sound collage question / advice sought

fauna · Post by **fauna** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:23 pm

hey dudes,

does anyone have any advice for making sound collage pieces? ie: pieces less about the 'song' aspect, and more about collecting up tv / radio / found sound / street sounds / machinery, etc.

i find i LOVE beat pieces that just fall apart into (seemingly) random audio collages, but i'm having a bitch of a time making them myself. i always end up making them too normal or trad or pretty.

this seems to come easier for some guys than me. any suggestions or resources would be appreciated.

thots? thx!

Teewok · Post by **Teewok** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 8:31 pm

i pretty much just jack youtube

fauna · Post by **fauna** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 8:58 pm

Teewok wrote:i pretty much just jack youtube

whaddya mean?

snippets here and there? or...?

Teewok · Post by **Teewok** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 9:12 pm

ya... basically i'll look for certain videos that have to do with the feel of the beat....so if its sounding all spacey and futuristic....i might look for a space documentary or even find phaser sounds from sci movies or whatever..... since i have my sp 606 hooked up thru the comp i can sample anything that plays on it......so i basically have a padbank dedicated to like snippets and random crap that i wanna play in the background while the beat is playing

Teewok · Post by **Teewok** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 9:16 pm

what i reeeeally wanna do tho is get one of those mini recorders and tape my ride on the bus (theres an automated voice that announces the next stop)...so what i wanna do is have each stop come at maybe every 8 bars and have the rapper spit about that area... that would be sick in my opinion

fauna · Post by **fauna** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 9:57 pm

good stuff. thx for the tip.

i see yr in trawna...i think there was a group there that did audio pieces specifically about riding the ttc...can't remember what it was called, but if it comes to me, i'll hit you back (and no, it was not the group TTC...lol).

but yeah, a little mini-disc on the walk-around is what i've been considering, but you get a lot of editing to do later. i like yr youchube idea cuz you can hone in on what you want.

peace.

Teewok · Post by **Teewok** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 12:15 am

hahahah ya i heard the song.,...4got who it was by and i don't remember them specially sampling the voice that announces the stops... Biggup Montreal tho man... I have a blast everytime I go there, the hip hop is strong, and everybody is mad cools... I remember I climbed Mount Royal coming back from a club it was like 5 am ahha... we made it to the top where that giant cross is... and we accidentally set off its alarm and had to book it as soon as possible... still managed to graf up my name tho

nice view of the city from there

dman5000 · Post by **dman5000** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 6:53 am

i second the youtube tip
you can find all sorts of snippet audio samples on there, i usually start looking for one specific thing and then finding something else totally different but cooler!

IIIII · Post by **IIIII** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 7:21 am

when i work with non-song structures and just foundsound etc ill do something like this... if you have a multi track recorder, say 8 tracks, bring in a recording to each track for the length of the song. then listen to all 8 tracks at once, getting a feel for the parts your really enjoy. when mastering, drop sounds in and out live, so you get a pulsing, breathing monster of sound. kind of like dub music, how the track would be played back but instruments drop in and out to make it flow dif

fauna · Post by **fauna** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 3:36 pm

@ iiiii - very cool. that's like glenn gould's 'idea of north'.... do you pay much attention to pitch and pacing, or are you just looking for texture and creating the breathing monster? (which is an awesome metaphor!). i do use multitrack software (cool edit pro) but will pro'lly be doing this stuff w/ the sampler.

@ teewok - yeah mans, its a rite of passage that if yr in MTL and have had a good night, at SOME point, you'll scale the mountain and check out the view from the chalet. i did it on one of my first visits here years ago...something for every visitor to do before they die!

very cool tips, y'all. thx!

modulr · Post by **modulr** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 9:32 pm

I use a field recorder (tascam dr-1) to capture sounds. Dump them into the laptop, then sift out all the interesting bits. Maybe stitch them together into a overall texture... then sidechain some drums to a compressor and let that mush the audio rhythmically. Still experimenting with it... good tips floating in this thread tho!

Teewok · Post by **Teewok** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 9:34 pm

how much does that tascam go for?... it looks pretty sweet

modulr · Post by **modulr** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 9:45 pm

I think the dr-1's are $299, but then again there is ebay!

Tascam also recently released the dr-07 which is smaller and $100 cheaper. I'd prob snag the dr-07 if I didn't already have the dr-1. The Zoom H2/H4's are nice too.

reignbear · Post by **reignbear** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 12:42 am

i can vouch for the zoom H2, it's pretty fresh. that remind me i have a bunch of field recordings that i've been meaning to sift through...

Fauna - just out of curiosity are there any examples that you can provide that embody what you have in mind?

fauna · Post by **fauna** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 6:22 pm

y'know, i can't think of anything specific. its something that's been with me for awhile.

basically most things i listen to that are 'beat-oriented' (eye roll) are kinda on the abstract side, and they'll have a break-down point / transition section where its just noises and shit. so, i'm thinking of stuff by odd nosdam, dalek, murcof, etc....even dilla's donuts has some transitions like this.

and then there's stuff like the books, where there is NO traditional percussion, so everything is found-sound w/ vox, cello and guitar accompaniment.

you know where I'm going with this?

my pc melted down earlier this week, so i can't post examples...but there's even stuff on that hindu kush mix by beatjitsu that was posted in the forum somewhere that shows a bit of this....