Simmons.Stern

Final Project

2009-05-03T11:21:00.000-07:00

Here's my final project, enjoy.

I built this song over the course of the semester, beginning first with the introductory synth pattern and beat and slowly progressing piece by piece as I learned more about Logic. I used Logic, Audacity, and Sphere for the project (the latter two to create a reverse cymbal sample).

Though I had initially wanted to have a friend of mine sing for the song (something trancy, as I had mentioned in my proposal), I was unable to in the end because of timing. I still plan on making a song in this way, but for my final project for 295, I had to fall back on a style of more spoken vocals that I've used in other songs:

While I was working in the lab yesterday and struggling to add depth to the piece, I half-jokingly asked Jonah (the Quinn) to listen to it and sing for me. The deep voice of the "verses" in song ("This is a song about flight...") is thus that of Jonah improvising over my beat (using the built in iMac mic). I had to work hard to eliminate the background laughter, as everyone in the lab at the time was cracking up. The effects I added - mainly some flanger and reverb - were intended to make the voice sound more a part of the song and less randomly included. His lyrics are as follows:

This is a song about flight

Not in the sense of the Wright brothers, though

But, like, flying and shit.

You know too much

Now you must run (Run away)

Now we're on the run

We hide, away

For the "chorus" vocals, I used a poem about music I found online. I couldn't come up with lyrics of my own, so I searched "music poem" in google and recorded the first result I found:

Music is my life
Music is my laughter that makes me cry
Music is the thing that changed my life
Music is my happiness I always feel in side

I played this through a vocoder to make it less intelligible and thus less obviously cheesy - as a result, it sounds more like an extra instrument than a vocal track. I would have liked to have real vocals for the song, but think this turned out alright.

The song is driven by a series of drum loops I found in logic, which are supplemented by some simple ultrabeat tracks (although not original, beats in audio files will always sound better than controlled drum machine sounds). Aside from these loops, everything in the song is my own material.

I don't have much more to say - there are too many tracks and sounds to go over individually (22 - see below), but would be happy to review the file with anyone interested. I'm still struggling to make my songs sound "real," but am generally pretty happy with the way this one turned out. I hope you like it, please feel free to give me any feedback you have.

The House Song

2009-04-16T17:39:00.000-07:00

A friend described it as the "best song to have sex to," but he has never met Dr. House. Indeed, Massive Attack's "Teardrop" is probably the last song I want to hear when making love. The song, which we listened to in class today, is a trip hop anthem turned theme song for Fox's "House," and all I can think of when i hear it is Gregory House's not-so-sexy limp. Perhaps without this association my mind would be more open, but for now I'll focus on the song as song and not as soundtrack: for regardless of its context, this is a captivating piece that intrigues the senses (all) to a distinct pleasure reminiscing ecstasy in any setting.

To listen to the song with its original (very interesting) visuals, see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG8eQBSp9Ao

Otherwise, hear it here:

Notice first the degraded quality of the piece - as if, despite its modern origin, the recording is playing from a scratched record or overplayed tape-deck. Trip-hop or chillout or ambient, I like the feel. Modern but removed, cosmic but down-to-earth.

Next hear the simple beat (bass drum, snare), string(ish) synth, and driving piano as they arrive as introduction to a shallow, but sexily underpowering vocal track. I can see how this could be a mood-setter (in the television version, they remove this women's calming voice).

Retreating, never-panning, advancing, and insisting lust or something else innately human, the song moves forward, towards an end.

I decide I like the choice of instruments. Five tracks. Complements. Spread throughout the tonal landscape, coloring waves of sound across a canvas without clashing, overwhelming, or running of the sheet.

Stop reading, listen.

Metasynth

2009-04-12T18:09:00.000-07:00

Here is my Assignment 4, special thanks to the Metasynth lady...

Go to folder - FileFactory.com

Final Project Proposal

2009-04-02T20:01:00.000-07:00

For my final project I would like to create an ambient house and/or trance and/or techno mix of a friend of mind - an opera singer with classical voice training - singing something Jewish (we are celebrating Passover this week...). My music up to this point has been absent real vocals (I've experimented with short samples and speech excerpts, but have never recorded any live vocals into an audio track), and I would like to begin to expand the scope of my creativity by this experiment. The genre of the piece will depend largely on the style of the vocals, which will depend largely on the mood I and my friend are in when we record. Either way, I look forward to working on this. Keep posted.

jonahmusic

2009-03-29T16:13:00.000-07:00

Jonah Quinn, a good friend and fellow Kojs disciple, just published his latest hit: hear it here.

As an avid follower of Mr. Quinn's work over the years, I would be lying to say the debut of this newest track did not satisfy a release in me from anticipation that had become overwhelming in recent weeks: I sat transfixed to the Toniovega blog for four hours Thursday night, eager as the preteen girl awaiting the arrival of the next Stephenie Meyer masterpiece. Drunk (with excitement), I clicked the refresh button a final time and felt a sweeping relief caress me down: the moment had come. I listened:

The song does not waste time with introduction or tarry with delay - on pressing play the pounding bass drum and light looping melody begin immediately, simple but intriguing. I'm reminded by the drums of George of the Jungle and allow Quinn's piece to swing my senses by aural vine from wild jungle tree to tree. As if to mock my metaphor, however, Jonah quickly asserts his, "watch out for that tree," by introducing a deep distorted and arresting brass(ish) sound that draws me back from reverie and into the music.

As the song progresses, this low-frequency and initially alarming undertone is referenced in a series of high-brass chords that follow no distinct but some definite pattern. And while this progression occurs, the initial tone becomes more refined and clear - a fact easily overlooked but crucial to the outcome of the song:

A final, single trumpet blast sounds and the drums, melody, and undertone drop away - all that's left are a soft reminiscent pad and fond memories of a pleasing piece.

assignment 3

2009-03-25T20:25:00.000-07:00

The file "Introduction" is my assignment 3 - made using Reason and Audacity. "Song 3" was the initial beat I made to work with, to give you an idea of the progression. Enjoy. (best if you listen to it with headphones...)

Go to folder - FileFactory.com

EntheoHouse

2009-02-18T09:56:00.000-08:00

The listening in class yesterday, specifically the ambient and spiritual house tracks (Enigma's "Sadness" and KLF's "Chill Out"), was very interesting and enjoyable. The class did, however, make me very confused about the distinctions between genres - I never would have thought to classify some of the songs we heard as "house" - and the genre chart we were shown only made this confusion worse. The ambient and spiritual house, songs, for example, sounded extremely similar to general ambient/dance songs I've heard - what's the difference?

Over the past few weeks I've acquired a distinct taste for ambient music, so I thought it would be interesting to compare a couple of these songs to the listening from class and try and draw out the line between the genres.

First, here is KLF's "Chill Out:"

This song, once the "four to the floor" beat comes in, definitely falls within the house BPM range (probably around 130). Though its natural samples make it distinctly ambient, the electronic sounds and drum machine tie it to its roots in house.

Next let's look at the music of Entheogenic, a two-man German band and music project that produces ambient/psytrance tracks and which an Australian friend of mine recently introduced me to. Here is one of their songs, "Kashmir Day Trip:"

This song has the same ambient quality and 4/4 meter as the ambient house songs sampled, but is much slower. This track is around 109/110 BPM, placing it outside the normal range for house music and into the straight ambient music category, which is generally slower and can also be divided into sub-genres accordingly.

Generally, though, I still find it very hard to classify music by sub-genre - the overlap between categories such as these makes it especially confusing. Hopefully by the end of this course I'll be able to tell more easily what defines "Chill Out" and not "Kashmir" as house. In the end though, I don't really care what the genre is - If I like a song I'll listen to it, regardless of its category.

radiaLoops

2009-02-15T15:36:00.000-08:00

For the second assignment in 295b, we were given a short series of four "clicks," and told to make three twenty second dance loops from them using Cycling '74's radiaL software.

This is what I came up with:

Come Out, Artikulate, and Make Some Animusic

2009-02-10T01:32:00.000-08:00

Two experimental pieces shown in class this past week struck me as particularly interesting: "Come Out" and "Artikulation." Both reminded me of youtube videos I keep in my repertoire of "cool clips," and gave me new insight into the musical influences and history of these pieces.

Steve Reich's experimentation with phase shifting, as demonstrated in class by the piece "Come Out," is something that has intrigued me for a while. The ways in which the phase shift technique plays with our perception of sound and music is fascinating - the gradual and deceiving divergence and then re-convergence of a loop, such as the "come out" clip in Reich's piece, creates an auditory illusion as fascinating as the Shepard Tone (see below). This past fall, a friend of mine showed me a video titled, "1 musician, 2 pianos," which is a a performance of another of Reich's experiments with phase shifting title "Piano Phase." Watch it here:

This video is not only a perfect demonstration of Reich's phase shifting technique, but also a showcase of brilliance on the Piano(s). I have played piano since I was 3, but cannot and will never be able to do anything as complex as this. This requires an incredible ability to hear, control tempo, movement, and thought. In other versions of this song, two players on two different pianos perform, or in most cases a computer manipulates the loops. Here one player exhibits an unmatched level of coordination and skill that I envy.

The other piece that caught my attention was Wehinger's score of Ligeti's electronic piece "Artikulation." It was not so much the score itself that interested me, but the concept of visual representation of musical ideas. The interaction between auditory and visual medias, which has become much more advanced with the progress of digital technology, is something that is of great interest to me. Animusic is a company that specializes in the composition of digital media composites, specifically animated representations of original musical creations. Their creativity is unrivaled, their product extremely entertaining. Here is an example:

Search "animusic" on youtube to view other examples of their work, or visit their website (www.animusic.com). Though infinitely more complex, this way of visualizing music is fundamentally the same as Wehinger's attempt to create a visual score for "Artikulation." The pipe instruments in "Pipe Dreams" not only allow us to see the music being played, but also allow for a form of three-dimensional score, which one could potentially read to recreate.

These examples highlight the progress we have made in skill, imagination, and articulation of our multimedia desires.

Hear the Shepard Tone auditory illusion here:

Assignment 1

2009-02-01T21:12:00.001-08:00

Though I spent many frustrating hours in the music lab today working on my first assignment - the "ringtone" - I think I've created a good product. (Listen to Ringtones Below)

Ring 1 is a twenty-second continuous "soundscape" ringtone that consists of two main parts. The first is a crescendoing set of four time-stretched and reversed clips taken from recorded sounds (glass breaking, girl screaming, etc.). Following this crescendo, the tone transitions into a reiteration of these samples at normal speed and with a more precise rhythm. Ten or twelve additional samples are also added at this point (mixed down into one track) to provide flavor to the work (I used Frequency and Spear to add effects to these tracks - reverse, invert, time-stretch, and pitch-bend). As the tone fades out, the build up and mix will no doubt have already caught the attention of the phone-holder.

Ring 2 is another twenty-second ringtone this time created as a loop of a single sample. The sample I chose for this piece was a simple sine police siren (we asked a stopped police officer to sound the siren from her squad car for us). I time-stretched the sample to a three-second clip, a 1:30 clip and a :75 clip, so that I could easily establish rhythm using a 4/4 meter with the three-second clip equaling the whole note. The method proved successful and I am particularly happy with this piece.

FileFactory.com

Obama and Radio Wonderland

2009-01-25T13:56:00.001-08:00

I currently find myself relatively naive when it comes to the culture and art of electronic music. I can only name as my favorite dance/electronic/techno groups those that I know for their popular dance-party (DP) appeal: Daft Punk, Girl Talk, Basshunter, etc.

Last week, however, I found a new artist for the DP soundtrack. I was in DC for the inauguration:

...and stayed at a friend’s uncle’s house. Of the 15 or 20 other guests at the house for the event – all of which were exceedingly interesting (we had an undersecretary of state, an assistant to the Chief of Staff, and a top Obama volunteer) – one struck me as particularly cool. Joshua Fried, aka Radio Wonderland, is a professor of electronic music at New York University and performs in the city and across the country with an experimental array of digital instruments:

The steering wheel and shoe instruments, he explained, were projects he had first developed in analog form when he was in his teens. Since, he has expanded and improved the technology and now takes the unique apparatuses on tour with him. He programs and composes and experiments, and has been recruited to create museum exhibits and shows that highlight the capabilities of the electronic arts. That he is a short, bald, Jewish white guy makes him that much cooler.

In the spring he has an interactive musical art exhibit opening in Hartford – do attend.