Project: Soundscape composition

Many of the aspects of this project originate from Andrew Hugill's book, The Digital Musician, Taylor & Francis [CAM], 2008.

Learning Objectives:

  • begin developing your active listening skills

  • listen to sounds in ways you have been taught to analyze music

  • experience what it is like organize and manipulate sounds to create music

    • "The composer’s knowledge of the environmental and psychological context influences the shape of the composition at every level."

Detailed Requirements

  • Make a soundscape composition (either of a real location or of an impossible location made up of sounds from many environments)

  • length = 30seconds minimum

  • record all your own sounds (you may use your phone, but you will produce better recordings by using a dedicated device such as a Zoom portable recorder or microphone via a USB audio interface)

  • Use the online DAW Bandlab as the canvas of your project: a place to organize and manipulate all of your recordings

Tips

  • automate panning to give the perception that a sound is a moving sound in the environment

  • use the table below to connect the musical parameters you've studied and thought about to better understand the domains and continuums of those concepts in the composition of electoacoustic music

Table from Introducing Electronic Music in Undergraduate Music Theory: Pedagogy and Theory by Leon W. Couch III

How to Turn In

  • exit the mix view in Bandlab (looks like a DAW) which should enter the view of your single piece within your library

  • add your name and link to the following collaborative text editor = [a new link will be here each semester]

  • you and your instructors will be able to see everyone's piece in their mix view by clicking on the link to their projects and choosing to "fork" their project

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