MU251 Fundamentals of
MIDI and Software Synthesis I
Fall 2008
Project 2
General Requirements:
Create 5 short compositions that represent your
understanding of MIDI using Sonar and various software synths.
1. You are to create one composition using patches solely
from the QS6.
2. and 3. You are to create two composition using only two MIDI tracks.
4. You are to create one composition using the QS6, the TTS,
the NN19, and the Subtractor.
5. Your fifth composition will be an Audio Mix Down of your Subtractor composition and your NN19 composition.
1. Your QS6
composition should be between 1:30
and two (2:00) minutes long. It must
consist of a minimum of 4 main MIDI tracks (one unpitched percussion and three
melodic). Doubled tracks are not included in this count. You should have at
least three short sections that are distinctly different in character. You may
order these sections in any number of ways, ie:
ABACA, ABCBA, etc… You must repeat at least your first section at the end. Within
your composition you must use:
- Patch
changes – a series of at least 3 patch changes in any main track that is
melodic.
- Tempo
changes – Use these to delineate the different sections of your
composition.
- Painting
MIDI note patterns (Percussion)
- Utilize
panning in all of your main tracks and name these tracks to distinguish
them from others.
- Use
of Arpeggiator and Echo Delay
You may also consider using:
- Retrograde
– You can use this for compositional ideas.
- Transposition
– of ideas at different pitch levels.
2. and 3. Your
two compositions using only two MIDI tracks should be
between 45 seconds and 1:15 minutes
long. Both compositions will use the same two MIDI
tracks.
- You
should begin by creating at track for the Subtractor
1. It does not need to be complicated. It must consist of a series of
short notes, some medium notes and some longer notes (5 seconds max). It
may be a single line (one note at a time) or the line can have multiple
notes playing at one time. You should use your Ring Modulator Patch that
you created in a Lab assignment. You will need to “tweak” some of the
parameters in order to achieve some desired results. After composing your Subtractor 1 MIDI track, you should clone the track
and its contents, and change it to Subtractor 2.
You should than apply “retrograde” to the track to reverse the order of
the notes. You may also offset the start of the line by a second or two and
transpose (recommended) if you desire. You should than build a timbre using a preset in the Subtractor
2 and adding a ring modulator or frequency modulator (FM). In addition you
can add noise and tweak other parameters. You should strive for sound that
is contrasting the Subtractor 1 timbre. The subtractor is a mono synth, you should pan
one subtractor to the right side and one subtractor to the left side.
- Your
NN19 composition should consist of the same two MIDI
tracks but you should change your synth to the
NN19 sampler. You are to build a bank of sounds in the NN19 using the
split function and placing a different timbre on every four notes (each
zone can contain 4 notes, no zone used in your
composition can be larger). You may only use samples from the Sound Sample
Library in the “My Documents” folder on your computer.
4. Your
composition for the QS6, the TTS, the NN19, and the Subtractor
should be between 1:30 and two (2:00) minutes long. You may use one of your subtractor patches created in your subtractor
project or your NN19 patch created in your NN19 composition or you may use new
ones. You may recycle some of the material (MIDI data) created in your other
four compositions as long as no more than one fourth of the content is from
your other compositions. No one idea or timbre should predominate over the
composition. You must use a minimum of 4 main tracks.
5. Your final composition that is an audio mixdown
of your Subtractor composition and your NN19
composition. This will consist of two tracks that use the volume envelopes in
each track to mix them down. You may also use a pan envelope if desired. You
should bring portions of each composition to the forefront and back. This does
not mean to turn the other side off (down). This composition is the summation
of your other two compositions, and these three compositions should be played
in succession.
Each composition will need to be recorded to a single stereo
track in order to export audio for your audio CD.
You will need to turn
in:
- An audio CD of your work, each composition must be a separate
track
- A Data CD of your:
1. Sonar files (five)
2. Audio files (wave files, 5)
3. Folder with your collected audio for each composition (5
folders) from Sonar
4. Two Subtractor patches (Reason
Document)
5. Your NN19 bank (Reason Document)
- A one to two page typed paper of
your methods and how fulfilled the requirements.
- Due Wednesday, November 19,
2008 at 11:00 a.m. We will listen to the projects in
class.