Category Archives: Computer Music Practice

Seoseok Bell – Brief Analysis

Compositions, Computer Music Practice, Research, Teaching

Seokseok Bell is a track in Dot Zip, an album of 22 generative music. The album’s purpose is to demo a uniquely electronic sound rendered with codes. Each track has a downloadable SuperCollider code that a listener can render and modify.  Listen to SeoSeok Bell at Bandcamp and download the SuperCollider code from here. 

The following paragraphs analyze the form, code, and musical aspirations in making Seokseok Bell. It teaches how to start and progress a composition from a single synthesized sound. The learning is most effective if the reader has a SuperCollider installed on their computer. Please watch a tutorial video on how to run SuperCollider codes written for Dot Zip.   

Program

Seoseok (서석) is a small town in the mountainous region of Korea. The sound of the bell in a chapel in the town reminds me of peace and love. The piece recreates (or interprets) the bell sound using an additive synthesis-like process and then presents it in an ambient-like style. 

Form

Seoseok Bell creates a bell-like tone by adding multiple sine waves. The bell tones and a simple bass line then make a three-part contrapuntal music. The resulting music has many variations due to the randomization in overtone frequencies, note sequence, and rhythms. The SuperCollider code SeoSeokBell_DotZip.scd does this through the following steps.

  • Step 1: Make two sine waves detuned to each other with a randomized frequency difference, creating a single tone with a pulse.
  • Step 2: Create an overtone series. The notes in the overtone series are randomly detuned.
  • Step 3: Play the sound multiple times with short, randomized time intervals.
  • Step 4: Generate soprano and tenor parts by randomly choosing a note in a scale. At the same time, generate a bass part with simpler overtones in tune.

Code

SeoSeokBell_DotZip.scdDownload

SeoSeokBell_DotZip.scd has the following sections. Watch a tutorial video on how to use the code.

  • SynthDef(“SingleB”): synthesizes sound described in Step 1
  • ~bell: makes sound described in Step 2
  • ~shake: make sound described in Step 3
  • ~sop, ~tenor,  and ~bass: make sound described in Step 4 
  • SynthDef(“NiceB”): synthesizes bass tone described in Step4
  • SystemClock.sched: schedules start and stop time of ~sop, ~tenor, and ~bass

SynthDef(“SingleB”) and SynthDef(“NiceB”)

The two SynthDefs use simple waveform generators (SinOsc.ar and LFPulse.ar) as audio sources. SynthDef(“SingleB”) uses a percussive amplitude envelope with randomized attack and release times. The envelope also includes a transient generated with LFNoise2.ar. The  SynthDef(“NiceB”) has an envelope on the filter frequency of RLPF.ar. 

~bell

In ~bell function, SynthDef(“SingleB”) is duplicated using Routine. The below formulas determine the frequencies of the duplicated Synths.

pitch=(freq*(count))*rrand(0.99,1.01);
pitch2 =pitch*(interval.midiratio)*rrand(0.99,1.02)*rrand(0.99,1.02);

Where argument count is increasing by 1 at every iteration of a .do loop

Once defined, ~bell function generates a sound using the following arguments:

~bell.(fumdamental frequency, amplitude, duration, pan position, interval value of overtones)

~shake

~shake duplicates function ~bell with a Routine with randomized .wait, creating a slight delay between the instances of Synths. Once defined, the ~shake function generates a sound using the following artumdnts:

~shake.(fumdamental frequency, amplitude, duration, interval value of overtones, delay time)

~sop, ~tenor, and ~bass

The three functions ~sop, ~tenor, and ~bass are Routines that play ~shake or Synth(“NiceB”)  with frequencies picked from the array ~scale or ~scalebass. The global variables ~bpm and ~beat determine the wait time. The three Routines receive .play and .stop messages according to the timings set by SystemClock.sched.

Uniquely Electronic

In electronic music, a sound design process is often the starting point of a composition. Seoseok Bell began as an exercise inspired by the Risset Bell. I wanted to create a bell sound using additive synthesis. However, such an exercise should not end as a sound design only. The composer or researcher should present the findings in a musical context. 

More Analysis and Tutorials

What I Remember About My First Gig

Computer Music Practice, Performances

I scanned a photo of my first electronic music improvisation gig in 2002.

It counts as the first gig, for it was the first performance in front of an audience that did not include anyone I know. I also played a complete set with an electronic instrument for the first time. The concert was probably in late 2001 or early 2002, and I don’t remember much of it other than bits of incidents and happenings. A personal keyword unifying the gig is uncomfortable.

  • It was the second time in my life traveling to Brooklyn.  When I arrived at the performance space, everybody except me seemed confident about what they were doing. I was forcing myself not to show my newbieness. It felt weak to show how impressed I was with others’ art and sound.
  • The event organizer introduced himself as Doc. Doc provided a place to hang out in an apartment and food for all the performers. He made a soup (a chili?) with too much ginger. After hurrying to eat the soup among people I didn’t know, I stayed in the apartment’s hallway.  In hindsight, everybody was nice to me. I just did not know how to react to kindness from strangers.
  • I don’t remember much about the performance. From the looks of the picture, I was performing nervously and seriously. I had the attitude of playing in a college recital hall, but the stage was a folding table in a dark basement with DIY lighting. I did not make eye contact or interact with the audience.
  • I felt I did not belong to the event and the culture it belonged to. So I slept early in a room of a person I do not know, woke up at dawn, and hurried to the bus stop. I didn’t say thank yous or goodbyes.

That was my first and queasy gig. The quality of the music I presented was OK, but the quality of social performance were bismal. I could have made friends and fans, but I ran away. Now that 20+ years have passed since the first gig, I feel comfortable socializing with strangers (if needed).  It took me a while to feel like that. Perhaps teaching helped.  I share this experience with my students, who are younger than the 2001 me, to let them know that it is OK to feel bad after the gigs. The career does not end there. Just do more performances, make a few more mistakes, and find a way to feel comfortable showing what you love in front of people you do not know. 

I wish I had audiovisual documentation of the performance, but I had a Motorola cell phone at the time. However, I found a backup of a video demonstration Luis and I made a few weeks after the Brooklyn Performance. It is delightful to see how much my musical practice has changed and remained the same since 2002.

I used a loaned Radio Baton, and my friend Luis Maurette used my Phat-boy MIDI controller. We built a Max patch for the machine and ran it on my very first iBook. The video was shot in an ensemble practice room at Berklee College of Music. Luis and I were Electroic Production and Design students (back then, the major was called Music Synthesis). Ableton Live was just released a few months ago.