Project A; Discovering and using Pd

For this project I must produce; (a) Two simultaneous random melodies; (b) Two different intervals using two bangs; (c) Two glissandi: one linear and one logarithmic; (d) A quarter-tone scale, beginning at A (440hz)


Two simultaneous random melodies

I began creating two simultaneous random melodies by starting the project in edit mode. I began by creating two object boxes in which I entered 'metro' and a number. This sets a metronome for each melody. I then added a bang, a bang generates a pitch between 200 and 1000 Hertz. I then created another object box which I entered "random" and a number in which I connected to the left inlet of a "+" object box, containing a number, creating a sum. I then connected it to an "osc~" object, by moving the values in the number box up and down will produce a vertical interval. I then connected it to an object which I entered *~ followed by a number effects the the pitch and adds an oscillator.  

The two random melodies are controlled In order to trigger the random melodies you have to click on the bang to produce the two simultaneous random melodies.

Two different intervals using two bangs

This is a screenshot of my Pd project for two different intervals using two bangs. It takes a similar form to the first Pd project. The difference is that this patch, as well as having a bang it has a toggle (an on an off switch) attached to the oscillator and effects the pitch. So you can easily turn the intervals on and off.




Linear glissando

Tackling the glissandi, as a glissando is a scale, it is defined as a glide from one pitch to another. To create a constant pitch shift whilst a continuous scale I added a delay, the object box 'del 5000', with the bang causes a separate note to play. The mtof object box transposes a midi value into a frequency in Hertz. A number corresponding to a midi note number is connected to the mtof objects single inlet, the single outlet, is the frequency corresponding to the input midi note number

 

Logarithmic glissando

The logarithmic glissando takes a similar form, due to it's nature. However when the scale has been played it automatically stops as there is a a message box with stop written in it.

A quarter-tone scale, beginning at A (440hz)

The quarter tone scale I found difficult and attempted it as well as I could. Like the other scales, it contains similar elements... The mtof, delay object boxes along with the bangs. This scale also has a toggle button. I also used a send and receive object boxes to send its contents to its outlets.

Overall I have enjoyed experimenting and learning about Puredata. However for the music I intend to write and produce this is not a software I would incorporate.

Project B; Composition using Logic

I decided to compose a piece of music for the film we made in our IM2030 class. Our project was to produce a five minute film depicting what we believe 'Hidden London' is. Our story line is that of a 'nice guy' who borrows money from a loan shark and can't pay him back, so it ends with the main character being brutally murdered. However, we decided to begin the film with the main guy dying. This is to create intrigue, and engage the audience.


I decided to compose the music to this film to replace speaking and diagetic sounds whilst portraying the characters. I also want to create a dramatic and tense feel to the piece. When composing the piece I 


... I imported the film into Logic and set the tempo to 120bpm. I then began composing a simple piano riff using a logic piano plug-in, with my midi keyboard. I recorded myself playing the chords C and D arpeggiated. Any mistakes I made, I manually corrected using the piano roll. With a simple riff I was able to create a rhythm, using a Logic jazz piano plug-in. Once I had created a drum beat, I separated the drums into six separate tracks. I panned the drums to fill the stereo field and imitate what you would hear if you were listening to drums live. I also created an auxilary channel which I used as a reverb and sent the drum tracks individually so I could control the level of reverb on each track.


I then tweaked the E.Q. of each individual drum part; I heightened the bass in the kick drum. Snare, I slightly increased the mid range. Hi-Hat, I E.Q'ed out a considerable amount of bass and heightened the high end. The toms I increased the bass slightly and cut out a bit of the mid range frequencies and cymbals I cut out some of the bass frequencies.





Once I was happy with the sound of the drums I created new instrument parts to layer the track and help build suspense. I added a bass track followed by a harp track. The violins and cello help add suspense to the piece. 





Due to the film being five minutes long I composed the piece at five minutes, however our assignment had to be 3 minutes and 50 seconds long. I had to split the track at 3 mins 50 and had to fade out, during a dramatic scene. This helped build tension and suspense. Leaving the listeners wanting to listen to more. The music I composed was a reflection of the film. 


This is the finished song with part of the film:


Hidden London Composition

Why and how I composed Project B

I interpreted the brief of this project was to accompany a game or to create dramatic effect in a film scene. Our project in the Video and Sound Techniques Module was to produce a short film, titled ‘Hidden London’. The story line of our short film is following what seems to be a standard good guy. However, it was important for us to portray both the good and bad parts of London so we decided to create the ‘nice guy’ who owes someone money. The main character fails to obtain the money and is stabbed, and dies. The story line is believable and interesting whilst maintaining an air of mystery, allowing the audience to use their own ideas to imagine what the background information is.

I felt motivated to compose this piece as I feel there is a lot of scope for ideas when composing music for this film.

I decided to compose the piece with various different timbres, instruments include, a piano, harp, violins, cello, bass, percussion, drums and a texture effect.

I wrote the piece to create the mood rather than a specific genre. My piece could be classed as a neo-classical. When composing my piece I was inspired by Cinematic Orchestra, I wanted to capture elements of jazz, with the sporadic drumming.

First I imported the film I was composing to, into Logic and set the tempo to 120bpm, the time signature of this piece is in is 4/4. I began by composing a simple piano riff using a logic piano plug-in. I recorded myself playing the chords C and D arpeggiated. Any mistakes I made, I manually corrected using the piano roll. With a simple riff I was able to create a rhythm, using a Logic jazz piano plug-in. Once I had finished creating a drum beat, I separated the drums into six separate tracks and panned the drums to fill the stereo field. I also wanted to imitate what you would hear if you were listening to drums live. I also created an auxilary channel, which I used as a reverb channel and sent the drum tracks individually so I could control the level of reverb on each track.

I then tweaked the E.Q. of each individual drum part; I found that when I increased the gain on the kick drum it caused distortion so I lowered the gain. For the snare, I slightly increased the mid range. The hi-hat, I E.Q'ed out a considerable amount of bass and heightened the high end. The toms I increased the bass slightly and cut out a bit of the mid range frequencies and cymbals I cut out some of the bass frequencies. Once I had finished tweaking the drums I composed the parts of the other instruments. I panned violins, along with the cello left and panned the clarinet right. This is to replicate the positions of the instruments in a hall, as the wind and string sections would be separate.

Once I had my finished composition used automation to affect the volume of the piece throughout to ensure the audio from the film can be heard and the levels are correct. To increase the dramatic effect and cause suspense and tension, I increased the volumes of all the instruments at tense parts to create a crescendo. I ended the piece by fading out the drums slightly and ended them abruptly to add extra dramatic effect.

Using Pd

Having never used Pure Data before, I found the tutorial very useful. Unlike other music software programs such as Logic or Cubase, Pure Data is a visual programming language. It works only with data; numbers and symbols (letters).
In order to use Pure Data you need to understand the data flow programming language. Pd is limited to four types of text entities; messages, objects, atoms, and comments.
In Pd; data can be loaded from file, read in from MIDI, or generated, and is then stored in tables which can be read back, used as audio signals or control data.
Pd is a very advanced program which I hope to learn in more detail as I progress through our projects.

Programing Techniques and Terminology

A class, an Object, an Array, Types, Values, Variables and concurrency.


A class consists of objects which have similar attributes and behaviours. Attributes are some properties and characteristics of an object and its behaviour is a collection of actions an object knows how to carry out. Two important aspects of an object is its attributes and its behaviour. The only way of getting an object to do something is to send it a message. The object will only respond if it has been programmed to understand the message and will respond with the action.


Types limit the values that a variable can hold or that an expression can produce, limit the operations supported on those values, and determine the meaning of the operations.
A variable is a storage location.

Aphex Twin

I was asked to create a presentation about the coiners of "Braindance".

[1] "Braindance is the genre that encompasses the best elements of all genres, e.g traditional, classical, electronic music, popular, modern, industrial, ambient, hip-hop, electro, house, techno, breakbeat, hardcore, ragga, garage, drum and bass, etc."

When I researched Aphex Twin is bullet points, this is what I learnt:

• The name Aphex is derived from Aphex Systems Limited, a brand of audio signal processing equipment. 

• He made his own software to compose with, including algorithmic processes

that automatically generate beats and melodies.

• Co-owns Rephlex Records with Grant Wilson-Claridge in 1991.

• The videos for Come to Daddy and Windowlicker, two songs that heavily use Digital Signal Processing (DSP) techniques, were directed by Chris Cunningham and caused controversy due to their disturbing images and themes

Aphex Twin - Come To Daddy

I also discovered that on the Aphex Twin website you can choose what file type you would like to purchase and the price differ depending. 

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphex_Twin

"What does the future hold for computer generated music in live performance"?

DJ's lumbering large amounts of vinyls and CD's to every gig is becoming a thing of the past. With the advances in technology, all they'll need is their laptop and the appropriate software. Suggesting there is a bright future for computer generated music in live performance. 


Researching into this topic IRCAM, the Institute for Research and Coordination Acoustic/Music. It is one of the world’s largest public research centers dedicated to both musical expression and scientific research. It has three principle activities; creation, research, transmission. IRCAM provides the platform for composers and artists from the contemporary stage and it supports contemporary composition. As I research IRCAM it is becoming very apparent that its on the cutting edge of scientific and technological innovations. It's dedication to research, carried out on young people through universities and through international, it ensures they are aiming to please a wide field and the future generation. ICRAM cover a range of scientific disciplines including signal processing, acoustics, computer science (languages, real-time, databases, man-machine interfaces) musicology, and musical cognition. IRCAM also cover other disciplines, such as live performance, fine arts, multimedia.
There has been various projects, including multi-disciplinary projects. I'm familiar with this project as last year I was involved in an interdisciplinary project in my course last year. I worked with theatre students and photography students. In our performance I had to queue the music, I had composed at allocated times, with a powerpoint, during the performance. This I feel is an example of how computer generated music in live performance is continuing to progress. 


Another example of the future of computer generated music in live performances is the revolution of VJ sets. Pete Moraite creates VJ sets, [1] ...I’ve often been asked “well, what do you do?” to which I usually found a sense of pressure to respond with something which people can equate to some sort of profession. So I’ve said things like : “I’m a designer” “I’m a graphic designer” “I’m a motion graphics designer” “I’m an designer, I make animated motion graphics”… 

This is an example of a VJ Set - COLOR

Overall it is clear what the future holds for computer generated music in live performances. Live performance is a key outlet for music. The popularity of computer generated music will only increase the demand for computer generated music in live performance. As l




[1]http://www.petemoraites.com/vj_sets.shtml