No super long piece this week. Sad, I know.
For an experiment in convolution, I first began by using a small, yet rich sample by ripping the second half of the bridge in Pomplemoose’s cover of “Over the Rainbow”. Afterwards, I used our handy-dandy convolution patch to simulate five different scenarios.
First, I made two recordings of balloons popping in a room in Purnell next to an open piano with the sustain pedal held down. The first was in the Rasmusson, which is a small conference room that, for whatever reason, has an upright piano in it. The second took place in the Rauh theatre, a mid-sized black box space over a Yamaha Baby Grand. While both allowed for an interesting sustain after the release of the sample, the Rasmusson’s smallness gave it a more tinny timbre, like someone was inside of the piano, as opposed to the Rauh which simulated more of someone singing into the instrument.
My second pair of recordings were taken from underpasses on my walk back home to Larimer. Overpass 1 was taken under the bridge that connects Shadyside to the area with the liquor store, Chipotle, and the general East Liberty area. It’s a thinner bridge compared to my second recording, Overpass 2, which takes place under a small but wide section of East Liberty Boulevard. This second overpass also has a large divet in the middle of the concrete, allowing for a fascinating echo.
Finally, while I would consider the open piano recordings more of my experimental requirements, I decided to also utilize one more convolution sample. This came in the form of a YouTube video comparing the sound of Princess Peach reading the opening letter from Super Mario 64 (both original and the DS remake). When the sample was ran through this convolution, what came out of it was almost cacophonous, except that the arrangement of “Over the Rainbow” allowed the tonal qualities to blend together in with immense consonance.
So, yes! Good times abound!
(Other convolution samples I used before arriving at this included many many many 808s and drum loops, the latter of which made for an interest effect that simulated a kind of pre-delay to the rhythm of the drum break. I do wish the 808s were cooler, though. 🙁 )
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1adgGDGmnqqNDGdgPZKhJ8ygAtHr4YZuR