Assignment 3.2: Layers, Scenes, Nice Sounds, Linear and Dense Noise

Assignments: 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 2.1 | 2.2 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 4.1 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 4.4 | 5.1

Again, there are four parts. Warning: this is a long assignment. Each should take no more than an hour. You might not get your desired result right away, so experiment a little (just like with Assignments 2.1 and 2.2). These are not compositions. Rather, we are developing techniques that might be useful in making a noise/drone composition, such as for Assignment 3.3.

1. Using your long sounds, layered as much as you like, your beautiful sounds, which you can also layer and process, and convolution, make a 3–5 minute nice sound, hopefully with subtle changes. You can use change pitch, change gain, and mix, as well as convolution, and you can use Pro Tools for layering. Don't forget you can only have one of Pro Tools and Peak open at a time. Label like peter-3.2.1, etc.

2. String together, either in Peak or Pro Tools (using crossfade), parts of your "scenes," to produce a 20–30 second narrative. This might not sound that great or interesting, but there is another step: convolve this narrative with your beautiful sounds (again which you can work on) to come up with an interesting and nice sounding chunk, not just a drone. Label, etc.

3. Make 30-60 seconds of horizontal (linear), temporally changing noise that is not dense. Make it grating, screeching, nasty. This is not so easy, so don't worry if it doesn't work out well. But learning to do it might help with the next assignment. Label, etc.

4. Make 30–60 seconds of vertical dense noise. Noise doesn't have to sound horrible, nor does it have to resemble white (or other colored) noise. (I'm using the term "noise" advisedly.) Label, etc.

Examples of Student Work from Prior Terms

These files are presented courtesy of the students and used with permission.