Reflection 1: My composition

This was our first official lesson to begin our compositions. I used the time in class to compose a chord sequence and work my way around a melody line. Initially, i wanted to use the chord sequence of Am G Em F, but I realised these chords were too easy. So, to extend myself so I tried to include a more complex chord. So now chord pattern is D A F#m E, this is my main chord pattern but to ensure that the song's not completely composed with repetition, i'll either vary the chord sequence when it comes to the bridge, or I'll incorporate pre choruses to switch up melody lines. I already started recording my chord sequence, I recorded 8 bars so far, and layered in a bass organ and some calming sounds of dripping. This adds to the relaxing atmosphere. I started thinking of a melody line for the chorus, although I'm not quite sure of the lyrics. But basically, so far, the ocean has been my inspiration for my composition so far. So my lyrics may be about the ocean, or an relaxing/ calming element. And lastly, my structure for the piece will be something like this: Verse 1, Pre-chorus, Chorus, Verse 2, Pre-chorus, Chorus, Bridge and end with chorus.

Science behind the sounds

How Sound Travels in a Room? 

Whenever a sound is made in a room, starting at the source, it projects outward in all directions. A small portion of it (known as direct sound) travels in a straight line to the microphone. The remainder (known as reflected sound) bounces randomly between the surfaces of the room. Moments later, some of those reflections reach the microphone by chance. Since direct sound does not interact with the room, its frequency balance remains pure, and its tone unaltered. With reflected sound, each new reflection has the potential to change the original sound ever-so-slightly. Depending on the size of the room, and the reflective surfaces within it the change should be either large or small. 

How Diffusion Improves Your Sound?

When you remove all sound reflections with absorption many people find that the room sounds uncomfortably quiet. The solution here is allowing a few reflections to remain, and scattering them with diffusors. Normally, untreated reflections create problems because they get trapped in one spot, amplifying some frequencies, while canceling out others.This is how the natural frequency balance gets destroyed. Diffusors work by scattering reflections so nothing gets trapped, and the natural tone is preserved.With the right combination of both absorption and diffusion, you can transform the acoustics of virtually any room into something capable of a world-class recording.

Equipment Research Task

Yamaha SPX990 Multi-effects unit: adds reverb, daly, echo, modulation and early reflections

Roland TR909 drum machine: a drum machine that varies from all drum sounds and include editing facilities like patter editing.

Emu Performance piano sound machine: an operating system that synthesises different piano sounds. They can be upgrade to 128 different sounds. 

Roland Juno 106: a commonly and widely used analogue polysynth with one digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) per voice.

Yamaha SY22 and SY85: a 16-part multitimbral MIDI synth with a 61-note keyboard with tons of sounds and sequencing features built-in.

Akai S3200 sampler:  A 6-bit stereo synth with tons of RAM (8 to 32 MB) and extensive editing capability, 32-voice polyphony, full digital onboard effects (delay, chorus, reverb, etc.).  

Music sequencer softwares, such as Pro Tools, Logic Audio or even Garage Band, are perhaps the most widely used form of music technology. They allow the user to record acoustic sounds or MIDI musical sequences, which may then be organised along a time line. Musical segments can be copied and duplicated ad infinitum, as well as edited and processed using a multitude of audio effects. 

Contemporary classical music sometimes uses computer-generated sounds, either pre-recorded or generated/manipulated live with classical acoustic instruments like the cello or violin. Classical and other notated types of music are frequently written on score writer software.

Music and sound technology refer to the use of sound engineering and may sometimes actually refer to different fields of work, the names of which are to some extent self-explanatory, but where sound synthesising  may refer to the use of sound technology for media-logical purpose.

Final recording of "Why does my heart feel so bad?"

Reflection: 

In our group, there were 6 instruments played to the ratio of 4 people. Seungjoon was our pianist, Hassan was our guitarist, Marc was a guitarist too (he was meant to play bass guitar but due to the lack of the bass guitars, we had to substitute it to normal acoustic guitar) and I played the keyboard, tambourine and did vocals. Over the course of these few weeks, we put our heads together as a team to create this piece. We started by listening to the song and discovering the placement of the instruments. Then we used it as a starting point to develop and personalise the song, adding our own occurring twists and turns. As the weeks progressed, we layered and combined the instruments to produce our final piece. It starts off with gentle piano chords that combine with the acoustic guitar strums to form a mild but interesting opening. We didn't want to duplicate the same chord pattern so we changed it to make it more unique. I think our performance was very progressive as during the first week, not much was accomplished. Later on, we were able to extend the song, add more instruments, and vary the patterns it was played. A skill I have discovered and developed is that i can multitask- I realised this when i was capable of playing the keyboard, tambourine and singing at the same time easily. The dynamics vary during the song. It starts out with mezzo forte and builds up to fortissimo in the section: "these open doors" and then gradually the piano ends in the piano dynamic. I think the tempo was used effectively as it enduringly grips the listeners with its fast tempo. We used a metronome while practicing to perfect our timing because sometimes we were off-time. We kept the metronome at 110 beats per bar. Although the tempo remained the same throughout the entire performance, the rhythm varied to add different texture and style into the piece. Different rhythms were added with the change over of different chord patterns and instruments. Additionally, i think our choice in instruments were well planned as we incorporated piano, a few instruments from the strings family and some percussion with the tambourine. This maintained a well balanced piece and the instruments were used by layering them one by one to add more texture as the song developed. We wanted to add thickness and depth to the section "these open doors" so we played the tambourine only in that certain section, the dynamics of the instruments were louder, and the singing was louder. Although the dynamics could have been improved if there was diminuendo from the strong section of "these open doors" to the ending solo of the piano to add a gentle atmosphere. This could have effected the piece in a marvellous way and also shown great level of music. However, the singing in the beginning wasn't heard that well, since it's pretty low for my voice range and unfortunately I was super sick in the time of this recording. So for next time, a better alternative would be to either change the key or sing in the higher octave. So that is what I would consider improving if we were to redo this assignment. On another note, my favourite thing about our piece is variety in textures and instruments. They add lots of depth and definitely impact the sound of the piece. Overall, i think this assignment was a great way to start the year discovering new skills that we already had and developing some for the future.