introduction to electroacoustic music

assignments

aIII

FPA 147 Assignment III: M u s i q u e C o n c r e t e C o m p o s i t i o n

Due: March 19th, 2013.
Email 2 files (or upload to a free file transfer site such as yousendit or similar) by this date.

Assignment:

(1) Find a short sound clip or sample (maximum 10 seconds) for your source material for the exercise.
(2) Create a one minute (1') mono musique concrete piece based entirely on the source material.

Submit two (2) .aif or .wav audio files labeled yourname_assign_3clip (for the short clip) and yourname_assign3comp (for the composition exercise).

Procedure:
(1) Find a single sound clip/sample or a few clips/samples which must combine to a maximum total time length of 10" (ten seconds). A sound clip of pre-recorded music including electroacoustic music) is not permitted.
The trick is to find a sound clip/sample/sound object that has a wide range of timbres or will provide a rich palette from which you can choose sounds and/or sculpt sounds with filtering. Choosing a few short sounds with diverse characters works well. For example an explosion, a single piano note, a voice singing "ah", a short bit of speech, etc.

You may record your own sounds, transfer from a CD or download from the web. The Belzburg library has a large collection of sound effect CDs. On-line sources include freesound.org (you'll need to create an account but all the sounds are free), YouTube (searching for specific sound effects, etc.), and the many other sites for sounds that you'll find through a web search.

(2) Using the techniques demonstrated in the labs and/or used for Assignments One and Two (editing, pitch shifting, reversal, mixing, filtering/equalization, reverberation, delay (flange/chorus/discrete delays), etc.) create a 1' (one minute) musique concrete exercise based entirely on the sound clip(s).

Please note:
This is not meant to be a major work but rather an exercise in experimenting with these techniques.
This project could be completed in 4-6 hours.
Hints:
1. Voice is a very rich sound source. Spoken text has consonants (noise-like elements, percussive sounds) and vowels (pitched, melodic).
2. Think in layers: perhaps a loop as background with other material as additional layers.
3. Work with the intrinsic qualities of the sound itself: What is its envelope? Are there high frequency components or partials which might be brought out by transposing the sound down an octave or two? Is there an internal rhythm to the sound?
4. Think of systematic variations/manipulations of your sound object(s). For example, explore several different versions of transpositions, both subtle (up or down a major second) and drastic (down two or three octaves).
5. Spend more time finding the sound source/sound object(s). Some objects have great potential, whereas others have almost none.

 

Evaluation:

Based on (a) technical aspects (10/20)

- sound quality - no extraneous noise, no clicks, etc.
- good recording/playback levels
- lack of distortion
- presentation (labeling files, etc.)

(b) creative aspects (10/20)

- formal unity (fulfilling the listener's expectations)
- wit (unexpected surprises)
- quality of the transformation, mixed materials