This week l have decided my concept and started to finalize my research perspective, l was uncertain and confused on putting the focus on the dance choreography or the music, however there are questions towards both sides. If l’m working on dance choreography how would l present it in an audio paper? And if l’m working on the music, which perspective should l be working with? Should l research on the beat, melodies, rhyme or etc.
So l began to collect some research and starting to develop my idea.
Tutor to provide DAW track-lay example, including voice tracks, ambiences, music, fx, group tracks, channel DSP, master bus processing and marker points.
Immersive Audio, What, How and Why Now?
This lesson has shown the meaning of immersive audio. Immersive audio is like a Spatial Audio that creates a realistic and enveloping sound experience for the listener. The goal of immersive audio is to reproduce sound in a way that accurately replicates the way humans perceive sound in the real world, such as a sense of depth, height and spatial positioning.
It can be created with:
multi-channel speaker setups
object-based audio
spatial audio techniques to position sound sources precisely
It is a 3D sound field, which explores the relationships between sound, space, and the listener’s perception.
(where there can be also research into psychoacoustic manipulation of spatial cues and challenging auditory perception) – How people interact and perceive with the environments, various people might have different habits, but how sound affects them, what are their conditional reflexes?)
Idea developments:
From this lesson l have understood the concept of immersive media, which is a very visual example of spatialisation in sound art. Where sound designing should be planned within a certain space, what kind of item in the space, and what position of speaker, all of those details will make a huge difference in a sound artwork. Especially for the audience, the location of the speakers of where the sound is transmitted to will make the audience feel a different emotion. Therefore, this problem could be another detail for me to pay attention to for my final sound work.
What do we understand in different years and how does it change, what color, maybe every 10 years a change happens. It could happen due to different regions, their culture, social and political build up.
Exploring ideas: (Possible ideas)
Part 1: reflection
A two mins audio clip: Milo speaking about what he wants to do for today’s class with background noise, but he records this while he takes transportations to go home, which is also before this lesson.
Second clip is about public speaking: where the voices change from traditionally reading the poetry to electronic voices.
What do l need is 1. Title 2. Concept 3. Production plan
Part 2: an audible history of sound art
collage and montage: the cut up and merging art)
Audio paper is like sampling and put necessary part together
Idea development:
Many of my ideas have gained in this class and we have developed our knowledge further for the theories of sound art.
There is a collaboration album that my friends ask me to join that inspired me with new ideas, their theme is abstract, where I wanted to research about how abstract ideas have developed from historical to contemporary. However, the abstract as a genre in music doesn’t have many research for me to dig into, in the modern days there is a huge twist towards the understanding on abstract, especially in china, people starting to use abstract as a meme, to sarcastically comment on the behaviors that is extremely out of norm, usually to describe crazy and negative items, but it can also be use for event that is funny and creatively out of mind. The main focus with the traditional abstract is the same, however the method of presentation has been totally different. Therefore, it might not be as suitable to be a research project for final presentation, however, if it doesn’t require comparison or evaluation for the historical works then it might be suitable.
In the highlight of piece l consider using wavetable as an instrument is a very effective choice, in the wavetable the field recorded audio has been selected into short pieces, where in wavetable can allow the shape to be changed. I have changed the shape into a triangle wave to create a more flute-like sound effect than pure tone. I then increase the level of the LFO with frequency and envelope with the pitch. This is a field recording l had for a thunder night, It made to be more gentle and nature filtered all the unnecessary noises.
To create more texture in the piece, l build some harmonies with the thunder. This is created by randomize the effects l add in, and there are some very special outcome not simply can be a harmony with the main track, but also more characteristics and having tempo, this allows the listeners to explore the piece with the back of their ear.
Then l added some layers with the thunder to change the monotonous main melody, so l edit one piece of the thunder and developed them as a simple beat using corpus, the tune made it more robotic and created a fun layer for the piece this is getting the listeners out of the boredom.
The redux l used here is a very important and detailed design, having bit depth can have accurate dynamic range as well as quantization noise. i have put the automation on the bit depth, which allows the soundtrack to switch in between detailed and mumble sound. This also imitate the distance and how people actually truly walk, they use their weight and very steps might sound different.
While the character walks to the door, there is a strong wind coming to her. This wind design is utilized as a riser for the climax to begin. In addition, this wind also represents the start point of the future challenges. Thus, it must be composed with spatial composition, which adding EQ to cut off the high frequency and automize echo with changing left to right and quite to loud imitates the spatialisation of wind splash through the door.
Change of work: last week l developed a detailed storyline for my project that matches the genre and concept of the album. This week l’m going to refine it.
For the beginning of the piece l choose to create connections with the songs in the album, thus l utilize the section of the piece and had secondary created. I have used audio recording the organical track and using reverb effect to increase stereo for the immersive experience for the listeners.
In term of building some layers and texture for the secondary creation. I used a simper to cut out only part of the piece and recorded it together using frequency automation, as well as looped and snapped the track. This is for imitate how the character is listening closely to the radio, and changing channels, this is the first point of view for the listeners to substitute themselves into the character. It is also dreamy effect which is a foreshadow of character slowly going into her dream.
Then l made a chorus for maintaining the dreamy effect and having a set off for the footsteps l recorded myself, this is to imitate the little girl gradually walking towards her goal and ambitions of success. It is also towards her final joy after the life struggles. I utilized the vocoder effect and OTT for the dimension of the sound, building with more depth for the footsteps to be more realistic.
I have added some clear bird sound to collaborate with the footsteps. This sound appears which makes the character hesitate, it is also a symbolism of exploring new elements and experience in the reality world. Therefore this bird sound needs to be very outstanding and has a stereo effect for the listeners to feel surrounded by the sound. So l added a EQ Eight and canceled the low frequencies and building on with feedback in echo.
During the process of creation l have explored other areas of composing. Pure data is also a software that can create very electric and imitated sound, it can also be used for building sound installations.
Class notes:
We are trying to create fire using pure data, and there are many small details we need to pay attention to make it successful. This is another experiment of portraying immersive sound effects.
With the previous development, l created a base melody, however it was very immature and composition was a mess. After listening to the feedback from my peers, l consider to restart my piece with a detailed storyline that matches my theme.
I started with a little girl falling into a forest, this is inspired by the title piece “Forest” in the album. Their background story was a person walking through the forest and exploring the outside world, it is a symbolism of getting connections with inner-self. The entire piece holding a feeling of dreamy, where also connects to the song of “Insomnia syndrome”, where expressing how people dealing with cruel reality and having symptoms of insomnia, where the character “falling down into its dream” is representing how people cure themselves with inner energies where l summarized them using dream, in the dream everything is beautiful and encouraging it is quietly healing the main character.
After this lesson l revised on my last experimental piece and spotted many problematic areas, the entire sound piece had no focus and only repeated with very chaotic composition. Therefore instead of using the exact same melody for the FX motor, l created a simple change on the third one, which allow it to be out of expectation.
I have using the preserve to change the beats to 1/16 and instead of double reverse arrow l have changed to
As well as changing the envelopes to transposit, created a difference for the repetition.
Historical work composed and remixed for multi channel by Pierre Henry:
“L’Apocalypse de Jean” (The Apocalypse of John), composed by Pierre Henry in 1968, is a significant multichannel work in electronic music history. This piece was specifically designed for a 16-channel speaker system at the Église Saint-Roch in Paris.
The composition features:
– Spatialized vocal elements
– Electronic sound manipulation
– Religious text readings
– Complex spatial movements
– Environmental recordings
The immersive effect is created in the space of church:
– Move between different heights
– Travel across the space
– Surround the audience
– Create spatial illusions
– Enhance the apocalyptic narrative
This work represents a pivotal moment in multichannel composition, demonstrating how spatial audio could enhance musical storytelling and religious themes. It’s considered one of the earliest large-scale works to fully exploit multichannel possibilities in an architectural space.
Pierre Henry pioneered multichannel techniques in electronic music by combining innovative sound manipulation with spatial distribution. Using tape splicing, field recordings, and studio manipulation, he created complex soundscapes distributed through multiple speakers. His setup included tape recorders, custom mixing consoles, and speaker arrays, allowing him to control sound movement through space manually. Henry’s approach focused on spatial orchestration and architectural integration, treating the placement and movement of sounds as essential compositional elements. His techniques of channel-specific events and sound trajectories established fundamental principles that continue to influence electronic music and sound installation art today.
Multichannel routing:
Multichannel sound art harnesses multiple speakers strategically positioned in space to create immersive sonic environments that go beyond traditional stereo setups. Unlike two-channel audio, multichannel works typically employ four or more independent speakers, enabling artists to craft three-dimensional soundscapes where audio can move, transform, and interact throughout the space. Common configurations include quadraphonic (4 speakers), 5.1 surround, and 8-channel arrays, though artists often develop custom installations based on their specific needs. These systems find applications in gallery installations, concert performances, interactive exhibits, and architectural sound design. Artists can manipulate sound movement, distance perception, and spatial relationships using specialized software like Max/MSP, Ableton Live, or Pure Data to control routing, processing, and automation. The technical aspects involve careful consideration of speaker placement, phase relationships, signal processing, and sound localization to create cohesive sonic environments. Through multichannel sound art, creators can tell spatial stories, design virtual soundscapes, craft interactive experiences, and explore the relationships between sound, space, and listener perception. This medium has become increasingly important in contemporary art practices, offering new ways to engage audiences through immersive audio experiences that challenge traditional listening paradigms and expand the possibilities of sonic expression.
Project development:
During the period of creating, I have asked my friends to send me some example songs that they will include in the album. As I’m considering developing this intro music into a multi-channel production, where it creates an immersive effect for the audiences, l have firstly composed an experimental piece to test the immersive effect.
When l create this sound piece, I have implemented a natural environment field recording which matches with the theme fun time and their first title music “forest”, which is throughout the entire sound piece, creates a vivid background. And an electronic effect of FX motor in every beat, this brings out a futurism and creates a contrast effect for the audience’s ear.
However l find the FX motor track too frequent, where instead of futurism, it is more disturbing. So l decrease the frequency of it, and make it play every 5 seconds.
When l try to play in different channels, l accidentally change the in-channel to various channels, however after the lesson l realize the out-channel is what we need for actual speakers. This is my first attempting towards multi-channel.
