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.