PROJECTS
This list will be updated with more details after projects are assigned.
Submit your assignments to the Box Account with the following content:
An MP3 or WAV file labelled with the specified filename
Screen shot(s) of your software session (please do this for ALL projects)
Supplementary text describing your process and the sounds you used (only when noted)
Compositions are graded based on technical proficiency (lack of technical errors), following the requirements outlined for each assignment, and musical creativity and imagination
COMPOSITION 1: SOUND COLLAGE (5%)
Due 9/26 by 9pm
Collage: an assemblage of diverse elements or fragments in unlikely or unexpected juxtaposition.
Make between 10 and 30 short sounds out of found sound samples. You can use the recordings made during the recorder scavenger hunt, record new sounds, OR use online resources. Use anything *but* drum/percussion samples. For example, you might make your short sounds out of birds, bicycle spokes, carpet scratches, or air conditioning sounds. Use ocenaudio (OR a software you feel more comfortable with) to edit your sounds, BUT limit yourself to the techniques available to old school tape music: changing speed, reversing, cutting, splicing, looping, and/or layering sounds. This means not utilizing digital effects or other processing. Once you have edited your sounds, assemble them into a composition that explores rhythm, texture, and space. You should experiment with possibilities beyond traditional beat-based music. What happens if you abandon pulse? How can editing the left and right channel individually affect the presentation of your sounds? How can density be managed over time?
Requirements: use at least 10 sounds less than 1 second each, create a 30 second composition using those sounds
Label files LastnameFirstname_soundcollage
COMPOSITION 2: TIMBRE CLOUDS (7.5%)
Due 11/2 by 9pm
Timbre is the quality of a sound producer independent of its pitch; it allows us to hear the difference between a clarinet and a trumpet playing the same note, for example. This composition should explore timbre changing over time and different musical sections (formal structure).
More specifically, compose a one to one-and-a-half minute piece that consists of three different dense timbre ‘clouds’ which are smoothly transitioned between. Each cloud (A, B, and C) should be smoothly and seamlessly transitioned between (two transitions total). You are welcome to use any sound sources and you can use any effects and sound processing techniques, but make sure that your end result is smooth, dense, and seamless. Experiment with layering audio effects in series and in parallel, changing source sounds significantly (“What sound is that???”), and using automation.
Requirements: three different timbre ‘clouds’, two seamless transitions between them, 1 to 1.5 minutes in duration
Label files LastnameFirstname_timbreclouds
COMPOSITION 3: PROCESS / PULSE PIECE (10%)
Due TBD
For Composition 3, you can pick one of two options:
Process: Use a process (Reich’s phasing technique, algorithmic rules, etc) to gradually develop rhythmic or pulse-based material over 2 minutes. End somewhere significantly different from where you began.
Pulse: Create a work that explores pulse (perception of rhythm), and has at least two strong “pulse shifts”: moments when the pulse abruptly changes pattern, tempo, or feel. Similar to the second project, think about creating an interesting overall structure through changes in feel, density, and/or timbre.
Regardless of which variant of this project you choose, your piece should focus on (i.e. use mostly) synthesized sound sources, but you may also use recorded materials. You may use any effects and sound processing techniques, but they aren’t the focus of this project.
Requirements: a work that follows the criteria for “process” or “pulse” projects (outlined above), that uses mostly synthesized sounds, and that is 2 minutes in duration (please double check length using ocenaudio or REAPER, etc.)
Label files LastnameFirstname_process-pulsepiece
MINI-MIX ASSIGNMENT
Due TBD
Pick one of the four packages of song stems (unmixed audio tracks) below, each provided free of charge from the “Mixing Secrets for The Small Studio” multitrack library. Note that these tracks may or may not be your artistic aesthetic; the goal of this mixing assignment is to train your ears to listen and also learn skills required in nearly all electroacoustic music practices: the skills you build from mixing any of these may be translated to your own electroacoustic artistic practice.
“JAZZTRIO” | EXCERPT | DOWNLOAD_FULL_STEMS
“DOWNPOP” | EXCERPT | DOWNLOAD_FULL_STEMS
“WEIRDPOP” | EXCERPT | DOWNLOAD_FULL_STEMS
“HOUSE” | EXCERPT | DOWNLOAD_FULL_STEMS
Note: if the above stem links don’t work, you can also download them as .zip files here.
Import these in to REAPER (or another DAW of your choice), with one stem on each track (some stems may be mono, others stereo (2 channels, left and right)).
Your task is to take these raw stems and end up with a final 30-second long stereo mix (a single 30-second long track which you will upload to Box). The 30 seconds will be an excerpt from the full song: listen to it and determine which 30 seconds you’d like to mix (a high point, a low point, a chorus, a transition, etc.) and only mix and upload those 30 seconds!
When mixing you will primarily be changing the volumes of tracks, their stereo panning, their dynamics (with compression/gating, etc.), and their equalization. These changes should be made with purpose while listening intently. In addition to those primary means of mixing you might also use other effects such as reverb, echo effects, stereo wideners, modulation effects, etc.
How you mix can be chosen within a spectrum from “traditionalism”—creating a mix that is representative of, or idiomatic to, the genre that the recorded musical material situates itself in, where your artistic contributions are nearly transparent—to “experimentalism”—creating a (re)mix where your creative choices are intentionally very audible and foregrounded; for example, through editing of the stems and/or applying effects that transform them nearly beyond recognition.
Your only constraints are to
1) have all of the instruments in the stems present in the final mix (don’t just cut out the guitar, for example), and
2) to refrain from bringing in too many outside materials: while layering on a bunch of drum tracks could be an interesting musical choice, the focus here is on the stems themselves and how you handle them to create a successful final mini-mix.
Requirements: a 30-second mini-mix of the stems from one of the four songs provided
Label files LastnameFirstname_minimix
FINAL PROJECT (20%)
Due TBD
The final project for TECH 101 is a self-directed project whose outcome should be a digital audio file (fixed media) or in-class live performance whose duration is from 3 to 5 minutes, in addition to a short supplementary text (~500 words) that contextualizes the final project. This final project is a significant portion of the class grade (20%) and thus should constitute substantial effort and application of skills learned within the course.
Similar to the earlier composition assignments, the final project will be graded based on
adherence to a self-directed definition of the outcome of the final project (determined in the 3-minute meetings you have with me),
The final project proposal should be a short e-mail (sent by 9PM on 5/9) outlining the following:
what kinds of tools you’ll be using for the final project (software (REAPER, another DAW, VCV Rack?), hardware (audio interfaces, mics, synths?))
what kinds of sounds you’ll be using (synthesized, recorded, instruments, voice?)
what elements of the class you’ll engage with (genres of music we’ve talked about, compositional techniques (collage, timbre clouds, pulse), or tools: audio effects, MIDI, etc.)
electroacoustic technique (no major distortion, not too quiet, .wav or .mp3 submitted, etc.),
and creativity and inventiveness, with an emphasis on an engagement with one’s personal artistic identity.
In addition, a supplementary text (around 500 words or two pages, double-spaced) should be supplied (by 6/2) that includes
a textual description of your final project,
a detailing of the process of creating the final project,
and a brief analysis of the historical/technical/artistic areas covered in the course that the final project engages with.
Requirements: submission of a 3 to 5 minute fixed media file OR prepared in-class live performance AND a supplementary text