EComp Project 1 Draft

Rainbow

This piece is a MIDI recreation project that uses 3 samples from 3 different songs that I then attempted to recreate using software instruments that were arranged to try an imitate the sound of the actual instrumentation used in the songs. I used the Logic Pro software with its extensive library of MIDI instruments for this project. The first song is Led Zeppelin’s Moby Dick (1969) where I decided to use the beginning of John Bonham’s drum solo. The solo includes Bonham’s drum set along with conga drums added in that he played together. The second song is Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline (1969) which I chose to imitate because of its use of strings and horns. During the breakdown near the end of the song before the final chorus the vocals cut out and instrumentation starts to build. The horn on one side and the strings on the other. The hardest part of this recreation was trying to get the MIDI instruments to sound like they were recorded in 1969. I used a Test Oscillator to create a white noise that adds to the old time recording effect. The final sample chosen is Rodrigo y Gabriela performing Tamacun (2006). This sample is 2 dueling guitars that play through the song. The guitar on guitar is strummed while the other is picked. The hardest part of this sample recreation is listening to the guitar playing the quick notes and getting the timing just right. When everything lines up I think I did a pretty good job of recreating the general form of the song but the recreation is still pretty easy to tell it is MIDI. Working with the Logic Pro Software I could really see the potential to create such a variety to the music created and anything that can be done to an acoustic instrument can be recreated on the MIDI version with some time, knowledge, and skill.

3 Track MIDI Recreation Final

In this song the melody was written to emulate a tension and release style. The main synthesizer plays a short simple note progression while another syth plays a repetitive more complicated melody. Using a 909 drum pad for the percussion the song has a party/house vibe that is heavy and driving for the song. When writing the song, I found myself writing the main melody and then building of off that. I would then listen to what I wrote and then decided what would sound best, either repeat or change up the song. The break down in the middle of the song is meant to catch the listeners’ attention with a drastic change and then lead back into the original melody but with a build on with a bass syth and the drums are playing much louder. This is the climax of the song that goes to the end where it quickly end adding another sharp turn to the song. Hopefully listeners will enjoy the catch melody and driving beat.

Balderdash At The Ball

This Musique concrète piece is all centered around the sound scape of water. Recording taken off the shore set the stage for the listener as two in audible voice talk back and forth while passing cars whiz by. The voices are taken from the 2008 film The Dark Night during the joker interrogation scene. Another interesting aspect of the audio files is the water proof microphone used to recoded the sounds underwater giving a whooshing sound from the water flowing past the diaphragm of the mic. A fun part to the manipulation of the audio way trying to make it all sound below the water by putting on a low pass filter and using automation between the transitions from above to below and below to above. The passing car and truck sounds were used freely to remind the listener of their surroundings while they focus on the inaudible voices. How a story can be found from the loud mumbling to silences and then loud bangs. This piece really leaves a lot up to the imagination as to what is found while listening to it. The art of musique concrète is one that is definitely thought to be to simple to mess up yet to complex to master. To the audio engineer it is really remarkable how much can be done to one piece of audio to create an entire story out of it.

Nick Silvidi