‘Day at the Pub’

The title pretty much sums it up. This piece was inspired by the percussive sounds heard while enjoying an icy cold brew after a day at uni. This piece combines ideas from soundscapes and elements of music concrete. This was my attempt to portray the commonly known occurrence of one drink turning into a massive night out which as we all know only leads to much pain and less money, the best of nights. I started off wanting to create a pure soundscape, recording the atmosphere of the pub but once I heard the rhythmic content of the glasses hitting the table or of the beer being poured I couldn’t resist creating a beat. 

Music Concrete

I have always loved the idea of creating a montage of recordings which have been found and manipulated and throwing away the restrictions of the standard musical elements.
My piece uses the idea of creating a montage of sounds but I ended up sticking to a common time signature (4/4). I wanted to stay away from doing this but I found myself naturally drifting into 4/4 when cutting up the samples and arranging them. Another reason for this is that when opening up a new session of protools 4/4 is the standard grid setting.

Soundscape

My piece is an attempt to immerse the listener into the atmosphere and provide an inter-aural experience I feel when spending a day at the pub. Through this piece an atmospheric track is playing underneath the rhythmic layers. I felt that this tied the whole track together and helps a listener make the connection between all the sounds and the idea behind the piece.      

Creating The “Day at the Pub”

I used a Zoom portable digital recorder and made 6 different recordings. These recordings contained sounds commonly heard while enjoying a beverage at the local watering hole. Then using Pro Tools in grid mode, I cut up the recording and found sounds I wanted to use.

The sounds used are:

Two cups being pulled apart
Cups being placed on a table 
A jug being placed on a table
A Burp
An exhale 
Pub atmosphere
Pouring a drink
Someone saying ‘Cheers’

The underlying layer of this piece is a minute long recording of the pure pub atmosphere. In this recording we can hear the amazing music played at a pub on a monday as well as a phone ring and cups moving amongst other background noise. To this I layered a rhythmic element using the sounds mentioned above.   

Processing 

Most of the sounds weren’t effected but on the “Cheers” I used a pitch shifter giving it a lower tone. A pitch shifter was also used on the “Burps” in an attempt to create different sounding hits.  I then added reverb to the sound of the cups being pulled apart using audio suite and then I reversed the sound. 

Overall Outcome 

I felt that this piece was a good first attempt. In future however I want to get more creative and use a wider set of recordings. I would also like to try avoiding 4/4 and experiment with different time signatures.

A Day At The Pub

This piece is me letting the Dada train take me where ever the hell it wants to. What makes this a Dada piece was that it was produced by chance. Where I believe it differs however is that while working on the track a meaning slowly evolved in my mind and I found myself making choices to suit this new meaning, but I suppose I can do what ever the hell I want it's dada after all.     

Process (Writing)

The first thing I did was to write down all the chords (A, A#, B etc), I then cut them up and chucked them into my trusty old cowboy hat. After this wrote down Major and minor numerous times so each chord could get one and chucked them into the second cowboy hat that seemed to be laying about the house. I then asked the mother to pick out a chord then pick out the scale (Major, minor). After this I asked her to say the first number that popped into her head. The random number decided the amount of beats each chord would last and this is how I, or I should say mum, wrote the music.

Process (Mixing)

I programmed the music using an instrument track in Pro Tools with Xpand2. There were three instrument tracks used which had the same music just different sounds. To this I added a kick, which I recorded for an earlier song, which I cut up and made various loops for. As for the lyrics they were taken from Family Guy-Peter On Ecstasy. This was chosen because it was the first video to pop up on my recommended videos. I watch a lot of Family Guy clips so there was a good chance of this clip popping up. I took this turned it into an audio track, chopped it up and placed it where I liked it. 

Dialogue Levels

One thing worth mentioning is that I intentionally varied the level of the dialogue. I wanted to make people slightly uneasy so I had the dialogue change levels or I used reverb to wash it out. I believe this will make people uneasy because the vocal is the main thing people tend to follow and have gotten used to it staying fairly flat with use of compression in modern recordings. 

Overall Outcome 

I enjoyed the whole process and I believe it turned out fairly successfully. In future however I want to expand the choices by adding diminished and augmented chords into the hat draw, I also want to try cutting up words and choosing them at random as well. 


Everything Is Fantastic

‘Hannah in A’

After a class learning about rules that were used in serialism to create music, you might naturally think creativity would be restricted. Being confined to predetermined rules not being able to feel the music. Well for me I was inspired. I realised that the rules were your rules to command and instead of being restricted by them I felt a release. I decided to stray from the 12 tone arrangement of Arnold Schoenberg and wanted to come up with a rule inspired by my sister Hannah.  

Process (Writing)

For the writing stage I decided that the words would determine the notes and the length of each note. I chose three words so as the notes combined they would create varying chords and intervals. The words chosen were ‘Hannah Is Beautiful’. I then decided to base my note selection off the A scale. 

A B C# D E F# G# A

For example A is the first letter of the alphabet so I assigned it the first note in the A scale, with a beat value of 1. 

Using this as my rule this is how I assigned notes and beats to the word ‘Beautiful’. 

B = B 2 beats
e = E 5 beats
a = A 1 beat
u = E 21 beats
t =  D 20 beats
i = A 9 beats
f = F # 6 beats
u = E 21 beats
l = D 12 beats

Process (mixing)

For the mixing I still didn’t have Pro Tools working so I used garage band with an instrument track. I decided to use a large, long sustained synth organ because it allowed the notes to blend, creating fluctuations as the notes combined. I made loops out of each word and had them all playing from start to end. I had them all repeating from start to finish because the words were all of different lengths therefore each repetition would create a new interval or a new chord allowing for the piece to change as it progressed. This idea drew from minimalist ideas of repetitions and simple melodies being able to be drawn out and appreciated. 

Overall Outcome

It is a very relaxing piece (I have passed out to it once) and I enjoyed the freedom that ironically rules allowed me. The piece sounds more like a minimalist piece then serialism but that was what happened when I followed my own rules so I guess minimalism has snuck into my song writing.

Hannah in A

‘You Said’

Minimalist piece inspired by Steve Reich in essence. In this piece I wanted to experiment with the layering of loops created by halving the original loop into smaller and smaller segments until I could go no further. I don’t have any underlying meaning for this except the fact i was interested in what would happen.

Process (Recording and Mixing)

The recording used was an earlier recording I did for my major studio work. I then imported the song (unfinished at the time) into garage band and cut out a loop of 8 bars that was the length of the melodic phrase. I then cut that loop in half (4 bars) and layered onto the original after it had played through once. I kept up this process until garage band said NO MORE MR JONES IM SICK OF YOUR SHIT! So me being the kind man I am cut the layers back until we were left with the original. To this I added reverb so I could try and get the piece sounding like a large mob chanting.

Overall Outcome

At the time I like what I created but on listening back I feel I used to much reverb. I also felt that garage band wasn’t the best for this as it’s grid mode is terrible. I want to redo this project in protools and use a bit less reverb in future.

You Said

‘Painful Monotony’ 

This is my attempt at a futurist piece. Futurism emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane and the industrial city. Back in 1910 cars and noise where a new concept and something that breathed fresh air into the mundane, but now in 2012 we are surrounded by noise to the point that silence is such an amazing gift. I have tried to portray the painful monotony that is sometimes life, with the idea of someone being in physical pain by the regular doings around the house.   

Process (Recording)

Using a portable digital recorder I went around the house during the morning and recorded what everyone was doing (the screams were on purpose, my household isn’t too crazy). Then I imported this recording into Pro Tools and listened back to select the parts that worked well with the theme I was trying to portray. 

Sound Sources

Hitting the microphone
Dog bark
Door being tapped 
Various screams
Kitchen tap
Tongs
Fridge door slam
Bacon cooking
Car rev
Thumb piano 
Garage door 
Draw with knives and forks being opened and closed
Bowl tapping 
Slurping 

Process (Mixing)

When I selected all the parts I wanted, I arranged it in a loose story format. A stranger knocks at the door, attacks the people inside, eats them and so on and so on. This wasn’t my initial intention but it seemed to take this path (which makes me slightly fearful for my own sanity :)). When this was in place I used VComp to compress the hell out of everything I also left the analogue switch on so hiss would be left in. I compressed it like this because I wanted it to be loud and piercing. On the voice saying “Your In Pain” I used a pitch shifter to add to the futurist aesthetic. 

I then automated panning of the car to add a feeling of speed as the sound quickly shoots from left to right. Reverb was then added on the garage door opening to create a large space and because I liked it.     

Overall Outcome 

In a very weird way I like what I created. Its harsh and slightly off putting but it has an eerie tone which I enjoy. In future I want to experiment with noise machines and create something with a greater sense of speed and excitement that my piece didn’t capture (because it wasn’t trying to). 

‘Painful Monotony’

light hearted tune needs further work but this is it so far 

Daniel Jones music