Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Godotcast #2

I've added the second installment of the "Godotcast" to my Podcast (can be found in the sidebar to the right). In this installment I describe the process behind the final cues for each act and a brief discussion of the collaborative process. I utilized Shepard's Tones for these cues to represent the endless waiting that the characters undergo in the play. Those of you that know know how much I like these sounds, but hopefully you get a kick out the end of the show, where I attempt to replicate these tones on a piano.

You can listen to this either through the embedded player in the sidebar or you can download the audio seperately below. There is a short advertisement if you download the audio.

Direct link to audio.

Friday, October 27, 2006

2000 visitors!

A little congrats to Sonic Event! We've logged our 2000th visitor. This is also the 80th posting, all in about 10 months. Thanks to all of you for reading, and keep your eyes on us in the future!

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Godot Podcast #1

I've been neglecting Sonic Event for nearly a month now, but for good reason. I've been working feverishly on composing music for a production of "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett. This production, directed by Kate Sinnett, opened on the campus of St Cloud State University in Minnesota and featured women cast in the lead roles as well as comprising nearly all of the crew.

I've decided to document some of my compositional process in a series of Podcasts. You'll see the Podcast in the player on the sidebar.

The first episode describes the process that I used to create many of the sounds heard in the underscoring - pitch tracking. Based on recorded voice, I created software (using CSound) to analyze the pitch and amplitude content of the file and then recreate, using a timbre chosen by me, a "melody" of the predominant pitch material of the voice matched with the amplitude envelope. In the case heard in the Podcast, I divded the octave into 50 equal parts, so there are lots of microtones. I won't go into more detail (for that you'll just have to listen!).

I hope you enjoy this and please comment!

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Podcasting Example for Class

For this week's class we converted a song from a CD, edited it in ProTools, and then uploaded it into Odeo. The result is below. Enjoy!!!

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Lost

It is cliche to say that electronic music is heard all the time on TV now. But I wanted to briefly mention 'Lost', the hit series on ABC. The soundtrack/music in the show is typical, run of the mill scary movie fare with screeching strings and coordinated "hits" to emphasize cliffhanger moments. These typically happen right at a commercial break (like George Costanza's old 'leave on a high note' routine!).

But the opening titles, short as they are, are interesting. This extremely brief segment, measuring less than 10 seconds, is a subtle wash of sound that trails into a scraping pitched sound, not unlike a rusty windmill. There is no rhythm and certainly no semblnce of "theme song" as is so common on television. Kudos to 'Lost' for interjecting, even if only for 10 seconds, a little breath of new music!
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