HaoKun, Liu (Larry)

This mixture of recordings contains soundscapes of my dorm, HURLBUT HALL,  the street, and the music building. The soundscapes in each places are totally different, sometimes with small sounds of the floor and the bed's spring, sometimes with the cars' sustaining sound on the road, and sometimes with delicate parts of music.
This piece of recordings are responsible for a small story in an afternoon. Firstly I opened the door of my dorm (0:16). It was a tired day and I feel really sleepy at that time. Then I turned on the fan, which may provide a comfortable temperature, and fell to my bed. (0:27)However, there are someone drilling outside, and cars rushed, which made the surroundings pretty noisy.(0:35)I made a rhythm ascending with my sigh to show that the noise was really annoying.(0:47) So I gave up my nap and try to find something to do. Then I went to the music building to play around with the piano, and I felt like I was playing worse than before.(1:22)After that, It was evening, and I'm tired enough for today. I jumped on my bed again and tried to have a good rest. Unfortunately, the fire alarm appeared outside the window and suddenly made me awake.(2:26)"Maybe I just can't fall asleep today".

HaoKun, Liu (Larry):Etude1:Soundscape_Can't Fall Asleep

I just bought a small radio for $20, and It's a little bit difficult to adjust the exact frequency to have a clear sound of every channel. So I just made a full walk through of the FM channels from FM88 to FM108, I got a lot of sounds. There are some of my favorite songs, some sport talks, and some Top songs count down. When I was adjusting the frequency, the song "The Monster" , "Hey Jude" , and many familiar songs just strike my ears and I felt that's the sound I am looking for. Actually there is a top song count down this Sunday evening. I mixed them by Logic Pro X and made some tricks, in order to make a full range of stations of FM. It's a 5 mins trip along FM stations, enjoy!

Etude 2: Boston Radio FM channels full walk through

This Mashup is made from the two songs: "Viva La Vida" from COLDPLAY, and "Good Time" from Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen. The original version of Viva La Vida was 138 bpm and in f minor key, and the harmonic progression was VI, VII, III, and i6, The first harmonies are all in Major Keys independently, but the last in the four harmonies, which is i6, is actually a f minor harmony, and is the key for the whole song. This harmonic progression is pretty common in electrical music, and has a sense of inspiration and excitement. The song "Good Time" is actually bpm 126 and in c minor, which is 5 half notes to F. This made the mashup pretty tough to adjust. I picked the instrumental part from Viva La Vida and made it 3 half notes lower, and made the acappella from Good Time 2 half notes higher. This is to make the voice not so weird, because instrumental won't damage the timber while lowering or upping the pitch. Then I made the acappella from Good Time to fit the 138 bpm, and adjusted for each sentence and period of both songs to make it fit together. Fortunately, the two songs cooperate well each other, and created an entirely new excitement. Enjoy the mashup: Viva La Good Time!

Etude 3：Mashup Viva La Good Time

This final project, with tons of works of sound designs, includes many many stuff. In the first part, you will hear the sound of minions in Despicable Me, which was very popular these days. The sound of the small minions are pretty strange and cute, and they are also interesting to get involved in the sound design piece. I simply pitched up my voice and made some adjustment for the voice's actual sound. Then I listened to the banana song and how do minions actually pronounce that. It really took me a long time to exactly mock the tune and the accent of minions. Then I made several recordings of mine and mixed them, and finally I got my version of the banana song, which was pretty fantastic. Then I moved from the movie to one of my favorite computer games---Plants VS Zombies, which is a great game actually. The theme song is also impressive. I also played some tricks mocking the Crazy Dave, the Zombies, the Peashooter, the Squash, and the sound when you collect a sun. Then I made a huge combinations of works---an acapella version of the main theme song. I recorded more than 15 sound tracks for all the sounds and for the harmonies. I played pitch tricks with my voice and change it from Bass line to even the soprano, which is quite a range. Also, I added all the impressive sound effects for just give you a realistic PvZ theme song from all my voice. I also played a Beat-Box for the theme song, which included strong Snare and Kick, high-hat, and some special effects. This piece really cost me a lot of work, but it really worth it, and I really enjoyed the process. This was the last project, good memories lasts forever! Thank you Prof. Wayne Marshall, Thank you Technomusicology! 

LarryLiu