experimental sound development- initial idea

most of my work with sound so far had been from music. I've written a few songs for films and most of them stay fairly down to earth. i wanted to try something more experimental and use sound as a counterpoint for music. I first looked at the pictures and one really caught my eye.
 
the angle of the north captured the feeling i wanted to explore. this idea of capturing and control sound as music and the natural sound around it. this was methaphorically shown in the angle. it is a human construct in nature made out of wood and trying to control it. i also loved the spirtial element of the picture.

whilst looking at this piece i started thinking about nature and the elements and thought back to another artist Bill Viola


this came to mind. the use of the 4 elements and their relation to use. the angle symbolised very strongly the people in his work. I wanted to capture this feeling of struggling and then accepting nature via sound. this came to me in the idea of using music. music is created via people (and birds...which i reference in the piece)

i wanted a instrument to correspond to a element. this came in part to what i could play but luckly they fitted well. drums with earth as they are the most basic elements and beat baised instrument. flute with wind as it is through wind sound is created. guitar with fire as it shouts passion at people around the world. and piano with water as the pressing of the keys has this feeling of pressing against water. also the feeling of playing is flow like.
i had the idea of the instrument playing then the elements slowly building ontop. then there being elements of struggle and the instrument fighting back then acceptance.

then i wanted the tones to morph together and once all of them had morphed into 4 seperate tones to build them up using a shepards tone to illustrate them rising and growing in harmony with each other.
then finially the relaxation with the muffled sound to end. giving it a almost transendial feeling. the shepard tone the diccussing and the muffled sound the revelation.





this was the notes i took to show my idea.

after developing the idea to it's conclusion i then downloaded so free sounds off freesounds.org

i practiced putting them together and trying a very simplified verson of my idea. it worked okay but found a few problems which i used to stop me making them for my piece.

• recording music needs to use a special mic 
• i would have to replicate the sound of wind as it didnt sound how we imagine wind. 
• drums needed to be recorded well sound there is definition between the drums. 
• need to be careful of crackle and use quiet places. 

i then had my tutorial with James and we talked through the idea. he liked the sound of it and gave me a few ideas on what to try 

• look into Kyma demo for the morph in tone (instead of cross fade) 
• trying out the instruments with the different elements 
• to get a external mic either the sm57 or sm58 

this was how i was going to record the drums to create the differentiation between the sounds 

one thing i forgot was to get a sound room.....was annoying as i could of used it. it tried to book one later but i couldn't find anyone each time i went and i was short of time. luckly i had a quiet garage to use but i would of liked to use the sound booth for the earth bits. 

i then wrote a list of all the sounds i wanted 

ie 

water: tap, hose, river, sink , drip, pond, rain 

wind: trees, chimes,  wind tunnel 

earth: walking on surface, gravel, dirt, stones 

fire: gas stove, wood burner, incinerator

i recorded most of these but some did change on the go. like wind. i didnt  have any wind on any of my recording days so i improvised. nore did i have any rain. 

 

I then went to the stores to get out my recorder.
my order of recorders i wanted was

1. zoom
2. roland 
3. merance 

i went and first thing was there was no zooms

i then asked for a roland. but i was told that you couldnt attach and extrenal mic. i thought that was weird (still wanna find out if that is true) 

so i went for my final option, ive used a merance before and it isnt my fav thing but it is fairly good. 

annoyly there was only one left. it was an old one but i thought it would be fine. 

i booked out a sm58 and a mic stand and was on my way. 

it was recording that day so i decided to test the recorder in my student house. 

it was rubbish 

it had a weird buzz all the time. the gain didnt work proparly. it didnt connect with my sm58 and the display was imposible to see. i then tried with my friends new merance and it worked well. i had to go back to the stores to replace the merance. but this meant i lost amost a whole day of sound recording.

i should of given myself more time obvs but i thought id atleast get a working roland so didnt think i need it, i also had a day but day plan because of the essay. 

but now it was time to go out and record.