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leon-k-musc3603 · 3 years

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Assessment #3 - Choose Your Own Adventure

Option 1: Create a 6 - 8 minute piece in which you manipulate a single sound source. A minimum 50% of the material should be derived from the original sample.

Artistic Vision

Single sound source chosen is an iPhone, utilising and manipulating system and application notification sounds.

I want to explore the ubiquity of notification sounds in their continual and functional presence in the day-to-day lives of majority of people, which in a way build and implant associations in our minds from consistent usage of smartphones. Ingrained in our sub-conscious, these sounds of alert trigger a sense of alert within ourselves, and by collecting and manipulating them in a composition I aim to depict the underlying anxiety that brews under the security and reliance we feel with these devices; the psychological grip that technology and overstimulation can hold on us.

Musical Direction & Inspiration

Want to try and experiment with making a piece without a grid/tempo, having rhythmic irregularities and feel like a soundscape of sorts, with ambient music, musique concrete (i.e. tape music) and noise being points of inspiration.

- Nuno Canavarro first came into mind, as I would like to initially implement a similar playful approach to manipulating the sounds. It is also the way that his music feels like sounds and voices being conjured from an empty white spacious void that resonates to me as being something to sonically aim towards in conveying the vast, sterile and deceptively clean sheen of internet and smartphone technology (i.e., the minimalistic and futuristic feel of Apple branding), soon to be contrasted with the resultant reality of anxieties.

o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RHVq98KUJ4

- James Ferraro, and his use of kitschy MIDI instrumentation and OS sounds to create unsettling compositions in his album Far Side Virtual.

o https://youtu.be/tNpFFHd4y8Q

- Autechre, and their boundary-pushing use of sample manipulation and digital software; consistently cerebral and sonically explorative in the realm of electronic digital music therefore always serve as inspiration.

o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev3vENli7wQ

- Arca, particularly their album ‘Mutant’ which has so many good instances of noise and distortion being used in a controlled yet wild manner.

o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW4I_y56DC0

Sound Sourcing

It was a little bit difficult to source a high-quality collection of iPhone system sounds, but I managed to find compilations on YouTube from which I downloaded the HD video and extracted the audio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-V_eyIgDiA

Other than those sounds, I needed vibrations that would be able to fulfil a low-end background role within the mix of the composition.

At first, I attempted to record my phone vibrating from a phone call on my wooden desk; but I soon found difficulty in trying to make a brooding drone synth out of it due to it lacking the low-end and also the subtle background hiss from my condenser microphone. So instead, I decided to use this sample as an introduction to the piece, rather than anything used thoroughly in the composition.

I ended up finding vibration sounds that more suited what I desired through foley websites such as freesound.org.

Composition Log

My general approach to composition for this piece will be first creating sounds of interest and from there hopefully inspires a musical direction to take. Thinking about making it a tripartite piece, with each section revolving mainly around one specific sound.

After sorting out the various sounds, the first few sounds I gravitated towards were ‘bell’ alerts. Started making the first section, with the recording of my phone vibration as an introductory element. Filtering it in gradually, it’ll serve to establish the ‘sound source’, and as a way to allude to the elements of the soundscape (i.e. playing the sounds in their original form before manipulating them in various ways later on). Double the last few vibrations with the bell sounds, playing at same rhythm. Repeating the sequence and re-pitching them lower serves as a way to transition into the surreal ‘void’ soundscape. Found a ‘wooshing’ sound effect among the samples that also worked to transition, with a quick pan sweep from left to right.

To create an uneasy atmosphere, I played around with the ring modulator on Frequency Shifter, which along with the spread setting help create a sense of woosy spaciousness. To ground and provide a foundation for the section, I utilised a pitched down phone vibration sample, giving it more sub low-end content that through EQ’ing is emphasised to push its looming ‘buried’ character. These two are to serve as the central sounds, and here they are looping at separate rhythmic intervals for a disassociating effect.

From here I continued to try find different ways to manipulate the bell samples. One exercise I did was putting a Filter Delay 100% wet on the bell track while it looped, recording onto an audio track. Since Filter Delay has three separate delays (L, R & L/R) with their own frequency filter, you can create a really varied stereo effect as you tweak with it. Once recorded, I placed it fairly low in the mix to make it a background layer, and aligned it with the bell hits but manipulating it by reversing, pitch-shifting, etc. Creates a unique call-and-response effect, where the delays unnaturally precede and ‘call’ the bells to respond.

Returning back to the project I find myself in a little creative struggle in thinking of what more to add to the section, so I begin looking through more samples. It is interesting actively analysing these sounds that I’ve heard so many times in a passive manner, as you begin to notice some legitimately interesting tonal and textural qualities.

For example, I found that the iOS charging sound effect had a cool mellow tone with a fast but smooth pitch contour, so I put into a ‘Simpler’ instrument and played around with it using my MIDI keyboard. Immediately I heard potential with this sample, and I heard an interesting effect when playing chords where the length of the loop on each note would vary. This results in each sample going in and out of phase while played simultaneously, creating its own unique distinct rhythm. To make it sound wider, I used the “Ran > Pan” parameter which makes each sample be randomly panned as they play, experimenting with indeterminate elements. An issue with the sound I found was the abrupt volume dip from the initial pitch rise to the lower constant pitch (which serves as the loop), and to try fix it this I applied a decent amount of compression which served to reduce its dynamic range to a suitable degree.

Once getting the sound sorted with a nice amplitude envelope, I recorded some chords onto MIDI, playing long sustained drones with no strict timing alongside little flourishes in the higher register. Found good elements from the resultant recording (mainly inversions of Cmaj7 & Dmaj7 chords), so I decided to make this a new section from which to build upon.

I similarly use another phone vibration sample, but this time as a consistent droning low-end element that follows the root of the chords through looping in a Simpler. It first retains its original pitch and ‘buzzy’ quality but becomes distinguished once pitched down and applied with a low-pass filter and some distortion (through Overdrive and Drum Buss). Also utilise a portamento slide feature to still keep its ‘vibration’ connotation. This is later doubled with a sub-bass sample that I derived from a “Siri bell sound” pitched down significantly, both fulfilling the bottom low-end of the layer-cake.

To introduce a melodic layer, I duplicated the Charging Sound FX synth, but got rid of the pitch contour so it only had the last lingering tone. By changing the amplitude envelope and increasing the gain, it lend itself to being played like a synth lead, with the slightly hissy quality giving it a unique edge that corresponds with phone call audio quality, and to give it a more melancholy and distant feel, I added some delay with LFO’s altering the delay time slightly and a reverb with a long decay and diffused character. A layer to try symbolising the struggle to clearly communicate amongst an inevitable bombardment of stimuli.

Continuing on this general idea, I played along to the recorded chords, starting off melodically sparse and gradually introducing more. Eventually climaxes to moments where the notes are held on towards the end of phrases, creating loud dissonant chords. For the last ‘climax’ section, I decided to re-introduce the bell sounds from the start to double the last note played.

These loud dissonant sections needed more edge to it, as these are the points where I want to convey a sense of nervousness and anxiety. Here I decided to look up online appropriate Ableton plug-ins to tastefully approach making sounds noisier and decided to use ‘Saturator’, which provided highly flexible in shaping the tone of the noise compared to the simple ‘Overdrive’ plug-in I used previously. Placing one on a return track with an ‘Auto-Pan’ and Limiter, I gradually fed the droning vibration synth into it which created a dominating and overwhelming movement to it. Placing one Saturator on the lead synth also achieved a desired effect, by gradually increasing the Dry/Wet, but only by a small amount.

This section also like the last has other assorted sounds dispersed throughout (e.g. phone typing, message incoming/sent) but gradually getting more and more prominent as it leads to the noisy sections. One sound effect in particular made an interesting ‘heart-beat’ like sound once slowed-down and looped, therefore a very apt association to evoke in a ‘panic’-driven section, where I decided to make the interval between iterations quicker as it climaxed (like an increasing heart rate). Intentionally did not want to add much processing (such as reverb) to these more middleground/background layers as to not clutter the mix and create a textual contrast between the already established foreground layers which are initially spacey and far-out. Serves to ground the piece into a false sense of ‘reality’.

To add to the rhythmic disorientation, I decided to use the classic ‘Radar’ alarm tone which already has stressful connotations to many (including myself) and implement a similar method of rhythmic crossing and in-out phasing by having three layers of it on-top of one another, one with the original pitch and others at faster speeds. The original has an Echo slowly applied, with input gain increased to make the echo more prominent and distorted, adding to the sonic chaos.

Yet again, I start again looking for what other sounds I could play with and potentially build upon. Taking the ‘Siri’ bell prompt sound that I already used as a sub layer, I found it having a nice metallic chime quality when played up higher, almost like a music-box. With this association in mind, I began playing little short melodic motifs that I thought would be interesting to use as a loop for an ending section, to represent the ‘calm after the storm’, but almost in a deceptive way by contrasting the child-like quality with other eerie elements. I ended up settling on a motif and while looping it I added a few more effects to thicken the layer such as a flanger to space it out and a bit of a mid-high-end boost.

I found that by extending the loop of the sample (instead of just one of the chime tones) to incorporate all three bells in the sub-bass synth, made a great rhythmic layer too, as it starts with two higher bass tones and falls down to the last deep note. A longer loop contrasting with the really short melodic loop on top of it.

Duplicating the ‘music-box’ synth, I wanted to use the occurrence of the really harrowing deep note as a call for something to respond to. Here I reversed the MIDI sequence of the motif and transposed into a lower register, still harmonising with the melodic loop but out-of-time. Adding reverb and a different ‘circuit type’ filter in the Simpler, I discovered an interesting effect when applying the gain parameter with increased resonance on the ‘MS2’ low-pass filter, creating a harmonic distortion that was nice to introduce with an upwards ‘swirl’ on automation.

Decided to differentiate the two even further in terms of space, by panning the main loop to the right and this new one to the left.

This is also a section I want to be ‘floaty’ and ‘spacey’ like the first, but not in a disorientating manner. So, I played with the Charging synth sound in order to generate some fluttery high-end tones at the highest MIDI range of my keyboard, as when you push a sample to its tonal limits the pitch becomes less defined but can become an interesting textural element.

Yet again used this synth, but to re-introduce the noisy-section but as more of a middle-ground element. Here I decide to increase the distortion and also implement Beat Repeat to get a glitch-y effect, and through these added effects I improvised over the loops established.

With the recording, I converted it to audio in order to additional glitch it out through Ableton’s ‘Warp’ tool, and by stretching the transients with the ‘Beat’ warp mode and re-pitching, I was able to get some suitable eerie and jarring tones to add on top of the created layer.

It is at this point that I’ve satisfied my initial idea of having a 3-part piece, as now I have laid down three distinct sections with similar thematic elements but utilising different samples as centrepieces. However, in doing this I felt like they might perhaps be too distinct from one another, so in revising these sections I made some additions and changes in order to sonically expand upon each layer and try to make the piece as a whole feel more cohesive.

Part 1 (A/Intro):

- Extended the whole section, initially felt too short and abrupt, but now it leaves a little more room for things to unfold.

- Duplicated the vibration sample, hard panned both to opposite ends and slightly de-tuned one. Creates a doubling unison effect that places it more in the foreground and makes it feel more ‘shaky’.

- Added more automation to the ring modulator, generate more interest by shifting the modulation rather than remaining stagnant as it was previous.

- Created more texture with the reversed Filter Delay samples, by using Redux to create a sharp crackly tone to contrast with the smooth bell sounds.

- Implement the similar reverse delay effect on a ‘iOS recording - ding’ sound, creates sonic consistency.

- Added more bell samples towards the end with different pitch-shifting, thickening it up and creating more interest.

- Introduce the ‘Charging’ sound effect in its raw clean form, alluding to its use in the next section.

- Similarly, I allude to the bass layer from the last section, using its sample reversed and slightly pitched up here.

Part 2 (B):

- Begin to feel like the main ‘charging’ chord synth may lack a bit of higher-end frequency content and could generally using some form of textural doubling to increase interest. Here I decided to grab a bell-sound and placed it into similar settings on a separate Simpler and combined the two synths together. Tweaking the settings, such as the filters and EQ, I found it worked well to introduce this timbre gradually as it subtly thickened the layer. It also generated more rhythmic complexity as it loops at a different speed (with the differing length of the sample), creating an even more enveloping ‘phase in-out’ effect, but to not accentuate it too much to the point of being too overwhelming too quick, I reduced the attack on the amplitude envelope.

- It’s here that I decide to use the ‘lock screen’ clicking sound effect to act as an indicator of a new section. The movement from A to B is to stay abrupt but this gives that little bit of needed cohesion/clarity, as to showcase a rapid fluctuation of mood (from starting the day feeling uneasy to feeling ‘connected’ and fine [at first]).

- Addition of a subtle delay effect on the main charging synth – yet again attempting to thicken the texture a bit more and create a wider space.

- Panning effects on the interspersed aux. sound effects (i.e. the typing sounds doing swooping movements from left to right).

- Introduce the ‘music-box’ melodic motif from the 3rd section by fading it in in this section, adding to the noise. Also is alongside the second motif but it is repeated similarly on a constant loop (rather than spaced out).

Decided to develop a new short transition section (abrupt moment of clarity), with the idea being to introduce the ‘Siri’ bell sound effect in its clean unaltered form and then cutting it up just before entering the 3rd section. Because of its association, I wanted to use a short snippet of Siri dialogue but struggled to find any phrases or samples that were suitable or thematically relevant. I discovered online that I could actually use MacOS to do text-to-speech with a similar Siri voice through the terminal, which was perfect. Here I settled on a recording of the voice saying:

“I’m sorry, I can’t help you with that.”

Being a common type of response, it is recontextualised and serves a different purpose given the emotions of helplessness and anxiety that I wanted to convey with the noisy cluttered section prior. To further delve into this, I used a ‘reverse reverb + delay’ effect, which serves as a good way here to make a spacey and uneasy texture whilst maintaining clarity of the voice, and by ending with no trail it leaves this uncanny silence afterwards. I double the last words, “with that” by pitching down the voice to further drive the creepiness home.

Part 3 (C/Outro)

- Doubling technique with bells applied here, where it plays along with the music-box synth, hitting same notes here and there, more frequent as it progresses with differing panning positions.

- Have both music-box synths end their playing by leaving a long trail through increasing the release time on their respective amplitude envelopes. Creates a lingering effect for the bass motif to continue for a little longer before fading out naturally.

- Don’t want to clutter this section up much but adding much more; currently like the minimalism in how it contrasts and lets the piece fade away.

Here is the piece!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11RjbLUFkewYpcrj35k5gz5T4f0JXCfgj/view?usp=sharing

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