Pierre Schaeffer – Musique Concrete

Composition 1 – Influences and composing the piece

Pierre Schaeffer is widely considered the pioneer of Musique Concrete. His ‘Five Studies of Noises’ is initially what inspired me, and is what I used as a template for my first composition. The aspect that inspired me most was the use of repetition to create rhythm. This is what I have tried to use to create the rhythmic parts of my own Acousmatics piece.

Using the ‘echo’ effect within Logic enabled me to create that repetition, and rhythmic aspect which I wanted in order to create the atmosphere I wanted. To make the most of the eight speaker system, I thought it would be a good idea to leave a lot of space for the echo effect to ring out and allow time to send the sound around the room.

Slowing the BPM of the paper sample down emphasised the sound of the paper being creased and scrunched, creating a sweeping sound. When diffusing this sound the low frequencies really became apparent and the low, atonal product of the paper sample in comparison to the higher more melodic sound produced by the water sample.

By chopping sections of the water sample and using ‘echo’ to repeat the sound, a rhythmic tapping was produced. This became its own sample and almost like a third recording and was used repeatedly during the composition. The droplet noise and the pouring noise were taken from the same sample and were alternated during the beginning of the piece as an introduction before introducing the paper sample.

Initially, the paper sample was designed to be the main focal point in the structure of the piece but I felt it was too overpowering, and the diversity of the different effects produced with the water sample were easier to use.

Schaeffer was the main influence for this piece and I feel I have captured a small element of his composing style and the audio samples, along with the methods used to process and place them within the composition have worked successfully.

Composition 2 – Final Version

comp-2-final-version

This is the final version of composition two. The piece consists of four different midi tracks, all recorded from a Steinway piano sample.

The first track was initially played in the octave above middle C, and after processing the sound using ’space design’ decided to ‘pitch shift’ the sample up by three octaves which created a better contrasting effect with the main focal point of the piece which was recorded in the second track. As minimalism was the inspiration for this piece, the second track has the minimalist theme with a simple melody which was repeated numerous times by copying and pasting the sample. To emphasise the repetition the use of ‘echo’ was used to create a repeated delay. The same was used on the third track, but much more exagerated and to create tension the track was overlapped closely together which made a percussional rhythmic effect which worked well with the high pitched sound of track one. To balance the structure and to fill out the lower frequencies,  ‘pitch shift’ was used again to transpose the piano recording down four octaves below middle C. The distorted sound trailing of after each low piano tone was intentional, and was created by ‘bitcrusher’.

Composition 2 – Draft

rough-draft

This is the first rough draft of the second composition and is an exploration into processing tonal sound. I chose instrumental sound to contrast with the natural sounds that I recorded before in my first composition.

As I used the midi keyboard instead of a real keyboard, the piece is recorded in midi as opposed to audio.

In the final recording the use of automation is 5.1 stereo will be implemented. This will be the case for the first composition also.

Composition 2 – Ideas

For my second composition, this is a brief description of the audio file which I will be posting shortly, which is to show in which direction I will be going. For this piece I have chosen to use instrumental sounds to contrast with the samples I used in composition one. My aim for this piece is to explore the ways I can use the sound of a piano effectively in a minimalist style piece. 

Using short phrases recorded from a midi keyboard, this piece so far uses repetition and the use of dynamics o fade in and out of the sounds subtly. These are ideas I will be broadening through the development of the piece.

Steve Reich influenced me to write a composition using a minimalist style with piano. Im interested in the way he uses subtle structural change, and this is something I wanted to explore into.

Composition 1 – Final Version

composition-1-final

This composition is an exploration into how recorded sounds can be manipulated and processed, with the aim to make the samples sound entirely different.

The aim of using the paper sample was to convert the sound and focus on the lower frequencies it produced. By slowing the sample down and taking the bpm down to a slower tempo it create a sweeping effect and adding reverb and energising the sample emphasised this.

The water sample has higher pitched frequencies and so to emphasise these frequencies pitch shifting was used to take the sample up by an octave, and in some cases two octaves. The use of sustain and echo was incorporated to create the echo effect which had a rhythmic effect when chopped and repeated.

The use of automation has been implemented to fade samples in and out of eachother, and to apply different dynamics to create texture.

Composition 1 – Draft Version

anna-draft-1

The audio file attatched is my first draft of the first piece. The piece is made up of two sounds which I feel compliment eachother. These two sounds are paper being scrunched, and water tipping into a metal pan. The sounds differ in frequency and although they contrast with eachother, they provide frequency and pitch variation which, in my opinion, works well.

The pitch within both sound samples is what I first focused on. I wanted the paper sample to be a clean, low sound and I used reverb and slowed down the bpm to achieve this. With the water sample, I thought by pitch shifting the original sound up, and chopping up and repeatedly pasting the sample to create a rhythmic effect would emphasise the higher end frequencies.

I have used the automation window to experiment with dynamics and this is something I will be exploring further with this piece.

The piece at the moment has a spacious feel which allows alot of room for diffusion and panning which I think needs improving on considerably. After playing the draft in class I feel that it is lacking alot of detail and although I am creating this spacious and open feel, it sounds sort of empty and needs to build up to something interesting.

I am happy with some aspects of this draft so far, however there is much work to be done on form and structure and I also need to work on using the mixer.

Acousmatics – Lessons 1&2

Using the Yamaha Digital Mixer

Set Up

• Speaker choice in set-up
• Safety Procedures

Recording Material

• Knowing your sound
• Use of effects such as process and delay

Composition

• Think in terms of live performance
• Meeting the expectations of the listener

Performance

• Know which channel leads to which speaker
• Knowledge of sound diffusion techniques
• Lighting and mood setting

Mixer

• Inputs/Outputs
• Auxiliary/groups