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Session 5 – Reflection on Audio-Visual Composition
While I wasn’t able to produce any notable or satisfactory results within the session, I did reflect on the nature of Audio-Visual Composition and the different kinds of thinking you can approach it with. I specifically watched the scene from Blade Runner, linked on the Moodle page, which is one of my favorite films. I…
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Session 4 – Controllerism
While I found other parts of the lesson interesting, the most exciting moment in this session was being able to use the Ableton Push for the first time. Prior to this session I never understood the utility of the Push in regards to writing music or sound design. My sound design tends to be with…
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Session 3 – Spatial Sound
In this session, I tested 8-channel audio for the first time. It was completely new territory for me and forced me to utilize my sound design knowledge in new and different ways. I wanted to make the sound within this setup feel alive, almost as if it was breathing. To do this, I got a…
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Further Thoughts
One of the most interesting elements of my research is how the values in black metal and EDM (the two genres synthesized by the band in my ethnographical analysis) directly contrast and oppose each other. In Takahashi and Olaveson’s study of the Canadian rave scenes, they identify the central themes of the EDM experience to…
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Session 2 pt. II – Analog Synthesis Continued
In this session, as I was already quite familiar with the other synths being talked about, I tested Ableton’s new synth, Meld, using the same principles being discussed in class. Its very warm tone lends itself to creating full and lush pads that can be further accentuated with FX. I found that adding lots of…
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Session 2 – Analog Synthesis
This is a piece I made using FM synthesis (operator) in Ableton. I wanted to see how far I could push the synth until it produced sounds that felt alien and impossible to create through the common conception of FM synthesis. To do this, I mapped all the pitch parameters in Operator as well as…
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Session 1 – Recorded Sound
This is a small drum loop I made in the first session of the Creative Sound Projects Unit. In this exercise, we were given 10 minutes to record sounds with our phones around the school and then had to use the remaining time experimenting, processing, and arranging them into a loop. I used many different…
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Norient
The website Norient highlights one of the most exciting prospects relating to contemporary culture around sonic practices: the reclaiming and bridging of cultural dialogue around sound and music and its accessibility on a global scale. Outside the gentrification of music within the popular industry and culture, Norient’s form, presentation, and system of information organization allows…
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Sonic Ethnography
My ethnography: The sonic landscape that comprises walking from outside the LCC building to the Sound Arts Department signifies various cultures, modes, and roles involving engagement and relationship with the environment, and social forms of communication. The outer plaza features a heavy presence of student activity as an area of leisure, where the sound of…
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Potential Quotes
From: Ecology, Estrangement and Enchantment in Black Metal’s Dark Haven “Paganism, mysticism, occultism and other forms of marginal religiosity are combined with idealised depictions of natural or fantastic landscapes. Yet this music bewitched with ancient nature and tradition relies on electrical instruments, amplification and distortion, as well as electronic recording and playback devices, and it…