William Railtons Creative Music Technology Blog

Hey people,
This is my last post for this particular module. I have decided to submit bounces of my automated surround files in a logic project file with the surround preferences already set up for my diffusion because this seems like the most practical way to present my work. I have particularly enjoyed this module mainly because of the things i learned about surround set-ups and multi channel enviroments, i evan learned a thing or two about supercollider thanks to Julio’s tutorial on pattern sequences. My perception of Electro-Acoustic music and Acousmatic music has certainatly changed dramatically in the last few months, not only did i learn about some more abstract methods of composition but it also helped me think about structure in a more conventional sense.

Hello again,
I have now completed my drafts for both of my compositions, all that is left to do is to try and sort out some of the errors in the structure and layout of my pieces, which at present seems to be my only problem. i was able to obtain some of the sounds i had hoped for in my second piece (saxophonie 1), made entirely out of one short section of music played by Borris from the AMT department, the only thing i was unable to achieve was a certified transformation or at least the illusion of one. My first piece (7), based on the idea of chance music (inspired by John Cage’s williams mix and his imaginary landscapes), is now slightly reformed as a more approachable piece to listen too, as i have tried to create some space and reference points.

Hello again,
As i had stated before i am going to base my next piece on the sounds of the saxophone using audio that i recorded in the AMT labs. The aim of this composition is to explore the harmonic range of the saxophone and what kind of sounds i can obtain from a conventional instrument in a non-conventional context.
Listening to the music of Trevor Wishart and how he has used the instrument of the human voice to creat interesting textures and manipulations that build up in tone and rhythm throughout, i intend to use subtle reverbs and impulse response times from the hall to play with spatialisation within my automated surround piece (whilst experimenting with DSP and spectrum analysis processes to obtain harmonically desirable sounds). In this composition i hope to make a well structured piece of acousmatic music by repeating certain parts of recogniseable audio in certain sections to create reference points that the listener can engage with easily.

Hey people,
After hearing Andrew Davis’s piece “The Flying Pan” and the things he did in SPEAR it made me want to chose a sound source that is harmonically rich so that i could create a scape that could not only have naturally rich textures but could also go as far away from the origional source as possible without depleating any of the harmonic content. Although acousmatic music is typically non-melodically oriented, i wanted to use a source that is ussually used in a conventional sense, so i asked my friend Borris from the audio tech department to record some saxophone for me. I used the acoustically treated rooms in the AMT labs to get the best recording i could for this piece so that i could make the clarity of sound stand out more than my last piece.

Hey people,
After making my first composition according to the instructions that i had created, i decided that i may have compromised some of the musical content and possibly some of the form of the piece due to my instructions, so i am going to try and recreate the piece in the hope that i can give each sound and idea time to breathe and contextualize with one another to make a slightly more structured piece of music. Origionally my piece was called 7 but i have chosen to use the instructions below as a stimulus for composition as apposed to the basis of composition.

7 instructions:

1)7 different records of your choice.
2)7 different audio processes of your choice.
3)7 different effects of your choice.
4)Place the stylus approximatly 7 centi-meters into your record.
5)Play your record either forward or backward (or scratch it) at what ever tempo you’d like for
approximatly 7 seconds.
6)Place your processed and non-processed sounds no more than 7 seconds apart from one another.
7)Pan your sounds in 7.1 surround.

If anybody is interested turntablism or the sounds that can be made on just a turntable, watch this video, its the nearest thing to live IDM ive ever seen. this is a video from the 2002 DMC world championships with Kentaro. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJLQG0TAp_s

Hello again,
After looking at julios “transforming your materials” post i have chosen to look into the realms of tape, however i decided to use my main instrument, which is a turntable. A turntable can replicate almost all of the familiar sounds that tape manipulation can produce, by either speeding up or slowing down the record, you can create lines of pitch (glissandi) with any sound by turning the turntable off (not to mention tape stop by hitting the start and stop button), things like scratching and beat juggling are a world of there own, i could continue but im shure you get the idea. So ive decided to try and create a score involving the element of chance by writing carefull instructions that give the artist both creative control and enough randomness to make the piece totally different each time it is reconstructed. In this piece i would like to incorporate some light digital effects to contrast the sounds of analogue and digital processes. Again if anyone has any thoughts or comments dont hesitate to share them.
Cheers, Will Railton

Hello people,
Ive been trying to think of a theme, or some kind of audio journey in which i can incorporate a mixture of processed and non-processed sounds. the difficulty being that i dont want to make something totally un-origional. Williams mix is a particularly good piece because not only will it be totally different each time it is replicated (resulting in exciting unexpected outcomes), but it leaves imagination to the listener without restricting them to a defined theme or “journey” (as with the piece Imaginary Landscape No. 4). The idea of chance is beautiful (its what makes life so interesting), so i would like to compose something that uses the idea of chance whilst maintaining a high element of control. but theres a thin line, at which point to you loose the element of chance because of to much control (and vice-versa). I guess all i can do is carry on thinking untill i have thought of something worth persuing in detail. if anybody has any thoughts in relation to chance, please share them.
Cheers, Will Railton

Hello People,
in last weeks Acousmatics lecture we discussed some more fader techniques, a couple of ways to create circlular motion and some thoughts on how to bring your sound to life within a 3d space. We also discussed a few composers (Robert Normandeau, Denis Smalley, Trevor Wishart, etc) and were asked to bring a piece of acousmatic music (of our choice) to play and diffuse at tomorows lecture. We chose Trevor Wisharts, Vox Cycle 1 (from The Vox Cycle) which is a piece that has a vast variety of digital techniques and transformations applied to the sounds of the human voice. This particular piece has so many dimensions and levels to offer a large amount of spatial freedom to anyone who would like to diffuse it, so I look forward to tomorow!

Cheers, William Railton.

Hey people, check this video out, its fascinating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yldmXWu745w