track 1
track 2
PROCESS
- pick tracks
- i selected two minimal sounding tracks (with recommendations from Mimi). why minimal? more clear to how they make me feel i.e. easier to tune in.
- track 1 – Three Voices by Morton Feldman
- track 2 – Prayer by Huun Huur Tuu
- i selected two minimal sounding tracks (with recommendations from Mimi). why minimal? more clear to how they make me feel i.e. easier to tune in.
- tune in to how i feel
- this was a lot more difficult than expected. even though i am a non-musician, when trying to ‘listen’ to something, i often internalize it logically i.e. in terms of notes, pitch, rhythm etc. perhaps because there are the visuals associated with those i.e. sheet music, spectrograms, itunes visualizers.
- picking minimal tracks helped a lot with this – more single-minded
- sketch out on paper
- look at data from track
- fft analysis – analyses the amplitude at different pitches, pick number of bins from 16-1024, pick smoothness / noisiness
- try to visualize this in different ways to see if there are patterns corresponding to my sketch on paper / how i feel
- this is the fabric of all things, spotting the right patterns can lead to very satisfying results
- try to visualize this in different ways to see if there are patterns corresponding to my sketch on paper / how i feel
- get energy – take ranges of bins and averages out the values
- this is a lazy way … although sometimes this works well, it lacks the nuances which sometimes give insights to the tracks … because it ‘averages’ out the data.
- amplitude – overall volume
- since it is an ‘overall’ data, this works well when used to set the ‘tone’ of the drawing, equivalent to a canvas’s quality or primer in a painting.
- fft analysis – analyses the amplitude at different pitches, pick number of bins from 16-1024, pick smoothness / noisiness
- start visualizing (coding)
- this process is full of wonderful surprises // numbers, relationships, numbers, relationships, numbers, relationships, numbers, relationships, numbers, relationships, numbers, relationships, numbers, relationships, numbers, relationships, numbers, relationships, numbers, relationships, numbers, relationships, numbers, relationships, numbers, relationships, numbers, relationships, numbers, relationships, numbers, relationships, numbers, relationships, numbers, relationships, numbers, relationships,
- time plays an important role in making you feel something (much like in animation) … frame rates, increments, decrements // factor this into numbers and relationships
- fine-tune visuals
- fine-tuning takes the most time – changing the transparency by 1% can change the whole drawing. this is a lot of going back and forth between how i feel from listening to the music and what i see
- know when to end
- when your ears and eyes feel like they match. i find this process a lot similar to a painting, going too far makes the sketch look ‘overdone’
- caution: do not get carried away by data – must go back to tuning in process // it is very easy to be lured by the sophisticated visuals (this happens often when headphones are off and i’m just making the sketch ‘look nice’)
NOTE TO SELF
- the best advice i received was to ‘just put in the hours’ // it is like trying to learn illustrator’s black and white mouse tools (so weird)
CONCLUSION
- this exploration started because i wanted to hear what musicians were hearing, with a hypothesis that understanding the technical aspects of it and realizing its patterns would help me appreciate and ‘hear’ music more. however, through the exercise i realized it wasn’t about what went in to create the music, rather it’s about listening and realizing what and how exactly a particular sound makes me feel.
- when listening to music, the feelings i get do not translate to spectrograms, rather some abstract, undefined … stuff
- these visuals work as a bridge to help me define and express my feelings of a musical piece
- i hope these visuals stimulate people to ‘listen’ and that they bring people closer towards their feelings (that they might or might not know are there) when they listen to a piece of music.
- conclusion code: *???* i like arrays because they are like a flexible and well organized box of materials
PROJECT FILES & WEB EDITOR LINKS
project files – tracks, codes, visual thumbnails, other notes // https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XkQERxy_yp-saI_JC0BDk5wt1nVYoFUc
notes from playtesting // https://hellonun.blog/2018/11/23/playtest-sound-frankenstein/
track 1
- track 1
- play track 1 – how do you feel?
- play visuals for track 1 – can you see what you feel from what you hear?
- track 2
- play track 1 – how do you feel?
- play visuals for track 1 – can you see what you feel from what you hear?
POST-PRESENTATION QUESTIONS FOR CLASS
- how do you feel?
- what are the similarities and differences between what you see and what you hear?
- what if you were to visualise the tracks? what would it be like?
FUN LINKS
interesting thing about frequency // wine glass breaking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6oqPB07X3o
everyday sounds we look pass (or hear pass) // sonic branding https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_gBMJe9A6Q
it’s about communicating emotions // comment on jacob’s video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRkgK4jfi6M
what actually happens when you create a sound – the visual is more like this than like notes or other metrics // tom thum – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqdFL0u2HLY
reason to visualise based on feels // feldman site http://www.cnvill.net/mfhome.htm
reason to visualise based on feels // overtone singing spectrogram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHTF1-IhuC0
essence of project // pauline oliveros ted talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QHfOuRrJB8
if only i had more time – same theme // tuning meditation, pauline oliveros – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5bj8sO2-WY
if only i had more time – same theme // einstein on the beach, phillip glass – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty76wEPL-M4&t=1566
other references // zero and one, Laurie Anderson – Difficult Listening Hourhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YKcVWVuq4Q