Ankit Mehra- CAS Workshop Report

# Ankit Mehra- CAS Workshop Report MA(VC) 1st year October 2021 --- ## Week 1 ### **DAY 1- 11th OCT 2021** #### Assignment 1: Documentary Screening & Reflection ##### Documentary 1: The New Sound Of Music (1979) BBC Documentary This documentary starts with explaining the evolution of sound recording and how it changed over the years. From mechanical gizmos with number of instruments attached to it, to recording sounds on heavy metal sheets and then coming to the plastic tape era where anything could be recorded on tape and edited by just cutting aand pasting the magnetic tape via blade. the tape could not only record anything but also sample multiple sounds at once.Which led to solo musicians forming their own band and experience the enjoyment of an orchestra just by sampling his/her sounds on to the tape one by one and play over the loop to make a composition worthy of a stage performance.It was also used for academic purpose like physics and chemistry animations for explaining the behaviour of particles,etc. The experiments by musicians started and they played with this techniques to generate new music/sounds only untill Moog synthesizers came to life. The fascinating way how an oscillator changed the pitch and create many musical notes by changing its voltage or frequency opened new doors and actual electronic based sounds came to life for new compositions. This brought in new ways of thinking for all kinds of artists be it art directors , advertisements executives, film-makers,etc who then commissioned a lot of work on making these new sounds of the world. For example Doctor Who can be seen here creating a new sound for a sliding-door in an animation movie sequence. Similarly, to generate a musical background score for an antique ticking clock which reeks of 17th century feel by using its actual ticking sound, the composer creates and amazing overlapping sequence of sounds to create a divine-like music. The use of computer to do that kind of pinpointing voltage change fro precise desired sounds made life more easy for composers. Then came the calaidophone, which is a instrument of strings made of tape to be used as chnaging voltage and frequency to work as an oscillator and create music in a known way but for completely new alien sounds. All this leading to defining new sounds of the generation and the ones about to come. ##### Documentary 2: Discovering Electronic Music (1983) This documentary explains how electronic music has changed the way how musicians perceive and compose music.The documentary explains how devices like synthesizers and oscillators have replaced traditional instruments in creating and composing music which is completely electronic. The oscillator in synthesizer creates waveforms instead of notes, that were previously used for creating composition by traditional instruments. The waves can be of different forms like- sine wave, square wave, triangular wave, sawtooth wave,etc. To bring more ease and replication of traditional instruments, synthesizer uses something called envelopes. Using it the composer can create easein and ease out continuity of the sound by adding sharp attack at the start or slow delay at the end. Synthesizer can also very precisely imitate any instrumental sound and can alter it using filters and can also change its pitch by changing frequency. All this together brings a lot of range and dynamism to the compositional process because more complex fast tempo and multi layered music can be composed. Synthesizer can also sample sounds and play it on our will, as however we like it ..reverse or upside down, etc. Adding this technology with the calculation power of a computer, which can do all these tasks more precisely and quicker than a human being, this electronic music becomes an unmatched winner in the music world for composing music and especially fro generating new age sounds. One does not need to know musical notes or traditional instruments to create sound anymore. --- ### **DAY 2- 12th OCT 2021** #### Assignment 2: Create a Poster and an illustration using P5js ##### 1: Illustrating an Oscillator Using P5js ![](https://i.imgur.com/fPBS1V6.png) ###### Sketch Link:(https://)https://editor.p5js.org/ankitmehra4278/sketches/TY75bEL2f After getting introduced to P5js and roughly playing around with it, this was the first task that was given to us. It was to gauge and see how much we understood and absorbed. I layed out the basic shapes first and then the typography. Which i later realized t was the wrong way to do it. Because arranging the elements later makes it very difficult to pick which element i am working on and how precisely i can put it at its correct position. Later, teacher gave us a tip to use mouseX and MouseY as cordinates to navigate more precisely over the canvas, which was extremely helpful. It still took me a lot of time to arrange the elements. For most part it was trial and error. But the idea of putting and creating elements through this software got stronger. ##### 2: Creating a Poster for CAS Using P5js ![](https://i.imgur.com/r6xa1ie.png) ###### Sketch Link:(https://)https://editor.p5js.org/ankitmehra4278/sketches/nXBavq3tH This exercise of creating a poster brought more complexity and tested my understanding of the software further. I used reference sheet many times and was finally able to execute what i had in mind. There was still a lot of calculation involved to put the elements correctly but this time i was faster. PLaying with colours and strokes was tricky but i managed. It also showed me, arrangement of code is extremely important , as to what you are putting before what, that can change the whole outlook and can also make hide somethings. After doing these two assignments i slowly started enjoying the process and wanted to do more with my poster. Hopefully will try some animation next time. --- ### **DAY 3- 13th OCT 2021** #### Assignment : Documentary Screening & Reflection ##### I Dream of Wires (Part 1) This documentary is about the Synthesizers and its evolution in over the years and who where the important role players in bringing this device to the world and taking it to its glory. It all started with canadian physicist Hulo Cane, who was the first person to create electronic music synthesizer. But these synthesizers were like owning a Rolls Royce, they were extremely expensive and hard to get. In 1958, its prize was 400 dollars. RCA Mach 2 was the first synthesizer built in store. And then came the revolutionary Moog Synthesizer, made by Dr. Robert A. Moog. This new model was based on musicians' needs. It most important feature was that it could control voltage. Moog Synthesizers became the benchmark for the quality of sound it could produce. This became the eastcoast synthesizer design philosophy. Whereas, in the westcoast, San Francisco, experimentation with arts, culture, drugs led to the invention of 100series Modular system, a brainchild of NASA engineer. Post war hit people in resistence and catering to avant garde movements in Tape Music centre in san francisco generated Tape Music. Where you can put anything on tape.The electronic became cheap. Making everyone a musician sitting at their home. This westcoast vs eastcoast became two different schools of thought. Where, Moog's synthesizers were considered with rich waveforms and clean, dense sounds with high and active cable, came from eastcoast. Then there was Buchla in th wastcoast considered best fro creating new, unheard music. it had almost no filtering but used waveforms for create dense sounds. And music and audio had be kept alive. But the experimental value and independent to explore more was in abundance.Moog became more dear to music industry because of the attached piano, as it was easier for musicians to understand. Whereas avant garde artists resisted this and believed that to create new music new ways have to exercised, old ways of using piano only generate known music. Every music industry giant had a Moog, form Beatles to Rolling Stones, Monkey, everybody. In all this came the first breakthrough album in ecltronic music "Silver Applea of the Moon" and then later another important and very creative album by Wendy Carlos, a scientist and pianist. But in 1969, cheap synthesizers came in and took Moog out of competition because it was extremely expensive. So, then came Mini Moog, a Moog version that was more portable and had that rich sound of real Moog fro a cheaper price. But it was still expensive for smaller musicians and composers. Hence, they started DIYing the own synthesizer, leaving behind the Mini and Semi Modular 2600. And then came Synclavier System, firt commercial digital synthesizer. And then DX7 Yamaha was basically the death of analog synthesizers. Reacting to which musicians traded their analog synth for these digital ones and analog synthesizers went to dust. 80s music really brought new sounds to forefont through pop, disco, etc. --- ### **DAY 4- 16th OCT 2021** #### Assignment : Creating oscillator sounds and adding envelope and filters ![](https://i.imgur.com/dEauR4h.jpg) ###### Link to the Sketch:[](https://)https://editor.p5js.org/ankitmehra4278/sketches/29LxkhJNp Today we learned about oscillators and synthesizers and how they function, on a basic level. So, that we can go on to create one using P5js. First, we were taught some new features of p5 sound library and some new attributes of code. Task was to first play around and understand how the synthesizer works via p5js and then try and add different waveforms and use envelopes and filters to creating some new sounds. After trial and error i could do most of it. But it surely more challenging than whatever i had done so far in class. Hence, it took my a lot time and more attempts. ### Week's Reflection Being a complete novice in coding, introduction to P5js is surprisingly not intimidating as i expected. Although there are some jargons and protocols one should know but, otherwise, the system is quite simple and there is reference sheet to always ease out the pain of writing the code in correct way. Personally i was scared of the assignment and did not think I will able to finish it but i completed the task and feel comparatively more confident with software now. Although my outcome was not that great but i am happy i was able to understand code even little bit and finish it in time. --- --- ## Week 2 ### Day 5: 18th October 2021 #### Documentary Screening and Reflection The Shape of Things That Hum The documentary is about different devices that came as the electronic music was emerging. And how each device had its own distinct features. DX7 by Japanese engineers was one of the most used and very popular portable synthesizer in 1970s-80s. They sold over million of DX7s. Its strength lied in the lead sounds, fillers,etc ad not the built in instrumental presets for example saxophone, flute etc. The sound quality was not as good, a very thin, staby, cold sounds as described by the experts. But it definitely had that sensitivity which was required for changing synth sounds.So, it could create variation in sounds when the keys are pressed hard or softly. Then came the FlareLight Synclair, which was basically the first sampler in 8 bit with a vast library of sample sounds which came in a box full of the floppy disk.It also came with light pen to change the waveforms. Sampling experiments began with this and people took to real crazy extent. Pet Shop Boys sued dog sounds as sampler to create carols,etc. Vince Clarke used it best. Then sampling technique came to drumkits The Simone Drumkit invented by Dave Simone. Musicians could sample any sound on the drum kit and use it by hitting. Even the design was and setup was very new and it became a fashion statement to own one. The Roland TB 303 came as a replication to drumkit and played quite an influential role in Acid Rock, Acid Tracks. It was the hottest gear in the town at the time. But this machine was difficult to program. Fatboy Slim used 303 very nicely as those looping escalation sounds that we hear now in rise of a techno song. Because the 303 was cheap, everybody bought and the real relation with technological sounds and human began on more closer level. 808 by Japanese inventors had very nice heavy bass line and it was very easy to use. One didn't need to know how it happens but just use it as a beat or looping sample if what you are playing is coming out nice. R&B , hip hop saw heavy influence of this device. Planet Rock, Its a family Affair were some noted albums that used 808 nicely. Super affordable machine really lead new sounds and music to emerge. Then came the the RAVG, which was the era of fast pace music and or rave music which eventually led to what most of techno house is. Prodigy and Goldie Terminator were notable pieces to see this high bpm music vocals go up and down to fit any particular bpm. ### Day 6 : 19th October 2021 First, we were given the final assignments which we have to submit by Saturday. Then, we were taught the basic of how an oscillator works with filter, envelope and mixer. How attack and decay helps in easing out the sound and makes it more smoother rather its harsh & sudden raw sound.The delay helps with the echo and reverb for dense sounds. We were also taught the values used by Delay (0-1) and Reverb and it has many variables to follow like- time, delay rate, frequency, feedback,etc. This information was also a confirmation and revision on the knowledge we gained from the documentaries so far. #### Understanding Knobs in p5js ![](https://i.imgur.com/3BqptjG.jpg) Link to the Sketch :(https://)https://editor.p5js.org/ankitmehra4278/sketches/psoVtH6Hp For knobs we had to download a separate knobmaker library and upload it in our p5js for use. It was really hard to find examples of p5js for knobs and hence it became very difficult write the correct code and use appropriate functions for it. First few attempt were a fail but later i could atleast get the knob to work appearance wise. Actually the tricky part was to make knobs for eneveloping because it involved a lot of variables and connecting it to the oscillator. ### Day 7 : 20th October 2021 #### Create a Synthesizer in p5js (final assignment) ![](https://i.imgur.com/yhs8xVO.jpg) First i made this ambitious sketch of my synthesizer, which i wished to design. But later i had to change the design because of the complexity of the knobs and multiple failed attempts at trying to work it out took away alot precious time. It is a sketch for creating an oscillator that can be play using the these keys and knobs to bring enveloping and mixer to the sound and slider for the amplitude. But i removed the slider and later and decided to work with a mono synth as it is better suited for key function. ![](https://i.imgur.com/O9agZ09.jpg) Link to the Sketch :(https://)https://editor.p5js.org/ankitmehra4278/sketches/psoVtH6Hp Using the same file of knobs i started dcreating my final canvas and again tried to work the knobs first and it me the whole day and the knobs still didn't work. And the code got messier by every attempt. Which made it even more difficult to make changes to this file. Hence, i decided to chuck away this file and start from scratch tommorow. ### Day 8 : 21th October 2021 #### Creating a sets of keys via monosynth for my synthesizer ![](https://i.imgur.com/nrHpGqi.jpg) Link to the Sketch:[](https://)https://editor.p5js.org/ankitmehra4278/sketches/-QmqykTzE Today i was very mindful to keep my code tidy and decided to work on everything separately and then connect the knobs to the keys. So, first i started working on keys. Rather than using a button i used the keytype function and made a choice to use a monosynth rather than an oscillator because a monosynth has alot values are already defined for it and i don't have create more variables and worry about them. I assigned separate notes to each rectangle . After looking at some examples and trial and error my keys were working. I used the keypressed and keyreleased function for changing the colour of the keys when pressed. Although it should have happened with keytype itself but i somehow couldn't figure it out and the other function worked, so i opted that. ### Day 9 : 22nd October 2021 #### Adding Envelope & Mixers knobs ![](https://i.imgur.com/knWjWcj.jpg) Link to the Sketch:[](https://)https://editor.p5js.org/ankitmehra4278/sketches/-QmqykTzE Again coming back to the knobs, 3rd attempt at figuring it out, i finally managed to make it work. It was probably because this time my code was super neat and tidy and i could easily try different things. But there were times when it showed no error but the knobs were still static and it is these small little things like, leaving some letter in small caps or placing a certain equation before or after something, that was real pain to tolerate. Once i understood the idea, then i made knobs for reverb and delay too, which worked fine after few failed attempts. ### Day 10 : 23rd October 2021 #### Finishing the Synthesizer ![](https://i.imgur.com/qXBvHg3.jpg) This was the final working synthesizer i made. Now i had fill it up with some stickers to give it a name. ![](https://i.imgur.com/BMGsDDS.jpg) Link to the Sketch: [](https://)https://editor.p5js.org/ankitmehra4278/sketches/NjwqtE9a- Once i was done with the connection of my knobs and keys. I rearranged everything and adjusted my design a bit to incorporate the sticker(name of my device) image and make it more presentable. #### Jamming/Recording Session The most fun part of the whole workshop was all of the students coming together with their own coded instrumental devices and jamming together to create some music. We also recorded a 20min clip. From once guys having the drumkit to another playing with multiple oscillators, our music really managed a lot of layers. I was playing the reverb base sounds to create binding effect for all the other sounds and make the music more denser. #### Essay on Computational Sounds ##### Computational Sounds- Its tools and Interface and Relevance in Modern Design World Starting with an attempt to understand electronic music and its history and how it evolved, the workshop brought a lot of revelations by introducing the documentaries like - 'I Dream of Wires', 'The New Sound of Music' and The Shape of Things that Hum' and the reading material on synthesizers and programming software art. Synthesizer being noticed for the first time by audience in album 'Switched on Bach' by Wendy Carlos to travelling over the years in many genres and industries and even creating some new genres to Daft Punk's 2013 album 'Random Access Memory', the electronic music really came a long way. Started from the revolutionizing Moog Synthesizers by Robert Moog to 80s, 90s portable home studios, the electronic music became more democratic in nature. Which brought more exploration and new genres house, trance, disco, acid track, rave music,etc. And also showed its application in film for background scores and then heavily being used in gaming and other electronic devices' interfaces. The evident presence of electronic music today in these applications makes us more acceptable of new sounds that can be produced. Understanding of attack, decay, delay, reverb, filters, sampling, waveforms, really changes the way one listens to music thereafter. One can easily recognize even smallest of changes in any sound or music being heard in daily life, which also underlines why it can be important to understand sounds on a technical level before hoping on to make compositions of our own. One of the major reason in inculcation of this perspective can or most definitely be related to the exercise of trying to create an electronic music producing device and especially through code. Computational coding really brings one closer to how a device is made, because here a person is in more control of everything, which helps in understanding the importance of each feature of the sound one is trying to create and henceforth the music itself. This would not have been possible for an ordinary person who doesn't know coding without the open source softwares, which gives so much power to the creative side of the process and takes care of the technical side of it by itself. But having said that. it does feel there is more need for some technical knowledge of coding in order to compute creatively for better results and really explore the unknown. At first it might not occur in one's brain to make sense or find a place for the computational sounds in his/her creative practice right away but eventually it does. Sounds are anyway extremely important part of the interaction in modern day. The times, where an engineer has to create sounds for the vehicles or electronic devices to make them interactive and recognizable for the user, the computational approach to sounds brings endless possibilities, especially because of its responsiveness. The engagement that can be generated through this can be immense. For example creating interactive installation models in science centres and museums for educational purposes. or large scale 3d mapping wall art being audio-visually interactive, can be used for creating awareness about a city's sound, like animals, surroundings,etc to form a deeper connection with its citizens for bringing out compassion for their environment. Similarly, brands can take this approach to extend their identity further through interactive sounds for their customers, by bringing them closer to brand's ideology. Computational approach to sounds is very empowering. Importance of sound identity can be confirmed if you watch a movie without sound and realize how it completely changes the movie and how much communication is lost. And to have control to create such sound and use it interactively is one of the best things that can happen to a creative practitioner who deals with any form of communication. #### Weekly Reflection This week things got more complex as it was supposed to. Engagement on the musical side of the workshop was also more prominent. We learned more about envelope, mixers and filters. Coming to code, there is some realization that one does need some prior knowledge of coding in order to work properly with p5js, because errors where the software doesn't prompt it as wrong but the output is still not what we desire, it gets very difficult to figure out what is wrong in the code. Only someone who knows java script might be able to pinpoint our mistake. Other than that it was a great learning curve. Looking back at how i started, being a complete beginner, there is huge difference in my knowledge about coding. Even though its still not enough but atleast it has given me enough confidence to try p5js later on my own. I was intially under confident about my result but later when everybody presented in class, i got to know that everyone went through same level of difficulty in terms of knobs. So, eventually i was happy with whatever i have achieved. Doing a jamming session also brought the understanding of different instruments as to how important each sound is in its own respect. At the end of this workshop i feel very happy that i have tried something completely new and out of my comfort zone and have managed to do the needful to bring satisfying results. More ideas are brewing in my head now related to p5js and sound manipulation. Hoping to come victorious in precisely writing the code for the same, when i do it on my own time.