week 8 – acousmatic composition

My second composition is based on my idea about voices in our heads!Sometimes we listen to them, sometimes we ignore them.My voices come out on this piece, rebelling for peace for the soul.
I used Ixi Quarks and two midi sounds from Logic( EXS24) to create the atmosphere of a horror movie, since it is the best atmosphere i wish to create in a room with 8 speakers!ENJOY!

ps.it s not finished yet!This is just a draft…

acousmatic composition – SE

my major project?

After discussing for my major project with Julio, i am thinking about recording sounds from every country i will cross by train during Easter.Since i have already booked to go to Paris, then train to Milan, then train to Bari, then Bari to Igoumenitsa by boat and finally to Thessaloniki by bus, why not exploring at the same time different sounds in every place i visit?Why not keeping a diary of such an experience?Even if i do not use the sounds for the major project, i can use them for any piece i want!
Moreover, while i was visiting the recommended sites by julio for acousmatic composition , i run into the website where R. Murray Schafer and his team created the “World soundscape project”.I will definitely investigate more on that project to get some ideas before i start my journey!!! I just hope my cheap digital recorder will do some good takes

week 8- Music for digital media

I decided to write my progress on every task we did for Music for digital media.
Task 1 – Persona task :I tried to create an atmosphere similar to old movies, with electronic sounds and synthesizers in Logic. I also used audio files, for example the sound of a flash camera. Then i tried to synchronize this sound with the flash of the light in the beginning of the movie, so i chopped the sound in smaller parts and zoomed in to put each click under each flash. After this process, Logic couldn’t play the movie , showing a message “cannot synchronize audio files with midi files”.So i had to restart it three times to get the new result. Generally, i have a problem loading movie and more than ten sounds in Logic.It seems like the system cannot handle it.

Task 2 – animation task: I removed all the loops i used, since Julio told me that the loops controlled the rest of the sounds and music. Since my chosen animation is Pepe Le Peu, i decided to write a piece based on french music, using accordion and 3/4 rhythm signature.I listened a lot to Edith Piaf , who is a famous French singer and lots of her tunes are well known worldwide.I  used accordion from EXS 24, but now i downloaded audio loops with real instruments , so i will attempt to replace the previous ones with the new ones.If my result is not successful, i will try to find somebody to play accordion for me.I would like to know which other instrument i could use instead of accordion and have similar results.(French atmosphere).

task 3 – advert task: I tried to change the drum loops i used, to synchronize more the movements  of people dancing with the music.I think it s one of the tasks i am going to submit in May.

task 4  -5 -movie task: I opened a new project and i wrote a totally different music for “The lord of the rings” with new approach and i didn’t like it either. After that i tried to combine both attempts together, isolating the best parts of each project.I still feel that i like that film too much to feel that i am writing a great music about that scene.I think i will choose another movie and using Foley technique i will have two tasks in one! I think that a movie combines both, so the result will be even more professional. That the other task i m thinking of submitting.

task 6 –  painting task: I am totally disappointed with my result in this task.My approach was totally wrong.I wrote music following my emotions on the painting of Picasso , but not really trying to follow a mathematic path,adding sounds according to the structure of the painting. Moreover,this painting isn’t suitable for this task since it doesn’t have so many abstract shapes, therefore i am going to choose another one.I found yesterday some avant garde paintings on line and i think i might choose one of these.

week 4-5-6 recording and production

We officially started the recordings for Anglia Ruskin CD on week 4, using Protools and the recital Hall.We created a talk back system, from the studio to the headphones in the recital hall, using Art acessories Head Amp 4 to connect headphones for 4 musicians .We connected the box with a  jack to female XLR cable to X channel.Moreover, we connected a microphone to the digital mixer Yamaha O1v96 version 2 and send it directly to X channel  to be able to talk from the studio.
Every instrument or voice was send in different channels on the mixer,and THEN going to Protools where everything was send to output  7 and then sending back to the headphones.

Until now we have recorded, three  voices, one saxophone, piano and guitar by using ES Z3300 , Octava and the soundfield microphone located suspended from the center of the ceiling in the recital hall.I created a website, where me and my team can show pictures of every recording we made, what techniques we used, which microphones, distance between the sound source and the microphone etc.The website includes booking timetable, email and guestbook, so that everybody can leave comments, make a booking or just get an idea of what my team is doing!One new page will be included hopefully next week with articles on music, music technology etc.I made plenty announcements to CMT and Music students and i am happy that some musicians responded to our project.I just hope more CMT students will do that too, at least helping for the production part.:)

The web page is:

http://kikiproductions.co.uk

week 5- acousmatic composition

This is my first attempt using clock sounds, alarm sounds and some breathing sounds to give the sense of stress in everyday life.i used 2 programs:ixi quarks and logic.I thing IXI Quarks is a really good program, cause it gives you so much freedom to experiment with your sound, changing speed, pitches etc. by moving the mouse,creating a sound exactly as you want!I kept some sounds original and i used synths in logic for background where needed.i did some automation etc.in logic, but i prefer to hear my piece in the class to see what changes i should do with panning, the timing and the order of the sound, how much reverb i should use etc.It is not a finished idea,but this is what i almost have in my mind!

If you want to listen to it, open acousmatic composition_task this link:

ps.Whoever has problem uploading his files here, go to divshare.com, create an account and put all your files there.Thanks for the tip, julio

week 6 – music for digital media

This week we were introduced to Isadora, which is a great program where you can manipulate on real time digital videos.We  also talked about OSC, which means Open Sound Control.With OSC plenty of devices can communicate together,for example synths, on real time,and be part of the same performance.OSC and Isadora can be used together for great results!

Trying to find on YouTube videos where people are using Isadora and OSC, i run into this video which is interesting and might give some good ideas:

After watching some videos on similar programs in You tube, i read more about Quartz composer which supports OCS as seen in the video above.It works by connecting patches.

It supports both MIDI and Audio sounds.Check that cool video:

I start wondering which program is the best really!!I know it depends on what you want to use it for, but which one provides more and makes it easy for us to use?I would like to hear some opinions!!

week 5- music for digital media

This week we learn more about how to make music in Max using the scale object!With this object you can map an input range, for example 0-127, to an output range, 0-255. That helped me a lot when i was using the random object on colors and notes and after 127 value until 255 the colors had the same pitch (since 127 is the last midi note).Using the scale button you can have different pitches for all colors!
Unfortunately, i wasn’t able to record all the sounds with my camera(low sounds are really quite!)Therefore, i will show it in the class tomorrow.

Moreover, we learned that Supercollider is really easier to work on , since you can write all commands in few lines to have the same results as in Max Msp after spending many hours to find which objects to use, how they connect etc.I wonder if i can have the same results on a project using every time different program with same midi sounds…

I was also introduced to ixi quarks program, which is great!!!You can import a sound and change speed, pitch etc in few seconds just by moving the mouse!!!It is going to help me save some time from now on

week 3-4 semester 2- music for Digital media

The more i learn about Max/Msp and Jitter, the more interested i am on learning more about it!Since i am a beginner on that program, the previous week i managed to trigger musical events by using sound from synths.Moreover, i really enjoyed using logic pro sound in Logic, connecting Max with Logic.