Compositions

The music industry adopted digital media long before any other industry
with the introduction of the synthesizer in 1960. With the introduction
of the synthesizer, the way music was composed written and produced
and also performed was revolutionized. When the CD was first introduced
by Sony and Phillips in the 1980's, this became the most popular storage
for digital media to be distributed and recorded on. For many years almost
everyone in the entertainment industry has realized that there is a vibrant,
emerging market in digital media. The introduction of the internet has seen
many forms of media in digital format being shared worldwide from the
networks that major distributors as an attempt to promote and sell media
with the click of a button. Although this easy and efficient way of
communication the internet has also been the central focal point of
illegal file sharing from torrents. Tens of millions of people have probably
downloaded copyrighted content through peer-to-peer networks.
The pay per download and subscription services offer the chance to own
music with greater flexibility than traditional media, with the option of
being able to download individual songs rather than paying for an entire
album etc. Apple's i-Tunes was a major success because it was the first
media centre that allowed a user to buy songs through the internet for
no subscription fee. Released in 2003, i-Tunes sold almost 2 million songs
in the first two weeks of being launched and generated nearly 70 million
downloads in the first year. Recently we have witnessed the emergence
of 'Spotify'. This digital service offers the user to listen to music for free
but at the same time, the free subscription offers listeners mass amounts
of advertisement for the entertainment company, but if you upgrade by
paying a subscription the companies make money from subscription and
advertisement interruptions stop. These media software applications help
to stop combat the piracy and illegal downloads that are slowly
destroying the music industry. The digital format has promised us pristine
sound quality that is easily accessible and is becoming larger every year. 

I have been reworking my music accompaniment for task 1. I have added tremolo strings
and emphasised the brass expression with a swelling Sforzando character. I feel that
this has encouraged the piece to become much bigger sounding and when listening back
to the piece, the brass now cut through the mix clearly with a wide dynamic range.
The tremolo strings I added were towards the beginning of the piece but I felt that
the strings sounded too cliché for creating a suspense moment. Instead I worked
with the legato string feel mixing subtle but dissonant harmonies which created a
suspense feel without the cliché finish.

After arguing with myself as to how I should approach my task 8 assignment, I have
finally come to a final decision. I am going to make  a patch that interacts with the
environmental atmosphere of a night club. I will experiment with shapes in florescent
colours so they will be clearly visible against a black background. I am currently
experimenting with the frequency responses that a most prominently emphasised
in club music such as the low end kick and bass drive and the mid-high frequencies
of a euphoric uplifting theme of the song. I have found so far that around 80 -
160hz is a good area as most of the kick drum frequencies appear here.

After reading Audio-Vision, many parts twice, I have become increasingly inspired by
Walter Murch's foreword. The quote 'We gestate in sound and are born into sight,
Cinema gestated in sight and was born into sound' – (Murch 1994: 1) has persuaded
me to research into the importance of sound in cinema and how psychologically these
sounds combined with the music, affect how much or how little we truly appreciate a
film. I have chosen my dissertation concept and I will be looking into the importance
of sound and how it and the visual display rely on each other to keep an audience
interestedand informed of the flow of events. Sound is a major importance because as
far as the argument goes, the visual cannot triumph individually because 'sound rules
 as solitary Queen of our senses' – (Murch 1994: 1).

In my Independent US cinema and beyond seminar, I was graced upon a film that
shows how sounds are a majorimportant factor on keeping up to date with the
narrative of the film. The film Dogville is by independent film director Lars von
Trier. The movie is filmed  in a huge warehouse with a very minimal set, to be
honest, no set really. The entire street where the movie is based around is only
chalked onto the floor. There are no walls, doors, roads..... it is basically similar
to a plan of a street. The sounds that we may hear from these everyday
occurrences are still audible although, say for example, the doors still swing open
and shut when the actor imitates the action of opening and closing the door. I
found this film fascinating and I would recommend any of you who are passionate
about sound design to watch it.

The short interactivity process of music to video. As to how I am going to approach this
task, I am still not 100% certain, but I  think I would like to make a visual for suitable for
 a night club. I am interested in making a visual interaction that coordinates with the
environment atmosphere in club music. For this I will intend on using a microphone input
that will transfer the sound signal from the dance floor, linking an interaction finally in a
visual display through Jitter. Another alternative idea would be to have a video display
input via camera, which would then glitch and flicker according to the sound levels that
are audible.

I have been considering my options for task seven, the interaction of colour values to
trigger musical events.I would like to take a video from a game maybe and depending
on the brightness and contrast, coordinate a build up of musical textures as the character
on screen ventures from dark places to those that are brightly lit. I have been intrigued
by many games that incorporate this element of suspense into the gaming experience
and feel a project similar could be very enjoyable. I will rewire a max patch into a
sequencer, triggering different instruments with certain moods in the visual.    

I have recently completed my task 2 sound to animation. I decided that a few tweaks
such as the rock samples needed to be edited slightly. The rocks sound a little quiet
and unrealistic to the size proportion of the rock onthe visual. To counteract this I
EQ'd  the sample bringing out more bass frequencies and lower some of the high
end frequencies. I feel this helped add to the size of the impact and to the reality to
the visual drastically. With this problem being resolved easily I feel that the piece is
now authenticated. I feel my favourite part of the videois the ending where the funeral
march music kicks in. I felt this gave it a humorous quality to the Coyote's efforts.