It appears that I haven't written for quite a long while. I have gotten sucked into several projects with heavy NDA, then I thought that this blog seriously needed a redesign, and wanted to start with a bang. But alas this makes the situation even worse because it means that I could not just post something casual which is happening.
No more. Screw it. Instead of finishing up with a redesign, let me start with something light. Recently I bought an iPad and started writing music with it. I am now back at my game of composing and playing live with my new controller. Lots of fun. Here is one such instance which is somewhat remixed in Ableton Live. Hope you like it!
About this piece
This piece draws concept from Steve Reich's idea of writing something which sounds repetitive but in fact wear never repeated throughout the entire composition. The piece were literally pieced together in Ableton Live, but the notes - the bits - wear input from the iPad, using various MIDI controller apps I have downloaded from the App Store.
Because of its relatively repetitive sounding nature, I do not intend the audience to be sitting still - you are encouraged to use it as background while multi-tasking. In fact, if you do indeed feel that it is repetitive, I would have accomplished what I set out to do.
This is a pre-mastering rough and is part of the Bits + Pieces album.
Notes
Serial 2012.IP.DOTS.R12
Dots, See-ming Lee: Bits + Pieces (2012) by licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Album cover licensed under Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-ND 3.0)
See-ming, this is wonderful! I can understand why you encourage listener to use it as background while multi-tasking. However, I feel I could appreciate it more paying close attention to it because it is interesting to hear the shift in sound. I like the bell-like sound but I am not sure about the low drum-like ones - when they first appeared, I thought my neighbour's washing machine was on, but perhaps that's the effect you want to achieve?
ReplyDeleteHahaha washing machine is on...? I love it!
ReplyDeleteIt would be helpful if you let me know at which point. You actually can comment directly on the sound as it plays, which might clarify a bit. Or maybe let me know wha the time code is? :)
I don't have a thesis behind everything I do. Maybe i do subconsciously but often I am unable to vocalize them. Re the sounds, it's a marimba that's altered with some kind of multi-reverbs. I usually create my own sounds and they aren't necessarily modeled after physical instruments so it's hard to say what they are really...
I've tried to comment on the soundtrack but not sure if it has worked - the time code is 2:40.
ReplyDeleteThanks! It appears that you might need a SoundCloud account before commenting on the track itself. If you want to get good at audio production, SoundCloud is a good resource so you might want to sign up anyway :)
ReplyDeleteCheck out my review of Soundcloud at http://blog.seeminglee.com/2009/12/soundcloud-innovative-social-network.html if you are unconvinced. :)
I do have a soundcloud account. When I added my comment to the track, it seemed to be there but now it is not. I was not asked whether I had an account. In any case, I am totally confused by all my internet accounts and some websites now seem to all linked up and get confused by my different email addresses. See-ming, when it comes to the Internet, I am definitely one of your 'older folks'....
ReplyDeleteWell no worries. I will show you a good technique to remember passwords for all your Internet accounts while being extremely easy to remember + super secure. If things don't go the way you want it, hack it!
ReplyDelete