Category: HW3

Start/Inspiration/Loops

I watched some of the Waveform videos on YouTube and listened to many of the samples included with Waveform (and began to make a list of ones that I liked). I also downloaded the Imagina Drum Loops but didn’t end up using any of them.

I later listened to some samples in the SSLIB, and I was interested by the many variations of chirping birds. I’d already decided to have a relatively mellow song, and the birds inspired me to lead the listener through someone’s morning — a story. The birds start chirping, and a gentle jazzy piano comes in; later, drums (and then bass) come in, and there are sounds of running water and a razor (both of which I recorded in the bathroom using Voice Record) in the background (as the person is getting ready for school/work/their day). The music builds, but just as the listener anticipates the climax, a doorbell rings (a sudden interruption to the person getting ready). Everything goes quiet, except for the bell echoing. The birds slowly begin chirping again, and the piano from the beginning softly returns. The project ends with a car revving (a sound I also found in SSLIB).

The birds are most clearly chirping in the beginning and the end, but I used (and altered) the clips elsewhere in the piece. For example, when the drums first come in, there’s a sort of ‘whoosh’ on each beat — I took this from a bird chirp. Near the end of this part (right before the piano changes and the bass comes in), I used a quieter part of one of the chirping clips and applied “Step Volume”.

I got all my atmospheric sounds (birds, various bells, ) either from SSLIB or from my recordings. I also got two percussive-type sounds from SSLIB – the sort of rattling sound (which I also used reversed) and a kick drum. Other than those, everything else (piano, horns, drums, bass, the ‘whoosh’ right before the “doorbell”) was from the Waveform library.

Effects/Plugins

• Reverb: I definitely used this plugin the most. I added heavy reverb to the kick drum and the bass to give them a fuller sound, and I also added reverb to the drums once the bass comes in to make their sound change a little (to distinguish a new section). In addition, I added at least a little reverb to most of the other clips (other than the atmospheric ones).
• Delay: I liked using this one, too — I used it with the samples that I added heavy reverb to, for the same reasons

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  Pitch Shift: I used this sparingly because I often found that shifting the pitch resulted in the sample sounding very unnatural. I did, however, like using pitch shift at the end of a sample and shifting it down (see picture, left) — it added a sense of momentum/sudden change.

• Warp Time: I used this once on the second recurrence of the chirping in an attempt to make the chirping on the beat — it worked, but there were a few places where the transition between one chirp to the next seemed sudden or cut off (though I think this is more of an issue with the way I “warped” the time than the way the effect itself works). See screenshot of orange clip, below.

  

• LPF (and 4-Band EQ, which I basically used as a HPF): I added a LPF to the track with bird chirps in an effort to reduce low-frequency sounds — honestly, not sure how effective this was/if there was a noticeable difference in reducing such sounds; same with 4-Band EQ. I had one bell in the “birds” track for which I definitely heard a change (a loss of the low frequencies) — I moved this bell to a different track because I actually wanted to preserve the low frequencies there.
• Step Volume: This one does volume in “steps” — i.e. volume is on for a section, and then off, then back on, then off, etc… I only used this once, but I enjoyed the effect it gave! It entirely changed the clip and gave it a more beat-like vibe. See picture of blue clip, right.

  

• Compression: I tried applying compression but honestly didn’t really understand the effects/hear a difference

Automation

I was definitely scared/confused about automation at first, but I ended up using it frequently because it gave me more control over how each plugin was applied. For example, in the picture above (orange clip “GO_BirdsVarious-12”), I used automation on the volume because I wanted it to fade in, get softer for a bit, and then rise in volume again. Another clip I used automation on was “GO_BirdsVarious-4”, when I just used the surrounding noise instead of the clear bird sounds themselves. This was the clip I used “Step Volume” on, and I used automation on “Volume” to make it gradually fade in and then fade out.

Notes/Errors

• I had one error: I had headphones in and unplugged them, and then plugged them back in. My solution was to close & re-open Waveform.
  

  

• a note: some of my effects disappeared when I merged looped clips together, so I could no longer see what plugins I had added — I’m definitely going to avoid merging looped clips together until the end from now on

The Project

My aims for this project

To explore the possibilities of Waveform, I wanted to create an arrangement of sounds that produces unexpected results. For example, I turned a drum loop into an ambient track. The goal is not for the piece to be harmonious. I simply wanted to explore the different sounds and strategies available before focusing on tonality.

Features

• Spooky ambient noise
• Foley sound effects recorded with Samsung Galaxy S10
• Vocals recorded with iPad Pro 2020

Recording Environments

I recorded clips in two different environments with different acoustic settings.

1) An isolated room in the Bass Library with 3 brick and 1 glass wall

This is a rectangular room with many surfaces for sound to bounce off of, so naturally there is a lot of echo. I recorded one clip before the melody comes in. The audio is noticeably reverberant.

2) My (quiet at the time of recording) bedroom

This room had much less echo than the first room I recorded in. Perhaps it was with the help of Stiles’s lack of right angles. I recorded the outro vocals here.

Samples

I used samples from the SSLIB library and some loops from the addons included in the Tracktion Download Manager. Some of the drum loops turned out to be MIDI clips which required me to assign a plugin in order to produce its sound. I chose the Hypnotize plugin. This is how I created the ambient noise in the beginning of the track. It was originally a drum loop from the Riccardo Lombardo collection, but it required a plugin to output audio. For some of the samples, I used the looping feature and for some I copy-pasted portions of the clip to remain in rhythm.

Plugins

My most used plugins were:

• Delay
  • I feel delay creates a nice effect on songs. I used to play with delay pedals on guitar and I wanted to experiment with this plugin and it did what I wanted to. You can set the length and delay to your liking.

• Pitch Shift
  • Used this to modify the rising pitches of the vocals. Even with pitch shift, my voice still doesn’t sound good!
• Reverb
  • I used this on the metal sound effect that I recorded to give it a more directional and atmospheric feel. It felt flat with the original recording and adding reverb made it feel more present.
• Chorus
  • This plugin gives a fuller sound to the recordings. I had to make sure I didn’t overdo it because it sounded very artificial when the chorus is set too high.
• Low Pass Filter
  • I used this plugin to cut out the airy highs of my recordings from my mic. I did not have a dedicated microphone at my disposal so my recording quality was quite subpar. By the way, the Bass Media Equipment Checkout has reopened and you can borrow microphones for a weekend! I’m going to be trying out an XLR mic and an audio interface for the first time on Friday. Here’s a link to the reservation page

Automation

To be honest, seeing this word intimidated me, although it wasn’t at all complicated in reality. I thought it would involve scripting but it’s just adjusting a few settings to your liking. It’s much like drawing when and where you want the sound to do what.  After several minutes of tinkering with using this function, I found there’s different ways you can apply automation.

1. Pressing the A button and applying from there
2. Dragging the A button to a plugin or the volume
3. Creating a new subtrack by pressing the + button below the A, then applying the automation there using options 1/2

I found #3 very useful. By creating a new subtrack, you can more easily view which automations you have applied without cluttering the track space. This creates a smaller track under the original track and then allows you to apply the automation in separate rows, greatly helping manage tracks with many automations and plugins.

For my automations, I chose to use volume changing and panning.

When the melody changes its pattern, I applied an automation to the bass to lower its volume until the melody reverted to its first pattern.

In the outro vocals, I used audio panning to oscillate between the left and right channel.

The Product

Blog Entries

The room I was in:

I was in my suite while recording. I intended to record in my own bedroom, but the radiators went off and I had no control over the noise. The practice rooms in Silliman were closed so that was not an option. I felt it was satisfactory to record in my suite. Petersen’s suggestion about recording in a larger space also encouraged me to choose my suite. 

The Mic I used:

I used a Blue Snowball iCE, with a cardioid polar pattern. The Blue Snowball iCE is a large diaphragm condenser mic with a USB cable. I also wanted to experiment with percussion recording, since Petersen mentioned how large diaphragm mics are useful for that. Since I did not have any percussion instruments, I just recorded my fingers tapping a table and placed them at random measures where I saw fit.

I am still unsure as to whether this mic has multiple directional settings. I am hoping not, since Petersen mentioned that sometimes multiple settings can inhibit optimal pickup. I positioned the mic about 6 to 8 inches away from the bell of my clarinet (vertical distance).

The Samples:

I searched FreeSound.org for some clips, which is where I got the night time wildlife ambience that opens and closes the song, as well as the kick beat heard in the intro. Thank goodness Petersen shared SSLIB. I initially wanted the piece to give “the experience of being in outer space and on land”, which is why I added the wildlife ambience with the 80s classic synth samples. However, upon discovering a good number of the samples from the SSLIB were at around 125bpm, I decided to create a tempo change to keep up with that. Hence, the music now turned from a soothing song to a faster-paced song one may hear at a nightclub. I did maintain the ambience chord change motifs for the first half, but many of the samples were in A, so I decided to put the song in A minor in the following measures.

Several samples were borrowed from the Aalto Sequences folder in SSLIB.

Right before the F choir samples (modified with pitch shift to C), you can hear a chord progression inspired by The Second Storm by Robert W. Smith. This snippet helped me transition the song. The next part contained three choir tracks to represent a C-major interval, accompanied by a bell tree (wind chime) sample, recordings of me tapping the table, and my clarinet. This section was inspired by the lullaby from the 2006 film Pan’s Labyrinth. The choir samples sounded awful when looped. At every end I could hear a sudden discontinuity in the playback, since the tracks were sustained notes that did not maintain a consistent wave flatness (visually). To combat this, I used a reverb plugin. I cranked up the damping, room size, and wet mix. This helped mask the looped tracks, but not the discontinuity to the chord changes since I split (slash key) the sample at those points. 

After this I placed some rests with the wildlife ambience sample. I broke that near-silence with a bass sample. This is where I wanted to create the buildup that we heard in the songs we listened to in class. I automated a rise in volume (crescendo) and cued in more samples in subsequent measures to create this rise. The last sample was a C6 Cognosphere (I guess one could call it a suspenseful glissando) to finish off the buildup.

I followed with a fully established groove sample (the previous percussion samples were individual kicks and hi-hats). For all my percussion samples, I increased the gain since they were overpowered by the lead synths. More Aalto Sequences samples were filling in the leads, with plenty more plugins. 

Saturday was my brightest and darkest day making this song. While I was able to make plentiful loads of progress and experiment with different plugins that I would use, I accidentally deleted the entire beginning chunk of the 80s synth tracks. I wanted to undo this, but I realized I deleted it long before as the undo cues were only changing what I was working on in the later sections. This tells me that though it may take more time, it is important to review the song every few minutes. I am hoping there is a way I can track revision history, but I am not sure. This is why only one 80s sample is heard in the final product’s intro.

On Sunday I was able to finish the song off. I recorded the last of my clarinet and table-tapping samples. I used the 80s synth and wildlife ambience samples to create both the intro and outro of the song.

When reviewing the song, I discovered that the gauge for the decibels was reaching the max of +5db. I knew this was a red flag, but I decided to document it as something to improve on as opposed to fixing it. 

Recording:

Recordings were of me tapping a table and playing my clarinet. I used the 80s synth samples to create chord progressions and then I improvised along with them (yay jazz). I first recorded my playing on my iPhone for convenience. After reviewing my iPhone recordings I played the improv melodies again and recorded with the Blue Snowball directly into Waveform 11.

Initially the recorded clips were very faint. I was using a well-praised microphone, and it was facing directly at my sources so I did not understand what on earth was happening. I then manually raised the mic’s gain on Waveform 11, which improved the sound quality of my recordings. This step also allowed the mic to pick up the acoustics of my suite, but it also picked up some background noise that can be heard if listening very carefully. 

An unseen risk I forgot to account for was the phase cancellation that could have been caused by the sound bouncing off the floor. Some clarinet audio clips fade in and out, so that unfortunately affected my recording. I tried propping up my mic with a calculator, but I am unsure whether this made a big difference. It is possible that the microphone does not have perfect spectral flatness but it does seem satisfactory based on the Blue Snowball data sheet.

Automations:

The pitch shifter plugin was my “knight in shining armor” for this project. Since I was not to use MIDI, the pitch shifter allowed me to practice working with not only pitch changing, but also automation in general. Pitch shifting is heard in the beginning. You can hear that ambience rise and fall to keep up with chord changes. The pitch is measured in cents and semitones. I used semitones as my measurement unit. One semitone is equivalent to one half step on a keyboard. While this did give me experience working with automation, I found it to be very tedious. Trying to modify the pitch analog at the bottom of the interface was difficult. Whenever I typed my desired semitone, it would automatically revert to the original pitch  if I did not completely delete text beforehand. I had spent too long on the intro and I decided that for the subsequent chord changes, I would just split my clips and change the pitches without using the shifter plugin. 

I did do some panning and automated panning to add more depth. The 80s synth tracks were panned at different levels left and right to add some space. The first notes heard by the clarinet were intended to recreate a “call/answer”. The clarinet is heard on one side and then answers from the other. This is also heard at the brief choir bridge.

Plugins I like (love actually):

I had so much fun fiddling with the phaser plugin that I spent a good 30 minutes playing with it while looping a single audio clip. For lack of better description, the phaser creates the impression that I am covering and uncovering my ears as I listen to the sample. Speed, depth and feedback were my two controls. Raising the feedback, I could hear the sound of a laser whistling in my ears. One of the greatest plugins ever brought to concrete music indeed! Phaser was another way to create a sense of space besides stereo panning and reverb. Sadly I could not figure out how to automate the plugin. If anybody does know, please share! I did use the Phaser plugin to add variation to repetitive melodies. The laser-like plugin also added some spice to the song in my opinion.

Another interesting plugin I found was the “HiPass Filter”. We learned that the low-pass filter filters the frequencies above the selected cutoff. I am guessing a high-pass filter does the opposite! This filter allows frequencies ABOVE the cutoff to pass through while ones below do not. Fiddling with the filter the spectral graph is a mirror of the low-pass filter. The roll-off is at the left of the graph instead of the right. When I drag the cutoff towards the right the sound gets narrower, and the higher frequencies are sharpened. This was used for a lead synth sample towards the end of the song. 

Chorus was another favorite of mine. It added a sense of space to the samples. I could hear the sound resonating at both ears instead of being narrowly focused at one position in the stereo. I have been told that this plugin copies the original sound and plays them back slightly delayed from the original sample.

Of course, I also used reverb for my clarinet. Raising the gain to the max for audio input definitely helped retain the fullness of my clarinet’s sound, but the reverb created a profound sense of space, like a concert hall, that I could not say no to. 

The last plugin that I found worth noting, was the AUDistortion. On my first blog I discussed the genius of Koji Kondo’s 8-bit music. I felt that I could add some “8-bit” spice to a few audio clips. This plugin literally “crushes the bits” of my audio, creating the retro sound heard in the arcades. Upon looking at the “virtual sound board” (plugin interface), I found that manipulating the decimation makes the waves more square. For repetitive melodies, I used the distortion plugin to add some variation in case listeners get bored. 

Project Write-up:

In my experiments, I used two types of ambient samples. One is wildlife, and the other is the 80s synth samples. I placed one to two of these samples at different semitone levels to represent intervals. Almost all of my samples are looped. The most useful plugin in these experiments was the pitch-shifter. It helped me create the different key and chord changes.

Even though I do not enjoy borrowing samples, they helped me explore techniques for audio plugins.

My clarinet performs different notes with different resonances. Below the register, I can hear the air can be heard through my clarinet. Going above the register for my clarinet, the sound fills up the entire room. This is an interesting natural phenomenon, but it gives the impression that I spliced multiple takes in what is a single clip. It appears my suite size is such that created the resonance beyond the clarinet register.

One challenge I was not able to overcome was crashing. Whenever I would delete a larger amount of clips, the interface would just quit. The software fortunately saves my progress, but the crashing was very annoying to deal with. A second challenge arose with live input monitoring. I could sense a slight delay from the live playback when recording clarinet and table-tapping. The instructions issued a warning about this lag, so I sadly disabled the LIM feature, though it would help me hear my clarinet. However, there was still a slight delay in my clarinet tracks. This may either be from some delay in processing. Petersen mentioned that the USB mic has to handle all sound-processing responsibilities. These would ideally be handled by three to four machines. However, I am quite sure that the problem arose from my hesitance to play. I was a little worried about disturbing my floor mates. My best guess is the latter, but I will not rule out the former just yet. On the bright side, my floor mates said that they do not mind my playing, so I just need to get used to this way of practicing. My residential college PHC is figuring out logistics of reopening the Silliman practice rooms. I am keeping my fingers crossed that those rooms will be an option.

The last two problems have to do with exporting. I normalized the audio to maintain a consistent volume of my piece, but the file came out surprisingly much more faint than when played back in Waveform 11. I recall that normalizing audio is supposed to bring all samples to the peak amplitude. Perhaps that peak was not measured in decibels? The final problem was the discontinuities during looping and cut clips. This also resulted in some audio hiccups in the exported product. Hopefully there are ways to ease the transition between loops and two or more samples. 

In my experience editing videos using DaVinci Resolve, I learned that audio quality is perhaps more important than video quality. I guess some video editing skills are transferrable to audio software, but definitely far from most. I merely skimmed the surface with the sound editing in my videos. I think I underestimated the differences and weightiness that Waveform 11 had. I could manipulate the sound of my clarinet to create an “undiscovered” instrument. I had very little experience elaborately recording audio for my clarinet. I had access to different plugins that I could play with to please (or annoy) my ears. The only thing that remains the same was the annoying crashing. Even with this song, I have merely skimmed the surface of the software. I am excited to try out MIDI features once we get there.

Below is the final product. I am so excited to listen to everyone else’s!