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60 second audio composition

THE IDEA BEHIND THIS PIECE IS THAT OF BEEN TRAPPED BY TECHNOLOGY. IT WAS IN PART INSPIRED BY A SONG ABOUT VIDEO GAMING CALLED 'PUT YOUR QUARTER UP' BY THE MOLEMEN THAT FEATURES A VOCAL SAMPLE "I'M TRAPPED IN A DEADLY VIDEO GAME."

WORKING WITH COMPUTERS IT SOMETIMES FEELS TO ME LIKE I AM BATTLING THESE MACHINES IN ORDER TO TRY AND EARN MY LIVING AND STAY INDEPENDENT IN A BAR-CODED WORLD WHERE MY EVERY MOVEMENT AND TRANSACTION ARE RECORDED. THE UBIQUITOUS NATURE OF COMPUTING MEANS THAT THE 'ROBOTS' ARE BEHIND THE SCENES EVERY-WHERE, IT'S MAN VERSUS MACHINE.

TO GET ACROSS THIS FEELING OF BEEN TRAPPED IN A COMPUTER DRIVEN WORLD I USED ALL SYNTHETIC MEANS TO CREATE THE SOUNDS, UTILIZING SAMPLES FROM THE VETERAN ARCADE VIDEO GAME 'GORF' AND THE SOUND MANIPULATION AND CREATION CAPABILITIES OF SOUND FORGE, AUDIOMULCH, FRUITYLOOPS AND COOLEDIT TO CREATE THE PIECE.

THE METHOD:

THE BACKBONE OF THIS PIECE WAS A 60 SECOND SEQUENCE PRODUCED IN AUDIOMULCH. I USED A SETUP WITH 2 CLUSTERS OF INSTRUMENTS LINKED TO THE SOUND OUT THROUGH THE CROSSFADER.

ON THE LEFT SIDE WAS A DRUM MACHINE (USING THE SAMPLES 'HAHAHAHU' AND 'SURVIVAL') AND 10HARMONICS RUN THROUGH A PHASER. ON THE RIGHT-HAND SIDE WAS ANOTHER DRUM MACHINE (WITH THE SAMPLES 'UNBEATABLE' AND 'IMPOSSIBLE') AND A RISSETTONES GENERATOR BOTH HOOKED INTO A BUS AND INTO THE CROSSFADER. (FIG. 1)

I RECORDED JUST OVER 60 SECONDS 'LIVE' WHILST TWEAKING THE BALANCE ON THE CROSSFADER AND ADJUSTING THE FREQUENCY ON THE HARMONICS TO CREATE A BUILDUP AT THE BEGINNING AND . THE OUTPUTTED WAV WAS BROUGHT INTO SOUND FORGE WHERE IT WAS TRIMMED TO 60 SECONDS (REMOVING PART OF THE END), A FADE OUT WAS ALSO APPLIED.

I THEN TOOK A SHORT SAMPLE FROM THE WAV GENERATED BY AUDIOMULCH AND BROUGHT IT INTO FRUITYLOOPS. THERE I ASSEMBLED A SHORT SEQUENCE OF APPROX 30 SECONDS FROM 4 LOOPS OF THE SAMPLE (FIG. 2).

ALSO, ANOTHER CLIP FROM THE MAIN AUDIOMULCH OUTPUT WAS BROUGHT INTO COOLEDIT WHERE IT WAS CHOPPED AND SEVERAL PITCH FILTERS APPLIED TO GIVE THE EFFECT OF THE SOUND SPEEDING UP AND SLOWING DOWN.

THE 3 WAVS WERE THEN BROUGHT INTO COOLEDIT WHERE THEY WERE ARRANGED AND MANIPULATED AS SHOWN (FIG. 3).

WHEN THE PIECE WAS READY TO EXPORT IT NORMALIZED AND MIXED DOWN TO A SINGLE WAVE AND EXPORTED AS A STEREO WAV FILE AT 44100HZ, 16BIT RESOLUTION.

DOWNLOAD 'TRAPNOLOGY'



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