Author: Anjali Mangla

OVERVIEW

The Final Project for CPSC 035 that I completed alongside Ethan Kopf, my partner, is a 3 and a half minute song using MIDI, samples, and even a SuperCollider-generated .wav sample that culminate in a song with lyrics I wrote. It was actually much easier to collaborate on a Waveform project than I thought, being able to email or text the ZIP file whenever necessary. We also tried following the requirements of Waveform Project 2 when creating this song, in order to ensure that we made full use of all we learned about frequency filters and effects plug-ins, along with concepts like gain, mixing, and mastering.

BEGINNING THE PROJECT

We started out by consulting on what type of song we wanted to create, and I had an idea of some kind of base for lyrics we could use in the song. A few days later, I typed them up on a Google Doc. Here they are:

Lyrics

VERSE 1:

When you were falling down, I was there for you, I was there for you

When you were at your lowest point, who was there to guide you back home?

And now, when I’m in the same place, falling down in this deep abyss

Are you gonna be there for me? Are you gonna be there for me?

BRIDGE:

Tired of this trick,

I’m just a doormat to you, I see it now

Tired of being a fool,

When you don’t care about me like that

Why-why-why

Couldn’t you just say that you don’t care about me like that

I’m tired of being a fool, thinking I could get you to love me back

CHORUS:

Instead of leading me on

You don’t return my frequency

All that I gave, there’s nothing to receive

Why do I keep going back when there’s nothing here for me?

I should just move on

From this one-sided love (one-sided love!)

One-sided love (one-sided love)

I’m moving on from this one-sided love

VERSE 2:

I see how you look at the others

I know you would never see me

In that same way

Just tell me what I’m doing wrong

Tell me what I’m doing wrong

What should I change for you? To put me at their level

Oh I don’t know I don’t care anymore

But why do you still make me feel this way?

The song included two verses, one bridge, and one chorus.

GROUP PROJECT WORK

The Waveform project was started with a starting track that was more of a chilled, laid-back vibe, which Ethan put together really well. He sent it to me and I got to work adding a Drum Sample MIDI along with a step clip, something I loved using in Waveform project 2. Ethan had a lot of samples on his computer that he was able to load into the project, which sounded really good together. This first 40 second “demo” was then extended by both of us on Waveform with MIDI and effects to create the 3 minute 30 second song that it is now.

For the drum sampler, I tweaked the envelopes and the length of the kick and snare in order to make it not reach the higher frequencies and be delivered with more of an “oomph.” The step clip was really helpful in also doing similar tweaks to the maracas of the drum sampler used, and I was able to make a fun intro supplemented by percussion with three maraca shakes that progress to a full rhythmic beat throughout the sound. For the MIDIs, the chords were decided by Ethan and went together really well, and he later added a more high-pitched “alien-like” MIDI that I used the Phaser plug-in on to drive that effect more. Reverb was used on so many tracks. The reverb I used on the drums, especially messing around with room size and dampness to expand the hit of the drums, and using the 4-band equalizer to emphasize the snare drums of the percussion.

I also made an intro vox meant to be quiet and blend in with the background but provide an “intro” to the song. It was coupled with the chorus effect to add that “background” rather than “lead” feel to this particular vox.

In the middle, using an SCD file heavily influenced by PSET 3 and the recording code of PSET 2 in SuperCollider, I generated the .wav file “HighAccompaniment.wav” using MIDICPS and a sine wave oscillator synth, and the tempoclock of 1 that uses the measure system to start at measure 1. Pbinds and Pfx were used to create an “echo” effect in the code as well. It repeated 4 times and played 4 different notes at a slightly off-putting beat to the song, so that the other synths mask its sound but it is able to carry throughout the transition of the verse 1 to the bridge. I liked how it sounded with the rest of the Waveform track, and this aspect of the song was able to show the interdisciplinarity of computer music and all that we learned in this class.

Furthermore, when doing the final mix, I included a lot of compressors, especially on the vocals which needed EQ and compressing in order to make the vocals stand out but not clip the sound. Ethan and I had actually recorded our parts separately, but using the drum beat as a metronome guide when recording. We did close-mouth recording. The 4-band equaliser was helpful in emphasizing the lower notes and cutting off the sometimes “loudness” of high notes when people sing. This was important, especially when the Reverb plug-in was applied to the vox. All of these effect plug-ins were really important to make sure the song was soft around the edges and also worked. The fade out and mastering was done by Ethan.

The MP3 is here:

In any analysis of the history of computer music in the global technological revolution of the late 20th century, it is imperative to include the Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales (CLAEM), a music laboratory established in the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This space for musical collaboration across countries and disciplines, founded in 1963, was an early pioneer of the Latin American electroacoustic sound landscape. Throughout its short-lived eight years from 1964 to 1971, the laboratory left a large mark on musical history and produced some of the most influential and beautiful electronic tapes. 

Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and directed by Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera, the CLAEM served as the pinnacle of the transnational world of contemporary music-making, as its main focus was collaboration between composers and students from Latin America and Europe. Musicians came to the CLAEM from far and wide to learn and exchange ideas with some of the most influential and passionate composers of the time. Its impressive roster included Oliver Messiaen, Aaron Copland, Iannis Xenakis, Luigi Dallapiccola, Mario Davidovsky, Luis de Pablo, Bruno Maderna, and Eric Salzman, among others. The first tape piece produced at this laboratory in 1964 was Intensidad y Altura, which translates to “Intensity and Altitude,” created by Peruvian composer César Bolaños. Music composed at this institution reflected the diversity of musicians and composers that collaborated with each other – a wide spectrum of approaches, including serialism, sound-mass compositions, aleatoric and indeterminate operations, mobile forms, live improvisation, graphic notations, and electronic and musique concréte techniques were all employed to generate computer music. These works were all produced at the well-equipped electroacoustic studio called Laboratorio de música electrónica (Electronic Music Laboratory), and this studio became the training center for more than 50 composers representing their Latin American countries of origin: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Uruguay. The studio was modeled after the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, a recording studio that many composers had also gone on to train and produce music in. CLAEM soon became known for its legacy as a training ground for a significant generation of Latin American composers, who each played important roles in the global music industry.

In the 60s, Fernando von Reichenbach became the center’s technical director, and his musical inventions first utilized by CLEAM are now starting to gain international recognition for their impact on the history of computer music. He invented the Convertidor Gráfico Analógico, or Analog Graphic Convertor, which converted graphic scores from a paper roll into electronic control signals adapted to work with analog instruments. The first piece created using this device, also known as the “Catalina,” was Analogías Paraboloides by Pedro Caryeveschi in 1970. Other device inventions of his include the keyboard-controlled octave filter and a special patch-bay that helped solve complex problems at the lab. He was most revered, however, for his redesign of the laboratory in 1966, where he was praised for knowing how to maximize the efficiency of the space for composers and was hailed as “ingeniero” by his co-workers.

Another important historical event that influenced the music created by the CLAEM were the political conditions of Argentina in the 1960s. The de facto presidency of Juan Carlos Onganía in 1966 emphasized government censorship of theater and the visual arts. Composers therefore worked under fear of suppression, and officials frequently closed the building that the CLAEM was housed in due to controversial arts presentations. The Laboratorio saw its peak activity in the second half of the 1960s, and the military paid little attention to the music written at CLAEM, CLAEM musicians were still victims of repression at times. Ginastera’s Bomarzo and Gabriel BrnÄic’s ¡Volveremos a las montañas! followed by his arrest and torture were hallmarks of political instability – leading the center to close in 1971 in part due to political pressure. 

The most successful electroacoustic composition at CLAEM was actually its first production: Intensidad y Altura by Peruvian composer César Bolaños, who studied electronics at the R.C.A. Institute from 1960 to 1963. He led a two-year fellowship, where he taught at the laboratory in 1965-66. He stayed at the center longer than any other student, writing electronic music for the choreographies of Jorgelina Martínez D’Or and other audio-visual entertainment. Bolaños wrote Intensidad y Altura based on the poem of the same name by Peruvian writer César Vallejo. The composer made use of the limited functioning equipment at the laboratory, musique concréte techniques with electronically generated and processed sounds. The piece continues to be played at festivals today.

The CLAEM provided a special institutional experience that deserves to be documented in world-wide computer music history, as it sowed the seeds of a strong tradition of composers across the south of Latin America, and although it was open for a relatively short period of time, the legendary studio is a memorable beacon for the Latin American avant-garde.

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