How I Did It
by Incarnadine
Tools I Used
I prefer "live" sounds to digitally-created ones, though I'm not above using electricity for a few things. The hums are Lucier wires, for example. Found objects are big in my "studio", too.
Samples I Used
The samples I used were Cibelle's vocal tracks and the clock tower bell that sounds twelve times during the piece (this was so it would sound the same each time).
Original Samples
The struck bowls, hums, and the bell rattle were all recorded simultaneously.
The bell rattle is a wooden drum mounted on a rotating spindle and filled with (how embarrasing to admit this) dried peas and a "Chinese therapy ball". When the spindle is cranked you get a lovely rattling, chiming sound.
The struck bowls are a couple of steel mixing bowls hit with wooden spoons. It's amazing how much you can create in the kitchen.
Lucier (cf. Alvin Lucier) wires are lengths of wire passed through a circular electromagnet which is connected to a wave oscillator. This allows for even microtones to be generated and suspended for long periods, letting me go to the other side of the room and hit things with wooden spoons.
Process
The bell rattle had to be processed digitally to bring out the bells. It sounds fine in real life, but the mic just didn't pick up a whole lot. I'm not satisfied with how artificial it sounds on the computer compared with a "live" run -- though it could just be my ears. The wires were dampened digitally as they turned out a little obtrusive on the final listen.
Again, I wormed my way into my friend's lab to use his copy of Adobe Audition to put everything together.
Other Notes
Hip-hop, I'm no good at it, I'll admit. I much prefer to make a twenty-minute-long ambient or post-minimal piece with a few cool sounds to break it up.
This site uses