KEY FORMS!!! FILL OUT AND DELIVER TO RF-104 (TECHNICIAN’S OFFICE) (LEAVE UNDER DOOR IF HE’S NOT...

KEY FORMS!!!

FILL OUT AND DELIVER TO RF-104 (TECHNICIAN’S OFFICE)

(LEAVE UNDER DOOR IF HE’S NOT THERE)

OR:

DELIVER TO MAILROOM, RF-327

DOMINIQUE COTE -TECHNICIAN’S MAILBOX (TO LEFT OF ROOM)

I’VE LEFT COPIES IN MY MAILBOX (MICHAEL PINSONNEAULT, CENTER OF MAILROOM BY PRINTER) FOR PEOPLE TO PICK UP IF NECESSARY

[email protected] http://alcor.concordia.ca/~mikep/eamt205

NEXT WEEK

Techniques workshop 1, MacLab (CC-213)

Everyone must bring their own set of headphones (1/8” jack)

Bring your laptop if you have one with audio editing and montage software

Most students will work in groups of two; although there are 20 workstations, there are only 10 software licenses available; headphone splitters will be provided

Topics to be covered over the series of workshops include:

• Building textures / layering schemes

• Making transitions between textures

• Using and constructing gestural sound objects

• Structuring sound objects and textures

• Conceptual / contextual manipulations

Everyone will work from the same set of sounds, which will be in a shared folder on the hard drives of the various workstations

Lab work is evaluated in the 1st semester portfolio

Class 4: Real-time lab (RF-301), in half groups (see attendance sheet)

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

9:00 -12:00

Jamie M.

Stephen T.

Jennifer W. Ellen M.

Jeremy P.

Daniel P.

12:00 -15:00

Marianne D. Maxime B.

Zorina B.

Tristan W..

Evgeny M.

CLASS /

Maintenance

Tobin L.

Sebastien F.

Patrick M.

Ananda S.

Steven H.

15:00 -18:00

Florence M.

Vassilis A.

CLASS /

Maintenance

Philip G.

Adam A.

CLASS /

Maintenance

CLASS /

Maintenance

Joe L

18:00 -21:00

Benjamin D. Jeremy L. JP N. Nimalan Y

Samuel B. .

Matthew W.

21:00 -0:00

Gilles M. AJ B.

0:00 -9:00

Sidney S.

Jakub K.

Karl P. Todd G.

Benyam B.

Julian S.

Max S.

Drew P.

Chris P.

David E. Ruben W.

RF-301 (Studio 1) Permanent Times

DECISION AREA #1: BASIC APPROACH AND MATERIALS FOR:

• SOUND OBJECTS

• TEXTURES

• ENTIRE PIECES

Composition Process

Points to be included in:

• Portfolio documentation

• Listening assignment reviews

• Concert reports

Conceptual framing:

Calculated

Left brain

Intuitive construction

Flexible & spontaneous

Right brain

Spectrum of possibilities between…

Acousmatic materials

Recognizable materials

Nature

Culture

Music

Range of choices from…

Music defined as containing:

• Clear, stable pitches & pitch systems

• Pulse-based, metered rhythms

• Harmonic systems (chords, keys, etc.)

• Pitch/rhythm producing timbres

• Stylized dynamic fluctuations

• Recognizable styles

• Large scale forms and structures

• Para-musical factors (gestures, concepts)

Acousmatic aesthetic as favoring:

• Non-pitched sounds or unstable/complex pitches

• Arhythmic or unmetered time organization

• Inharmonic sound layering

• Heavy processing of recognizable timbres

• Unstylized dynamic contrasts

• Avoidance of known styles

• Subtle & transformative treatment of form

• Para-musical dichotomy: abstract/conceptual

Composition Process

DECISION AREA #2: PARAMETERS (micro- and macro- levels)

Spectrum / Amplitude / Frequency / Space / Rhythm / Layering / Gesture / Structure / Concept

1. Spectrum

2. Amplitude

Sonograms show us if a sound has a stable, organized pitch, or not:

Sonogram A:

Sonogram B:

Fundamentalfrequency

Harmonicmultiples of

the fundamental

Thick clustersof partials not

reinforcing anyparticular frequency

3. Frequency - pitched & unpitched sounds



Pitched sounds have ordered harmonics, onlycover specific parts of spectrum

Unpitched sounds (e.g. ‘hits’, hiss in this file) cover full stretches of spectrum

1st harmonic ~450 Hz

2nd harm. 2 x 450 = 900 Hz

3rd harm. 3 x 450 = 1350 Hz

4th harm. 4 x 450 = 1.8 kHz

5x, 6x, 7x, 8x, 9x, 10x, 11x, etc.


6

Frequency - pitched & unpitched sounds

Parts of a zoomed-in oscillogram (not the attack) can give us clues about whether the sound is pitched or non-pitched:

(A regularly repeating wave cycle such as this one will generate a stable pitch)

(This irregular waveform, which contains little of no repetition, will not generate a stable pitch)


Pitched sounds can also be stable (e.g. the examples looked at so far) or unstable (the violin note-gliss-vibrato note below):



5

Spatial behavior / perception of sound

Especially in indoor environments, the sound we hear is not only the direct vibrations made by the object, person or process, but a number of echoes and reverberations laid on top of the direct sound, the nature of which is generally

referred to as (room) acoustics.

Concert halls and other listening environments are / were designed to create a pleasing (but not too confusing) reverberation, in the 1.5 - 2.0 second range:

The time it takes for reverberated sound to die down to below the threshold of hearing is called the reverb decay, and is given in seconds or milliseconds

Estherhazy Palace Hall, Austria, where most of the classical composer Haydn’s works were performed in his lifetime.

Reverb time: 1.2 seconds

Grosser Musikvereinsaal, Vienna, a major European concert hall.

Reverb time: 2.0 seconds

Powell Hall, St. Louis Reverb time: 2.2 seconds

4. Space


[SWP; OPCH]

Recording studios, on the other hand, are designed with shorter reverb times, because this allows for more control of recorded signals.

But contrary to what many people think, a completely ‘dead’ studio acoustic (i.e., reverb time < 0.3 sec) was only ever considered the ideal in the late 70s and 80s.

4. Space


Recording studios, on the other hand, are designed with shorter reverb times, because this allows for more control of recorded signals.

But contrary to what many people think, a completely ‘dead’ studio acoustic (i.e., reverb time < 0.3 sec) was only ever considered the ideal in the late 70s and 80s.

Today, most studio control rooms have reverb times between 0.5 - 0.8 sec, while recording rooms vary from 0.3 sec (e.g., booths for recording voiceovers) to rooms that can be ‘opened up’ to over 1.0 secs when carpeting and other acoustic baffling is removed.

4. Space


Arenas and other large concert venues not designed for sound present the challenge of very long reverb times (>3-4 seconds) that can confuse listeners with too much overlap.

This is usually dealt with by providing as much direct sound to as many parts of the venue as possible.

Speaker clusters for astadium rock concert

4. Space


Composition Process

4. SpaceMono

= =

Stereo

RL

7.1 surround

5.1 surround

8.1 surround(shoebox)

8.1 surround(double diamond)

Stereo butterfly &discrete 8-channelpossibilitiesatHarvestMoon,OPCHOct. 3-5 & at EUCUE (late Oct., Nov., Feb.)



7

Two levels of space usage in this example:-channel (L-R) manipulation-spatial properties in the sounds themselves

Composition Process

5. Rhythm Examples played showed a range of possibilities for rhythmic use in EA, including:

• Metered sound objects mixed low enough that the rhythmic elements serve more as a color than a driving force

• Metered sound objects layered with other dominant non-rhythmic elements that form a strong counterpoint

• Rhythmic sound objects that are complex to the point of obscuring any obvious metric organization

• Several different meters and tempos layered together in textures such that no rhythmic element dominates

• Rhythmic sound objects or textures used as a transitory presence that sometimes comes forward but is masked or fades into the background at other points



Musical example: excerpt from Stravinsky

EA examples: 9-158

6. Layering / Texture

7. Gesture

Definition: The energy profile of any sound-producing real-world action (natural or mechanical).

• Gestural sounds often evoke conceptual elements because of the real-world contexts they may be connected to

• Also closely linked to the use of gesture is the notion of causality

(i.e., the perceived link between a gestural sound and its aftermath)

Composition Process

In workshops, different types of layering / texture schemes will be worked on: homogenous, homophonic, polyphonic, antiphonal, etc.



Musical example: excerpt from Aarvo Pärt

EA examples:

16

17-18

Musical example: Penderecki, String Quartet no. 1 19

EA examples: 20-25

1. Unprocessed Sound - Processed Sound - Unprocessed Sound

2. Based on Sound Source #1 - Based on Sound Source #2 - Based on Sound Source #1

3. Lower Frequencies - Higher Frequencies - Lower Frequencies

4. Recognizable Sounds - Acousmatic Sounds - Recognizable Sounds

5. Thin Texture - Dense Texture - Thin Texture

6. Largely Static - More Rhythmic - Largely Static

7. Music-Based Sounds - Nature-Based Sounds - Music-Based Sounds

8. Vocal/Body Gestures - Machine Sounds - Vocal/Body Gestures

9. Soft, Crescendo - Loud - Decrescendo, Soft

10. Note-Like Sound Sources - Noise-Like Sound Sources - Note-Like Sound Sources

8. Structure

Workshop example: A-B-A structural possibilities

Composition Process



Musical example: Theme & variations, Bernard Hermann, Citizen Kane breakfast montage

EA examples:

26

27, 28

In EA, any calculated or intuitively derived level of organization at the macro- or micro- levels of a piece, texture or sound object

9. Concept

Definition: In EA, any piece affected by sound elements carrying associations,

images and ideas from wider societal and cultural contexts.

1. Text & speech elements are common carriers of concepts

2. Any recognizable sounds have the potential to evoke the imagery or associationsthat concept-driven pieces require.

3. It is common for concept pieces to contain narrative, reportage or documentary elements

4. But it is equally possible to treat the concepts touched on in an EA piece relatively abstractly, with no clear ‘message’ or story.

EA examples:

Musical example: any song with lyrics

Composition Process



29-33

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