electroacoustic hints and guesses...

[evernaut]

I've been dipping my toes into electroacoustic waters for about a year now, using mainly field-recordings and software synths and a variety of apps such as DP, Peak and Ableton Live.

My background has been as a singer/songwriter, playing and writing mainly on acoustic guitar, but I've always tried to incorporate experimental approaches within my recordings - and, in many cases, envisaging the result has often informed the writing process too.

I've always been drawn to the sheer "sound" of things though - the drone that old water pipes make in Winter, the beating of rain on a tin roof, traction engines, random night-time mixes of car alarms/pedestrian crossings/birdsong/distant trains.

Never understood why people jam it all out with ipods when there's music all around - that sort of thing...

Anyway, just lately I've been composing some pieces with a view to studying music technology and composition further. I've never been particularly technically minded...more right-brained modes of creativity..., but I can get stuck in deep-down with the tech stuff if I understand basic principles and - most important to me - how they relate to what I'm trying to achieve.

I'm just trying out Max/Msp at the moment and a few lights are flickering on as I work through the lessons...but it'd be much easier if I wasn't trying to figure it all out alone

The point of this post is basically to ask a) does anyone have any friendly recommendations for where you would point me to learn more? I'm thinking of, say, an introduction to the algorithmic side of things. I feel like I've been making food - tasty and pleasing food - but with "cook-in" sauces, rather than from scratch...with the raw ingredients. If you catch my drift.

And, b) does anyone have any constructive feedback about the attatched piece?

It's essentially a study of the song of a particularly strange native New Zealand bird called the Tui. I recorded some Tuis late at night here in Wellington - weirdly, they sing on a full moon quite late into the evening. So I got to wondering why they do this?
What purpose does this communication serve? Or maybe they're just doing an avian equivalent of howling at the moon?

Maybe it's not all about simple fu**ing and fighting, but sometimes the desire merely to sing/shout for its' own sake

This lead me to think about how much birds have inspired us to try and emulate them - either in flight by building machines, or in song by drawing us to music and melody.

So, I manipulated the bird recordings using time-stretching, and this is then mixed with my own attempts to replicate these odd clicks and whistles using soft synths ( Automat, mainly). There are also locally recorded machine noises in there...mostly done at Wellington airport, and also some short wave radio interference.
The recurring "riff', or motif is a piece of a sample I made to use in a song, severely chopped & played backwards.

It all makes a peculiar kind of sense to me, this uneasy marriage of natural and electronic tones, but am keen to canvas thoughful opinions and impressions...both good, or not so good

Thanks

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This is the one - Project WowRadioBird.mp3
Description:	Hataitai Nite	Download (listen)
Filename:	This is the one - Project WowRadioBird.mp3
Filesize:	13.27 MB
Downloaded:	752 Time(s)

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[Alexander]

At school so I cannot listen to your track (more on that later)..

I am reading your post and it occurred to me I am on the different side of the coin, I am searching for methods to put an element of more 'traditional' songwriting to my experimental songs..

..the way you approach what you are trying to do is really encouraging me to study harder. You want to learn more about algorithmic composition and the use of abstract sound, well, you already are learning by trying max and joining this forum.

You already 'know' the hard part, which is getting good ideas! You also have experience as a songwriter, so for now, just stick to what you know. The technical side to music is a slow process which is part trial and error, part reading the manual..

..fora such as this one are a perfect place to find all sorts of technical info as well as many approaches to musical problems within electro-acoustic composition!

All I want to say is that you have some good ideas and I think that's all you need.. just start with reading some topic in this forum regarding your field of interest and keep experimenting.

[brams]

I listened to the track and it sounds really cool!
I recorded some tracks with ableton live as well, completely improvised with a drummer and keyboard player. it's on www.bramstadhouders.nl
You may like it.

[blue hell]

Glad you spent more time on the Tui, I think this one to be really verry nice !

Did you use the same recordings here as in the previous piece you posted (awhich is now gone) ?

[evernaut]

Thanks guys. And, yes Jan, it's the same raw samples...just arranged better to tell more of a story.
Since I recorded it., I've had lots more ideas for where to take it next. I feel like I'm getting somewhere with this approach...recording, listening, thinking & then refining a new version. And I'm also learning the importance of space in these compositions.
Reminds me of when I first learnt the guitar: initially, the first few years are spent trying to play REALLY fast. (When you're a 13 year old boy this is very important and is the pinnacle of musicianship)
Some 20 years later, I can play fast if I want to, but mostly prefer to strum simple chords like an outright beginner

Cheers

[evernaut]

And Bram, I had a listen to your recent tracks...thought they were great!

Really good stuff.

[Antimon]

[evernaut]

Thanks Stefan.
Yeah, I agree that the piece could flow better between sections...something to work on.

This version was pretty much done as a demo track as part of an application to study Music tech at University, so I wanted to show a range of textures and approaches but keep it relatively short.

I think there's much that "traditional" ( for want of a better description) composers/songwriters and musicians can bring to the EAM table, and it's fun to meet the hardcore tech guys as they pass in the other direction

I'm not sure who has the hardest time learning though...

[mosc]

I like your piece - it has nice sounds and a good mood. I found the looped synth sounds near the end to be distracting. To me, all the rest of the piece had an open, through-composed feel. The loop changed everything but it didn't go anywhere. This is just my opinion.

I think you are doing very well. Keep posting your stuff here; it's helpful to everyone to hear others approaches to composing.

[migraneboy]

Great to find other people here who are interested in field recording.. it´s my new favourite passtime too!

I´d be interested to hear more about your working methods, tough you gave a pretty good descripton of the angle you have in making music. Im somewhat on the same page as you, being playing in bands and solo for a good ten years and nowadays finding more satisfaction in experiments, randomness and things outside of my own "methods" or traditional music making.

I´ve done lots of field recording in urban/nature enviroments and have also been harvesting sound onto my MD with contact, inductive and stereo mics from various places.
It´s more of a "hobby" and a diary-type of thing than a pursuit of some artistic goal, but Im starting to see the possibilities in composing with these elements, and have done some pieces with field recordings..

I enjoyed your piece, altough it sounded a bit like a work in progress (mainly the fast fade outs and short progressions of many different ideas) but altogether it was a nice experience.. The concept of the birds came through and turned into some vivid images in my mind Smile

In my opinnion there might be alot more to explore in the different textures that the song presented, but then again, maybe Im just used to a more streched attention span when listening to this type of material.. Maybe some "mixing glue" between the different parts, instead of fast crossfades would make it a tighter story.

I seem to have a problem with tackling my field recordings in the software realm, cos I usually feel that the recording is more powerful "as is" due to the authenticy of the moment that fieldrecordings have.. I think I´ll have to work out somekind of realtime processing-imrovisation-live thing in Cubase so I can get over this Smile

I´d really like to hear how you process your stuff and the ideas behind it..

[evernaut]