Task 3C Summer Task

Technology-based Composition Summer Task

In Important A Level Articles, Music Technology by phoenixgreenLeave a Comment

In preparation for your future technology-based composition. I would like you to complete the following three tasks. These short compositions will get you thinking about how to compose with music technology at the heart of the ideas.

Task 1:

Composition Title: Being the band

Composition Length: 1 minute

Minimum Spec: 8 different vocal samples (Your voice only)

Project Brief:

Create a composition using only your vocal samples, No instruments or other sound sources. This composition must replicate a pop band, group of instruments or singers. You should use all of your technical skills to manipulate your samples e.g. EQ, Compression, gating, reverb, panning, time stretch, pitch shift etc…  Possible instruments that you could re-create include:

  • A drum kit
  • Percussion
  • Turn Tables / scratching
  • Choir
  • Bass guitar
  • Lead Guitar
  • Singer
  • Synthesizer
  • String section
  • Brass section

Project Examples:

Task 2:

Composition Title: Afterglow

Composition Length: 1 minute

Minimum Spec: 4 tracks

Project Brief:

Create a short pop song arrangement using the following lyrics. Your composition should reflect the mood of the words. You should also put the use of technology at the centre of the ideas process for this piece e.g. the use of synthesis, samples, audio, MIDI, automation etc…

Afterglow lyrics:

I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one.
I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done.
I’d like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways,
Of happy times and laughing times and bright and sunny days.
I’d like the tears of those who grieve, to dry before the sun;
Of happy memories that I leave when life is done.

Task 3:

Composition Title: Automate the world

Composition Length: 1 minute

Minimum Spec: 4 tracks and 8 separate automation’s

Project Brief:

This project is a sci-fi composition where the world is a different place and is about to have devastation thrust upon it. The aftermath is a post-apocalyptic world where the people left have to fight for their survival.

Create a sound-scape that represents calm, chaos and destruction. At the heart of this composition are lots and lots of automation experiments e.g. panning, EQ / filter sweeps, volume changes. You should also use a wide scope of technology e.g. samples, synthesis, audio and MIDI to create this piece.

Project Examples:         

Leave a Comment