Composition

Sound Struggles and Compromises

I’ve had a couple struggles in making sounds in Ableton so far:

I’m looping a 10 measure drum track (recorded into Ableton using a Korg WaveDrum) in part two of my composition, but if I just loop it, then it clips the end of the sound at the end of the loop and sounds really choppy. In order to make it smooth, I have copied the track, and I alternate between them (triggering one to start at the end of the 10th measure, and the other to stop at the end of the 11th measure). It’s not the most refined way, and I’m sure there’s something better, but this works and I don’t have time for optimization at this point.

I don’t know of a way to get the voice/electronic glissando to work as I want it, but I can monitor the voice input with a tuner in Ableton, and trigger a track with an electronic glissando that enters on a certain pitch. It’s a fairly clumsy solution, but it should be good enough for a demo/workshop session. What I would like to do, is sample the performers voice, stretch out the duration without altering pitch, and add a dramatic glissando to the stretched sample in real time. I don’t think that’s possible with the equipment I have, so I’m using my clumsy little compromise.

So many learning experiences!!

Housekeeping: What have I been DOING?!

Quick Reflection

I am bad at enforcing my own deadlines.

I am most motivated right before a deadline.

Independent study is HARD.

I have learned a lot, but I have not been a diligent or consistent student.

All of this is okay. I’m slowing working on getting better, and this (never-ending) course has shown me many of my weaknesses, as well as some strengths.

I’m good at learning SOMETHING when I do almost ANYTHING.

I am good at finding ways to put ideas and abstract concepts into musical ideas.

Independent study is REWARDING when I actually buckle down and pursue something interesting.

I have an interesting mix of knowledge that can mingle with electronic music and lead me to career opportunities I never would have considered without this course.

Another Sequencing bit on SoundCloud

Messing around with a sequencer like the BeatStep is a really fun way to brainstorm and play around to get ideas. The way the interface differs from what I’m accustomed to (a piano) for brainstorming is more freeing: I don’t know the exact pitches I choose, and I view the rhythm differently, because I can get easy feedback on complex rhythms at the push of a button. In addition to the freedom of a non-traditional instrument, this exercise provided me with an opportunity to further explore colouristic possibilities with filters, which opened my ears to the possibilities of expressive nuances in electronic music.

How’s that big composition project going?

I have now notated and written some performance notes for parts 1 and 2 out of 4, and I’ve put some of the sounds together. I will not be able to make it work with the Arduino node for now, but some day I will, when I have time to learn everything involved.

I still need to make the rest of the sounds and plan how to perform them with vocals well enough to workshop it. I need to notate parts 3 and 4. I might need to expand on my performance notes a bit. I need to organize a time to workshop parts 1 and 2.

In order to plan out the sounds for the piece, I think I just need to map them out on paper in some colour-coded way to indicate when to trigger various things.

I just need to get this done so I can reflect and move on!!

Loose ends

I need to cover some bit of Arduino learning and MIDI structures, but I just messaged my prof this morning to see how best to wrap that up, and I’m waiting on a decision.

Lots of learning done, and lots of work left to do, but I’m getting there! It’s like trying to sprint up a hill after jogging for a while on a bumpy surface and constantly losing traction.

Notation Process – 1

The musical side of things kind of got left behind while I learned a bunch of stuff on the electronic side of things. Now I’m finally catching up on at least notating some parts! They are still very much a work in progress, but part of my grade comes from compositional process, so I have to show the messy part of first drafts and revisions and all that fun stuff.

For the first section, first mentioned in Composition Brain Goop, I have a full first pass done. It will be revised at some point after my lesson tomorrow.

Digital_Analogue-1

For the second section, first mentioned in Composition Brain Goop #2, I only have the rhythm and gestures marked in. Adding pitch is easy enough, and I will try to find time to do that tomorrow morning. I will also add the drum rhythm and other details at some point tomorrow. Right now, I just want to share what I have and go to bed so I can get some sleep before the first day back to class tomorrow! (How I love 8:30am classes…)

Digital_Analogue_2-1

That’s all for now! I should have another process post by the end of this week, and maybe a little one about the Korg Wavedrum that I get to use! 😀

Composition Brain Goop #4

General Thoughts

This is it, the last section of a first pass at ideas for this piece! I will eventually come up with a name, but for now I’m just going with whatever ideas come to mind; like gathering materials at hand before figuring out how to use them. Given the vast possibilities with electronics, I wanted to get a head start on composition ideas to keep me on track while I learn about the tools I get to use, because endless possibilities can make creativity very difficult and full of distractions. As usual, this is a continuation of my last post: Composition Brain Goop #3. So, I suggest you get caught up in my messy thought process if you want this to make much sense, as it would be quite uninteresting for me to repeat everything in every post. I think my next round of posts will have detail about pitches and rhythms for the vocal part. Then, maybe I’ll have some sound clips of the electronics for the third pass at things.

This section will tie in elements of previous sections, like a reference to symphonies (that could be interpreted as the sounds around us, or, in a more introspective context, it could refer to the thoughts and energies of the lives around us), the folk-like lilting rhythm in a drum beat to give a grounding sense of finality, and the plea to choose love.

More Goopiness

If you didn’t read the first Composition Brain Goop post, you totally should go read it right now, otherwise, here’s a general overview of how I’ll be notating my piece below for brainstorming and documenting my process/progress:

Lyrics will be notated in regular text. Comments will be in brackets. Electronic idea descriptions will be italicized. Electronic trigger actions will be bold – R for tilting the head right, L for tilting the head left, F for tilting the head forward, and B for tilting the head back. After each tilt, it is assumed that the head be brought back to center.

[Here’s the end of the last section to get an idea of where we’re at.]

B Looking up again, as if to some higher power as sounds shift and morph into the next section.

[The performer’s head will stay tilted back, and the trigger for this section will happen when they put their head back to center.]

I am [Ascending pitch, making it sound unsure.]

I am [Still ascending, but with a more assertive tone.]

I am a symphony [‘I am’ becomes a downward interval to sound like a statement rather than a question.]

You may [Ascending again.]

You may not like me. [Similar line shape to ‘I am a symphony’.]

But I don’t [Ascending again.]

I don’t need you to like me to [Somewhat rushed, as if excitedly remembering lost confidence.]

Love my-self.

R trigger the drums, and possibly other atmospheric changes?

[More spoken and rhythmic than lyrical now.]

I am broken, imperfect,

And I am diff’rent from you.

I think about this ev’ry day.

I struggle, and break down.

I am often lost.

And that’s why I just want to say:

[Back to lyrical, and drums cut out.]

We’re in this together.

It’s okay to hurt.

Choose love over a-pa-thyyy.

You don’t have to please

Everyone on this Earth.

You be you, and I’ll be me.

We are,

We are the melodies

Of unfinished sym-pho-nies.

B trigger thunder from the first section, and all other sounds fade into the thunder crash. The piece ends with the performer looking up and the thunder fading to rain and wind, and eventually, silence. When silence is reached, the performer may relax and stand normally. If applause begins before silence is reached, return to normal and bow as usual.

There are many details to add; since this will be wrapping up the piece, I want to leave it fairly open to include any themes that may develop as I shape the previous sections. I have a fair bit of learning to finish for the electronic side of things, so stay tuned for a flood of posts about that in the next week! (Life has just been hectic, and I’ve been making an effort to find balance lately, which can make ambitious projects like this a little more difficult. I’m doing it though, on top of practicing clarinet and working in an office full-time; I’m slowly but surely getting through this amazing learning experience! With every day I get more interested in electronic music, so I’m excited to see where this takes me.)

Life may throw some stuff at you, but you can do it!

Composition Brain Goop #3

General Thoughts

Time for another section! As you can see by the title, I’ve done two of these before, and this is yet another continuation from where I left off in Composition Brain Goop #2. I hope to have the fourth one out soon as well, because I have it in my head, it’s just a matter of expanding it and putting it to words. I know my ideas will change slightly as I learn more about what I can and can’t accomplish with the equipment, knowledge, and time at my disposal, my ideas with shift and I will have to make some compromises, but I need a base to start from, so I need to get my ideas out of my head and examine them so I can move on. That said, let’s dive into my idea for the third section of this piece!

After doing something bold and shocking in the first section (kind of like a fanfare that announces the arrival of something), and transitioning into something familiar and folk-like that incorporates soundscapes as background accompaniment in the second section (like a soothing second movement to contrast the chaos of the first), we will move onto a more ethereal third section with the background being like an inner soundscape of emotions as we reflect inward. The third section will be less stable than the folk-like section, but more stable than the first section.

In terms of creating the sounds for this section, I want them to sound shimmery and distant. I want harmonies to frame the lyrics, and I don’t know if they will be pre-rendered harmonies, or if I’ll find a way to detect the pitches of the vocalist and generate harmonies on the fly either by using a virtual instrument or just using effects on the input of the mic and crafting a vocal line that can harmonize itself nicely via reverb or delay or something.

The Goopiest Section so Far

If you didn’t read the first Composition Brain Goop post, you totally should go read it right now, otherwise, here’s a general overview of how I’ll be notating my piece below for brainstorming and documenting my process/progress:

Lyrics will be notated in regular text. Comments will be in brackets. Electronic idea descriptions will be italicized. Electronic trigger actions will be bold – R for tilting the head right, L for tilting the head left, F for tilting the head forward, and B for tilting the head back. After each tilt, it is assumed that the head be brought back to center.

[Here’s the last bit of the second section and the transition into the third, just to get us situated.]

And romanticized prose about sailing. [This last line with gusto! Like a punchline that acknowledges the cheesiness of everything that just happened.]

B Line up the trigger with ‘man’ in ‘romanticized’ to schedule the drum to end in 4 measures. Keep the backwards tilt natural, coming back to center by ‘sailing’ to emphasize the last word of this section. The end of the drum triggers another transitional morphing section in the oceany water sounds to a fuzzy kind of white noise (which sounds very similar to rain) to switch into shimmery ethereal spacey sounds meant to be something like a soundscape of the mind.

[In this section, the sensor will be extra sensitive to shape the soundscape, like brushing a feather across a still pond: just to add occasional ripples to catch the light and shimmer differently.]

With so many possibilities, how can I just sing about sailing?

So much pain in the world to heal…

So much division…

Cracking my world to pieces…

B Looking up, as if to some higher power, this time don’t go back to center right away, just look up and let the sound surround you for a while. A sound will emerge from the soundscape, it will probably be a theremin, because they imitate humming really well, and it will do the first fragment of Garnet’s motif from Steven Universe: C G F Bb G. Then as it does the second fragment, return the head to center position: C G F Eb C. Join in for the closing fragment singing ‘ah’s: C G F Bb C, and fade out. The electronics will play two cycles of a four-chord progression in 8th notes in 6/8 time. Enter on the third note of the last chord of the second progression.

[One pitch per syllable. I’m leaving rhythm out of this post for now.]

We’ll fill up the cracks, [C G F Eb C]

And make the world whole, [C G F Eb Bb]

Fill the spa-ces in-be-tween. [Bb Bb G Ab G Eb F]

We’ll fill up the cracks, [C G F Eb C]

And make the world whole, [C G F Eb Bb]

Fill the spa-ces in-be-tween. [Bb Bb G Ab G Eb F]

 

With lo-o-ove [Eb Eb D C]

Fill it with lo-o-o-o- [F Eb D Eb D C]

o-o-o-o-ove. [C G F Bb G] [This has a meter change, and the electronics have been looping the same chord progression through this, so once it does so many loops, it will not only switch meter, but it will add more echo-y reverb goodness to the the vocals to make this bit sound super spacey with a fade-out like we’re zooming out on a scene.]

B Looking up again, as if to some higher power as sounds shift and morph into the next section.

I should have the next section up within a week! Then I can really get into things and at least properly notate the vocals to schedule a workshop session with my vocalist to make sure the range and everything is good for her! I’m still learning a lot about the electronic side of things, so those details will be added much later.

Have a lovely day, and choose kindness!

 

Composition Brain Goop #2

General Thoughts

When I talk about folk music in connection with this piece, I’m talking about Atlantic Canadian folk music with Celtic and Acadian influences, kind of like the sounds of Great Big Sea and Vishten, because that is the folk music I grew up with.

This is a continuation from my first section about my composition project, where I explained the basic technical bits and the specifics of the first part of my piece. In the first section of my composition, I established a tone for the piece, as well as showing off the a bit of the sensor node’s capabilities. In the second part of this piece, I want to have a more comfortable, familiar section for people to hold onto so I don’t lose their attention amidst too many new things. This folk song section will show off the soundscape possibilities that can add another dimension of experience to familiar musical elements.

The rhythm and pitch of the lyrics are flexible in the ways that folk music is flexible. The relative pitch matters, but since there will only be drums and rain as accompaniment, the transposition of the key doesn’t matter. The key will be some kind of major key, as in it resolves to ‘do’, but the range it covers is mostly between ‘sol’ and ‘fa’. When I was at the piano trying to figure out notes for the melody for this section, I settled on C4 to B-flat4, but each performer should choose a key that feels comfortable. There are certain anchor words to be placed on strong beats, but any notated rhythms for the in-between words can be shifted to whatever feels natural for the performer without changing the mood of the music.

The main challenge with this section will be the transitions in and out, and creating polished soundscapes that add depth and character without distracting from the performer, much like how a film score is meant to strengthen a film rather than take over.

Specific Outline (Lyrics & Effects)

If you didn’t read the first Composition Brain Goop post, you totally should go read it right now, otherwise, here’s a general overview of how I’ll be notating my piece below for brainstorming and documenting my process/progress:

Lyrics will be notated in regular text. Comments will be in brackets. Electronic idea descriptions will be italicized. Electronic trigger actions will be bold – R for tilting the head right, L for tilting the head left, F for tilting the head forward, and B for tilting the head back. After each tilt, it is assumed that the head be brought back to center.

The transition from the first section involves the emergence of rain sounds, and a folk drum beat in something like 6/8 time (dotted quarter = 112 bpm) that actually switches from 6/8 to a 3/4 feel (with constant eight notes) every second measure in the way that feels natural for sea-shanty-type folk songs. The drum will fade in for 4 measures, with the last measure being 3 strong quarter notes to signal the performer to start in the next measure.

Notes may be learned,

But my heart always yearned

To hear more than the page has to offer.

Can I hear the gulls cry,

With the waves crashing by

When you sing to me stories of water.

L gull cries

[Performer looks around in wonder]

spin crashing waves that continue and blend with the rain

[Performer clasps hands excitedly]

I’m strong like the wind,

And I surge like the water.

I know that I’m home when I’m sailing.

The sea always calls me,

And knows how to rock me,

And puts me at ease when I’m sailing.

I’m free like the wind,

With my peace from within

That flows through the sea as I’m sailing.

I just made this up

With a handful of luck,

And romanticized prose about sailing. [This last line with gusto! Like a punchline that acknowledges the cheesiness of everything that just happened.]

B Line up the trigger with ‘man’ in ‘romanticized’ to schedule the drum to end in 4 measures. Keep the backwards tilt natural, coming back to center by ‘sailing’ to emphasize the last word of this section. The end of the drum triggers another transitional morphing section in the sounds to unnatural spacey sounds.

[I’m not sure exactly what the tone of the next section will be, but I hope to find a way to transition back to something more introspective for the fourth, and final section that will combine the drum and rain of this section with elements of the third section that are yet to be determined, and lyrics that I have partly finished at the moment.]

Spread love and kindness wherever you go! 🙂

Composition Brain Goop

As part of the Composition section of my Directed Studies in Electronic Composition, my final project will be a composition that I have to record. As a way to track my process and my progress, I’ll be posting some brainstorming stuff, starting now! These ideas will not be so neatly strung together as a web. In the early stages of brainstorming, the ideas are more like goop that oozes into different shapes the moment I try to pick them up and shape them. So, I suppose this post is a way for me to poke, pinch, and observe my ideas as they are at this point.

Solidified parts of my composition idea (the ingredients of the goop?)

  • I will compose for interactive electronics and voice.
  • The vocalist will wear a sensor node fixed into some type of headband to trigger tracks and/or effects by tilting her head.
  • The vocalist I asked to help me with this happens to be a mezzo, so that is the range with which I’ll be working, but it could possibly be adjusted for any voice. If I am able to easily make the electronic part transposable, I will do so to enhance the versatility of my creation.
  • Where possible, I want to make the final product user-friendly; however, that will not be my focus in this course. If I end up really liking whatever becomes of this, I will make time to simplify the rough technological edges as a personal project later.
  • I will have to figure out an efficient way to program the sensor node, making it a kind of state machine to offer a variety of sounds given only a few basic tilting directions, left, right, forward, and backward. (This part makes me REALLY thankful that I took Digital Systems last semester with Chris.)
  • I will need a mic to possibly project the voice, and definitely for input to modify the voice occasionally. (Might run into trouble with feedback if the mic picks up too much sound?)
  • I will need to program a way to calibrate the tilt of the node so the performer can use it within their natural range of motion.

The goopy parts: Implementation

(Lyrics will be notated in regular text. Comments will be in brackets. Electronic idea descriptions will be italicized. Electronic trigger actions will be bold – R for tilting the head right, L for tilting the head left, F for tilting the head forward, and B for tilting the head back. After each tilt, it is assumed that the head be brought back to center. I want to preserve the forward tilt for resets of sections to facilitate practicing, with it functioning like a back button in a music player in that one nod takes you to the beginning of a section, and nodding while at the beginning of a section would take you to the previous section. Each section would be like rehearsal markings in traditional scores, and they would change the configuration of what your head controls at that time. I want to use the backward tilt as a ‘next section’ trigger, but since that needs to happen in performance, I also want it to correspond with a sound so the audience isn’t left wondering why the performer just awkwardly tilted her head back for seemingly no reason. So, forward tilt will be a silent ‘back’ trigger for rehearsals, and backward tilt will be the final trigger of each section to suit performances while also providing a way to skips sections for rehearsal purposes. The pitches are still just in my head and I have yet to figure out what they are, so they’ll wait a while.)

Worlds col-lide [each syllable is one beat at 60-72 bpm, with ‘lide’ being accented and released with the ‘d’ on the next beat to line up with the trigger]

R crash like how people imagine lightning to sound, even though we know thunder is the sound of lightning

Step a-side [starts roughly two beats after, with the same layout as the last line]

L boom like thunder

Make way for invisible sym-pho-nies [starts 2.5 beats after, with ‘make’ taking up half a beat, ‘way’ lasting ~1.3 beats, each syllable in ‘for invisible’ is ~0.3 of a beat, ‘sym’ is 0.75 of a beat with a lift before the next one, ‘pho’ is 0.25 of a beat, and ‘nies’ is held for 2 beats, releasing the ‘s’ on the next trigger]

R background blend of strings and stormy wind texture that continues until the end of the next trigger

Full of endless possibilities! [some kind of syncopated of hemiola-esque rhythm for this to make it feel a little drawn out and free, with the next trigger happening slowly after beginning the syllable, ‘ties’]

B bend pitch of mic input up as tilt is increased, and peak with a shattering sound that ends the previous trigger’s output and sounds like tinkling of glass falling, then tinkling morphs into a calming rain sound that stays until otherwise triggered, and a regular percussive beat emerges with a folk-like lilt to lead into the next section that will contrast the drama of the first section with a folk-song way of comfortably telling a story

–End of goopy parts–

I have the next section mostly planned, but I think I’ll limit these posts to go by section if I keep the layout as I currently envision it. I just wanted to break ground on these process logs before I get too deep into planning and end up having to share everything all at once. I’ll have at least another post up by the end of the week if I can stay on task with the schedule I planned!

Go make things! 😀