PDE #1 - Emotion
The feeling I wished to invoke was insomnia.
The mood I wanted to create is of someone who hasn’t been able to sleep in days and they have been slowly losing their mind and grip on reality when attempting to go about business as normal. The intention was to create a build up to nothingness, which would insinuate the loss of one’s rational mind. 
In order for me to put together this piece, I had recorded 3 original sounds from which I took my inspiration. I used a Zoom recorder to capture these sounds. 
The first recording I made was apparent when I was sitting on a bus with James Swinbanks and we were having an intermittent discussion about various topics. I say the word intermittent because we would pause at times, not saying anything – only hearing the ambient sound of the bus motor. My intention was to enhance a sense of mind numbing travel through time which is a feeling/experience that is eternally associated with insomnia, going through ones existence in their day to day life all the while remaining somewhat absent. I ran this track through a Solid State Logic compressor and an L1 Ultramaximizer (limiter) to bring out the nuances in the conversation and ambience in the bus sound and to distort the waveform slightly. I then put it through an AIR Reverb in which I applied a ‘Gas Tank’ Preset in order to makes it sound more ambient to highlight my original aesthetic.
My second recording was the sound of a vacuum cleaner which I pitched down using an AIR Frequency Shifter, set to pulsate with a high feedback ratio, meaning the pulse would be additive, getting stronger as the track goes on. This creates a sense of build up to a tension point as well as adding an element of slipping in between consciousness and unconsciousness. I reused an edited version of the vacuum cleaner recording which turned into that constant high pitched wispy sound. I put the duplicated edited track through a Sci-Fi Modulator with a ‘quasi-wah 2’ preset which created this sound. The overall effect I wanted to create with the track was to impact the listener with a constant otherworldly ‘drone’ which sits low in the mix but subtly enhances the mood. 
The third recording I made was of a ground loop (by plugging and unplugging an RCA connection into an input), which I put through a compressor to make louder. This sound in itself is very unpleasant to most people, I wanted to retain this unpleasantness but I knew that it would not be as jarring as it might be when sitting with the rest of this mixed piece. I thought this might invoke a disjointed and vacant emotion, bordering on sanity and chaos. The panning effect I used was randomised when editing, which again added to that disjointed, unpredictable emotion. 
The last thing I added to really add a sense of insanity and eeriness was a multi layered MIDI track which was run through several different sounds in Xpand2. I played a series of random notes which, when altered, turned out to really add to the overall effect. The synth sounds, to me, evoke imagery of tiny insects and bugs flying around ones head. There is no real conscious thought or purposeful internal dialogue when in this state, just steady loss of reality and what’s going on around you. 
Overall, I think this soundscape is pretty unsettling and effectively captures the feeling of insomnia. 



PDE #1 Insomnia

brutal and pretty unsettling featuring A Perfect Circle, Ani DiFranco and some news sound bites spliced together.

9 11 soundscape

PDE #2 – Remix

I had many ideas that I came up with in regards to this PDE, the one I finally settled with was focused around Tool’s track Aenema which is off their 1996 album of the same name. As Tool are notorious for the progressive-rock/metal sound I wanted to mess with it in order to bring the polar opposite side of the spectrum into play. 
I have this string tribute to Tool album that I haven’t listened to in years, coming across this I thought that this would be a suitable opportunity to add this into the mix. I went through the tracks and thought that Aenima was the closest to the original whilst quite clearly being performed by a string ensemble. 
I didn’t specifically know where I was going with this in the beginning, but as I started having a bit of a play around - it came together quite nicely. My intent with this soundscape was to catch the listener off guard by what could be thought of as a bit of a vociferous experience. 
I soon found that the performance of the string version was not in the exact same tempo and didn’t have quite the same impact/emphasis on certain notes – this is where I made extensive use of the TCE and loop functions in Pro Tools. In addition, a lot of fine editing was utilised in order for me to keep the tempo and transitions seamless. 
The mentality I had whilst putting this together was one of alternating. I found the sections that corresponded to each other over both originals and alternated between both tracks in fragments. To keep it interesting I added parts of the other track that wasn’t being used at the time to add some credence to what I was doing. 
Once I was happy with the main body of the remix I decided to add some other elements which would add to this idea of changing ones perception of what prog-rock should be or could be. Firstly I went through some of my music to try and find a beat in the key ‘E’ which I could add to the track. I settled on one of Daft Punk’s ‘Around the World’ beats which I looped. It would be hard to pick up exactly where this beat is from due to the way it had been edited and looped with a bit of syncopation that came through. Secondly, I also added an ambient build up I found in a Prefuse 73 track called ‘DEC. Machine Funk All ERA's’ – making sure it was also in E. 
There is a point at about 40 seconds where I also have fun with a bit of panning. Obviously both of these tracks I have used as the main counterpoints to one another are both in stereo – so I made use of the edit windows panning options and chopped a little of Tool’s power chords strumming and panned one fragment left and then in the next phrase, to the right. I think the addition of this little bit of automation was quite effective. 
I really enjoyed working on this and pushing my creativity whilst utilising the tools I had. No pun intended.

PDE #2 Tools & Strings

PDE #3 – Art Movement
The art movement I chose as inspiration for this soundscape was DADA – the total rejection of modernist ideals of art, with both anti-war and quite anarchist themes in its nature. I wanted to emulate the idea that art exists for itself in-keeping with the ideals of the DADA movement. 
When studying this in class, an example that stuck with me was the concept of the poem that one could create by cutting out every single word in a newspaper article, jumbling them up and then re-arranging them so the original meaning is lost – but gives rise to other meanings. I suppose my main intent was to highlight the idea that meaning is only derived based on the order of how we say things. 
What I wanted to do within this piece is take an extract of a novel, in this case from ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ by Douglas Adams and read it out loud. The paragraph pertained to the fictitious origin of time travel in its context. It read like so: 
The Encyclopedia Galactica has much to say on the theory and practice of time travel, most of which is incomprehensible to anyone who hasn’t spent at least four lifetimes studying advanced hyper-mathematics, and since it was impossible to do this before time travel was invented, there is a certain amount of confusion as to how the idea was arrived at in the first place. One rationalisation of this problem states that time travel was, by its very nature, discovered simultaneously at all periods of history, but this is clearly bunk.
As it is, with no contextual background this doesn’t make much sense – however that was not the purpose of this extract. Once I had recorded myself narrating I asked 2 others to make some vocal sound effects for me, or, in laymen terms – ‘make some stupid sounds with your mouth’, one at a time. The idea was to again, highlight the understanding that meaning is attached based on our biases and that one could, if they wanted to, derive some meaning in what was to be my end result. 
Firstly, I split the waveform into mono and then I spliced up the waveform of my spoken word narrative. I literally cut up every single word and then re-arranged each word (this time in the digital realm) which resulted in my final product. I moved the left mono signal ever so slightly to the right so some phasing would occur. I also used an array of EQ’s, flangers, talkbox, fuzz-wah’s and phasers in order to achieve a sense of otherworldliness which worked well with the main intent and content I was using. 
I used an EQ with a HPF to negate any low rumbling frequencies that found their way into the Zoom recording due to a rush of air or sibilance etc. It did not remove all of these rumbles but listening to the final product, I don’t think it matters as much as it actually adds to the piece. 
This was an especially enjoyable, but somewhat arduous process; enjoyable because it allowed me to play around with conventions and to behave stupidly; and arduous because it took quite some time to cut up every word of the narrative. However, I think I successfully achieved the vision I had for this exercise. 


PDE #3 Hitchhiker's guide to time travelling DADA

PDE #4 – The Art of Noises
For this exercise, the main idea was to make use of traditionally non-musical sources and arrange them in such a way as to give it a musical context. 
The concept I was going for with this piece was to achieve a really ambient soundtrack, giving focus to wolf cries and thunder. I did add in some musical elements, however once they were mixed and edited, it sounded to me like sounds of nature. The aesthetic is completely eerie and mystical which evolved as the PDE came together.
I wanted to stay away from industrial sounds and go back to nature when finding the sounds to use. I was drawn to wolves and thunder as both invoke a deep sense of appreciation of nature. In addition, I also feel a profound sense of divinity when I hear these particular sounds. This was the main backbone of what I wanted the listener to feel when hearing this soundscape.
Firstly, I grabbed two element from Air’s “All I Need” from their album Moon Safari. This element of the song was the instrumental synthesised introduction to the song grabbed the first sample, split it into mono, copied it, reversed and then looped it, after which I added a fuzz-wah effect to it.
The second element was a fragment sample I looped and added a talkbox effect to – this added a solid bass ingredient into the mix.
I wanted to mask the original nature of this song but evoke a feeling of cycles; like the cycle of the moon or the cycle of the tide affected by the cycle of the moon. I thought this tied in well with the howls and cries of wolves which have been eternally thought to have a link to the moon.
The second musical aspect that was added was a sample I took from a Pacific islander world recording where they are chanting and making different sounds with their vocal chords – this certainly added another level of mystique to what the final product. I was running with the idea of humans worshiping the planet we live on, always at mercy to its every whim. I really wanted to convey sounds of the planet – in its more organic form. 
The sounds of the wolves and thunder were varied and sourced from several sound libraries. I used an array of these sounds, edited precisely to ignite in the listener some correlation between the both. Wolf cries can sound whiny but with the musical and thunderous backdrop there is a sense of significance here. Within nature, there is power and fury yet simultaneously there is vulnerability and nurturing. 
I used very little processing on this track and indeed it is probably my most hippie-oriented justification and aesthetic. I believe this turned out well and when I listen to it, it transports me to another time and place. 


PDE #4 Spirit of wolf & thunder

PDE #5 - Musique Concrete
The concept of Musique Concrete is about taking sounds (instrumental or non-instrumental) and then creating an arrangement by reversing, chopping sounds, speeding them up, slowing them down and overall reversing the order in which a musical piece is made. This is done by taking found sounds and manipulating them in a way which, depending on the artists’ intent, remain recognisable or not. 
My piece which is aptly named ‘Working for Money, Turning to Robots’ takes its inspiration from the societal perception that we must all work to the bone, disregarding our health, our morals and others’ wellbeing all for the dollars. With this piece, I sought to make this fact the focus in a modern workforce setting. 
I recorded 3 sounds. The first was of me tapping with my nails on the chassis of my laptop. I used this sound twice, though, affected in a different way. I used the time shift tool to speed up and slow down sections of this recording (differently on both tracks). I used an EQ to take out a lot of the highs on the first track and progressively added a frequency shifter and chorus with varied parameters to create the bouncy robot sound. 
The second track comes in during the second half of this piece which has been sped up and slowed down in parts as before, but altered by taking out some lows in this case. After which, again, using a frequency shifter (though differently) and also using distortion that gives that multi-layered, intermittent white noise effect. The tapping is a lot more obvious on this track but there is hollowness to it. The randomness of how I actually performed the tapping adds to the intensity of this track and really identifies the listener with monotony of this working plight. 
The next sound I recorded was a scarf with coins attached to it, used in belly dancing. I wanted to make the same point as Pink Floyd did on their track ‘Money’ with the jingling and cash register sounds. My aim was to emphasize our perpetual want or need of some coin in our pockets to make our life good and successful – losing some fundamental points of our humanity like love and trust. I used an EQ to really bring out the mids in the jingle of the coins and an AIR enhancer to bring out the brightness and nuances of the coins’ friction. I reversed some parts of the recording, bringing that digital (or robotic) element to how the coins might be handled.  
The last recording I made was of James typing on a keyboard – working furiously to get an assessment finished. I trimmed the best part of the typing, where it sounded the most frenzied and looped it. I EQed it to really bring out the clicky mids in the sound and I put an almost infinite delay (with high feedback percentage and a fast rate) on it, which acted as a testament to the idea that “the work never stops”. 
I really like what I have done with this one and think I captured my idea really successfully.


PDE #5 Working for money, turning to robots

PDE #6 - Field Recording
My field recording’s purpose was to emulate visiting a video game convention.
I didn’t actually go to a video game convention but I wanted to give the impression that I had taken a portable microphone around with me, (from the first person perspective) and wandered around to all the stalls and had a look at what was on show. My intent was to have one game sound fade in as another faded out when I “walked” around – but I soon came to realise that these events are not quiet ones. They are in fact, quite noisy – with a lot of people enthusiastically walking around and commenting, just as I would be. 
Thus, I decided to record as many samples as I could and then have a few going on at the same time in order to mimic this chaos.
I recorded a number of different game plays. With the help of a seasoned and experienced gamer (i.e. James) these were: Battlefield 3, Formula 1 2011, Halo Reach, Wii Sports tennis and bowling, MarioKart 64, Super Mario Galaxy and Wii’s Big Brain Academy. I made sure to keep in some comments that he or I made during game play that would help enhance the experience and maintain believability.
Another example of this was in the situation where Formula 1 was being played. We had someone in the US playing with James at the time and I asked to route his voice through the speakers in order for me to record and achieve the same outcome.
Once I had edited, arranged and made fades on all of these tracks into their respective places, I made use of some panning in order for the listener to feel enveloped in the gaming sounds (just as it would be in real life). 
I also added some intermittent footsteps that would come in at certain points of the soundscape to give the impression that I was moving around. If I had more time, I probably would have really finetuned this and maybe even mixed it in 5.1 surround.
Finally, I added a medium sized indoor crowd murmur to add to the illusion. Oddly enough, I didn’t have to add any ambience to the gaming sounds themselves as the recordings turned out pretty quiet and had a room tone to them – which I think worked out for the better as too clean a sound would have been more of a giveaway that this was pieced together.
I placed a compressor/limiter on the footsteps in order for them to sound more prominent in the mix, as well as the same on the master track. This only needed to be gentle, to bring the nuances of each little sound out. It is ideally listened to in headphones. 
The track concludes by the sounds and crowd noise slowly fading out and the footsteps ‘walking out’ of the convention.
I would’ve liked more time at this, but I think the idea is pretty cool and though it was executed well, there is definitely room from improvement. 
Overall, I had such a great time completing all these exercises and it has really taught me to appreciate any sound and how it can be manipulated based on what one wants to do with it. I really enjoyed breaking down conventions and playing with unconventional and left field ideas and incorporating them into the sound arena.


simmi7