Each spring for the past four years, I've taught a class called
'Creating Sounds from Scratch.' SfS starts out exploring old synthesizer
technology through a digital lens, looking at oscillators, filters, and midi to
create entirely new sounds or to give a unique sheen to old sounds. The bulk of
the class time, however, is spent digging into the details of a program called
MaxMSP. Max is a piece of software that lets the user create complex creative
packages for sound & video based on data and numbers. In SfS, we use Max
primarily as a data mapper, taking real-world control (pressing keys or twiddling
knobs on a keyboard) and turning that data into opportunity for creative
control.
SfS is a required class for MFA Sound Designers here at UCI, but
this year, I let the class open up to students of various backgrounds and
aptitudes. It was a great challenge for
me, as I found myself having to frame the class in such a way to engage both
the students who were comfortable and versed in this kind of thinking and
control as well as the students who were totally new to this kind of work. I
must admit that I didn’t think it had gone particularly well, but yesterday, my
mind was changed. Final projects were
due recently, and I was consistently delighted by the kind of work that the
students did. So impressed, in fact
that, I want to share them with you.
The prompt for the final project was simple: ‘Use digital tools to create a modifiable soundscape of
an event.’ Over the past few weeks, we looked at ways to get real-world control
data into Max and ways to use that data to create/control sonic events. Let’s look at what the students came up with:
Bryan is an undergrad with a focus in sound for games. He was my student in a different class in the
fall, and I thought that SfS would be useful to him in his game work. He created a warzone, using his Android phone
running TouchOSC as a controller. Bryan
did an excellent job in prioritizing energy and attention on foreground sounds
v. background sounds (a requirement for the fast-paced world of game design). Here’s a screenshot of his work:
Dean (an MFA Stage Manager) and Jenna (an undergraduate Sound
Designer) created a car-driving sequence using a Wii Remote as a controller.
The user controls speed of the car and volume of the radio using the gyroscopic
parameters of the controller, and the buttons on the remote take us through a
sonic event, ending in a surprising car crash (spoiler alert!)
Elliot (an undergrad Sound Designer), Pablo (an MFA student in the
ICIT program in the computer music wing of the Music Department), and Stephen
(an MFA Sound Designer) worked together to create a comprehensive sonic event,
tracking the result of a botched bank robbery during a Fourth of July
celebration. A wii remote served as a master controller, an iphone (running
TouchOSC and Facetime) streamed data and audio to the host computer), and the
bank safe was cracked in real time using a cardboard box modded with various
sensors.
Kat (an undergrad Sound Designer) and Phil (an MFA Stage Manager)
created a very precise aural replication of Super Mario Brothers to be played
using a Wii Remote. They used chance to
re-create events, but they used brute force programming to get the sounds to
behave correctly.
Kristen (an MFA Stage Manager), Michael (another ICIT student),
and Patricia (an MFA Sound Designer) created a space battle using a JazzMutant
Lemur as a controller. They implemented
their battle using an eight-channel delivery system. Unfortunately, the user
loses the space battle.
You may, by now, noticed a theme of catastrophic death in these
projects. Don’t fret – the theme continues.
Phillip, another undergrad game sound student, created a medieval
sword fight for two Wii Remotes. He
created comparison events to trigger sonic events: if only one ‘sword’ was
swung, that sword would hit, but if both ‘swords’ were swung, they would parry
and clang off of each other.
Sinan, our final undergraduate Sound Designer, also created a
sword fight, but his vocabulary was Star Wars light sabers. Sinan built his sonic event using theme
music, differently-pitched sounds for light-side or dark-side fighters, and
victory music that changed depending on which side won:
I was thoroughly impressed by all of these projects, and I’m proud
of them all! I’m looking forward to
teaching the class again next spring!
No comments:
Post a Comment