A sound is something that is heard. Listening is an activity.

Sound design is fine-tuning the message your audience will sense. Sound may be buried in the message and only noticed if it is ever taken away. Sound may be the message. Without it we limit the use of one of our most receptive senses. Naturally, certain tones are conveyed by using certain sounds that ultimately communicate a message. It will be up to you to determine what you want to say and how you want to say it through the design of sound.

Below is a list of five words. Each student must compose sound from a sample or recorded means or a combination of both that communicates each word. Listen critically to how different sounds portray different messages. Each sound should be exactly ten seconds in length, exported as .mp3 files. We will play each .mp3 one at a time through the QuickTime player. Do not use music.

The words to use are:

Soft
Global
Digital
Speed
Mournful

Details. Five, ten-second .mp3 files.

Each file should be labeled with the corresponding sound names as well as students’ initials followed with .mp3 (for instance soft_studentinitials.aif). Place the files in a folder labeled “sound_studentslastname” and burn it to a CD labeled with your first and last name as well as “Sound.” Be prepared to load the files onto the presentation computer at the beginning of class.

Grading

Audio: 100%. Student demonstrated the ability to record, import, edit, compose, and export .aif files. Student also demonstrated an appropriate, clear, and memorable solution to the given problem. Level of finish and technical craft achieved.

Progress Crit = Nov 17

Download Audacity

Download .mp3 encoder for Audacity

Download Sound Flower

They guys who started it all.

Live DJ-ing takes a step further into the 21st Century with this invention which lets DJ’s view, cut, grab, loop and mix tracks by doing live waveform editing on a twin touchscreen “turntable.” Invented by UK student Scott Hobbs as part of his innovative product design course, ATTIGO is about the same size as a conventional deck set-up, but has all the flexibility of digital track storage: choosing new tracks without all that swapping of vinyl. Check out the video to see it in action.

The digital basis of the system could allow for some pretty interesting new sounds at the hands of an expert DJ, even as it waves bye-bye to the tactile feedback that you get from the old-fashioned technique, moving a record under a needle.

It exists as a single working prototype for now, but Scott is going to try and commercialize it.

 

from gizmodo

“information from seismological, meteorological, and geomagnetic stations in various parts of Alaska is fed into a computer and transformed into an intricate, vibrantly colored field of electronic sound”.

The installation consists of five glass panels which change color depending on the time of day and the season (the image above shows the installation at noon in the summer).  The sounds emmanating from the installation also depend greatly on the weather, season, the movement of the earth, and the aurora borealis.  Patterns of bass can be heard during very small earthquakes and

“shimmering sounds in the extreme registers—the Aurora Bells—are tied to the fluctuations in the magnetic field that cause the Northern Lights”.

I have never had much of an interest in visiting Alaska, but I certainly do now.  I couldn’t find video or audio of this piece on the web.  Let me know if you stumble across something.(quotes taken from the New Yorker article)