UCSD Mus 173 - Electronic Music Production & Composition

General In this assignment we will use Envelope automation to create dynamic sounds that build up and then use LFO automation in Operator to create a harsh bass drop. As a possible motivation check out this Skrillex example around 50sec to 1:10.  You are free of course to create a very different buildup and drop, as long as it makes good musical sense. Learning Objectives: FM Instrument with Modulated SwD Clip Envelope Automation Use of LFO in Operator Using Noise sweep with AutoFilter Creating an accelerated drum roll with Arpeggiator Freezing tracks / Resampling HOW TO: 1. Creating a noise buildup by Envelope Automation In class we have shown how to use the Envelope Automation to create a sweeping noise.  Here is a short summary: Create a new track with Operator and select Noise as the waveform or find a noise sample and drop it into Simpler. Drop the AutoFilter down the signal chain and choose a Bandpass setting (second shape from the right). Adjust the Re...

Continuing our journey of Operator, we will explore FM synthesis for Deep House Bass. Steps to follow: Select the vertical row configuration in Operator In this case the yellow Operator A is at the bottom, which means its the only one that’s voiced Turn Operator B’s level up to 0.0dB so B is acting as the modulator, and A as the carrier. On the volume envelope bring down sustain (-inf dB) making B’s level drop over time as a note’s held down. Set operator B’s Coarse tuning to 2. This results in a raw deep house bass sound. Experiment with B’s Level, such as bringing it down to -12dB to smooth the effect. Listen to this Klubbheads piece for a similar sounding base (skip to about 4:40 to hear it play with drums only). To read more about different types of bass in Electronica, read this excerpt from Dance Music Manual. Note that the techniques described there are not Ableton based, and might differ in the way in proposes to recreate these sounds. Theory of FM: FM...

In this session we will explore some basic tools of sound design using additive synthesis with Operator. Part A - Setting the basic waveform Drag the Operator instrument into a midi track.  Select horizontal row that uses additive oscillators. Use Saw D waveforms for all four. Turn the Level of the oscillators approximately to the same level. Detune three of the oscillators by something between 10-20 cents Listen to the resulting sound and report what your hear: Turn on and off the three additional oscillators and notice the effect of adding a detuned waveform. Part B - Shaping the sound and note transitions In the Filter box select frequency of 400-500 Hz. Make the instrument monophonic by changing the Voices parameter to 1. In the Pitch settings select the G option that stands for Glide. Part C - Creating a Sub-bass in a Rack Right click the instrument and select Group. Drag another Operator in the rack . Use one oscillator with a default S...

There are several ways to rip sound files in order to use them in live as audio files or using the simpler object for more manipulation possibilities. 1) You can fetch a sound from soundcloud or youtube - > there are several websites that can fetch sounds from either these sites  http://www.online-convert.com/ -> click on audio converter and chose wav as your file. this will send you to the next page where you will paste the link of the youtube video or soundcloud song you want to convert. 1.1) You can also fetch a sound from exiting mp3 or other sound files you have in your computer.  2) Once you have fetched the wav file you can either open it in Audacity or any other DAW (digital audio workstation). Select the desired part of the sound file you want to rip and copy that into a new session of your DAW. Be sure to crop the file to have the desired duration taking care of the onset and the offset of the sound. -> Export the selected clip as a wav file and then o...

To help in your search for chords, acapella clips and other materials, here is a list of possible sound resources: Beatport <http://www.beatport.com/> , Bleep <https://bleep.com/> , FreeSound <http://freesound.org/> , Acapellas4U <http://www.acapellas4u.co.uk/> , ccMixter <http://ccmixter.org/> Other places to check out: http://www.reddit.com/r/SongStems/ Unfortunately, I'm not sure about the legal status of most of these stems... Echo Nest sandbox with stems of Jethro Tull < http://developer.echonest.com/sandbox/emi/jethro_tull.html > Bands like Nine Inch Nails, MuteMath, Zorch, Trifonic and others releasing freely their albums as stems, to allow people do their own mix, mashup, etc. Ableton has sets that are open for reuse < https://www.ableton.com/en/blog/tags/able10/ > You may also want to have a look at Indaba Music, in particular their remix opportunities (small fee to enter for one year). They organize remix con...

Slides from the class about Harmony are here . I also recommend going over this excerpt from the Dance Manual Book (see previous post "Books and references" with links to the book). Learning Goals: You should be comfortable with chord notations, major and minor scales and the rest of Music Harmony Theory appearing the readings above.

Here are some musical examples for this technique and style: Bicep - Feel It Lucid - Future Sound Collabs   Milton Jackson - Ghosts in My Machine   Mount Kimbie - Carbonated Lone - Sungrazer Cascade   Q. As we noted in class, the use of parallel chords does not follow the chord structure that would normally exist on a scale. Can you explain how melody and harmony are related in such case? Find in these videos some examples of harmonizing a melody that you like and see how it works.

Making Chord Progressions In this lab we will learn how to make chord and bass line for a song. We will show two chord progression methods - with Midi effect (H1) and using simpler instrument to play a  chord sample (H2).  Method H1: - Create a Midi track with synth of your choice. Drop Chord and Scale Midi effects on the track. - Set the Chord effect to major chord or dominant 7 - Select the C major scale for the scale effect Method H2: - Find an audio recording that has an interesting chord progression. You can select a sample from Ableton Demo Songs or download from the web. - Select a region in the recording that corresponds to one chord that you like. Crop the clip so you are left just with that one chord. - Create a Midi track and drop onto it a simpler instrument. Drop the chord sample onto simpler. Note: this technique is common various types of electronica. Major chords are more common in Rave and minor in House and Garage. ...

When you do your warping of the guitar track, pay special notice to the last bar. This is where a significant slow down of the tempo occurs. If you were using the "Warp from Here" option after setting 1.1.1 or cropping, most likely you still will have an issue with the last bar. You need to look into warping the last bar manually. Extras: So far we were warping the guitar so it would match the drums with constant tempo. What if we want the drums to slow down together with the guitar? This is possible in Arrangement View. Drag or record the clip into Arrangement view. In clip view activate the "Slave button" Play the guitar clip and notice how the tempo suddenly drops in the last bar If you have a drum loop playing with the guitar at the end of the clip, notice how the drums slow down as well.

The slides shown in lecture today are available here

Instructions For this assignment, we'll be using materials provided in this link to create a mix that combines clips into one song.  The contents of the folder include Drumloop , Guitar and House.   The clips will be used to create 3 tracks: one MIDI ( House ) and two audio ( Drumloop & Guitar ). We'll construct the tracks in the following ways: Learning Objectives: Using Audio and Midi tracks Learning about Impulse and assigning sounds to a percussion set Triggering clips in Session View Recording into Arrangement View Warping an instrumental audio track so it matches the rhythm section Instructions: House track Assign Impulse instrument to the MIDI track. Assign the drum samples from the Drumset folder to slots i nside  Impulse by dragging files to the virtual pads . Guitar Track In case there are problems with initial warping you need to perform the following actions: Remove leading or trailing silences by either clipping (use c...

There are no required books or mandatory readings for the class, but here are some links to books available in the library or online that might help you progress: Interactive composition : strategies using Ableton Live and Max for Live / V.J. Manzo and Will Kuhn Dance music manual : tools, toys, and techniques / Rick Snoman Ableton Live 9 Power / Jon Margulies   Making Music Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Producers There is always the Ableton Manual that is accessible through help menu, the Info window on bottom left and plenty of videos on youtube. A good resource is http://plus.pointblankmusicschool.com/music-production-tutorials/ableton-tutorials/

Required Software In this course we will be using Ableton. It has several versions, the simplest is Intro. To learn more about features see here https://www.ableton.com/en/live/feature-comparison/ For the purpose of the course Intro is enough. Suite is available in the lab. If you decide to use your own laptop and purchase Ableton, there is an academic discount for the Standard and Suite versions. https://www.ableton.com/en/shop/education/ You might choose to use a demo version for 30 days, but that will not last you till the final project. Access to the Lab: email Neal Bociek <mus-facilities@cloud.ucsd.edu> with request for lab access if you are not a music student enrolled in the course. Additional requirements: Bring headphones to the class. Open soundcloud account and send an email with the link to your account. Emails: send both to the Instructor and TAs (emails on the syllabus). Put [Mus173] as a tag on the email subject line. Controllers: We are not g...

Music 17 3 - Electronic Music Production & Compos ition   Instructor: Prof. Shlomo Dubnov    Instructor Office Hours: Th ursday 3:30-4:30, in my office CPMC 250   email: sdubnov@ucsd.edu soundcloud page:  www.soundcloud.comg/ memexguy TAs:   Andrés Gutiérrez Martínez   TA O ffice H ours: Tuesdays 3:30 - 4:30 email: ang090@ucsd.edu soundcloud page:  www.soundcloud.comg/gutmandres Sean Dowgray    TA O ffice H ours: TBD   email: sdowgray@ucsd.edu soundcloud page: https://soundcloud.com/sean-dowgray                              https://soundcloud.com/user-97251580 Course Website (you are here): http://2015 Mus173 .blogspot.com/ Course Description: The course teaches the basics of using DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) for creative production, with emphasis on hands on composition projects. We will focus on techniques rel...