A Whole New World

:: No, it's not about Disney (sorry all you Aladdin fans). It's the creation of a scene in an alien world using sound alone. This was our first project of the winter quarter for AAPW and focused on using our acquired skills creatively. The idea was to have a scene in mind first, then create that scene with any sound sources available to us. If you want to listen to the clip first and figure out what I envisioned, what I used to create the effects, or just want to create your own version of what this alien environment is like, then I suggest you click play and close your eyes right now, before I explain. I encourage you to NOT read on until you have listened.

The original scene I played out in my head and later on in the computer is probably fairly obvious: a conversation between two alien creatures. To get the alien language, I wrote out a simple (and fairly strange) conversation and translated it into Spanish. I don't speak Spanish, so I had to use an online tool (freetranslation.com, very handy) to do it for me, and since you have to pay for idiomatic translation, I had to stick with a really rough literal one. I then recorded myself speaking both sides of the conversation and used a pitch-shifting tool in Pro Tools to differentiate each side and thus create two separate characters. Although they already sounded nothing like me, they still sounded human, and definitely still sounded like really bad Spanish. To overcome this, I simply reversed each segment of speech to result in the sound you hear in the recording. If you play this backwards, you will actually hear the Spanish words (although the conversation itself with be spoken chronologically backwards).

As for the ambient sounds, those were recorded in a previous session for a totally different reason. Those sounds were part of a noise composition for a student in another class who agreed that in return for recording her piece, I could use the sound clips for my project. The setting I created with these sounds for the alien dialogue was, hopefully, a spaceport bar. The bubbling and occasionally squealing sound represents some sort of drink with fuzzy creatures in it which are eaten as the liquid is drunk (like a worm in a margarita I suppose). This was originally a Dremel drilled against a pop can; a plug-in turned it into a delicious beverage. Way in the background of the noise, there is a strange reverberated squawking that was my flight announcer for the spaceport; this was simply a synth loop with some EQ and reverb used to throw it far away acoustically from the listener. The most obvious of the sounds is the spaceships themselves, swooping overhead. This was achieved by recording a bass guitar through a distortion and a wah pedal and then using simple volume and panning automation to bring it in and out of the picture. I will hopefully add some pictures of my miking setup later on when it's not midnight; for now, you'll have to just envision it all as you listen to my acoustic scifi ::

UPDATE: File is now only available at http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

A Turn For the Strange

:: After fall quarter, I decided to drop American Sign Language; it was a great experience, but not really what I wanted to go to school for. I needed a more focused direction for my education than that. So I talked to Terry and was lucky enough to slip into an open spot in his other program, Music Composition Intensive. Although there is plenty of music theory, this class takes more of a look at contemporary methods of composing music. Our first project was one for prepared piano (for examples, look up works by John Cage). The basic premise of this form is not to focus so much on making sound by striking the keys of the piano (although that can certainly be part of the piece) but by manipulating the strings and/or body of the piano to create weird tonality. Felt can be woven between strings, mallets can be used to strike them, small iron rods can be placed across them, whatever results in a sound that the composer likes. My first (and possibly only) prepared piano piece is entitled "Schrodinger's Cat"; if you know the term, then you may be able to figure out the meaning behind each of the four short "movements". I recorded this with a Marantz PMD660 in stereo using two EV RE15's, both about a foot away from the strings at a 20 degree angle to them, one pointing at the bass section nearer to the single-strung notes and one at the treble section by the curved indent in the body ::

UPDATE: File is now only available at http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

Advanced Audio Production Workshop

:: My new class has already gone through a whole quarter. I've been so busy with it, I had no time to write anything about it. Terry Setter is my new teacher, and I've learned a lot from him so far. With two quarters to go, I'm sure I'll be ready for the audio internship next year, which I decided was my goal earlier this school year. I just have to get really familiar with the studios so that I can teach other students how to use them; that includes the 16-track studio that I've begun using this year (see below). I'll be able to put up some of my work later on when I can pull it off the school servers ::