This week in class we presented our pieces. It was the first time we heard each others pieces, so it was really interesting to see everyone else's take on the project. Among the ones that I heard, I felt that mine was the most musically emphasised by far, so for the next half of the semester I think I would like to focus more working with sounds that aren't musically captured, and experiment with different styles of sound design. Overall I think i've managed to create something that I had visioned right from the start, and personally i'm pretty happy with what i've accomplished so far. It's been a really awesome project so far, especially as its nothing like any of the other papers i'm doing in my course, so I'm definitely looking forward to the next half of the semester. Here is the final of my draft mix, and the graphic score that goes with it:
I'm a little behind the blogging (it's now week 6 - the final week), so I'm going to backtrack a bit. So in week 5 (last week) I began producing. After recording two variations of the piano, I decided to combine them together to create the ultimate piano piece - as I couldn't decide on either one - and also some sections were better than others in both tracks.
Luckily as they were similar variations, it wasn't too much of a hassle to mix the two together, as the key and melody wasn't changing. The trickiest part was putting the cello along the piano, as I had recorded every individual note of the cello in the same key. So I had to move every individual note to match up with the piano by listening to every section carefully. It took several hours just to do this, but it was definitely worth it in my opinion, as it adds so much more and gives a real emphasis to the entire piece. I then added in the foley of the water and stick mixing together, but it didn't sound quite right as it got quite clicky, so I opted for the sound effect of the water droplet - which was actually created by flicking the side of your mouth. I added this to a part that wasn't too dramatic, so it could be heard clearly and wouldn't create the piece to sound too cluttered. In the end it worked quite well, because I already had the sound of rain being consistent, so adding in another kind of water based sound enhanced the style of the entire piece. Overall I went into uni about 3 different times to produce all of this - around 3 hours at a time.
This week I got a group of my musically talented friends to get together, so I could begin recording and experimenting with different sounds that I felt were appropriate for my piece. I chose piano to play the key melody, as I can play well it myself so it would have been the easiest option to go with. However in the end I got my friend / great musician Seb to be the pianist for my piece, as it took some pressure and stress off me, so I could focus on the project overall. Because I know him well, it was really easy to direct him, and for him to interpret my intentions. Additionally, he has had some experience in producing - so ultimately we had the perfect communication over everything. We sat down together and wrote down some words that we aimed the piece to sound (such as 'ethereal - i've grown quite fond of that word as you can probably tell by now), and I stuck this in front of him as he played as a visual reminder. After trialling different styles and ways of playing the melody, we came to a conclusion that the piece sounded best to be played in the key signature of F# (sharp) major, rather than the limited use of only pentatonic black keys. By playing in F#, it emphasised the pentatonic sound as it allowed it to become more harmonious, if not more balanced as it was no longer sounded blatantly oriental. I recorded a few takes of Seb playing the piece in an improvised manner, so it sounded slightly different each time. I did this so I could mix them together in post production to create the ultimate tune that I felt satisfied with.
I also got my friend Guy, who is yet another brilliant musician, to come over and play notes from the F# major scale, so I can individually piece them together alongside piano part in post production. At first I recorded one take of him playing the entire scale, but after playing it back, we decided it would be better to record each note one by one, so it was easier for me to work with later on, and also so clear, lengthy notes could be produced. I also recorded him plucking the strings, as they could come in use. I then went on to record some atmospheric sounds. For once I was excited that the weather was bad, as I got the chance to record rainfall. I recorded the rain several times in different locations. Some up on the roof, to create a tinny sound, some in the car as it was more muffled, etc. Following this, I went on to record more sounds, in order to meet the criteria of using 3 different areas of sound recordings. I got a bit confused with the difference between the term sound effect and foley, as they almost cross over. I googled the terms, and came to the conclusion that foley involves physical human interaction with objects in order to produce the sound. So I guess my final chosen area is foley, as I recorded sounds that were made from water being stirred around in a plastic cup with a wooden spoon, as well as popping noises made from my lips being puckered together. Now that I have recorded all my sounds, I am in the beginning process of producing my piece together in post production in Pro Tools.
This week we presented our pieces of audio that we liked / were inspired by (refer back to my last blog post to listen to them). After presenting mine, I came to the conclusion that I really enjoy the sound of strings that hold both classical and modern influences. For examples, tones that are created in-between modern guitar sounds, and more classical tones created by instruments such as the violen, cello, etc. So my intention is to incorporate this combination to create a soothing string sound in my piece. I asked Rachel what the best option was, in regards to achieving this as I cannot play the cello, therefore cannot record myself and experiment with it. Nor do I have access to a MIDI that could allow me to alter the sound of a piano to a cello - if I were to record myself playing it. I was advised by her that a good way to overcome this was to record someone playing a cello in a scale, and then unpick the notes in post production so that I may initially create any tune out of it. So I am planning on doing this next week. Another element that I have confirmed on including are atmospheric sounds. I like a very eerie, soft ambience as demonstrated in some of the songs I discussed in class / in the previous post. With the very natural sounds of the instruments that I will be exploring, I have decided that I would like to record delicate sounds of something that is naturally produced, such as water - whether its a small stream or soft rain, as I think they will link nicely with the type of sounds I am aiming to portray overall. So overall, I will be using music and atmosphere as two of the three elements. I am yet to set a final decision on this, but I think I will choose sound effects as my third option, in order to enhance the instrumental pieces so that they become more unique - such as Sigur Ros has repetitively done in their post production. Recently I've also been experimenting with different styles on the piano, as I've been trying to brew up some ideas towards my project. I generally like to warm up by improvising on the black keys only, which is initially using a pentatonic scale. This is an exercise I have done for many years, which has always allowed me to create something new whilst being limited to notes - so it's a pretty neat challenge. Whilst doing this today, I realised that the style of strings I like would fit this pentatonic tune perfectly, as it is always a soothing piece due to its very oriental components. The tune Fake Empire by Ryan Lewis (refer to previous post), has subtle hints of an oriental sound when the strings are first introduced in the piece. I think the oriental sound is another thing I can appriciate, even if its super subtle, as I am half Japanese so it's something I can relate to. So overall I think adding the improvisational style of using the black keys only in a pentatonic form will be great as it brings in a range of personal ties from both my childhood and culture. My task now is to record myself playing this style on the piano, and lace it together with the strings once I have recorded those too.
So to quickly recap what I need to do between now (week 3 / 4) and the due date; I have quickly noted a timeline: Week 4:
Write up audio storyboard.
Start recording! - Piano & Strings. Also arrange friends who play instruments to get together and record. Also record atmospheric sounds.
Experiment with sound effects.
Week 5:
Piece everything together in post production.
Week 6:
Have everything complete!! (blog, audio storyboard, track)
A slightly awkward start to the blog post, as week 1 and week 2 are kind of merged together due to a complication in the time table. So i'm not sure if i'm a week behind or on track. Either way, here I am, attempting this blog/journal/diary - whatever you want to call it.
Sound design is something i've always been interested in, especially as i've been brought up as a musician and being surrounded by many musically talented people in my life. And then there is film and design which are two things I am personally passionate about - so with all of that combined, sound design is definitely something that interests me. However i've never really explored it in depth - i've never mixed music before or recorded foley's or play around with sound effects on programs; so i'm a little worried that I won't be able to produce something due to the technicalities of things, even if I have the vision that I want to produce in mind.
This week we experimented with recording sounds with the Zoom microphone, capturing atmosphereic sounds. I think atmosphere will be one of the sound options I go through with in my final piece (as we have to have 3 out of the following 5; foley/music/atmosphere/dialogue/sound effects), as I quite like the organic, rawness that it captures. Our homework task was then to gather some tracks that we like/are influenced by, and present them to the class. The following tracks are my preferences:
1. This is the full album of Takk... by Sigur Rós, an Icelandic band that produces very ethereal sounding music through the mixture of instruments and sound effects. Additionally, they sing many of their songs on Hopelandic, which is a made up language they have created. I think I appreciate this kind of music because they're creating music from legitimate instruments, yet they can transform it into something very celestial. The bands frontman, Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson, also strums his guitar with a cello bow, which is a very creative form that also provides the unique sounds their band is known for. My personal favourite is the song Sæglópur "Lost at Sea", which is the 6th track on this album (you can listen to it from 23:37).
2. Ryan Lewis is a renown producer, especially for his work alongside rapper Macklemore. This track here, Fake Empire, is purely by Ryan Lewis (as now days everything he makes is generally alongside Macklemore). I enjoy the light, delicate beginning which gradually grows as the guitar and strings progress (and eventually gets rather upbeat further sounds are incorporated). In that sense, it carries a similar movement as Sæglópur.Again, it also uses raw instruments, and subtly combines it with some sound effects. As you can probably tell, I definitely appreciate music that isn't completely digitalised (as most of the mainstream music these days are). I grew up playing classical piano for 11 years of my life - so I guess thats where that part of me comes from, perhaps? There is also minimal dialogue used, which I like as it is subtle yet effective, as its not quite lyrical but definitely adds to the entire piece. On an additional note, Ryan Lewis states in the description of his video that he primarily used Pro-Tools to produce this track, which gives me some hope that I will be able to produce a decent track within the next few weeks.
3. I'm not going into too much detail in the next track, as its only really the first 50 seconds that I'm interested in. Initially this is a remix by Kyson of Bon Iver's song Holocene. The first 50 seconds of this piece carries a very beautiful ambience, as it includes atmospheric sounds of rain faintly falling. It is subtly laced with sounds effects, and then gradually grows as sounds of the saxophone are combined. All of this is yet again similar to the other tracks I have exemplified so far, so I think you can see a bit of a patern as to what kind of music i'm interested in and would like to try and produce myself for this assignment.
