Buried Away
So, I discovered "Burial" last night,
It's like music, and it was made by a guy using a program not better than Audacity.
He said that that was what he was familiar with using, and that was why he used it, rather than the more "advanced" programs.
What it boiled down to is that the more advanced programs help composers keep their beats on the beat, by offering a grid where they can place them where they will reside, so perfectly on the beat that they might be accused of sounding machine-like.
It might be that a lot of composers are better off having their samples landing right on the beat, as "machine-like" might be the better option between that, or being left to their own skills and devices in coming up with a beat that sounds better than machine-like.
The Burial guy manages this.
Click here to hear "Unearthed," By Daniel McKenna
His beats, described as "off-kilter" by one reviewer, are not it perfect time.
But, they pulse like being on a small boat on a river. I had to admit that his stuff is utterly listenable, so far, at least. I've only heard a couple minutes of the above album.
Apparently the Sun newspaper in Great Britain launched a campaign to discover the identity of the guy. I suppose he could have made his album in his bedroom and released it without ever having showed his face. All he would have to do is partner with some outfit like CD Baby, and he would be able to check his Paypal balance on his phone from the same bedroom and watch himself grow rich.
I have just delved into the world of music composed of "samples" of sounds. I imagine it would be like anything else; in the hands of Mozart, the Audacity editor could be used to produce something that would endure hundreds of years of being listened to.
In the hands of everybody else, those others would be better served to load the Abeltonᶜ digital audio workstation and have their stuff sound no less machine-like than the next guy who's song everybody might be dancing to at the moment.
So, by using Audacity, I am using a knife to whittle away at some mahogany, while others have a machine to do it, using lasers guided by computers, hopefully programmed by someone with a good vision of what the finished bust would look like.
I have done the above recording, and I think that it is "off kilter" but realize that I am one good sample of Christina Aguilera holding a note away from turning it into a real ear-catching wonder. I need to have it stand for something and relate to something that's common to Man, if I can manage that, too.
The idea of using samples intrigues me. Mine should be perhaps of the sounds I heard in the woods when I lived there for so long.
I remember having my tent on a spot in Jacksonville, where there was a pond nearby, the frogs in which being better than a motion sensor in alerting me to anyone's approach. The grey owl with the wing span of about five feet would make sounds occasionally. These sounds, warped and turned into beats, might produce a hypnotic result.
I can't see where a sound that is horrendous to begin with, like a chair being slid across a floor should be the basis for making music.
One cool thing about Burial is that he uses the sound of bullet shell casings hitting concrete as one of his samples. It seems to me that he is finding beauty, even in the scene of someone being gunned down on the concrete somewhere.
"Ive just taken a fatal shot to my chest, but doesn't that sound pretty?" type of thing.
So, I discovered "Burial" last night,
He said that that was what he was familiar with using, and that was why he used it, rather than the more "advanced" programs.
What it boiled down to is that the more advanced programs help composers keep their beats on the beat, by offering a grid where they can place them where they will reside, so perfectly on the beat that they might be accused of sounding machine-like.
It might be that a lot of composers are better off having their samples landing right on the beat, as "machine-like" might be the better option between that, or being left to their own skills and devices in coming up with a beat that sounds better than machine-like.
The Burial guy manages this.
Click here to hear "Unearthed," By Daniel McKenna
His beats, described as "off-kilter" by one reviewer, are not it perfect time.
But, they pulse like being on a small boat on a river. I had to admit that his stuff is utterly listenable, so far, at least. I've only heard a couple minutes of the above album.
Apparently the Sun newspaper in Great Britain launched a campaign to discover the identity of the guy. I suppose he could have made his album in his bedroom and released it without ever having showed his face. All he would have to do is partner with some outfit like CD Baby, and he would be able to check his Paypal balance on his phone from the same bedroom and watch himself grow rich.
I have just delved into the world of music composed of "samples" of sounds. I imagine it would be like anything else; in the hands of Mozart, the Audacity editor could be used to produce something that would endure hundreds of years of being listened to.
In the hands of everybody else, those others would be better served to load the Abeltonᶜ digital audio workstation and have their stuff sound no less machine-like than the next guy who's song everybody might be dancing to at the moment.
So, by using Audacity, I am using a knife to whittle away at some mahogany, while others have a machine to do it, using lasers guided by computers, hopefully programmed by someone with a good vision of what the finished bust would look like.
I have done the above recording, and I think that it is "off kilter" but realize that I am one good sample of Christina Aguilera holding a note away from turning it into a real ear-catching wonder. I need to have it stand for something and relate to something that's common to Man, if I can manage that, too.
The idea of using samples intrigues me. Mine should be perhaps of the sounds I heard in the woods when I lived there for so long.
I remember having my tent on a spot in Jacksonville, where there was a pond nearby, the frogs in which being better than a motion sensor in alerting me to anyone's approach. The grey owl with the wing span of about five feet would make sounds occasionally. These sounds, warped and turned into beats, might produce a hypnotic result.
I can't see where a sound that is horrendous to begin with, like a chair being slid across a floor should be the basis for making music.
One cool thing about Burial is that he uses the sound of bullet shell casings hitting concrete as one of his samples. It seems to me that he is finding beauty, even in the scene of someone being gunned down on the concrete somewhere.
"Ive just taken a fatal shot to my chest, but doesn't that sound pretty?" type of thing.
That "Unearthed" piece actually sounds pretty neat.
ReplyDeleteUsing sounds for music goes 'way back, to the early 20th century. The French term is "Music Concrete". There was also "program music" like the piece "Pacific 231" where traditional instruments were used, but used to produce non-traditional sounds reflecting the new sounds of industry and technology.
A lot of modern music is rather mechanical-sounding. When you listen to "Highway Star" by Deep Purple, it frankly sounds a lot like a factory. In a word surrounded by machines, of course your music is going to sound like machines.