Create Digital Music

The following video really caught my attention on Create Digital Music. Created by Peter Kirn, an array of motors, wires, and cardboard were used to simulate the sound of rain. The arrangement of the cardboard, the type of wire, and the speed of the motor distinguished all different types of rain:

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2011/05/exquisite-sonic-sculptures-made-with-motors-and-cardboard/

In another post by Peter Kirn, he is able to create a melody simply from the sounds of an alarm clock:

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2011/05/music-for-dieter-rams-alarm-clock-becomes-melodic-minimal-treat-music-and-good-design/


I also found this to be very interesting; a record made completely from paper and rotated manually by one's hand:

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2011/04/a-record-player-made-from-paper-as-the-flexidisc-lives-thanks-be-to-pythagoras/

The following two videos were some other ideas that caught my attention: a dance floor that played different loops in different squares and an example of a theremin made from a kinect (a popular video game)

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2011/04/a-kinect-based-instrument-polyphonic-theremin-no-april-fools-joke/

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2011/04/bugs-on-the-game-grid-synplode-makes-step-sequencing-tangible-for-an-interactive-dance-floor/

Arduino

Using an arduino as a MIDI Output Device:

http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Labs/MIDIOutput

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/10/diy-midi-drum-triggers-with-arduino-midi-over-usb/

http://www.arduino.cc/

http://www.liquidware.com/shop/show/AMEGA2560/Arduino+Mega+2560

Fortier Fruity Loops

After a week or so, I have finally completed my song created entirely from sounds made by our microphones. Here's the final project:


Fortier Fruity Loops by lucfortier

Exit Through the Gift Shop LOOPS Project

Throughout the past week, I have learned to create loops, efficiently and creatively. My 25 unique loops are found on soundcloud, a very useful site in which one can upload and share music files easily.

The following clip was created with the turtle instrument:



Turtle time fortier D by lucfortier




Edited in Audacity, the following was reversed and changed in the "phaser" effect:




Turtle time fortier C by lucfortier

John Cage

Many of Cage's works in the sixties reflected works from both Marshall McLuhan and R. Buckminster Fuller, which promoted social change. HPSCHD, created in 1969, was multimedia piece created from seven harpsichords, 52 computer-generated sounds, 6,400 slides, 64 slide projectors, and 40 motion-picture films. It was first played at the University of Illinois in 1969.

Also in 1969, Cage produced the Cheap Imitation for piano, derived from Erik Satie's Socrate. This production marked a major change in Cage's music. He now turned to writing full works for traditional instruments and attempted improvisation, which he previously disregarded. Unfortunately, Cheap Imitation was the last work Cage performed in public due to his increasing symptoms of arthritis. Once Cage could no longer perform, manuscripts for publication had to be created by assistants as oppose to Cage himself. Cage began to rely on the commissions of Grete Sultan, Paul Zukofsky, and Margaret Leng Tang in the 1970s. The largest portion of Cage's visual art consisted of a series of prints, which he completed up until his death.        

Three Modes of Listening

With regard to my previous post, each one of the uses of the contact microphone can be listened to with consideration to each of the three modes of listening: Causal, Semantic, and Reduced.

Causal Listening
With the violin video, one can obviously infer that the source of the sound is coming from the vibration of the strings on the violin. The sound produced from the magazine is from the crumbling of the magazine. Similarly, the sound that the container made is due to liquid hitting each side of the container.

Semantic Listening
Semantic Listening does not apply to the examples given in the previous post.

Reduced Listening
On the other hand, reduced listening is more difficult to understand or explain. In the violin clip, the sound being produced is a combination of quick, sporadic, high-pitched noises that play over and over in some sort of melody. The magazine sound has a lower-pitch and one may describe it as "annoying." There seems to be no purpose or melody. The sound produced from the container describes a "wishy-washy" sound that has a smoother flow than that of the violin or magazine.

Contact Microphone

A contact microphone, also known as a pickup, is a type of microphone that transmits audio vibrations through solid objects. Used widely as a substitution for normal air microphones, contact microphones pick up vibrations usually from musical instruments and convert them into a voltage that can be made audible. Here are three uses of a contact microphone:

A violin can usually compete with another acoustic instrument in a concert hall or orchestra; however, in an electric environment, such as a rock band, a normal microphone doesn't work. A normal microphone picks up too much sound for the surrounding instrument. The contact microphone serves as a perfect solution, since it is mounted on the violin and picks up vibrations from the violin and violin only. 

The following video includes examples of many uses of a contact microphone. Some examples include the following: At 2:36, a contact microphone is used to pick up the vibration of a wine glass as water is poured into it. At 3:58, the vibration of a crumbling magazine is picked up by the contact microphone. At 4:05, a contact microphone is attached to a container full of liquid.