I took a moment to listen to and record some sound near the plant science building, near the ag quad. I was walking back from Bartels to North Campus at night, and there was little traffic around. For a couple minutes of my walk, the only things I heard loudly were my footsteps and a mechanical whir coming from a nearby building. The whir sounded like it had a whistling tone which fluctuated in pitch along with a deep, growling sound, which reminded me of the overdriven bass on Metallica’s Orion. The two sounds seemed to move around in pitch in unison, although they didn’t sound like they made a very clean interval, but it was close to 3 (maybe only 2) octaves apart. My phone’s camera is broken, so I didn’t take a picture.
Assignment 0: Faris Aziz
As I sit comfortably in Duffield, you can imagine the multitude of sounds that you may encounter. Of course, as campus is not as busy, the sounds are similar but with less intensity. I hear the jingle of keys and the soft dinging of an elevator. There’s varying levels of voices that can be found, from soft whispers in the distance to cheerful chatter and laughter. A laptop roughly closes followed by the jingling of a backpack. Through all this, the constant footsteps pass me, like echoing taps on the hard floor. The occasional sliding of feet also can be heard. A door creaks somewhere, and another door closes. The soft yet harsh ventilation system also can be heard alongside with something that sounds like a vacuum.
Listening in Willard-Straight (Assignment 0)
To my left, muffled by the wall, the clock tower chimes the 45-minute sound. A passing truck sounds like wind at first, as if the wind were about to blow down the building. Inside, a lush array of thrums fill the reverberant space: a deep rumble, something between “ooh” and “aah,” and a gritty hissing whose stereo image widens significantly as I turn my head to the left. My typing clicks in inconsistent bursts; my computer’s feet click as I reposition it; my mask crinkles as I breathe. Every fifteen seconds or so, someone enters the main WSH door, making distant footstep sounds and a harsh but distant impact as the door closes. The road sounds return as cars pass by, seeming to be at my right and then wrapping behind me. Less often than the door sounds, the building creaks of its own accord. These sounds come from random places in the room. An elevator-like beep also enters the room from the far door. Another person walks in, and the clock tower chimes eleven o’clock. My phone, too, vibrates and rings a xylophone sound: I have a class in 20 minutes.
Assignment 0: Alex Peng
Hi all, I’m Alex Peng. I am a Materials Science and Engineering major and a Music minor. I primarily play and am classically trained for piano, and have played a few other instruments. I am pretty much entirely inexperienced with digital music and music production outside rudimentary chiptune but have basic composition experience and ideas floating around my head that I want to at least try to manifest which is why I signed up for the course. I would be happy to collaborate though not sure in what way.
Assignment 0: Zachary Bellido
Hi everyone! I’m Zack, a Biological Sciences major with a concentration in genetics, genomics, and development. I enjoy listening to lots of music, especially alternative rock/hip hop, punk, metal, post-rock and electronic music like trip hop and IDM. I’ve only been playing guitar for about a year and a half, so I’m still fairly new to the instrument (but I did play saxophone in concert band up through high school so I have somewhat of a musical background). In this course I’m hoping to learn some useful skills in music production that can help me bridge my rock influences with electronica and get me on the path to start recording my own music. Generally, I am also very inspired by nature and biology, so one idea I had for a project is sampling a DNA sequence and assigning each amino acid a specific musical note. I’m very open to collaboration!
Assignment 0: Robby Huang
Hi everyone, I am Robby, an Electrical and Computer Engineering senior. I like singing, playing guitar, and listening to a wide range of music. I wrote songs/lyrics, sang them, and uploaded them to music apps. Though I enjoyed those amateur compositions, I hope to receive more professional training in music composition and learn how to employ the basic tools. As an engineer, I can quickly prototype and bring my unique ideas into reality. It would be great if I could collaborate with someone who has a stronger music background than me while also like hands-on work. I like “quieter” music. A random project idea is that I would like to hardness sounds from nature to make songs that provide people a grand/sublime feeling.
Assignment 0: Aidan Hobler
Hey everyone! I’m actually on the wait list for this class right now, but I’m going to make a blog post anyway. I’m an undergrad senior majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Game Design. I don’t have much musical background — I’ve played a little bit of guitar, and composed some short chiptunes for games that I’ve worked on in my free time. I’m hoping to get into this class and have the opportunity to get acquainted with more sophisticated tools for producing music, so that I can compose songs for my future games on my own. I’ve always found that the most impactful video games have a great soundtrack.
Assignment 0: Brian Shi
Hey everybody! My name is Brian and I am currently a senior in the school of arts & sciences, pursuing a double major in economics and computer science. I’ve always loved listening to music of all genres and that has definitely driven my passion for wanting to learn how to produce music, and that’s why I am here enrolled in this course! I’ve never had any formal music training and I’ve never played an instrument, but I have spent some time learning about music production and composition on my own on-and-off over the past couple of years. I’m definitely not an expert in producing music though, and so that’s why I am excited to take this course to really learn more about production and music theory.
I’ve also never really finished a remix/mashup as I’ve never been truly happy with what I’ve made, but I hope this course will help me iron out some of the issues I’ve encountered and allow me to grow as an artist. In terms of my creative agenda, I hope to draw inspiration from some of my favorite genres including progressive house, rap, and indie-pop into producing remixes and mashups. I’d also love to work with others that have a similar creative agenda, but I am also happy to collaborate with those who share different perspectives as well!
Assignment 0: David Chang
Hi! My name is David Chang and I’m currently a senior majoring in Music. I play the tenor sax and I’m primarily interested in saxophone performance, jazz and digital music (video games, TV shows, movies). I’m a member of CU Winds and I take lessons within the Music Department. I enjoy improvising and covering many pop songs and video game soundtracks and I want to learn how to create background tracks. I’d love to do duets or work with others and I’m excited to be part of this class!
Assignment 0: Brett O’Connor
Hi, my name is Brett O’Connor and I am a senior at Cornell studying electrical and computer engineering. My current interests lie within house music and I have been interested in this genre for a very long time. In addition to this, I taught myself how to DJ and have been doing so for about a year and a half, in which I have played at various parties, primarily for my friends. I have always been curious about producing music and when I discovered this course, I felt that I needed to take it. In terms of my musical background, I primarily played the bass clarinet throughout high school and I also a little bit of guitar. I am interested in learning piano, but I haven’t yet found the time to do so. I am looking forward to everything that this course has to offer and I would love to collaborate with others throughout the process.