mwiedman@andrew.cmu.edu – 18-090, Fall 2019

mwiedman – Final Project

Mon, 09 Dec 2019 14:22:51 +0000

For my final project, I wanted to work with manipulating visuals since it’s something I focused a lot on working with audio in the class. My original idea was to use leap motion to manipulate videos – with the idea that electronic artists would be able to do something more engaging than stand at a laptop during their concerts. Instead you could see their hands move to change the graphics on the screen – almost like a conductor of the visuals.

However, I really struggled to get leap motion to work on my laptop so I had to change tactics. I started using the pitch of the audio to automatically control certain aspects of the jitter object – ranging from color to position to shape. If I were going to keep working on this project I think I would like to explore with adding more colors and working with the jit.gl.multiple object. I would also like to focus on manipulating the audio during the song that is playing, and then having the manipulated sound also affect the audio. This way the artists could still manipulate the video based on the effects they add to the song.

I used my assignment 4 patch for my started file as this project, because I liked the way that the audio of an fft controlled a jitter matrix. This also gave me a good foundation to look at what parameters I could modify

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1yKQAsIA8H_8AN7JkZjUtSC-zTUlDngxd

]]>

mwiedman – Sweet Nothing Live For Max

Wed, 06 Nov 2019 01:47:40 +0000

For my first project, I chose to work in Ableton and use Max patches to create audio effects. I have an interest in producing so I thought that combining Max with Ableton would be a neat thing to explore. I also wanted to play around with automating a lot of the effects we make in Max patches instead of having them affect an entire audio file.

To start, I got an acapella version of Sweet Nothing by Calvin Harris and pitched it down in Ableton. I slowly started adding more instrumentals, recording some midi and also taking samples from Ableton to use for drums.

When I started working on my max audio effects, I pulled some stuff from prior patches we had used in class. I wanted to incorporate some pretty basic effects that would come with any mastering software: delay, reverb, etc. I had a total of 4 different effects, one that added a granular type of effect and noise gating.

I chose to mainly alter the vocal track, and more of the instrumental tracks as I didn’t like the sound of altering the drums.

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1KRzHjIfbx6uHDQg3rCcXwGdG4hmgvJ4K

]]>

mwiedman Assignment 4: In the End fft Mesh

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 21:30:07 +0000

For my 4th assignment, I used the fft-to-mesh-textured-gen from class to get started. I got rid of the noise using to color the visual jitter matrix output, and instead replaced it with a music video. I think also pulled the audio from that music to use in the fft in place of the adc that was used in the patch. I also changed the shape from a sphere to a cube, as I thought it was easier to visualize the actual video than when it was a sphere shape. I also added a couple of other attributes, like enabling lighting and changing the cull-face value.

]]>

mwiedman – Assignment 3: Girl On Fire Convolve

Wed, 02 Oct 2019 03:59:09 +0000

For this assignment I choose to convolve the beginning portion of an acapella version of Alicia Key’s song “Girl on Fire”. The original snippet that I used from the song is shown below.

The first impulse response that my partner and I recorded was a balloon popping in the Tepper Quad. A balloon popping in that space sounded like this:

Meanwhile, Alicia Key’s sounds like this when put in that space:

The next space that my partner and I chose for our impulse response was the Baker Porter hallway. This space result in even more reverb as shown in the file below.

This is what Alicia sounded like in that space:

My next two “impulse” responses were actually sounds that I made for a sound design class I am currently in. The first sound was made by using the paulstretch effect in Audacity on a clip of water splashing around in my water bottle.

This created an extremely echo-y effect on the song snippet, way more than shown in the impulse responses:

My final sound, also taken from something I created for a sound design class, was modified from one of 5 sounds given to me. I don’t remember what the original sound was, but the one I made sounds almost like a squeaky chair (?). I definitely played around a lot with pitch shifting and delay to get this sound and it’s got a much more grating tone than the other sound.

This also produced a pretty echo like effect, but not as slow/calming as the sploosh sound. There is almost no echo on the end of Alicia’s phrases.

]]>

mwiedman: Assignment 2 – Chlorine delay and pitch shift

Wed, 18 Sep 2019 03:17:13 +0000

For this assignment, I used Chlorine by Twenty One Pilots as my starting audio file as it is only comprised of piano, vocals, and some simple percussion. I then applied a delaying effect in Max using feedback which I played with randomly during recording. I also imported a built in pitch-shifting object into the Max file to further tinker with the final output.

Google drive link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Yzw3QCSp6zOPI-YFdgygqTJUtXUX4lFz?usp=sharing

]]>

mwiedman- “Assignment 1” Dance Dance Delay

Thu, 12 Sep 2019 19:51:21 +0000

For my first assignment I took a sample of the beginning Fall Out Boy’s “Dance Dance” and then applied a delay over and over in ProTools. I chose this portion of the song because it only has percussion and bass, so there’s not too much going on in the song. It took about 8 layers of delay to become super distorted.

]]>