HW 2

In this second assignment you will again make use Audacity. But this time, rather than painstakingly generating all the sounds yourself you'll be painstakingly finding and sampling sounds from existing recordings and mixing them with some of your own generated stuff. In addition, you'll be using some of your own sound recordings to assemble your songs. This time around you are to make two two-minute songs.

Documenting Song Creation - again note that you must document all sounds that you use. All samples, generated sounds, and effects used must be specified in a file to show how you assembled your work.

Your Two Songs - Note that they are not to simply be a jumbled mess, but rather, organized and interesting. Note that in order to do this, you should go on a journey looking for the right samples. Don't pick the obvious, pick the hidden gems that people might not recognize, but will want to know more about. Note that one may import any MP3 file into Audacity, and once there, it is easy to select and copy selections from that song. And remember, these are your song creations, so enjoy the assignment. All students should create the following 2 two-minute songs (they can be longer if you like):

  1. Your Master Sampled Creation - Sample rhythm. Sample movies. Sample professors. Sample whatever you like and combine it with sampled melody or sound or whatever you like and combine that with your own generated or even recorded music or whatever you like. Yes, you are really writing music here. This song should be sample-heavy. Note that you may reuse samples repeatedly if it helps the song, but all songs should use at least 10 samples (make sure to document them). This means samples of things other than any music you may generate or record. If you are looking for inspiration, try The Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique to see how it's done.

  2. Sound Effect Music - After Pink Floyd had their breakthrough success Dark Side of the Moon they decided their next album would be made just by recording kitchen utensil sounds. They gave up after a month or so and instead recorded Wish You Were Here, one of the highest selling albums ever. So it's your job to pick up the pieces and carry on their legacy. In this part of the assignment you are to make a song using only your own noise recordings, which you may process in any way you like. If you are looking for inspiration, then look no further than 99 Red Balloons played with red balloons.


SBU CS

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