Golden Music

For the course Radio-rithmetic, we studied frequency, sound waves, notation, scales, intervals, effects and many styles of music. We went to the radio station The Drive (classic rock) for an FE, there we saw how a radio station works, the different departments, how to be on radio, how/who makes the clips for programs and the marketing that goes into it. Another FE that we went to was to Chicago Recording Company (where they’ve recorded Lady Gaga & Chance the rapper), where we learned about the shape of the room, how a room can affect your recording, how things that are in a room can play a role in your recording, how a soundboard works, different types of speakers and post production. I liked both of the FE's because I gained different perspectives on how the music industry works, what goes in it, the different jobs you can have, and it was really cool to see the sound board and to see what goes on behind the scenes. For our action project, we made a song with original clips, existing clips and effects. I chose a Pentatonix theme and I mixed sounds together. During this project I had difficulty coming up with a vision for my song because I wasn't clear on what I wanted for my end product and I was missing my original components. I learned how to add different effects, what they sound like and what they do. Check out my song and explanation of my song below. Hope you enjoy it and find it interesting.




To make this song or mash up, I spent lots of time looking for songs that have similar beats or similar themes. My first song was really simple and didn’t have much originality, in my second one I was stuck and my songs didn’t have good transitions and I was still struggling with adding original beats. In my third try I took a totally different direction, I chose to go with acapella and more upbeat music compared to the past songs that were just slow and piano. All of the songs I chose and changed are by Pentatonix (PTX), an acapella group. I tried to have consonance in my song, but there are some parts that are dissonant and I liked it so I left it like that. For example, both tapping can be off by a bit when looping it. It sounds good when there is consonance because it goes together and with dissonance it’s a little off, but then goes back to consonance.

Once I had the tracks together and had the melody I felt like it needed more of a beat so I created two different taps, one fast and made with my finger and the other slow and made with a toothbrush.

KIS. Beat. 2016. 

I played a chromatic scale after the harp for a transition and to add a twist to the song. I used a digital piano on Garageband to make it.

KIS. Chromatic Scale. 2016. 

The form of the song is mostly intro of the different song and some chorus. These are mixed with the base song and some original clips are included in the chorus. The form is Intro, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Chorus.

For the intro and the cover Water I use phaser which is an effect that creates loops of the same clip. The toothbrush tapping and the Ref clip has reverb which recreates the sound of various rooms’ echo and it is the decay of the sound. The piano has a chorus and flanger effect which makes the clip sound like there are instruments in the background and sounds underwater. The cover of Where Are You Now has an auto filter which filters out certain frequencies. The clip of fast tapping has an auto wah which makes the tapping sound move. The cover of Gold has a speech enhancer which is basically the name.

KIS. Mixing. 2016. 

After this project I learned how to let my creativity loose and how to include different songs that I like to make one. I had fun giving it a twist and creating layers with original or existing clips. I struggled a little bit in the beginning, but I really liked my end product because it sounds very interesting and it mostly sounds good. I also had fun playing around with the sound effects for each clip.

Citations:

• Pentatonix. “Cover of Gold (Acapella).” Online video clip. Youtube. October 14, 2016. Web. December 15, 2016. 
• Pentatonix. “Cover of Where Are U Now (Acapella).” Online video clip. Youtube. September 25, 2015. Web. December 15, 2016. 
• Pentatonix. “Ref (Acapella).” Online video clip. Youtube. October 15, 2015. Web. December 15, 2016.  
• Pentatonix. “Water (Acapella).” Online video clip. Youtube. October 15, 2015. Web. December 15, 2016.