Re:New Song/Project - Feedback Appreciated
Wednesday, June 27 2012 @ 09:36 AM CDT

Sounds like the star trek ship in the original series.

Re:New Song/Project - Feedback Appreciated
Wednesday, June 27 2012 @ 10:24 AM CDT

Quote by: tf10music ... I only have a very vague understanding of how the brain actually works, but I'm sure that all those functions are interrelated. I'm looking for symbolic meeting points more than anything else, though -- how do you mold a line of images with the progression of a melody? For example, I always think about a blues scale, and how certain lines work better than others when sung in a downward progression. If the flat third, for example, hits a syllable that belongs to a word that is conceptually weak in relation to the rest of the line (weakness/strength is determined circumstantially, and is key to experimental scansion like generative metrics), the visceral reaction is less powerful. I've always thought in images, so for me, it's a cyclical series of contortions that, if timed correctly, cause an aesthetically resonant, rarified bit of space between the 'text' (ie the final product) and the audience. Walter Benjamin talks about that in the context of literary translation -- at the instant of transition between source and translated text, language purifies itself for a moment and sheds its localized, specified set of imperfections. I'm thinking of transitions from color to sound to language along the same lines, phrasing them as visceral (and almost physical), purifying contortions from color into the notion of a 'voicing' (or a motion into sound), then from sound into speech (or the expression of language), and then from language into a visual description (color/texture). Of course, everything is governed by signs, but we have different sets of them for different sensory experiences. I'm trying to conceptually unify those sets in a small way. I hope I'm making sense, because I can be vague and confusing more often than not.

i just love this idea! there are so many possibilities... i like the idea of using color as a starting point to set the mood of a song (i once did 7 songs using that concept).

you could try mapping colors to chords (red=E, blue=Am, yellow=C, etc) and then find something with colors that has a sequence to it, like maybe record a short movie of cars driving by on a busy road - and turn that sequence of car colors into a chord progression...

Re:New Song/Project - Feedback Appreciated
Wednesday, June 27 2012 @ 11:56 AM CDT

Smokey, that is some cool stuff on Audacity. I'm clueless when it comes to technology, but I'm always willing to learn. I also like the color-chords idea. You've got a great imagination, man. Could you, like, put a great painting through audacity?

Anyways, Joe Pug (one of my favorite folk singers) worked as a carpenter for a year or two while he was finishing his first EP (called "Nation Of Heat") and said that, for him, sculpting wood directly translated into song writing, which he expresses as a sort of sonic sculpture. I thought that was pretty cool. Also, this article blew my mind a few months ago, and caused me to start thinking about these things:

http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/record-play-adapted-play-music-tree-rings.html

Doing that with language as a base is a significantly more subjective pursuit, but I agree that using color as a further standard of communication might allow for some more objective decisions. I think I could really make use of that code you wrote...I have no idea what I'm doing, but I have some friends who are very good at computer science.

Thanks so much for the support!

Re:New Song/Project - Feedback Appreciated
Wednesday, June 27 2012 @ 12:47 PM CDT

Keep going with your project.
Wow! Bill, that was amazing.

Re:New Song/Project - Feedback Appreciated
Wednesday, June 27 2012 @ 02:55 PM CDT

Quote by: tf10music ... I think I could really make use of that code you wrote...

my code runs on iMac with an Intel chip (the newer ones are like that)

download the code from here:
http://home.comcast.net/~t129wojce647/SmokeyVW's_Image_to_Sound.zip
i'll leave it on that site for a few days...

send me a note if you need help

Re:New Song/Project - Feedback Appreciated
Thursday, June 28 2012 @ 04:08 PM CDT

Quote by: SmokeyVW Quote by: tf10music ... I think I could really make use of that code you wrote... my code runs on iMac with an Intel chip (the newer ones are like that) download the code from here: http://home.comcast.net/~t129wojce647/SmokeyVW's_Image_to_Sound.zip i'll leave it on that site for a few days... send me a note if you need help

Thanks so much! I'm fumbling around trying to figure out how to get it to work, so I figure I'll send you a message. I feel like there's some terminology I just don't understand. I DO understand enough to realize that it's an awesome idea, so thanks for clueing me in.

Cheers!

Re:New Song/Project - Feedback Appreciated
Thursday, August 16 2012 @ 11:04 PM CDT

Hey everyone!

I'm just updating this thread to let you know that I've finished a second song in the series (still Canto I). You can listen to it here:

http://macjams.com/song/74427

I hope you enjoy!

Re:New Song/Project - Feedback Appreciated
Friday, August 17 2012 @ 08:18 AM CDT

and it is remarkable!

Re:New Song/Project - Feedback Appreciated
Wednesday, September 05 2012 @ 12:41 PM CDT

Hey all.

I'm bumping my thread to let those who may be interested know that I've just posted the first installment of Canto II:

http://macjams.com/song/74646

Thanks again for all the support!