Category Archives: Sound Design

Sound design examples

Music for Merce: A Two-Night Celebration

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In case you’ve been sleeping under a rock for the last few weeks (I wouldn’t blame you if you were), the Walker Art Center is currently neck deep in a months long series of exhibitions and performances celebrating the life and work of choreographer Merce Cunningham. Merce Cunningham: Common Time includes a series of dance pieces in the Perlman Gallery with live musicians and former Merce Cunningham dancers. I have the privilege of performing on March 30, 2017 with Graham O’Brien for one of these ten Walker Cunningham events.

Also included is Music for Merce: A Two-Night Celebration on February 23 & 24, 2017 in the McGuire Theatre. These two nights will feature the likes of David Behrman, Christian Wolff, and Joan La Barbara to name a few. Here’s a blurb from the Walker about these extraordinary concerts:

Cunningham and longtime partner/composer John Cage were renowned for their legendary collaborations with the most significant experimental musicians of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Join us to celebrate this remarkable legacy over two historic evenings with a festival of music and sound performances curated by composer/guitarist John King. Featured with King are electronic music pioneer and longtime Merce Cunningham Dance Company associate David Behrman, contemporary classical composer Christian Wolff, and composer/performers Joan La Barbara, Fast Forward, Ikue Mori, George Lewis, Zeena Parkins, and Radiohead’s Philip Selway with London multi-instrumentalist Quinta. Each evening consists of a separate set of solo, duo, ensemble, and landmark works, concluding with a collectively made real-time composition.

Visit the Walker Art Center to get tickets for one or both nights of music. I for one am thrilled to be a part of this series and look forward to participating as an audience member and a performer.

ISSTA 2017 International Festival and Conference on Sound in the Arts, Science and Technology

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The International Festival and Conference on Sound in the Arts, Science and Technology (ISSTA 2017) is currently calling for works and papers to be presented at the Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland this September. Acceptable works include performances, installations, and workshops from makers, creators, performers, thinkers and researchers. The range of perspectives are broad and fascinating including: new creative approaches using self-designed or hacked controllers, communities and maker spaces/hackspaces, open culture and creative technologies to name a few.

ISSTA aims to bring together practitioners integrating fields of music, art, sound, science and technology. Our events serve musicians, researchers, scientists, engineers and artists by promoting sound within the arts, science and technology, within Irish and international communities. Since 2010 ISSTA has hosted an annual conference, gathering researchers from around the globe to present papers, installations, concerts and workshops. This year we are running our annual conference and festival at Dundalk Institute of Technology with Peter Kirn and Dr. Theresa Dillon as keynote speakers.

The call can be found here: issta.ie/call-for-submission-2017/ or read on for all the details below. Continue reading →

Stand with Bandcamp in Support of Immigrants / Human Rights

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This Friday, February 3, 2017, BandCamp has pledged to donate 100% of their share of album sales to the ACLU in support of immigrants and basic human rights. I have decided to join them and donate 100% of our share of BandCamp album sales to the ACLU as well. This means the full price of every sale for the Unearthed Music catalog on Friday will be donated to the ACLU. This includes my new solo album Isosceles:

And my recent album in collaboration with Chilean produced Lister Rossel, Isikles:

I had the privilege of immigrating to the United States at the age of ten and I’m saddened that that privilege is being denied to many many deserving children, elderly, and people seeking asylum simply because of their religious beliefs and country of origin. This executive order from 45 is a xenophobic reaction that will do nothing to prevent terrorism. Please support the ACLU in their campaign to block this executive action and listen to some great music in the process.

Pyramid’s Euclidean Rhythms Meet Novation Circuit

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In the spirit of #JAMUARY2017 (thanks to Cuckoo for having the stamina to do it everyday!) I have made a video track using the Squarp Pyramid, Novation Circuit, Moog Sub 37, PreenFM2, Rhodes, Minifooger Delay, and Korg KP3+. I’m not great at making these (hence the shaky video), but they’re fun to do every so often.

euclid

The track starts out with a Rhodes loop that I played into the KP3+ with an LFO sweeping a resonant high pass filter. Next I start to bring in Euclidean patterns on each of the four Circuit drum parts. These are generated through individual tracks on the Pyramid. I have it setup with four Euclidean patterns per track bank for a total of sixteen. This way I can mix and match all sixteen patterns on the Pyramid and even swap them or combine them with patterns on the Circuit.

I also use Pyramid to sequence the bass and synth chords on the Circuit. In addition I have a track for the Sub 37 that I mute while soloing, and a track for the PreenFM2. The Sub 37 is in “local off” mode, so whichever track I have selected on Pyramid determines what instrument plays. I find the keybed and flexibility of the Sub 37 perfect as a controller and sound source. Thanks for listening and check out my new album Isosceles for more like it that’s actually mixed and mastered properly. ;-)

Novation Circuit Randomized Patches

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In my mind, sound design is at its best when it is a process of discovery. At its worst it can be an unfortunate exercise in mimicry. I am fascinated by the process of discovering sound through happy accidents. One of the techniques I have exploited frequently in this regard is synthesizer patch randomization. For example, the Yamaha TX81Z sounds great when randomized, or better yet, “degraded” with shuffled parameter values interpolated based on a time unit or clock division. The PreenFM2 has patch randomization built directly into the instrument!

So, it wasn’t long after picking up a Novation Circuit that I had the urge to use a similar shortcut to mine fantastic and otherworldly sounds from the unit. Full MIDI specification for the Circuit is available so that development of a standalone randomizer is possible, but Isotonik Studios published a free Max for Live editor in partnership with Novation. Max for Live patches are inherently editable so I decided to start there.

Send Random Values

It took me a couple of hours to get into the guts of the editor and setup a drop down menu for randomization. The drop down has choices to either “randomize all” (not quite all parameters), or randomize one of seven sets of grouped parameters like the oscillator section, mod matrix, or LFOs. At his stage I haven’t included the EQ section, voice controls, or macro controls. I probably won’t add the EQ, but the macro controls might offer some interesting possibilities. The image above shows a simple subpatch I made that takes a bang and outputs the random values for the oscillator section. Unfortunately, I can not legally share my mods based on Isotonik’s and Novation’s EULAs. However, you’ll need little more than a basic understanding of Max to do this yourself. Checkout the video and let me know what you think in the comments.