Track01 | "StupidFresh"

Listen: mp3 (2.44 MB)

Assignment: Use SoundForge only to combine samples into a 2-5 minute sound sculpture. 2-5 minutes.

Process:
I sampled several artists, most of which were of traditional rock and roll, funk, or pop music. I took drum beats mainly from Death Cab for Cutie and Maroon 5. Melodies were taken from Rooney and Postal Service. I also used one note from "Such Great Heights" for the main chunky bass line.

Essentially, I only used time-stretch and pitch-shift on all of my sample loops, so that they were all the same length and in the same key signature. This was all done in SoundForge--very tricky and meticulous, if you are trying to make a composition of seamlessly collaborating samples. The result is somewhat bland and uninspired in my opinion, but the craft makes up for this.

Concept:
The intent of the piece was to create a traditional musical composition with samples of varying beats. I was going to impress the class with a sense of "craft" and "attention to detail." The piece is an example of the need for structure and uniformity I had at the beginning of the quarter. Much of my design visually had used the same fonts, many of the same compositional structures and colors. Last winter quarter, I had taken Typography with Rafael Fajardo, and subsequently found myself in the realm of Jan Tschichold and the fascism of modernist design. This audio piece is a prime example of these tendencies to cling to set rules.

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