computer-music-p7-2025

[computer-music-p7-2025]

Week Four: We had encountered ANOTHER last minute problem... The mixer we thought we were going to be using wasn't actually available a the time our performance was set, so we had to improvise & learn how to use a significantly more complicated mixer in the performance studio. (Which luckily, we managed to do...)

P.S. The image above isn't the mixer we used, we just needed a photo and forgot to take one.... o.o

[computer-music-p7-2025]

Week Four: The video above is a short video of the audience messing with the instrument, discovering cool & wacky sounds. At one point, a member of the audience was messing with the pitch of our lead emulation & created a fire lead.

[computer-music-p7-2025]

Week Four: Showcasing 'Computer Music'

This week we started preparing the showcase for our piece. We started off by switching up the structure of the piece & finally settling on how it looks. With 'Computer Music' now being formed up of a trolly with two level, the first level having ableton push & the 2nd level having the devices so there was cohesion & easy access for the audience to play the 'instrument' with hassle-free. We decided to use 4 different computer devices, a MacBook Pro, Lenovo Laptop, an iPhone & an iPad. We also finished all the macros & each telephone coil now had its own role.

The MacBook coil created an oscillating bass sound with saturation & grain delay assigned to a single macro. The Lenovo coil & iPhone coil were both used to cover the mid range, each with a resonator, reverb & saturator. The iPad coil acts as our lead with a pitch shifter, saturator & delay assigned to the same macro.

On the day of the showcase, two of the coils decided to give up so we had to quickly adjust the setup. The two remaining coils each had two macros. This disastrous scenario surprisingly in our favour as it allowed us to go back to the roots of the project with the movement of the coils which added an additional interactive element to our project so the audience were more engaged.

During the demonstration of the piece, all the audience members engaged the instrument with excitement, spending a solid amount of time trying to create cool & interesting sounds working together which was an incredibly rewarding outcome as we feared the audience wouldn't like the concept of our instrument and lose engagement quickly.

[computer-music-p7-2025]

Week 3:

These are some of the effects & their settings we had mapped to the Ableton Push in preparation for the audience. We tried to simple it down so there wouldn't be any struggle with understanding the setup & they can get straight to creating

[computer-music-p7-2025]

Week Three: Obelisk to 'Computer Music'

This week, we came to the realisation the scope of our project was too ambitious given our limited timeframe & non-existent budget. We made the decision to drastically pivot the concept.

Instead of constructing the 'Obelisk' using salvaged tech to generate sounds via the telephone coils, we've reimagined the piece around four individual computers. Each assigned a distinct set of audio effects with the coils labelled accordingly. This setup still follows the original signal chain (Device - Telephone Coil - Mixing Desk - Laptop Running Ableton - Back to Mixing Desk)

this change was influenced by the idea of subverting the roles of computers in the music creation process, using them as sound generators instead of workstations, the will instead become the instrument. We also began experimenting with macros in ableton for each pickup for the first time, using a mix of reverb, grain delay, resonators, & saturators to allow for easy control of each pick up so that the audience had minimal difficulties 'playing' our sculpture,.

The picture shown above is the very rough sketch of our new design that is now being titled 'Computer Music' as a sort of tongue in cheek statement.

[computer-music-p7-2025]

Week 2: Another piece we were inspired by Created by 'Eduardo Paolozzi' It is a figure called "For its colour scheme height and uncanny feeling of stacked up junk" (1957)

[computer-music-p7-2025]

Week 2: We were visually inspired by this piece by 'Nam Jun Paak', called "For the use of crt tvs li tai po" (1897)

[computer-music-p7-2025]

Week 2: Telephone Pickup Coil

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Week Two: This bin shaped Apple Mac created probably the worst sound. It was just pure noise, loud & harsh.

We even tried to save the sound with EQ but it was unmanageable.

Don't be like this bin Thumbs down... 👎👎👎

[computer-music-p7-2025]

Week Two: We also tested these pieces of hardware but none gave off a particularly unique sound. We did however notice a somewhat rhythmic noise from the flashing LCD screen & tried experimenting with settings & delay speeds of the rack to see if the sound was affected in any way but couldn't notice any significant changes

[computer-music-p7-2025]

Week Two: We forgot to get a recording but it sounded like the hum of MIKUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!! OMGGGGGGGGGG

\^_^/

[computer-music-p7-2025]

Week Two: We placed a telephone coil on top of this box & hooked it up to a mixer with some EQ and the sound that was generated gave off heavy vocalized hum.

[computer-music-p7-2025]

Week Two: Defining the concept & building interaction

In the second week, we solidified the final theme and meaning of our piece: a reflection on society's constant disregard for outdated technology, and a response to that by transforming discarded "junk" into something new & engaging.

Rather than creating a static sculpture, we wanted to invite the audience to interact and play, as if it were a synth.

This will be achieved by wiring several telephone pickup coils through a mixer and routing the signal into a computer running Ableton Live. Within Ableton, various macros will be assigned and mapped to an Ableton Push controller to allow the audience to physically move the coils to discover different sounds.

[computer-music-p7-2025]

Week 1: This week, we began developing the initial ideas & execution for our piece (currently untitled).

We discussed creating an interactive sound sculpture using telephone pickups & disregarded electronic components - particularly salvaged technology that had been trashed or thrown out. Our goal is to repurpose this "junk" into something new & meaningful.

One concept we explored was building a structure from this electronic waste & naming it 'The Obelisk.' The idea is for the telephone pickups to generate sound based on the electromagnetic radiation surrounding them, creating a responsive sonic experience.

We didn't get a chance to experiment with the pickups this week, but we did use a tone generator to explore how it could pick up electrical signals by enhancing the tone.