Final Project: "What Is a Logic Youth?"

It was a lot of fun actually creating my final project once I was able to get things going and ideas flowing in Logic. I didn't really have any idea of what I wanted to do aside from wanting to make something that had at least a House feel to it even it if it wasn't a straight House song, and also something that had a little guitar flare to it in the spirit of Ratatat.

Before I had even started work in the Music Lab, I had planned on making good use of ReCycle in creating samples that I would add to my project just like I had done for the Drum and Bass assignment. While doing so, I had managed to speed up the drumbeat to "Tomorrow Comes Today" by Gorillaz, which made me start thinking that I might want to take the style of Drum and Bass. However, this didn't last long when I remembered how difficult it was to find a rhythm and keep it a the appropriate tempo while adding and subtracting elements and instruments throughout the track. Keeping the same style I was able to create the arpeggiated drumbeat in Reason that i eventually used for the final project.

I experimented a lot more with the keyboard in creating my own melodies and rhythms during this project, especially once I had laid down the beat and bass and decided that there was something missing. I also needed a way of incorporating the electric guitar as I had intended to in my proposal. But trying to figure out what form the melody would take was the most difficult part and I was stuck it the lab for quite a while trying to figure this out.

If you are not familiar with the 1968 film version of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet watch this video. This is where I magically discovered a melody to use in my project. I spent a good deal of time actually trying to learn the melody on the piano since I have absolutely zero piano training. The technique I ended up using was to break it down into 3-4 note pieces and record them over and over again until i got it right before splicing them together in the appropriate meter using the piano roll in Logic. I tried to make the whole song a buildup to the finale in the last minute by gradually adding the pieces of that melody in the first third and then subtracting the beat in the middle third and then combining it all in the end.

Another sample that I created using my minimal piano skills was taken from the movie Intolerable Cruelty, which I had recently seen and decided would be a good fit in the song in the softer, middle section as the intensity build towards the finale.

I chose not to go heavy on the effects or filtering because I didnt't like how it was sounding after programming the MIDI keyboard and the software instruments that I was using to play the pianoing and samples from Reason and ReCycle were sounding better than the manual effects that I was applying to each track.

I wish we had learned Logic earlier because it would make experimenting with other programs easier since it already has a ton of loops that you can use and makes mixing and mastering so much easier.

Andre Narcisse's Reason Ambient song

So, I decided to review Andre's assignment 3 which was an Ambient track that he created using Reason.  I'd first like to mention that it took me a great deal of time to actually write because I normally listen to electronic music while working and this track kept blending into all of the rest so that I kept forgetting what I was actually critiquing. Already a good start.

This song definitely follows the traditional parameters of ambient music aside from the bass not in the four to the floor pattern, but you're not thinking about dancing to this beat anyway so it's not at all distracting. You can really focus on whatever sound catches your ear; each time I listen there is a new element that attracts me.

He used a lot of swishing type sounds and modulation to get the effect of fading out without having to change the gains. Excellent use of synths throughout allow for feeling of relaxation.  The one sound I would change is the pad that sounds a little like a hammer, which gets a little too high-pitched in spots and tempts the listener into exiting his "flow." This piece could exist even without that track.

My favorite part is at 55 seconds where you can hear what sounds like a haunting voice. What is so impressive about this genre is the effect that such simple effects can have on the piece when applied to different tracks. Andre's song exemplified fine execution of that simplicity.

recycle lotta women

Jungle assignment

Top 100 Electronic Albums of All Time

As I was perusing the internet looking for some more music to download, I decided to type in "top electronic songs" into Google and see what it gave me. One of the top hits was a site called Listology that claimed to have compiled a list of the top 100 electronic albums of all time. Well, guess what artist was at Number 1 on this list: Steve Reich and his Music for 18 Musicians.

Other notable artists that we have covered were Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, Massive Attack, Kraftwerk, The Future Sound of London, Daft Punk, Tangerine Dream, Portishead, Tricky, and . Unfortunately, Karlheinz Stockhausen was only given an honorable mention.

Link to the full list

A Reason to House

Boomp3.com

House Loop 3

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House Loop 2

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House Loop 1

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Roger Sanchez "Another Chance"

This song was put up on the Virtual Concert Hall and I listened to it after class today and haven't been able to stop listening. House is so addicting!!!!

Here is the link to the YouTube video. It's a pretty good complement to the song too.

Sinnamen

Boomp3.com

This is a song I created using Garageband over the summer after I discovered Intro to Electronic Music in the Bluebook and decided to take it. The style of Ratatat inspired the guitar loops.

RadiaL tip

As I was messing around with the RadiaL program after lab section last week I was searching to find if there was a way to more specifically define the sector size of the sample in the window. The default only lets you select a minimum of 1/8th by clicking the wheel. I found that if you click the time box located in the channel inspector window you can type in your desired sector length to get even more specific with the loop length.

ringtone 2

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ringtone 1

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More electronic embodiment, please. Easy on the predictability.

I just finished reading Vijay Iyer's article in "Sound Unbound" on improvisation and embodiment and it just occurred to me what it is about Hip-Hop DJs that keeps me constantly searching through YouTube for clips of DJ competitions and performances. The actual act of scratching adds the percussion with the human touch that reminds the listener who still makes music. It's not the computer, although the computer can and often does simulate most every instrument, that makes the music but the artist. 

I love listening to electronic music but sometimes it all starts to sound the same to me no matter what artist I listen to simply because it is recorded. Tracks often start becoming predictable even after listening to new stuff that you find through Pandora or whatever because there isn't any improv or deviation from the standard structure.

When a DJ is scratching on his turntables he is making authentic music on one table while spinning a sample of the other. These motions provide the human link to music that Iyer argues is missing in recorded electronic music. 

But instead of a contrast between electronic and instrumental genres maybe this is just an obvious difference between live and recorded performances. When I saw RJD2 perform at Toad's Place last year, I had already listened to just about all of his music and was still blown away by his performance. He didn't just play through the tracks and stand back with his arms crossed; he got in there and put on a show, mixing and mashing, sampling away, and pumping up the crowd with each tap of his beat pad. It was much better than the albums because we didn't know what to expect next.

The Genius Bar is... well... genius

So when starting up iTunes on my computer i once again got that annoying popup asking if i wanted to download the latest version of iTunes. Usually i ignore these requests and move on but since seeing the latest ads for the new line of iPods, i gave it a try and downloaded it.  

I'll just cut to the chase and say that the waiting time for the download is definitely worth it as Apple finally added something to the interface that is actually useful and pretty cool to use. They created the Genius Bar which is pretty much the exact same technology as what Pandora uses. By clicking a song in your library you will be shown what popular songs you are missing from that artist as well as numerous recommendations for songs to listen to based on your taste. It also has a function that automatically creates a playlist from the similar styles of music in your own library.

Ever since i downloaded the update i've been constantly making playlists and rediscovering music in my library that i haven't listened to in years.