Blog 3

So from looking at the YDN (Yale Daily News) over the last few days, Spring Fling is one event which is getting a lot of attention. For those of you unaware of what spring fling is, it is a big outdoor music event which takes place on Yale campus every year. Previous acts to feature in this event include Ludacris and other big names. I found myself looking at the list of potential bands playing this year and was starting to get pretty pumped for the whole thing. On the list were some of my favorite bands including muse, bloc party, MGMT and vampire weekend. Although a lot of these bands are probably nothing short of urban myths, the idea of someone like muse playing in yale is just unbelievable.

Muse aren't too big in the states but back in Europe these guys are kings. They sell out stadiums and headline the biggest summer festivals. I've been lucky enough to see them play twice in Ireland. Matt Bellamy, lead vocalist and lead guitarist is forever pushing the limits in relation to the sounds he can produce from a guitar. Despite not being a strictly electronic band, there is unending effects used in their music, synthesizer etc all play a huge part in their music. They are also renown for having the sickest live shows going. Lights and stage design play a huge part in their shows. This is a video of a live performance from the European music music awards. Learning about synthesizers in class has given me a greater appreciation for their roles in music and this song is a great example. If you want to see the sick light shows I'm talking about then skip to 1.30.



Can you imagine these guys playing Yale?

I wanted to end this blog just by talking briefly about house and techno. I used to listen to a lot of this when I was younger and the last few classes really made me realize how much I missed it. Looking forward to creating a few bangin tunes on reason that when I'm done will sound like this.

Assignment 2: Clicks

Click 1


Click 2


Click 3

Blog 2

I suppose I could start this entry with a bit of what I've been listening to recently. Taking this class has given me the opportunity to discover and rediscover a lot of different music. Being honest I have changed my listening habits a small bit to incorporate a bit more electronic music this semester. Listening to new music as well as music I used to listen a while ago. I recently rediscovered one of my favorite albums the other day, fat boy slim, "You’ve Come a Long Way Baby." In my eyes Norman Cook, aka fat boy slim, has to be considered one of the best DJs of this generation. Listening to "Right Here Right Now" really made me remember how much I loved this guy and still do even today. The video is also pretty sweet.




I also picked up Bloc Party’s new album. Despite not being strictly electronic and considered more alternative a lot of their newer stuff has shown a new wave of electronic improv in their music.

Listening to "Intamacy", Bloc Party's new album got me thinking about one of the sound unbound articles on improvisation. Vijay Lyer's article, "On Improvisation" got us going on a good conversation about the essence of improv the other day in section. We talked briefly about Miles Davis and his improv techniques before live performances but how today these so called "improvisations" have since been written down and tabbed for others to mimic. There was a lot of different opinions as to whether or not a live performance of improvisation should be documented and recorded or should it just be left alone only to be appreciated by the lucky few who were present to hear it. I took the view that the recording and documenting of these improv performance was actually a good thing. Music is something that should be shared whenever possible so why not have these performances documented. I know from listening to albums of live music that there is nothing better then hearing a group improvise on stage, even if I couldn't be there to hear it at least if its recorded I still have the opportunity to appreciate it.


Looking forward to working on our next assignment, radial seems like a lot of fun. Even if I have to work with these clowns.

Assignment 1- Ringtones

So these are my two ringtones. The first one is a sample of throwing about 10 ping pong balls down a staircase in some sort of rhythm. I think the sound ended up being pretty sweet so I figured it would be useful as my first raw sample.

The second was a lot more fun to work with. I used a sample sound of beer cans being dropped off a table of which I took what I though was the best 4-5 second segment. I used this segment to create my second ringtone. I started with a fade in using an s curve and then started reversing which I though gave a pretty cool sound. I used a lot of cutting and pasting of what I though was the most interesting sounds in the sample. I also experimented quite a bit with changing the gain, increasing tempo in parts, normalizing parts of the sample as well as using silence in the middle of my ringonte. I then repeated the pattern and finished with a simple fade out. Anyway here are the samples, hope they're not too hard on the ears.

Ringtone 1- http://www.easy-share.com/1903483279/conor.dooney-ringtone 1.mp3

Ringtone 2- http://www.easy-share.com/1903478096/conor.doooney-ringtone 2.mp3