minimal and somewhat monotonous, I perceive his music as sort of an athletic race to the finish line. I see movement in his music very clearly-lines going up and down, colors, etc. The quality of his music allows for greater attention to the subtle additions and subtractions of instruments. "In C" is not overstimulating, however "A Rainbow in Curved Air" might be on the cusp of that categorization :)

French Minimalist Contemporary Composer

  I am really interested in the idea of minimalism in all art forms. I am feeling that sometimes with dance and maybe visual arts as well, minimalism is hard to appreciate, and that is because there are minimal details or movement or color or whatever the medium may be. But thats what attracts me so much to it because each detail is rich and worth my time to explore. So I began to research contemporary minimalist composers and came across a french composer who seems to be very well known. His name is Guillaume Yann Tiersen. He composed for the french movie Amalie. I think his compositions are so imaginative and textured but with many restrictions. I think you will all enjoy and probably have listened before to his music.  Here is a link- the music is great!  Enjoy :)  

Yvonne Rainer

http://www.ubu.com/film/rainer_hand-movie.html Found this on UBUweb.  Really interesting stuff with Ms. Rainer.  The clip is from 1966 and I think it is really amazing how she was able to create some film of her work that demonstrates such clear spatial depth.  Initially I got the feeling that her hand was moving on top of a flat white surface.  Only when she flips her hand do we see that her hand is actually free in space. The clarity of the gesture is also really noteworthy.  I am currently working on a project where I am employing gesture and sign language to create and explore an entire movement language.  This piece will actually be quite valuable in writing my senior thesis, as it demonstrates a specificity that is characteristic of a language, except it is no longer verbal, but tactile. This clip shows the idea of a movement language, but I think that it goes even further to the point where Rainer's fingers seem like individual people in a set space.  There are some ra
Hey, So I decided to check out the blog and I got into reading everyone's posts. I really liked listening to the links for all of these minimalist composers. They were such pioneers and risk takers, liberating themselves from the traditional principles of "good" composition. Of course that got me thinking about dance... surprise! Loop based composition also plays a role and has a history in dance; resulting in many collaborations between minimalist musicians and choreographers. As I looked at the posts and watched more videos, I came across a work entitled 'Fase' by european choreographer, Anne Theresa DeKeersmaeker. Set in four movements to the music of Steve Reich, the collaboration was completed in 1982. I think it really captures the idea of minimalist esthetic. take a look...this is a short excerpt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxXiHD4LmiE In other news.. I found some pretty sweet things on ubuweb. There were several interesting articles and countless recor

Merce Cunningham is obvi

I decided to go with something that I've always known about but never really looked into myself because I've always heard little bits and pieces... Merce Cummingham Points In Space is almost an hour long video documentation of his process on UBUweb. John Cage auditioned for glee club in the 6th grade and they told him he couldn't sing, so he called his score for the piece Voiceless Essay. The camera men were considered to be dancing because of how much they had to run around and follow the dancers. Merce's process is of trial and error. "performing for the camera is different performing on stage." It takes almost an hour to perfect what is only a minute on the camera. After going to school and working in compositional classes, he went to train with Martha Graham. He then met John Cage and was a solo artist. Shortly after he realized he wanted to be working with people, so he started choreographing on more than just himself.